Selected quad for the lemma: religion_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
Songs I 'll tune in vain My Loyal Lays shall strive no more To make your salvage Natures tame The changing Winds thy Voice as well May hope to calm to constant Breeze Or when they ruffle all the Seas Thy Verse the mounting Waves as soon may quell And yet the Seas will sometimes cease to storm And Winds to murmur in the Trees But oh the fickle World is never calm The restless Britain never is at ease III. How many Forms of Government thou 'st seen How many dangerous Turns of State have been In this fantastick World When first the British Light I saw Religion Liberty and Law Were all to wild Confusion hurl'd A bleeding Body 't was without a Head And every Street was stor'd With mangl'd Members of the noble Dead The Trophies of the impious Conqueror's Sword True Child of Sorrow thou wer 't born And Loyal Sighs and Tears did usher in thy Morn IV. Then in a vile Democracy Thou sound'st thy Education And yet by Nature scorn'd that Tyranny That so inslav'd the Nation And still Religion was the Cry The Subjects Liberty and Property No Business here was for Heroick Song And only Satyr then but young Durst move her daring Tongue And that in Whispers too for had she loudly spoke Not all the Gods she cou'd invoke Had sav'd her from the Tyrant's fatal Stroke The rest of the harmonious Train were laid Around the Martyr's Tomb all pale and dead And in a noble Funeral Fire Of mournful Elegy Which their own God Apollo did inspire They rais'd their Monarchs Vertues to the Sky Then in the perfum'd Flame to him and Heaven they fly V. When from their Ashes scarce yet cold and dead A many little Muses sprung Amongst the rest thou rear'dst thy feeble Head But oh 't was long They useless lay unplum'd unfit for Flight Nor could they thrive in Britain's Night But brooding Sat expecting rising Light Induring all the Insolence of Fate And every rising Storm of State The bleak Winds blew and the loud Thunder spreads Their swift-wing'd Mischiefs round their Heads By numerous falling Showers opprest By Ignorance prophan'd Yet still they kept the silent downy Nest Still they Parnassus sacred Grove maintain'd VI Oft thou hadst heard of Kings Of Courts and long past Glorious Things And oft been told the pitious Tale Of the deplorable sad Fate Of Charles the Martyr Charles the Good and Great And oft the Story did with tender Sighs bewail Oft thou hadst heard of a strange monsterous Thing That did at Westminster reside Which had devour'd Church Bishops Laws and King With an insatiate Arbitrary Pride Thou heard'st it fed on Human Blood On Widows and on Orphans Tears On Lands of Loyal Commoners and Peers And for its Grace it said Long Prayers And form'd what Laws it pleas'd which past for good With Ease the restive World this Monster backt And taught the hard-mouth'd Beast t' obey Knowing if once his Hand he slack't Luxurious Torrents breaking from the Sea Are not so wild so ruinous as She VII Thus when ten Annual Tours the Sun In his Diurnal Course had run After the Ravage which the Tyrant made Of all that was Religious Great or Good After he had in Ruin laid The sacred Mansions of his King and God In such a Storm as yet no Mortal e're On Britain's Shores did ever hear In a vast Sea of Noble Blood Deep down to the Infernal Shade The Monstrous Regicide by Furies was convey'd VIII Then in the compass of one circling Year Each Month was a new Government Which the mad headless Body did invent Assisted by the Monster Parliament King Dick's short Month was Mungrel Monarchy And the next Turn was Anarchy Then to a Common-wealth they wou'd submit But none had Sense enough to manage it And Lambert's Wife forbad that Form And swore her Lord shou'd take his Turn Thus was poor Britain tost and torn By every Sect and every Form Till ruin'd in the Frantick Storm But Heaven more merciful the tatter'd Vessel saves Just sinking in the rowling Waves Who gathers up the Winds and binds the Flood And brings her Labouring to the Shore Which had so many wrecking Seas withstood And heard so many Tempests roar Next Heaven 't was Monk that made her stem the Tide And all Triumphant on the Billows ride IX Monk Whom True Bravery inclin'd Thought it more Great to Give than Wear a Crown That restless Glory rather now resign'd To that Illustrious Brow To which alone the Sacred Load was due Than by it Deify his own Whose Entrance brought a Universal Change And the whole World appear'd surprising new and strange A doubtful Joy in every Face was seen Both in the Round-Head and the Cavalier And all degrees of Men Were fill'd at once with Hope and Fear The bloodless Victor did not yet explain The great Design for which he came Wallingford House Committee stood amaz'd And the Rump-Parliament Their Trembling Speaker sent To ask the Conqueror What he meant While the expecting City on the Wonder gaz'd X. The rude ungovern'd Mobile As wild as the insatiate Sea No Bounds or Limits us'd to obey Those who before with Arbitrary Rule Durst pull down Monarchies and Kings Prelats and Peers as Useless Things And what was Sacred Turn to ridicule This Coward base Plebean Rout Who never venture out But like wild Beast for Prey Where certain Pillage and no Danger lay These Fearful Curs now in their Kennels stay Not a Horn'd Beast durst from his Covert peep No busy Traders fill the Street But the whole City now appear'd A Desart all abandon'd by the Frighted Heard XI 'T was wonderful to see That Insolence which nothing cou'd confine Laws Human nor Divine Allegiance nor their Oaths of Loyalty But for each little Fault that Caesar made Against all Laws Religion Gratitude The Faithless Sawcy Multitude Rebell'd for Idol Liberty And stampt it with the specious Name Of Conscience and their Darling Property As if no Sin Impiety or Shame Cou'd in that Standard of their Actions lie Those who but now to Europe gave a Law And kept the Universe in awe Like Rebel Indian Slaves now poorly creep Beneath the mean Subjection of the conquering Whip XII Thus easily the Victor gain'd Without one Stroke his Glorious End Th' Attempt too Pious was to be by Blood obtain'd And thus the Exil'd Monarch was restor'd His Entrance crowding Worlds attend Who like a God was Welcom'd and Ador'd Wild with their Joys no Countenance durst wear Disguis'd in a Fanatick Leer But even the most Dissatisfy'd wou'd feign To approve the Change in a Consenting Sneer 'T was then our Halcion Days began 'T was then Just Laws in their old Chanels ran And right Religion in her Churches shon 'T was then the King's Prerogative Did with the Peoples Property revive And each Man bask'd beneath his Vine No Sequestrators by a Lawless Might Invaded now the Subjects Right And Mighty Caesar too From every Willing Hand receiv'd his