A Pindarique Ode, Upon the late Horrid and Damnable Whiggish Plot.  

I.  
DIssenting Bigots, boast no more  
Of Glorious Mischiefs heretofore;  
Not all the Troops your Godly Factions lead,  
Bradshaw and cronwell in their Head,  
Can vie with single Shaftsbury,  
For secure Arts of close-laid villainy;  
They but the empty Types, the weighty substance He.  
'Tis true, these two great Leaders carried on  
Their bold Designs till Life was done;  
But when the viprous pair was crushed, the Wound  
They living made, closed and again was Sound:  
Whilst he, like Serpents of more poisonous kind,  
Where e're he once his fork'd Tongue applies,  
Though in the Fatal Act he dies,  
Still leaves his Venom and his Sting behind.   

II.  
Monmouth and Essex both were Stung,  
And many more by this envenomed Tongue;  
And straight they all began to Swell,  
From Sense and Reason straight they Fell;  
And melancholy Fumes possessed their Brain,  
And they would all be Kings, and all would reign.  
Hence their disordered passion Springs,  
And spitting Venom on the best of Kings;  
Hence their attempts upon his Life and Throne;  
Hence all the secret Mysteries  
Of undermining Treacheries,  
And hidden Veins of Treasons yet unknown.  
But thou, Great Charles, despise their vain Designs;  
The Unicorn, Supporter of thy Arms,  
'Gainst all their Poison bears sufficient Charms;  
And a much greater power blows up their deepest Mines.   

III.  
Methinks the dark Cabal of Six I see,  
Double Triumvirate of villainy;  
Exceeding that which went before  
In Number much, in mischief more:  
Caesar's Adopted Son does first appear;  
Art thou, my Brutus, there?  
Thou that wert once so Great and Good;  
From the high place wherein you justly stood  
How art thou fallen, O Lucifer?  
He once, like you, was Fair and Bright,  
Chief Leader of the Glorious Hosts of Light;  
But long( alas!) he could not bear  
To see above him placed th' Eternal Kings Immediate Heir.  
He scorned Subjection, for a Kingdom fell;  
But gained Eternal Slavery and Hell:  
Thus while from Good to Ill they headlong tend,  
The brightest Angel makes the blackest Fiend.   

IV.  
Next Essex, once deservedly Great,  
Though since the Scorn and Mockery of Fate:  
Essex, whose late Successful sway  
Made Ireland Peaceably obey;  
And followed well Great Ormonds tract, who lead him all the way.  
His Fathers Bright Example long prevailed,  
And that most Precious Legacy  
He left to him of Loyalty;  
( So the declining Sun, when chased by coming Night,  
Still guilds the World a while with the remains of Light:)  
But when that Hell and Shaftsbury assailed,  
His Noble Resolutions quickly failed,  
And all his former Virtues nought availed.  
Addresses and Petitions first.  
( For who can fall at once from Good to Worst?)  
Began the Game; and aiming to Betray,  
Like Judas, All Hail Master, lead the way.  
Unhappy man! who carried on  
Too sadly the Comparison!  
tortured like him by his Despair,  
Like him he was his own sad Executioner.   

V.  
Russel and Esckrick next in order were;  
Nor did I much admire to see them there:  
Happy the latter of the two, who since  
Has washed away his Faults in Humble Penitence;  
And by a true Confession  
Of others Treason and his own,  
With his most Gracious Prince may for the last Atone.  
I wave the former, since he Justly died,  
And by his Death has satisfied:  
But he has to himself been more unkind;  
And his own Libel left behind.  
Next sidney comes; a Name  
In brave Sir Philip known to famed  
For Perfect Wit and Loyalty;  
Though now by Algernoon marked with so Black a die,  
As does almost Eclipse the famed of his Great Ancestry.  
Hampden the last; the worthy Son  
Of him well known in forty One:  
Grand Patron of the Canting Tribe,  
How shall I thee Describe?  
None can draw thee according to thy due,  
But he that has the knack to Hang and Quarter too.   

VI.  
These, and a numerous Train of many more,  
Their dark Designs did secretly contrive;  
Till Keeling, who did long Connive,  
To sound their depth, and number all their store,  
broken forth, and shone like Gold amid the Ore.  
Against his Conscience nothing could prevail;  
Not Life and interest in the other Scale:  
All other by-concerns he laid aside;  
And fixed his mind with Noble Pride  
Upon a Name so Good and Great,  
As sole Preserver of the Church and State.  
What Thanks for such Obligements shall we bring?  
Our Fortunes and our Lives we owe  
For what you did on us bestow;  
What then for our Religion, and our King?  
Take first our Hearts; while we can only Pray,  
God and his great Vice-gerent will repay.   

VII.  
And now the Horrid Plot appears,  
Writ in the Blackest Characters;  
And every page. some Bloody Title bears,  
Seditions, Treasons, Massacres.  
What in a King so Good, what could they see,  
To arm that numerous Conspiracy  
Against so mildred a Majesty;  
Which like the Sun, its Beams does wear,  
Not to Consume, but Warm and Cheer?  
blessed Prince! and canst thou still dispense  
To this Unthankful Land thy Gracious Influence?  
Still canst thou  shed thy Favours upon those  
That are the near Relations of thy Foes?  
Brave Capel and Southampton on this Hand,  
Essex and Russel on the other stand;  
He turned from these, and fixed his Princely view  
Upon the Nobler Object of the two;  
And as he looked, on all their Friends his willing Favours threw.  
Let Russel's Wife( said he) unpitty'd go;  
But shall Southampton's Daughter fall so low?  
Essex his Son should want, 'tis true;  
But what shall then Brave Capel's Grandson do?  
In his Indulgent Memory,  
So long great Virtues live, so soon Offences die.   

VIII.  
Yet him, thus justly famed for mildness of his Reign,  
The Bloody Faction dooms to die;  
And to Enhance their Cruelty,  
would in his Royal Brother Murder him again:  
His Royal Brother, who had always been  
A Partner of the Troubles he was in;  
Of all his dangers bore a share,  
And still with him Joynt-Sufferer:  
even him their Hellish rage Assails;  
The Hercules, that when our Atlas fails,  
Must with his Shoulders prop the sinking State,  
And bear unmoved the mighty weight.  
With them the Loyal, all the Good and Great,  
Must meet an unrelenting Fate;  
For those by strong Antipathy they hate.   

IX.  
Nor can the Church escape this Cursed band:  
What once was to the Worst a Sanctuary,  
Can to its self no Refuge be;  
That with the State does always fall or stand:  
And may both stand till time its self has end;  
And still each other mutually defend:  
For whilst with open Force, or secret Hate,  
The two extremes assault the State;  
The English Church keeps on her steady place,  
fixed in the middle, Virtues place;  
Nor e're rebelled against the Throne,  
Under whose Gracious shade 'twas planted and has grown.  
But as the Ivy, with whose Verdant Boughs  
Her Learned Sons may justly wreathe their Brows,  
Does round the elm its loving Branches twine;  
And when the Axe its kind support assails,  
That also feels the Stroke, and with it fails:  
So while the Church and State their strict Embraces join;  
The same rude Blow, that over-turns the Crown,  
Strikes its loved partner too, and hews her down.   

X.  
Ah! wretched England! how art thou,  
The Worlds late Envy, made its Laughter now?  
Is't not enough, that foreign Foes  
Disturb thy quiet, and thy Peace oppose?  
But must thy Children, like young Vipers, tear  
The womb which did them bear?  
Hast thou so few Abroad, that thou must be  
Thy own most dreadful Enemy?  
At length, Unhappy Land thy Errors view;  
And give to Caesar, and to God their due;  
Leave Factious Arts, nor let so stale a Cheat  
Twice in one Age impose upon the State:  
murmur no more, when you should Thanks repay;  
And value Mercies, least thy fly away:  
For they who spurn at God, deserve to suffer worse;  
And Blessings, when abused, oft turn into a Curse.    

London, Printed and Sold by N. Thompson at the Entrance into the Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross, 1684.