A PANEGYRIC TO Charles the Second, PRESENTED TO HIS MAJESTY The XXXIII. of APRIL, being the Day OF HIS CORONATION. MDCLXI. By JOHN EVELYN, Esquire. LONDON, Printed for john Crook, and are to be sold at the Ship in St. Paul's Churchyard. A PANEGYRIC TO CHARLES the II. PRESENTED TO HIS MAJESTY On the Day of His INAUGURATION, April 23. MDCLXI. I Have decreed with myself (O best and greatest of Kings!) to publish the just resentiments of a heart, perfectly touched with the Joy and Universal Acclamations of your People, for your this day's Exaltation and glorious investiture. And truly, it was of custom used to good and gracious Princes, upon lesser occasions, to pronounce and celebrate their merits with Eulogies and Panegyrics; but if ever they were due, it is to your Majesty this Day; because as your Virtues are superior to all that passed before you; so is the Conjuncture, and the steps by which you are happily ascended to it, Miraculous, and altogether 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 rightful Sovereign. And if in these expressions of it, and the forms 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 rejoicing, nor indeed in ours, to moderate. Permit us therefore (O best of Kings) to follow our genius, and to consecrate your Name, and this day's 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 fullness of this Day's 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 sudden) especially, when it may serve to illustrate our present felicity, and conduce to your Majesty's glory: For so the skilful Artist, studious of making a surprising piece, or representing some irradiated Deity, deepens the shadows sometimes with the darkest touches, and approaching to horror itself, 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 o'erspread us, when we served the lusts of those immane Usurpets, greedy of power, that themselves might be under none; Cruel, that they might murder the Innocent without cause; Rich, with the public poverty; strong, by putting the sword into the hands of furies, and prosperous by unheard of perfidy. Armies, Battles, Impeaching, Imprisonment, Arraining, Condemning, Proscribing, Plundering. Gibbets and Executions were the eloquent expressions of our miseries: There was no language then heard but of Perjury, Delusion, hypocrisy, Heresy, Taxes, Excises, Sequestration, Decimation, and a thousand like barbarities: In sum, the solitudes were filled with noble Exiles, the Cities with rapacious Theives, the Temples with Sacrilegious Villains; They had the spoils 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 reinforce your own felicity, and the benefits which we receive by it? where then should I begin but with thy Calamities, O unfortunate England! who hadst only the privilege of being miserable, when all the World were happy: But I will not go too far in repeating the sorrows which are vanished, or uncover the buried memory of the evils past; lest whilst we strive to represent the vices of others, we seem to contaminate your Sacred purple, or alloy our present rejoicing; 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 than Man's Counsel! who will believe that which his eyes do see? what before a twenty years' confusion had destroyed; behold a few months have restored: But the wonder does yet so much more astonish, that the grief was not so universal for having suffered under such a Tyranny, as for having been so long deprived of so excellent a Prince: No more than do we henceforth accuse our past miseries; All things are by your presence repaired, and so reflourish; as if they even rejoiced they had once been destroyed, Auctior tuis facta beneficiis. So as not only a Diadem binds your sacred Temples this day; but you have even crowned all your Subjects too; so has your auspicious presence gilded all things; our Churches, Tribunals, theatres, 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 gems of the pregnant Vine, as with those Lilies 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 new AEra, to all the future Generations, as it is the beginning of this, and of that immense, Platonic Revolution; for what could arrive more justly, more stupendious, were even the eight sphere itself now hurled about? For no sooner came our CHARLES on shore, but every Man was in the Haven where he would be; the storm Universally ceased, and every one ran forth to see our Palladium, tanquam coelo delapsum: Virgins, Children, Women, trembling old Men, venerating the very ship that wafted our jason and his Heroes, ravished with the sight, yet hardly believing for astonishment; the greatness of the miracle, oppressing our senses, and endangering our very faith. Credetne hoc olim ventura posteritas? I would praise 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 Decades 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 the partitions of the Demonstrative: An Orator could have nothing more to wish for, nor your Majesty to render you more accomplished. Shall I consider then your Majesty as you were a Son to that glorious Father before his Apotheosis? As you were yourself a Confessor after it; As you are now this day in your Zenith and exaltation; and as we Augur you will by God's 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 Majesty's early proficiency in all that might presage a hopeful and glorious Successor: For so did you run through all his Vicissitudes, during that implacable war, which sought nothing more than 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 destroyed by wounding the body, so long as such a Branch remained. Duris at ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso Ducit opes, animumque ferro. Whilst he Reigned and Governed, you learned only to obey; Living your own Princely Impress; ICHDIEN. as knowing it would best instruct you one day how to Command, and which we now see accomplished: These than 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 jealousy: None so secure a Prince, as he that is so born. But no sooner did that blessed Martyr expire, than our redivive Phoenix appeared; 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 breathed it out, when singing his own Epicedium and Genethliack together, he seemed prodigal of his own life to have it redoubleed in your felicity: Thus, Rex nunquam moritur. O admirable conduct of the Divine Providence, to immortalize the image of a just Monatch: Ipsa quidem, sed non eadem, quia & ipsa, nec ipsa est. Since that may as truly be applied 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 Sceptre bears a Flower; since as that glorious planet produces, so does it also wither them; and there is nothing lasting, save their virtues, which are indeed their essential parts, and only immortal; For even yet did the clouds intercept our day with the continuance of so dismal a storm, as it obnubilated all those hopes of ours. It is an infinite adventure, if in a Prince's Family (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. Empire's pass, Kingdoms are translated, and dominions cease: The Cecropides of old, the Arsacides, the Theban, Corinthian, Syracusian, and sundry more lasted not 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 the Roman Eagle changed? Bulgarian, Saracen, Latin; In the Comneni, Isaaci, Paleologi, etc. even till it dashed itself in pieces against the Oetoman rock. What mutations have been in the house of Arragon? How many Riders has the Parthenopean horse unsaddled and flung? How many Sicily? What changes have been in Italy, What in France, and indeed through all Europe by Vandals, Saxons, Danes, Normans, by external invasion, internal Faction, Envy, Ambition, treachery and violence? The Consulate degenerated into Oligarchy, which occasioned the Aventine sedition; Democraty into Ochlocraty under the Tribunes and wicked Gracchis; and Monarchy itself, (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 enthroned there, is safe▪ in all mutations: Keep there Sir, and you are inexpugnable, immovable. And how should it otherways 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 designed your Majesty a King, Fortune makes others; nor are you more your peoples by birth, and a glorious series of 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 always shining, though men always see him not; and since the too great splendour, 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 than it was that you prepared yourself 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 of Ulysses, as you exceed him in Dominions; Si quis enim velit percensere Caesaris res, totum profecto terrarum orbem enumeret: For he must go very far that would sum up your perfections: Your skill in the customs of Nations, the situations of Kingdoms, 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, quae refectiones tuas arbores, quae somnum saxa praetexerint, quod denique tectum magnus hospes impleveris, and all those sacred Vestigia of yours: Thus what was once applied to Trajan, becomes due to your Majesty, and I myself 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 half, and to stop at single perfections, were to give jealousy to the rest yetuntouched, and should I but succinctly number them all, were not to wove a Panegyric, but an Inventory. But amongst all your Virtues none was more eminent than your constancy to your religion, which no shocks of Fortune, no assaults of sophisters, events and success of adversaries, or offers of specious Friends could shake; so great a thing it was that you did persevere, so much greater quod 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; Spain. dashing your greatest enemy upon that Rock, which afforded your shelter, till that Tyranny was over past: And how welcome to Us was that blessed day qui tyrannum abstu lit pessimum, Principem dedit optimum! He lived by storming others, died in one himself, & post Nubila, Phoebus. Yet did not that quite dissolve our fears, till that other head of Hydra was cut off, that despicable Rump which succeeded, not by the sword, or any humane address, lest we should sacrifice to our own Nets; but by the immediate hand of heaven, without noise, without Arms, or stratagem, the same of your virtues, more than 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 gild our Horizon, brighter than the rays of the Eastern sun, from whose spicy coast, like a true Phoenix you were to come; For so at the sight of that Royal Bird was the memory of Sesostris, of Amasis and Ptolemy ever fortunate, and so was yours to us; — Tum rusticus ergo Suspicit observans volucrem; nam creditur annus Ille salutaris— the happy presages of our glorious Return, stupendious indeed and almost indicible: For no sooner did your Argo hoist fail, that the Eagles themselves fled not swifter, than the report of your approach from ten thousand mouths of brass, echoing from ship to ship, and shore to shore, with their thundering voices, out done yet with the shouts and acclamations of your glad people, when our shaken Republic rushed at once into your princely Arms for safety and Asylum, not by the occult power of Destiny, or blind revolution, but the extraordinary hand of Providence, whose paths are in the great Waters, and whose footsteps are no● known: O novum atque inauditum ad principatum iter, who that shall write Annals, or Verses can ever forget that day? not dectepit 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 Ancient men stood amazed, and those who were under the empire of a cruel disease, leapt 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 than 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 Soldiers now to their lawful Emperor. Your Majesty must needs remember, nor is the found 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 ways and the trees were filled with the shouting of your people, LONG LIVE KING CHARLES' THE II. tamque aequaliter ab omnibus ex adventu tuo laetitia percepta est, quam omnibus venisti. For when the wise Arbiter of things began to look down upon us, all things conspired to make us happy; our Deliverance by your Majesty as by another Moses, leading us out of that Egyptian bondage; or by a nearer resemblance that of the Babylonish captivity, if not yet far greater; since God did there only turn the heart of a Prince to let a nation go: Here, the hearts of a whole Nation, to invite a banished Prince to come, when no other visible power interposed. Let others boast then of their miracles; we can produce such, as no age, no people under heaven can show; 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 quae steterat sequebatur. But I suffer with too much Plenty, and what eloquence is able to express the triumph of that your never to be forgotten Entry, unless it be the renewing of it this day? For than were we as those who dream, and can yet hardly be persuaded, that we are truly awake: Dies ille aeternis 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 than Brass. Away then with these Wooden 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 ●aud 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 possess great things, but to be thought worthy of them: And indeed Great Sir, necessity constrains me, and the laws of Panegyric, to verify it in your Praises, by running over at least those other Appellations, which both your virtue has given to your Majesty, and your Fortune acquired. For he is really no King who possesses not (like you) a Kingly mind, be his other advantages what they may: If the Republic belong then to Caesar, Caesar belongs much more to the Republic; and of this you have given proof. For no sooner were we possessed of your sacred Majesty, but you suddenly gave form to our confused Chaos: We presently saw when you had taken the reigns into your sacred hands, and began to fit at Stern, our deviating and giddy course grow steady, and the fluctuating Republic 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 Martyred Father, and the best Religion, forgave you bitterest Enemies; and not only barely forgiving, but by an excess 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 obliged; or if they think it, that they love it; that your example will reproach all who went before you: As you promised, so you performed it, punctually, and with advantage. Nor indeed do you desire any thing should be permitted your Majesty, but what is indulged your Vassals, subjecting even yourself to those Laws 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 spoke as much; you only have performed it; nor is there a Tittle of your engagements, which even your very enemies diffide of, much less 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 enjoy 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 persuade myself) be cause you are difficult, much less unmindful; but that the benefit may be more acceptable, and the sense of it more permanent; since too sudden felicity astonishes, and sometimes renders the Recipient ingrateful, whilst your favours are not fugitive but certain. It was only for Your Majesty to be completely happy, 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 business to sublevate the needy, and give them as it were a new Fate, your piety not more appearing in pardoning your Enemies, and receiving the Penitent, than your justice in restoring the Oppressed: For how many are since your return, returned to their own Homes, to their Wives, Children, Offices, and Pattimonies? Addiditque Dominus omnia quae fuerant jobi duplicia; some of them with immense advantages; and of this the languishing Church of England is 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: Magnanimity is returned again to the Nobility, Modesty to the People, Obedience to Subjects, Charity to Neighbours, Piety to Children, Fidelity to Servants, and Reverence to Religion; In sum, You are the Restorer of Your Country. The laws 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, showing yourself rather to have been displeased with the Authors, than the Things. As to Discipline (after the sacrifice due for that innocent blood of your glorious Father) you are not only careful to rejectvice yourself; but are severe to discountenance it in others; and that yet so sweetly, as you seem rather to persuade then compel; 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 public love and affection of your people then in men of Iron, the locks and Bars of Tyrant's Palaces: And truly Sir, there is no protection to innocency, which is a fort inexpugnable: In vain therefore do Princes confide in any other; for Arms invite Arms, Terror, suspicion. To this only do you trust, and the few which you maintain about your person, is rather for state, than fear. Quid enim istis opus est, quum fir missimo fis 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 than Fortune procures. Of this I obtest the fidelity of Your own inviolable Party, distinguished formerly by the invidious name of Cavalier, though significant and glorious; but I provoke the World to produce me an example of parallel Loyalty: What Prince under heaven, after so many losses, and all imaginable calamities, can boast of such a party? The Grecians forsook their Leaders upon every sleight disaster; the very Romans were not steady of old, but followed the fortune of the Common Victor. The Germane and the French will happily stick to their Prince in distress, as far as the Plate, the Tapestry, or some such superfluous movable may abide the pawn; But where shall we find a Subject that hath persisted like Your Majesties, to the loss of Liberty, Estate, and life itself, when yet all seemed to be determined against them; so as even their enemies were at last vanquished 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 signal Proselyte in twenty Years that this difference continued; and that because the obedience of your Majesty's Subjects, is engrafted 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 aeternae laudis; and Your Majesty did well foresee, and consult it, when you furnished a Subject for our Panegyrics, and our Histories, which should outlast those frail materials. The Statues of Caesar, Brutus and Camillus were set up indeed because they chased their enemies from the Walls of a proud City; You have 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 that Royal Oak, to whom a Civical Crown should so justly become due. But I now arrive to the Laws you have made, and the excellent things which your Majesty hath done since you came amongst Your people. Truly, there is hardly an hour to be reckoned wherein your Majesty has not done some signal benefit. I have already touched a few of them, as what concerned the most, I would I could say the rest; for you have obliged your very Enemies, You have bought them; since never was there, till now, so prodigious a sum paid, a sum hardly in Nature, to verify 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 absolved You of; had You paid them in kind, and as they were wont to keep faith with your Majesty. I provoke the World again to furnish an instance of a like generosity, unless he climb up to heaven for it. How black then must that ingratitude needs appear, which should after all this, dare to rebel; Or, for the future once murmur at Your Government? Since it was no necessity that compelled You, but an excesle of your good nature, and your charity. Your Majesty has abolished the Court 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 Majesty is to Your Country, in those that shall succeed You. The Compositions You have likewise eased us of, if that could be esteemed a burden, to serve so excellent a Prince, who receives nothing of his Subjects but what he returns 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 You Majesty would dissipate even the very shadows, which give us umbrage; and rather part with your own just right, than those few of your Subjects which it concerned, should think themselves aggreived, though by a mistake even of their duty. But I should first have mentioned your settlement of the Church, His Majesty's Declaration. and Your bringing back the Ark of God: Your Majesty's wife composure of our Frailties, and tenderness as well in the Religious as the Secular; whilst yet You continue fervent to maintain what is decent, and what is settled by Law. But what language is capable to express this Article? Let those who wait at the Altar, and to which you have restored the daily sacrifice, supply the defect of this period, and celebrate your piety. Nor has yet Your zeal to the Church, lessened that which is due to the Commonwealth; witness your industry in erecting a Council of Trade, by which alone you have sufficiently verified that expression of your Majesties in your Declaration from Breda, That You would propose some useful things for the public emolument of the Nation, which should render it opulent, splendid and flourishing; making good your pretence to the universal Sovereignty by Your Princely care, as well as by your birth and undoubted Title. You have Restored, Adorned, and Repaired our Courts of Judicature, turning the Shambles where your Subjects were lately butchered, into a Tribunal, where they may now expect due Justice; and have furnished the Supreme seat there with a Chancellor of ancient candour, rare experience; just, prudent, learned and faithful; in sum, one, whose merits beget universal esteem, and is amongst the greatest indications of your Majesty's 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 ferarum Exuimus— And there is hope we may again be civilised. For you are (we hear) publishing Sumptuary Laws to repress the wantonness and excess of Apparel, as you have already testified your abhorrency of Duelling, that infamous and dishonourable gallantry: In fine, you have established so many excellent constitutions, that you seem to leave nothing for us to desire, or your Successor to add either in the ethical or Political. — Similem quae pertulit aetas Consilio, vel Marte virum?— O happy Greece for Eloquence, that hast celebrated the fortune of thy Heroes trifling Adventures! who shall set forth and immortalize theglory of our illustrious Prince, and advance Great CHARLES to 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 restored a broken Nation, repaired a ruin'd Church, reformed, and re-established our ancient Laws; in sum, who has at once rendered us perfectly happy? What then have we to do with Augustus, or Titus, with Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Theodosius or even Constantine himself? 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, aught at all to render. We are told Periculosae rem aleae 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 the Senate condemned the History of Cremutius to the flames; and Spartianus told Dioclesian boldly, how hard it would be to write their Commentaries, except it were to record their Impudence, Murders, Injustice, and the (for most part) fatal periods of Tyrants; which if any esteem a glory, you envy not, whilst your Majesty is resolved to secure your own by your virtue and your Justice; so as no age to come shall possibly find an aemulator, or produce an equal. — Fuerint aliis haec forte decora, Nulla potest Laus esse tibi quae crimina purget. But I shall never have done with your obligations of the public; and the measure which is assigned me, would be too narrow but to mention briefly those your private and interior perfections which crown your Majesty's Person, and dazzle our eyes more than the bright purple which this day invests you. To give instance in some; you are an excellent Master to your Domestics. Their Lives, Conversations and Merits as well as Names, and Faces, are known to your Majesty as the Companions of Caesar were: Honour is safe under your Banner, and the Court so well regulated, that there is no need of Censors to inspect men's Manners; vita principis pro censura est. He who knows 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 Judgement, as Bounry; 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 his Elegy. Hence that great Saint, as well as Courtier and Prelate has directed, Si quis Principem laudare vellet, nihil illi adeo decorum adscriberet quam Magnificentiam; and Critics observe, S. Chrysost. that where the wise King Solomon says, Multi colunt personam Principis, the Hebrew version reads it, personam Benefici, as importing both; and in that of his Who was greater than Solomon, Qui dominantur eorum Benefici vecantur, the Chaldy turns, 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 of Saul that he Reigned 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 Eclipsed his influence, or abused his Magnificency. But as we said, this virtue is added to your Maje●●ies 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 graceful presence that may be truly affirmed of you what was once applied to a great Prince resembling you, jam firmitas, jam proceritas corporis, jam honor Capitis & dignitas oris, ad hoc aetatis indeflexa maturitas, nun l●nge lateque principem ostentant? since even all these assemble in your Majesty's personage; Nor has fortune changed 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 forced to run, like the Fountain Arethusa through the River Alpheus without commixture of their waters. None having more constantly retained his virtue 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 yourself 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 oner●sum 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 thorns have so long perplexed the Lilies 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 Constancy in suffering, Your Modesty in Prosperity, Equality in Adversity, and that sweetness of access which attracts both love and veneration from all that converse with You; but these have already adorned your Character by that excellent Hand who did lately describe it. Col. Tuke. You are frequent at Counsels, Patient in hearing, pertinent in answering, judicious in Determining, and so skilful in the several Languages, that You many times transact by Yourself, 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 exceeded Cyrus already in Your Plantations) Piscinas, Statues, Pictures, Intaglias, Music: You have already amassed 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 our Society at Greshham College by Your curious enquiriss about the Loadstone, and other particulars which concern Philosophy; sin●● it is not to be doubted butt hat so 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 Majesty's Predecessors, and indeed all the Monarches on the Earth, when for You is reserved the being Founder of some thing that may improve practical and Experimental knowledge, beyond all that has been hitherto attempted, for the Augmentation of Science, and universal good of Mankind, 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 always employed, that You love Hunting, Riding, swimming, manly Robust and Princely Exercises, not so much for delight, as health and relaxation. Et vitae 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 bold an enterprise; since he that would take the height of Olympus, must stand below in the plain: Subjects can best describe their Prince's 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 wo●d, to your Majesty alone, in which both we and the public are mutually concerned. Time was (and too long alas it was!) that what was fortunate to the Tyrant, was unhappy to your Subjects: now they a●e common to both and reciprocal; nor can we more be happy without you, than 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; here now, O Heaven our Vows 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 of CHARLES. You alone snatched him out of those cruel hands, now preserve him from them: Render him fortunate to us, to our Children, sueceeding Generations: give him a late Successor, and when You do it, let it be such a one as himself. Let your Majesty now proceed in his Triumph, and hear the Acclamations of his people; what can they more express who are ready to pave the very streets with their bodies, in testimony 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 restrained or mulcted of their Liberty, none diminished of dignity, none molested, or exiled; all are again returned ito their houses, Relations and Properties, and which is yet more than all, to their ancient innocenie and mutual charity. If the Philosopher in the Ethics enquiring whether the felicity of the sun, do any whit concern the happiness of the defunct progenitor, after much reasoning have determined that the honour only which his son acquires by worthy 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 dead Archemorus, which the Nymphs were yearly wont to strew upon his watery Sepulchre, as this day's Inauguration of Yours, does even seem to revive the Ashes of that sacred Martyr. 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 City 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 days glorious scene; that we see the Churches in repair, the sacred Assemblies opened, 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 rejoicing multitude: How would he wonder and stand amazed, at the Prodigy, and leap down from his lofty station, though already so near to heaven, to join with us in earth, participate of our felicity, and ravished with the Ecstasy, cry out aloud now with Us Set open the Temple-Gates, let the Prisoners go free, the Altars smoke perfumes, bring forth the Precious things, strew the Ways with Flowers, let the Fountains run Wine, Crown the Goblets, bring Chapplets of Palms and Laurels, the Bells ring, the Trumpets sound, the Cannon roar, O happy Descent, and strange Reverse! I have seens England's Restorer, Great CHARLES the II. RETURNED, REVENGED, BELOVED, CROWNED, RE-ESTABLISHD. Terrasque Astraea 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 of Orators and Raptures of Poets into one lofty & high Expression, and yet not Reach what I would say to Your Majesty: For never since there was a City, or Kingdom, did a Day appear more glorious to England, never since it was a Nation, and in which there either was, or aught to be so universal a Jubilation: Not that Your Triumphal Chariots do drag the miserable Captives, but are accompanied by freed Citizens; perfidre is now vanquished, popular fury chained, cruelty tamed, luxury restrained, these lie under the spondells of Your Wheels, where Empire, Faith, Love, and Justice Ride Triumphant, and nothing can be added to Your Majesty's glory but its perpetuity. But whence, alas! should I have this confidence, after so many Eulogies and Panegyrics of great and Eloquent men, who consecreate the memory of this day's happiness; 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 Your Majesty being absent, should now be silent that you are present, and inflame me with a kind of new Enthusiasm: I find myself then compelled out of a grateful sense of my duty for the public benefit, and if your Majesty forbid not, or withdraw your influence, who shall hinder, that even my slender voice should not strive to be heard, in such an uniuresall consort, wherein every body has a part, every one a share? Permit me therefore (O best of Kings) to present, and lay these my vows at your sacred feet, to exsult, and to Rejoice 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, Sentiendo copiosius, quam loquendo. DIXI.