A care-cloth

and for envy and malice, the Land aboundeth with them, whoredom and filthiness stinks in every corner; theft, oppression, usury, simony, sacrilege: where shall a man stir, but he shall meet with them? Lying, deceit, fraud and guile are become amongst the necessary ornaments of a good chapman, and one cannot live without them now-a-days. Presumption, stoniness of heart, and turning Gods Grace into wantonness, are every days faults. O Lord God, we are a most wicked and sinful Nation and people, and should not my soul mourn for this? O, how art thou dishonoured, and thy Laws broken, and thy Spirit grieved! and should not my soul weep bitterly for this?¹ And when thou hast thus called to mind the sins of the Land, represent also to thy self the judgements that must come upon us for them, and say; Lord, what shall we do in the end thereof! Thy patience will not always last, thy grace will not ever strive with us, Justice will not suffer thee to bind thine hands for ever with the cords of long suffering; yea, the Lord must needs arise at length in fury and indignation, and stir up himself in wrath, to come and comfort himself, and ease his soul, by taking vengeance on such a Nation as this. He must give our Cities to the spoil; our houses and Churches to the fire; and all our goods to ⟨p. 251⟩the devourer. He must hiss for his Fly against us, & bring upon us, as he threatened and brought upon Judah, his four great Armies to destroy, Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and the teeth of evil beasts to devour. He must lay us waste and desolate, and cause us to dye of grievous deaths, and cast our carcasses into the open streets, as dung on the face of the earth, that there should be none to bury, or to lament. He must fill us full of wailing and howling, and bitter lamentation. Did not Judah escape, that had less light, and fewer means? and can England escape, that hath the light of the Gospel, as much exceeding that of the Law, as the Sun-shine doth the Moon-light? And now think with thy self, that thou beholdest God, sending scarceness amongst us, and every body feeble and languishing. Think that thou sawest the Pestilence leaping in at our houses, and sweeping away whole Families and Townes, till there be no buyer.

and for enuie and malice, the Land aboundeth with them, whoredome and filthinesse stinkes in euery corner; theft, oppression, vsurie, simony, sacriledge: where shal a man stirre, but he shall meete with them? Lying, deceite, fraud and guile are become amongst the necessary ornaments of a good chapman, and one cannot liue without them now-a-dayes. Presumption, stoninesse of heart, and turning Gods Grace into wantonnes, are euery dayes faults. O Lord God, we are a most wicked and sinfull Nation and people, and should not my soule mourne for this? O, how art thou dishonoured, and thy Lawes broken, and thy Spirit grieued! and should not my soule weepe bitterly for this?