AURORA: OR, A DAWNE TO DAYLIGHT.  Post tenebras lucem. 
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1648.   

AURORA: OR, A Dawne to Daylight.  
THe night now gins to draw up her fable Sailes, and let's down to us a springing Twilight; which though faint and thin, yet after so thick a darkness (as of late years hath Curtained o'er this Island) brings much comfort with it. The Morn (like a recovering sick man) looks yet pallid & puling; and though it be nothing comparable to that light the eye is capable of, (nor its fullest receipt but the satisfying the fift part of a sensible Creature:) yet it seems dressed in a fuller Clarity, because it appears after so black a storm. This dubious duskishness presents our present Actions confused, like their stories if woven in Arras, when we look upon the knotted outside: or as if an ancient Eye should go about to read them in a small print. Here we may perceive men walk like trees, but Affairs being managed beyond the level of the Eye; we cannot reach to a perfect discovery. And yet methinks this enlarging Dawne promiseth a Birth that shall terminate our adversities, and grow to a strength able to discloud our long night: That these new-borne-rayes will gild our saddened hearts, and burnish o'er our duller Hopes. If then hitherto we have been wilfully blind, let not our eyes prove enemies to us still; but let us rather tear out that thick film to make use of this beneficial Prospect: And perhaps if this  lend us but so much light as to lead us into a path, our going forward may happily bring us to our own doors. To the attaining of which wont blessing, this early light promiseth fair, and seems to degree itself by the more noble surprisal, because so unexpectedly let in upon us. For seeing it enables us already to distinguish the benefit of our appearing comforts from the misery of past misfortunes, let us make use of it to further the one, though we cannot remedy the other, and by detesting the authors of our woes, make way to recrowne the finisher of our happiness. In expectance of which future good, let us create to ourselves this present benefit, to summon all our powers and faculties into our Eyes, (calling them there to council) and then they will the better satisfy our judgement: though on the sudden our thoughts are ravelled into disorder, because burdened with hopes, fears, doubts, desires, suspicions, and amazements; like waters forsaking that by-ditch which the unskilful maintainers of these times, drew them into, and are trying several Channels to return to their right stream. This glimmering light thus hopefully assuring us the restauration of a Day, we may be all partakers of the beneficial happiness thereof if we please. But how welcome to the Royal party, (whose tedious habitation in such an imprisoned shade have often forced them to sigh out that complaint of good old Toby, Quale gaudium est mihi quia in tenebris sedeo?) None can more truly know, save those whose desperate and weighty miseries, have made them more capable of the worth of so large a blessing. The expectation whereof is pleasant, but our fruition more pleasant; what now nourisheth our springing hopes, shall then crown our full grown enjoyment. In the mean time let us (like the pleased birds) forsake these long confined nests, to prune our dull and unrefreshed thoughts, and with our cheerfullest notes thank Heaven for this .  
And that we may set a greater value upon the promised day, let us reflect a little upon our past night; where we may see our Sun totally swallowed up by darkness, and our Moon wading through an envious Eclipse; Stars of the first magnitude masked o'er with clouds, and thousands of our fixed lamps become wand'ring Planets: our chiefest Tapers puffed or snuffed out, or else lanthorned in an imprisoned dungeon. In fine, (to our discomfort) we may behold our Glories blurred, and all our comforts Tarnished. But happy we, if this Twilight usher us the way to view a glimpse of our former condition, perhaps it may lead us to a fuller prospect, where we may see the Glory of this Nation grown up to the top of the spire, and Happiness dressed in her fullest flourish, where pleasures were presented with a towering delight, and our Gardens wanted no beautiful trimming. Who grew waspish when any questioned our Title of prescription for Prosperity, and thought Heaven did us much injury to sue forth a Writ De executione Decretis for the possession of that we had enjoyed Time out of mind? But alas! pernicious weeds grew up with these flowers, Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit. We (quam Jocus circumvolat) were too happy and proud, which made us wanton, and lo! in an instant wilful Resolution drawing the Curtain, the flowers of our felicity were strait forgot, & nunc non erat his locus: Such fruit as our industrious Summer nourished, our destroying Winter hath utterly perished: and yet we do not feelingly deplore our unhappiness, as the depth of it exacts. And though an eternal and never-fading youth seemed to be conferred upon us, as the Gods did upon Prometheus' offspring, yet we (like them) foolishly entrusted this bounteous gift to the silly Ass, who for a draught of water sold it to Serpents. Nor stayed we here at this loss, for our further improvidence gained us the title of adoption to Epimetheus, when we so greedily accepted of Pandora's prostituted Box, which (having as rashly opened) let out all misfortunes upon us; (only we had so much discretion to retain Hope in the bottom.) For at the first view of these late Troubles, how false did our humorous and purblind eyes see? and yet renouncing them, what deceitful and perverse spectacles have we ever since trusted? How did we suffer our mischiefs to steal in upon us like an Hectic Fever (that in the beginning was difficult to be discovered, and easy to be avoided, but at length became more easily known, and harder to be cured:) and which, sicut unda sequitur undam, like water in the sea, one thronged into the neck of another. At what a rate did we hire a War, and how many vast sums did we bring in to throw away?  
— neque enim loculis comitantibus itur  
Ad casum Tabulae, posita sed luditur arca.  
How rashly did we mow down our well-grown happiness? and how hast lie did we obnubulate our full-spread glories? How did we spurn at that precious jewel, Peace? and digging its Grave, bury all that we could call comfort, in it? How did we chase ourselves into destruction with a sharpened ●●ur, (hac Tuba rixa) never seeking to check the rains till we fell ourselves over head and ears beyond recovery? and then struggling against the tide striving to break those threatening waves) into how great dangers hath it entitled us? How did we burry our Sun into the West being offended with the glory of too bright a Ray? How did we court a rising and prodigious Moon, whose borrowed light only ●●d us to an unwearied destruction? Fools that we were! to rush into a Quarrel in the Dark, when our ignorant-dealt blows wounded friends as well as foes: Had our Swords been deliberately unsheathed, (and in the Day) they might have discerned the true opposite or known the way to their peaceful Scabbards. Sed jam Serpentum major concordia: whilst contesting for Trifles, and rushing into the fray unadvisedly, in how many sad and destructive Dilemmas have our astonished thoughts been bound? What perilous and unknown Coasts, Rocks, Flaws, Sands, and Shallows, in this troubled Ocean, hath this darkened tempest driven us upon? so that indeed we seemed lost to all felicity; yet verily we have seen the wonders of the Lord in this great deep. And truly our disasters may not unfitly be paralleled with the raging Seas, who are running and roaring with unresistable force, and which every Minute threatens inevitable ruin; but thanks be to that protecting hand which hath supported many of our unwieldy barks, making the fidelity of that Element fully manifest in their preservation, and safely conveyed them to a promising-secure- Harbour.  
The confessed truth is, our prosperity was great, and we so fully possessed of it, that (had we been as circumspect as careless) we might imagine adversity could not be far off; which when it came (and coming so unexpectedly) did more roughly dispossess us of the blessings we enjoyed; then if we had met it with a prepared bosom.  
But our night it approached, and like that of Penelope's hath raveled and undone all that our day did wove; a night! (though nights be common and darkness familiar to us yet this we may well bestow a wonder upon) which overwhelmed us in such solid darkness, darkness so collected, that indeed it was felt; because the shaded mantle was folded so many double.  
These thick shades made us languish even to the utmost gasp, during which, if we saw any light at all, 'twas terrible as lightning, and fatal as a comet; never appearing, but attended with destructive thunder: which left nothing behind but a feeble blue, dull and heavy as a melancholy snuff expiring in a socket. 'Tis true, that now and then, though our clouds were loaded with such contracted shade, yet they afforded a few seeming benefits, and opened the way to some flaming Meteors appearance; but immediately skreined them again, (and therein became friendly to us) lest our over-eager belief (giving to these false fires and credit of morning stars, should lend us, hopes of an approaching twilight, which yet they were not pleased to disco●● nor unlock those early doors, for our long imprisoned Sun to show himself.  
During these weighty afflictions, nothing seemed to prognosticate our ruin so much as the despairing hearts we carried about us; because fortune continued so constant to her frowns; yet alas! that only was in regard she had a long while used us to them. But the same skill that satisfied us how our prosperity was maintained, might have foretold us of the approaching danger; Nay, yet we may thereby foresee our deliverance if we will not live in resolved blindness. And time it is, since 'tis ourselves that ruin ourselves, we can charge none else with the guilt. All our glory, wealth, prosperity, happiness, comforts, and felicities, nay the choice of blessings, Peace! have been buried in a grave of our own digging: and upon which no other monument must be erected, than the broken and scattered piles of our own ruins. Our former days were the white paper, and our five year's night, the Acts of our sad Tragedies, written thereon not in Ink, but in Blood; making up the Volume of our past and present age: in which (without Spectacles) we may read the saddest losses ever came to a people. Never was Age so thick sown with the venomous spawn of Civil dissension, which (like Cadmus' Teeth) immediately produced whole troops of Felo de ses: who (had they been wise) should rather have employed their Tongues in licking, than their Teeth in biting such deep wounds. And for sacrilegious Imps, nature, nor liberty ever yet produced their equal. How many houses of God have they destroyed in the Land! nay; what Church is it that hath scaped plundering? Surely they that violate the place of God's dwelling can never truly honour him. And as the Temples of God, so the Temples of the Holy Ghost (laid up there in a safe repose) have suffered pillaging. Having not spared to strip the 〈◊〉 of such robes, as pious hands had dressed them in, to let Posterity know them by their Monuments; nor forborn to ransack them of their meanest clothes, their bare Coffins; leaving no Epitaph but (what they could not take away) the bloody Veins in the remaining Marble.  
Monuments were erected to preserve and perpetuate the memories and noble actions of such as have lived honourably, and died virtuously, and no less than a condemnation to the Galleys, or grinding at the Mill did our prudent Ancestors impose upon the Violators thereof, because the offence was reputed a crime infamous, and equal to Perjury; and the Offendor guilty both of Theft and Sacrilege: But I leave these deeds of darkness, to be punished by the Prince of darkness, and proceed.  
We have now at length by woeful and dear-bought experience found, what private Machivilian power it was gave Law to Justice, and what clandestine projects (like the primum mobile) gave motion to these multitudes of mischief. As for our Laws, like those whereof Tacitus complains, invalido legum auxilio, quae vi, ambitu, postremo pecunia turbabantur, they afford no security, being swayed hither and thither by might, ambition, and corruption. All that is now left us, is, to sit down, & number up our former blessings: A poor comfort! to look back upon these, and forward upon approaching miseries: so that we may enforcedly cry out in that pathetical exclamation, o ubi estes fontes lacrimarum! what is become of you ye fountains of tears! are you dried up by the preaching of hardened hearts? or converted into blood, by the cracking of the eyestrings? but our hopes, are, that our sorrows and pressures are screwed up to their highest pitch, and itching fingers being unwilling to leave them at that stay, the other wind may perchance break the string; and so give freedom to an escape, from a supposed-inevitable-ruine.  
And then (as want shows the true valuation of that thing, our unexamined enjoyment made too cheap) when we are afforded so much light to see what we have so long lost, sure we shall more esteem its return then when we possessed it; and probably improve it to a better advantage; For, Dulce est nomen pacis & res ipsa perquam salutares, sweet is the name and healthful the nature of blessed Peace. But it will never appear in our Horizon, till our Kingly Sun arise again, upon whose Glory it waits as a near attendant which will not be long now: for this Nation when shuffled out of a regular course by any former distempers, like the wand'ring needle never left trembling, till it had settled itself upon the point of Monarchy, to which it naturally owes affection. Yet to such who murmur at the Snales pace, observed, in the carriage on of such a design as the restauration of a Crown; and who impatiently study to add wings to dispatch, or lead on these affairs in a more direct path; let them know, nihil dictu facilius, Men may sooner project then execute; nor may every projection be attempted, or every attempt, pursued. That time is fittest which Heaven appoints, and business is then ripe, when the decree is ready to go forth. Nay, if we rightly consider, we may highly prise the slow progress this dawning makes; and think our happiness the more surely founded, when the day breaks on us Gradatim. Sudden flashes affright with horror, and portend short glories, when as a Twilight that hath a degreeing appearance promiseth a serene and quiet Day. Should a Meridian lustre now rash in upon us, it might dazzle us with an ore-powerfull brightness; and tempt us beside our trusty path, for sensibile fortè destruit sensum, too strong an object vanquisheth the sight, and may perhaps chase us into a deluded precipitation. We have an old Adage, (and they seldom fail of verity) that (many times) the farthest way about, is the nearest way home: Counsels managed by a leisurely progression (if concealed) thrive best; though I confess execution and dispatch should be driven on with a nimble hand. Let us not then afflict our hopes, by fearing they are over-lingered, but wait with a patiented expectation of fruition in its ripest season. What obstructions have interveened, we are beholding to London for, who might long ere this (had they been composed of any thing but disloyal earth and perfidious baseness) have put fair for the reinstating of His Majesty, and set a happy period, to ours, and their own long misfortunes. But that City must smart, yet, again, and a third time; that proud City! which being seated under the Equinoctial, and favoured (above all) with a constant perpendicular ray; was never contented, till it had picked a quarrel with a Crime of too much summer, and forced the Sun more Northward from it; but 'tis no matter, its ingratitude hath since been frost-nipped with a multitude of coldest miseries: and sensibly felt the smart of a perishing winter. For, how many of its Inhabitants like Fishes, left on a dry shore, have perished? when His Majesty (like a wave) removed, and how many fair-spred flowers in that royal Garden, (like the Helitropian) shrunk in their leaves when He departed? 'Twas apparent by the courses of those ruinous Tenants, that they took to themselves Leases for many Lives without impeachment of waist, but they will prove but Tenants at will: and now their Landlords are about to out them, 'tis to no purpose to keep a forcible Deteynor. No, notwithstanding their combination and league with that horrid darkness which hath blasted the face of this Kingdom; and by which united closeness they became a Cloister for crimes, and a shade to cover Sin.  
— maneant qui nigrum in candida vertunt,  
Queis facile est aedem conducere, flumina, portus.  
Machivilians! whose clandestine contrivements have rocked us into a lethargy, and led us into those bloudy-blind Paths; which had we had our eyes open, no stratagem (how plausible soever) could ever have drawn us within its nosse. Ambitious spirits! whose end was their own oppulency and greatness, and our indigence and vassalage. pilate's, and Herod's! (for magna inter molles concordia) whose bloody confederacy, crucified Christ afresh in his Members. Owls! what will now blush and vanish to behold the light, which must betray their baseness; but indeed these sons of Terviah were too hard for us, yet the justice of Heaven is most remarkable; for though through their dark practices, our glorious Sun became Eclipsed, yet have they suffered for want of his influence: Though the Culminating boldfaced Moon hath usurped the regal house ever since, yet how sharply the reins of her Government hath curbed them, all yet miserably feel. Culpam poena premit Comes.  
And now if ever they mean to be saved, the chief Article of their Creed must be in their Sun's ascension into Glory; and the next in their Moon's descension into Hell: Their only hope must rest in this, that when this world's bright Eye appears again, he will look upon them, with his wont compassion; to thaw the icy cold that hath benumbed them into a senseless stupidity, and stiffened them into Rebellion; and to disperse amongst them his usual nourishing influence. But the truth is, they have little deserved so large a blessing as his return, who have so long while unmasked his favours, and put on a vizard; and in stead of rendering a pleased countenance, returned an ungrateful menace. However I cannot altogether blame the Generality, though Omnes errorem bibunt, nor too sharply censure the face of things, when presented to many through a false Glass. 'Tis charity makes me so tender herein, and withal I cannot but remember that of Ovid: Parcite paucorum diffundere crimen in omnes.  
I know, and confess, Disparagements are quickly proclaimed, but not so easily retrieved: that affection and dislike are like the two ends of a Prospective glass, where the one lessons, and the other multiplies. Silly Souls! their deluded understanding and gross ignorance, made many of them censorious; but such as thought by detraction to be esteemed wise discovered themselves the most malicious fools. What dark insinuations were screwed into execution, to dismount that awe & reverence His Majesty justly held over His Subjects hearts? How many base conceptions were hived in waspish minds? their base Tongues usurping the Beadles lash; such were the venom of blasphemous mouths, and the undutifulness of rebellious prompters, but 'tis natural for Dogs to bark against the Moon; and those discreet judgements that had taken a Pill for this contagion, were not to be accounted unhappy: for myself (as Horace in another case) Quodcunque ostendit mihi sic incredulus odi.  
I have much wondered whence these detractions should spring? unless from the receipt of too large favours: and indeed when men become Bankrupts, their gratitude ofttimes converts to discourtesies. But 'tis more wonderful to consider how so many quivers of scandalous arrows have been emptied out against His Majesty, who yet standing like the unpierced marble, hath shattered them all: which to mention is not so fit as to rake together and burn; lest their splinters should wrancle posterity, who perhaps may want the age's salve, viz. a full and visible confutation: should any of us endure so narrow an inquisition into our actions, I fear we should be found guilty of corrupt tinctures, our base metals are too full of dross, but his Gold hath returned out of the crucible without waist. And yet (o incomparable magnanimity!) though so abusively detracted, doth offer to make himself altogether incapable of future revenge, and what wounds these multiplied injuries have seemed to make; his not taking notice hath fully cured; or else his forgiveness shall wear out the scar.  
I can parallel His unfortunate Majesty to none more fitly, then to that resolute and courageous Athenian Soldier; who being vanquished in a naval fight, laid hold of one of his Enemy's Ships, and when his right hand was cut off held fast by the left, and when that was chopped off, maintained his hold with his Teeth. So His Majesty, losing His own Army, betook His trust to the outside-Scot, that trustless and hypocritical refuge; where losing (as it were, His right hand) He held up His interest with the Independent, who as perfidiously lopped off the left also; and left (to every judgement) no appearance of saving relief, and yet we see He still preserves His life and integrity with His last reserve: a constant resolution, which sinewing with unweakened nerves, he holds them tugging, unwearied, and unremoved: sharpening the one to what His abilities for all Opposers, and sweetening the other to oppose what His sad fate hath too prodigally furnished Him with. Unkind fortune! why hast thou dealt so unkindly with Him in dealing His Cards? that if discreet and wary resolution had not made Him a good Gamester, the Set had been irrecoverably lost. But His God is the same He was at the beginning, and now (as then) hath brought light out of darkness. His Majesty is become happy merely by His unhappiness: and they are His misfortunes that have proclaimed His heroic worth. Perchance we had never taken notice of the lustre of His wisdom, but through this black Eclipse: nor of His even carriage in His sinking adversities, but by the rough capering of the surly waves. His silent patience discovered His injuries more fully, then perhaps His public complaints would, and so just a temper in all accidents did never appear in any breast. His mildness still met them as yielding wool doth the stroke of iron; which is a more noble victory then that gained by opposition: Nay, of all victories, His, must needs be the greatest, for He hath conquered His patience, and having laid a foundation upon so firm a virtue, His greatness reared thereon cannot fall, especially having the support of many other. But now to consider with what admirable constancy He hath weathered out this time of durance, tiring his adversaries with complying sufferance, (making his sweet returns surer than golden baits to catch them with) lest earnest contestation might strike their sharpened hook the deeper into his sides. All the provocations he hath been continually assaulted (which to a slacking fury would have proved like bellows) could never transport him in his lowest estate, nor quicken him into any sharp returns: and when new tortures were found out for his patience, they proved but as fresh invitements, to contract and knit it more firm and stronger; and this 'twas made his resolution more solid and compact. Briefly, like a wise Physician, he converted all their poisonous drugs into a medicinable quality. And therefore the greatest crime for which his preciser Adversaries scoffed at him, was, for being (like that ancient Grecian Patriarch) singly so good and pious, in so bad and impious times: when turncoat vices were so universally in fashion. But these His Princely virtues of justice, wisdom, clemency, courage, and devotion, have proved all assistants to strengthen him in the bustle of these contestations, and most sure clues to lead him out of so difficult Maze●. Nay! his undaunted resolutions, like the Eagle, feared not to encounter the loud- tongued Thunder, and confronted that quarter of Heaven, where lightning and tempest most raged: witness those many spurns of Fortune he has received, and those many shocks of envy he hath endured, and yet continues safe and whole. His wisdom hath been so great that the subtle Serpent cannot outstrip, and his innocence so spotless, that the Doves is not more. In the generality of his actions he hath appeared above the ordinary level of Princes, like a most noble scutcheon, upon which only the Almighty hath blazoned all the bearings of virtue and honour. He hath manifested himself a Piece of that seasoned worth, that the pens of this Age cannot sufficiently describe, for if they should attempt it, his virtues would press in so thick together, that they'd choke the current of the ablest fancy; being (indeed) not fit to be delivered with the ordinary liberty of speech, but rather by the wel-ordered and majestic delivery of an Angel; But however, 
Illum aget pennâ metuente solvi  
Fama superstes.   
In fine, no Prince ere shrined up so many virtues, or was more pious, or unfortunate, 
— cui Pudor, & Justitiae soror,  
Incorrupta Fides; nudaque Veritas,  
Quando ullum invenient parem?   
Yet when he was removed from his Throne, they (perforce) left him the greatest dignity, for nobilitas sola est atque unica, virtus; and when he was dispossessed of three Kingdoms, yet still he enjoyed a larger signory, for virtus est optima possessio, but what would have been the issue of his imprisonment, Heaven's all-discerning eye only saw, Prona est Timori semper in pejus fides. In such dubious cases give us leave to fear the worst. I believe they strove to make him happy, but I as verily believe it must have been verified in the Philosopher's sense, foelix ante obitum nemo. And Carisbrook-Castle I am as fully satisfied, was prepared with the same intention the murdering-Shirt was for Agamemnon; out of which it was impossible for him to scape. Ungrateful Ocean! who after this Sun's long days driving his troublesome chariot, courting him into her bosom, to quench the thirst of his Steeds, and to refresh himself, turned to a bottomless deep, and betrayed him into an insatiable Gulf, where he (o complemental treachery!) had been irrecoverably drowned, but for those loyal and unexpected hands, that are now boying him up again: And thanks be unto God for this timely appearing deliverance, and opening unto him a passage by so unexpected a door. During this time of durance, what happiness was it for a King to own the latitude of three Kingdoms, who was thus confined to as few rooms; where he had little or no recreation, but what he received by that reflex of his many misfortunes, which by him were never merited, nor by us can be sufficiently lamented. Here His patience endured the strictest touch, for the Ministers of Satan were set upon every side to buffet him; and his lowest Vassals that sought to undermine him, when they could not do it, raised themselves high to crush him with their power. And now it was they acted all below-board, having their times and seasons as dark, as the wishes of such light haters could possibly limb out; showing him less mercy than his relation required, and more tyranny than his faults could deserve: which exceedingly strengthened this suspicion that that Sword might securely cut off, which so privately fetched its blow: the fear whereof to the souls of his loyal Subjects was really, absinthio amarius.  
These, and many more his misfortunes were to be lamented, because they were his, and the rather because (to the narrowest observer) they seemed ordained, to run parallel with his life; during which, like the noble Roman in his rolling Tu● of nails, which way soever he turns, must needs feel something that continually galls him: insomuch, that many thought the best blessing they could desire for him (death seeming to them his faithful friend) was to wish Heaven would send a writ of ease to his restless labours, and so release him from his growing sorrows. 'Twas this very consideration that purchased him some affections among those narrow- eyed attendants of his. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit: and divers of their own party could not but look upon his afflictions with a pitiful dislike: Nay! his bitter Enemies began to lament his distressed condition; his imprisonment alone, freeing him from the further strokes of malice.  
And what true English heart is it, that can hear the particulars of his rough usage and transcendent misery, without affording a noble compassion? really none; unless such as are hardened into a stif-necked insensibleness. But I hope some grateful Historian when he shall record the Annals of his misfortunes, will not let these pass, without being margined with a texted Ecce, the rather, because it hath been the nature of the English to behold distresses with a tender eye, and melting heart; conceiving it ever more noble to raise him up that is thrown down; then to support those whom they have raised. For though Fortune (that Tyrant to humane estate) hath exercised her rigorous power too much and long, yet now since she gins to abate some of her cruelty, we may be invited (as by a good Omen) to assist his re-establishment, her wheel is ever in a perpetual motion, and 'tis probable His Majesty is now past the Nadir, and upon the ascending side, 
— quis neget arduis  
Pronos relabi posse rivos  
Montibus, & Tiberim reverti.   
And now to behold happiness to approach when envy and malice had weaved such strong webs, that it lay not within the compass of any Ally to break; to see deliverance at hand when he was thrown beyond the hand of hope or help, no possibility showing itself to reinstate him into his past honours; is like a glory in the middle of an Eclipse. But the passage through which Gods providence wanders, is always miraculous: through how many several Meanders and unseen ways, doth it begin to steal us: perhaps 'twill prove well for us, though 'twas bad for him, that he hath been thus long laid aside; his virtues like a lusty painting never appeared fair and lively but at this remove. His absence hath given our thoughts time to chew the cudd, through which relish we may strengthen the opinion of his unvaluable worth; and in his worthy thoughts render ourselves clea● beast. And though his enemy's malice hath shrubed him into Underwood, and great Oaks seldom grow to perfect Timber after once lopped; yet his humble patience will make him capable of spreading, specially being beset with so many interposing skreens which kerb the imperious winds, and preserve him from their blasting power, and happily then shall we live under his protecting shelter. 'Tis true, the intermitting harsh notes of the Times has discomposed many instruments: yet his disposition continues set to his wont sweetness, and like the Sun, is, Idem per diversa. Nor need we doubt that the course of affairs can be otherwise then happily steered, when we shall behold so able and honest a Pilot sit at the stern again, whose manifest skill, the cross tides (raised by these late storms) hath justly commended.  
To Conclude, though the passages wherein we walk, seem (at present) obscure, and uncertain; yet doubtless they'll assuredly lead our hopes to their expected end, what we cannot yet clearly see, we must strive to scent out, and he that is content leisurely to climb a hill, shall a great deal better his prospect. If I may judge of the ensuing day without erecting a figure, (and many times some general judgements may be gathered from lesser exactness, as plain Countrymen (though illiterate) can guess at ensuing weather by observing the colour of the Moon) I should be very forward to assure this Nation of a clear Horizon, wherein we shall restore Phoebus in his wont splendour, and ourselves capable of receiving the benefit of his healing influence, which whilst any fatal or envious interposition lasts, cannot descend upon us, nor our eyes be comforted with a beam naturally powerful. But 'tis almost impossible (according to natural causes) but that London (in the generality) must naturally affect Monarchy if Gemini be its Ascendant, that affectionate constellation beholds Leo with a Sextile, which is counted the Regal Sign, and the Aspect an aspect of love and friendship: Nor will this Kingdom (if under Aries) come behind, or ever endure any Government but what is Monarchical, for Aries is of the same nature and triplicity with Leo, and casts to it a friendly Trine, (which is esteemed the most perfect and friendly Aspect) nor can the Kingly Lion but cordially affect both those signs, whom he so amicably beholds. So that notwithstanding other malevolent Planets (either by unhappy position, or hateful aspect) have for some years empoisoned their nature; thrusting the Sun out of his exaltation, and converting the quality of Mercury to ill, by some malicious & prevalent ray; yet surely such will not always prove stationary, but shortly remove: that the natural force of these signs may show their mutual affection; And if either Kingdom or City will taste the benefit of the Sun's revivifying influence, now is the time to receive it; For in this years' revolution the Kingly sign culminates, and Sun Almuten thereof posited in Aries the Kingdom's sign and his own exaltation, from whence he beholds Gemini with a loving Sextile, and (receives Mercury) Lord thereof into his exaltation; whose power, position, and aspect, (together with many agreeing Testimonies in that promising scheame) are all assurances of His Majesty's recruiting his honour, and strong presumptions of mutual concord and agreement, between the King, Kingdom, and City.  
That no more obstacles than may run between us and our happiness, let us discover his safe and honourable entertainment by our free and hearty invitations, lest he be stolen again into a cloud; and this City suffer the ruin it is now ready to fall into: for by this and no other way can we recover our lost renown; which when we once again enjoy, let us learn to be so prudent as to preserve it.  Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia. 
FINIS.