The Earl of strafford's GHOST Complaining.  
Of the Cruelties of his Countrymen, in Killing one another. And persuading all great Men to live honestly, that desire to die Honourably.  
Herein also are his bad Practices manifested, and the sad Condition of ENGLAND and IRELAND, Expressed and Commiserated.   depiction of the Earl of Strafford's ghost 

I am not come again to amaze the eye,  
But the corrupted soul to terrify;  
Let not my shape affright you, but my crimes,  
For the security of future times.   
LONDON, Printed according to Order, for G. Bishop, August 22. 1644.   

The Earl of strafford's GHOST, Complaining of the cruelty of his Country men in killing one another.  
WHat still at it Country men? Does your thirst increase with your drunkenness? Will nothing cure your dropsy but a general devastation? Are not your veins yet dry enough? Is not the earth moist enough with your blood? I little thought ye had loved me so dearly, that for my sake ye would have all bled to death as I did; and indeed had I mistrusted any such matter, I would for your sakes have been honest in spite of Honour, and have lived to give my Sovereign better counsel. O the guilt that sticks upon my sad soul will never be washed off with these showers of blood and tears, spare them dear Country men, sheath not your swords in one another bowels till there be none left to punish, nor any to perish: pray make not me your example. Alas, I was a mighty Malefactor, you are innocent; I died because I was guilty, do not you make yourselves guilty by dying. Indeed I was made an Instrument i'my life time to set these wars o'foot: for which my afflicted Ghost (haunted with horror) can take no rest, as long as they continue; there's not a man falls, nor a wound given but I am sensible of it, I smart for't, so closely am I followed by Divine Justice, for betraying Innocency. Consider O ye Mortals that live i'the same state I died in, what I might have been, and what I am; how bravely I might have lived, how wretchedly I died, and how justly I am tormented. Survey the course I ran, and shun it; keep from the Court, 'tis infectious; be not bewitched with the vain hope of greatness; purchase not honour with dishonesty, lest your lives and fames perish together, and your Ghosts hereafter affright your posterity with dismal apparitions, and the fearful Relations of these bloody broils.  
And O King, I must not flatter thee now, nor need I; I am out of thy power! Look upon thy own work, and consider how other Kings lived and died, and what fame followed 'em that gave their minde● to Tyranny, to cruelty, to murder. Hast never an honest man about thee to lay these things before thee? none but villains at thy elbow still, that seek the ruin of thee and all thy Kingdoms? why where are all thy Bishops now? thou'lt hear them; they can (if they please) tell the strange and true Stories of the lives of thy Predecessors; they have been forward enough to bring thee on; where's now their wisdom and learning, their zeal and affection, their power and policy to bring thee off again? What good have their counsels done thee? Poor Ireland's desolate, England's desperate, and Scotland's in danger; and can thy Bishops make thee believe that thy person is in safety, when thy three Kingdoms are a fire about thy ears? or that the Prince may prosper, when his people perish? Trust'em not longer King, they f●●tter thee for their own ends, and fear only their own falls, and that makes 'em endeavour to persuade thee that the Mitre and the Crown are inseparable; They love thee for their own honours not for thine; for the benefit of Rome, not of England, they desire thou shouldst live to be subject to them, rather than thy people should live to be subject to thee, and therefore according to their own law and honesty these inhuman Massacres and Murders are cried up, and kept up by their care and counsel as convenient and necessary: where's little Land, and great Canterbury all this while, does the Tower still keep that grace and goodness together? Hath the holy man wrought so many miracles, that they cannot all this while be reckoned up, and set down in a Chronicle? I have looked long for him, and wonder he should be so slow to follow me, that was so forward to send me packing. O how careful he was at our first acquaintance to get me into favour at Court, and make me acquainted with a Duke of his own condition, that I might be handsomely handled betwixt 'em, and screwed up into a capacity of furthering Court designs, and abusing the Commonwealth. He took a great deal of pains to make me a great Counsellor, that he might with the less pains bring me and the Kingdom to nothing; I must forsooth be conversant with my King and flatter him, this (he told me) would bring me along by the path of preferment to the honour I aimed at; so I followed his advice and prospered: My carriage and my counsels were so approved of, that I was held a fit man to be a Governor Away I went for Ireland, where (my swelling thoughts appearing in my countenance) I soon purchased (to the satisfaction of my soul) the respect of a Prince. What was then to be done? Mean actions are not fit for mighty men, I must exceed my Predecessors, and I must please my Sovereign, all fell out according to mine own heart, for I could not do the one, but I must needs do the other; so I presently bend my endeavours to subvert the laws I liked not, and made (for mine own advantage) what laws I listed. The power of a Prince would no longer content me, so that I caused many times the best men to be punished by the hands of the basest, on purpose to have my actions graced with the name of tyranny. This was the Government I aimed at, and to maintain this, I made bold (by His Majesty's leave) to compel the people (by force of Arms) to obedience. Thus their lives and liberties were at my disposure, honour and wealth came flowing in upon me, and ambition told me I had found out the true way to be great, and happy. But for all this I was not unmindful of the work I was put upon, I stuck close to my main business, the rise of the Papists must be the ruin of the Protestant, and whether I have not proved faithful in that, let the world judge: But O monstrous ingratitude! how am I rewarded? O ye Irish, English, and Scot'sh Catholic Gentlemen, what affront have I given you? if your own plots have wrought your own destructions, what's that to me? I spent my life in your quarrel, and now for my pains I am tossed from one side to another, and not suffered to rest in my grave; which way have I deserved this? Wherein have I been disobedient to his Majesty, or cross to any of your wicked Counsels? What have I done to purchase reproach on your part? nay, what have I not done to merit your love and favour? Did I not in my life time bring on the business bravely? Was it not I that armed the Irish Catholics, and disarmed the Protestants, on purpose to make you happy (if heaven had had a mind to't?) Was it not I that endeavoured to make the English and Scottish Protestants work themselves into a weak condition, by setting the two Nations together by the ears, when Arundel, Digby, Cottington, Windebank, & ●. had made way for the Spanish second Armado to second the business? 1639. Was it not I that laid huge taxes, and imposed great sums upon many Towns and houses in Ireland, and forced payment by my soldiers in a warlike manner? Did not I with my Troops compel divers great Lords and Gentlemen there, to forsake their own possessions, and yield up their rights i'their livings contrary to Law and Justice? Did not I am many other unlawful and unconscionable enterprises enhance the rates of all customary commodities, and make restraint of their transportation at my pleasure, and all to bring in money to maintain the (then) intended Rebellion, and the wars like to follow it? Did not I also (for the same cause) become the only Merchant of Tobacco in Ireland, as his Majesty did of Gunpowder in England? The engrossing of two such commodities by a King and his Vice-ray, are worthy the world's observation. Did I not besides restore your Friaries and Masse-Houses, and force a new Oath upon the Protestant to tie him to the observation of all Church Ceremonies in use for the present, or to be hereafter established by his Majesty's authority? Did not Canterbury and I (when we perceived we could not cousin the Parliament of so many Subsidies, as we thought would serve our turns to undo the Kingdom) cause it to be broke up, and did I not then promise his Majesty to bring down the sturdy stomaches of His people by my Irish Catholic Army? Did I not further persuade his Majesty to revive the levying of Ship-money, and to punish many Sheriffs of the Counties, about that and other payments for being obstinate honest men? And did I not threaten the Lord Maior and Sheriffs of London at the Council-table, for not yielding to a business of the like nature? Was not I the cause of some of the Aldermen of London's commitments, for not discovering the abilities of their neighbour's. And were not all these things done for your sakes? Yes, ye know they were, and ye liked 'em well enough, and me too all the while ye prospered. When the Rebellion in Ireland grew to such a height, that ye supposed no power could hinder your conquest: when ye were either bloody actors, willing spectators, or joyful hearers of the Stories of those horrid massacres; and when the men, money, and Arms, sent over by the Parliament (his Majesty desiring it) against the Rebels, were again (by your counsels) at his Majesty's command, made use of by the Rebels against the Protestants, than were my actions of high esteem, and my Name was famous amongst you. O you Roman Catholic Courtiers, you that are still mighty men with his Majesty, can you not work your wills in England yet? No new project? No acquaint device to clear the Kingdom of Protestants? Did I begin to work so handsomely, and can you not go forward; can you not finished? Have not the lazy Irish done their work at home yet, that they may move with a full body, and make an end of their Tragedy here, to you● eternal content! But oh—! Eternal did I say? Did you with your clamours raise me from my grave, to have my counsel? Did you in serious sadness? take it then: proceed not in these dangerous and damnable courses, except ye have no souls, or know no God; remember the word Eternal! and be confident, that such works as you are now in hand with, cannot be finished in this world. Y'are content for the present to hear of the cruel slaughter of your innocent Countrymen, and think yourselves safe under the wings of your Sovereign; but the more security, the more danger: Take heed ye be not cozened of your lives, as I was; remember the word Eternal, and make preparation for a better world, before y● leave this, that's the worse for ye, and grows weary of ye: Be accessary to no more blood,  waded deep already, consider my condition, that am hurried (as in a whirlwind) from one place to another, now I am in York, strait in London, by and by in Ireland, and in every place suffer variety of afflictions, according to my crimes: Here I am plagued for my bad Counsels, there for my worse actions; in one place for my Ambition, in another for my luxury; but every where for being accessary to this h●llish Plot, of murdering Christians. In York I am much tormented, in London more, in Ireland most of all; where many times, as in a Theatre, the bloody Tragedies I made way for in my life time, are presented to my view. The lamentable cries of my own Countrymen inhumanely murdered, affright me on one side, and the damnable oaths and execrations of the perfidious Rebels terrify me on the other. The high ways and fields are strewed with mangled Carcases, some dead, o pitiful, some dying, o miserable, but many lame and wounded, lie gasping and groaning, exposed to the lingering rage of cold and hunger, O intolerable! Sometimes I meet with hundreds of men, women, and children stark naked, running from one death to meet another, as rather trusting to the fury of frost and snow, then to the mercy of the insulting Enemy. These are no sooner out of my view, but as many more (betrayed by promise of quarter) are robbed and stripped in my sight, by a crew of perjured villains, that show they are uncapable of mercy themselves, by denying mercy to Innocents' that beg it. I have been forced to behold with horror, as I am now to report with pain, the eruelty exercised upon Ministers by Monsters; some I have seen cut in pieces, some whipped, some hanged up, cut down, quartered, and their mouths stopped with their members; others I have seen hanged, and their flesh pulled from their bones in the sight of their wives, and some tied to tre●s, whilst the basest of the rabble have ravished their wives and daughters before their faces, and then hanged up their parents in the sight of their children.  
I have seen men and women set upon burning hot Gridirons, and others tortured by clapping hot Tongues to their hands and feet to make 'em discover their hidden Treasure.  
Young virgins have been bound and ravished by the Rebels, whereof somo have had their tongues cut out, that the cruelty might be concealed, and others been script, and turned naked amongst the common Soldiers.  
I have beheld young infants roasted upon spits before their Parents faces, whilst they have been tied in Chairs, and forced to be woeful spectators of their children's inhuman tragedier, and expecters of their own: then the wife has been stripped, and forced in the sight of her husband, and at last the husband ●●s'd of the intolerable torment he suffered in (seeing all this) by being murdered.  
I have beheld women with child ripped up after they have been ravished and the children slung into the fire; some I have seen hanged, and some dragged up and down the streets by the hair of the head; and I have seen children tossed into the water with Pitchforkes, the brains of some dashed against the posts, and others snatched out of their mother's Arms, and burned before their faces; amongst these, and thousands, the like barbarous cruelties, and murders, I have beheld some thrown upon dunghills with their guts half out, that have not been able with their woeful cries and lamentations to move so much pity in the merciless murderers, as to put 'em out of their pain.  
And what think ye now? are these commendable Actions? are these pleasant objects? is all this done for the grace of Christianity, or the glory of his Majesty! Was ever Religion sought, or bought with so much blood, or absolute Sovereignty with such infinite slaughter! And are ye not satisfied yet? not yet weary? not yet ashamed▪ d'ye suppose that ye have not yet made work enough for a Chronicle, that your children's children will be amazed to read? and blush when they shall find i'the Margin, that all this blood was spilt by the pernicious counsels of their graceless grandfathers! Are the miseries of Ireland nothing, unless England smart in the same degree? O I am racked and tortured, poor England suffers in a fare higher nature, and is hardly sensible of it: Alas, in Ireland the Papists only kill the Protestants, the Irish murder the English, but here the English kill the English, the Protestant murders the Protestant, there the greatest part of them that are killed, are women and children, here the best men are picked out, and armed to kill one another.  
This is your device Digby, your craft Cottington, your policy Porter; what the Irish Rebels, English Papists, and the Bishops cannot do, to promore Popery, must be done by the Protestant himself; when this plot was first contrived i'the Devils fencing-school, some of ye played your Master-prize there. But to what end have ye taken all this pains? where are your hopes (for all this) of working your wills, and advancing their Papal Monarchy? How much the nearer are you to the good you aim at, by doing all this mischief! O for shame give over, lay by your wicked resolutions, these courses will neither purchase happiness here, nor heaven hereafter. Hark how the Rebels rave, as if they were in hell already, you have undone 'em, their Liberties, Lands and Lives are all forfeited through your unhappy counsels, this is their clamour. Your own Country men the Papists are grown sensible now at length of your shameful proceed, and curse your plots and practices, d'ye not hear 'em? And the King whom you threatened to make Mighty by killing his Subjects, is brought into such straits by your stratagems, that he dares not do what he ought, nor find fault with that he likes not, what think ye of this, are ye not in a fine condition? and how will ye recover? your favourers suspect you, and your favourites hate you, what will become of you? O wretched men, why do ye still trouble the world, that would be so glad to be rid of ye! there's nothing in't but vanity and villainy, and ye know ye must part with't shortly; the Courts of Kings cannot give perpetual protection to their unhappy inhabitants. I was great enough, and good enough to be a Courtier, and yet I fell in the height of my glory. Come away. But let me not forget the Parliament, that remembers me no question.  
Noble Lords and Gentlemen, though it will seem strange to the world that I should comply now, who have been so averse in my life time, yet I cannot but acknowledge my thankfulness to you for freeing your Country of the danger my longer life would have made it liable to. I confess I would feign have lived still, that you might have perished; but as soon as ye had taken off my head, my mind was altered. If the rest that are sick of the same disease were cured i'the same manner, it would be happy for England. My abode is very solitary, and I am inclined to Melancholy, pray send me some company: but in the mean time that I may with the more ease bear my affliction, go forward still with courage in your admirable work of preserving two distressed Kingdoms. Trust men as you know 'em, and relieve not all particular persons according to their wants, but their merits: for there are many pretend they have been robbed by the Rebels, that are little better than the Rebels that robbed 'em, they make suit for maintenance, when they mean mischief; their malice is so great they cannot hid it. 'Tis strange we o'the other world, should know more than you do in this: but I cannot stay now to make any further discovery, my hour limited is expired, hark, I am called, I come, I come.  
FINIS.