A Poem upon His Sacred Majesty’s Happy Return (1660)

WHen from your Towns all hastned to the shore,
What shame could urge your Peoples blushes more
Than to behold their Royall Martyr's Son
Appeas'd, even with their grief for what was done?
So great your Mercy is, that you will grieve,
If your wise Senate cannot all forgive.
Nor can the Spies of Malice e're discern,
That you from Int'rest did this Virtue learn.
Great Julius, in disguise, might act that part;
But Nature has in you out-done his Art.

Your perfect Father to such height did come
Of God-like pitty, near his Martyrdom,
That he his Subject-Judges did forgive,
And left it as their punishment to live.
Pitty not onely flowes from him to you,
But, doubly, from your Mother's Mercy too:
The limits of it none could ever know,
Nor to the bounds of her compassion go;
Whose Father in forgivnesse did transcend
The insolence of all that durst offend;
VVhen his Remorse seem'd led by their Despair,
Beyond the sight of Hope, or voice of Prayer.

No more shall your bold Subjects strive to Reign;
And fatall Honor on each other gain.
Their courage, which mistook the way to Fame,
(And may find pitty where it meets with shame)
Shall, by your valour guided, far out-shine
Our glory got in France and Palestine.

No more shall sacred Priests fall from their own
Supported Pow'r, by shrinking from the Throne:
Nor in divided shapes that Garment tear,
VVhich their Great Chief did whole and seamless wear.

No more shall any Antient of our Law,
From old Records such modern Meaning draw,
As made even Lawyers lawlesse, and enquire,
How justly Kings to armed Pow'r aspire?
The Civill Robe did Armed Pow'r suspect,
Though onely Armed Pow'r can Law protect;
And rescue Wealth from Crowds, when Poverty
Treads down those Laws on which the Rich rely.
Yet Law, where Kings are arm'd, rescues the Crowd
Even from themselves, when Plenty makes them proud.

No more shall any of the Noble Blood
Too faintly stemm the People's rising Flood;
But when the VVind, Opinion, does grow loud,
Moving, like waves, the Many-headed Crowd;
Then those great ships shall fast at Anchor ride,
And not be hurri'd backward with the Tyde.
The Throne's the Port to which their Course shall bear,
As well at distance too as sailing near:
Or, Anch'ring, shall for change of weather stay,
And never lose when they can gain no way.

No more shall publick wealth on Spies be spent,
To hunt the Loyall and the Innocent:
Nor Jaylors in contracted Prisons be
The Keepers of the People's Libertie:
Nor Chiefs in Civill Causes toyl, and doe
The task of Judges and of Juries too;
In whose High-Courts their Wills for Laws were know▪
And all the Civill Pow'r was Martiall grown.
How usefull must the Regall Office be,
Where both those Pow'rs for publick good agree?
VVhere Justice in a Ballance weighs the Cause,
And wears a Sword but to defend the Laws.

VVhen (Mighty Monarch) your Three Nations count
To what their gain, by gaining you, will mount;
They justly reckon, that the least you bring
Of Greatnesse, is, that Blood which makes you King.
And casting up what Satisfaction they,
In full return of all your Vertues, pay;
The Product shews, you bring in value more,
Than those Three Realms, which they do but restore.

You bring such Clemency, as shews you have
More Pardons, than your Angel-Father gave.
VVhich shews a Greatnesse that does most incline
To what is greatest in the Pow'r Divine.
'Tis that to which all Human kind does bow,
And tend'rest sense of obligation owe.
For wretched Man (by ev'ry passion led,
Born sinfull, and to many errors bred)
Has use of Mercy still, and does esteem
Creation a lesse work than to Redeem.

You bring a Judgment deeper than the Sea:
And as in deepest Seas wee safest be,
So in your Judgment's depths we may endure
All Empire's suddain storms, and sleep secure.
And as in deeper Seas we never sound,
Or seek that Depth which never can be found,
(Unlesse as Pilots, who, for triall, near
The Ocean's Borders, cast a Plummet there;
But cease to sound when they no bottom find)
So, whilst I try to measure your deep Mind,
I stop even at the Verges of your Court,
Knowing my Plummet light, and Line too short.

You bring, with depth of Judgment, all the height
And fire of Thought, that can give wings to Weight.
A Mind so swift, that in a moment's space
Not onely flies o're the Diurnall Race,
But does collect all objects of the Sun,
And marks, what through the Globe the Great have done.
You no endowment can like this possesse,
Which will preserve what Valour can increase.
For Pow'r requires an universall Eye:
It should, like yours, see all and suddainly.
If thus it watch not ever for the State,
It either sees too little, or too late.

You bring such Valour as dares farther tread,
Then Love dares follow; or Ambition lead.
Valour, so watchfull as may safely keep
A Camp untrencht, and suffer scouts to sleep:
Fit to surprize Surprizers early spys,
It danger loves, as good for exercise.
The honor you near Severn's Banks obtain'd,
Did make the Victors lose by what they gain'd;
When you reclaim'd their malice, who with shame
Blush't that they kept your Realms, yet gave you fame.

You bring such charming vertues as move more
Then all the secret gifts of bounteous Pou'r:
Your kind approaches to invite accesse;
Your patient Eare to troublesome Distresse.
Your nat'rall greatnesse, never artfull made;
Nor so retir'd as if you sought a shade
And by reserv'dnesse would misterious seem:
As formall men retire to get esteem.
But you would so be visible and free,
As Truth and Valor still would publick be.
Those hate obscurenesse and would still be shown:
They grow more lov'd as they become more known.

You bring Religion, which before, like Fame,
Was nothing but a Trumpet and a Name.
Here most seem'd holy but in Masquerade;
Most vizards wore, and in disguise were clad.
Abroad, your firme Religion gain'd renoun
Through all the trialls of Comparison.
It will, at home, unmask dissembling Art;
And what was wholy Face, shall grow all Heart.

Thus, shewing what you are, how quickly we
Infer what all your Subjects soon will be!
For from the Monarchs vertue Subjects take,
Th'ingredient which does publick-vertue make.
At his bright beam they all their Tapers light,
And by his Diall set their motion right;

Your Clemency has taught us to believe
It wise, as well as vertuous, to forgive.
And now the most offended shall proceed
In great forgiving till no laws we need:
For laws slow progresses would quickly end,
Could we forgive as fast as men offend.
Revenge of past offences is the cause
Why peacefull minds consented to have Laws.
Yet Plaintifs and Defendants much mistake
Their cure, and their diseases lasting make;
For to be reconcil'd, and to comply,
Would prove their cheap and shortest remedy.
The length and charge of Laws vex all that sue;
Laws punish many, reconcile but few.
Intire forgivenesse, thus deriv'd from you,
Does Clients reconcile and Factions too.
No Faction shall hereafter own a name;
But their distinctions vanish with their shame.

Your caresull judgment teaches us to prize
Affliction, and to grow, by troubles, wise.
To clear the sullen count'nance of Distresse;
And not with haste precipitate redresse.
Your judgments patrence has even vertue taught
That her reward should be with patience sought.
Tis else requir'd too boldly and too soon;
As if she boasted that her work was done.
VVe shall not boast of shining Loyalty,
VVhose light goes out, when held by us too high.
It is a vertue, but 'tis duty too;
And our reward is had in having you.

Your minds swift motion (which hath often brought
Actions, even farthest past, to instant thought;
VVhich in a moment does all compasse run;
And then contract all objects into one:
And judge all Empires, as the Sun might doe,
If he had life and reason too like you.)
Has taught our feeble Thoughts to mend their pace;
And follow though they lose you in the Race.
And now your Nations shall with early Eyes,
Watch the first Clouds e're storms of Rebells rise.
Though Orators (the Peoples Witches) may
Raise higher Tempests then their skill can lay;
Making a civill and staid Senate rude,
And stoplesse as a running multitude:
Yet can they not to full rebellion grow;
Not knowing how much now the People know;
VVno from your influence have' attain'd the wit
Not to proceed from grudgings to a Fit.

Your Valour has our rasher courage taught
To do, not what we dare, but what we ought;
Not to pretend renoune from high offence;
Nor braver boldnesse turn to impudence?
Nor claim a right where we by force enjoy;
Nor boast our strength from what we can destroy.

Your other vertues bear instructive sway:
Their fair examples we like Laws obey;
Which through your Realms such harmony disperse,
As if Love rul'd, and Laws were writ in verse.
VVhilst our Civilities grow so resin'd
That now they more then former statutes bind▪
The high in pow'r make their approaches low,
To meet and lift the humble when they bow.
Such English-stiffnesse freely they forsake,
As made wise Strangers wonder and go back.

Your firm Religion shall our firmnesse breed,
And turn into a Rock our shaken Reed.
A Rock, which like a roling wave before
Flow'd with the Flood, and ebb'd with ebb's of Pow'r.
And that respect which your indulgent Eye,
Pays, as your blessed Fathers Legacy.
To sacred Priests, with chearfull bounty's too,
Does teach what we with rev'rence ought to do.
And well may Priests, (who are Heav'ns Liegers) be
Nobly defray'd in ev'ry Embasie:
They treat not for the profit of that King,
From whose bright Palace they Credentialls bring.
But for the Peoples benifit to whom
They are in pitty sent and charg'd to come.
To these we shall with rev'rence Off'rings make;
VVhich they may justly and with honour take.
'Tis done with some respect when Princes give
Gifts to Ambassadours, and they receive
Those gifts with confidence, as if they knew,
Though they are gifts, yet Custom makes them due.

Too boldly, (awfull Monarch!) am I gone,
Through all your Guards, to gaze about your Throne.
Yet 'tis the use of Greatnesse to excuse,
The daring progresse of the sacred Muse:
She taught the Lover, love, and Warrior, warr;
And is the Guide, when Honour would go farr.
The Studious follow till they lose their sight,
VVhen to the upper Heav'n she makes her flight.
She mounts above what they pretend to know,
And leaves their soaring Thoughts in depths below.

VVhy nam'd I heav'n, where all meet all reliefs,
VVhere best of joys succeed the worst of Griefs;
Yet, naming it, must Clouds of sorrow wear,
For that dire cause which brought your Father there?
Kings must to Heav'n through shades of sorrow passe,
And, taking leave of Nature, Death imbrace.
But he, with more then a devout intent,
To people soon that Heav'n to which he went.
Did, dying, leave three Nations (when they count
To what his vallew, and their losse will mount.
VVhat he did suffer, and what they did do)
Sorrow enough to bring them thither too.

Much was he favour'd by the Pow'r divine,
VVhich to encourage vertue with some signe,
Or likely taste, of future happinesse,
Did let him many blessings here possesse.
Your Royall Mother, in his life, fulfill'd
All griefs that Turtle▪ Widowhood could yield;
And has continu'd, since he reign'd above,
His care o're all the Pledges of their love.

You, in your Manhoods bloome, exprest an awe
Not of his Regall but of Natures law:
Obeying him in all, by no designe,
Or force, but so as Nature did incline.
And with your growth your kind obedience grew;
VVhich love, not precept, shew'd you was his due.
You rev'renc'd him in deep afflictions more,
Then on those heights where he did shine before.
This vertuous softnesse made your People melt;
Who in your triumph all that kindnesse felt
VVhich to their Saint your duty had exprest,
And drew from ev'ry Eye, and ev'ry Breast,
Such tears and sighs as, in a happy time,
Pay'd back your sorrows, and excus'd their crime.

And your heroique Brothers (early grown
Fames Favorites, and Rivalls in renoune)
Did in their Dawne such beams of comfort give
As they had almost made him wish to live.
That he might see the Glory of their Noon:
But ah! Lifes glasse he shook to make it run.
The mighty Martyr gaz'd on Heav'ns reward:
Then struggling Nature found him strait too hard
For all her force: Religion watcht the strife;
And Honour cal'd him back from proffer'd Life.

T'will not suffiice (best King!) that we have shown
Your Picture, with Two worthy's next your. Throne:
But we would now of all the Copy's boast
From such a great Orig'nall as is lost.
Two, of the gentler Sex, remain to grace
The matchlesse number of his Royall Race.
The First, (with practis'd patience, even when young,
Whilst various winds made storms of Empire long)
Has liv'd the great example, and the good,
Of gracefull and of prudent VVidow-hood.
The other has fit vertue to dispence,
Even to a Cloyster'd Virgin, innocense;
And such discretion as might Factions guide;
And so much beauty as She much might hide,
Yet lend that Court, where Lilly's wildly grow,
More then their glorious Nuptialls now can show.

Tell me, (O Fame!) what triumph thou would'st sound?
In all thy boasted Flights thou scarce hast found
One Theam like mine. Ascend! and strait dispers
(As farr as ever Thou wert led by Verse,
Or Light ere flew) my Sov'raign's full renoun:
Then rest thy wings, and lay thy Trumpet down.