John Evelyn

“ What then may we imagine will be the product of all these disadvantages, when the Nations that deride and hate us, shall be united for our destruction; and that the harvest is ripe for the sickle of their fury? shall we not certainly be a prey to an inevitable ruine, having thus weakned our selves by a brutish civill war, and cut off those glorious Heros, the wise and the valiant, whose courage in such a calamity we shall in vain imploar, that would bravely have sacrificed themselves for our delivery? ”

“ And if so small a handful of men as appeared in the Palace-Yard, without consent of a quarter of the English Army, much lesse the tenthousand’th part of the Free-people that are not clad in red, shall disturb and alter your Government when it thinks fit to set aside a few imperious Officers, who plainly seek themselves, and derive their Commissions from superiours to whom they swear obedience; how can you ever hope, or live to see any government established in these miserably abused Nations? ”

“ 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 ”

“ How many are those gallant persons whom after articles of war, you have butchered in cold-blood, violating your promises against the Lawes of all Nations, civill or barbarous; and yet thus you dealt in the case of my L. Capel, Sr. J. Stawel and others.
Is not the whole nation become sullen and proud, ignorant and suspicious, incharitable, curst, and in fine, the most depraved and perfidious under heaven? And whence does all this proceed, but from the effects of your own examples, and the impunity of evill doers? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Their Lives, Conversations and Merits as well as Names, and Faces, are known to your Majesty as the Companions of Cæsar 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ For there is already no place of Europe where your infamy is not spread; whilst your persecuted brethren rejoyce in their sufferings, can abound, and can want, blush not at their actions, nor are ashamed at their addresses; because they have suffered for that which their Faith and their Birth, their Lawes and their Liberties have celebrated with the most glorious Inscriptions, and Everlasting Elogies. ”

“ 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, [Pa 7] 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. ”

“ Staplie ’tis said, died mad, and Cromwell in a fit of raging; and if there were any others worthy the taking notice of, I should give you a list of their names and of their destinies; but it was not known whence they came which succeeded them; nor had they left any memory behind them, but for their signal wickednesses, as he that set on fire the Ephesian Temple to be recorded a Villain to posterity. Whereas those noble souls whom your inhumanity, (not your vertue) betrayed, gave proof of their extraction, Innocency, Religion and Constancy under all their Tryals and Tormentors ”

“ But you will say, the King is not to be trusted: judg not of others by your selves; did ever any man observe the least inclination of revenge in his breast? has he not betides the innate propensity of his own nature to gentlenesse, the strict injunctions of a dying father and a Martyr, to forgive even greater offenders then you are? Yes, I dare pronounce it with confidence, and avouch it whith all assurance, that there is not an individuall amongst you, whose crimes are the most crimson, whom he will not be most ready to pardon, and graciously receive upon their repentance ”

“ It is an infinite adventure, if in a Princes Family 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? ”

“ For unlesse God himself should utter his voice from Heaven, yea, and that a mighty voice, can there any thing in the world be more evident, then his indignation at those wretches and barefac’t Impostors, who, one after another, usurped upon us, taking them off at the very point of aspiring, and præcipitating the glory and ambition of these men, before those that were, but now, their adorers, and that had prostituted their consciences to serve their lusts? ”

“ But so, being miserably gall’d with the remembrance of their impieties, and the steps by which they have ascended to those fearfull precepices, they seek to allay the secret pangs of a gnawing worme, by adopting the most prodigious of their crimes into a Religion fitted for the purpose, and versatile as their giddy interest, till at last, encourag’d by the number of thriving Proselytes and successes, they grow feared and confident ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are already impoverisht, and consum’d with war and the miseries that attend it; you have wasted our treasure, and destroyed the Woods, spoyled the Trade, and shaken our properties; a universall animosity is in the very bowells of the Nation; the Parent against the Children, and the Children against the Parents, betraying one another to the death; in summe, if that have any truth which our B. Saviour has himself pronounced, That a Kingdome divided cannot stand, it is impossible we should subsist in the condition we are reduc’d to. ”

“ And what was the cause of all this, but the giddinesse of a wanton people, the Schisms and the Heresies in the church, and the prosperous successes of a rebellious Impostor, whose steps we have pursued in so many pregnant instances; giving countenance to those unheard of impieties, and delusions, as if God be not infinitely merciful, must needs involve us under the same disasters? ”

“ Let us remember how often we have served a forraign people, and that there is nothing so confident, but a provoked God can overthrow.
For my part, I tremble, but to consider what may be the issue of these things, when our iniquities are full, and that God shall make inquisition for the bloud that has been spilt; unlesse we suddainly meet him by an unfained repentance, and turn from all the abominations by which we have provoaked him; And then, it is to be hoped, that he who would have compounded with the Father of the faithfull, had there been but ten Righteous men in Sodom ”

“ 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 their houses, Relations and Properties, and which is yet more then all, to their antient innocencie and mutual charitie. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 cannot but suspect the integrity of your procedure, deplore the sadness of your condition, and resolve to attempt the discovery of it to you; by all the instances, which an affection perfectly touch’t with a zeal for your eternall interest can produce. And who can tell, but it may please Almighty God, to affect you yet by a weak instrument, who have resisted so many powerfull indications of his displeasure at your proceedings, by the event of things? ”

“ 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 ”

“ You have Restor’d, Adorn’d, and Repair’d our Courts of Judicature, [Pa 12] 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. ”

“ 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 [Pa 10] 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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! ”

“ For so it pleased God to chastise their implacable persecution of an excellent Prince, with a slavery under such a Tyrant, as not being contented to butcher even some upon the Scaffold, sold divers of them for slaves, and others he exild into cruell banishment, without pretence of Law, or the least commiseration; that those who before had no mercy on others, might find none themselves ”