England's jubilee: Or, A Poem on the happy return of his Sacred Majesty, Charles the II.  
To the Kings most Sacred Majesty,  
PArdon great Prince, for all our offering here,  
But weak discoveries of our wants appear  
No language is Commensurate with thee,  
Our loftiest flights but plain humility.  
Yet since we may, our frailty to conceal,  
Be guilty of a Crime in smothering zeal,  
That bids thy blessed returns more welcome than  
Plenty to th' starved, or land to shipwrecked men.  
For such were we, or if there's aught can more  
Demonstrate ill, that woe was ours before.  
Heaven, to restore our lost light sent us him,  
Without whose raise our sphere had still been dim:  
Dim as in that dark interval, when we  
Saw nothing but the Clouds of anarchy,  
Raised by the witchcraft of Rebellion, to  
So vast a height, none durst pretend to view,  
Whilst they lay curtained in that black disguise,  
Majestic beams, but 'twas with bloodshot eyes.  
Then if such of necessity must pine,  
Who'd robbed of food, both human and divine;  
How could we thrive, when those that did pretend  
To feed, did all on their Ambition spend,  
Who with the Sword, not Reason did Convince,  
And racked the Sub●ect to unthron the Prince.  
The doleful year's of thy exile have been  
At once our nation's punishment and sin:  
Tossed in a storm of dark Afflictions, we  
Floated at random, yet still looked on thee  
As our safe, Harbour, but had none to guide  
Us 〈◊〉 False pilate's with the winds complide.  
We saw what Crime drenched the amazed rout;  
Yet wanted strength to cast that cursed thing out.  
Though oft 'twas vainly struggled for, yet we  
Who were exiled from nought but liberty:  
Who durst live hear Spectators of those times,  
Do now in tears repent our passive Crimes,  
And with one universal voice allow  
We all deserve death, since we live till now.  
But this is England's Jubilee, nor must  
Thy Friends doubt mercy, where thy foes dare trust.  
Thou art our great Panpharmacon, which by  
Its virtue cures each various malady,  
Giving their pride, a cool allay of fears,  
Whilst to restore our hectic, hope appears:  
And these began the Cure, which to complete,  
Expansive mercy makes thy throne her seat:  
So that there now (except the guilt within)  
No sign remains, there hath a difference been.  
The giddy rout, who in their first address,  
Cried Liberty, but meant licentiousness,  
Whose depraved judgements, not content to see  
A heaven of Stars, their primum mobile  
Did Change the systems and i'th' spite o'th' love  
Or fear of heaven, taught earth's base dregs to move,  
In the bright Orb of honour, where to all  
That's great, or good they were excentrical:  
Having long found their direful influence  
In nought but plagues descended; did from thence  
Learn sad repentant Lectures, and dare now  
Present the Sword, where late the knee did bow  
Dare tell their dambed impostors they but made  
False zeal the light, whilst treason cast the shade.  
Dare Curse their new discoveries, which placed in  
Hell's geography, Amerricaes of sin.  
But these, like dust raised twixt two Armies, do  
Hurt, or assist, as they are hurried to  
Either by levity; And therefore must  
By none be held an Object of their Trust;  
For though they are Usurpers hands, they've found  
They rent at night, what they i'th' morning crowned;  
But you (great Sir) whose fate hath been so mixed,  
As to behold these vollatile, and fixed,  
May (since the offspring of their sufferings) be  
More certain of their future loyalty.  
And though your title, and heaven settled state  
Needs not (Usurper like) measure your Fate  
By such vain love, yet may you still be sure  
They'll near again, a rebels scourge endure.  
These past years of infatuation, which  
Hath drained their Coffers, did their hearts enrich,  
With so much eager loyalty, that when  
With wonder, like those new recovered men,  
Who by our saviour's miracles escaped  
From darkness thought men had like trees been shaped  
They only through mist rarrified, gazed at  
Those glimmering beams, whilst they knew not what  
Th' event would be, how (Winged with hope) did they  
Each feeble glance praise as approaching day.  
But when, with such advantage as the light  
Gains by succeeding the black dress of night.  
Through all the fogs of their preceding fear,  
They from the North saw loyal Monk appear  
How in Petitions did their Prayers exhale,  
To wast him on, until the gentle gale  
(Although by ways so wisely intricate;  
They raised our fear, whilst they did calm our fate,  
Brought him at length through all our doubts to be,  
The great Assertor of our liberty.  
Then did we think that modest blush but just,  
Whose present dye, displayed our late mistrust.  
And to requite those injuries we'd done  
To myriads raised, what single praise begun:  
Through all the devious paths which he did tread,  
From the base Rump, unto the glorious Head:  
We scanned his Actions, which did nought comprise  
That might offend, but that he was too wise  
For Vulgar judgements, whose weak fancies guest  
By present Actions, what would be the rest.  
But when their eyes unveiled, discovered who  
Had to destroy the monster, found the Clew.  
How did they praise his wisdom, Valour, all  
That could within the name of Subject fall:  
And to complete, what ere his due might be,  
Knit up those laurels with his Loyalty;  
That noble virtue, without which the rest  
Had only burdened, not adorned his Crest.  
Then, since we now by this heaven guided hand,  
Once more behold the glory of our land;  
Whom midnight plots long studied to exclude  
Again fixed in's Meridian Altitude:  
Let's cease to mourn, and whilst those fogs attend  
Such miscreant wretches, as dare still offend,  
By flying mercy, raise our souls, depressed  
Ere since this Scar set in the gloomy West.  
For then begun that dreadful night, which we  
Have since with terror seen, brave loyalty  
Being so oppressed by a prevailing fate;  
'twas only known by being unfortunate:  
Yet, though Rebellion in unnatural Wars,  
So far did thrive, to prove us falling Stars.  
The wiser world saw those that did aspire,  
Not as heaven's lamps, but hell's impetuous fire.  
As monsters of Ambition, such whose wild  
Chimaeras since Rebellion first defiled  
Our English Annals, only were advanced:  
But fortunes light ephemeras, to be glanced  
A while with secret envy on; and then  
Hurled from th'ill managed helm, to be by men  
Pursued with such a just deserved hate,  
As makes each curse, ad weights unto their fate:  
Horrid as are their names, which near shall be  
Mentioned without adjuncts of Infamy:  
So full of guilt, all Ages to ensue  
Shall weep to hear, what this near blushed to do.  
Whilst we were in these uncoutch shades o' recast  
To tell what wild Meanders hath been past  
By thee, our royal sovereign, is a Task  
That would the tongues of inspired Angels ask.  
Yet since domestic miseries hath taught  
Us part of the sad stories ruder draught  
We may, by weak reflection come to see,  
With what dire weight, these dark storms fell on thee;  
Who, whilst thou didst (from hence excluded) stand  
The pitied wonder of each foreign Land:  
Learndest by commanding Passions how to sway  
A Nation more rebellious far than they;  
So that the school which thou wert tutored in,  
Though thy disease, our Antidote hath been  
We suffering not our Crimes desert, because  
From hence you learned to pity, and the Laws  
Just harness with such candour mitigate,  
As once you bore the rigour of your Fate.  
(What earthquakes breeds it in our breasts, when we  
But think o'er thy progressive misery:  
How thou (our restless Dove) seeing no mark  
Of land, wert hurried from our floating ark:  
(And whilst those villains, that exposed thee lay  
Forced every wind of Faction to obey)  
Wert long with billows of Affliction beat,  
Ere thou didst with thy Olive branch retreat.  
How by poor Friends, and powerful Enemies,  
By Flattering strangers, and by false allies,  
Were thy Afflictions varied, for all these  
Shared in the complicating thy disease.  
Like doleful Mourners that surround the bed  
Of a departing Friend, those few that fled  
Hence on the wings of Loyalty, to be  
Partakers of what e'er attended thee;  
Whilst they did mourn, but could not lend relief:  
Did by their sorrow but increase thy grief.  
Such was the power of thy prevailing foes;  
No place afforded safety, some of those  
Whom poverty sent to attend thy Train,  
To cure that malady, did entertain  
Infectious counsels, which did festering lie  
Till Rebels Gold outweighed their Loyalty,  
And from the black pernicious embryo bred,  
Monsters whose hands strove to destroy their Head.  
Nor, whilst these secret sorrows sunk a mine,  
Which if not hindered by a power Divine  
Had blown up all thy patience, wert thou free  
From public injuries, that amities  
Which former leagues, or the more sacred ties  
Of blood could claim, veiled in the base disguise.  
Of policy starts back, and doth give way  
For treason to expel, or else betray  
Great birth, and virtues which did that excel  
As the meridian doth each parallel,  
Are but weak props, a Rebels threats convince:  
And all avoid a persecuted Prince.  
When after these big storms of ill abroad,  
Some loyal Subjects had prepared the road  
Unto thy throne, and thou didst once more hear  
Armed for redemption of thy Crown appear,  
Whilst all our hearts, whose distant hands could not  
Come to assist, thy righteous cause waxed hot  
With loyal hopes: how were we planet struck,  
When fortune, with pretended friends forsook  
Thy side, at fatal Worcester, and to raise  
A Rebels Trophies, robbed thee of thy bays.  
How dismal sad, how gloomy was each thought  
Of thy obedient Subjects whilst they sought  
Their flying sovereign, curtained from their eyes,  
In the dark dress of an unsafe disguise.  
All wished to know, what all desire should be  
A secret kept, such strange variety  
Of contradictions did our passions twist:  
We would behold the Sun, yet praised the mist.  
But whilst desire thus shot at rovers, that  
More powerful Sacrifice our prayers, being at  
Heavens penetrated ear directed, found  
Our hopes by thy deserting us near Crown.  
For though to want thee was our great'st distress;  
Yet now thy Absence was our happiness.  
Then; though we near enough can celebrate  
The praise of this, yet thy mysterious fate  
(Great favourite of Heaven) so often hath  
Advanced our wonder, that the long trod path  
Directs us now without more guides to see,  
Those miracles, wrought in preserving thee  
Were God's immediate Acts, to whose intents  
Were often fitted weakest instruments,  
From whose success faith this impression bore,  
He that preserved thee, would at length restore,  
Which now through such a labyrinth is done,  
We see the end, ere know how 'twas begun:  
That big bulkt cloud of poisonous vapours, in  
Whose dismal shades, our Liberty had been  
Long in amaze of errors lost, was by  
A wholesome Northern gale enforced to fly  
Easy as morning mists, so that the fate  
Seemed not more strange, which did at first create,  
Than what did now destroy in it, did appear  
As far from hope, as was the first from fear:  
When a Rebellious tyranny had been  
So strengthened by a prosperous groweth in sin,  
That the contagious leprosy had left  
None sound, but what were honest by their theft.  
Then to behold that Hydra, which had bred  
So many, in an instant, her last head  
Submit to justice, is a blessing we  
Must praise i'th' raptures of an ecstasy,  
Till from the pleasing trance, being welcomed by  
Loud acclamations, raised from Loyalty:  
We come, we come, with all the reverence due  
To heaven's bests gifts (great Prince) to welcome you:  
You who by suffering in a righteous Cause  
Safely restored, that Liberty, those Laws,  
Which after long Convulsive Fits were now  
Expiring, so, that future times told how  
This great work was performed, shall wonder most  
To see the fever cured, yet no blood lost.  
But these are Mercies fit to Usher in  
Him to a throne, whose virtuous life hath been  
Beyond detraction good; therefore attend  
Those joys which Heaven to us, by you, did send:  
Whose sacred essence weighted on by all,  
The most transcendent blessings that can fall  
Within the sphere of human virtue, still  
Surround your Throne; may all imagined ill  
Die in the embryo; may no dark disguise  
Of seeming Friends, or Foes that temporise  
Ere prejudice your peace, may your Foes prove  
All blushing Converts; may all those that love  
You do't for zeal, not gain; and though that we  
(What was of late your mark) our poverty  
Are still enforced to wear, oh may there thence  
Ne'er spring a thought to take or give offence:  
May all toward you be fraughted with desires,  
That may in flaming zeal out blaze the fires,  
That you were welcomed in with: May delight  
Within your royal breast no opposite  
Ere find, but so let gentle pleasure grow,  
That it may kiss the banks, but near overflow.  
When Hymen leads you to the Temple, let  
It be to take that gem, which heaven hath set  
The world's adorning ornament, that we  
May by that blessed Conjunctions influence fee  
Such hopeful fruit spring from our royal stem,  
As may deserve the whole world's Diadem.  
May Peace adorn your throne; yet if the Sword  
Must needs be drawn may it no sound afford  
But Victory, until extended Power  
Adds weight unto your sceptre: May no hour  
Ere set a seal to the Records of time  
But what still makes your pleasure more sublime,  
Till they being grown to pure for earth, shall be  
Called to the Triumphs of eternity.  
By Will. Chamberlain.   

London, Printed for Robert Clavell at the Stags-head in St. Paul's Church yard, 1660.