An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and A Panegyric to Charles the Second Part 2

But I suffer [HW: surfeit] with too much Plenty, and what eloquence is able to expresse the triumph of that your never to be forgotten Entry, unlesse it be the renewing of it this day? For then were we as those who dream, and can yet hardly be perswaded, that we are truly awake: _Dies ille 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 then Bra.s.se. Away then with these Woodden and temporary Arches, to be taken down by the People at pleasure; erect Marble ones, lasting as the Pyramids, and immovable as the mountains themselves, and when they fail, let the memory of it still remain engraven in our Hearts, Books, Records, _novissimo haud peritura die_.

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

For no sooner were we possess'd of your sacred Majestie, but you suddainly gave form to our 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 G.o.dlike: 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 Va.s.sals, 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 t.i.ttle 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 languis.h.i.+ng _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 n.o.bility, 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 p.a.w.n; 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 Inst.i.tution, 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 pa.s.sed 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 ingrat.i.tude 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 n.o.blest 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.

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

Nor has yet Your zeal to the Church, lessen'd that which is due to the Common-wealth; witnesse your industry in erecting 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 flouris.h.i.+ng; making good your pretence to the universall Soveraignty by Your Princely care, as well as by your birth and undoubted t.i.tle.

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) publis.h.i.+ng _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 const.i.tutions, 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 _t.i.tus_, 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 _Spartia.n.u.s_ 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 a.s.sign'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 n.o.blest 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 t.i.tle. 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 s.h.i.+ne; 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 a.s.semble 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 Friends.h.i.+p; as considering that these Virtues were not concredited to you by G.o.d, 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 compa.s.sionate, 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 s.h.i.+pping, Buildings, Gardens (having exceeded _Cyrus_ already in Your Plantations) Piscinas, Statues, Pictures, Intaglias, Music: You have already ama.s.s'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 Ill.u.s.trious a.s.sembly; 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 _M_ajesty 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 G.o.d, 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 s.n.a.t.c.h'd him out of those cruel hands, now preserve him from them: Render him fortunate to us, to our Children, succeeding Generations give him a late Successor, and when You do it, let it be such a one as himself.

Let your Majestie now proceed in his Triumph, and hear the Acclamations of his people; what can they more expresse who are ready to pave the very streets with their bodies, in testimonie of their zeal? behold all about You, the Gratulating old Fathers, the exulting Youths, the glad mothers; And why should it not be so? Here's no goods publicated, none restrain'd or mulcted of their Libertie, none diminish'd of dignitie, none molested, or exil'd; all are again return'd into{9} their houses, Relations and Properties, and which is yet more then all, to their antient innocencie{10} and mutual charitie.

If the _Philosopher_ in the _Ethicks_ enquiring whether the felicity of the sun, do any whit concern the happinesse of the defunct progenitor, after much reasoning have determin'd that the honour only which his son acquires by worthie and great actions, does certainly refresh his Ghost: What a day of Jubilee, is this then to Your blessed Father! Not the odor of those flowers did so recreate the dead _Archemorus_ which the _Nymphs_ were yearly wont to strow upon his watry Sepulcher, as this daies 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 Citie Gates were dashed to pieces, Gibbets and Executions erected in every Street, and all things turned into universal silence and solitude, behold now the change of this daies glorious scean; that we see the Churches in repair, the sacred a.s.semblies open'd, our Cities re-edified, the Markets full of People, our Palaces richly furnished, and the Streets proud with the burden of their Triumphal Arches, and the shouts of a rejoycing mult.i.tude: How would he wonder and stand amaz'd, at the Prodigie, and leap down from his lofty station, though already so near to heaven, to joyne with us in earth, partic.i.p.ate of our felicitie, and ravish'd with the Ecstasie, cry out aloud now with Us.

Set open the Temple-Gates, let the Prisoners go free, the Altars smoak perfumes, bring forth the Pretious things, strow the Waies with Flowers, let the Fountains run Wine, Crown the Gobblets, bring Chapplets of Palmes and Lawrells, the Bells ring, the Trumpets sound, the Cannon roar, O happy Descent, and strange Reverse! I have seen{11} E_nglands_ Restorer, Great _CHARLES the II._ RETURN'D, REVENG'D, BELOV'D, CROWN'D, RE-ESTABLISH'D.

_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 Majestie: For never since there was a Citie, or Kingdom, did a Day appear more glorious to _England_, never since it was a Nation, and in which there either was, or ought to be so universal a Jubilation: Not that Your Triumphal Charriots do drag the miserable Captives, but are accompanied by freed Citizens; perfidie is now vanquished, popular fury chayn'd, crueltie tam'd, luxury restrained, these lie under the spondells of Your Wheeles, where Empire, Faith, Love, and Justice Ride Triumphant, and nothing can be added to Your _M_a_j_esties glory but its perpetuitie.

But whence, alas! should I have this confidence, after so many _Elogies_ and _Panegyricks_ of great and Eloquent men, who consecrate the memorie of this daies happinesse; and (were the subject, like that of all other things) would have left me nothing more to add, unless he who was sometimes wont to employ his pen for Your _M_ajestie being absent, should now be silent that you are present, and inflame me with a kind of new Enthusiasme: I find myself then compell'd out of a grateful sense of my dutie for the publick benefit, and if your _M_ajestie forbid not, or withdraw your influence, who shall hinder, that even my slender voice should not strive to be heard, in such an universall{12} consort, wherein everybody has a part, every one a share?

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

_Sentiendo copiosius, quam loquendo._

_DIXI._

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California

THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

_General Editors_

H. RICHARD ARCHER William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

R. C. BOYS University of Michigan