Part 5

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

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

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

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

The Army is disbanded, and the Navy paid off without Tumult; because you are trusted without suspicion, and are more secure in the publick love and affection of your people then in men of Iron, the locks and Bars of Tyrants Palaces: And truely Sir, there is no protection to innocency, which is a fort inexpugnable: In vain therefore do Princes confide in any other; for Armes invite Armes, Terrour, suspition. To this only do you trust, and the few which you maintain about your person, is rather for state, then fear. Quid enim istis opus est, quum firmissimo sis muro Civici amoris obtectus? Here is then the firm Keeper of our Liberties indeed, whom the Armies love for His own sake, and whom no servile flattery adores; but a simple, and sincere devotion; and verily such a Prince as Your Majesty, deserves to have friends, Prompt, steady and faithful; such as You have, and which Virtue rather then Fortune procures. Of this I obtest the fidelity of Your own inviolable Party, distinguished formerly by the invidious name of Cavalier, though significant and glorious; but I provoke the World to produce me an example of parallel Loyaltie: What Prince under heaven, after so many losses, and all imaginable calamities, can boast of such a party? 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 German and the French will happily stick to their Prince in distresse, as far as the Plate, the Tapistry, or some such superfluous moveable may abide the pawn; But where shall we find a Subject that hath persisted like Your Majesties, to the losse of Libertie, Estate, and life it self, when yet all seem'd to be determin'd against them; so as even their enemies were at last vanquish'd with their constancy, and their very Tormentors wearied with their insuperable Patience; nor can they in all that tract of Time, hardly brag of having made one signal Proselyte in twenty Years that this difference continu'd; and that because the obedience of your Majesties Subjects, is engraffed into their Religion and Institution, as well as into the adoration of Your Virtues.

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

Your Majestie has abolished 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 Majestie is to Your Countrie, in those who shall succeed You.

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

Nor has yet Your zeal to the Church, lessen'd that which is due to the Common-wealth; witnesse your industry in erecting a Counsel 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 publick emolument of the Nation, which should render it opulent, splendid and flourishing; making good your pretence to the universall Soveraignty by Your Princely care, as well as by your birth and undoubted Title.

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

Te propter colimus leges, animosque ferarum Exuimus----And there is hope we may again be civiliz'd.

For you are (we hear) publishing Sumptuary Lawes to represse the wantonness and excess of Apparel, as you have already testifi'd your abhorrency of Duelling, that infamous and dishonourable gallantry: In fine, you have establish'd so many excellent constitutions, that you seem to leave nothing for us to desire, or your Successor to add either in the Ethicall or Politicall.

----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 the glory 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 restor'd a broken Nation, repair'd a ruin'd Church, reform'd, and re-establish'd our ancient Laws; in summe, who has at once render'd us perfectly happy? What then have we to do 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, ought 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 condemn'd 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, Murthers, Injustice, and the (for most part) fatal periods of Tyrants; which if any esteem a glory, you envy not, whilst your Majesty is resolv'd to secure your own by your virtue and your Justice; so as no age to come shall possibly find an aemulator, or produce an equall.

----Fuerint aliis haec forte decora, Nulla potest Laus esse tibi quae crimina purget.

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

How happy then those Servants of yours, whose fidelity and Industry is known to your Majesty, not from the interpretation and reports of others, but your own experience! So as you Reward as well with Judgment, as Bounty; and verily that is true Beneficence to place your Recompense as well equally as freely: Most other Virtues are competent to the rest of Men; Beneficence only to a Prince, as his most Essential property, and the noblest ingredient of his Elogy. Hence that great Saint, as well as Courtier and Prelate has directed, Si quis Principem laudare vellet, nihil illi adeo decorum adscriberet quam Magnificentiam; [SN: S. Chrysost.] and Criticks observe, that where the wise King Solomon sayes, Multi colunt personam Principis, the Hebrew version reads it, personam Benefici, as importing both; and in that of his Who was greater then Solomon, Qui dominantur eorum Benefici vocantur, the Chaldy turnes, 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 Reign'd but two years; because he was so long it seems good to his people, and reigned in their hearts; For as the Sun himself should not be the Sun, if he did not shine; no more should a Prince be worthy of his dignity, if he unjustly Ecclips'd his influence, or abused his Magnificency. But as we said, this virtue is added to your Majesties also; who know so well to adjust its Definition by your constant practice, rendering it (as indeed it ought) productive of your will for glorious and honest ends only; But I now proceed with the rest.

There is such a Majesty in your Countenance, such Lenity in your Eyes, gravity in your speech, as that for your gracefull presence that may be truly affirm'd of you what was once appli'd to a great Prince resembling you, Jam firmitas, Jam proceritas corporis, jam honor Capitis & dignitas oris, ad hoc aetatis indeflexa maturitas, nonne longe lateque principem ostentant? since even all these assemble in your Majesties personage; Nor has fortune chang'd you after all your Travels and Adventures abroad; but brought you back to us not so much as tinged in the percolations through which you have been forc'd to run, like the Fountain Arethusa through the River Alpheus without commixture of their waters. None having more constantly retained his vertue then your Majesty, nor guarded it with more caution.

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

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

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

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

Nor must I here forget the honour You have done our Society at Greshham Colledge by Your curious enquiries about the Load-Stone, and other particulars which concern Philosophy; since it is not to be doubted but that{8} 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 Majesties Predecessors, and indeed all the Monarchs on the Earth, when for You is reserv'd the being Founder of some thing that may improve practical and Experimental knowledg, beyond all that has been hitherto attempted, for the Augmentation of Science, and universal good of Man-kind, and which alone will consummate Your Fame and render it immortal.

What shall I superadd to all these? That You rise early, that You are alwaies employ'd, that You love Hunting, Riding, swimming, manly Robust and Princely Exercises, not so much for delight, as health and relaxation. Et 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 Princes Virtues; Princes best know their Subjects, and therefore most fit to rule them. And long may You live to rule us great Sir. We wish that all you do, or may do, be propitious to you, to us, to the public; or in a word, to your Majesty alone, in which both we and the public are mutually concern'd. Time was (and too long alas it was!) that what was fortunate to the Tyrant, was unhappy to your Subjects: now they are common to both and reciprocal; nor can we more be happy without you, then you without us; and truly all Princes have known, that they are seldom beloved of God, who are hated of their People; nor can they be long secure. Vox Populi, vox Dei est. But you have seen the Effects of our Prayers against an Usurper; hear now, O Heaven our Vowes for a just Prince. Not for peace, not for Riches, not Honours, or new conquests do we supplicate; but for all these in one, The Safety of CHARLES. You alone snatch'd him out of those cruel hands, now preserve him from them: Render him fortunate to us, to our Children, succeeding Generations give him a late Successor, and when You do it, let it be such a one as himself.