AN ELEGIE UPON Edward Fitz-Harris, Executed at Tyburn for High-Treason upon Friday, July 1. 1681.
UNhappy Man! the Nations scorn and hate,
How shall I do thy
Death to deplorate?
[...] Tears are due to such a
Tragedy,
Who liv'd
unlov'd, must needs
unpitied dye;
Upon that
Soyl where nought but Thorns will grow,
In vain the
Heavens their baulmy Dews bestow,
Had thy Crimes been of a less bloody hue,
Humanity would have made something due,
A thing that's
soft in all but such as you;
But where the Widdows and the Orphans Tears,
Three
Kingdoms Misery for many years
Intail'd upon them and the
Sacred Blood
Of a
Great Prince, so merciful and good,
Could no
Relentings find,
Humanity
It self is forfeit,
You deserv'd to dye:
Such Blood we can
compassionate no more
The loss of, than our own
diseased Store,
When in the
Crisis of a Plurisie
Blood must be
spilt, or
we our selves must dye;
How many Mischiefs ran in every Vein,
That did that hateful Blood of thine contain:
Whose
Circulations still did ebb and flow
With
Plots and
Stratagems, to overthrow
Thy
Country's Peace; whose Pulse did nothing beat
But
Plots and
Treasons, and whose Native heat
Inflamed by a
Popish Devilish Zeal,
Rag'd with a
Calenture as hot as
Hell.
Thou that hast been the
Tennis-Ball of
State,
Bandy'd betwixt the
Powers and thy
Fate,
So for a time suspended,
Vengeance now
(Impatient grown) has giv'n the fatal Blow,
That to the curs'd
Designs thou didst intend
Against these
Kingdoms puts a final End:
Now 'tis too late to blind us any more
With feign'd Discov'ries, as thou didst before;
To flatter
Mercy with a
Tale, and then
True Papist-like, unsay the same again.
What e're it was, thou
ought'st to let us know
[...] by an Eternal
Silence now;
Yet Heav'n knows all, and will in time reveal
These Depths of Treachery, which to conceal,
Rome by her Damned
Oaths, and Idle
Frights,
Obliges her Deluded
Proselites.
But stay, Is there no Room for
Charity
In such a
Case as this? Papists deny
It us, and by uncharitable Votes
Next damn our Souls, when they have cut our throats.
The
Laws of our
Religion us inclines
T' assume more soft and
charitable minds;
And when that
Justice once has had its due,
We can both hope their good, and pity too.
Poor Dying
Ma
[...]factors; we can pray
For them while there is life; and hope all may
Be well after their Death, especially
Where any Sorrow for their Guilt w'espy;
Where any shews of true
Repentance are,
Our
Church has charitably taken care
To purge each Souls by Absolution,
Before their Merited Execution:
Our
Justice (not invenomed with
Spite
Or
Malice) grants a
charitable-right
To such Offenders, that their
Souls may have
A place in
Heav'n, whose
Bodies want a Grave,
Altho we make no
Traytors Martyrs, we
Allow them
Happiness in Charity,
Where they are truly Penitent,
Confession
Serves sometimes
here to blot out a Transgression,
And to obtain a Pardon, but when
here
It is deny'd, it may be gotten
there
Where
Pity springs, where
boundless Mercies flow,
We wish, and hope it may be his
Case now.
London, Printed for Thomas Snowden, An. 1681.