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AFTER that I had somewhat considered what from the beginning have been the great mercies of God towards his afflicted people,¹ and what also have been his severe judgements executed against such,² as ether preferring darkness to light did follow the devises and inventions of men, ether that enraged by the malice of Satan, have declared them selves open enemies to God & to his verity revealed: I thought it my ⟨p. 58⟩duty in few words to require of thee, & that in Gods name ô England in general the same repentance & true conversion unto God, that I have required of those, to whom before particularly I wrote. For in very deed when in dolour of hart I wrote this former letter,³ I nether looked nor cold believe, that the Lord Jesus would so suddenly knock at thy gate,⁴ or call upon thee in thy open streets,⁵ offering him self to pardon thy iniquity, yea to enter into thy house▪ and so to abide & make his habitation with thee, who so inobediently had rejected his yoke,⁶ so disdainfully had trodden under fore the blood of his testament, and so cruelly had murdered those, that were sent to call the to repentance. This thy horrible ingratitude considered, I did rather look for punishments & plagues universally to have been poured forth, then for mercy by the sound of his trumpet, so ⟨p. 59⟩suddenly to have been offered to any within that miserable isle. But when I did more deeply way, that such is the infinite goodness of God, and that such be also the bright beams of his most just judgements, that when soever he taketh into his protection by the covenant of his word any Realm, Nation, Province or City,⁷