Part 2 (1/2)
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.