A VIEW OF THE TIMES WITH BRITAIN'S ADDRESS TO THE Prince of Orange A PINDARICK POEM LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARL of ARRAN Eldest Son to Duke Hamilton MY LORD IN this humble Address to your Lordship perhaps as unseasonable now as the Declaration of my never-failing Zeal to his Sacred Majesty my Lord and Master I am very sensible how great a Risque I run first of offending your Lordship and next the present State but I assure your Lordship I am infinitely more Aw'd by my first Fear than my Last for that I hope will allow Liberty of Conscience even to the Poets themselves provided they be no Papists though there ought to be no Toleration for Indiscretion and Ill Manners which at this time take too Saucy a Liberty and treat even Crown'd Heads with that Disrespect and Contempt as if the British World had agreed they would be Govern'd by no more Kings And it is no doubt that sort of Establishment is Aim'd at by that great Part of the Nation the Dissenters But all true English Men Men of Honor and of the Orthodox Church 't is to be hoped yet have other Sentiments of which number your Lordship is one whose Glorious Principles of Loyalty and Honor even now shine forth to the World and with a Noble Lustre gilding all your other Vertues have render'd your Lordship one of the most Considerable of any Great Men of your Nation to all succeeding times and 't is from Men of such Principles we must hope for the Accomplishment of that Good which has so lately been assur'd us That of making both King and People happy which cannot be by forcing his Majesty to an Exile and to palliate that Cruelty to give it no worse Name brand him with all the Infamy that Malice can invent We would willingly possess our selves with the belief that such Impudent and right-down Treasonable Libels as daily come out upon their Majesties are rather the uncontroulable and implacable Fire-Balls of a few convicted though now too bare-faced Criminals than the Connivance much less the Toleration of those that now Rule whose Commands ought to suppress Mischiefs of so dangerous a Consequence lest upon every little Pique they shall please to take against those they now pretend to serve they should run into the same Extremity and treat them at last as Ill as they have done their Lawfull King or God himself since to speak Evilly of the one is to Prophane the other They need not give us that Infallible Proof that Religion so much their Pretence is the least of their Design and Aim since no Man on Earth can profess himself a Christian or even a Moralist with Notions so absolutely Heathenish and Diabolical Actions so directly contrary to Scripture and all the Rules that God himself has set us And however necessary some may imagin these Aspersions may be to the present Interest to possess the wretched Rabble and common Rascality yet they are so far from being approved or believed by those of common Sense or tolerable Education that they are abhor'd and are as absolutely a disgrace to this great design of Setling Religion as the protection and toleration given to the Assassin of the most Reverend Bishop of St. Andrews and the Rye-House Conspirator And because Three or Four condemned Criminals have by their Villanies made themselves uncapable of Living under a King they must now be allow'd Authentick Evidences against his present Majesty and blacken him with such Actions of Horror that the most barbarous of Villains Thieves and Murtherers nay the Fiends themselves were never guilty of And though these ridiculous and inhumane Libels are only Calculated for the nasty Rabble and the foolish positive Multitude and are below the Sense even of those that write them yet they serve to blow a Fire that will be one Day too Hot for this Nation I know they are Countenanced and seemingly Credited by a great many disaffected and ill-minded Men whose business is no other ways to be done than by setting the World at Odds. And no doubt but it was found absolutely Necessary after the treating his Majesty at his Return with such unaccountable Contempt that his Fame and Glory should be ruin'd as well as Himself having no other Excuse for their own Crimes but loading his Majesty with Calumnies A poor and barbarous Shift to justify a too precipitate Proceeding a Proceeding which their Lordships both Spiritual and Temporal too zealous for Religion and too remiss for the King and Nations safety had not I am afraid well enough Considered or the ensuing Consequences nor ought it to have been expected that when they turned out Popery they should have suffered their King by the Indignities put upon him to seek his Safety in a Foreign Nation I am certain that none has a more intire Respect for the Prince of Orange than my self nor a higher Veneration for the Established Religion As for that Word Protestant Religion it bears too great a Latitude for me to understand but I hope it is not by driving out the Jesuits to down with the Bishops too which is but too much the Fear of those that are hearty well-wishers to the Established Church Laws and Liberties 'T is therefore wished that such Publick and Noble Spirits as that of your Lordship would represent these Fears to the great Councils of both Nations and since Affairs go so contrary to the true Intent of this great Design they would be pleased to take the Care of these Nations into their Consideration And as they are all Men of Honor and his Sacred Majesty the Head and Fountain of Honor they would not suffer that to be polluted by prophane Hands nor permit a Cause of so High and Glorious Pretences as this of the Prince of Orange to be violated and not serve the end for which it was advanced And let those foul Aspersers make good those Scandals they have spread by any honest or tolerable Witnesses and not such as perhaps who having been guilty of a Thousand Crimes and to get a General Pardon for real Villanies will confess themselves Guilty of feigned ones and then they may be allowed to Rail but if not let them be delivered to that just Law to which they are Condemned already For the Land has too lately been made Calamitous enough by false Witnesses on whose Account too much Blood has been shed Some such Witnesses if any Danvers will pick up for Proofs that the E. of Ess. was Murthered on which bloody Subject he has troubled the World with too Notable Pieces which he is pleased to call A full Discovery by positive Proofs in which there is neither Discovery nor Proof but a deal of Stuff and Noise trifling Surmises bug bear Words of horrid Murther bloody Villany and a thousand terms of the like frightful Sense dividing his Text as if he were in his Tub a bellowing forth as many Lies Aspersing and Accusing
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
you shou'd first agree What 's by that Word Religion meant If the Establish'd Church it be By Boasted Act of Parliament Then oh * Eusebia you with Justice fear Religion will not now be setl'd here If the whole Reformation you include Of differing Sects that Endless Multitude What 's this but that Dispensing Power in you Which Caesar's Great Prerogative must not do All of the Christian Faith you cannot mean Lest Popery for her Share come in Is it Religion Lawful Right to oppose Or Violate our Sacred Oaths Is it Religion to Unsheath the Sword Against the Anointed of the Lord Alass how vain is then the Sacred Word Why then was David Smitten in his Heart For Robbing Saul but only of his Skirt With the same Stroke he might have Empire gain'd But God forbid the Royal Youth reply'd Against the King I should direct my Hand Or see it in the Blood of Monarchs dy'd If those a Curse upon themselves must bring Who but in Heart think Evil of the King If of Kings Safeties Heaven has took such Care That even the wing'd Inhabitants of the Air Shall every Secret Rebel Thought declare Then Wretched Britain What must be thy Fate And where is this Religion which has made So great a Noise in this Divided State And has so Just so Good a King Betray'd The Outlaw'd Villains blot his Sacred Name He was He is this King of an Immortal Fame Then since oh Muse forlorn thy Prince is gone For whom thou tun'dst thy Noblest Song In this dark Shade ne'er with Apollo blest This Covert suting with a Soul distrest With Sighing Winds and Murmuring Rivers mourn Till James thy God-like Master back return Britains ADDRESS to the Prince of Orange TO you Great Prince Three prost'rate Nations come To Ease their Fears and to Expect their Doom Oh! Hero more than half Divine Whose Glories and replenish'd Virtues first Made me my Willing Shores resign Up to your Conquering Hands in Trust Not Caesar's Promise nor the Word of God Cou'd calm the Trembling Fevers in my Blood 'T was Yours Great Sir on whom I did depend My Laws and Just Religion to Defend 'T was that that did Assist your Glory's Rise 'T was that that made you Britain's Noblest Choice And gave you all the Applauses of my People's Voice Then as your Gracious Declarations speak My King and People Once more Happy make My People whom no more Words or Oaths can bind Yet strictly will exact this Truth from you As their Own Right their Property and Due But to that Justice will not be confin'd The Mighty Work 's but half yet done Your Glories cannot be compleat Till by a Justice more Illustrious yet You bring Great Caesar to his Rightful Throne Brave Offspring of the Royal Martyr's Blood By Nature Pious Merciful and Good Maintain this Empire in its Lawful Line This Empire which Succeding Time By Right of Birth Heaven may to you resign Content you with the Glories you have won Such as no Hero yet did e're Renown Nor let your Nobler Quiet be undone With the too Restless Burthen of a Crown Nor You Illustrious Mary can Receive What Heaven Denys and Justice cannot Give Your Virtues are too Eminently Great To Rob a Father's Head to Adorn Your Own And that Bright Angels Face with every Charm repleat Needs not th' Addition of a Lawless Crown Leave it to Heaven since You 've too lately seen The Faith False Britain paid an Injur'd Queen FINIS Hone's Tryal c. and Rye-House * The Bishope ☜ * The Church Oath of Allegiance c. 1 Sam. c. 24. v. 4 5. Eccl. 10.20 The Princess of Orange