ENGLAND'S REMEMBRANCER OF THE Day of her Visitation, and of the Woes Near to be revealed, except She Repent.  

OH England, England, long hath been thy day,  
Great Signs and wonders God hath wrought in thee:  
Thy Visitation it will wear away,  
And then great Woes thou suddenly shalt see.  
God sundry ways hath sought thee to return,  
In peace and plenty he did to thee call;  
But thou wast proud, against him thou didst spurn,  
Yea thou wast vain, and so begun thy fall,  
To beat, imprison, and to persecute,  
Making strange Laws against God's Innocent;  
With rage and fury thou didst prosecute  
Them, on all such as called thee to repent.  
The lives of many of God's servants have  
In stinking holes and prisons wore away:  
Yea prison bonds have brought them to their grave,  
So that they might not live another day.  
But know thou this, though we in secret die,  
And thou in holes our bodies dost destroy;  
Our blood aloud unto the Lord will cry,  
And bring such Plagues as shall thee sore annoy.  
Can ye not see what all your rage hath wrought,  
Your Perseoutions and your Banishment?  
They have God's Judgements much upon you brought,  
Though ye regard not what the Lord hath sent.  
Ye in your sins do but the harder grow,  
And wickedness doth more and more increase;  
●… persecute will be your overthrow,  
Unsess from that great wickedness ye cease.  
Repent and turn; come sit in dust and ashes;  
Oh weep and mourn, bewail your time misspent:  
Return and mend, while God gives gentle lashes,  
Or else his wrath shall you in shivers rend.  
Like to the potsherds of the earth, ye shall  
Be broke in pieces by his angry stroke:  
For he in fury will upon you fall,  
If that by sin ye do him still provoke:  
Ye grow so bad there's little hopes of ye;  
I would be silent and no more would say,  
And if I might I would in secret be,  
To wait on God, and pass my time away,  
Until that day in which Gods Judgements shall  
Break people's hearts, lay low the haughty mind:  
Bring tenderness to hearken to God's call,  
In which the poor shall peace and comfort find.   

But yet again I must to England cry,  
And one more warning unto London give:  
O England, turn from thine iniquity;  
Repent O London, that thou yet mayst live.  
O English Nation hasten, Oh make haste  
To do the things that are both good and just;  
Or else God's Judgements will soon make thee waste,  
And lay thy strength and honour in the dust.  
Unless thou turn, and do thy sins forsake;  
Unless thou do thy persecution cease;  
Unless for conscience thou indulgence make,  
Great woes on thee will yet again increase,  
Unless that good men shall have liberty,  
Unless thy penal Laws be done away;  
Unless thou ceases from bloody cruelty.  
● must thee tell, that God will bring a day  
Of greater howl and Calamities,  
And woes more dreadful shall beset thee round;  
Thou hast not yet seen haste the miseries,  
That shall within thy bowels yet abound.   

My heart is sad, mine eyes for sorrow weep;  
My soul's oppressed, and I in secret cry:  
Oh that with peace I might in silence keep,  
And not a Prophet be of misery.   

Before the Lord my soul is bowed low;  
For who may stand when once Jehovah frowns.  
This I must cry, that woe all flesh shall know;  
Woe's on the Land, Seas, Cities and in Towns.   

Woe ye false Prophets, that poor souls deceive,  
Who for self ends fear not to make a lie:  
No root nor branch of you the Lord will leave,  
But ye shall sink with your iniquity.   

Woe to you Lawyers, that corrupt the Law,  
And do not fear to pervert true judgement:  
On you your works destruction will draw,  
Except ye mend, and speedily repent.   

Woe to you Rulers, that have not done well;  
Your time will end, the Judge is at the door,  
Who will destroy and cast you into Hell,  
Except ye mend, and shall do so no more.   

Woe to all you that have done violence  
Against those that do meet to Worship God.  
As ye have used God's poor Innocents'  
So ye shall feel God's woeful smarting rod.   

Woe to all you that issue forth command,  
To force and prison unto Banishment:  
Even so shall ye be driven by God's hand,  
In fearful Plagues to endless punishment.   

Woe to all you whom yet the Lord doth spare,  
But though God smiles, yet ye grow worse and worse:  
Your time is short, and then will come your share  
In endless pains, with Devils in the curse.   

Woe every man, both high, low, rich and poor,  
Who hath shed blood, and hurt God's Innocent;  
Their blood for vengeance unto Heaven doth roar,  
For woes upon you till ye do repent.   

What shall I say! for God will make appear  
To great and small, that woeful times hast on;  
In which all people shall both quake and fear;  
For God will not let such men long alone,  
As beat, imprison, and are violent  
Against all such as wish you to amend;  
And such as cry and call you to repent,  
Ye from their land in Banishment would send:  
O foolish folk, ye are both deaf and blind;  
Destruction's near, it hath beset you round;  
Plague, Sword and Famine of the sorest kind,  
Except ye mend, these will on you abound.  
On that ye could believe what good men say,  
Who see the end of what is now begun:  
This is the Eve of that most dreadful day,  
In which all faces shall grow pale and wan.   

O English people that ye could yet hear!  
Ah that ye could but mind the mounrnful cry  
That is for you, to hear this in God's fear,  
Repent, repent, for why, why will ye die?  
Oh that ye would believe what Christ hath said,  
And be not like unto the World of old;  
Who in their sins were by the Flood destroyed,  
Because they would not mend when they were told,  
Though Noah preached they would not repent;  
The Lord did wait, but they would not amend:  
And when God's suffering patience was spent,  
He did upon them utter ruin send.  
Remember what befell the Sodomites,  
And many others that I could unfold;  
Who did as Pharaoh by the Israelites,  
Lift up themselves, and hate to be coutrouled.  
Jerusalem would not believe those Signs,  
Which god did show to call them to amend:  
For they knew not the preaching of the times,  
Until God did destruction on them send.  
Like as did these, so dost thou do, O land,  
Thou eatest and drinkest, and risest up to play;  
Thou heap'st up sin, and dost not understand  
That near is come the Lord's most dreadful day,  
Wherein God now will inquisition make,  
And seek his slain, whose blood the earth doth hid,  
Therefore repent, and all your sins forsake,  
If ye have hope God's judgements to abide.  
When silent voice shall in all souls preach loud,  
Then suddenly men shall be in amaze;  
Then woe, yea woe to all the wicked crowd:  
For they with horror than shall fear and gaze.  
The dry bones wise shall cause the World to quake;  
For now on them the breath of life doth hover,  
The Lord to them doth now begin to speak,  
That they may live to show God's mighty power,  
Oh suddenly mwn shall themselves bewail.  
With woeful cries, with gnashing teeth and pain,  
To find no moan nor tears shall then prevail;  
To seek repentance then will be in vain.  
O ye that live, a little time ye have;  
Break off from sin, your evil life amend;  
And let not wickedness your souls enslave,  
Until God doth his wrath upon you send,  
And take you hence in fury and in haste,  
And in your sins ye die as many have,  
Who in their lusts their precious time did waste,  
Until grim death did mark them for their grave.   

Yet from the Lord, I may to England tell  
The only way how to escape these woes;  
Cease Persecution, and it shall be well.  
Grant liberty, this will subdue your foes.  
Embrace God's truth, let it have place in thee;  
And let the Law in humane things take place:  
But leave man's Conscience in Religion free,  
To worship God, as guided by his Grace.  
Then ye shall know the truth that maketh free,  
With peace in God this Land shall be possessed.  
If ye'l fear God ye shall victorious be,  
And Nations shall bow down to you as blest.  
But if ye will not cease from Banishment,  
From persecution and iniquity;  
Yet ye shall know the Lord hath to you sent  
Me, to forewarn you of your misery.   I. Raunce.  

Written the last of the last Month 1665.