AN ELEGY Upon the Most Ingenious Mr. HENRY CARE, Who Departed this Life on the Eighth Day of August, 1688. and in the Two and Fortieth YEAR of his AGE.  

HOw! The Great CARE Deceased! And not one Verse  
Dropped by some Muse on his Lamented Hearse!  
It cannot be: All must his Praises tell,  
That did both Write, and Live, and Die so well.  
That maugre Laws and Levites durst be good,  
And in most Crooked Times, most Upright stood:  
Whom all the Tory's Curses could not draw  
From an Adherance unto what he saw  
Would the True Interest of his Country be,  
Which is, A well-Established Liberty  
In Things Religious; that none may have Power  
His Neighbour for his Conscience to Devour.  
For when of late, the Churchmen with high hand,  
Did persecute Dissenters through the Land,  
And on pretence of their Loud Penal Laws,  
Made them a Prey to the Devouring Jaws  
Of Villainous Informers, who were then  
The King's best Subjects styled, by those Hot Men:  
CARE Saw, and Grieved to see what work they made:  
And to Divert them by his Pen Essayed:  
And did to Peaceful Counsels them incline,  
(But this, Alas! was Cross to their Design;  
Which was for the Dissenters Ruin laid,  
From which no Arguments could them persuade)  
For his Discerning Soul did then foresee  
Those Violences soon would fatal be  
Unto Themselves, and Gall and Wormwood bring,  
When once they were considered by the King:  
This He Remonstrated; but all in vain:  
Dissenters than no Favour could obtain.   

But when Great JAMES into his Royal thought  
The Sufferings of Dissenting Subjects brought;  
And to the great Rejoicing of the Nation  
Did Publish His most Gracious Declaration  
For Liberty of Conscience, and set free  
Dissenters from the Church-mens Tyranny:  
Then CARE did in Heroiek Numbers sing  
Praises to GOD, and Thanks unto the King:  
This was the Joyful Epocha! From hence  
He saw Great Britain's Glory would commence:  
'Twas this he saw that would the Kingdom Crown  
With Wealth and Honour, Riches and Renown.  
And therefore when the Nations Restless Foes  
So great a Blessing did in Print oppose,  
He thought himself obliged to declare  
How Vain and Groundless their Pretences were:  
And that such might have nothing left to say,  
He also Published his DRACONICA.  
And always, as Occasion did him Urge,  
He unto Persecutors proved a Scourge:  
This he himself affirmed to be his Station:   

But O! so great a Blessing to the Nation  
Is snatched from hence, even in his prime of Years,  
And left all Good men for his Loss in Tears:  
His Loss indeed is National we see,  
And as his Loss is, should Our Mourning be:  
Well may we drain whole Rivers from our Eyes,  
For we his Matchless Worth could never prize!  
But Tears alas can't bring him back; His Gain  
Does prove our Loss; and we now Sigh in vain,  
And though Vile men have oft Reproached him here,  
He did not them nor their Reproaches fear:  
Nor did their Threats their hoped-for issue find:  
He did his Duty, not his Danger mind.  
And maugre all their Scoffs that him deride,  
A Protestant he Lived, and such he Died.  
And though This Age unto his Worth be blind,  
Yet will his Writings such Acceptance find  
With After-Ages, that his Name will be  
Admired and Honoured by Posterity.  
But words don't need his Praises to relate,  
For his own Works do praise him in the Gate.  
By them it is his Worth is best Expressed—  
Grief stops my Pen, and I must weep the rest.    

His EPITAPH.  

UNSder these Clods that Body lies,  
Whose Soul now soars above the Skies;  
Yet will they both Unite again,  
And in Eternal Bliss remain,  
But Reader, when thou dost but know  
Who 'twas that did this Body owe,  
'Twill cause thee weep e'er thou'rt aware,  
Here lies the most Ingenious HENRY CARE.  
Who was (to render him his Due)  
To GOD, his King, and to his Country True.  
Here lies (let Carpers all say what they can)  
A Loyal Subject, and an Honest Man.    

With Allowance.  
London: Printed by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate.