England's Ichabod, Glory departed, DISCOURSED By TWO CHRISTIAN MEN, zealous for the glory of GOD, and true Lovers of their NATION: The One Called Heraclitus junior, Weeping for and lamenting the inevitable woe and Desolation impending and approaching on his native Country. And the Other called democritus natu minimus, Laughing at the Ignorance, Blindness, Madness, and inexorable Stupidity of his own Nation, overwhelmed in Folly, Sin, and Wickedness, insensible of its own ruin and Misery. Both of them Paradoxically praising the Jesuits, and their spurious seed, for their policy, activity, and dexterity, in promoting their Factions and Projects.  
By Heraclitus junior, and Democritus natu minimus, for RI: FOSTERSCHISM.  Isa. 31. 1. woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong: but they look not to the holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Matth. 12. 25. Every kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself, shall not stand. 
LONDON, Printed for Edw. Blackmore. 1650.   

England's Ichabod, &c.  Democritus. 
MY love and affection to you, most dear Heraclitus, hath induced me to visit you, that you and I may discourse a little touching these woeful and doleful days wherein we live.  Heraclitus. 
Welcome, my most cordial and most constant friend; I rejoice in your presence so gladsome to me, that, if any thing would assuage my mournful tears▪ your cheerful society would do it. But, Sir, it is too late: I rather wish to be dissolved into Tears, then to be revived with Mirth; for the glory of England is departed. Where is the glory of our Cities, of our Academies, of Trade, and Merchandise, either domestic, or with foreign Nations; of Equity, Law, and Justice; of the Liberty of the People; of the Freedom and privileges of the Nation in the whole commonwealth? Nay, (which is the greatest woe of all) where is the glory of Religion and Sincerity? Religion is nothing but Opus operatum, a formal, outside Preaching and Hearing, like the figtree cursed by our Lord Christ, bearing no fruits of Charity, Humility, Obedience, Justice and Mercy. It is by some made a mere stalking-horse and a servant to Pride, Ambition, Covetousness; whose entire and endeared companions and confederates, gilded hypocrisy, and execrable villainy, merciless Cruelty, bloody and horrid Treason, must be sometimes assistant, to effect impious lawless designs. And where will the glory of one of the most famous Cities of the world, of London, be, if the Citizens lose Exportation of Cloth and Stuffs, and Importation of foreign Merchandises, as they have lost themselves in their Covenant made with God, whereof there is a Table and copy, for memorial, fixed and hanged up in most Temples in the City? And then where will the glory of Clothiers, Artificers, and others, whose Trades and Livelihoods depend upon manufacture of Cloth and Stuffs, appear? And where will the glory of the Nobility and Gentry, whose revenues depend upon Sheep and Wool, soon after be? Last of all, where will the glory of our Army and soldiery be, if they conquer not all Europe, or at least quit themselves against the Power and Forces thereof? For it appeareth manifestly, that they have provoked most part thereof to be enemies to our Nation. Woeful will our Lamentations be: I shall not be able to weep enough: I shall even wish to be a Niobe, that I might be dissolved into tears. Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum? as the Poet. Simon, John, Eleazar; Prelate, Independent, Presbyter. Scarce three men meet accidentally together of one mind: men are so transported with fiery zeal for one of the three, and so void of meekness of spirit, that they become as fierce as Bellarmine, and cry down all Arguments on the behalf of the other two, although they be newly roused from the pillow of Bacchus, and be inscient of the validity of what was or can be said. Why hath Opinion, distracted about Rule and Government, brought these later evils upon us, since the just shall live by Faith alone, and not by Government?  Democritus. 
I myself making the same observations which you do, and being apprehensive of the Calamities and Desolation near approaching, and attending our Nation, could, as I am subject to natural passions, mourn and lament also: but since I am fully satisfied, by consulting with the sacred Prophets, that there is an inevitable Divine Decree in this vengeance of the Sword, fore-appointed for the accomplishment and manifestation of God's infinite power and glory in purging his Church, and bringing in a better people, and in restauration of Mercy and Justice in the commonwealth; that Grief, which would otherwise possess me, is turned into mirth. Yet, if it may be asked by Prayer, Let not, O God, the Parable and Curse of Jotham (mentioned in the ninth Chapter of Judges) be fulfilled, and fall upon our Abimelechs and Shechemites of England! harken, ye men of Shechem, famous Citizens, that God may harken unto you, and not send an evil spirit amongst ye, to stir ye up to destroy one another, as Abimele●h did the Shechemites, when they had raised him, and made him their King, after the bloody murder of his brethren, the legitimate sons of Gedeon, about seventy men. Like noble Bereans, read the Chapter, and apply it. And take notice of a few words uttered and predicted against our Nation, and some famous city thereof, above 1100 years since, in the Reign of Vortiger, printed at Frankfurt about 50 years since: Viz. Vae perjuriae Genti, qua urbs inclyta propter eam ruet: Festinat namque dies qua cives ob scelera perjurii peribunt. If that ginger who uttered these words, amongst others, (whereof we have seen the completion in a great part, and could, if without controlment permitted, fully demonstrate) did now live, he would laugh profusely at some modern Astrologers, who gainsay them, or speak slightly or dubiously of them, although completed.  Heraclitus. 
If there be a Divine Vengeance in this scourge of Division, Faction, Rapine, and Bloodshedding; why have the people severally murmured, railed, and clamoured, some against the beheaded King, some against the Parliament, some against the City of London, some against the Scots, as the several sole causes of our unnatural and bloody Civil War?  Democritus. 
Because they ignorantly and falsely conjecture that all things come to pass by Chance, without Divine providence and governance; many being so peremptory and stiff in Opinion, and so puffed up with their own transcendency of Piety, and Singularity of spirit, that they explode all Opinions but their own, and all Reasons and Arguments against the same, although valid and forcible; as is evident, in that, that though they despise Government and all Dominion, yet none more eagerly aspire to, and hunt after high places of Domination, both Ecclesiastical and Temporal: And when they are invested in them, none so rigid as Themselves, who so much censured and condemned the Government of Others to be oppressive and tyrannical: And then they make ostentation, and buzz like the Fly upon the wheel, This have I done; whenas the coach-wheels and horses heels stirred the dust: So, by the help of Insinuation, and subtle Faction, ambitious, covetous, proud Boasters, and singular Self-lovers are exalted to trample on their brethren. Plurimis famam {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, avidè magis ambientibus quàm fervidè, & sincerè {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} annunciantibus. One would be Paul, another Cephas, and the third Apollo: and the itching-eared people love to have it so: But what will they do in the end? These men consider not that their own particular sins, and the general sins of the Nation, have drawn down God's wrath and indignation against us; some daring to call our Covenant made with God, filed of Record in our Temples An old almanac, which may be thrown in the fire at years' end.  Heraclitus. 
How might their Understandings be better informed, and their Judgements rectified?  Democritus. 
By none other means but, first, by reading the Scriptures, and principally the Prophet Isaiah, Chap. 45. vers. 7. and Amos, Chap. 3. v. 6. and Jerem. Chap. 25, v. 15, 16, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32. and Chap. 3. v. 6. and Chap. 30. v. 24. and Chap. 34. v. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. and Chap. 5. The whole scope of which two last-recited Chapters plainly parallel with our Times and Nation, and Matth. 24▪ with divers other Scriptures, as well touching the nearness of the end of the world, in confutation of the Millenary Schism, much availing for the Roman party, and now boldly and busily broached by some of the prime Dissenting Brethren, Igodown, Oglethorp, and others; as also, touching National Churches, in confutation of independency and Singularity; as Rev. 20. 4. and 21. 24, 26. and Isai. 60. 3, 5 10, 11, 16. and Rev. 11. 15. And secondly, by comparing the last occurrences of Tumults and Insurrections when we had a King, he then having no council nor Army; and our present Home-divisions and Naumachies', with the beginnings of our Civil wars, when we had a King, he then having an Host of men, and council. But now, since we have no King, who can be said to be the cause of our present broils, rapine, and spoils, by Sea and Land, but our own sins; Cùm Anglia laborat saevire in semetipsam? Even as when there was no King in Israel, every man did that which was good in his own eyes: as Judg. 17. 6. and Ch. 19 more at large.  Heraclitus. 
The evidence thereof aggravateth my sorrow, and increaseth my tears; and much more, when I read the fourth verse of the third Chapter of Hosea, threatening judgement against the Israelites, that they should be many days without a King or Prince, &c. Was it a judgement in the days of Israel, and is it none in our days? Our Laws have depended upon Monarchy, although enacted (which was our happiness, if we had well considered it) not by Monarchy alone, but by aristocracy, and democracy: Therefore, without all three, our Laws are dissolved, and we fall into Anarchy. Is Peace ever to be looked for without Law? If the Sword be our lawgiver, shall we not become Assassinates and Heathens? Where will Truth and Religion be? Without them, farewell Peace. We feel with sorrow and smart, that Inter Arma silent Leges. And if there be neither King, Law, nor Religion, What will become of Parliaments? Our case will be the same with the Israelites, when they had no King: Every desperate man will dare to say to a Parliament-man, as an injurious Hebrew said to Moses, Who made thee a man of Authority, or Judge over us? But is there go balm left in Gilead? Is there not one man left, who by grave and seasonable counsel might discover the Incendiaries of our Divisions, and the Contrivers of our Factions and Distractions; and so divert the Deluge of Confusion and Slaughter ready to overwhelm our Nation?  Democritus. 
It is daily done by zealous Preachers of God's Word in the Pulpit, and by them and others in Printed Papers, with solid and weighty Motives; but with little effect: For most men's hearts are hardened, and their understandings stupefied: God hath stricken us, but we have not sorrowed; he hath consumed us, but we have refused to receive correction: we have made our faces harder than a stone, and have refused to return. We may now, with Jeremiah the Prophet, in his fifth Chapter, Run to and fro in the streets of our English Jerusalem, and behold now, and know, and inquire in the open places thereof, if we can find a man, or if there be any that spontaneously executeth judgement, and seeketh the truth; and than hope that the Lord will spare the Land. Where is the man, who payeth his Vows to God? Where is the Patriot of his Country, fearing God and hating Covetousness? Where is the Justiciary? Do we not see almost every man's Self to be his own Country? Many great men say, they know the way of the Lord, and the judgement of their God; but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. The sins for which most often and most severely God punished the Israelites, were Idolatry, breach of Covenant, and Perjury. Did God punish them for those sins, and can other Nations, now in being, hope to be quit, and go free? We expected an issue of our miseries by the Sword; but they are augmented, and aggravated: our hopes fail us. What will become of that People in the end, which repose confidence in their own strength of Charets, horsemen, and Horses? Jeremiah (in his 31 Chap. vers. 1.) telleth them what attendeth them. God is the God of Order, and not of Confusion. Will not the Lord visit for these things? Shall he not be avenged on such a Nation?  Heraclitus. 
The consideration of these things, draweth a flood of tears from me. For it is most manifest, that the English Jesuits, by their secret and admirable policies, and subtle insinuations, under pretext of Tender Conscience their Bugbear, work upon the easy minds of the weaker sort of people, who, by how much they are more shallow in Judgement, by so much are more obstinate and stiff in Opinion, impenetrable, and inflexible with any Arguments whatsoever, human or Divine. Amidst my sad and doleful tears, I am the more astonished, when I revolve this verse predicted of England long since, viz. Corruet Anglorum gens fraud suorum; which word suorum can have relation to, or dependence on no words in the whole series of the Latin nouns but to one or two ending thus, viz.— ituum▪— itiorum. It irketh me very grievously, that it should be said to some of those, to whom belongeth the heading of those two imperfect words, whose hearts are right for Church and Country, against all obstructions, that exitus will be exitium: but as touching any amongst them, who are inveterate, rancorous, and deadly enemies to the tranquillity, peace, and splendour of our National Church, and Commonwealth; I say, Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered! How shall God's wrathful indignation be appeased, when through hardness of heart we are insensible of the National sin, as heinous as the sin of Achan, and the bloody sin of Saul against the Gibeonites, committed under pretence of zeal to his Nation, provoking God's wrath against the Israelites to destroy them with Famine; which was not abated, until, through David's satisfaction given to the Gibeonites, by the decollation and slaughter of Saul's sons, God's wrath was appeased? as 2 Sam. 21. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8▪ 9, 14. Hath not God visited our Nation with the same punishment? It hath been said of old, Quos Jupiter perdere vult, priùs dementat. What hope have we to evade and escape the snares of the politic Jesuits, when we are already wrapped and involved in them, and when we neither do nor will discern their most exquisite, subtle, and close conveyances? they having adopted, or rather begotten a bastard-breed of sons, and infused so much of their virulent virtue into them, that thereby they have not only wrought weak judgements to pretended conscience of an Independent Church, but have also by state-policy benumbed, blinded, besotted, and stupefied some great and wise ones in our Nation, inducing them to connive at their frauds and jugglings, whereby more strenuously a Toleration of Schism and heresy is creeping in, than ever could have been brought in by themselves alone for their party.  Democritus. 
Charitable and pitiful Heraclitus, thy tears verily proceed from a tender conscience affected with the abominable sinfulness of thine own Nation, and the blindness and stupidity thereof. But be thou not solicitous and grieved, since God, for horrid and loud-crying sins, hath designed our Nation to woeful Calamities: Let us be rather comforted, and give glory to God, and rejoice, that he hath given us the sight of those things in his holy Word, which neither mighty men, nor noble, nor learned, nor Politicians will take notice of; but do rather wink with their eyes, and shut their understandings from being advertised thereof, and will deride both thee and me for our discourse, if they should hear it.  Heraclitus. 
Nevertheless, dear Democritus, let us not ●●…ist: A word spoken in its place is like apples of gold with pictures of silver, as Solomon hath it in his Proverbs.  Democritus. 
Moses and the Prophets speak plain enough to our Nation: if we will not hear them, neither will we hear, though one rise from the dead again, unless he should beat wit into our heads with a maul: and some such dreadful judgement, I fear, doth attend us. Were our words acceptable, or might they be profitable to our Nation, I could be incessant and indefatigable: for, Cuique probo Patria sua est jucundissima. But our Nation is become so barbarous and heathenish, that it laboureth with all its wisdom, wealth, and power to destroy itself. We do but scatter our words, we do but charm a deaf adder. I have lately read these words in a book published long before our distractions grew to this immense multiplicity (as now they are) and irreconciliable incomposedness, viz. [Be wise, O England, and discern the Jesuitical Romish frauds, and pernicious plots, and break and avoid their last arrow of independency and aristocracy, (for they have no more left to wound Great Britain withal) and be happy: Sin minus, caveto tibi, ne faciem tuam obfuscent tenebrae non nisi ex nova Romana caligine illuminatae:] and I well know that they came to the view of some both great and wise; but they seemed to them ridiculous: yet now they may see, that darkness must give light, or we must have no light. The unwarrantable predictions of uncertain astrology promising security, were and are pleasing, and embraced; which to confide in, is as to consult with the witch of Endor: But the warrantable presages couched in the infallible Prophecies of God's holy Seers, contained in his sacred Word, contemned, slighted, and rejected, even of mighty men, much more of men of inferior order. Railing, lying, futile, scurrilous, seditious, libellous, traitorous Pamphlets, spread abroad with all advantage by nimble winged Mercuries, have been, and are (a time very unfit for such fopperies and iniquities, when our Nation is bleeding, languishing, and at the point to be extinct) embraced by most men, according to their several fancies and affections, very few men having ●●…rned the Catechism of that most pious and venerable Doctor Joshua Hall sometimes Bishop of Exeter, since Bishop of Norwich, where they may learn how God doth and will do all things in this world, and as few having compunction of heart for the destruction and desolation of their own Country.  Heraclitus. 
How cometh it to pass that the Jesuits have such influence upon our Nation now at this time, since their manifold, bloody, and traitorous practices throughout the whole Reign of Queen Elizabeth, of King James, of our late King Charles, are fresh in memory, being to be read in Histories, rehearsed in almanacs, and brought to our ears by public Thanksgivings to God yearly for our deliverances from them?  Democritus. 
Thou knowest, Heraclitus, that a Ship at Sea is in the power of its Pilot, and that he, if out of treachery he intend it, can betray it to an enemy at his pleasure. The politic practices and treasons of the Jesuits against Queen Elizabeth▪ by commotions, rebellions, pistols, poisons, poniards, the Spanish Armado, were so exquisite and admirable, carried on with such secrecy, that had any of them prevailed, England must have gone to Rome again for the Pope's pardon. But what were all those their devices to that transcendent hyperbolical Gunpowder-treason, which with one Sulphureous blast had destroyed King James, and all his Royal Issue male; all the Nobility, and a great part of the Gentry, and had subverted Religion, and our Laws, and had subjugated our Nation again to the yoke and tyranny of the Popedom? Since then, far more transcendent, exact politic, never to be parallelled have their stratagems been to undermine our Church and State, by insinuating, creeping, and serewing themselves into eminent places and employments in both, under pretext of patriarchacy and Sanctimony; and they have so hood-winked many of the wisemen in our Nation, that they suspect them not at all, much less that they have now any Plot upon our Nation and Church, or are at the Rudder; but suppose that they sit still and quiet, neither acting nor plotting any thing. It it is evident to all honest intelligent men, that our late civil bellum Episcopale was plotted and contrived by their ingenuous and profound policies; and it will shortly be as evident, that our civil bellum Populare is driven on by their close conveyances, and ambodexter-jugglings, by misleading the people under pretence of New Lights, and Divine Raptures, and Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Chiveril Conscience.  Heraclitus. 
We know well in former times the Bishops days, when all Functions Ecclesiastical and Civil were transacted and conferred at a price (for Quid mihi dabis?) it was an easy thing, they being so exquisite and secret in their Plots and Contrivements, and they having at that time ducem venerii castri, the Buck with the gilded horns for their Patron and Advocate, to step into▪ nestle, and rivet themselves as well into high and eminent places in the Court, as also into subordinate Judicatory-administrations, and into the clergy and prelacy without controlment, especially after the eagle's Chicken had nested himself in the highest Rochet in the Realm. But by what means now do they possess themselves of public Places either Ecclesiastical or Civil, sance there hath usually been such a wide and opposite antipathy between them, and all manner of Protestants, though Sectaries and Separatists?  Democritus. 
First, know, Heraclitus, that the range and rabble of those Gleeds which the Eagles prime Chicken brought in, are not outed of the clergy, Academies, and other public Societies, nor, as the case now standeth, can be, but rather more are gotten into them. And next know, that the Jesuits are the most subtle expert, and artificial Impostors in the world, instructed by art and exercise, to put on Proteus shapes, and to personate all degrees and qualities of men, and neatly, closely, and dexterously to act in all manner of Societies, counsels, and Factions. And all moderate men know, and of that part yield, that in the late Wars many of them became Commanders and prime Officers in the Field and Forts against the Parliament. And if after their surrenders, and yielding up of Forts and Forces, they have been entertained, and ma●● Commanders in the present Army, have they not obtained their ends to agitate their designs of poisoning the Army, and consequently the whole Nation with Schism and heresy, so to hinder the settlement of Peace, and to embroil the Nation in future War? And further, know, Heraclitus that the Pope, and his emissaries and ministers have of late years had private oaths for secrecy, Fidelity, and Activity in their Catholic Cause, to minister to all their party both abroad and at home, with dispensation to repair to our Temples, whereby they might seem Protestants, so to gain popular esteem in their Country. And since many men have been presented to the Parliament from Counties and Boroughs by the power of the soldiery, might not such men, having taken such Oath, by insinuation with the soldiery by the assistance of their party in the Army, make themselves of the number of Legislatores, that they might without the least jealousy or suspect become Legisviolatores?  Anglicano Italianotto, diabolo incarnatto. An English man Italianate, a devil incarnate. Heraclitus. 
What is thine expectation, Democritus? Dost thou conclude that these Foxes, Wolves, and wild Boars shall still prevail against the unity of the Church, and tranquillity of the Realm?  Democritus. 
Though I know well, that Hoc rupti Foederis deaurabit aquila, that his Holiness is better pleased with the Device and Plot of his dearest sons the Jesuits for democracy, than Apes with nuts: if their Plot take full effect, he will write both in red letters in his calendar. Yet I make no such conclusion; but I conclude them to be the servants of God, as Nabuchadnezzar and Pharaoh were, and as the devil sometimes is, that is, instruments to execute his vengeance, to bring inevitable woe upon our Nation, and for his glory to gather wholesome Hellebore out of the Orcades, therewith to purge our Nation of frenzy and hypocrisy, and the Church of Schism, heresy, and Idolatry; and thence and thereout also to gather a lusty new green Besom, that shall sweep themselves, and all their spurious seed, and bastard-sons out of the Realm against their wills. And I conclude the Jesuits to be those unclean spirits, like Frogs ●oming out of the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Prophet: for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, to go unto the Kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, mentioned in Rev. 16. 13, 14.  
Let honest men therefore, with David, tarry the Lord's leisure, be strong, and trust in the Lord, and their hearts shall be comforted.  
And as Lot was in Sodom, if they be captivated, let them hope that God will send an Abraham to deliver them. And let them resolve with David, that whose dwelleth under the defence of the most High, shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.   

To England, An Anagram on ENGLAND.  

ENGLAND, lament, repent; bitter Ennd-gal,  
Thine Anagram portends thy fatal fall:  
Like Samson, grinding with thine eyes put out,  
Thou drivest Jesuits designs about:  
Thou mak'st them sport; they make thee dearly pay  
For thine own downfall, ruin, and decay.  
No help remains, but to retort their darts  
Upon Themselves, shot at good men and Arts.  
Wisely discern; be not blind, stupid, dull,  
In suffering them with Shadows thee to gull,  
Under pretence Christ's Gospel to advance,  
To advance heresy, Schism, Ignorance;  
By false pretext Beasts Language to drive hence,  
To gain Beast far more sway than peter-pences.  
Hadst thou in time imposed th' Abjuring Oath,  
They had not poisoned thee with deadly broth:  
But now they have enjoined thee such a diet  
Will gar thee pine, it's vain to be unquiet.  
No joy remains, but by God's Word to know,  
He will at last his Rod in fire throw.   
FINIS.