An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and A Panegyric to Charles the Second (1661).
by John Evelyn.
INTRODUCTION
On October 24, 1659, a quarto pamphlet was published in London with the following t.i.tle: "The Army"s Plea for Their present Practice: tendered to the consideration of all ingenuous and impartial men. Printed and published by special command. London, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the Army, dwelling in Aldersgate Street next door to the Peac.o.c.k. 1659".
Three days afterwards, on October 27, John Evelyn had finished writing an answer, which was published a week later, on November 4, under the t.i.tle: "An Apologie for the Royal Party ... With a Touch At the pretended Plea for the Army. Anno Dom. MDCLIX". No author"s name, printer or place was given. Evelyn afterwards made the note in his Diary under the date November 7, 1659, that is, three days after the actual publication: "Was publish"d my bold Apologie for the King in His time of danger, when it was capital to speak or write in favour of him. It was twice printed, so universaly it took."[1] Evelyn was by conviction an ardent royalist, but by temperament he was peaceable, and the publication of this pamphlet was a courageous act on his part, involving considerable risks.
The _Apologie for the Royal Party_ contains an eloquent and outspoken attack upon the parliamentary party, the depth of the author"s feelings making his style of writing more effective than it usually was.
Events were at this date nearing their climax, and Evelyn, soon after the publication of his pamphlet, made persistent attempts to induce Colonel Henry Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower of London, to declare for the King. In the edition of Baker"s _Chronicle of the Kings of England_, edited by Edward Phillips, 1665, is given the following account of the negotiations (p. 736): "Mr. Evelyn gave him [Col. Morley] some visits to attemper his affection by degrees to a confidence in him, & then by consequence to ingage him in his designes; and to induce him the more powerfully thereunto, he put into his hands an excellent and unanswerable hardy treatise by him written and severall times reprinted, int.i.tuled _An Apology for the Royall Party_, which he backed with so good Argument and dextrous Addresses in the prosecution of them, that, after some private discourse, the Colonel was so well inclin"d, as to recommend to him the procurement of his Majestie"s Grace for him, his Brother-in-law Mr. f.a.gg, and one or two more of his Relations". Phillips added an account of a letter written by Evelyn to Colonel Morley, and gave him great credit for the influence which he exerted, though Evelyn endorsed a draft of the narrative with a statement saying there "was too much said concerning me".
Nevertheless part of the narrative was confirmed by Evelyn when he wrote on the t.i.tle-page of the copy of the pamphlet here reproduced: "Delivered to Coll. Morley a few daies after his contest w^th Lambert in the palace yard by J. Evelyn". The "contest" with General Lambert took place on October 12 or 13 when Morley, pistol in hand, refused to allow him at the head of his troops to pa.s.s through the Palace Yard.
Evelyn also wrote on the t.i.tle-page of this copy of his pamphlet "three tymes printed". In fact there were four printings, all described in the writer"s _John Evelyn, a Study in Bibliophily & a Bibliography of his Writings_, New York, The Grolier Club, 1937, the one here reproduced being the fourth and final form. Nevertheless all four issues are now extremely scarce, the first printing being known in three copies (one in the United States), the second in seven (two in the United States), the third in one, and the fourth in one. This apparently unique relic of Evelyn"s bold gesture on behalf of his King is in the writer"s possession and is still as issued, edges untrimmed and with its eight leaves st.i.tched in a contemporary paper wrapper. It has been reprinted only in Evelyn"s _Miscellaneous Writings_, 1825, pp. 169-192.
When Charles II actually returned to England in 1660 Evelyn"s feelings were deeply stirred. He had played some part in the restoration of the monarchy, and, with his literary instinct, naturally felt impelled to be among those who wished to present the King with an address on the day of his Coronation. This took place on April 23, 1661, and on the following day Evelyn recorded in his Diary: "I presented his Ma^tie with his Panegyric in the Private Chamber, which he was pleas"d to accept most graciously: I gave copies to the Lord Chancellor and most of the n.o.blemen who came to me for it."[2] Evelyn"s _Panegyric_ was thus distributed privately and no doubt in small number, so that it is today extremely uncommon, being known only in five copies, not more than one of which is in the United States of America. Evelyn possessed a copy in 1687 according to his library catalogue compiled in that year, and a copy (not necessarily the same one) is now among his books in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, but it seems to have been unknown in 1825 and was not included in the _Miscellaneous Writings_. William Upcott, the editor, in fact erroneously identified the _Panegyric_ with the anonymous piece in folio: "A Poem upon his Majesties Coronation ... Being S^t Georges day ...
London, Printed for Gabriel Bedel and Thomas Collins ... 1661". This mistake was not put right until a copy of the true _Panegyric_ with Evelyn"s name on the t.i.tle-page was acquired for the British Museum in 1927 from the Britwell Court Library. The copy here reproduced is in the writer"s collection, and has a few corrections in Evelyn"s hand: (a) _x.x.xIII. of April_, on t.i.tle-page corrected to _XXIII_; (b) p.6. l.18 _Family_ altered to _Firmament_; (c) p.8. l.16 from bottom _suffer_ altered to _surfeit_.
When the _Panegyric_ was identified it was realised that it was not a poem, but an eloquent and extravagant composition in prose, in which Evelyn invested Charles II with every conceivable virtue and all wisdom.
This was no doubt written with sincere enthusiasm, though Evelyn suffered a profound disillusionment in later years; and if he ever read his effusion again it must have caused him some distress. The _Panegyric_ is now reprinted for the first time.
Geoffrey Keynes
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Evelyn"s _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 108.
[2] Evelyn"s _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 130.
AN A P O L O G I E FOR THE R O Y A L P A R T Y: Written in a LETTER to a Person of the late _COUNCEL_ of _STATE_, By a Lover of Peace and of his Countrey: With a Touch at the _pretended Plea_ for the Army.
_SIR_,
The many Civilities which you are still pleased to continue to me, and my very great desire to answer them in the worthiest testimonies of my zeal for your service, must make my best Apology for this manner of Addresse; if out of an extream affection for your n.o.blest Interest, I seem transported a little upon your first reflections, and am made to despise the consequence of entertaining you with such Truths, as are of the greatest danger to my self; but of no less import to your happiness, and, which carry with them the most indelible Characters of my Friendship. For if as the Apostle affirms, _For a good man, some would even dare to dy_, why should my Charity be prejudged, if hoping to convert you from the errour of your way, I despair not of rendring you the Person for whose preservation there will be nothing too dear for me to expose?
I might with reason beleeve that the first election of the Party wherein you stood engaged, proceeded from inexperience and the mistake of your zeal; not to say from your compliance to the pa.s.sions of others; because I both knew your education, and how obsequious you have alwayes shewed your self to those who had then the direction of you: But, when after the example of their conversion, upon discovery of the Impostures which perverted them; and the signal indignation of G.o.d, upon the several periods which your eyes have lately beheld, of the bloudiest Tyrannies, and most prodigious oppressors that ever any age of the world produc"d, I see you still persist in your course, and that you have turn"d about with every revolution which has hapned: when I consider, what contradictions you have swallowed, how deeply you have ingaged, how servilely you have flatter"d, and the base and mean submissions by which you have dishonour"d your self, and stained your n.o.ble Family; not to mention the least refinement of your religion or morality (besides that you have still preserved a civility for me, who am ready to acknowledge it, and never merited other from you) I say, when I seriously reflect upon all this; 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 G.o.d, 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, since you are apt to recriminate, and after you have boasted of the prosperity or your cause, and the thriving of your Wickedness (an Argument farr better becoming a _Mahumetan_ then a _Christian_) let us state the matter a little, and compare particulars together; let us go back to the source, and search the very principles; and then see, if ever any cause had like success indeed; and whether it be a just reproach to your Enemies, that the judgments of G.o.d have begun with them, whilst you know not yet, where they may determine.
First then, be pleased to look North-wards upon your Brethren the Scots, who (being first instigated by that crafty _Cardinal_ [SN: Richlieu] to disturb the groth of the incomparable _Church of England_, and so consequently the tranquility of a Nation, whose expedition at the Isle of _Ree_, gave terrour to the French) made Reformation their pretence, to gratifie their own avarice, introduce themselves, and a more then _Babylonish_ Tyranny, imposing upon the Church and state, beyond all impudence or example. _I_ say, look upon what they have gotten, by deceiving their Brethren, selling their King, betraying his Son, and by all their perfidie; but a slavery more then _Egyptian_, and an infamy as unparallel"d, as their treason and ingrat.i.tude.
Look neerer home on those whom they had ingaged amongst us here, & tell me if there be a Person of them left, that can shew me his prize, unless it be that of his Sacriledg, which he, or his Nephews must certainly vomite up again: What is become of this ignorant and furious zeal, this pretence of an universall perfection in the Religious and the Secular, after all that Blood and Treasure, Rapine and Injustice, which has been exhausted, and perpetrated by these Sons of Thunder? Where is the King, whom they swear to make so glorious, but meant it in his _Martyrdome_? Where is the Cla.s.sis, and the a.s.sembly, the Lay-elder; all that geare of Scottish discipline, and the fine new Trinkets of Reformation? Were not all these taken out of their hand, while now they were in the height of their pride and triumph? And their dull Generall made to serve the execution of their Sovereign, and then to be turn"d off himself, as a property no more of use to their designes? Their riches and their strength in which they trusted, and the Parliament which they even idoliz"d, in sum, the prey they had contended for at the expence of so much sin and d.a.m.nation, seizd upon by those very instruments, which they had rais"d to serve their insatiable avarice, and prodigious disloyalty. For so it pleased G.o.d 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; till upon some hope of their repentance, and future moderation, it pleased G.o.d to put his hook into the nostrills of that proud _Leviathan_, and send him to his place, after he had thus mortified the fury of the Presbyterians.
For unlesse G.o.d 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 praecipitating the glory and ambition of these men, before those that were, but now, their adorers, and that had prost.i.tuted their consciences to serve their l.u.s.ts? To call him the _Moses_, the _Man of G.o.d_, the _Joshua_, the _Saviour_ of _Israel_; and after all this, to treat the _Thing_ his son with addresses no lesse then blasphemous, whose Father (as themselves confess to be the most infamous Hypocrite and profligate Atheist of all the Usurpers that ever any age produc"d) had made them his Va.s.salls, and would have intaild them so to his posterity for ever?
But behold the scean is again changed, not by the Royall party, the Common Enemy, or a forreign power; but by the despicable _Rumpe_ of a Parliament, which that _Mountebanke_ had formerly serv"d himself of, and had rais"d him to that pitch, and invest.i.ture: But see withall, how soon these triflers and puppets of policy are blown away, with all their pack of modells and childish _Chimaeras_, nothing remaining of them but their Coffine, guarded by the Souldiers at Westminster; but which is yet lesse empty then the heads of those Polit.i.tians, which so lately seemed to fill it.
For the rest, I despise to blot paper with a recitall of those wretched _Interludes, Farces and Fantasms_, which appear"d in the severall intervalls; because they were nothing but the effects of an extream gyddiness, and unparallel"d levity. Yet these are those various despensations and providences in your journey to that _holy land_ of purchases and profits, to which you have from time to time appeal"d for the justification of your proceedings, whilst they were, indeed, no other then the manifest judgments of G.o.d upon your rebellion and your ambition: I say nothing of your hypocriticall fasts, and pretended humiliations, previous to the succeeding plots, and supposit.i.tious Revelations, that _the G.o.dly might fall into the hands of your Captains_, because they were bugbears, and became ridiculous even to the common people.
And now _Sr._ if you please, let us begin to set down the product and survey the successe of your party and after all these faces and vertigo"s tell me ingenuously, if the single chastisment which is fallen upon one afflicted man, and his loyall subjects, distressed by the common event of war, want of treasure, the seizure of his Fleet, forcing him from his City, and all the disadvantages that a perfidious people could imagine; but in fine the crowning him with a glorious _Martyrdome_ for the Church of G.o.d and the liberty of his people (for which his blood doth yet cry aloud for vengeance) be comparable to the confusion which you (that have been the conquerours) have suffered, and the slavery which you are like to leave to the posterities which will be born but to curse you, and to groan under the pressures which you bequeath to your own flesh & blood? For to what a condition you have already reduced this once flourishing kingdom, since all has been your own, let the intolerable oppressions, taxes, Excises, sequestrations confiscations, plunders, customes, decimations, not to mention the plate, even to very thimbles and the bodkins (for even to these did your avarice descend) and other booties, speak. All this dissipated and squandred away, to gratifie a few covetous and ambitious wretches, whose appet.i.tes are as deep as h.e.l.l, and as insatiable as the grave; as if (as the Wise-man speaks) _our time here were but a market for gain_.
Look then into the Churches, and manners of the people, even amongst your own _Saints_, and tell me, if since _Simon Magus_ was upon the earth, there were ever heard of so many _Schismes_, and _Heresies_, of _Jewes_ and _Socinians_, _Quakers_, _Fifth-monarchy-men_, _Arians_, _Anabaptists_, _Independents_, and a thousand severall forts of _Blasphemies_ and professed _Atheists_, all of them sp.a.w.ned under your government; and then tell me what a Reformation of Religion you have effected?
Was there ever in the whole Earth (not to mention Christendom alone) a perjury so prodigious, and yet so avowed as that by which you have taken away the estate of my L. _Craven_, at which the very _Infidels_ would blush, a _Turke_ or _Sythian_ stand amaz"d?
Under the Sun was it never heard, that a man should be condemned for transgressing no law, but that which was made after the fact, and abrogated after execution; that the Posterities to come might not be witnesses of your horrid injustice: Yet thus you proceeded against my _L.
Stafford_. 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?
I need not tell you how long Justice has been sold by the _Committees_, and the Chair-men, the Sequestrators and Simoniacall Tryers, not to mention the late Courtiers, and a swarm of _Publicans_ who _have eaten up the People as if they would eat bread_.
Will you come now to the particular mis-fortunes, and the evident hand of G.o.d upon you for these actions (for he has not altogether left us without some expresse witnesses of his displeasure at your doings,) Behold then your _Ess.e.x_ and your _Warwick_, your _Ferfaix_, and your _Waller_, (whom once your Books stiled the _Lord of Hosts_) Cashiered, Imprisoned, Suspected and Disgraced after all their Services. _Hotham_, and his _Son_ came to the block; _Stapleton_ had the buriall of an a.s.se, and was thrown into a Town Ditch; _Brookes_ and _Hamden_ signally slain in the very act of Rebellion and Sacriledge; your atheisticall _Dorislaw_, _Ascam_ and the Sodomiticall _Ariba_, whom though they escaped the hand of Justice, yet _Vengeance_ would not suffer to live: What became of _Rainsborough_?
_Ireton_ perished of the Plague, and _Hoyle_ hanged himself; _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 n.o.ble souls whom your inhumanity, (not your vertue) betrayed, gave proof of their extraction, Innocency, Religion and Constancy under all their Tryals and Tormentors; and those that dyed by the sword, fell in the bed of honour, and did worthily for their Country; their _Loyalty_ and their _Religion_ will be renowned in the History of Ages, and pretious to their memory, when your names will rot with your Carka.s.ses, and your remembrance be as dung upon the face of the Earth. 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.
And if fresher instances of all these particulars be required, cast your eye a little upon the _Armies pretended Plea_, which came lately a birding to beat the way before them, charm the ears of the Vulgar, and captivate the people; That after all its _pseudo-politicks_ and irreligious principles, is at last constrained to acknowledg _your open and prodigious violations, strange and illegal Actions, (as in termes it confesses) of taking up Armes, Raising and Forming Armies against the King, fighting against his Person, Imprisoning, Impeaching, Arraigning, Trying and Executing Him: Banishing his Children, abolishing Bishops, Deans and Chapters; taking away Kingly Government, and the House of Lords, breaking the Crowns, selling the Jewells, Plate, Goods, Houses and Lands belonging unto the Kings of this Nation, erecting extraordinary High Courts of Justice, and therein Impeaching, Arraigning, condemning, and Executing many pretended notorious Enemies, to the publick Peace; when the Lawes in being, and the Ordinary Courts of Justice could not reach them: By strange and unknown practises in this Nation, and not at all Justifiable by any known Lawes and Statutes_, But by certain diabolical principles of late distilled into some person of the Army, and which he would ent.i.tle to the whole, who (abating some of their Commanders, that have sucked the sweet of this Doctrine) had them never so much as entred into their thoughts, nor could they be so depraved, though they were Masters only of the Light of Nature to direct them. For Common sence will tell them, that whoever are our lawful Superiours, and invested with the supreame Authority, either by their own vertue, or the peoples due Election, have then a just right to challenge submission to their precepts, and that we acquiesce in their determinations; since there is in nature no other expedient to preserve us from everlasting confusion: But it is the height of all impertinency to conceive, that those which are a part of themselves, and can in so great a Body, have no other interests, should (without the manifest hand of G.o.d were in it to infatuate all your proceedings) fall into such exorbitant contradiction to their own good, as a child of four years old would not be guilty of; and as this Pamphleter wildly suggests in pp. 6. 11. 27, &c. did they steer their course by the known laws of the Land, and as obedient Subjects should do, who without the King and his Peers, are but the Carka.s.s of a Parliament, as dest.i.tute of the Soul which should inform and give it being. 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? Behold then with how weak a party you are vanquish"d, even by those very instruments you had so long flatter"d with the t.i.tle of the _Free-people_; imputing all the direful effects of your depraved principles to their desires, when as I dare report my self to the ingenuity of the very Souldiers themselves, if they, who have effected all these changes by your wretched instigations, and blind pretences, imagine themselves the People of this Nation, but are{1} a very small portion of them, compared to the whole, and who are maintained by them to recover, and protect the Civill Government, according to the Good old Lawes of the Land; not such as they themselves shall invent from Day to Day, or as the interests of some few persons may engage them.
But if the essential end of Rulers be the Common peace, and their Lawes obliging as they become relative: Restore us then to those under which we lived with so much sweetness and tranquility, as no age in the World, no Government under Heaven could ever pretend the like. And if the People (as you declare) are to be the Judges of it, summon them together in a Free Parliament, according to its legal Const.i.tution; or make a universal _Balott_, and then let it appear, if _Collonel Lambert_ and half a dozen Officers, with all their seduced Partizans, make so much as a single _Cypher_ to the _Summe Total_. And this shall be enough to answer those devious Principles set down in the porch of that specious Edifice; which being erected upon the Sand, will (like the rest that has been _daubed with untempered mortar_) sink also at the next high wind that blowes upon it. But I am glad it is at last avowed, upon what pretexts that late pretended Parliament have pleaded on the behalf of themselves and party, their discharge from all the former Protestations, Engagements, solemn Vowes, Covenants, with hands (as you say) lift up to the most high G.o.d, as also their Oaths and Allegiance, &c. because I shall not in this discourse be charged with slandering of them, and that the whole World may detest the Actions of such perfidious Infidels, with whom nothing sacred has remain"d inviolable.
But there is yet a piece of Artifice behind, of no less consequence then the former, and that is, a seeking to perswade the present Army, that _They_ were the men, who first engaged thus solemnly to destroy the Government under which they were born, and reduce it to this miserable condition: whereas it is well known by such as converse daily with them, that there is hardly one of ten amongst them, who was then in Armes; and that it was the Zelots under _Ess.e.x_, and the succeeding Generals, who were the persons whose perfidiousness{2} he makes so much use of, and that the present Army consists of a far more ingenuous spirit, and might in one moment vindicate this aspersion, make their conditions with all advantage, and these Nations the most happy People upon the Earth, as it cannot be despaired but they will one day do, when by the goodness of Almighty G.o.d, they shall perfectly discern through the mist which you have cast upon their eyes, lest they should discover the Imposture of these _Egyptian_ Sorcerers.
And now, _Sir_, if after all this injustice, and impiety on your parts, you have prosecuted that with the extreamest madness, which you esteemed criminal in your enemies, _viz._ _To arrogate the supream power in a single person;{3} condemn men without Law; execute, and proscribe them with as little: Imprest for your Service, violate your Parliaments, dispense with your solemn Oaths_; in summe, _to mingle Earth and Heaven by your arbitrary proceedings_: All which, not only your printed books, this pretended _plea_; but your Actions have abundantly declared; have you not justified the Royal party, and p.r.o.nounced them the only honest men which have appeared upon the stage, in Characters as plain, that he which runs may read, whilst yet you persecute them to the death? _Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O Man, that _perpetratest_ these things; For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thy self, seeing thou that judgest doest the same things. But thinkest thou this O Man, that thus judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the _vengeance_ of G.o.d? I tell ye nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish._
Truly, _Sir_, when I compare these things together, and compare them I do very often, consider the purchases which you have made, and the d.a.m.nation you have certainly adventured; the despite you have done to the name of Christ, the Laws of Common humanity which you have violated, the malice and the folly of your proceedings; in fine, the confusion which you have brought upon the Church, the State, and your selves; I adore the just and righteous judgment of G.o.d; and (howsoever you may possibly emerge, and recover the present rout) had rather be a sufferer among those whom you have thus afflicted, and thus censure, then to enjoy the pleasures of your sins for that season you are likely to possess them: For if an Angel from Heaven should tell me you had done your duties, I would no more believe him, then if he should preach another Gospel, then that which has been delivered to us; because you have blasphemed that holy profession, and done violence to that Gracious Spirit, by whose sacred dictates you are taught to live in obedience to your Superiours, and in Charity to one another; covering yet all this _Hydra_ of Impostures with a mask Of Piety and Reformation, whilst you breath nothing but oppression, and lye in wait to deceive. But _O G.o.d! how long shall the Adversary do this dishonour, how long shall the Enemy blaspheme thy name, for ever? They gather them together against the soul of the Righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. Lo these are the unG.o.dly, these prosper in the World, and these have riches in possession: And I said, then have I cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Yea, and I had almost said as they; but lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy Children.
Then thought I to understand this, but it was too hard for me, untill I went into the Sanctuary of G.o.d; then understood I the end of these Men.
Namely, how thou dost set them in slippery places, castest them down and destroyest them._
_O how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearfull end!_
We have seen it, indeed _Sir_, we have seen it, and we cannot but acknowledge it the very finger of G.o.d, _mirabile in oculis nostris_; and is that, truly, which even constrains me out of Charity to your Soul, as well as out of a deep sense of your Honour, and the Friendship which I otherwise bear you, to beseech you to re-enter into your self, to abandon those false Principles, to withdraw your self from these Seducers, to repent of what you have done, _and save your self from this untoward Generation_: There is yet a door of Repentance open, do not provoke the Majesty of the great G.o.d any longer, which yet tenders a Reconciliation to you. Remember what was once said over the perishing _Jerusalem_. _How often would I have gathered you together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her winge, and ye would not? Behold, your _House_ is left unto you desolate._--For do not think it impossible, that we should become the most abandon"d, and barbarous of all the nations under heaven. You know who has said it: _He turneth a fruitfull land into a Wildernesse, for the iniquity of them that inhabit therein._ And truly, he that shall seriously consider the sad _Catastrophe_ of the _Eastern Empire_, so flourishing in piety, policy, knowledg, literature, and all the excellencies of a happy and blessed people; would almost think it impossible, that in so few years, and a midst so glorious a light of learning and Religion, so suddain, and palpable a darknesse, so strange and horrid a barbarity should over-spread them, as now we behold in all that goodly tract of the _Turkish_ dominions: 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 G.o.d be not infinitely merciful, must needs involve us under the same disasters? For, whilst there is no order in the Church, no body of Religion agreed upon, no government established, and that every man is abandoned to his own deceitfull heart: whilst learning is decried, and honesty discountenanc"d, rapine defended, and vertue finds no advocate; what can we in reason expect, but the most direfull expressions of the wrath of G.o.d, a universall desolation, when by the industry of _Sathan_ and his crafty Emissaries, some desperate _enthusiasme_, compounded (like that of _Mohomet_,) of Arian, Socinian, Jew, Anabaptist, and the impurer _Gnostick_, something I say made up of all these heresies, shall diffuse it self over the Nation, in a universall contagion, and nothing lesse appear then the _Christian_ which we have ingratefully renounced?
_For this plague is already beginning amongst us, and there is none to take the Censer, and to stand between the living and the dead, that we be not consumed as in a moment; for there is wrath gone out from the Lord._ Let us then _depart from the tents of these wicked men_ (who have brought all this upon us) _and touch nothing of theirs, lest we be consumed in all their sins_.
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 p.r.o.nounce it with confidence, and avouch it whith all a.s.surance, 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; nor any thing that can be desired of him, to which he would not cheerfully accommode, for the stopping of that torrent of blood, and extream confusion, which has. .h.i.therto run, and is yet imminent over us. Do but reason a little with your self, and confider sadly, whether a young Prince, mortified by so many afflictions, disciplin"d by much experience, and instructed by the miscarriages of others, be not the most excellently qualified to govern and reduce a people, who have so succeslesly tried so many governments, of old, impious and crafty Foxes, that have exercised upon us the most intollerable Tyrannies that were ever heard of?
But you object further, that he has lived amongst Papists, is vitiously inclin"d, and has wicked men about him: What can be said more unjustly, what more malitious? And can _you_ have the foreheads to tell us he has lived amongst Papists to his prejudice, who have proscrib"d him from Protestants, persecuted him from place to place, _as a Patridg on the Mountains_? You may remember who once went to _Achich the King of Gath and changed his behaviour before them, and fain"d himself mad in their hands_; had many great infirmities, and _was yet a man after G.o.ds own heart_; Whilst the Catholick King was your Allie, you had nothing to do with Papists, it was then no crime: _G.o.d is not mocked, away with this respect of persons_: But where is it you would have him to be? The _Hollander_ dares not afford him harbour, lest you refuse them yours: The _French_ may not give him bread for fear of offending you; and unless he should go to the _Indies_, or the _Turk_ (where yet your malice would undoubtedly reach him) where can he be safe from your revenge? But suppose him in a Papist Countrey, constrained thereto by your incharity to his Soul as well as body; would he have condescended to half so much, as you have offered for a toleration of Papists, he needed not now have made use of this Apology, or wanted the a.s.sistance of the most puissant Princes of _Christendome_ to restore him, of whom he has refused such conditions as in prudence he might have yielded to, and the people would have gladly received; whilst those who know with what persons you have transacted, what truck you have made with the _Jesuites_, what secret Papists there are amongst you, may easily divine why they have been no forwarder to a.s.sist him, and how far distant he is from the least wavering in his Faith. But since you have now declared that you will tollerate all Religions, without exception; do not think it a sin in him, to gratifie those that shall most oblige him.
For his vertues and Morality, I provoak the most refined Family in this Nation to produce me a Relation of more piety and moderation; shew me a Fraternity more spotlesse in their honour, and freer from the exorbitances of youth, then these three Brothers, so conspicuous to all the world for their Temperance, Magnanimity, Constancy, and Understanding; a friendship and humility unparallel"d, and rarely to be found amongst the severest persons, scarcely in a private family. It is the malice of a very black Soul, and a virulent _Renegado_ (of whom to be commended were the utmost infamy) that has interpreted some compliances, to which persons in distress are sometimes engaged, with those whom they converse withall, to his Majesties disadvantage: _whilst these filthy dreamers defile the flesh themselves, and thinking it no sin to despise dominion, speak evill of dignities, and of the things which they know not. But woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Kain, and run greedily after the errour of Balaam, for reward, having mens persons in admiration because of advantage._
For the rest, I suppose the same was said of Holy _David_, when in his extream calamity, he was constrain"d to fly from _Saul_. _For every one that was in distresse, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became Captain over them._ And to this retinue, has your malice and persecution reduced this excellent Prince; but he that preserv"d him in the Wood, _and delivered David out of all his troubles_, shall likewise in his appointed time, deliver him also out of these distresses.
I have now answered all your calumnies, and have but a word to add, that I may yet incline you to accept of your best interest, and prevent that dreadfull ruine which your obstinacy does threaten. Is it not as perspicuous as the Sun, that it lies in your power to reform his Counsell, introduce your selves, make what composition you can desire, have all the security that mortall men can imagine, and the greatest Princes of Europe to engage in the performance? This were becoming worthy men, and honourable indeed; this ingenuous self-denyall: And it is no disgrace to reforme a mistake, but to persist in it lyes the shame. The whole Nation require it of you, and the lawes of G.o.d command it, you cannot, you must not deferr it. For what can you pretend that will not then drop into your bosomes? The humble man will have repose, the aspiring and ambitious, honours: The Merchant will be secure, Trades immediately recover, Aliances will be confirm"d, the Lawes reflourish, tender Consciences consider"d, present purchasers satisfied; the Souldier payed, maintained and provided for; and what"s above all this, Christianity and Charity will revive again amongst us, _Mercy and Truth will meet together; righteousness and peace shall kiss each other_.