The True Englishmans Complaints
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The source of this document is the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. Those books were transcribed in a character for character manner and can be very cumbersome to read since there was no standard spelling during that time. Many spelling variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" regularly appear.
This project was conceived to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader, leading to the creation of a massive list of variant spellings and their corrections. This was used to clean up the text, but is of course only as complete as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. This effort does not change that. Be aware that the original transcription can also be faulty and in some cases entire sentences may be missing.
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However, a word of warning: The Puritans were a very diverse group of people and their age was characterized with godliness, but also much upheaval, disputation and strife. They disagreed on many doctrines and some of these works contain less orthodox or Scriptural views than others. The reader is strongly advised to read with discernment, particularly if it is unknown whether author is trustworthy.
This project took a huge amount of time and skill to bring to fruition. I would particularly like to thank David Jonescue for the initial list of Puritans he found on EEBO and the concept behind this project as well as the continuous, unceasing efforts toward seeing this complete. Without his labor, this would not be available. Alex Sarrouf was invaluable in providing the initial list of over 7,000 spelling variations he had identified and corrected, as well as continuing to review more than 16,000 additions to that list for any typos.
Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
Vox & Lacrimae Anglorum: OR, The True English—men's COMPLAINTS, To their Representatives in PARLIAMENT.
Humbly tendered to their serious Consideration at their next sitting, February the 6th. 1667-68.
By reason of the Multitude of Oppressions, they
make the oppressed to cry. They cry out, by reason
of the Arm of the Mighty.
Job 35. 9.
Job 35. 9.
And in every Province whithersoever the Kings
Commandment, and his Decree came, there
was great Mourning, and Fasting, and Weeping
and Wayling.
Esth. 4. 3.
Esth. 4. 3.
Printed in the Year 1668.
To the Parliament.
THese Lines had kissed your Hands
October
last,
But were suspended till the time was past;
Because we hoped you were about to do
That which this just Complaint incites you to;
It is our duty, to put you in mind
Of that great Work which yet doth lag behind:
Our Grief and Woes do force us loud to cry,
And call on you for speedy Remedy;
Which was the moving Cause of these our Tears,
That you may know our Sufferings and our Fears.
And Providence now having led the way
To give it birth; peruse it well we pray.
And do not take it for an old Wives story,
But know the Nations Griefs lie here before ye:
Though in short hints, yet here, as in a Map,
With ease you will see the cause of our Mishap.
There's not a free-born English Protestant,
But sets both hand and heart to this Complaint.
Vox & Lacrimae Anglorum.
REnowned Partiots, open your Eyes,
And lend an ear to th' Justice of our cries;
As you are
English men
(our blood and bones)
Know 'tis your duty to regard our Groans;
On you, next God, our confidence relies,
You are the Bulwarks of our Liberties.
Within your Walls was voted-in our King,
For joy whereof our shouts made
England
sing,
And to make him a great and glo
•
ious Prince,
Both you and we have been at great expense.
Full
Five and twenty hundred thousand pound,
(By you enacted) since hath been paid down,
Our
Customs
to a vast Revenew come;
Our
Fishing-money,
no inferior sum.
That old Ale-spoiling trade of the
Excise,
Doth yearly to a mass of money rise;
Besides
the Additional of Royal Aid,
And
Chimney-money,
which is yearly paid.
Oft have our heads by
Polls
been sadly shorn,
With money from poor
Servants Wages
torn.
Our
Dunkirk
yielded many a thousand pound,
(It is easier far to sell than gain a Town.)
With
forced Benevolence,
and other things,
Enough toenrich a dozen
Danish
Kings,
Million on million on the Nations back,
Yet we and all our Freedoms go to wrack.
We hoped when first these heavy Taxes rose,
Some should be used to scare away our foes,
Or beat them, till (like
Gibeonites
) they bring
Their Grandees ready haltred to our King;
Or make them buckle, and their points untruss;
As they did when the Motto,
God with Vs.
But Oh! instead of this, our cruel Fate
Hath made us like a Widow, desolate.
Our Houses sadly burnt about our ears,
Our Wives & Children senseless made with fears;
Our Warlike Ships, in which our safety lay,
Unto our daring foes are made a prey.
Our Forts and Castles, which should guard our Land,
Just like old Nunneries and Abbeys stand.
And long before our Inland-Towns demur'd,
That Sea and Land alike might be secured.
Our
Magazines,
which did abound with store,
Like us (sad English-men) are very poor.
Our
Trade
is lost, our
Merchants
are undone,
Yeomen
and
Farmers,
all to Ruin run.
Those that our fatal Battels fought, neglected;
And
swearing, damme, cowardly Rogues
protected.
Our
gallant Seamen
(once the world did dread)
For
want of Pay,
are metamorphosed:
Whilst their sad Widows & poor Orphans weep.
Whose dear Relations perished in the deep;
And to augment and aggravate their grief,
At the Pay-office find but cold relief;
Many a month are forced to wait and stay,
To seek the price of blood, dead Husbands pay.
The sober People, who our Trade advanced,
Throughout our Nation quite discountenanced.
It grieves our hearts that we should live to see
True
Virtue pnnished,
and
Vice go free.
Thousands there be that could not hurt a worm,
Imprisoned were, 'cause they cannot conform.
Others exiled, and from Relations sent,
We know not why, but being innocent.
Whilst
Rome's black Locusts
menace us with storms
Like
Egypt's Frogs,
about the Kingdom swarms.
Our penal Laws are never executed
Against those Vermin, which our Land polluted,
Only to blind and hoodwink us (alas)
An Edict passes to prohibir Mass,
With such a latitude, as most men say,
It's like its Sire, the Oath
Et caetera.
But praised be God for
Peace,
that's very clear;
But on what terms th' Event will make appear;
We dread lest it should be more to our cost,
Than when
Amboyna
Spicery was lost.
They treat with
Rod in hand,
our
Buttocks bare;
Judge what the issues of such Treaties are.
Thus sick, ye Worthies, sick our Nation lies,
And none but God can cure her maladies.
Those that should cheer her in your interval,
Like dull
Quack-salvers,
make her spirits fail:
Turn she her withered face to whom she will,
All that she gets is but a purging Pill.
If any of her Children for her cry,
Her cruel
Empricks
use Phlebotomy.
That wholesome Physic which should cleanse her blood,
They do detain, inflaming what is good.
This for a long time hath bad humors bred,
Which sends up filthy vapors to the head.
All wise men judge, if these extremes endure;
'Twill period in a mad-brained
Calenture.
Then, O ye Worthies, now for Heavens sake,
Some pity on your gasping Country take.
Call to account those Leeches of the State,
Who from their trust deeply prevaricate;
Who have of English Coin exhausted more,
Than would ten
Cuer-de-Lions
home restore.
Who like perfideous and deceitful Elves,
Ruin the Nation to enrich themselves,
More ready were our Counsels to disclose,
Then to protect us from our
Belgian
foes.
The Fleet divided, shows such treachery,
That
Pagans, Turks
and
Infidels
decry.
The States Purse cannot but be indigent,
When so much money over-Sea is sent.
No wonder
Dutchmen
cry,
Thanks Clarendine,
We are so roundly paid with English Coin.
If
Georges
mouth be stopped, think they that we
Have all our eyes bor'd out, and cannot see.
Our foes of Engiish Coin have greater store
Since Wars began, than ere they had before.
Quaint stratagem, for Rulers busied be
To tie a
raw Hide
to an
Orange Tree;
With resolution, 'cause he's of that blood,
To lift his head above the
Mogan
hood.
Then both the
Kiep-skins
would be well bestowed,
One honor'd here, toother as much abroad.
These and such Projects have procured a War,
Where mortals worry'd were like Dog and Bear.
Then Money works the wonder, that is sure,
The price of
Dunkirk
here may much procure.
Dunkirk
was sold, but why, we do not know,
Unless t' erect a new
Seraglio,
Or be a Receptacle unto those,
Were once intended our invading foes.
Then let that treacherous Abject Lump of Pride,
With all his joint-Confederates beside,
Be brought to Justice, tried by our Laws,
And so receive the merits of their Cause.
Who justly now are made the people's hate.
That would not do them Justice in the Gate.
•
We pray your Honors choose out a
Committee
To find the Instruments that
burnt our City;
Can one poor senseless Frenchmans life repair
The loss of
Britain's
great Imperial Chair?
Many there were in that vile fact detected,
And those that should them
punish,
them
protected.
When
Nero
did the like on famous
Rome,
Were all her Senators and People dumb?
Must we be silent, when incompast round
With black-mouthed Dogs, that would us all confound?
Most hellish Plot! 'twas
Guido Faux
in grain,
Hatch'd by the Jesuits in
France
and
Spain.
For which your Honors wisely did remember
To keep another fifth day of
November.
When these Delinquents up and down the Nation
You sifted for, then came your Prorogation.
Mean while, though
London
in her ashes lies,
Yet out of her shall such a Phoenix rise,
Shall be a scourge and terror unto those,
Who for this hundred years have been her foes.
Perfideous
Papists!
shall your treachery,
Think ye, reduce US to Idolatry?
Blood-thirsty Monsters!
we know better things;
Not all the pride of your dark-lanthorn Kings,
Nor all your Counsels of
Achitophel,
Shall make us run your ready road to Hell;
Blind Blockheads, we abhor your rotten Whore;
None but the God of
Jacob
we adore.
We beg your Honors to redeem our Trade,
Which in your Intervals is much decayed;
Regaining that, we hope such fruit 'twill yield,
We on our
Ruins
cheerfully may build.
We pray repeal that
Law unnatural,
That men in question for their
Conscience
call:
'It is cruelty, for you to force men to
The thing, that they had rather die than do,
This is man's All, 'tis Christ's Prerogative,
Therefore against it 'tis in vain to strive.
Distribute Justice with an equal hand
Unto the Peer, as Peasant of the Land;
Many true Commoners murdered of late,
Yet Justice strikes not the Assassinate.
Why should the just Cause of the Client be
Utterly lost, wanting a double Fee?
Why partial Judges on the Benches sit,
And Juries overaw'd, which is not fit?
Why some corrupted, others wanting wit,
And why a Parliament should suffer it?
Why great men's wills should be their only Law;
And why they do not call to mind
Jack Straw?
Why they do let their Reputation rot,
And why
Carnarvan Edward
is forgot?
Why
Bloodworth
would not let that dreadful Fire
Extinguisht be, as good men did desire?
And why Lifeguard-men at each Gate were set,
Hindring the people thence their goods to get?
Why were our Houses level'd with the ground,
That fairly stood about the
Tower
round?
When many thousand Families were left
Without a house, then we must be berest
Of habitations too with all the rest,
And share with those that greatly were distrest.
Why should our
Mother-Queen
exhaust our store,
Enriching
France,
and making
England
poor
Spending our Treasure in a foreign Land,
Which doth not with our Nations Intrest stand?
Therefore in time stay th' bleeding of this vein,
Lest it our Nations vital spirits drain.
Why
England
now, as in the days of yore,
Must have an Intercessor, Madam
Shore?
Why upon her is spent more in a day,
Than would a deal of public charge defray?
Why second
Rosamond
is made away?
And that remains a Riddle to this day.
Why
Papists
put in places of great trust,
And
Protestants
lay by their Arms to rust?
Why
Courtiers
rant with Goods of other men's,
And with Protections cheat the
Citizens?
Why drunken Justices are tolerated,
And why the Gospel's almost abrogated?
Why Clergy-men do domineer so high,
That should be patterns of humility?
Why they do Steeple upon Steeple set,
As if they meant that way to Heaven to get?
Who nothing have to prove themselves devout,
Save only this, that
Cromwell
turned them out.
Why Tippits, Copes, Lawnsleeves & such like geer
Consume above three millions by the year?
Why
Bell and Dragon Drones,
like Boar in sty,
Eat more than all the painful Ministry?
Which is one cause the Nation is so poor,
And when the King will find their
Privy Door?
When
Daniel
shows th' impression of their feet,
And gives direction, then he'l come to see 't.
Why
England's
grand Religion now should be
A Stalking-Horse to blind Idolatry?
Why many thousauds now bow down before it,
That in their Consciences do much abhor it?
Why
Treachery
is used by Comp
•
ication,
Fraud and Deceit the
All-a-moad
in fashion?
Why ranting Cowards in Bust-coats are put,
And why they Robbers turn, to fill their gut?
Why Fools in Corporations do command,
Who know nor Justice, nor the Law o'th Land?
Why he who brought our necks into this Yoke,
Dreads not the thoughts of
Feltons
fatal stroke?
Sure they are bewitched who think us
English men
Have no more courage left us than a Hen.
And why that interest is become the least,
In the year
Sixty
greater than the rest?
We know no reason, but do all consent,
These are the fruits of an Ill-Government.
Some think our Judgments do run parallel
With
David's
in the days of
Israel.
The difference is, he was a Man of God;
But ours have been his sore afflicting Rod;
To which we turn our naked backs, and say,
Lord, during thy pleasure,
Vive le Roy.
We pray restore our
faithful Ministers,
Whom we do own as Christ's Ambassadors.
Why are our Pulpits pestered with that Crew,
That took up Orders since
black Bartholomew;
Who Mysteries of Gospel know no more,
Than that dumb Calf that
Israel
did adore.
Too late for us to you to make our moan,
When they have led us to destruction.
Must all be enemies to King and State,
That from the Church of
England
separate?
Must all the Meetings of the
Innocent
Be judged unlawful and to Prison sent?
'Twere better all such Edicts you made void,
And grant the Liberty they once enjoyed;
Confirming that unto them by a Law,
Makes good the Royal Promise at
Breda.
Tread all
Monopolies
into the Earth,
And make provision that no more get birth.
In this a Prince's danger chiefly lies,
That he is forced to see with others eyes:
From hence our Troubles rose in
Forty one,
When that Domestic War at first begun.
Relieve th' Oppressed, set all Prisoners free,
Who for their Consciences in durance be.
Poor Debtors who have not wherewith to pay,
Break off their Shackles, let them go their way.
And let suborned Witnesses appear
No more against the Innocent to swear.
Let no more Juries that are biased,
Selected be to do what they are bid;
Who to fulfill men's Lusts and Cruelty,
Regard not though the Innocent do die.
Why should our just Laws as a Cobweb be,
To catch small flies, and let the great go free?
This
•
urns true judgment into wormwood gall,
Doth for the
Vengeance
of th'
Avenger
call.
Then ease those
Burdens
under which we groan,
Give
Liberty
its Resurrection.
Let painful
Husbandry,
the Child of Peace,
Be now encouraged, since Warrs do cease:
Let not the poor enslaved Plow-man crave
Redress from you, and yet no succor have.
'It is too much like a base
French stratagem,
To make the People poor to govern them.
More happy for a Prince, when Aid he craves,
To havit from free-born men, than injured slaves.
We are free-born, we yet are
English-men,
Let's not like old men boast what we have been;
But make us happy by your gentle Rayes,
And You shall be the tenor of our Praise;
And our posterities with joint consent,
Shall call you
England's healing Parliament;
But if you still will make our Bands the stronger,
If Prisoners must remain in durance longer;
If wandering Stars must still by force detrude
(Under Eclipse) those of first Magnitude;
If
Prelates
still must over our Conscience ride,
And
Papists
bonfires make on us beside.
If he and they (whose Avarice and Pride
So long have rid our backs, and galled our side)
Have got so strong an interest in the State,
That their Commitment costs so long debate;
Until a way be made for his escape
To foreign parts, there to negotiate:
The edge of Justice surely's turned aside,
To cut the poor ones flesh, and save the
Hide.
If you men's Lusts and Av'rice gratify,
And yet our empty Purse-strings will untie;
You are too free of what nev'r was your own,
And know you only make us more to groan,
(Ass-like:) and surely any mortal man,
Will seek to ease his burden when he can.
There's not an
English-man
but well hath learned,
Your Privileges are alike concerned
With all our Liberties; That he that doth
Infringe the one, usurps upon them both.
And shall it on your Door and Tombs be writ,
This was that Parliament so long did sit,
While Conscience, Liberty, our Purse and Trade;,
The Country, City, Ships, and All's betrayed?
That made an Act for building on the Vrn,
But no Inquest who did the City burn;
To feed a
Palmer-worm,
who threw away
That public stock that Seamen should defray.
Since now you have an opportunity,
Redeem yourselves and us from Slavery:
If not, (the Wheel goes round) there is no doubt,
You will also share with those you have turned out.
Vivat Lex Rex.
POST-SCRIPT.
IF ere you leave us in a lasting-Peace,
'It is by redressing all our Grievances.
When Rulers stop their ears to th' Peoples cries,
Those are sad symptoms of
Catastrophies.
In Watch, or Clock, things made irregular,
Though never so small, make all the work to jar.
And in the Body Natural 'tis sound,
That if an Humour doth therein abound,
That
the Physician must extenuate,
And make it with the rest co-operate.
So, if in Bodies Politick there be,
Not found 'twixt all Estates a harmony,
They cease not till in tract of time they bring
All to Confusion,
Peasant, Lord
and
King.
To make some great, and ruin all the rest,
In this a Commonwealth cannot be blest.
And doth it follow hence,
great Sirs,
that we
Must be made Beggars to posterity.
Let Equity and Justice plead our Cause,
And then refer us to our ancient Laws.
If
Magna Charta
must be wholly slighted,
We must conclude our Rulers are benighted.
But needs must we be poor, when it is known
We've had a second
Pearce of Gaveston.
Your Power is sovereign, else we durst not quote
His poisonous name, without an
Antidote.
Perfideous
Clarenden!
that potent Thief,
His Prince's blemish, and the Peoples grief.
Who once did scorn to plunder by retail,
Who stretched the State's purse till the strings did fail.
He and his fellow Jugglers found the knack
To plow deep furrows on the Nations back.
Like Glaziars, who incite the roaring Crew
Windows to break, that they may make them new.
So they pick Quarrels with our Neighbor Nations,
Then
baul
at you to peel us with
Taxations;
Which having got, still more and more they crave,
Even like the Horsleech, or devouring Grave.
For Avarice cannot be satisfied,
No more than
Belzebub
and's Brother
Hide.
That
Machiavil
we have not yet forgot,
Who brewed that wicked, hellish
Northern Plot;
Where many Gentlemen had ruined been,
If Providence had not stepped in between.
Who then amongst vour selves secure can be,
If this be not checked by Authority,
He was one of that open-handed Tribe
Whose Avarice never yet refused a Bribe.
What suit of Law soev'r before him came,
He that produced most Angels, won the Game;
Beit right or wrong, or Plaintiff or Defendant,
Should have the Cause, if
Gold
were at the end on it.
How did he send, without remorse or fear,
Thousands brave
English
to that Grave,
Tangier?
What usage had the
Scots,
thousands can tell,
When the late
Remonstrators
did rebel.
Whilst
Irish
Rebels quit their old
O hone.
Poor
English Protestants
take up that tone.
Empson
and
Dudly
's facts compared with his,
Were but nights darkness unto Hells Abiss.
The famous
Spensers
did in type pourtray
What should be acted by this Beast of prey.
Earth him, and you shall find within his Cell,
Those mischiefs which no Age can parallel;
War, Fire
and
Blood,
with vast expense of
Treasure,
Ruin of Englishmen,
his chiefest pleasure.
In fine, for Mischief he was what you will,
The
perfect Epitome
of all ill.
All good men hate his Name; nay (which is worse)
Three Nations dogs him with their heavy curse.
As he regarded not the Widows tears;
So ye, just Heavens, multiply his fears.
Let
Cain's
most dreadful doom soon overtake him,
And his companion
Gout
never forsake him.
Let Heavens Vengeance light upon his pate,
Till all our wrongs it doth retaliate;
Till he himself to Justice doth resign,
Let all men call him,
Cursed Clarendine.
Dexterous Artist, he with little ease,
Transplanted
Dunkirk
from beyond the Seas,
And dropt it near that fatal spot of Land,
Where for him now
Tyburn
doth weeping stand;
The ecchoing Ax out of the
Tow'r
doth call,
To speed this Monster
Epidemical.
But he upon us having plaid his prank,
Follows his Brethren,
Finch
and
Windebank.
Thus
Hide
by name, is Hide by practice too,
Yet cannot hide from Heaven, though hid from You.
And being gone, hath left his Imps behind,
Whose only work is, all your Eyes to blind,
Lest tracing him, you find their villainy.
Yet known to few but the All-seeing Eye.
If anything of common fame be true,
He's only gone our Mischiefs to renew;
And if his practice justify our fears,
He'l sets again together by the ears.
Ambition's of the nature of the Devil,
Always to brood, and hatch, and bring forth evil.
If true that Maxim be,
Kings cannot err;
With modesty we may from thence infer.
Ill thrives that hapless Nation then that shows,
A silent Prince, and Chancellor that crows
Over his Equals, over all his Peers,
Over
Fanatics,
over
Cavaliers;
He was so absolute, 'twas hard to say
Or he, or
Charles,
whether we must obey.
Rose from a Gentleman, too near the
Throne;
Sought not the Nations Intrest, but his own.
You are our Bridle in such
Tyrants jaws,
That would destroy us, and subvert our Laws.
Now hold the Beign, now keep the Ballance true,
Find those
Bandetro's
that do lie purdue.
If you, like
Cato,
for your Country stand,
Three noble Nations are at your command,
Whilst Justice, Truth & Right ousness do guide you
We'l be your Guard, whatever shal1 betide you.
Disarm the Papists, and secure our Ports,
Place Protestants iu Garrisons and Forts.
Why should the
French
and
Irish
here bear sway,
That Enemies to
England
are this day?
Let not our Magazines remain with those,
That burnt our City, and abide our Foes;
Whose hellish, bloody principles are such,
To butcher
English-men
they think nor much.
What Safety, Peace, or Trade can we expect,
When these protected are, and you neglect
Us to secure against such Cut-throat Dogs,
As swarm now in our Land, like
Egypt's
Frogs.
What means the flocking of the
French
so fast,
Into our Bowels thus with Arms to hast?
And must our Horses, which of value be,
Be unto
France
transported, as we see?
Are not our Forts and Castles, all betrayed.
When all their Stores and Guns aside are laid,
Out of the reach of such as would oppose
Forreign Enemies and Domestic Foes?
Did the Dumb Child, when at his Father's throat
He saw a Knife? immediately cry out?
Can we be silent, when the
Train
is laid,
And
Fire-works
prepared, as 'tis said?
Look through the Vail, and yon will soon espy
The
Romish Councils
close at work do lie,
To undermine You, and
Religion
too:
Look well about you, lest you do it rue.
Now is the time to quit yourselves like men,
Now stand up for our Liberties, and then,
The Laurel Wreath and never-fading Bayes,
Shall crown your heads, and we shall sing your praise.
Is there no Balm in Gilead? is there no Physician
there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of
my people recovered?
FINIS.