Chapter 2

Title page

AP A N E G Y R I CTOCharles the Second,PRESENTEDTO HIS MAJESTIETheXXXIII. ofAPRIL, being the DayOF HISCORONATION.MDCLXI.

ByJOHN EVELYN, Esquire

crown

LONDON,Printed forJohn Crooke, and are to be sold at the Ship in St.Paul’sChurch-Yard.

APANEGYRICTOCHARLES the II.PRESENTEDTO HIS MAJESTYOn the Day of HisInauguration,April 23.MDCLXI.

I have decreed with myself (O best and greatest of Kings!) to publish the just resentiments of a heart, perfectly touch’d with the Joy and Universal Acclamations of your People, for your this dayes Exaltation and glorious investiture. And truly, it was of custome us’d to good and gracious Princes, upon lesser occasions, to pronounce and celebrate their merits with Elogies and Panegyrics; but if ever they were due, it is to your Majesty this Day; because as your Virtues are superiour to all that pass’d before you; so is the Conjuncture, and the steps by which you are happily ascended to it, Miraculous, and alltogether stupendious: So that what the former Ages might produce to deprecate their fears, or flatter the Inclinations of a Tyrant, we offer spontaneously, and by Instinct, without Artifice to your Serene Majesty, our just and rightfull Soveraign. And if in these expressions of it, and the formes we use, it were possible to exceed, and so offend your Modesty; herein only (great Sir) do we not fear to disobey you; since it is not in your power to deny us our rejoycing, nor indeed in ours, to moderate. Permit us therefore (O best of Kings) to follow our genius, and to consecrate your Name, and this dayes exaltation to that posterity which you alone have preserved, and which had certainly seen its period, but for your happy Restauration; so that your Majesty does not so much accept a benefit from, as give it to your Subjects. For though the fulness of this Dayes joy, be like the seven years of plenty; yet, is that bread far more sweet, which is eaten with remembrance of the past Famine (too bitter, alas! to be forgotten on the suddain) especially, when it may serve to illustrate our present felicity, and conduce to your Majesties glory: For so the skillful Artist, studious of making a surprising peice, or representing some irradiated Deity, deepens theshadowes sometimes with the darkest touches, and approaching to horrour it self, thereby to render his lights the more refulgent, and striking in the eyes of the Spectator.

Let us then call to mind (and yet for ever cursed be the memory of it) those dismal clouds, which lately orespread us, when we served the lusts of those immane Usurpers, greedy of power, that themselves might be under none; Cruel, that they might murther the Innocent without cause; Rich, with the publick poverty; strong, by putting the sword into the hands of furies, and prosperous by unheard of perfidie. Armies, Battails, Impeaching, Imprisonment, Arraining, Condemning, Proscribing, Plundring, Gibbets and Executions were the eloquent expressions of our miseries: There was no language then heard but of Perjury, Delusion,Hypocrisie, Heresie, Taxes, Excises, Sequestration, Decimation, and a thousand like barbarities: In summe, the solitudes were filled with noble Exiles, the Cities with rapacious Theives, the Temples with Sacrilegious Villains; They had the spoiles of Provinces, the robbing of Churches, the goods of the slain, the Stock of Pupils, the plunder of Loyal Subjects; no Testament, no State secure, and nothing escaped their cruelty and insatiable avarice. For if it be sweet in prosperity, to consider of the past adventures, if tempests commend the Haven; War, Peace; and our last sharp sickness, our present Health and Vigour; why should it not delight your Majesty to hear of the miseries we have suffered; since they re-inforce your own felicity, and the benefits which we receive by it? where then should I begin but with thy Calamities, O unfortunateEngland! who hadst only the priviledge of being miserable, when all the World were happy: But I will not go too for in repeating the sorrowes which are vanish’t, or uncover the buried memory of the evils past; least whilst we strive to represent the vices of others, we seem to contaminate your Sacred purple, or alloy our present rejoycing; since that only is sign of a perfect and consummate felicity, when even the very remembrance of evils past, is quite forgotten.

Miraculous Reverse! O marvel greater then Mans Counsel! who will believe that which his eyes do see? what before a twenty years confusion had destroy’d; behold a few moneths have restor’d: But the wonder does yet so much more astonish, that the grief was not so universal for having suffer’d under such a Tyranny, as for having been so long depriv’d of so excellent a Prince: No more then do we henceforth accuse our past miseries; All things are by your presence repair’d, and so reflourish; as if they even rejoyc’d they had once been destroy’d,Auctior tuis facta beneficiis.So as not only a Diadem binds your sacred Temples this day; but you have even crown’d all your Subjects too; so has your auspicious presence gilded all things; our Churches, Tribunals, Theaters, Palaces, lift up their heads again; the very fields do laugh and exalt. O happy, and blessed spring! not so glorious yet with the pride and enamel of his flowers, the golden corn, and the gemms of the pregnant Vine, as with those Lillies and Roses which bloom and flourish in your Chaplet this day, to which not only these, but even all the productions of nature seem to bend, and pay their homage.

And let it be a new year, a newÆra, to all the future Generations, as it is the beginning of this, and of that immense,PlatonicRevolution;for what could arrive more justly, more stupendious, were even the eight sphear it self now hurled about? For no sooner came ourCHARLESon shore, but every Man was in the Haven where he would be; the storm Universally ceas’d, and every one ran forth to see ourPalladium, tanquam cœlo delapsum: Virgins, Children, Women, trembling old Men, venerating the very ship that wafted ourJasonand hisHeroes, ravish’d with the sight, yet hardly believing for astonishment; the greatness of the miracle, oppressing our sences, and endangering our very faith.

Credetne hoc olim ventura posteritas?

I would prayse you Great Prince, but having begun; where shall I make an end? since there remains not a Topic through all that kind, but one might write Decads of it, without offending the truth, were it as secure of your modesty; since I am as well to consider what your ears can suffer, as what is owing to your Virtues: On what heads shall I extend then my discourse? your Birth, Country, Form, Education, Manners, Studies, Friends, Honours and Fortune run through all partitions of the Demonstrative: An Orator could have nothing more to wish for, nor your Majesty to render you more accomplish’d.

Shall I consider then your Majesty as you were a Son to that glorious Father before hisApotheosis? As you were your self a Confessor after it; As you are now thus day in your Zenith and exaltation; and as we Augure you will by Gods blessing prove to your Subjects hereafter: For even through all these does our prospect lead us; Nor may it be objected that what shall be spoken of your Majesty, can be applied to any other; since the Fortune and Events of the rest of Princes, have been so differing from yours; as seeming to have been conducted by Men alone, and second Causes; yours only by God, and as it were by Miracle.

I begin then with your early Piety to that Kingly Martyr whose Sacred dictates did institute your tender years, and whose sufferings were so much alleviated by your Majesties early proficiency in all that might presage a hopefull and glorious Successor: For so did you run through all his Vicissitudes, during that implacable war, which sought nothing more then to defeat you of all opportunities of a Princely education, as fearing your future Virtues; because they knew the stock from whence you sprung, was not to be destroy’d by wounding the body, so long as such a Branch remained.

Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibusNigræ feraci frondis in Algido,Per damna, per cædes, ab ipsoDucit opes, animumque ferro.

Whilst he Reign’d and Govern’d, you learn’d only to obey; Living your own Princely Impress;ICH DIEN.as knowing it would best instruct you one day how to Command, and which we now see accomplish’d: These then are the effects, when Princes are the Sons of Nobles; since only such know best to support the weight, who use to bear betimes, and by degrees; not those who rashly pull it on their shoulders; because they take it with less violence, less ambition, less jealousie: None so secure a Prince, as he that is so born.

But no sooner did that blessed Martyr expire, then our redivivePhœnixappear’d; rising from those Sacred Ashes Testator and Heir; Father and yet Son; Another, and yet the same; introsuming as it were his Spirit, as he breath’d it out, when singing his own Epicedium and Genethliack together, he seem’d prodigal of his own life to have it redouble’d in your felicity: Thus,Rex nunquam moritur. O admirable conduct of the Divine Providence, to immortalize the image of a just Monarch:Ipsa quidem, sed non eadem, quia & ipsa, nec ipsa est.Since that may as truly be apply’d to your Majesty, which was once to the wisest of Kings:Mortuus est Pater ejus, & quasi non mortuus, similem enim reliquit sibi post se.

But with how much prudence, is serenity attributed amongst the titles of Princes, and the beams of the sun to irradiate their Crowns; That the Scepter bears a Flower; since as that glorious planet produces, so does it also wither them; and there is nothing lasting, save their vertues, which are indeed their essential parts, and only immortal; For even yet did the clouds intercept our day with the continuance of so dismall a storm, as it obnubilated all those hopes of ours. It is an infinite adventure, if in a PrincesFamilyFirmamentFirmament(once overcast) it ever grow fair weather again, but by a singular and extraordinary providence. I mention this to increase the wonder, and reinforce your felicity. Empires passe, Kingdomes are translated, and dominions cease: TheCecropidesof old, theArsacides, theTheban,Corinthian,Syracusian, and sundry more lasted nor to the fourth Age without strange and prodigious tragedies; but why go we so far back, when a few Centuries present us with so many fresh Revolutions? How many nests has theRomanEagle changed?Bulgarian,Saracen,Latine; In theComneni,Isaaci,Paleologi, &c. even till it dash’d it self in pieces against theOetomanrock. What mutations have been in the house ofArragon? How many Riders has theParthenopeanhorse unsaddl’d and flung? How manySicily? What changes have been inItaly, What inFrance, and indeed through allEuropebyVandals,Saxons,Danes,Normans, by external invasion, internal Faction, Envy, Ambition, treachery and violence? TheConsulatedegenerated intoOligarchy, which occasion’d theAventinesedition; Democraty intoOchlocratyunder theTribunesand wickedGracchi; andMonarchyit self, (the very best of Governments) into Tyranny.

Indeed your sacred Majesty was cast out of your Kingdoms, but could never be thrown out of our hearts; There, you had a secure seat; and the Prince that is inthron’d there, is safe in all mutations; Keep there Sir, and you are inexpugnable, immoveable. And how should it otherwayes be? A Prince of your virtue could not miscarry, that being truly verified of Your Majesty, as well in your perfections, as your person,Certe, videtis quem elegit Dominus in Regem, quoniam non sit similis illi in omni populo.Nature design’d your Majesty a King, Fortune makes others; nor are you more your peoples by birth, and a gloriousseriesof Progenitors, then by your merits: This appeared in all those digits of your darkest Eclipse; The defect was ours, not your Majesties. For the Sun is alwaies shining, though men alwaies see him not; and since the too great splendor, and prosperity did confound us, it pleased God to interpose those clouds, till we should be better able to behold you with more reverence and security; For then it was that you prepar’d your self for this weighty government, and gave us those presages of your Virtue,by what you did, for your people, and what you suffered for them; signalizing your Courage, your Fortitude, Constancy, Piety, Prudence and Temperance upon all occasions. Your Travels and Adventures are as far beyond those ofUlysses, as you exceed him in Dominions;Si quis enim velit percensere Cæsaris res, totum profecto terrarum orbem enumeret: For he must go very far that would sum up your perfections: Your skill in the customes of Nations, the situations of Kingdomes, the Advantages of places, the temper of the Climates; so as the Ages to come shall tell with delight, where you fought valiantly, where you suffered gallantly,Quis sudores tuos hauserit campus, quæ refectiones tuas arbores, quæ somnum saxa prætexerint, quod denique tectum magnus hospes impleveris, and all those sacredVestigiaof yours: Thus what was once applyed toTrajan, becomes due to your Majesty, and I my self am witness both abroad, and at home, of what I pronounce, having now beheld you in both fortunes with love and admiration; But this is not halfe, and to stop at single perfections, were to give jealousie to the rest yet untouched, and should I but succinctly number them all, were not to weave a Panegyrick, but an Inventory.

But amongst all your Vertues none was more eminent then your constancy to your religion, which no shocks of Fortune, no assaults of sophisters, events and successe of adversaries, or offers of specious Friends could shake; so great a thing it was that you did persevere, so much greaterquod non timuisti ne perseverare non posses.

But whilst Armies on earth fought for the Usurper, the Hosts of Heaven fought in their courses for your Majesty;Spaine.dashing your greatest enemy upon that Rock, which afforded you shelter, till that Tyranny was over past: And how welcome to Us was that blessed dayqui tyrannum abstulit pessimum, Principem dedit optimum! He liv’d by storming others, dyed in one himself,& post Nubila, Phœbus. Yet did not that quite dissolve our fears, till that other head ofHydrawas cut off, that despicable Rump which succeeded, not by the sword, or any humane addresse, least we should sacrifice to our own Nets; but by the immediate hand of heaven, without noise, without Armes, or stratageme, the fame of your vertues, more then the sense of our own misery, universally turning the hearts even of your very Enemies; and then that Northern Star began the dawning of this day, till your nearer approach did guild our Horizon, brighter then the rayes of the Eastern sun, from whose spicy coast, like a true Phœnix you were to come; For so at the sight of that Royal Bird was the memory ofSesostris, ofAmasisandPtolemyever fortunate, and so was yours to us;

——Tum rusticus ergoSuspicit observans volucrem; nam creditur annusIlle salutaris——

the happy presages of our glorious Returne, stupendious indeed and almost indicible: For no sooner did yourArgohoise sail, that the Eagles themselves fled not swifter, then the report of your approach from ten thousand mouthes of brasse, echoing from ship to ship, and shore to shore, with their thundring voices, out done yet with the shouts and acclamations of your glad people, when our shaken Republique rushed at once into your princely Armes for safety andAsylum, not by the occult power of Destiny, or blind revolution, but the extraordinary handof Providence, whosepathes are in the great Waters, and whose footsteps are not known: O novum atque inauditum ad principatum iter, who that shall write Annals, or Verses can ever forget that day? not decrepit age, not the sick, not the tender Sex were kept back from resolving to behold that miraculous entry of yours; The very little children pointed to you, the striplings and young men exsulted, the Antient men stood amazed, and those who were under the empire of a cruel disease, leaped out of their beds, to have the sight of you, that were the safety of the People, returning with cure and refreshment: Others protested, they had even now lived long enough, and were ready to expire with joy, and the transports of their spirits; as satisfied that this Ball could not present them with an other object worthy their admiration; others wished now to live more then ever, that they might still enjoy their desired object; and women forgetting the pains of childbirth, brought forth with joy, because they gave Citizens to their Prince, and Souldiers now to their lawful Emperour.

Your Majesty must needs remember, nor is the sound yet out of your sacred ears, when the houses of this your August Metropolis were covered with the loud and cheerful spectators, because the earth was too narrow to contain them; the wayes and the trees were filled with the shouting of your people, LONG LIVE KINGCHARLESTHEII.tamque æqualiter ab omnibus ex adventu tuo lætitia percepta est, quam omnibus venisti. For when the wise Arbiter of things began to look down upon us, all things conspir’d to make us happy; our Deliverance by your Majesty as by anotherMoses, leading us out of thatÆgyptianbondage; or by a nearer resemblance that of theBabylonishcaptivity, if not yet farr greater; since God did there only turne the heart of a Prince to let a nation go: Here, the hearts of a whole Nation, to invite a banish’d Prince to come, when no other visible power interpos’d. Let others boast then of their miracles; we can produce such, as no age, no people under heaven can shew; God moving the hearts of his most implacable Enemies in a moment as it were, and those who had been before inhumanely thirsty after your blood, now ready to sacrifice their own for your safety;Digna res memoratu! ibat sub ducibus vexillisque Regiis, hostis aliquando Regius, & signa contra quæ steterat sequebatur. But Isuffersurfeitsurfeitwith too much Plenty, and what eloquence is able to expresse the triumph of that your never to be forgotten Entry, unlesse it be the renewing of it this day? For then were we as those who dream, and can yet hardly be perswaded, that we are truly awake:Dies ille æternis seculis monumentisque mandandus, A day never to be forgotten in all our Generations, but to be consecrated to posterity, transmitted to future Ages, and inserted into Monuments more lasting then Brasse. Away then with these Woodden and temporary Arches, to be taken down by the People at pleasure; erect Marble ones, lasting as the Pyramids, and immovable as the mountains themselves, and when they fail, let the memory of it still remain engraven in our Hearts, Books, Records,novissimo haud peritura die.

And yet not this altogether, because we have received a Prince, but such a Prince, whose state and fortune in all this blessed change, we so much admire not, as his mind; For that is truly felicity, not to possessegreat things, but to be thought worthy of them: And indeed Great Sir, necessity constrains me, and the laws ofPanegyric, to verifie it in your Praises, by running over at least those other Appellations, which both your vertue has given to your Majesty, and your Fortune acquir’d. For he is really no King who possesses not (like you) a Kingly mind, be his other advantages what they may: If the Republick belong then toCæsar,Cæsarbelongs much more to the Republick; and of this you have given proof.

For no sooner were we possess’d of your sacred Majestie, but you suddainly gave form to our confusedChaos: We presently saw when you had taken the reigns into your sacred hands, and began to sit at Sterne, our deviating and giddy course grow steady, and the fluctuating Republick at drift ready to put into a secure Port.

You began your Entry with an act of general Clemency, and to make good the advice of your Martyr’d Father, and the best Religion, forgave you bitterest Enemies; and not only barely forgiving, but by an excesse of charity, doing honour to some,ut nemo sibi victus te victore videatur. This was plainly Godlike: For so rare a thing we find it, that Princes think themselves oblig’d; or if they think it, that they love it; that your example will reproach all who went before you: As you promis’d, so you perform’d it, punctually, and with advantage. Nor indeed do you desire any thing should be permitted your Majesty, but what is indulg’d your Vassals, subjecting even your self to those Lawes by which you oblige your Subjects; For as it is a great felicity to be able to do what one will, so is it much more glorious, to will only what is just and honourable. All other Princes before your Majesty spake as much; you only have performed it; nor is there a Tittle of your engagements, which even your very enemies diffide of, much lesse your Friends suspect: They enjoy, and these hope; because those were to be conciliated by present effects, these are secure by past promises; and none that receives them of your Majesty reckons from the time they injoy it, but the period of your promise; because it proceeds (they know) from a Princely and candid mind; and if it seem long in acquiring, it is not (I perswade my self) because you are difficult, much less unmindful; but that the benefit may be more acceptable, and the sense of it more permanent; since too suddain felicity astonishes, and sometimes renders the Recipient ingrateful, whilst your favours are not fugitive but certain. It was only for Your Majestie to be compleatly happie, when you began to be so; and yet your subjects had as much as they could well support; since you have made it your only businesse to sublevate the needie, and give them as it were a new Fate, your piety not more appearing in pardoning your Enemies, and receiving the Penitent, then your justice in restoring the Oppressed: For how many are since your returne, return’d to their own Homes, to their Wives, Children, Offices, and Patrimonies?Addiditque Dominus omnia quæ fuerant Jobi duplicia; some of them with immense advantages; and of this the languishingChurch of Englandis a most eminent instance; That she, which was first and most afflicted, should be first and chiefly refreshed.

You have taken away the affluence to the Committees, Sequestrators, Conventicles, and unjust Slaughter-houses, and converted their zeal to the Temples, the Courts, and the just Tribunals: Magnanimityis return’d again to the Nobility, Modesty to the People, Obedience to Subjects, Charity to Neighbours, Pietie to Children, Fidelity to Servants, and Reverence to Religion; In summe, You are the Restorer of Your Countrie.

The lawes that were lately quiescent, and even trampled under foot, your Majesty has revived; and been yet so prudent in reforming, that even those which your Enemies made upon good deliberation, you permit to stand, shewing your self rather to have been displeased with the Authours, then the Things.

As to Discipline (after the sacrifice due for that innocent blood of your glorious Father) you are not only careful to reject vice your self; but are severe to discountenance it in others; and that yet so sweetly, as you seem rather to perswade then compell; and to cure without a corrosive.

The Army is disbanded, and the Navy paid off without Tumult; because you are trusted without suspicion, and are more secure in the publick love and affection of your people then in men of Iron, the locks and Bars of Tyrants Palaces: And truely Sir, there is no protection to innocency, which is a fort inexpugnable: In vain therefore do Princes confide in any other; for Armes invite Armes, Terrour, suspition. To this only do you trust, and the few which you maintain about your person, is rather for state, then fear.Quid enim istis opus est, quum firmissimo sis muro Civici amoris obtectus?Here is then the firm Keeper of our Liberties indeed, whom the Armies love for His own sake, and whom no servile flattery adores; but a simple, and sincere devotion; and verily such a Prince as Your Majesty, deserves to have friends, Prompt, steady and faithful; such as You have, and which Virtue rather then Fortune procures. Of this I obtest the fidelity of Your own inviolable Party, distinguished formerly by the invidious name ofCavalier, though significant and glorious; but I provoke the World to produce me an example of parallel Loyaltie: What Prince under heaven, after so many losses, and all imaginable calamities, can boast of such a party? TheGreciansforsook their Leaders upon every sleight disaster; the veryRomanswere not steady of old, but followed the fortune of the Common Victor. TheGermanand theFrenchwill happily stick to their Prince in distresse, as far as the Plate, the Tapistry, or some such superfluous moveable may abide the pawn; But where shall we find a Subject that hath persisted like Your Majesties, to the losse of Libertie, Estate, and life it self, when yet all seem’d to be determin’d against them; so as even their enemies were at last vanquish’d with their constancy, and their very Tormentors wearied with their insuperable Patience; nor can they in all that tract of Time, hardly brag of having made one signalProselytein twenty Years that this difference continu’d; and that because the obedience of your Majesties Subjects, is engraffed into their Religion and Institution, as well as into the adoration of Your Virtues.

I would not therefore that Your Name should be painted upon Banners, or Carved in stone,sed Monumentis æternæ laudis; and Your Majesty did well foresee, and consult it, when you furnish’d a Subject for ourPanegyrics, and our Histories, which should outlast those frail materials. The Statues ofCæsar,BrutusandCamilluswere set up indeed because they chased their enemies from the Walls of a proud Citie; Youhave done it from a whole Kingdom; not (as they) by blood and slaughter, but by your prudence and Counsels: Nor is it lightly to be passed over, that your Majesty was preserved in thatRoyal Oak, to whom a Civical Crown should so justly become due.

But I now arrive to theLawesyou have made, and the excellent things which your Majestie hath done since you came amongst Your people. Truely, there is hardly an hour to be reckoned wherein your Majesty has not done some signal benefit. I have already touch’d a few of them, as what concern’d the most, I would I could say the best; for you have oblig’d your very Enemies, You have bought them; since never was there, till now, so prodigious a summe paid, a summe hardly in Nature, to verifie a Word only; and which the zeal of Your good Subjects (had you taken the advantage of the fervour which I but now mentioned, at Your wonderful Reception) might easily have absolv’d You of; had You paid them in kind, and as they were wont to keep faith with your Majestie. I provoke the World again to furnish an instance of a like generositie, unlesse he climb up to heaven for it. How black then must that ingratitude needs appear, which should after all this, dare to rebell; Or, for the future once murmur at Your Government? Since it was no necessity that compell’d You, but an excesse of your good nature, and your charitie.

Your Majestie has abolished theCourt of Wards; I cannot say we have freed ourselves in desiring it, if it were possible to hope for so indulgent a Father as Your Majestie is to Your Countrie, in those who shall succeed You.

TheCompositionsYou have likewise eased us of, if that could be esteem’d a burthen, to serve so excellent a Prince, who receives nothing of his Subjects but what he returnes again in the Noblest and worthiest Hospitality, that any Potentate in earth can produce; Thus what the Rivers pay to the Ocean, it returns again in showers to replenish them. But Your Majestie would dissipate even the very shadows, which give us umbrage; and rather part with your own just right, then those few of your Subjects which it concern’d, should think themselves aggreiv’d, though by a mistake even of their duty.

His Majesties Declaration.But I should first have mention’d your settlement of theChurch, and Your bringing back the Ark of God: Your Majesties wise composure of our Frailties, and tendernesse as well in the Religious as the Secular; whilst yet You continue fervent to maintain what is decent, and what is setled by Law. But what language is capable to expresse this Article? Let those who wait at the Altar, and to which you have restor’d the daily sacrifice, supply the defect of this period, and celebrate your piety.

Nor has yet Your zeal to the Church, lessen’d that which is due to the Common-wealth; witnesse your industry in erecting aCounsel of Trade, by which alone you have sufficiently verified that expression of your Majesties in your Declaration fromBreda, That You would propose some useful things for the publick emolument of the Nation, which should render it opulent, splendid and flourishing; making good your pretence to the universall Soveraignty by Your Princely care, as well as by your birth and undoubted Title.

You have Restor’d, Adorn’d, and Repair’d our Courts of Judicature,turning the Shambles where your Subjects were lately butcher’d, into a Tribunal, where they may now expect due Justice; and have furnish’d the Supreame seat there with aChancelourof antient candor, rare experience; just, prudent, learned and faithfull; in summe, one, whose merits beget universal esteem, and is amongst the greatest indications of your Majesties skill in persons, as well as in their Talents and perfections to serve you. Thus you have gratified the long robe, so as now again,

Te propter colimus leges, animosque ferarumExuimus——And there is hope we may again be civiliz’d.

For you are (we hear) publishingSumptuary Lawesto represse the wantonness and excess of Apparel, as you have already testifi’d your abhorrency ofDuelling, that infamous and dishonourable gallantry: In fine, you have establish’d so many excellent constitutions, that you seem to leave nothing for us to desire, or your Successor to add either in theEthicallorPoliticall.

——Similem quæ pertulit ætasConsilio, vel Marte virum?——

O happyGreecefor Eloquence, that hast celebrated the fortune of thyHeroestrifling Adventures! who shall set forth and immortalize the glory of our illustrious Prince, and advance GreatCHARLESto the skies? You had Poets indeed that sung the fate of an unfortunate Lady, the theft of a simple fleece; what wouldst thou have done, had the glorious Actions of such a King been spread before thee, who has not robbed with Armies, depopulated Cities, or violated the Rights of Hospitality; but restor’d a broken Nation, repair’d a ruin’d Church, reform’d, and re-establish’d our ancient Laws; in summe, who has at once render’d us perfectly happy? What then have we to do withAugustus, orTitus, withTrajan,Hadrian,Antoninus,Theodosiusor evenConstantinehimself? There is not in any, there is not in all these Subjects more worthy of praise, and to which your Majesty; O best of Princes, ought at all to render.

We are toldPericulosæ rem aleæ esse, de iis scribere quibus sis obstrictus; because it is so difficult to observe a mediocrity, where our affections are engaged: But your Majesty is as secure from flattery, as your Virtues are above its reach; and to write thus of ill Princes, were both a shame and a punishment: For this theSenatecondemn’d the History ofCremutiusto the flames; andSpartianustoldDioclesianboldly, how hard it would be to write their Commentaries, except it were to record their Impudence, Murthers, Injustice, and the (for most part) fatal periods of Tyrants; which if any esteem a glory, you envy not, whilst your Majesty is resolv’d to secure your own by your virtue and your Justice; so as no age to come shall possibly find an æmulator, or produce an equall.

——Fuerint aliis hæc forte decora,Nulla potest Laus esse tibi quæ crimina purget.

But I shall never have done with your obligations of the publick; and the measure which is assign’d me, would be too narrow but to mention briefly those your private and interiour perfections which crown your Majesties Person, and dazle our eyes more then the bright purple which this day invests you. To give instance in some; you are an excellent Master to your Domesticks. Their Lives, Conversations and Merits as well as Names, and Faces, are known to your Majesty as the Companions ofCæsarwere: Honour is safe under your Banner, and the Court so well regulated, that there is no need ofCensorsto inspect Mens Manners;vita principis pro censura est. He who knowes that every body eyes, speaks and writes of him, cannot in prudence, or think, or act things unworthy and abject: You Sir direct all your objects and motions so, as may recommend you to posterity; and even burn with desires of immortality, so as Histories may relate the Truth without fear or adulation.

How happy then those Servants of yours, whose fidelity and Industry is known to your Majesty, not from the interpretation and reports of others, but your own experience! So as you Reward as well with Judgment, as Bounty; and verily that is true Beneficence to place your Recompense as well equally as freely: Most other Virtues are competent to the rest of Men; Beneficence only to a Prince, as his most Essential property, and the noblest ingredient of hisElogy. Hence that great Saint, as well as Courtier and Prelate has directed,Si quis Principem laudare vellet, nihil illi adeo decorum adscriberet quam Magnificentiam;S. Chrysost.andCriticksobserve, that where the wise KingSolomonsayes,Multi colunt personam Principis, theHebrewversion reads it,personam Benefici, as importing both; and in that of his Who was greater thenSolomon,Qui dominantur eorum Benefici vocantur, theChaldyturnes,Principes vocantur, as if by a convertible figure, He could not be a Prince who were not Beneficent; nor he that is truly Beneficent, unworthy of that Title. I remember ’tis somewhere said ofSaulthat he Reign’d but two years; because he was so long it seems good to his people, and reigned in their hearts; For as the Sun himself should not be the Sun, if he did not shine; no more should a Prince be worthy of his dignity, if he unjustly Ecclips’d his influence, or abused his Magnificency. But as we said, this virtue is added to your Majesties also; who know so well to adjust its Definition by your constant practice, rendering it (as indeed it ought) productive of your will for glorious and honest ends only; But I now proceed with the rest.

There is such a Majesty in your Countenance, such Lenity in your Eyes, gravity in your speech, as that for your gracefull presence that may be truly affirm’d of you what was once appli’d to a great Prince resembling you,Jam firmitas, Jam proceritas corporis, jam honor Capitis & dignitas oris, ad hoc ætatis indeflexa maturitas, nonne longe lateque principem ostentant?since even all these assemble in your Majesties personage; Nor has fortune chang’d you after all your Travels and Adventures abroad; but brought you back to us not so much as tinged in the percolations through which you have been forc’d to run, like the FountainArethusathrough the RiverAlpheuswithout commixture of their waters. None having more constantly retained his vertue then your Majesty, nor guarded it with more caution.

And now in all this height of glory, you receive all Men with so much humility, that the difference of your change seems to be only this; that you are now beloved of more, and love more, treating every man, as if every man were your proper care, and as becomes the Father of so great a Family; Sometimes you are pleased to lay more aside the beams of Majesty, that you may descend to do mutual offices of Friendship; as considering that these Virtues were not concredited to you by God, for your self only, but for others also: In short, you are so perfect a Prince, that those who come after you, will fear to be compared to you,Experti quam sit onerosum succedere bono Principi; since to possess your Virtues, they must support your sufferings; nor can every head know how to sustain the weight of such a Crown as yours, where the thornes have so long perplext the Lillies and the Roses of it.

I might here mention Your Heroic and masculine Spirit in dangers, and yet Your foresight of them; Your tenderness to compassionate, Your Constancie in suffering, Your Modestie in Prosperitie, Equalitie in Adversitie, and that sweetness of access which attracts both love and veneration from all that converse with You; but these have already adorn’d your Character by that excellent Hand who did lately describe it.Col. Tuke.

You are frequent at Councels, Patient in hearing, pertinent in answering, judicious in Determining, and so skilfull in the several Languages, that You many times transact by Your self, what others do by Interpreters; affecting rather expedition in Your affairs, then insignificant State, which these acquired parts of Your Majesties do yet augment so much the more.

You are curious of brave and Laudable things; You love shipping, Buildings, Gardens (having exceededCyrusalready in Your Plantations) Piscinas, Statues, Pictures, Intaglias, Music: You have already amass’d very many rare collections of all kinds, and there is nothing worthy and great which can escape Your research.

Nor must I here forget the honour You have done ourSocietyatGreshham Colledgeby Your curious enquiries about theLoad-Stone, and other particulars which concernPhilosophy; since it is not to be doubtedbut thatso Magnanimous a Prince, will still proceed to encourage that Illustrious Assembly; and which will celebrate and eternize Your memory to the future Ages, beyond Your Majesties Predecessors, and indeed all the Monarchs on the Earth, when for You is reserv’d the being Founder of some thing that may improve practical and Experimental knowledg, beyond all that has been hitherto attempted, for the Augmentation of Science, and universal good of Man-kind, and which alone will consummate Your Fame and render it immortal.

What shall I superadd to all these? That You rise early, that You are alwaies employ’d, that You love Hunting, Riding, swimming, manly Robust and Princely Exercises, not so much for delight, as health and relaxation.Et vitæ pars nulla perit.

O best Idea of Princes, sit to me yet one moment, that I may add this last touch to Your fair Table; nor wonder that I should attempt so boldan enterprise; since he that would take the height ofOlympus, must stand below in the plain: Subjects can best describe their Princes Virtues; Princes best know their Subjects, and therefore most fit to rule them. And long may You live to rule us great Sir. We wish that all you do, or may do, be propitious to you, to us, to the public; or in a word, to yourMajesty alone, in which both we and the public are mutually concern’d. Time was (and too long alas it was!) that what was fortunate to the Tyrant, was unhappy to your Subjects: now they are common to both and reciprocal; nor can we more be happy without you, then you without us; and truly all Princes have known, that they are seldom beloved of God, who are hated of their People; nor can they be long secure.Vox Populi, vox Dei est.But you have seen the Effects of our Prayers against an Usurper; hear now, O Heaven our Vowes for a just Prince. Not for peace, not for Riches, not Honours, or new conquests do we supplicate; but for all these in one, The Safety ofCHARLES. You alone snatch’d him out of those cruel hands, now preserve him from them: Render him fortunate to us, to our Children, succeeding Generations give him a late Successor, and when You do it, let it be such a one as himself.

Let your Majestie now proceed in his Triumph, and hear the Acclamations of his people; what can they more expresse who are ready to pave the very streets with their bodies, in testimonie of their zeal? behold all about You, the Gratulating old Fathers, the exulting Youths, the glad mothers; And why should it not be so? Here’s no goods publicated, none restrain’d or mulcted of their Libertie, none diminish’d of dignitie, none molested, or exil’d; all are again return’dintotheir houses, Relations and Properties, and which is yet more then all, to their antientinnocencieand mutual charitie.

If thePhilosopherin theEthicksenquiring whether the felicity of the sun, do any whit concern the happinesse of the defunct progenitor, after much reasoning have determin’d that the honour only which his son acquires by worthie and great actions, does certainly refresh his Ghost: What a day of Jubilee, is this then to Your blessed Father! Not the odor of those flowers did so recreate the deadArchemoruswhich theNymphswere yearly wont to strow upon his watry Sepulcher, as this daies Inauguration of Yours, does even seem to revive the Ashes of that sacredMartyr.

Should some one from the clouds that had looked down on the sad face of things, when our Temples lay in dust, our Palaces in desolation, and the Altars demolished; when these Citie Gates were dashed to pieces, Gibbets and Executions erected in every Street, and all things turned into universal silence and solitude, behold now the change of this daies glorious scean; that we see the Churches in repair, the sacred Assemblies open’d, our Cities re-edified, the Markets full of People, our Palaces richly furnished, and the Streets proud with the burden of their Triumphal Arches, and the shouts of a rejoycing multitude: How would he wonder and stand amaz’d, at the Prodigie, and leap down from his lofty station, though already so near to heaven, to joyne with us in earth, participate of our felicitie, and ravish’d with the Ecstasie, cry out aloud now with Us.

Set open the Temple-Gates, let the Prisoners go free, the Altarssmoak perfumes, bring forth the Pretious things, strow the Waies with Flowers, let the Fountains run Wine, Crown the Gobblets, bring Chapplets of Palmes and Lawrells, the Bells ring, the Trumpets sound, the Cannon roar, O happy Descent, and strange Reverse! I haveseenEnglandsRestorer, GreatCHARLES the II.RETURN’D, REVENG’D, BELOV’D, CROWN’D, RE-ESTABLISH’D.

Terrasque Astræa Revisit.

And O that it were now in my power to speak some great thing, worthy this great day; I should put all the flowers ofOratorsand Raptures ofPoetsinto one lofty & high Expression, and yet not Reach what I would say to Your Majestie: For never since there was a Citie, or Kingdom, did a Day appear more glorious toEngland, never since it was a Nation, and in which there either was, or ought to be so universal a Jubilation: Not that Your Triumphal Charriots do drag the miserable Captives, but are accompanied by freed Citizens; perfidie is now vanquished, popular fury chayn’d, crueltie tam’d, luxury restrained, these lie under the spondells of Your Wheeles, where Empire, Faith, Love, and Justice Ride Triumphant, and nothing can be added to YourMajesties glory but its perpetuitie. But whence, alas! should I have this confidence, after so manyElogiesandPanegyricksof great and Eloquent men, who consecrate the memorie of this daies happinesse; and (were the subject, like that of all other things) would have left me nothing more to add, unless he who was sometimes wont to employ his pen for YourMajestie being absent, should now be silent that you are present, and inflame me with a kind of new Enthusiasme: I find myself then compell’d out of a grateful sense of my dutie for the publick benefit, and if yourMajestie forbid not, or withdraw your influence, who shall hinder, that even my slender voice should not strive to be heard, in such anuniversallconsort, wherein everybody has a part, every one a share?

Permit me therefore (O best of Kings) to present, and lay these my vowes at your sacred feet, to exsult, and to Rejoyce with the Rest of your Loyal Subjects; not as I desire, but as I am able, and as I would do it to God, and as he best loves it,

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