A VIEW OF THE TIMES.  
WITH BRITAIN'S ADDRESS TO THE Prince of Orange.  
A Pindaric POEM.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable 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 awed 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 crowned Heads with that Disrespect and Contempt, as if the British World had agreed they would be governed by no more Kings: And it is no doubt that sort of Establishment is aimed at by that great Part of the Nation, the Dissenters. But all true English Men, Men of honour, and of the Orthodox Church, 'tis to be hoped yet, have other Sentiments, of which number your Lordship is one; whose Glorious Principles of Loyalty and honour, even now shine forth to the World, and with a Noble Lustre gilding all your other virtues, have rendered your Lordship one of the most Considerable of any Great Men of your Nation to all succeeding times; and 'tis from Men of such Principles we must hope for the Accomplishment of that Good which has so lately been assured 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 ourselves with the belief, that such Impudent and rightdown Treasonable Libels, as daily come out upon their Majesties, are rather the uncontrollable 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 lawful King, or God himself; since to speak Evilly of the one, is to profane 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 imagine 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 abhorred; and are as absolutely a disgrace to this great design of settling 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 villainies made themselves uncapable of Living under a King, they must now be allowed authentic Evidences against his present Majesty, and blacken him with such Actions of Horror, that the most barbarous of Villains, Thieves, and murderers, nay the Fiends themselves, were never guilty of: And though these ridiculous and inhuman 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 ruined 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 entire Respect for the Prince of Orange than myself, 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 wellwishers to the Established Church, Laws, and Liberties. 'Tis therefore wished that such public 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 honour, and his Sacred Majesty the Head and Fountain of honour, they would not suffer that to be polluted by profane 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 villainies 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 murdered, 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 murder, bloody villainy, 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 honour, 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 virtue, and holiness of Life, would let pass the murder 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. 'Tis therefore the humble Request of all honest Men, that this Licentiousness of the Press may be suppressed; 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 oppressed, but now he is forced to fly, contrary to the Intent (I hope) of all who have embarked 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 atchieument that ever was surprising 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, accomplished with so many virtues, 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 promised us besides: For after the most refined 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 human 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 expense of English Blood (and money more dear to us;) and let us please ourselves, 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 happened) 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 honourable 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, virtues that used to go hand in hand among good Christians, and Men of honour. 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 arrived, so neither was it needful; we having a King that blessed be God, who would not have carried his Dispensing Power to that height, as to become a burden, 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 encouragement and respite from Affliction; and we may see by his majesty's 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 'twill be Objected, That he made not this Gracious condescension 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 vanquished a far greater Army than what came with the Prince; and nobody 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 abandoned. And 'tis most certain, and well known to some of Quality, that his Majesty would have condescended to any reasonable terms that honour could have proposed; 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, 'tis 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 hindered us of this happy Peace, and promised Union, were the Faults of his Highness, whose Designs were undoubtedly Noble, but the Effects of a too violent Council, too much biased 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 retired  
With thoughtful Grief, not noble Song inspired;  
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 savage nature's 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've seen?  
How many dangerous Turns of State have been  
In this fantastic World?  
When first the British Light I saw,  
Religion, Liberty, and Law,  
Were all to wild Confusion hurled.  
A bleeding Body 'twas without a Head,  
And every Street was stored  
With mangled Members of the noble Dead,  
The Trophies of the impious Conqueror's Sword.  
True Child of Sorrow thou were't born,  
And Loyal Sighs and Tears did usher in thy Morn.   

IV.  
Then in a vile Democracy  
Thou soundest thy Education,  
And yet, by Nature, scorned that Tyranny,  
That so enslaved the Nation;  
And still Religion was the Cry,  
The Subjects Liberty and Property.  
No Business here was for heroic Song,  
And only satire (then but young)  
Durst move her daring Tongue:  
And that in Whispers too; for had she loudly spoke,  
Not all the Gods she could invoke,  
Had saved 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 raised their monarch's virtues to the Sky,  
Then in the perfumed 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! 'twas long,  
They useless lay, unplumed, unfit for Flight,  
Nor could they thrive in Britain's Night,  
But brooding Sat expecting rising Light:  
Enduring all the Insolence of Fate,  
And every rising Storm of State.  
The bleak Winds blew, and the loud Thunder spreads  
Their swift-winged Mischiefs round their Heads,  
By numerous falling Showers oppressed,  
By Ignorance profaned;  
Yet still they kept the silent downy Nest;  
Still they Parnassus sacred Grove maintained.   

VI.  
Oft thou hadst heard of Kings,  
Of Courts, and long past Glorious Things;  
And oft been told the piteous 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 monstrous Thing,  
That did at Westminster reside,  
Which had devoured Church, Bishops, Laws and King  
With an insatiate Arbitrary Pride:  
Thou heardest it fed on Human Blood,  
On Widows, and on orphan's Tears,  
On Lands of Loyal Commoners, and Peers:  
And for its Grace, it said Long Prayers;  
And formed what Laws it pleased, which passed for good:  
With Ease the restive World this Monster backed,  
And taught the hard-mouthed Beast t'obey,  
Knowing, if once his Hand he slacked,  
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'er  
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 conveyed.   

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 mongrel Monarchy,  
And the next Turn was Anarchy;  
Then to a commonwealth they would submit,  
But none had Sense enough to manage it:  
And Lambert's Wife forbade that Form,  
And swore her Lord should take his Turn.  
Thus was poor Britain tossed and torn,  
By every Sect and every Form,  
Till ruined in the frantic Storm.  
But Heaven, more merciful, the tattered Vessel saves,  
Just sinking in the rolling 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, 'twas Monk that made her stem the Tide.  
And all Triumphant on the Billows ride.   

Ix..  
Monk! Whom True Bravery inclined,  
Thought it more Great to Give, than Wear a Crown,  
That restless Glory rather now resigned  
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 appeared 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 filled at once with Hope and Fear.  
The bloodless Victor did not yet explain  
The great Design for which he came:  
Wallingford House Committee stood amazed,  
And the Rump-Parliament  
Their Trembling Speaker sent,  
To ask the Conqueror, What he meant?  
While the expecting City on the Wonder gazed.   

X.  
The rude, ungoverned Mobile,  
As wild as the insatiate Sea,  
No Bounds or Limits used to obey;  
Those who before with Arbitrary Rule,  
Durst pull down Monarchies and Kings,  
Prelates and Peers as Useless Things;  
And what was Sacred Turn to ridicule:  
This Coward base plebeian 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 horned Beast durst from his Covert peep,  
No busy Traders fill the Street;  
But the whole City now appeared  
A desert, all abandoned by the Frighted Heard.   

XI.  
'Twas wonderful to see  
That Insolence, which nothing could 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, saucy Multitude  
Rebelled for Idol Liberty,  
And stamped it with the specious Name  
Of Conscience, and their Darling Property,  
As if no Sin, Impiety, or Shame  
Could 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 gained,  
Without one Stroke, his Glorious End:  
(Th'Attempt too Pious was, to be by Blood obtained.)  
And thus the exiled Monarch was restored,  
His Entrance crowding Worlds attend,  
Who, like a God, was welcomed and adored:  
Wild with their Joys, no Countenance durst wear  
Disguised in a fanatic Leer;  
But even the most dissatisfied would feign  
To approve the Change in a Consenting Sneer.  
'Twas then our Haltion Days began;  
'Twas then Just Laws in their old channels ran,  
And right Religion in her Churches shone;  
'Twas then the King's Prerogative  
Did with the people's Property revive,  
And each Man basked beneath his Vine;  
No Sequestrators, by a Lawless Might,  
Invaded now the Subjects Right,  
And Mighty Caesar too,  
From every Willing Hand received his Due,  
According to the Laws Divine:   

XIII.  
'Twas then, the Muses left the sheltering Grove,  
And to the open Air  
Unfrighted now repair,  
Than thou, my Muse, with unfleged Pinions strove,  
To soar amongst the rest above.  
Through untraced Paths thou didst essay to fly,  
To bear thy Monarch's Fame on high,  
But flaged beneath thy Sisters in the Sky;  
Yet often didst strive and often strive in vain,  
At last Parnassus' Hill thou chanced to gain:  
The Royal Theme inspired thy Noble Verse;  
Great Charles and James' virtues gave thy Fancy Wing,  
Which in soft Lays thou didst rehearse,  
And in prophetic 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 cloyed,  
She satiates with the Pleasure she enjoyed.  
Her Plighted Lord grows dull in her Embrace,  
And his Caresses now no more surprise:  
She dotes 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 subtle Harlot, first complains,  
And cries, Her Lord by Evil Counsel Reigns,  
To Rome affected, Pensioners of France.  
Oh False! oh villainous Pretence!  
Against so Just, so Merciful a Prince;  
Yet this Pretence, when all her other failed,  
Upon the Restless Multitude prevailed,  
And only Caesar's Ruin could Redress  
Her new-coyned Fears, and fancied Grievances.   

XV.  
Then a false Idol up they set,  
Whose Title is proclaimed aloud,  
And frantic Huzza's through each Street,  
Salute him from the Dirty Crowd;  
That very Crowd (when the Reverse of State,  
Had turned about the Wheel of Fate)  
Pursued 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'er he was beloved before.  
But while he triumphed here, he led along  
Th'Associating and Rebellious Throng;  
More than divided now the World appeared,  
And the more numerous Part he shared.  
Still 'twas Religion was the Word  
That sanctified the Cause, and edged the Sword.   

XVI.  
No Wonder then, Illustrious James,  
That barefaced Malice dares traduce thy Name;  
When with the same Inhuman Crimes,  
They blot Great CHARLES's Sacred Fame;  
Though he the same established Faith professed  
With those, by whom he was so long oppressed.  
If with some Laws he did dispense,  
Should 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 should amount;  
To Heaven alone his judgement must belong.  
Laws, and Religion both this Maxim teach,  
If we'll profess what our own churchmen Preach;  
Their doctrine 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 vexed  
With Rebel Israel, do repeat that Text:  

Hone's trial, &c. and Rye-House.  And yet how oft was Caesar's Life the Aim,  
And nothing, but his Death, could free  
The World from Slavery and Popery,  
And fix Religion in her wonted Frame.  
Religion! oh thou thing of Noise and Show!  
What villainies 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 preserved,  
For the succeeding Glories he deserved,  
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,  
Blackened with all the Sins Fiends could invent.  
That Prince for whom they formed an Impious Bill,  
Hatched by the Dark Cabal of Hell,  
Which Heaven abhorred, and all Heavens 
* The Bishop.  Prophets too,  
Who with a Pious Scorn, and Just Disdain,  
Out of the Senate that Bold Treason threw,  
That on the British honour laid so great a Stain.  
This very Prince their Caprice would destroy,  
They now enthrone with Universal Joy.   

XVIII.  
He Reigns! The Pious Prince in Glory Reigns!  
But Britain's still distempered Brains  
To her Old Natural Vice adheres,  
Which fills her Mind with Jealousies and Fears;  
She Fears, and cannot be appeased,  
Dares not on Caesar's Word rely;  
But seeks a Desperate Cure, before she is diseased,  
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 dispense?  
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 enslaved will be,  
Unjustly would her King enslave;  
Rebels for Idol Liberty,  
And yet her Fellow Christians, Born as Free;  
They would of Liberty deprive:  
As if the All-Creating Powers Divine·  
Did their vast Knowledge to one Sect confine.  
If Holy Writ must Judge, (as gownsmen say)  
Then every Christian may  
Pretend a Right to Heaven his different way:  
If his Own judge each is allowed 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 fancied Sense?  
Who shall determine then twixt Right and Wrong,  
If each Man's Faith to his own Sense belong;  
Why then, Mistaken gownsmen, why  
Must I for an Opinion Fly,  
Or changing my Opinion, die;  
Since you have Taught it in your School,  
That Each Man's judgement should be Each Man's Rule?  
And if our Guides Mistake their Way,  
Shall we be punished if we Stray?  
Your Pulpits oft this Error do Commit,  
And make a Different Sense of Holy Writ.  
When Paying Caesar's dew has been the Theme,  
Then nonresistance was the Cry;  
Which Text was born to that extreme,  
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, suit the Sacred Word,  
T'advance some New Design, and enterprise,  
Then, 'Tis 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)  
'Twill 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! you should first agree  
What's by that Word, Religion, meant,  
If the established Church it be,  
By Boasted Act of Parliament,  
Then oh, 
* The Church.  Eusebia, you, with Justice, fear,  
Religion will not now be settled 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? 
Oath of Allegiance, &c.   
Or Violate our Sacred Oaths?  
Is it Religion to unsheathe the Sword  
Against the Anointed of the Lord?  
Alas! how vain is then the Sacred Word?  
Why then was David Smitten in his Heart,  
For Robbing Saul but only of his Skirt; 
1 Sam. c. 24. v. 4, 5.   
With the same Stroke he might have Empire gained;  
But God forbid, (the Royal Youth replied)  
Against the King I should direct my Hand,  
Or see it in the Blood of Monarchs died:  
If those a Curse upon themselves must bring, 
Eccl. 10.20.   
Who, but in Heart, think Evil of the King;  
If of King's Safeties Heaven has took such Care,  
That even the winged 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 betrayed?  
The outlawed 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 blessed,  
This Covert suiting with a Soul distressed,  
With Sighing Winds, and Murmuring Rivers mourn,  
Till James, thy godlike Master, back return.    

Britain's 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 replenished Virtues first  
Made me my Willing Shores resign  
Up to your Conquering Hands in Trust.  
Not Caesar's Promise, nor the Word of God  
Could calm the Trembling Fevers in my Blood;  
'Twas Yours, Great Sir, on whom I did depend,  
My Laws, and Just Religion to Defend;  
'Twas that, that did Assist your Glory's Rise,  
'Twas 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 confined.  
The Mighty Work's but half yet done,  
Your Glories cannot be complete,  
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 succeeding 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'er Renown;  
Nor let your Nobler Quiet be undone  
With the too Restless burden of a Crown.  

The Princess of Orange.  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 replete,  
Needs not th'Addition of a Lawless Crown:  
Leave it to Heaven! since You've too lately seen  
The Faith False Britain paid an injured Queen.  
FINIS.