Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, that this be forthwith printed.  
Hen. Elsinge, Cler. Parl. D. Com.   

ENGLAND'S COMPLAINT, OR The Church her Lamentation, pitifully bemoaning herself to her Children, to move them to compassionate her, now in this troublesome time, and to bring them to a mutual agreement and reconciliation.  
IT was the Father's complaint over his children▪ Hear O Heavens, and hearken O Earth, for I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against me: Even so now it is, and may well be the Mothers: Hear O ye Heavens, and hearken O Earth! For I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against me, in seeking to destroy me, and to bring me to utter ruin and dissolution Ah woeful Mother of a stubborn and disobedient offspring. How did I sit as a Queen (rejoicing and solacing myself in the midst of the Nations) and said, I shall see no sorrow? But now (behold) that which I feared not is come upon me, it is come upon me suddenly and in a moment, and pains as upon a woman in travel. My lovers and acquaintance begin to forsake me, and stand a far off, looking upon my trouble. I am forsaken of mine own children, even those I brought up upon my breasts, and dandled upon my knees. Behold therefore if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, and like unto that, wherein the Lord beginneth to visit me. Pity me o my children, o pity me and let not your fainting and disconsolate mother, sink down between your hands. O be not so cruel and hardhearted as by your civil discord, by intestine war, by schism, faction and division, to rend and tear out the bowels of your mother! which hath so lovingly nursed & brought you up, so tenderly kept you, and Pelicane like hath fed you with her own heart blood, even the blood of Saints & Martyrs. O make not my sorrow greater, in despising of me. I am black, but comely: I am black in regard of some enormities, misdemeanours, and imperfections; but comely as the tents of Kedar, and as the curtains of Solomon▪ Regard ye me not, because I have some spots and wrinkles in outward show and appearance? yet (behold) within I am all fair and beautiful: For the King's daughter is all glorious within: It is the Roman strumpet that doth adorn and set herself forth to the eye, that would seem all beautiful without, when as within she is full of rottenness, dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. It is the note of a false and erroneous Church, to boast its self of its purity. I confess my fault, I acknowledge my deformity and desire to be reform. Therefore plead with me my children, convince me of my errors▪ Let our controversy be decided by a lawful assembly, which the King and Parliament may appoint. But (alas) how shall they appoint that, about the which they are in controversy already? If that which should be my curing, be my wounding, how great is my misery. Let the righteous smit me, but let not their precious balm break my head. Fall not out my dear children, neither destroy yourselves for the blemishes and imperfections of your mother. O give ear and listen to my counsel: lest I be constrained to call upon the Father of those children, to be a judge and a Witness against them.  
Give ear and help me, o my King! for the children are brought to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth. Dread Sovereign your Nobles and Peers do sit in Parliament, for a redress & reformation of things; and there is no strength to bring to pass without your Royal consent. God himself is about a work, a great work, a work of Reformation, tending to his own glory and our good, o be not you a means to hinder or prevent it, or that that which should be for our comfort, turn to our utter ruin or destruction. Remember that you also have a King above you, to whom you must give an account of all your ways at the last day: Resist him not, withstand no longer, least happily you be found to fight against God himself. Remember that you are not only a Defender of the Faith, but also that you should be a nursing Father. O let not posterity record you a destroyer of your people and Country. Let not the frogs of Egypt or the Locusts of the bottomless pit any longer whisper in your Royalleares, to seduce and deceive you, they croak only for their own advantage, and to bring you and yours back again to the Egyptian bondage, and to Romish captivity.  
Give ear and way (dread Sovereign) to your Parliament, and trusty Counsellors, who not only know and are privy to the enormities of the Land, and the disastors of the Kingdom, but also are willing to redress and reform them, having their hearts touched with zeal to God's glory, love and duty to your Majesty, care of their Country, and seek and endeavour the good and welfare both of Church and Commonwealth. They desire not to rule, but to be ruled, neither are they willing to usurp sovereignty, but to acknowledge you their liege Lord, they desire to bring in no innovation, but to reduce the Church and Country to their ancient Laws and Liberty. They endeavour to bring your Majesty's subjects to your obedience, and our Religion to that purity, it was in Christ and his Apostles time. For this they have humbly sued to your Highness, for this they strive and contend. They desire (being Protestant's) to conform themselves to all other Protestant-Churches, and not to halt any longer between two opinions: between Christ and belial, between the Truth and Antichrist, between Rome and England, or between a Papist and a Protestant, or being luke warm, to deserve to be spewed out. It is no dishonour for a King to be ruled by a wise, and religious Council: Your Majesty intends no other Law or Discipline; but what was in force in Queen Eliza●●th her time, and in the days of your Father our▪ late Sovereign of famous Memory: the Parliament intends nothing else. Only they endeavour to break and disannul that absolute Sovereignty, your Highness doth seem to challenge; whereby they find not only your Subject's Liberty infringed; but also themselves and the whole Land brought into an unaccustomed bondage and servitude. You blame them for taking up Arms. It is not against your Majesty, but for you. It is for the people's liberty and safety; and in so much as it is for them, it is for you: because the Honour, welfare, and happiness of a King, consists not o●●ly in the multitude of his people, but also in the Liberty▪ Peace, and safety of his Subjects. Your Highness will allege, that they have no Law for what they do. I answer, they have and are a Law in themselves; for Parliaments both have made Laws, and d●●nanull'd them. And though they seem to enterprise that which was never seen nor heard off before, and from the which your Majesty may seem to be dissenting; yet if either i● be grounded upon, or according to God's word, or make for the peace, and welfare of the Kingdom, it is lawful. For wherefore were Counsellors ordained, but to be Rulers in the Kingdom, and the eye and direction of the King: but it is well known, that the Parliament is your Majesty's great Council, and by the same you ought and must be guided and directed.  
Give ear and pity me, O my Parliament, and help thy rueful and disconsolate mother, commiserate my woeful and distressed condition. Behold how I sit mourning all alone, and there is none to comfort me; look upon my breaches, and upon my ruin and desolation, which seems to be at hand, if it be not speedly prevented, my sons do faint, and begin to bleed, my Widows and Virgins mourn, and sit comfortless in the streets, my honour is gone, my beauty fails me, my wealth i● consumed, and joy and mirth is fled away. Oh let me not be a hissing to the Nations. but labour, O labour with speed to bind up my wounds, and to cure my sores, labour with his Majesty for a peace and reconciliation, labour to gain him by love and humility, and that he may see you are his friends, and that you desire his enemies to be as the dust before the wind, and the Angel of the Lord to scatter them, but that upon himself, and his posterity, his Crown may ever flourish. And if your sword's mu●● be drawn, O let it be drawn in defence of him, and in defence of yourselves, in defence of the Kingdom, and in defence of the Laws, and ●●berties of the same. Be zealous, be valiant, for the battle is the Lords and no● yours, and the c●use is Gods, and not man's. Be faithful unto the death, and Christ hath promised you a Crown of life. Subdue the proud, spare the lowly, and let all you● actions be seasoned with moderation and discretion. Sp●re not, O spare not to take us the Fox●s, even the little Foxes; that spoil our Vines? and while ye have rooted out all Superstition, Errout, and Heresy: and while you have restored your mother to her ancient splendour beauty, and dignity.  
Give ear and help me O my Nobles, my Gentry, and Commonalty, pity me, O pity me, and let not the Mother's ruin & desolation be your consolation. Make not my rent greater, by the mutual discord, and by imbruing you● hands in one another's blood. Side with the King, but side with you● Parliament also; and so side with both, that you may be sure you side with God. Which you cannot do, if either you take part with the King, against the Parliament, or with the Parliament (in any unjust or unlawful thing) against the King. But the Parliament (you have heard) seeks your good, it desireth your welfare, the glory of God, the honour of the King, & the peace and welfare of the Land. Lay down therefore your weapon's, and think ●ot you are for the King when you seek the destruction of one another, for the King's ea●e and welfare consist● in your mutual love and unity. Lay down your courage and haughty minds. How long will ye contend, & bend your swords against yourselves, and against your brethren: know ye not that it will be bitterness in the later end; & that when ye have left destroying, you shall be destroyed? Against whom do ye fight, against an enemy, against a foreigner? or stranger: no but against God, against the King, against the Parliament, against your friends, against yourselves: Are ye wretched and ma●d, that be● cause strangers do or will not destroy you, that you will destroy yourselves? Who hath bewitched you; but be only that is the common enemy of mankind, and seeks your ruin and overthrow? O listen no longer unto him, give no more ear; you are not acquainted with war; nor shedding of blood. Put up therefore your swords, and fight no longer, for it is enough O father of my children, pity thy children, and let it grieve thee, to see them slaughter down one another, before thy face: knowing that when they are destroyed, thou canst not be safe. It is false seduc●rs, and such as smell of the smoke of the bonttomlesse pit, that bre●ks your peace, and sets you together by the ears. Why then against them (with the Parliament) seek to bend your swords, Domestic, & homebred enemies are worse than aliens and strangers, endeavour to root out these, and your fears and jars are at an end.  
Give ear and help me, o my judges and grave Counselors! where is now your aid? What is there no Balm in Gileaed, for to cure my s●are and malady? is there no wisdom nor understanding in you? Is Wisdom perished from the ancient. and Counsel from the prudent? Is there no knowledge in the Land? Or are ye like unto Ephraim's silly Dove; altogether without heart? what is the cause that you are silent now in these troublesome times, surely something is▪ the matter, that your mouth is stopped. I doubt (some of you) have been those that have gone down into Egypt for help, and increased my trouble. I doubt ye have taken counsel, but not o● the Lord, and covered with a covering, but not by his Spirit, that ye might add sin to sin, and devour the Land in his presence. You have misled the King, misguided the State, and for your own advantage, and for filthy lucre's sake; Which now is the cause of my grief, the cause of my fear and danger, the cause that his Majesty is so hardly won to a right understanding between Him and his Parliament, so hardly reclaimed from his wont conceit a●d opinion of things. Yet now at the length put to your helping hands, freely confess your faults and errors, and by all possible means labour to bring a right understanding between the King and his great Council, and to reconcile him to his Subjects and to recover his Subjects love to him. Cursed be they, that wish not prosperity to Zion and pray for the peace of our jerusalem. Give ear and help me, o my Clengy. But a● sinful Nation, a se●d of evil doers, how ca● or will ye help, when as the most of y●u seeks ●o destroy. You mind Popery, you seek Hierarchy, you usurp soveraignyt, you are a people laden with iniquity: Your greatness is and will be your ruane and downfall; and not of you only, but also of the whole Nation and Kingdom, for your sakes: You worship and adore Tables, you commit Sacrilege▪ and are in love with Mammon more than with God. You fleece Christ's sheep but seed them not; you sell and make merchandise of souls, of Heaven, and Christ, and all you have & do abuse the King, you seduce the Noble, you delude the people. You cannot be content with one living, but you must seek to scrape all into your hands, you cannot be content with meat drink & raiment; but you must build Houses, plant ●ine-yards and lay living to living, while there is left no place for the poor to live beside you. And to the end you may be great, and that your posterity may praise your do, you always side with the stronger party; and to gain the world, ye would even lose your souls, forgo the Gospel, and betray Christ, for this cause you are more ready to blo● the fire that is kindling, then to quench it. You like and skill so well of superstition, and Idolatry, that you neither can nor will forgo the Roman Monarchy, seeing it was the first of you rising, & is as yet the only prop of your greatness: no wonder then, that King and people be seduced, whenas those that should be our guides, do mistead us, and are misled themselves, for if the light that is in us, be darkness; how great is that darkness. You are or should be the light of the world, but resei●ble the darkness of Egypt; dark Lanterns that do lead thousands to eternal perdition and destruction; So that Satan needs no▪ other agents upon Earth but you, you are so accustomed to ease, that you cannot take pains, and therefore down with preaching, playing becomes you better than praying, and feasting then fasting. And if you preach at any time, it is to show yourselves, your Learning, your Eloquence, and to obraine your base sinister ends; even to get a living, preferment, or the like, or to maintain and uphold the Papal dignity, your pomp, your pride, and vain glory, or to move sedition and faction in the Land, and to breed division between the King and his Subjects, and between the Governors and their inferiors. You are in and of the flesh, and therefore cannot savour the things that are either of God, or of his spirit. The Apostles traveled from country to country on foot, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, being poor, naked, destitute, and despised; ye ride in coaches like Princes, and j●● it up and down in long Robes and costly apparel, f●ring deliciously every day. Ye have greetings i● the markets, the chief rooms at Feasts, and of men to be called Rabbi. O how unlike are ye to the Apostles, whiles ye would seem to imitate th●m, & pretend to be their successors, finally & in a word, ye are the sole and only cause of all my evil; and of the trouble and danger that is come upon me. Pity me therefore, o my children, and repent, and do the first works: Lest God remove the light of his countenance, and of his Candlestick from among us, and take his word and Gospel, and give it to a Nation or people more thankful than we, and that will bring him forth the fruit thereof in due season. Let us break off our sins by speedy repentance, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthaing of our tranquillity. Let us pray for the peace and welfare of jerusalem, & for the safeguard and protection of our King and Country, knowing that it is for our sins, that he and the Land is troubled. Let us, ● let us by a mutual love and concord seek to reconcile ourselves one to another; knowing that our jarring is but the rejoicing of our Enemies, and that our fall will be their r●sing; whereas our friends cannot choose but mourn and lament at our misery and ruin. Let us every one turn from our evil ways, and from the violence that is in our hands; who knows whether the Lord will turn and repent him of his fierce anger, that we perish not? O Let not this potent and flourishing Land and Nation come to a perpetual and utter desolation. Let not Satan delude you my children, to make you a h●ssing or a mocking stock to other Nations, but remember your mother's former and ancient splendour and brightness remember your zeal, your love, your faith religion and happiness, and be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with goodness. The which that we may all do God of his infinite and endless mercy and goodness give, grant, and give us his grace, for Christ's sake, Amen.  
FINIS.