Groanings of the Oppressed hath entered into his Ears And the Lord God is arisen in his mighty Power to plead the Cause of the afflicted and will call all to an Account who are guilty both for their Sins against him and also for their Oppressing of his innocent People and will render a Recompence of Reward into every ones bosom according to their doings Therefore a WARNING is in my heart to you all whose day of Mercy is not yet ended Forsake your evil Courses break off from your Sins by true Repentance and fear before the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth before whose Bar of divine Justice you must all stand and receive a Sentence from him the true and equal Judge And cease from oppressing and persecuting the People of the Lord who seek nothing more than the Honour and Glory of his great Name And set up Judgment and Justice in the Earth and incourage Truth and Righteousness and take the Rod of the Wicked from off the back of the Righteous which hath lain heavy upon them long And punish Wickedness and Debauchery Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and Whoredom all which abound to the grief and sorrow of many You may hear it every day in your Ears and behold it with your Eyes not only many in Authority who should have been better examples but also the very Boys and Children in the Streets their Mouths are full of Cursing and Damning which is dreadful to think off it s grown so common and so much incouraged by the bad examples of many of those that should have been a terror to evil doers Therefore punish these Wickednesses which run down like a flood and indeavour to stop the Current of Iniquity which at this day encreases in a dreadful manner And be good Examples your selves in Holiness of Life and Conversation Or else God will pour out Shame and everlasting Contempt upon you and will plead with you in his firce Wrath and in his sore Displeasure and his Indignation will break forth like devouring fire and ye shall be who are guilty of those Evils like Hay and Stubble before him who will consume you both Root and Branch of you Repent not and that speedily And Oh that you would fear before the living God and dread his holy Name and seek the Lord while he may be found Call upon him while he is near Lest that day come upon you wherein you may seek him and he will not be found of you because you have rejected his Reproofs and would have none of his Counsel Therefore if a day yet remain to you mind the Honour of God and the good of your own Souls and the propagating of Truth and Holiness more than your own Interest Friendship or Favour of men or your Pride Pomp and vain Glory which God will stain and blast by the breath of his mouth and will blow it away with the Whirlwind of his Wrath like the Chaff of the Summer threshing floor forever But that you may have a habitation in the Kingdom of eternal Glory which God hath prepared as a dwelling place for the Righteous is the desire of my Soul Who am a Lover of Truth and Righteousness W. B. An Expostulation with the CLERGY And a WARNING to those among them whose Day of Mercy is not over c. ANd now all you Priests who have taken upon you to be the Leaders and Guiders of the People and also to take the Care and Oversight of them and to instruct them and to be their Shepherds and to feed them as you pretend with Spiritual Food The Controversie of the great God of Heaven and Earth is with you and the day wherein he will plead with you in his sore Displeasure makes haste upon you because you have neither fed the People with the Food you pretended nor taken such care of their Souls as to have led and guided them in the way of Truth and Righteousness as you ought to have done For have you not made the People to err by your Lyes and by your Lightness For according to what ye have taken upon you ye should have been good Examples to all in Holiness in Purity of Life and Conversation You have been Examples to the People I grant but in what Hath it not been with many of you in Pride Lightness Prophaneness Covetousness Oppression and Debauchery as Drunkenness Cursing Swearing and Whoredoms with many great and Crying Sins Do not these Abominations abound amongst many of you upheld and encouraged by your bad Examples of the Clergy of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging I shall leave to all sober People that observe your Lives and Conversations to judge And so instead of leading People in the Way of the Lord which is a pure Way sorever and into Righteousness and Holiness without which none can see the Lord have you not been Instrumental in the hand of the Enemy of all Righteousness to lead them into the Liberty and Looseness of the World and into Darkness and Ignorance of the Lord and of his holy Spirit and Grace which was the Teacher and Leader of the Saints of Old by your Ungodly and Unrighteous Lives Do not your Practices bespeak you to be blind Guides leading the Blind though its willful Blindness and so have fallen together into the Ditch of Uncleanness which the abounding of Wickedness that at this day increases among many of you and your Hearers also do plainly shew and are ready to fall into the Pit of eternal Misery and Lake of Perdition if you Repent not which will be your Portion at the Hand of the Just God who will render a Recompence of Reward unto all according to their doings And are you not with many of your Hearers in the steps of those the Prophet of the Lord cryed out against saying A wonderful and a hurrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets thereof prophecy falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their Means and my People love to have it so And what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5. 30 31. Again another Prophet cryeth out in these Words Thus saith the Lord God Wo unto the false Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing Oh Israel thy Prophets are like the Foxes in the Desart c. They have seen Vanity and Lying Divination saying The Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the Word Have you not seen a vain Vision And have you not spoken a Lying Divination Whereas you say The Lord saith it Albeit I have not spoken Therefore thus saith the Lord God Because you have spoken Vanity and seen Lyes therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and my Hand shall be upon the Prophets that see Vanity and divine Lyes They shall not be in the Assembly of my People neither shall they be written in the Writing of the House of Israel neither shall they enter into
7 8 14 15. And have not many or most of these Wickednesses been acted amongst many of you the Rulers Magistrates of ENGLAND and the Dominions thereunto belonging And have not many devised Mischief and Oppression against an Innocent People that have done no wrong nor harm to any of you nor to the Nation in general but have sought the good and everlasting Wellfare of the Sons and Daughters of Men every where And have not cruel Laws been made against them And have they not been with many other Laws which were never made or intended against us executed upon us with Cruelty and Severity though the breach of no just Law can be charged upon us to the Ruin Spoiling and exposing many Families to Poverty which were capable of relieving and assisting others And are not these Cruelties and Unrighteous Practices upheld and continued So that at this very day many undergo great Hardships Abuses and cruel Usages for no other Cause that can justly be laid to their Charge than for keeping their Consciences clear in the sight of God for Worshipping him according to his holy Requirings and for reproving sin in the Gate and crying to People To leave off their Wickedness Pride Drunkenness Whoredoms Cursing and Swearing with many other gross Abominations which abound too much among many both Rulers Priests and People for which God Almighty is angry with this Nation and will bring his dreadful Judgments on all those that continue therein And the Cry that hath run through many in this day to Rulers Priests and People hath been To break off from the above-mentioned Evils by true Repentance and by Amendment of their Lives and Conversations while the day of Mercy lasteth to them and to fear the living God that they might serve him in Truth and Righteousness And this is that which we have sought or desired even to see this Change wrought in all in our Labours and Travails for which we have this Reward of Oppression Cruelty Spoiling of Goods and Imprisonments with many other great Inhumane and Unchristian-like Abuses which our innocent Sufferings for many years and unto this very day which at this time is very great may plainly shew Though alwayes without any Just cause given on our parts for none can justly charge us with Plotting and Contriving Rebellion or Insurrections against the KING or the GOVERNMENT or Peace of the Nation But we have always sought the good and everlasting Happiness of all yea of our Enemies themselves though many times Shamefully abused by them both in Body and Goods and the good and wellfare of the Rulers and Magistrates of England though many of you have imprisoned many of us time after time some in Nasty Holes till Death and others to the Ruining of their Familes as to outward things because they could not wrong nor offer violence to their own Consciences And when Authority hath been given to Wicked Ungodly Prophane and Unreasonable men to make Spoil of their â—oods who were sure to have one part of the Spoil themselves they have not only made Havock and great Spoil thereof but have taken liberty if they had not Power given them grosly to abuse their Bodies also by hailing and beating them c. And all these Vnrighteous Vnjust Dealings and Proceedings have been patiently born only a cry hath been in our hearts to the Lord That he would open their Vnderstandings and let them see what they were doing that so they might repent and â—ind mercy with God without seeking Revenge as knowing Vengeance is the Lords and he will repay committing our Cause to God who will plead the Cause of the innocent And that this has been our Practice it is not unknown to many of you So I desire you Magistrates who have been most concerned in persecuting of us may consider those Cruelties and Oppressions which have been inflicted upon us and how there hath been no just Cause on our parts for it For what PLOTS have we contrived What Disturbance have we made to the Government Have we not always been an innocent suffering People Look back at our Lives and Conversations ever since we were a People in scorn called Quakers and at our Carriage and Behaviour towards all men And also take a view of your dealings with us and what hath been inflicted upon us and you may see whether we have justly deserved it by any Evil that we have done I am sure if some look back with an impartial Eye they will have cause to be ashamed of their Dealings and Proceedings against us who have made us as objects on whom they have executed their Cruelty and Oppression And also take a view of your doings and see whether many of you are not found too much in the steps of those of old whom the Prophet of the Lord cryed out against saying Hear I pray you O Heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the House of Israel Is it not for you to know Judgment who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skins from off them and their flesh from off their Bones Who also eat the flesh of my People and flay their skins from off them and they broak their Bones and chop them in pieces as flesh for the Caldron Micah 3. 1 2 3. And the Judgment threatned which was just upon them for their Wickedness Cruelty and Oppression which was inflicted on his People by them without any bowels of mercy was on this wise Then shall they Cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they behaved themselves ill in their doings vers 4. Again the Prophet saith But truly I am full of Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment and of Might to declare unto Jacob his Transgressions and to Israel his sins Hear this I pray you ye Heads of the house of Jacob and ye Princes of the House of Israel that abhor Judgment and pervert all Equity that build up Zion with Blood and Jerusalem with Iniquity The Heads thereof judge for Reward and the Priests teach for Hire c yet will they lean upon the Lord and say as many are saying now is not the Lord amongst us No Evil can come upon us Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a Field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the Forrest vers 8 9 10 11 12. And as the Lord was angry with that Generation for those Evils that abounded amongst them even so is he angry with this Nation because Iniquity and Transgression abounds and love to Righteousness Equity and Justice and to them that live therein waxeth cold in many who make a Profession of God and Godliness But behold the Lord hath looked down from Heaven and hath beheld the Iniquities of many to be of a Scarlet and Crimson dye and hath also beheld the great Oppression of his People and the
A Lamentation OVER ENGLAND AND Faithful Warning To the Inhabitants thereof By William Bingley Amos 8. 10. And I will turn your Feasts into Mourning and all your Songs into Lamentation I will bring up Sack-cloth upon all Loyns and Baldness upon every Head and I will make it as the Mourning of an only Son and the end thereof as a Bitter Day Jer. 6. 10. To whom shall I speak and give Warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is Vncircumcised and they cannot hearken behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a Reproach they have no delight in it c. LONDON Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Sign of the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1682. FIrst A Lamentation over England and the Dominions thereunto belonging with a faithful Warning to the Inhabitants thereof to cease from the evil of their Doings and to turn unto the Lord by speedy Repentance that so they may escape the dreadful Judgments of Almighty God which are threatned and ready to be executed upon them because of the Crying Sins that do abound in Nations Secondly A Warning to the Rulers and Magistrates in particular to leave off persecuting and afflicting the Innocent and to amend their Lives and Conversations and set up Justice and execute true Judgment among the People lest God plead with them in his Anger and consume them in his sore Displeasure Thirdly An Expostulation with the Clergy of the aforesaid Dominions whereby they are discovered not to be in the Steps Lives and Practices of the Prophets of God true Ministers of Christ but of the false Prophets and of Antichrist Fourthly A Warning to those among them whose Day of Mercy is not over to Repent of these their Wicked and Antichristian Practices whereby they deceive the People or else the Lord will make them a Hissing and a Reproach to the Nations and their Memorial a Stink to Generations to come c. A Lamentation over England and the Dominions thereunto belonging OH England England the Land of my Nativity for whom my Soul hath often mourned and at this time mourns before the Lord and my Spirit is grieved within me to behold so much Wickedness Vngodliness Oppression and Abomination as at this day abounds in thee A Nation to whom God Almighty hath signally appeared and been at work in by his mighty Arm and divine Power and the proffers of Love and Mercy from the God of Mercies have been to thee and the Lord hath long waited to be gracious and merciful to thee and hath extended one Visitation after another unto thee and hath many a time sought thy Inhabitants in tender yearning Bowels of Love But notwithstanding all these Mercies and tender Dealings of the Lord with you the Inhabitants of England how have you continued in your Sins and Transgressions against the Lord that hath thus sought your return to him that he might have mercy on you And when Intreatings and yearning Bowels would not draw nor prevail upon you to restrain you from your evil courses and to bring you to Amendment of Life he hath threatned Judgment and also many times executed it upon thy Inhabitants O England and hath shewed his Displeasure against you many a time But neither Mercy nor Judgment Smiles nor Threats have taken place among many of thy Rebellious and Gain-saying Inhabitants For though the Lord hath often intreated and his Arm of everlasting Mercies have been stretched out to you as it was to Israel of Old and as they rebelled against the Lord who would have gathered them even so have you refused to hearken to him and to Forsake the Evil of your Wayes and to turn to the Lord God who would have saved you from the Wrath and fierce Vengeance that is coming upon the Rebellious And though he hath pleaded with you in Judgment and hath manifested his Displeasure and Wrath in the midst of thy Inhabitants though alwayes mixed with Mercy and shewed them that he can do whatsoever he will For who can withstand him in his great Power seeing the Nations are but as the drop of a Bucket before him and as the small Dust in the Ballance for he hath overturned on one Hand and overturned on the other Hand in the sight of many of you who are yet alive and hath brought down the Mighty from their Seats who exalted themselves against the Lord and against the Innocent and hath exalted them of low degree and when they did not answer the End for which the Lord God appeared on their behalf but rebelled against the living God who had scattered their Enemies before them the Hand of the Lord also turned against them and confounded them and broke and scattered them and hath blown them away with the Breath of his Mouth as the Chaff of the Summer-threshing-Floor And yet all these Revolutions and Overturnings which the Lord hath brought to pass in the sight of many of you the Inhabitants of England and his pleadings with you in Judgment time after time with Sword with Pestilence and Fire and many other dreadful Judgments which have been both threatned and executed in a dreadful manner yet have not many of thy Inhabitants bowed themselves to the Lord who hath thus appeared nor feared before this dreadful God who will be revealed in flames of Fire taking Vengeance on the Rebellious and Gain-sayers of the Gospel of his Son but have grieved and provoked him by your Wickedness and Ungodliness from day to day And when the Lord hath sent his Servants and Messengers to you who have faithfully reproved Sin in the Gate and where-ever it appeared and have cryed unto you To break off from your Sins and Transgressions by true Repentance and Godly Sorrow for your Sins and to Amend your Lives and Conversations and to turn to God with all your Hearts and to put away the Evil of your doings from before the Eyes of the Lord and to cease to do Evil and learn to do Well that so the Lord according to his Promise might have blotted out your Sins and remembred your Transgressions no more that Rest and Peace with the everlasting God might have been known to your immortal Souls forever and ever But all these Labours of Love and yearning Bowels with which you have been sought both by the Lord and also by his Servants who have risen early and travelled with their Lives in their Hands have earnestly desired your turning to the Lord have been slighted and set at nought by you Neither have you turned from the Evil of your wayes at all but like Jerusalem of Old whom the Lord would have gathered have rejected the Reproofs of the Spirit and Grace of God in your selves and are doing Despight to the Spirit of Grace by which you should have been both sanctified and also sealed to the Day of Redemption and also rejecting the Instructions Reproofs and Warnings which by the faithful Servants of the Lord have been sounded in your Ears Instead
disobedient to Parents Vnthankful Vnholy without natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers Incontient Fierce Despisers of those that are good Treacherous Heady High-minded lovers of Pleasure more than lovers of God c. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4. And in these Evils above-mentioned you are satisfying your own Hearts Lusts living in all manner of Voluptuousness Pride vain Glory and forgetfulness of God and so are guilty of those Sins which Israel of Old were guilty of who sate down in forgetfulness of God to Eat and to Drink and rose up to Play Exod. 32. 6. And this is the State of too many of you the Inhabitants of England both Priests and People for which the Wrath of Almighty God is kindled against you and his sore Displeasure is nigh to break forth upon you in which he will trample you under his Feet and appoint you your portion in the Lake of Perdition forever if you Repent not and that speedily Oh England England How many Warnings have thy Inhabitants had And how long hath the Lord strove with you both by his Servants and also by the many signal Tokens that have appeared of his displeasure amongst you Yet none of those things have prevailed upon you to turn from the Evil of your wayes but you have hardened your Hearts and stiffened your Necks in your Wickedness and Rebellion against God though he has long waited to be gracious to you for which God will bring everlasting Misery and Sorrow upon you if ye continue in these Evils which have abounded and yet abound among you For although the Apostle saith expresly Know you not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Drunkards nor Revilers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. And notwithstanding these Testimonies which are certainly true and will be fulfilled upon all the Ungodly How many are living in these very Evils as Whoredoms Drunkenness Revilings with many other crying Sins which are expresly forbidden yet you continue in them as if all those Judgments and Torments threatned in the Scriptures of Truth against the Wicked were but meer Fictions And so you go on in your Wickedness and Ungodliness as if there were neither Punishment nor Torment to the Wicked and as if there were neither God nor Devil Heaven nor Hell But let all such know that the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth that rained Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah of Old that punished the Wicked in every Age who hath promised and will perform it though the Wicked joyn Hand in Hand they shall not go unpunished but he will render the Recompence and Reward of your own doings into your Bosoms and if you do not turn to him while he strives with you ye shall feel the weight of his avenging Hand and Iron Rod with which he will dash the Rebellious Nations to pieces like a Potters Vessel And now my Soul desires that you may turn from your Evil Courses and no longer continue in your Exaltedness of mind and heart and in your Wickedness and Ungodliness lest you be brought down and turned into Hell with all Nations that forget God Psal 9. 17. to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels forever and evermore For the Lord hath often waited to be gracious unto you and hath born with you though you have greatly provoked him yet his Patience has lasted long and he hath held forth a Hand of love to many who have taken no notice of it But now his Patience is almost worn out and his long suffering well nigh come to an End yea I am afraid it s come to an end already to many of you the Inhabitants of England and his Indignation is kindled and burns hot against you who have refused to hearken to him who hath called you time after time and is nigh to break forth like a devouring Fire and before him the Wicked shall be as Hay and as Stubble whom God will consume and will leave them neither Root nor Branch For behold the Cry of your Iniquities hath reached unto Heaven and your Sins have come up before the Lord and into remembrance with our God and the Day wherein he will ease him of his Adversaries and avenge him of his Enemies maketh haste wherein he will pour out his Wrath Indignation and Judgment upon you the Inhabitants of England that continue in your Gain-saying and Rebellion against God without any mixture of Mercy Oh! you my native Country Men and People of England in general for whom a travail is upon my Spirit at present and hath been many a time that you might be prevailed upon whose Day of Mercy is not yet ended and over whom the shadow of Death and the Night is not yet wholly spread to consider your latter end before it be too late and to turn from your Sins and Transgressions your Haughtiness Pride and vain Glory and your abusing your selves with those things which God hath extended as Mercies unto you viz. your wasting abusing and spending the good Creatures of God to satisfie your Lusts which hath highly displeased the Lord and provoked him to Anger And that you may all come to learn that blessed Lesson which the holy men of Old learned who were taught by the Grace and Spirit of God a measure whereof is given to every man to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. 7. which was That denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts they might live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in the present evil World Tit. 2. 11 12. Which all that ever come to inherit Rest and Peace with God and to have a habitation in his holy Kingdom of everlasting Joy must be found living in and to cry to God in a sence of your Miserable state and Deplorable Condition while the Ear of his tender Mercy is open to hear you lest such a Day come upon and overtake you as was threatned to a People of Old wherein you may Cry and the Lord will not hear you because you have not hearkened to him when he called you may Call and he will not Answer but will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh But that this Day may never overtake you to whom the Visitation of God is yet continued is the hearty Desire and Prayer of my Soul to God for you Therefore turn to God with all your Hearts while his Arms of tender Mercy are open to receive you and triffle not away your precious time that yet remains lest by so doing you bring the sentence of an eternal Exclusion upon your selves from God and the joy of his Kingdom forever and ever And Oh that a true Desire were begotten in all your Hearts and Minds to come to that blessed Fountain of God's free Love which he hath opened for all who are willing to come to it the Virtue whereof purgeth the Souls of all that wash in it from Sin and Uncleanness and so sprinkles the