ENGLAND'S LAMENTATION, Or Her sad Estate Lamented AS ALSO A Call to the Heads and Rulers, and all sorts to Repentance, and showing them the cause why so many disasters, and the Judgements of God which are in the Earth, and also a way how to remove the same, with an Answer to some Objections.  
Through the Servant of the Lord, S. H.  Isa. 17.13, 14. 
The Nations shall rush like the rushing of many Waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall fly a far of, and shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind, and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind.  
And behold at evening tide trouble, and before the morning he is not, this is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.  
Printed in the Year 1665.   

The Epistle to the Reader.  
FOrasmuch as great and many hath been the sufferings of God's People in all ages, and also in this very age of ours, great and many and sore evils hath been acted against us, and all this for the Worship of God, and for the pure exercise of our Conscience towards him; though great and many things hath been charged against us, as of groundless jealousies and suspicions: And to this day we have been and do intent through Grace to be kept clear, for our weapons are not carnal but spiritual, that so as to that we have been sufficiently tried, both one way and another; and the God of our life hath still kept us clear that so they could have nothing justly to charge against us, but only and singularly for Worshipping the true and Living God, in the spirit and in the truth, for the which we have gone through many and great trials, even knockings, beat, stoneings, whippings, and over and above all this, our sufferings of late hath been augmented, even to the parting Man and Wife, and Wife from Husband, which is contrary to the bonds of modesty in matters relating to Religion, and not only this, by way of banishment, but in throwing many into Holes, and even into infected Prisons, contrary to your own advice in your Prayer Book, so that many hath lost their lives: and no wonder which is or may be a great Cause of spreading the Contagion, because we could not have the benefit which nature requireth, and which God affordeth unto Man, and all this we have suffered patiently, and filled up the measure of the sufferings of Christ in our flesh, though it hath been to the loss of many Lives, so that all these, with many more of the like sort, which were innumerable to mention, we have all borne, and gone through to this day, and we have been persecuted even, as if Pharaoh, and all his Host had been at our heels, and the God of our life knoweth, and that of God in all Consciences shall one day bear us witness, that it is for nothing, but for travelling on our own way to our own Land, and God hath been with us all along with his mighty hand, and with his outstretched Arm, and though they have taken our Bread, and our Water from us, and us from it, yet God hath fed us wonderfully, that so oh England thou may clearly see the Cause of this sad estate of our Native Country at this day, and I hope and doubt not, that what is herein written, if thou read it with the spirit of moderation, but that thou wilt answer to it, and the witness of God in thee, and if so thereby any may come to be reclaimed, and turn from the evil of their ways, I shall rejoice, or otherwise, I have my reward.   

ENGLAND'S LAMENTATION, etc.  
O England, England, thy case is sore lamented, that there should be found in thee so much wickedness and ungodliness that hath so provoked the Lord to anger against thee; and hath stired up his wrath, that so unless speedy repentance and a returning unto him that hath smitten, and doth smite daily, there is no hope of recovering nor escaping his hand: But his Judgements will surely find you all out, and come upon you, if you continue in your wickedness, and in provoking the Lord of Hosts to jealousy, in your pride, drunkenness, and whoredom, and all manner of sin, against the Living God; contrary to the Light and spirit of Jesus; made manifest in your mortal flesh; ye shall perish eternally, for there is no other way for Mankind to come out of thraldom, and the bondage of corruption, (as all men by nature are involved in Adam in the fall) but by coming to the true Jesus the Light of the World, which is the Salvation in which the Nations of them that are saved must walk, which leads out of all sin and persecution, 
Revel. 21.24.  and envy, which is the cause of the wrath of God to come upon a Nation, and this cause is come upon thee O England.  
And woe and alas, for thee O England, the Land of my Nativity; what art thou become a byword to other Neighbour Nations; for thy wickedness and over and above all this, there is one sin over and above all the forementioned, and that is persecuting men for good Conscience sake towards God, thou O England which should be the wisest and the most Christian Nation in the World, how foul art thou become guilty of this heinous offence which hath caused the jealousy of God to burn like fire against thee; and in this thou exceedest all other Nations for wickedness; yea, I believe even amongst the Turks and Heathens one might have more free liberty to exercise their Conscience towards God, then in thee O England; and they shall be brought in to condemn thee: Oh what cruelty hath been acted by thee against thy Inhabitants; Oh what spoiling of Goods and Estates; Oh what hailing into Prisons, and before Magistrates and Rulers, for the Testomony of a good Conscience, and because we could not pay Tyths, contrary to Gospel times, 
Hebr. 7.12.  and the Administration thereof: And Oh how hath the false Prophet for his greedy gain made havoc of the people, and even eaten them up, as a man doth eat up bread, and yet the long suffering of God hath borne this long, that so many people might think that God was not angry with them, or did not regard it at all; for because Judgement is not speedily executed, therefore is the heart of the wicked set to do wickedly; and therefore because of this is the Judgements of God in the earth: But woe and alas for thee O England, this sin is not only found in thee in this particular, but many more, especially one, against the Saints of the most High, whom God hath loved with an everlasting love, and whom he will be with, in fire and in water, and will never forsake; and woe be to them from God that hurteth them: And that is this O England, persecuting peaceable People for Meeting together peaceably to Worship and serve the Living God, which is both according to Scripture, and the Liturgy, 
* Read in the Communion.  which saith, It is our abundant duty at all times, & in all places (mark that) to call upon God, etc. and the Scripture is so full and pregnant in that behalf, that I need say little to the proof of it; for all wise men know how that the Saints, 
Mat. 5.1. Acts 20.20. Act. 5.42.  Apostles, and Christ Jesus our Lord himself, used Prayer or Preaching, sometime by the Sea side, and sometime on the Mountain; and the Apostles 'tis evident that they Preached the Gospel in the Temple, and in every House; what is that lawful now to preach the Gospel in a House? Nay, say they; Yes saith we, 'tis both agreeable to the Apostles Spirit and practice and the Liturgy also.  
But woe and alas, what shall I say, my heart is even troubled within me, and my Bowels is even pained to see what persecution of late hath attended the people of God, for this very thing it would fill up a Chronicle, and deserves to be Chronicled, and is in the Book of Life; Oh what tread and what stampings there hath been, and daily is, of the people of God; and oh what knockings and beating down the peaceable people of the most High, for Worshipping the Lord; no wonder if the Plague be begun, and God's wrath be gone out against his Adversaries, who hath grumbled at us, as you say in your Prayer-book, and hath despised our peaceable Meetings, and worship of God itself, no wonder if God smite the Nation. And oh what calls and cries hath been from us the peaceable people of God, even with our lives in our hands, that thou oh England might be reconciled to God; but oh how stiff hath thy neck been, and how dull thy ear, and how hard thy heart against all reproof, that even so many of thy Inhabitants hath chosen the worse way, and hath refused to be reproved, and would have none of his Council, when his Messengers hath rose early, and gone late to bed I know to this very end, that thou mightest be reclaimed, who have preached the Gospel freely unto thee; Oh but many of thy Nation O Engl. hath refused, and hath harkened to the dumb hireling that neither can nor never will gather you to God, 
Isa. 56.10, 11.  but to themselves, that they might have their bellies filled; & this is the way of them O England, and they have made the World like a Wilderness, full of briers and thorns, that so the Lambs of Christ (who only hears him Christ the true Shepherd) can scarce go up and down now for the Wolves, though in sheep's clothing the Scriptures, which were not given to be made a trade of, but to be fulfilled, which the Saints lives in the life of; for which life sake in us, we are a suffering people at this day.  
But woe, and alas beside all these aforementioned evils inflicted upon our Estates and Bodies, not only in treading upon and knocking down, in our peaceable Meetings, but also to add unto these grievous sins against the Lord, they have not only done so, but they have taken the peaceable people of God, and thrown them in Holes and Dungeons, and all this for practising that which is as I said before, both according and agreeable to Liturgy and Scripture, 'tis no wonder if the Lord send a Plague into the Land, who resists the spirit of truth which is according to Scripture, the justest Authority, which is to be obeyed above all Authorities; for mark, Christ is to be the head of the Church, 
Col. 1.18.  that in all things relating thereunto, he may have the pre-eminence, as the Husband is to be the head of the Wife, so 'tis a vain thing to cause people to worship contrary to their Consciences, 'tis but to make people hypocrites, to make people to Worship or not to Worship, contrary to the work of God and spirit of truth in our hearts, who leads us only to Worship God in his own way: I say unto you all, and that in the name of the Lord, you that are found opposers heerin, you shall be broken to pieces, for God will have his own way, and not his way set out by you, who are in the fallen estate, who are miserable sinners, as you say, how are you like to prescribe the way of the pure God, and limit the Holy one to your form and none else; methinks you might see yourselves blind in this thing, for there is a way which no Fowl knoweth, nor which no Praetors eye hath seen, nor Lion's Whelp trod in, who are in the uncircumcised nature, who are miserable offenders, and doth those things you ought not, etc. and those have never seen the way of God, nor know it; what Vulturous eyes hath been in this Nation, that they can scarce let a Man go on the street but they will have a byword for him; people is so full of the venom of Asps, even under their tongue, and these are not like to prescribe ways for God to be Worshipped, who are so like the Lion's Whelp, tearing and rending, and putting people out of the Church before they be got in; nay, but these are like the Beast and his Followers, 
Rev. 13.15.  who would compel all both small and great to worship him, into the wrong way from the right, this is the Beast indeed.  
And oh what killing hath been this day about Religion and Worship, and forcing to or fro to the false from the true, and what killing and knocking down in the very streets, as I said before quite contrary and opposite to the Apostles Doctrine, who saith touching Religion, 
Phil. 2.3.  saith he, do nothing by strife but in love and gentleness instruct, etc. If God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth, 
2 Tim. 2.25.  mark that, ye Heads and Rulers of England, for God, yea even our God, hath a controversy with you; and be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken, for he can bring down the high and the mighty, and raise them of low degree, for them he will exalt, for we have seen the mighty abased, and the loftiness of the lofty laid low; and what was the cause of this? to wit, sin and transgression, and afflicting the just, and limiting the Holy One to their own ways, which was not God's way, for God's ways is to love enemies, which is the badge and true Cognisance as you say of a Christian, and have you not manifested this love of yours what it is, that it is but in word and in tongue, not in deed; for love thinks no evil, love kills not about Religion, and Worship, Church and Faith, but your love as I said before, is manifest, and the Nations have seen it, and the blood of many Martyrs & Saints shall be required at your hands, even you the Heads and Rulers of this Nation, who hath drunk the blood of the Saints, and now God is giving you something else to drink, and will do even the reward of unrighteousness which you have purchased unto yourselves, who hath despised both warning and reproof.  
Oh England, England, that thou wouldst see the cause of the Judgement of God in the Earth, and remove the same thou mightest yet be happy, for I know God is as yet striving as I may say, with some of thy Inhabitants, that if by any means they may return. Oh I have a word from God in my heart, oh that the King and the Council might lay it to heart, and that is this, that if any would persuade thee and thy Nobles, that we who are called Quakers, is the cause of the Judgement of God in the Earth; I say unto thee (in the name of the Lord) believe them not, & so to stir thee up against us to afflict us, the Lord hath not spoken by them, for that spirit (mark that) in all ages which stirred up to persecute even from Cain to this day, was not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of enmity which God will overthrow.  
So King Charles harken not to their spirit, but to the spirit of God in thy heart, which will tell thee if thou be serious, thou should love enemies, and not kill them in this cause; but we are thy friends and seeks thy peace and welfare in that which is everlasting, and shows thee and all the World the cause and the way how to remove God's hand and sore Visitation off thee and the Land, that is to say, to lose the bands of wickedness, 
Isa. 58.6.  and to let the oppressed go free; this were the only way for thee O King, and all thy subordinate Ministers to obtain to perfect peace with God, and to curb all sin, and licentiousness, lying, swearing, pride, drunkenness, and adultery, with many more before named; because of which the Land mourns.  
But woe and alas, there is one thing that we must require of thee and the Nation, and that will tend to thy peace, and the peace of all men, and that is, Liberty of Conscience towards God, in matters of Religion, or relating thereunto; how canst thou and the Nation O King deny us of this superlative privilege which is allowed by Christ, and the Apostle who said in matters of Religion, 
Rom. 14.5.  as every one was persuaded in his own heart so to walk, and did not preach up persecution and to kill men's lives, that's of another spirit, then of Christ's, who came to save men's lives, but left it to the Lord that he might persuade them that were in error, the error of their ways, etc. and so we request it of thee O King, and the Heads of this Nation, as you will all answer it at the dreadful day of God's Judgements, to reverse that law of yours, which you have made for the persecution of them of tender Consciences, and for banishing those whom God hath loved, with an everlasting love, who cannot deny their God for the wrath of men, and for meeting together in the public Worship, to worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness, 
Joh. 1.21, 22, 23, 24  for the which so many and heinous offences have been committed against us, & charged upon us; yet I say the God of Heaven bears us witness, and the Testimony of God in all hearts, that we are clear and innocent, and we contained for nought but the truth; and we are subject to Magistracy, which would be charged against us, for not being subject, but we are either in doing or in suffering, and I never knew a Quaker that lifted up his hand against any man; though as I said before, we have been stamped upon as the mire in the streets; and so let none say we are not subject, for in that we cannot do what man requires of us; I say we are subject in suffering the wrath of the wicked, and the Angel of God's Heavenly presence hath been and still is with us, to carry his chosen on in all sufferings for his name's sake, until the suffering of his seed be full, and then we know that God will plead our cause, and it is at hand; and so I say to make laws to banish men for Worshipping of God in the Spirit, and praying and singing in the Spirit, which is the public Worship set up by Christ himself, 
John 4.  and to pretend the same yourselves, and to kill and banish them who are in the life of the Scriptures, & of the Saints that spoke them forth, this is an error indeed.  
And hear O ye Nations this thing, and especially thee O England, who should have been the glory of them all, how unmercifully hast thou used the Messengers of the most High, and what laws hath come out of thee against my people saith the Lord; so that God is beginning to plead with thee O England, even above all other Nations, because of thy wicked laws against the servants of the most High, whom God hath loved with an everlasting love, and on whom his Heavenly Countenance shines, and is his only Jewels, and as dear to him as the apple of his eye: And is this your end and purpose, and to throw Men and Women even into infected Prisons for Meeting together in the fear of God, and to worship him; oh shame and hard heartedness, was ever the like in any Nation, hath the like been heard of, surely God will require it at your hands; Oh consider these things and weighty causes, for God will judge righteously, and in the day of God's Righteous Judgements we shall be clear; and this in short, in a word, from God unto you, If you persist on to do your work of persecution, and do not desist from, nor change that law which you have made against us, you shall utterly fall, the Lord hath spoken it; and thus the cause is truly stated, why the Judgements of the Lord is in the Earth; and if you O ye Heads and Rulers would remove the cause, the effect might cease, which sin and persecution▪ for good Conscience sake is the great cause, not only naturally in putting people where the Plague is, but supernaturally to remove the wrath of the Almighty; Oh therefore be wise O ye Kings, 
Psal. 2.10, 11, 12.  and be ye instructed O ye Judges of the Earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling; kiss the Son lest he be angry with you, and you perish from the right way; for if his wrath be but kindled a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him: And oh call in that unrighteous Decree that it may never be heard of in other Nations, (that a Christian Magistrate should persecute and banish, and as it were kill his subjects, for their Conscience sake towards the Lord) and this of a truth from the Lord, is the way to procure the blessing and remove the curse, which so long as the contrary is lived in, no blessing can surely attend the Nation, but God will find all the evil doers out of the earth; and so God almighty keep and preserve all his people pure and holy before him, that you may all be clothed in white, and have on the Wedding Garment, and be kept innocent and harmless before him, sacrificed up in a clear Conscience, waiting for his Son from Heaven, who will refresh all his Children with his Heavenly presence, and water them with the dew of Heaven, and your Souls shall be satisfied as with fatness, for the visitation of the Lord of Hosts is gone over the Nation, and they who receives not his call, and visitation of his tender love towards them, but hardens their own hearts; well we must leave them to the Lord, only to discharge my duty towards God and all Mankind, I rest and remain a friend to you all in the bonds of the Covenant of God, waiting for the restauration of the Creature out of the bondage of corruption and slavery of sin into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, in which I rest. S. H.  
The occasion of this was partly in Answer to a Book which I have seen, wherein they would seem to lay the blame or the guilt of the judgement of God upon the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, which may serve for an Answer to the same, and the cause more truly and rightly stated than they have stated it.  
But if any object and say if we be the cause of this heavy Judgement of the Lord in this Nation, how is it then that you do suffer so deeply, and many of you are taken away in it?  
I answer, first for these reasons.  
First, because we did believe, and do believe always that in a common calamity such a one as this is, that the Just may suffer as well as the unjust, though the unjust be the instrumental cause of the suffering of the just, & God may and doth undoubtedly take the one to himself in love, & the other is separated from him in wrath.  
2ly. Because Solomon saith, God taketh away the Righteous with the wicked; and as the one dieth, so dieth the other, though as I said before, the one in love, the other in wrath.  
3ly. Because God hath visited the Nation many years, and hath sent his Prophets and Messengers amongst them crying, turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; thus God's Visitation hath gone over the Nation, and they who have not received this love of God, but hardened their hearts against all reproof, that so it is just with the Lord to take away the Righteous with the wicked, that so and for this very reason, that they might be blinded, and that they might not discern the Righteous from the ungodly.  
4ly. And lastly we may see and 'tis evident that that in David where he caused Joab to number the people, contrary to the command of God, and there died 70000. and said he, what hath these sheep done? He knew the guilt was in him, for his heart did smite him; but said he, let thy hand be upon me and my Father's House: Thus you may plainly see, how that the innocent or sheep may suffer for the transgression of others. Thus with many more reasons which might be given as to that Objection, why we suffer in this affliction, or in any common calamity.  
Though I say and do still believe that God hath a remnant that he will preserve through it to bear witness to his name in a greater trial if it come: And doubtless there is yet a Remnant that God will gather to himself, out of all the false ways of the World, and sandy foundations into the true way of God, and to the true foundation, Christ the Rock, the true Light of the World, which abideth one and the same for ever.  
S. H.  
THE END.