A GODLY EXHORTATION TO THIS DISTRESSED NATION.  
Showing the true cause of this unnatural civil War amongst us.  PSAL. L. VERSE XV. 
Call upon me in the time of trouble, so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.  

When pride aboundeth in the City,  
And people's hearts are void of pity;  
When little children learn to swear,  
And wickedness abounds each where.  
Then let God's people cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When as God's service is neglected,  
And able Ministers rejected:  
When Popery resteth in the land,  
And strives to get the upper hand.  
Then let God's people cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When people they have itching eats,  
Desturb our Church, and grieve our Peers:  
When men despise good government,  
And spurn against the Parliament.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When as the kingdom is divided,  
And by the sword the cause decided:  
When Law and Justice take no place,  
And people lose their hold of grace.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When people stumble at a straw,  
And make their own self will a Law:  
When people maketh sanctity  
A cloak to hide hypocrisy.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When people for mere trifles quarrel,  
And make a Pulpit of a barrel:  
When people run from place to place,  
Unreverently God's Church deface,  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When some that cannot read nor write  
Shall tell us of a new-found light,  
And Scripture unto us expounds,  
True learned Discipline confounds.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When people are distracted so,  
Distressed England filled with woe:  
When people for the common good,  
Unnatural shed each others' blood,  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When dire destruction runs before,  
And brings bad tidings to our door:  
When arm, arm, arm, is all the cry,  
To add grief to our misery.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When armed men each day we meet  
In every lane and every street:  
When as our streets are chained straight,  
And Ordnance placed at every gate.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When London is entrenched round,  
When fear our senses doth confound;  
When men with grief behold those works,  
As if we were besieged by Turks.  
'Tis time for us to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

Now since we are distressed thus,  
Good Lord make haste to succour us;  
On woeful England cast thine eye,  
And ease us of this misery.  
For now 'tis time to cry and call  
Good Lord have mercy on us all.   

When King and Peers agree in one,  
And cause a blessed union;  
When all embrace, and throw down arms,  
And we be freed from public harms.  
Then shall we find when we do call  
That thou dost hear and help us all.   

When they shall fall that do oppose  
Thee in thy way, O Lord, and those  
That wish well to thy Church increase,  
Then shall betide a happy peace.  
Then shall we find when we do call  
That thou dost hear and help us all.   
Humphrey Crouch.  
FINIS.   

LONDON, Printed for Richard Harper. 1642.