England's loss AND LAMENTATION, Occasioned by the death of that Right Honourable, Robert Lord Brooke, Baron of Beauchamp-Court, who was slain at Lichfield, the second day of March. 1642. Amplified, by some mournful funeral expressions, from the author's feeling sense of so unvaluable a loss; complaining of the kingdom's stupidity, to awake a people slumbering in security, insensible of their ensuing Misery. Concluding with some consolations to his friends, and terror to his enemies Popishly affected, and all Malignants. BY A loyal Subject to the KING, and a lover of the late Lord Brookes, and all his wellwishers. 2 Sam. 3. 31. And David said unto Joab, and to all the people that were with him: rent your Clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner, and King David himself followed the bier. Verse 29. And the King said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a Prince, and a great man fallen this day in Israel? LONDON, Printed for L. Chapman. Anno Dom. 1642. England's loss and Lamentation. ENGLAND may justly, at this day lament, with the Prophet Jeremy, and say: How hath the Lord covered Lam. 2. 1. the daughter of Zion, with a cloud in his anger? and cast down from Heaven to the Earth, the beauty of Israel? As if the Lord had purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion? He hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; he made the Rampart, and the wall, to lament: He hath destroyed and broken her bars: Her King and Princes are among the Gentiles: The Law is no more. Her Prophets find no vision, The Elders sit upon the ground and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads and girded themselves with sackcloth. And for myself, mine eyes do fail, with tears, my soul is troubled, because of England's miseries. Her own sword hath destroyed her Prophets, like a destroying Lion: her young men are slain, her Virgins are deflowered, famine is entering in upon her. When children and sucklings, will say, to their mothers where it bread? Where is drink? when they swoone as the wounded in the streets, and pour their souls into their mother's bosom. O England, where is thy glory? Thy freedom, Liberty, laws and Religion? shall thy freedom be lost, and thy hereditary liberties be taken from thee, thy just laws corrupted, and thy Religion adulterated, by Idolatry? and yet will you not see it? Shall thy profits be destroyed, and thy honourable men slain by the sword; and thou not avenge it? Where is thy zeal to God? where is thy care, thy love, thy Justice, to posterity? art not thou guilty of depriving thy children, of the blessing, which God hath by thy Fathers, given thee? wilt thou not maintain thine own inheritance, and the rights of thy children? or wilt thou suffer those worthiest to be destroyed, that lose their lives in thy defence, and not avenge their blood? Is there not a Prince, and a great man fallen in Israel? fallen by upholding thee? and not only a Prince, and a great man, but a holy just, and righteous, great man: a Pillar of the Church a supporter of the State, That right honourable Robert Lord Brooke; rightly to be honoured to lasting posterities? He was honest, and just to all men: righteous in all his ways, and religious in his whole life; learned in all arts: And able in all Sciences: loyal to his King, faithful to his Country: And valiant in his undertakings for the defence of both: to his end pitiful to his enemies, in his end happy to himself. And by his end terror to his enemies; whose blood will hasten vengeance upon the actors, and causes of such cruelties. We cannot account better of those men than sons of' Belial, and limbs of the devil: Who at the news of this nobleman's death, called their hellish companions to the Taverns, and for joy drunk themselves drunk, and in their drunkenness spoke scandalous & railing speeches against Him: God rebuke them. God and men heard and saw them. Who can but commend his parts, and honour his virtues, moral and Divine? What man can stain his life, blemish his practice, tax his fidelity, or gainsay his stoutness, courage, and valour, in him as much manifested, in so little a time, as ever in any man? At his first meeting with his great Antagonist E. N. between Banbury, and Edge-hill, heroic, Brooke, offered to decide the contraries quarrel, by a Lordly combat (as is known to those whom it then concerned,) and for his undaunted courage against the face of an Enemy in battle; Let Keinton, and Branford make report; Stratford cannot deny it, and Lichfield must confess the same. Whose baseness had no resistance against his valour, but cowardly treachery; And thereby have robbed the kingdom of a precious jewel, and weakened the Church, and state, of a principal pillar! O England consider: What hast thou lost? But why do I ask thee? thou knowest not thine own loss; Thou art in thy stupidity: or in a slumber of carnal security, a foolish and undiscerning Nation! Thou rejectest thy friends, and embracest thine enemies; Thou lovest pelf, and slightest pearls, art at peace with thy destroyers, and makest War with thy preservers. That hast lost a Noble refreshing brook, an unvaluable friend, a pearl of great price, a Hector better than ever Troy enjoyed: an Achilles, more valiant than ever Greece possessed. A Brook? yea a Brook better than the famous river Nilus: Nilus could only refresh the herbs, and plants of Egypt; This Brook, the lives and spirits of men. Who ever knew him, and grieves not? who can say he loves God, religion, the King, the State, or good men, and yet mourns not for such a loss, a pillar of the kingdom, a staff of the War, a peer of the Parliament, a Patriarch of his Country, a sincere servant of God: and a loyal Subject to the King, and State? He, this pillar, this staff, this peer, this Patriarch, good servant, the King's Subject; He is slain: slain in the Kings and his kingdom's cause, slain treacherously, basey, and cowardly, by an Enemy and traitor to both. If David, a King, lamented over Abner (though he had been his 2 Sam. 3. 33. Enemy) how much more should we lament over this our Abner? a friend always, and to the death, as faithful as Jonathan to David; But how died this Noble brook, died he as a fool dieth! no; died he by the hands of his equal? no; died he in a battle by any valour of any Enemy? no; But how died he? As a man that falleth before wicked men, to fell our Noble brook: and all his friends weep, and lament for him. Weep thou, his virtuous Lady, cry ye, pretty children, (his own pictures) weep all ye his soldiers, mourn ye his servants, bewail your loss all you his Friends, Tenants, Neighbours, and Acquaintance; And you poor people (weekly relieved by his bounty) weep and howl, yea, lament whole England, because he is not; Thou wilt know thy loss, by the want of him: (though thou prizedst not thy gain whilst thou hadst him,) but thou canst not recover thy loss; I cannot but take up my lamentation for thee, as once the Prophet did Lam. 2. 13. &c. for Jerusalem: by way of quaere, What shall I witness of thee? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee? for thy breach is great like the Sea, who can heal it? Thou hast been deluded by thy Prophets: thy seers have seen false burdens, causes of thy misery misleaders of thy King, and Princes: Thou art a derision to the Nations that have feared, and honoured thee. Thy idolatrous Enemies open Esay 57 1. Lam. 2. 21. Ezech. 38. 21. their mouths against thee, and say, this is the day, they looked for; we have have found it; we have seen it; Thy righteous men perish, and thou layest it not to heart, thy young, and thy old men lie on the ground, and are fallen by the sword, in the day of God's anger; but thou regardest it not: God hath called for the sword against thee, and every man's sword is against his brother, yet thou art not humbled, to seek thy God; though all this is upon thee for thine iniquity; And for thy sin is this pillar taken from thee: He while he lived, lived for thee, was thy servant, to keep thee from bondage: esteemed thy liberty above his own life; but thou didst not, nor haste, nor canst, requite him: his labour, love, zeal, religion, and faithfulness is his crown: He died in God's cause, and his works are with him. His Lady's tears, his children's cries, his soldiers weeping, his servant's mourning, his Friends bewailing, his neighbour's sorrow, his tenant's grief, and his Acquaintance moanings; The poors' complainings, and the kingdom's lamentations, can add nothing to his happiness; They may all express their own unhappiness and irrecoverable loss. But thou Lichfield, the sink of iniquity, cage of unclean and wicked spirits: ungodly, profane, and most prodidiously wicked: chief instrument of the kingdom's misery! let the remembrance of thee be hateful; and thy name blotted out from among the towns of the Provinces. And let it not fail that some of thy inhabitants, be for ever visited with some Diseases; fall by the Sword, and want bread: 2 Sam. 3. 29 he whom thou hast slain, hath finished his course, rests from his labour, and his soul is for ever blessed; The cry of his blood is gone to Heaven, to hasten vengeance upon thee, and his enemies. And you his friends, and soldiers, be you humbled, who (it is likely) are not guiltless of his death: you have too much deified his worth, and provoked God to take him from us: When good men are contemned, God taketh them away, that he may the sooner destroy a Nation, or people, as Noah, and Lot: And when good men are deified, (that is, rather looked upon as causes, than instruments) God also takes them away, because his glory is by them eclipsed, in dlivering a Nation, or people; as Moses, who died in the Mount; whose sepulchre was never known to this day. And that victorious King of Sweden, who in his life time foretold the same of himself: therefore let every man look to his own heart, and find out the sin that hath displeased God, and be humbled; and than be not discouraged by this Noble man's death, but rather get more courage, manfully to avenge his guiltless blood, and God will assist you; The cause is God's, himself is engaged in it with you; put forth your strength, use your weapons, make your best preparations, but trust in nothing (neither men nor arms) but in God, who is alone the God of battle, and Lord of Hosts; he will supply you with an other Joshua, to go before you, and will not fail you, nor forsake you. The Lord is with you while ye be with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you. You have double encouragement to go on with Deut. 31. 6. 2 Chro. 15 2: Psal. 20. 1. confidence in this cause; you have God's promise, and you have experience of his gracious presence going with you in it: The Lord hear you in the day of your trouble, the God of Jacob defend you. First, for encouragement take notice of God's promises: he hath promised if you serve him only, he will deliver you, 1 Sam. 7. 3. Again, He will deliver thee in six troubles, yea in seven, there shall no evil touch thee; in Famine he will deliver thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword, Job 22. 30. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, Jerem. 1. 8. They shall fight against thee, but shall not prevail, for I am with thee, to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord, Ierem. 15. 20. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly, and reserve the unjust to be punished, 1 Pet. 2. 9 God's promises of this nature are obvious in every book of holy Scripture; yea God is delighted to deliver his people, when they truly seek to him. See these places, Psal. 50. 15. 2 Chron. 16. 35. Object. This Noble Lord believed the promises, and yet he saw no deliverance. Answ. national promises, (though they never fail a Nation, or people, when God's time is come, yet) are not always made good, in the same kind, to every particular man: as we see in the two first battles of the Tribes of Israel against the Tribe of Benjamin: though they went against them by commission from God, they were slain, 40000. yet Judg. 20. the third time, when they had sought God by humiliation and prayer, they overcame all those wicked Beniamites, who refused to deliver up the men of Belial to the justice of the Law. We have also particular instances, in Moses, Uzza, Asa, &c. Sometime God doth it because of particular failings in men; sometimes to make way for the work of some other part of his providence, as it was in the death of righteous Jonathan; or for the clearer manifestation of his own power and glory: yet such men fail not of their part, in such promises; but enjoy a greater good, and better promise, of which the other is but a shadow: and we have assurance, that all things work together for the good of them Rom. 8. 28 that love God. Object. But we see whole kingdoms, and flourishing Churches, have been destroyed, notwithstanding these promises; as whole Judea, Jerusalem, all the flourishing Churches of Asia, and of late Germany, the Churches of the Palatinat, Rochel, and Ireland, &c. Answ. When whole Kingdoms consent to sin, and associate themselves in wickedness, then whole kingdoms are destroyed; and when Churches set up Idolatry, and wholly forsake God, and adulterate God's pure worship, God gives them over to be destroyed: for as God Judg. 3. 7, 8. promiseth deliverance when Idolatry is thrust out, by dislike and reformation; so he denounceth destruction and desolation where wickedness and Idolatry is authorized: So when religion consists only inform and outside-worship, without the love, and power of it: (as now) than God brings a people into the fire of affliction, in which, without reformation they may be consumed; but if such a kingdom, or such a Church do then humble themselves, and pray, and seek God's face, 2 Chr. 7. 14 he will be merciful to their sin, and will heal their Land. But the representative body of this kingdom have not associated in wickedness, nor is the worship of God, yet, wholly adulterated; but Idolatry opposed by that body, and many thousands besides in this kingdom, against whom wicked men and I dolaters give counsel, and do associate themselves to hinder the reformation they desire. Therefore, (though not for our righteousness, but) for the wickedness of those men, we may, and aught, to rest with confidence upon the promise of God for our deliverance if our humiliation be good, and our desire of reformation right. Secondly, for encouragement, take notice of the experiences of God's gracious presence, going with us in this Parliament, as with Israel, to bring them out of their Egyptian bondage; he hath by his own hand wrought great things by them, and for them: he hath been to them a pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, to guide, and to defend them: It was no small part of providence to bring them together, and wonderful in guiding, directing, providing, preferring, and defending of them; and no less wonderful in discovering, defeating and blasting the designs of their enemies. Consider that saying of Manoah's wife to her husband, when he said they should surely die: Jud. 13. 23. If the Lord (saith she) were pleased to kill us, he would not have showed us all these things; wicked men may prevail for a time, but are (as the Psalmist speaks) suddenly destroyed: Psal. 64. 7. There is one righteous Judge, who will give righteous judgement: There is one mighty King, in whose hand are the hearts of all Kings, who in his due time will save his anointed, and destroy his enemies, and our eyes are towards him; Prov. 21. 1. for we know not what to do, but to trust in him: If you believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established; believe his Prophets and you shall 2 Chro. 20 12. prosper. 2 Chron. 20. 20. FINIS.