Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A64927
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A view of the times with Britain's address to the Prince of Orange, a pindarick poem.
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Settle, Elkanah, 1648-1724.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing V371; ESTC R233019
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11,072
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20
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Men of undoubted Honor and honest Principles laying the Scandal on let them take it off as well as they can and let the World judge if that Noble and most Pious Lady the Countess of Ess. Exemplary for every Vertue and holiness of Life would let pass the Murther of her Lord in Silence and Unsearched into when she had so good an Occasion offered as this by the unchrist'ned Colonel if she were not assured of the way and manner of his Lordship's deplorable Death already 'T is therefore the humble Request of all honest Men that this Licentiousness of the Press may be supprest otherwise instead of Establishing of Laws and Religion we are hurrying both to Ruin and Confusion My Lord all the World knows your Lordship to be a true Lover of your Country and a noble Asserter of all its Liberties and equal to those the Rights and Prerogatives of your King whose Interest has hitherto been Inseparable with your own even in the worst of Times but oh never so bad as these for then our King was but oppress'd but now he is forc'd to fly contrary to the Intent I hope of all who have embark'd in this great Design But though we have not yet found the Effects of it wholly to doubt it were to call in question the Integrity of a great Prince and the Loyalty of the noblest Part of the Nation and suspect the most astonishing and unpresidented Atchievment that ever was surprizing in History and the most considerable Turn of State that the Universe ever saw We will therefore look up and hope that the Prince of Orange accomplish'd with so many Vertues and who has the true Notion of Religion and Honour in his great Soul will by the sacred Keeping of his Word in making our King happy give us an Assurance of all he has promis'd us besides For after the most Refin'd Statesmen and Men of the most Wisdom and Conduct in the Establishment of Nations have debated as long as they please they will find at last there is no way to give us our Religion Laws Liberties and Repose but by recalling and fixing our King in his Lawful Throne The Constitution of England being founded on Monarchy it were to embroil the Nation in Eternal War either Civil or Foreign not to submit half way and recall our King to his proper Glories otherwise no humane Wisdom can prevent our being perpetually fatigued with our Neighbours who are like to give us sufficient Diversion if we are in Love with War and be at a continual Expence of English Blood and Mony more dear to us and let us please our selves if we can with the Contempt we put on France and set as lightly of the Force and Power of that Monareh as we do of his Person we may to our cost find that Lewis XIV of France is not so easily subdued as it hapned James II. of England was nor that his Forces of what Religion soever will abandon and betray their King as ours did who to the Eternal Shame of that Religion we only talk of and do not practise find those Principles which are thought too bloody in the Papist infinitely more Just and Honorable than those of ours since they thought they ought in Conscience to fight Faithfully for that Prince who fed and clothed them let his Religion be never so contrary to their own and most certainly there might have been a Medium found between their quitting of their Religion or their Loyalty which have hitherto been thought inconsistent But on the contrary Vertues that used to go hand in hand among good Christians and Men of Honor And the Primitive Christians gloried in their Loyalty though even to Heathen and Tyrant Emperors And as it was not lawful to push things to that Extremity to which they are arriv'd so neither was it needful we having a King that blest be God who wou'd not have carried his Dispensing Power to that height as to become a Burthen or Grievance to his People and his Majesty and his Council must have been a Synod of Gods to have committed no Errors in the management of so Critical a Government There is no doubt but his Majesty out of a tender Compassion to the Papists was pleased to give them a little incouragement and respite from Affliction and we may see by his Majesties willingness to restore all things to their first Order at the very first Address of the Bishops that he did not think his Counsels Infallible Perhaps 't will be Objected That he made not this Gracious Condescention till after he heard of the Designs of the Prince of Orange If this be granted they must also grant me this other truth That it could not be fear of being Conquered by the Foreign Army as Malice would insinuate that could oblige him to it for then his Majesty knew not but that he was sure not only of his Great Men but also of his Army that was able to have vanquish'd a far greater Army than what came with the Prince and no body doubted his Success if they had fought and that his Men had stood by him except those who before knew how he was to be abandon'd And 't is most certain and well known to some of Quality that his Majesty would have condescended to any reasonable terms that Honor could have propos'd nor did he come back again from Feversham but with a full Intent to have adjusted the great Affair But while they complained on Evil Counsels on the King's side 't is thought they had not those on the other side that were Friends to Peace or an Accommodation for if they had meant any such thing his Majesty had not been sent away again no better than a Prisoner I will not say that those Misfortunes that hinder'd us of this happy Peace and promis'd Union were the Faults of his Highness whose Designs were undoubtedly Noble but the Effects of a too violent Council too much biassed against the Royal Interest Your Lordship and all other Great Men of both Nations are most humbly besought by all Loyal and Honest Church of England Men to use your Interests both for the Preservation of these poor distracted Kingdoms and especially for the Restauration of his most Sacred Majesty for which yours and their Lordships will Eternally receive the Prayers and Blessings of all good Men And my humble Muse who presumes to prostrate her Complaint here at your Feet shall rouse her Melancholy Head again and Sing yet once more to Celebrate the Loyalty of the Great Name of ARRAN and the Illustrious HAMILTON VIVAT REX A VIEW of the TIMES c. I. AS late my melancholy Muse retir'd With thoughtful Grief not noble Song inspir'd And underneath a gloomy Shade All silent as the Mansions of the Dead On the rough Moss her Bed she made Where down she laid her wearied Head And thus the weeping Nymph in sighing Numbers said II. Farewell false Britain on thy faithless Shore No more my
Due According to the Laws Divine XIII 'T was then the Muses left the sheltering Grove And to the open Air Unfrighted now repair Then thou my Muse with unfleg'd Pinions strove To soar amongst the rest above Through untrac'd Paths thou didst essay to fly To bear thy Monarch's Fame on high But flag'd beneath thy Sisters in the Sky Yet often didst strive and often strive in vain At last Parnassus Hill thou chanc'd to gain The Royal Theme inspir'd thy Noble Verse Great Charles and James's Vertues gave thy Fancy Wing Which in soft Lays thou didst rehearse And in Prophetick Numbers sing XIV But oh my Callow Muse had scarce began her Flight When a New Face the Faithless Britain wears And to excuse her Shameful Appetite Pretends a Thousand Jealousies and Fears Wanton and Loose with too much Plenty cloy'd She satiates with the Pleasure she enjoy'd Her Plighted Lord grows dull in her Embrace And his Caresses now no more surprize She doats on every Flattering Face And each new Fop is Gracious in her Eyes Adheres to every Lewd Dispute And to each Sect becomes a Prostitute Then like a subtil Harlot first complains And Crys Her Lord by Evil Counsel Reigns To Rome affected Pensioners of France Oh False oh Villanous Pretence Against so Just so Merciful a Prince Yet this Pretence when all her other fail'd Upon the Restless Multitude prevail'd And only Caesar's Ruin cou'd Redress Her New-coyn'd Fears and Fanci'd Grievances XV Then a false Idol up they set Whose Title is proclaim'd aloud And Frantick Huzza's through each Street Salute him from the Dirty Crowd That very Crowd when the Reverse of State Had turn'd about the Wheel of Fate Pursu'd his Ruin too with equal-Joys And Crucify him was the Common Voice Oh faithless Crowd Oh vain uncertain State Both of the Peasant and the Potentate Thus fell th' Ambitious Youth Lamented more Than e're he was belov'd before But while he Triumph'd here he led along Th' Associating and Rebellious Throng More than divided now the World appear'd And the more numerous Part he shar'd Still 't was Religion was the Word That sanctify'd the Cause and edg'd the Sword XVI No Wonder then Illustrious James That barefac'd Malice dares traduce thy Name When with the same Inhuman Crimes They blot Great CHARLES's Sacred Fame Though he the same Establisht Faith profest With those by whom he was so long opprest If with some Laws he did dispense Shou'd those who by Rebelling broke 'em all Make themselves Judges of a King's Offence Whom his Just Laws to no Account can call Those say that Kings can do no Wrong Though the Account To any Number shou'd amount To Heaven alone his Judgment must belong Laws and Religion both this Maxim teach If we 'll profess what our own Church-men Preach Their Doctrin says No Ill we can commit Whatever Good might follow it And all the Dictates of the Sacred Word Command us not to touch th' Anointed of the Lord No Law was given more forcibly and plain Than strict Obedience to the Sovereign A thousand times God and his Prophets vext With Rebel Israel do repeat that Text And yet how oft was Caesar's Life the Aim And nothing but his Death cou'd free The World from Slavery and Popery And fix Religion in her wonted Frame Religion oh thou thing of Noise and Show What Villanies cannot Religion do XVII But Heaven forbids that Horror they design And Caesar only must resign His Life of Wonders to the Powers Divine Those Powers Divine that Royal James preserv'd For the succeeding Glories he deserv'd By Heaven by Virtue and by Birth his own And every Mercy that adorns a Throne Strange Turn of Fate that Prince so lately sent Like a mean Criminal to Banishment Blacken'd with all the Sins Fiends cou'd invent That Prince for whom they form'd an Impious Bill Hatcht by the Dark Cabal of Hell Which Heaven abhorr'd and all Heavens * Prophets too Who with a Pious Scorn and Just Disdain Out of the Senate that Bold Treason threw That on the British Honor laid so great a Stain This very Prince their Caprice would destroy They now Inthrone with Universal Joy XVIII He Reigns The Pious Prince in Glory Reigns But Britain's still Distemper'd Brains To her Old Natural Vice adheres Which fills her Mind with Jealousies and Fears She Fears and cannot be appeas'd Dares not on Caesar's Word rely But seeks a Desperate Cure before she is Diseas'd And to no Wound will Corrosives apply His Mercy is for strange Designs mistook Against the Church and Laws His kind Indulgences are took For an Establishing the Roman Cause If Laws too hard upon the Subjects bear What serves the Mercy of a Prince But to Excuse and Soften what 's Severe And with those Laws by his Just Right dispence And since a Monarch does a God Present It more becomes Heaven's Representative The wretched Guilty to Forgive Than to destroy the Innocent XIX Britain who by no Laws Inslav'd will be Unjustly wou'd her King Inslave Rebels for Idol Liberty And yet her Fellow Christians Born as Free They wou'd of Liberty deprive As if the All-Creating Powers Divine· Did their vast Knowledge to one Sect confine If Holy Writ must Judge as Gown-men say Then every Christian may Pretend a Right to Heaven his different way If his Own Judg each is allow'd to be Why do you Punish what the Scriptures teach Or if you will deny 'em Liberty Why have they Freedom then to Search If all have Right t' Interpret then in vain Of Principles and Notions you complain Who can prevent Opinion Or convince The Errors of his Fancy'd Sense Who shall Determin then 'twixt Right and Wrong If each Man's Faith to his own Sense belong Why then Mistaken Gown-men why Must I for an Opinion Fly Or changing my Opinion die Since you have Taught it in your School That Each Man's Judgment should be Each Man's Rule And if our Guides Mistake their Way Shall we be Punish'd if we Stray Your Pulpits oft this Error do Commit And make a Different Sense of Holy Writ When Paying Caesar's Due has been the Theme Then NON-RESISTANCE was the Cry Which Text was born to that Extream As if in that One Point did lie The Saving Business of Eternity XX But oh with every Turning Tide With every little Ship of Caesar's Government Which Human Counsels can't Prevent That Passive Doctrin's laid aside And with new Measures you pursue New Methods in your Pulpits too And to th' Occasion Sute the Sacred Word T' advance some New Design and Enterprize Then 'T is the Doings of the Lord And Marvelous in our Eyes Perhaps in some of these Perverted Strains For which this Land has paid so Dear 'T will be at last We 'll lead their Kings in Chains And all their Peers shall Iron Fetters wear Thus while from Fears of Slavery The murmuring World we hope to free We run into a worse Extremity Unthinking Britains