OH! England! England? Is it thy Lot to be the hissing and the astonishment of Nations? Hath 7. daies past over thee, & thou yet remainest (as the Beasts of the field) without understanding? Must it needs be that many of my Children must shake of the dust of their feet against thy Rulers and Teachers, and turn to other Nati­ons, who shall rise up in judgement against thee, because in thee mighty works have been done, which if the same had been done in Tire and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented? Niniveh shall rise up in judgement against thee, who repented at the preaching of Jonas; for behold a greater then Jonas hath preached in thy streets. But what shall I say? must the day of thy visitation pass over thy head, and the Summer be ended, and thou not saved? Must thou be made an example, Oh England, to the whole earth? Must the noise of thy fall and ruin make the Nations afar off tremble: and to be awakened, and fear before the Lord, and seek after his salvation? Must the report come from thee, that must strike the earth with amazement, and cause the ears of them that hear it to tingle? Oh England! England! what shal I do for thee? My bowels! my bowels! My heart is pained within me, and I am in sorrow and distress for thee, as a woman in Travell. How often hath the Lord of Hosts of late sounded in mine ears that thy visitation is nigh over? Thy [Page 3] visitation is nigh over, or else I must say (as Jeromiah did,) the Lord hath deceived me.

Oh England how oft have the pleasant showers of the visitations from on high descended upon thee but where, and amongst whom doth the fruits appear to the praise and glory of the dresser? Is not thy heaven brass, and thy earth become iron? Are not the clouds returning after the rain in thee? Is not the Sun, and the Moon, and the Light darkened in thee? And is not thy golden bowl broken? and the wheel at the Cistern? and art not thou going to thy long home, and the mourners about the streets? Must thou die without knowledge and be buried in the sea of misery? Must thy name become a Proverb? and thy remembrance an astonishment? what nation was like to thee, in the days that are gone? what oportunities hast thou had of being made the praise of the whole earth. But now thou art become hardened, as if thou were raised up, that God's power and wonders might be made known upon thee. Must thou indeed be destroied, as God overthrew Egypt? Is Sodom thy sister? Must the plagues and the judgements that are written, come upon thee? Must thou fall as the handfull after the Harvest-man, and to be cut down as the grass before the Mower? Must not just Lot, whose soul is vexed with thy unlawfull deeds, be first delivered? Must not Noah be in the Ark before the flood comes? Then shall the destroyer pass through thee as a Gyant to run his race, and thou shalt be destroyed with a sore destruction▪ what Lamentation shall I take up for thee, O England? How have my bones bin as shat­tered, & my sinews as torn in the remembrance of thy day? How doth my belly tremble, and my lips quiver at the feeling of the sence of the burthen that is coming upon thee? Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place [Page 4] of way-faring men, that I might go from this People, and leave them. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night! then should I be eased. How deep is the sence of thy Cala­mity entred into my soul, which makes me stagger like a drunken man, and as a reed shaken with the wind? Oh my soul, why art thou so disquieted for this people? why dost thou not cast off their burthen, and be still? Why dost thou meditate their terrour in the night seasons? Why art thou as as a bird ready to hasten into nations a far off? Why doth thy life draw as with a cart-rope into the ut­termost-parts of the earth.

Is thy native Country become a strange Land? Or dost thou love strangers more then these? Oh that I might know why thou weepest thus in secret, and art become as a sorrowfull woman? Hast thou lost a son, or dost thou desire a son like Hannah? What aileth thee, Oh my soul! that thou thus travellest night and day in sorrow, as a mo­ther to bring forth, or as a child that crieth for its mo­ther? Do none of thy brethen partake of thy burthens, and do not their bowels feel they distresses? yes surely; Is it not because I did once love thee, O England! and because I now pity thee, seeing thy dreadful Doom, that I thus weep over thee? How art thou fallen, O Land, by thine iniquity! Even thy Kings and thy Rulers, thy Tea­chers and thy Leaders, thy Judges and thy Captains, thy Mighty men and thy Mean men, the Master & the Scho­lar, the Mistris and her Maid, the Buyer and the Seller? O the Darkness, such as was in Egypt, which may be felt! O the hardness of heart, like an Adamant harder then flint! O the blindness, the born-blindness that is in thee, and co­vering thee as a garment! O the Pride and fulness, lifted-upness, impudency, and height of Ambition that is in [Page 5] hee! Can it be higher? or can it be uttered by the tongue of man? O thou Lucifer, that thus dwellest, actest and reignest in thy Children! God's eternal judgments shall be upon thee, and his vengeance shall consume thee, and the day is at hand. O the wantonness, Stubbornness prophaneness, lewdness, crookedness, cruelty, hypocrisie, deceit and oppression that is in thee, O thou England! Thou hast killed the Prophets of the Lord, & stoned and persecuted them that he hath sent unto thee. O that thou wert not blinder then the Sodomites, and darker then E­gypt, and deafer then the Adders, and more bruitish then the Beasts of the field; then mightest thou hear or see something of thy Visitations. What is persecution and cruelty about Religion and Worship yet found in thee? Are thy Teachers yet like Bryars, and thy Rulers like Thorns in the sides of the tender Lambs of the most High? Be advised, O Land, what thou do'st against his people; For God hath yet a smal Remnant to be gathered out of thy bowels, whose cries and groans he hath heard, and will plead their Cause against all their oppressors by the fire of his jealousie, which shall consume the Briars and Thorns in one day.

O thou England, my native Country! Art thou become a wilderness? Is the Remnant of the Lord in thee like the Apple tree in the midst of the trees of the forrest, and as a Lilly among Thornes? Are the Tearers, Devourers, Scratchers and Prickers yet found in thee? Is not the Land cursed that bringeth forth these, after so much rain & fruit­full seasons? And is not their end burning? Yea everlast­ing burning.

What! is preaching the Gospel of Christ Jesus freely and publiquely in Villages, Towns and Cities become a transgressions? What! Must the meetings of the dear [Page 6] children and Servants of God be called unlawful, and be broken up by the leud drunkards, swearers and prophane persons, scoffers and scorners in thee, as mine Eyes have seen, and trickled down with Tears to behold it, with an heart breaking Lamentation over thee? O England! Eng­land! that I could plead with thee, as with one man face to face. Didst thou ever persecute me and my Brethren before we turn our faces towards the Paradice of God, from whence we were driven in Adam by transgression? Didst thou ever abuse, beat, or imprison me? didst thou ever reproach or revile me, when I walked in vanity, wantonness and pride, and in the foolish fashions and gestures of this World? Nay, didst thou not say well of me, when Gods witness in my own Consci­ence did reprove and condemn me? Didst thou ever cast me into Prison for breaking Gods Laws, for lying, or for swearing, or any other kind of prophaneness? But how soon didst thou lay hold on my innocent throat, when I be­gan to turn my face towards Sion, and to speak the lan­guage of Canaan? How often hast thou dragged me upon the stones of thy streets, and smitten me on the cheek-bone, and plucked off mine hair which God hath numbred? How often have thy Priests, Teachers, and chiefest profes­sors abused me? How often have thy souldiers mocked and beaten me, with the rude people shouting and rent­ing my garments? How often have I been imprisoned since my heart was turned with brokenness and desires to seek the living God in truth and righteousness? Surely above these ten times as unjustly as a child from its Mo­thers breast. Yet for all this I never sought revenge a­gainst thee, but often wept in secret to my God for thee, who did still quiet my heart in the contentedness of his own life and will, seeing his Counsel and end through [Page 7] all these things. And I am yet so far from seeking revenge, though now again in bonds, through the unjust dealing of some of thy Priests and Rulers, that I have said in my heart with tears unto God, O that I might lay down my life for England, that I might dye for England; which the Lord knoweth, I could freely do, that she might yet repent and be saved. In whose presence I have freely forgiven all mine enemies that have thus dealt with me, and can say to Richard Brown, the greatest amongst many called Aldermen of London, as my dearly beloved Brother E. B. did on his death bed, the Lord forgive thee, if it be yet possible; whose prisoner he died, and yet lives in my bosome, and the rest of my brethrens, as he is a Martyr of Jesus. Oh thou England! Have not we the wit­ness of Heaven and Earth, that we are the Children of the most High, whom thou hast thus abused and persecuted, rob­bed and spoiled? and dost thou think to prosper, by persever­ing in these things against them? Nay, let me once more tell thee from the everlasting God, That it shall be thy ruine. What canst thou do with us, who fear not man, who can but kill the body, and after that hath power to do no more? We have given up our lives freely to live and to die unto our God, and to hold fast his Name which is truth and righteousness, and to confess him before men while we have a being; and thou shalt never overcome us though thou shouldst kill or im­prison to death all our persons or bodies, if it were possible; thy Fathers have not overcome the Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs of Christ Jesus in the days past; neither hast thou overcome them, whom thou hast beaten and imprisoned to death among us in these dayes; but they have overcome thee, and their Life is risen again; of which we are witnesses; and its with us, and remains with us for ever; whose blood cries loud in the Ears of the Lord Almighty, who will avenge and plead their Innocent cause. O England! are thy Rulers yet again saying, [Page 8] that the Quakers will spread and over-run the Land? Have not I heard them say, we must prevent them, least they become very Numerous, or more then we▪ and have not thy teachers run and complain'd to them, that they might be suppressed, yes surely in my sight and hearing. And was not this the language of Egypt, their Magicians, wise-men, and Ru­lers? let us deal wisely with them, least they multiply and become great in Number, &c. And were not the plagues poured forth upon that Land till Pharioh and his Hoast were destroyed? and is not God the same, and his seed and children the same, for ever?

Hear, O England! and all thy Rulers and teachers, and all the Inhabi­tants of spiritual Egypt and Sodom, thus saith the Lord God, Your Counsel shall come to nought, your purposes shall be abolished and made void, your rage is in vain, your subtilty and wisdom shall be con­founded, my dread shall fall upon you, ye light and vain rulers, who have taken upon you to sit in Judgment against my people. Behold you shall sit in the dust, and you shall gnaw your tongues for pain and vexation, the day of your howling is at hand, in which you shall cry to the Rocks and Mountain, to hide you from my presence. Ye hypo­crites, ye wanton ones, will ye not tremble at my presence? have not I set bounds to the Sea? that though it tosse and mount up? roar and swell, it cannot pass my decree. Will you strive with your Maker, ye pot­sheards? will ye fight against God. Are you stronger then he that made Heaven and Earth, the Sea and all things therein by his Power? Am not I he that overthrew Sodom, and cut Rahah, and wounded the Dragon, and drowned the Egyptians in the Sea. Behold I will put my hook in your nose, and my Bridle in your Jaws, & turn you backwards ye devourers, ye beasts of the field, and my people shall spread, and my seed shall increase, and be as the sand, and as the stars of Heaven; and the Earth shall be filled with the knowledg of my Glory, as the waters covers the sea. And you shall not prevail against them. Nay, though the whole earth should be gathered together against my people, they shall not prosper, but be confounded and broken to pieces, and become as the chaffe before the winde, and as stubble before a consuming fire; I the Lord have spoken it.

From my prison Chamber at Hartford the 3d. Month. 1663.