England's Caveat: OR Warning-piece.  
Showing her Daughter's estate and condition she lieth in, for the present, As also to rouse her out of her deadly slumber of a carnal and desperate security: Together with the means of her recovery and preservation.  
By Alexander Mingȝeis, Minister.  

june 2. 1647.  
Imprimatur.  
Ja. Cranford.   
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Harper, For the Author, and his Assigns. 1647.   

England's Caveat, OR Warning-piece.  ECCLES. 12.11. 
The words of the wise are as goods and as nails fastened by the Masters of Assemblies, which are given from one Shepherd.  
Hear Oh Virgin, Daughter of Zion, mart of the Nations, who sayest I sit as a Queen, and shall know no sorrow, Rev. 18.7. When as destruction it at hand, and misery (as a whirl wind) shall take thee away. Yea, pain shall come upon thee, as the pains of a woman in travel. Thou sayest thou art rich, and increased with goods, and hast need of nothing, and seest not how thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Rev. 3.17. Thy former Prophets prophesied unto thee of corn, and wine and oil, Joel, 2.19. but I have nothing to comfort thee withal, but the sword, famine, and pestilence. And though they spoke true, yet wouldst thou not believe them, but becamest unthankful and vain in thy imaginations, and thy foolish heart was full of darkness, Ro. 1.21. therefore judgement is sprung up into hemlock, and thou art made bare & desolate. Yea, thou art returned with the dog unto the vomit, and with the swine that was washed, to the wallowing in the mire of thy sins, and in the sink of thine own ruin and perdition, 2 Pet. 2.22. Yea, thou hast multiplied thy transgressions yet seventimes more, and hast been more vile than the heathen.  
Thou criest peace, peace, when as sudden calamity will overwholm thee, Jer. 6.14. Thou dwellest careless and secure, and seest not that the sword is at hand; yea the Philistines are upon thee, O England, and thy casting down will be in the midst of thee: for from within is murder, and slaughter and ruin, thy destruction is of thyself, and perpetual desolations, if mercy prevent not, and happy will he be, that taketh thy children and dasheth them against the stones, except thou repent. Make mourning therefore, for England, and take up a lamentation for her, yea let the mourning women bewail her, as a woman mourneth for her first born or only begotten; or as Rachel for her children, that would not be comforted because they were not Matt. 2.18.  
Thou sayest, that the Earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, Isa. 11.9. and that God is with thee, that thou hast the divine oracles, Ro. 3.2. yea and that thou art the seed of Abraham, and boastest of the Temple, of the Sanctuary, Jer. 7.4. and of reformation, when as there is nothing but deformity in thee, and all things are turned into disorder and confusion.  
Is not unity the bond of peace and perfectness Eph. 4.3. and the establishment of all estates and kingdoms, and yet how little thereof is there to be found in thee? For is not the father against the son, and the son against the father, is not the head against the members, and the members against the head? Is not the Presbyterian against the Independent, and the Independent against the Presbyterian? Is not the Brownist against the Anabaptist, and the Anabaptist against the Brownist? Is not the Libertine against the Familist, and the Familist against the Libertine? Nay, is not one Christian brother against another? so that the whole world seems to be out of frame, & the foundations of the earth are shaken, yea, and the veil of our temple is rend, from the top to the bottom, Mat. 27.51. Christ is dead and torn in pieces among us, and we have crucified the Lord of glory, 1. Cor. 7.8. and put him to an open shame. We are fallen into the hands of thiefs, and left for half dead; O good Samaritan heal us, and have compassion on us! Is not the whole head sick, and the whole heart faint? Isa. 1.5 yea, from the sole of the foot unto the crown of the head, there is no soundness in us, but we are full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores, we have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Is not our Country desolate, our Cities are burnt with fire, have not strangers devoured our land in our presence, and are we not desolate as overthrown by strangers? Are we not left as a cottage in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a besieged city? Verily, except the Lord of Hosts had left us a small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrah. Are not our goods according to the number of our cities, nay according to our tribes, and families, so that so many heads, so many several sects and opinions? Is not Christ divided, and seems not Paul 1. Cor. 1.13. to be crucified among us, while as Christ's precepts are neglected, and Paul's Epistles abused? and while as some preach Christ of envy, and for filthy lucre's sake, and some of good will, and out of a good conscience. Nay, hath not Baal as many false prophets among us, as Christ hath true Ministers? and do not many run before they are sent? the lowest and meanest of the people (to the dishonour of God, and scandal of the Nation) thrusting themselves in to be Priests, to serve Christ at his Altar, while as Christ is neglected and persecuted in his poor saints and members.  
O England, look about thee! and see, whether these be not the deadly and dangerous symptoms of an angry and offended God, and of thine approaching ruin and desolation. Yea, and that which is worse, thou hast false reachers in the midst of thee, which bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift damnation, 2. Pet. 2.1. Thou hast justified all Nations in their sinful courses and abominable idolatries; for thy blasphemies are gone up unto heaven, and in them thou hast exceeded all people. The Jews do only deny Christ but thou hast them which not only deny him, but also blasphemously use him and persecute him, cursing the time that ever they knew him, his word or sacraments; holding the divine truth to be but a fable, & a dead letter, and that all the means to grace and salvation, is but needless and unprofitable; that stocks and stones are God, and that God is in them. The Gentiles called Christ, the crucified God, but they never said that he was weak and unperfect, in charging him with folly and ignorance. [Because some have affirmed that Christ did more hurt in teaching the Lords Prayer, and saving the Thief upon the Cross, then ever he did good in all his life.] The jews called him a glutton, a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners, and we do little less. The Turks grant him to be the great Prophet, and Messiah that should come into the world, only they deny him to be the Son of God: there be among us, that deny that ever there was any such thing as a Christ in the world; and foam that confess him, but hold him to be no better then illegitimate, and a sinner. Yea, and that which is worst of all, this hath been and is maintained with a high hand, as if God did not see, and as if the Almighty regarded it not. For this our Land mourneth, and bleeds even unto the death. Nay, the cry thereof is gone up even unto the heaven, and hath entered into the ears of the Lord, pleading for vengeance.  
Repent therefore, O England, and do the first works, lest God remove the light of his countenance, and candlestick from thee, Rev. 2.5. and give thee thy portion with them that shallbe without; even with dogs and forcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth, or maketh a lie.  
Thou hast much teaching, and great is the company of Preachers, whereof some set forth Christ sincerely, powerfully and plainly: but where is thy conversion, or turning unto the Lord? Doth not pride, malice; cruelty, oppression, covetousness, hypocrisy, profaneness, contempt of God's ordinances, unprofitableness under the means, unthankfulness for mercies received, self love, hardness of heart, wilful ignorance, and carnal security, reign as much in thee as ever it did? Doth it not sound as loud, yea louder, in the ears of the Lord, than ever it did, and yet wilt thou say that thou art reform, that thou art a people beloved of God, and dwellest under the shadow of the Almighty? Wilt thou say, that thou art God's choice vine, and dost thou bring forth nothing but the grapes of Sodom, and the vintage of Gomorrah? Dost thou profess Christ in word, and deny him in deed? Is not Religion derided, and faith and a good conscience made shipwreck of? Dost thou not hear, O England, the bleating of saul's sheep, and the lowing of his oxen, 1. Sam. 15.14. Dost thou not▪ see, that judgement is waxed ripe, and how that vengeance is laid to the line, and how the Almighty is watching over thee, for evil, and not for good; yet notwithstanding all this, wilt thou promise thyself peace in the midst of war? What peace (thinkest thou) can there be to joram, so long as the whoredoms of his mother jezabel, and her witchcrafts are so many, 2. King. 9.22. There is no peace (saith my God) unto the wicked, Isa. 48.22. Wherefore let my counsel be acceptable to thee, (O England) to break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquity, by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity Dan. 4.27. Let righteousness flow down as a stream, and true judgement as a strong water course. Seek peace and ensue it. Let the King's throne be established in judgement and equity, but let it be thy chiefest care to advance Christ, in his throne and kingdom: for if thou advance him, he will honour thee, and they that regard him not shall be but lightly esteemed. Let Religion and the power of godliness be established, and look up on the blubbered and bedewed cheeks of thy spiritual mother the Church, for it is only she that by profession hath brought thee forth a Christian: O grieve her not, nor see her sit any longer in the dust, to bewail her rents and schisms, in the discord of her children. Repair her beauty by bringing in good order and discipline, and let them even be cut off that trouble her, and the peace of this our Zion. Prepare to meet thy God, O England, for he is ready to take vengeance, upon all disobedient and unbelieving children. And, Kiss the son lest he be angry, and thou perish from the way, if his wrath be kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him, Psal. 2.12. The which that we may all do, God grant us his grace, love, fear, and unity of heart, for Christ's sake, Amen.  
FINIS.