A GODLY EXHORTATION TO THIS DISTRESSED NATION.
Shewing the true cause of this unnaturall Civill War amongst us.
PSAL. L. VERSE XV.
Call upon me in the time of trouble, so will I heare thee, and thou shalt praise me.
VVHen pride aboundeth in the City,
And peoples hearts are void of pity;
When little children learne to sweare,
And wickednesse abounds each where.
Then let Gods people crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When as Gods service is neglected,
And able Ministers rejected:
When Popery resteth in the land,
And strives to get the upper hand.
Then let Gods people crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When people they have itching eates,
Desturb our Church, and grieve our Peers:
When men despise good government,
And spurne against the Parliament.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When as the Kingdome is divided,
And by the sword the cause decided:
When Law and Justice take no place,
And people lose their hold of grace.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When people stumble at a straw,
And make their own selfe will a Law:
When people maketh sanctity
A cloake to hide hypocrisie.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When people for meer trifles quarrell,
And make a Pulpit of a barrell:
When people run from place to place,
Unreverently Gods Church deface,
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When some that cannot read nor write
Shall tell us of a new-found light,
And Scripture unto us expounds,
True learned Discipline confounds.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When people are distracted so,
Distressed England fil'd with woe:
When people for the common good,
Unnaturall shed each others bloud,
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When dire destruction runs before,
And brings bad tidings to our door:
When arme, arme, arme, is all the crie,
To adde griefe to our misery.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When armed men each day we meet
In every lane and every street:
When as our streets are chained streight,
And Ordnance plac'd at every gate.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When London is entrenched round,
When feare our senses doth confound;
When men with griefe behold those works,
As if we were besieg'd by Turks.
'Tis time for us to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
Now since we are distressed thus,
Good Lord make haste to succour us;
On wofull England cast thine eye,
And ease us of this misery.
For now 'tis time to crie and call
Good Lord have mercy on us all.
When King and Peers agree in one,
And cause a blessed union;
When all imbrace, and throw downe arms,
And we be freed from publick harms.
Then shall we finde when we do call
That thou dost heare and helpe us all.
When they shall fall that doe oppose
Thee in thy way, O Lord, and those
That wish well to thy Church encrease,
Then shall betide a happy peace.
Then shall we finde when we doe call
That thou dost heare and helpe us all.
Humphrey Crouch.
FINIS.
LONDON, Printed for Richard Harper. 1642.