yet this hope remaining; that when you have been sufficiently fated with
this wicked course, wandred from place to place, government to government,
sect to sect, in so universal a deluge, and find no repose for the sole of
your foot (as it is certain you never shal) you with at last with the
peaceful _Dove_, return to the Arke from whence you fled, to your first
principles, and to sober counsels; or with the repenting _Prodigall_ in
the Gospel, to _your Father_ which is in heaven, and to the _Father of
your Countrey_: For in so doing, you shall not only rejoyce your servant,
and all good men, but the very _Angels_ which are in heaven, and who are
never said to rejoyce indeed, but _at the Conversion of a sinner_.
_This 27. Octob. 1659_
_Et tu conversus, converte Fratres._
PSAL. 37.
_10. Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone, thou shalt
look after his place, and he shall be away._
_36. I my self have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like
a green Bay-tree._
_37. I went by, and lo he was gone; I sought him, but his place could no
where be found._
_38. Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right: For that
shall bring a Man peace at the last._
* * * * *
I request the _Reader_ to take notice, that where, mentioning the
_Presbyterian_, I have let fall expressions, somewhat relishing of more
then usuall asperity; I do by no means intend it to the prejudice of many
of that Judgment, who were either men of peaceable spirits from the
beginning; or that have of late given testimony of the sense of their
errour, whilst they were abused by those specious pretences I have
reproved; but I do regard them with as much charity and affection, as
becomes a sincere Christian, and their Brother.
* * * * *
FINIS.
* * * * *
A
P A N E G Y R I C
TO
Charles the Second,
PRESENTED
TO HIS MAJESTIE
The [HW: 1st X crossed out]XXXIII. of _APRIL_, being the Day
OF HIS
CORONATION.
MDCLXI.
* * * * *
By _JOHN EVELYN_, Esquire
* * * * *
_LONDON_,
Printed for _John Crooke_, and are to be sold at the Ship in
St. _Paul's_ Church-Yard.
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 touch'd with the Joy and Universal
Acclamations of your People, for your this dayes Exaltation and glorious
investiture. And truly, it was of custome us'd to good and gracious
Princes, upon lesser occasions, to pronounce and celebrate their merits
with Elogies and Panegyrics; but if ever they were due, it is to your
Majesty this Day; because as your Virtues are superiour to all that pass'd
before you; so is the Conjuncture, and the steps by which you are happily
ascended to it, Miraculous, and alltogether 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 rightfull Soveraign. And if
in these expressions of it, and the formes 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 rejoycing,
nor indeed in ours, to moderate. Permit us therefore (O best of Kings) to
follow our genius, and to consecrate your Name, and this dayes 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 fulness of this Dayes 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 suddain) especially,
when it may serve to illustrate our present felicity, and conduce to your
Majesties glory: For so the skillful Artist, studious of making a
surprising peice, or representing some irradiated Deity, deepens the
shadowes sometimes with the darkest touches, and approaching to horrour
it self, 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 orespread us, when we served the lusts
of those immane Usurpers, greedy of power, that themselves might be under
none; Cruel, that they might murther the Innocent without cause; Rich,
with the publick poverty; strong, by putting the sword into the hands of
furies, and prosperous by unheard of perfidie. Armies, Battails,
Impeaching, Imprisonment, Arraining, Condemning, Proscribing, Plundring,
Gibbets and Executions were the eloquent expressions of our miseries:
There was no language then heard but of Perjury, Delusion, Hypocrisie{7},
Heresie, Taxes, Excises, Sequestration, Decimation, and a thousand like
barbarities: In summe, the solitudes were filled with noble Exiles, the
Cities with rapacious Theives, the Temples with Sacrilegious Villains;
They had the spoiles 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
re-inforce 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 priviledge of being miserable, when all the
World were happy: But I will not go too for in repeating the sorrowes
which are vanish't, or uncover the buried memory of the evils past; least
whilst we strive to represent the vices of others, we seem to contaminate
your Sacred purple, or alloy our present rejoycing; 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 then Mans Counsel! who will believe
that which his eyes do see? what before a twenty years confusion had
destroy'd; behold a few moneths have restor'd: But the wonder does yet so
much more astonish, that the grief was not so universal for having
suffer'd under such a Tyranny, as for having been so long depriv'd of so
excellent a Prince: No more then do we henceforth accuse our past
miseries; All things are by your presence repair'd, and so reflourish; as
if they even rejoyc'd they had once been destroy'd, _Auctior tuis facta
beneficiis._ So as not only a Diadem binds your sacred Temples this day;
but you have even crown'd all your Subjects too; so has your auspicious
presence gilded all things; our Churches, Tribunals, Theaters, 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 gemms of the pregnant Vine, as with
those Lillies 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 _Æra_, 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
sphear it self 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 ceas'd, 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_, ravish'd with the
sight, yet hardly believing for astonishment; the greatness of the
miracle, oppressing our sences, and endangering our very faith.
_Credetne hoc olim ventura posteritas?_
I would prayse 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 Decads 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 partitions of the Demonstrative: An Orator
could have nothing more to wish for, nor your Majesty to render you more
accomplish'd.
Shall I consider then your Majesty as you were a Son to that glorious
Father before his _Apotheosis_? As you were your self a Confessor after
it; As you are now thus day in your Zenith and exaltation; and as we
Augure you will by Gods 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 Majesties early proficiency in all that might
presage a hopefull and glorious Successor: For so did you run through all
his Vicissitudes, during that implacable war, which sought nothing more
then 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 destroy'd by wounding the body, so long as such a
Branch remained.
_Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
Nigræ feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per cædes, ab ipso
Ducit opes, animumque ferro._
Whilst he Reign'd and Govern'd, you learn'd only to obey; Living your own
Princely Impress; [SN: _ICH DIEN._] as knowing it would best instruct you
one day how to Command, and which we now see accomplish'd: These then 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 jealousie: None so secure a Prince, as
he that is so born.
But no sooner did that blessed Martyr expire, then our redivive
_Phoenix_ appear'd; 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 breath'd it out, when singing his own Epicedium and
Genethliack together, he seem'd prodigal of his own life to have it
redouble'd in your felicity: Thus, _Rex nunquam moritur_. O admirable
conduct of the Divine Providence, to immortalize the image of a just
Monarch: _Ipsa quidem, sed non eadem, quia & ipsa, nec ipsa est._ Since
that may as truly be apply'd 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
Scepter bears a Flower; since as that glorious planet produces, so does it
also wither them; and there is nothing lasting, save their vertues, which
are indeed their essential parts, and only immortal; For even yet did the
clouds intercept our day with the continuance of so dismall a storm, as it
obnubilated all those hopes of ours. It is an infinite adventure, if in a
Princes Family [HW: Firmament] (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. Empires passe, Kingdomes
are translated, and dominions cease: The _Cecropides_ of old, the
_Arsacides_, the _Theban_, _Corinthian_, _Syracusian_, and sundry more
lasted nor 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_, _Latine_; In the _Comneni_, _Isaaci_, _Paleologi_, &c. even
till it dash'd it self in pieces against the _Oetoman_ rock. What
mutations have been in the house of _Arragon_? How many Riders has the
_Parthenopean_ horse unsaddl'd 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 occasion'd the _Aventine_ sedition;
Democraty into _Ochlocraty_ under the _Tribunes_ and wicked _Gracchi_; and
_Monarchy_ it self, (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 inthron'd there, is safe in all mutations; Keep there Sir, and you
are inexpugnable, immoveable. And how should it otherwayes 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
design'd 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 alwaies shining,
though men alwaies see him not; and since the too great splendor, 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 then it was that you prepar'd your self 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 Cæsaris res, totum
profecto terrarum orbem enumeret_: For he must go very far that would sum
up your perfections: Your skill in the customes of Nations, the situations
of Kingdomes, 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, quæ
refectiones tuas arbores, quæ somnum saxa prætexerint, quod denique tectum
magnus hospes impleveris_, and all those sacred _Vestigia_ of yours: Thus
what was once applyed to _Trajan_, becomes due to your Majesty, and I my
self 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
halfe, and to stop at single perfections, were to give jealousie to the
rest yet untouched, and should I but succinctly number them all, were not
to weave a Panegyrick, but an Inventory.
But amongst all your Vertues none was more eminent then your constancy to
your religion, which no shocks of Fortune, no assaults of sophisters,
events and successe 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; [SN: _Spaine._] dashing your
greatest enemy upon that Rock, which afforded you shelter, till that
Tyranny was over past: And how welcome to Us was that blessed day _qui
tyrannum abstulit pessimum, Principem dedit optimum_! He liv'd by storming
others, dyed 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
addresse, least we should sacrifice to our own Nets; but by the immediate
hand of heaven, without noise, without Armes, or stratageme, the fame of
your vertues, more then 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 guild our Horizon,
brighter then the rayes 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 Returne, stupendious indeed and almost
indicible: For no sooner did your _Argo_ hoise sail, that the Eagles
themselves fled not swifter, then the report of your approach from ten
thousand mouthes of brasse, echoing from ship to ship, and shore to shore,
with their thundring voices, out done yet with the shouts and acclamations
of your glad people, when our shaken Republique rushed at once into your
princely Armes for safety and _Asylum_, not by the occult power of
Destiny, or blind revolution, but the extraordinary hand of Providence,
whose _pathes are in the great Waters, and whose footsteps are not known:
O novum atque inauditum ad principatum iter_, who that shall write Annals,
or Verses can ever forget that day? not decrepit 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 Antient men stood amazed, and those who were
under the empire of a cruel disease, leaped 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 then 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 Souldiers now to their lawful Emperour.
Your Majesty must needs remember, nor is the sound 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 wayes and the trees were filled with the shouting of your
people, LONG LIVE KING _CHARLES_ THE _II._ _tamque æqualiter ab omnibus ex
adventu tuo lætitia percepta est, quam omnibus venisti_. For when the wise
Arbiter of things began to look down upon us, all things conspir'd to make
us happy; our Deliverance by your Majesty as by another _Moses_, leading
us out of that _Ægyptian_ bondage; or by a nearer resemblance that of the
_Babylonish_ captivity, if not yet farr greater; since God did there only
turne the heart of a Prince to let a nation go: Here, the hearts of a
whole Nation, to invite a banish'd Prince to come, when no other visible
power interpos'd. Let others boast then of their miracles; we can produce
such, as no age, no people under heaven can shew; 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 quæ steterat sequebatur_.
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 æternis 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 Brasse. 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 _Cæsar_,
_Cæsar_ 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 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 quæ 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.