have you begin the best Government you can attain to is to be subject to his Word and Spirit swaying in your heart Your Glory will be the advancement of God's Glory in the maintenance of true Religion and of the Churches good and in the dispensation of Civil Justice and Honour for the publick good Piety will make you prosperous or at least not miserable whereby in the loss of all you save a Soul to which as to a Creature I see all these black Lines of Affliction drawn This Cup we tast is God's Physick having that in healthfulness in wants and pleasure I would have you above all well grounded in your Religion according to the best Profession of the Church of England which I wish may be judiciously your Religion sealed by your Judgment and Reason persevering iâ— it as the nearest to the Word of Goâ— for Doctrine and the Primitive Examples for Government with such amendment as I elsewhere expressed and often offered but in vain A fixation for Relâ—gion is necessary for your Souls and Kingdoms Peace The Devil of Rebellion can turn himself into such an Angel of Reformation and the Old Serpent can pretend such New Lights that when some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop their mouth with the name and noise of Religion When Piety pleads for Peace and Patience they cry out Zeal so that you must be settled or you shall never want Temptations to destroy you and yours Men are so good at putting the best of Princes for the worst of Designs especially when Novelty prevails much attended with Zeal for Religion and 't is a good way to hide their own Deformities by severe censures upon other mens Opinions and Actions Abet no publick Faction against your own and the Churches settled judgment least the advantage you gain in some Mens Hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion be lost in others who think themselves and their professions first dispised and then Persecuted by you Either calmly remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or order it so in point of power that you need not fear or flatter any else you are undone so quickly will the Serpent devour the Dove There is less Loyalty Justice or Humanity in none than in Religious Rebels whose Ambitious Policies march under the Colours of Piety with security and applause You may hear from them Jacobs Voice but you shall feel they have Esaus Hands The Presbyterian Faction in England while compliant with publick order was inconsiderable in Church and Sâ—ate When discontents drove Men to sideing as ill humors fall to the disaffected part so did all that affected Novelty adhere to that side as the most remarkable note of difference then in point of Religion all lesser Factions until time and success had discovered to them their several advantages being officious Servants to Presbytery What may seem at first but an hand-breadth in Religion by Seditious Spirits as by strong Winds are soon made to cover and darken the whole Heavens and therefore must be suppressed or reformed Next to your care for Religion take care for Justice according to the settled Laws of these Kingdoms which by an admirable temperament give very much to the Subject and yet reserve enough for any King who owns his People as Subjects and not as Slaves Never charge your Head with such a Crown as may oppress the whole Body that it cannot return any strength honour or safety to the head Your Prerogative is best exercised in remitting rather than exacting the just Vigour of the Laws I hope you will never think it safe for a King to gratify any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the publick interest and the good of the Community My Counsel and charge to you is that if it please God to restore you you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my troubles that you may avoid them Never repose so much upon any Mans single fidelity and distraction in managing affairs of Religion and Justice as to create in your self or others a diffidence of your own judgment which will prove more faithful to your own and the Kingdoms interest than any Mans. Exasperate no Faction by the asperity of any Mans Passions or humors employed by you about differences in lesser matters wherein a charitable toleration dissipates that strength whom rougher opposition fortifieth provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Governments our Religion Established as to the essentials of them Always keep up solid Piety and those fundamental Truths which mend both the hearts and lives of men with impartial Favour and Justice Take heed that outward Circumstances of Religion devour not all the Encouragements of Learning Industry and Piety but with an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all men as you find for their real goodness both in abilities and fidelity worthy or capable of them This will give you the hearts of the best and most too who though they be not good themselves yet are glad to see the severer ways of Virtue at any time sweetned with Temporal Rewards Time will dissipate all Faction when the roughâ— Designs of some men shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up under the smooth pretences of Religion Reformation and Liberty For as the Wolf is not less cruel so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps clothing And as for the secluded Train of the vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises my charge and counsel to you is That as you need no palliations for any Designs so you study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of Goodness Piety and Virtue toward the People even those men that make the greatest noise and ostentation of Religion So you shall neither fear any detection as they do who have but the face and mask of goodness nor shall you frustrate the just expectation of your People who cannot in reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects Novelty as from the goodness of their King And when Factions are by God's Mercy and your Virtue dissipated the abused vulgar will then learn that none are greater Oppressors of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves the Patrons and Vindicators of them only under that pretence to usurp Power over them Let no passion therefore betray you to any study of revenge upon those whose own sense and folly will sufficiently punish in due time But as soon as the Forked Arrows of Factious Emulations is drawn out use all Princely Arts and Clemency to heal the Wounds that the smart of the Cure may not equal the smart of the Heart Where-ever it shall be desired and accepted offer Indempnity to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way
you that grace which will teach and enable us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth the taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable or irreligious terms Do you always keep firm to the true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour and you shall never want a Kingdom It will be your honour to afford all respect love and protection to your Mother who hath many ways deserved well of me especially in being a means to bless me with so many hopeful Children and being content with incomparable magnanimity to suffer with me and them May you be an Anchor of hope to these weather-beaten Kingdoms your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour a repairer of what the folly and wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire to the Crown Nobility Clergy or Commons of Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives Let those that love me find me when I am gone in your presence and vertues What good I intended do you perform when God shall put it into your power I pray God bless you and establish your Kingdom in Righteousness your Soul in true Religion and your Honour in the Love of God and your People Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven The good King having thus resigned himself and all his Affairs into the hand of God patiently submitted to his Cross and in a way of renunciation as it were and self-disposition of his Government transferred and bequeathed the Scepter together with his Advice and Direction for his wielding of it He applied himself wholly to the making preparation for his departing from an earthly to a heavenly Kingdom being assisted in his Piety and Devotion by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London And being upon the fatal 30th of January brought upon a Scaffold erected before his own Palace of Whitehall where he was barbarously murdered by his own Rebellious Subjects he delivered himself in the following Speech Being not likely to be much heard I could be silent did not silence intimate a submission to the guilt as well as to the punishment charged upon me But in my duty to my God and Country to clear my self an Honest Man a good King and a good Christian I protest before God to whom I must instantly give an account that as may appear from the date of their Commissions and mine I begun not the War against the Parliament nor intended I any incroachment upon their Priviledges they began with me and the Militia which they confest was mine but thought it fit to have it from me yet I charge not the guilt of these unhappy troubles upon the two Houses for I believe ill instruments betwixt us was the cause of all this Bloodshed however this Sentence is just upon me for an unjust Sentence permitted by me What Christian I am this good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon and others that have been inwardly familiar with me and know me as well as my self may bear witness I die in Communion with the Professors of the Reformed Religion that hath been Establisht in the Church of England in Queen Eliz. and my Fathers time of Blessed Memory and in Charity with all the World forgiving the worst of mine Enemies and praying God that this be not laid to their Charge As a good King I advise my Subjects not to ground your selves in Conquests without a good cause that you would give God the King and the People their dues You may give God his due by the advice of a national Synod freely chosen and freely debating among themselves How you may give the King his due the Law will instruct you and the People have their due when they have that Government and those Laws whereby their Lives and Goods are most their own I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that may be for the Kingdoms and your own good Having finisht this Speech and poured forth his Divine Soul to God in Prayer it was sent by death to him that gave it where the great Assembly in Heaven joyfully welcomed that Martyred King and made room for Charles of Great Brittain The Life and Reign of Charles the first being thus determined by this untimely and fatal stroak his Eldest Son who likewise bore his Name immediately Succeeded him by the Title of Charles the Second Who was the Lawful and undoubted Heir not only of all his Dominions but also of his admirable and Heavenly Vertues being endowed with all those Qualifications which are requisite to or could possibly be desired in a Prince and under the influence of whose happy Reign these Nations might have enjoyed as much happiness and felicity as their Hearts would wish had not their own folly and madness for a time prevented it For no sooner had the Fatal Ax severed England and her Liberties by cutting off the Head of her King but the Parliament as the Juncto still presumed to call themselves the better to crush Monarchy and maintain what they had now so far prosecuted issued forth a Proclamation that none under penalty of being deemed guilty of High Treason should presume to Proclaim declare publish or any way promote the Prince of Wales Son to the late King or any other Person whatsoever to be King or Chief Magistrate of England or of any part of the Dominions or any part thereof by Colour of Inheritance Succession or Election or any other claim or pretence whatsoever without the free consent of the People in Parliament and which Proclamation altho not publisht till the 2 of February yet was in part Proclaimed on the very day of the Kings Murder And for the more ensuring and the better carrying on their Government with the more plausibility they publish an Act of State for the alteration of Writs wherein instead of King the Name Stile and Test and Custodes Libertatis Angliae Anthoritate Parliamenti should be used and no other All Writs being ordered to run so and those concerned in the Law required to take notice thereof yet they provided that all Patents granted by the late King should still stand in full force and vertue And having cast off the chief of those three Estates by which the Nation had been so long Governed they think likewise of abolishing the second that so they might usurp the whole power into their own hands in order whereunto having first Voted that they would make no farther Addresses to them nor receive any from them they made an Ordinance for abolishing the House of Lords as dangerous and useless And then having abolished the Ancient Governments of this Kingdom they proceeded to the consideration of Establishing another but found it a work of so much intricacy that they could come to no resolution but only agreed in a Negative Voice that there should for the future be no Government in England either by King or House of Lords and thereupon ordered the old Great Seal to be broken and a new one to
those Papers sent him so that he was constrained to deliver them to Griffin who in the Night as he lay in his Bed-Chamber acquainted him what the scope and tendency of them was by the advantage whereof through the assistance of almighty God he did so resolutely withstand all the violent shocks of his Persecutors that they thereupon resolved not only to remove Griffin but to shut up the Duke in the Jesuits Colledge The King being informed of all those Proceedings immediately used all possible endeavours for his relief and sent an expostulatory Letter to the Queen his Mother and laid his Commands on all the most eminent of his Protestant Subjects there to be to the utmost of their power aiding and assisting to him in that great Distress and sending another Letter likewise to the Duke himself which was attempted some days before he was removed to the Jesuits Colledge to be delivered to him by Sir George Ratcliff but though he was admitted to his presence yet he could find no opportunity to deliver him the Letter with privacy therefore left it with Griffin to be conveyed to him In which Letter he reminded him of the strict Command that he had left with him at his departure to continue firm in his Religion as also the vanity of their Motives the emptiness of their Promises together with the last Charge of their dead Father which he solemnly gave him with the entail of his Blessing annex'd thereunto telling him withal that if he suffered himself to be perverted in his Religion by any inticements whatsoever or put himself into the Jesuits Colledge he had then the last Letter that ever he should receive from him and must never look to see his Face again As soon as the young Duke had with an unexpressible joy received this Letter he first with all possible hast transcribed a Copy of it and and sent it immediately to the Queen begging her leave to repair to Paris both upon the account of those Commands of the King and the Duke of York's being then returned from the French Army But the Queen unwilling to desist from the prosecuting what she had began sent him word she could not cease wishing his so great and eternal good as to change his Religion would be to which she would not force him but yet advised him however to hearken to what the Abbot should farther deliver to him which was that he should at least be willing to go to the Jesuits Colledge where he should have as much liberty in all things as himself could desire It being still their resolution to have forced him thither if he refused had it not been prevented by the arrival of the Duke of Ormond whom the King dispatch'd thither from Germany with Letters and Instructions for the rescuing of him from his Popish adversaries and had he staid but four days longer before his arrival at Paris he had come too late in regard the Duke had certainly been within that time shut up in the Colledge from whence there had been no possibility of retrieving him For the French Court had so zealously espoused that Affair that he found himself necessitated to make use of all the Prudence and Policy he was Master of before he could accomplish the business that he came about but finding that it was not altogether too late he so effectually pursued those Instructions he received from the King that he procured the Duke's return to Paris and liberty to enjoy the free Exercise of his Religion But no sooner did he come to the French Court to pay his respects to the Queen but the Queen-Mother of France and Cardinal Mazarine press'd him with all the Allurements imaginable to turn Roman Catholick telling him that they look'd upon him as a Child of France and that it was for his advantage and the opportunity they should thereby have of doing him the greater good that induced them to move him thereunto adding that since his Father was dead he ought to obey his Mother's Commands in all things To which observing the King's Instructions not to engage in any Dispute with them he replied only in general terms That he resolved to obey his Mother as much as any Son could or ought to do and thereby dissengaged himself from any farther pursuit at that time But all the allurements of the French Court and the utmost severities used toward him by his Mother were not able in the least to shake his firmness in his Religion which the Queen with great indignation perceiving some few days after took him apart and having first with all the sweetness imaginable declared to him how great and tender those affections she had for him were and how much it grieved her that very love it self should compel her to proceed toward him with some seeming severity She told him that for his ease sake she would shorten the time of his Tryal and therefore proposing to him all the good she aimed at in that design the duty he owed her and the disability of the King to maintain him she commanded him immediately to withdraw into his Lodgings and there give one hearing more to Abbot Mountague and after having sequestred himself for a while from all manner of diversion to ponder seriously upon what she and he said to him and that night either bring or send her a full and final answer Whereupon the Duke taking the advantage of the little interim of clearing the Room sent Griffin to the Marquess of Ormond desiring him to repair to him immediately that he might advise with him how he ought to deport himself as occasion should serve in that intended privacy with his Mother and the Abbot But Griffin not presently finding the Marquess the Abbot was there before him who having expaciated upon what the Queen had but briefly hinted he prest the Duke for his final answer which he refused to give 'till he had first consulted with the Marquess whereupon the Abbot for the present withdrew desiring to be sent for so soon as he was come telling him that if it were not in an hours time he would return again whether sent for or not But it was not long after his being withdrawn that the Marquess came and the Duke having acquainted him with their Proposals and demanded his advice and directions therein was quickly resolved what answer to make but having been so long harrassed was desirous to take a little breath and therefore neglected to send presently to the Abbot and went out of his Lodging into the Court to divert himself but no sooner was he gone than the Abbot came and missing him sought up and down the Court for him and having at last found him severely rebuked him for neglecting his Mothers command and his instructions which was seriously to ponderate what he had said 〈◊〉 for neglecting to send for him according to appointment Well Sir said the Duke I have seriously considered of all that hath been said to me and my final answer
short but pithy Speech to the People telling them that he did esteem the Affections of his good People more than the Crowns of many Kingdoms and should be ready by God's Assistance to bestow his Life for their defence wishing to live no longer than he saw Religion and that Kingdom to flourish in all Happiness with many other expressions of like Love and Affection toward them The Ceremonies of the Coronation being ended and a plentiful Entertainment prepared he sate down at one Table and the Lords at another many Caresses and Testimonies of Joy reciprocally passing between them And Dinner being ended they all returned to St. Johnstons in the same Order and Pomp as they came from thence to Schoneâ— Bonfires Ringing of Bells and the loud Acclamations of the People were sufficient demonstrations of the Publick Joy which the Scots were filled withall and the great expectations they had of Happiness and Felicity under the Influence of his mild and easie Government Having now obtained the actual possession of one of his Kingdoms and being reconciled to that Parliament he was not in the least daunted by the late Miscarriages but as if he had been encouraged by his former Unhappiness and raised in mind like Anteus by his Fall he proceeded to the raising of such an Army as might then have been rather wisht for by the Affectionate than expected by the Reasonable And indeed such was the Confluence of Faithful Subjects that continually resorted to him and were resolved to carry on and if possible maintain an endangered and an endangering Cause against the most successful and hitherto prevailing Interest that he was in a little time Master of a greater Army in the Field than either his own hope or his Enemies guilty fear could suspect Wherefore he bravely appears himself in the management of his own Affairs as Generalissimo of that Army which consisted of two and twenty thousand fighting Men. Nor was his care less employed about his Garrisons than it was about those Forces he had in the Field knowing that it was prudence to provide for a Retreat though he expected a Conquest and not neglect the providing a Refuge in the worst of Dangers whilst according to Reason he need to think of nothing but Safety in the best of Victories Wherefore to hasten the work for every minute of delay was then fatal and cherish the dejected Vulgar who were now somewhat discouraged by lying under the burden of a double Army with the honour and pleasure of his gracious presence He took a progress to view the most considerable of them and see them well fortified and furnisht with all necessary Provisions encouraging the Engineers by his Bounty and directing and guiding them by his Skill But those vast Preparations were too formidable to his Enemies for them to suffer 'em to go on without an Attempt at least to hinder and defeat them Wherefore before the Levies were well compleated Cromwel makes hard toward him thinking each minute tedious that past without some Action But the King prudently declined joyning Battel with him until he might if possible draw him who had a greedy desire of Fighting into some disadvantage which he was in a probability of doing soon after For Cromwel having commanded two Regiments to pass over into a narrrow Island hoping thereby to intercept his passage he sent against them five or six Regiments under the Command of Major General Brown who had certainly cut them all in pieces had not Cromwel hastened thither with a supply in the very last minute of opportunity whereby he rescued his own Forces and beat back Brown although not without a considerable loss on both sides And being flusht with those successful beginnings pursued his Advantage and transporting his Army over Fife marcht immediately unto St. Johnstons which he took almost upon the first Summons Whereupon the King who was not able to beat them back thought it high time to look about him And since Cromwel that successful Rebel had now gained all on the other side Fife took the Earl of Eglington Prisoner possest himself of St. Johnstons and grew every day more powerful he resolved with all imaginable speed to advance into England expecting that the Justice and Equity of his Cause together with the long Tyranny exercised over them by the Juncto would incite his English Subjects to return to their Allegiance and joyn with him against theirs as well as his Enemies And knowing by experience that the Scots always exprest their Valour better in other Countries than at home in their own whereupon Cromwel re-crosses Frith and sends Lambert with a select Party of Horse and Dragoons to fall upon the King's Reer himself following presently after with the Body of his Army The King entred England by the way of Carlisle the Royal Army marching through the Country with that Civility and exact Obedience to Military Discipline that as some affirm the Country was not damaged six-pence by them But whether it were that their former Villanies had left such a deep impression in the hearts of the People or that they were now dull'd and besotted with Slavery and with Issachar's Ass were content to couch under their Burdens or that they were over-awed by an Armed Power which is the most probable few or none came in to his Assistance save only the Lord Howard's Son of Escrick with one Troop of Horse notwithstanding his earnest Invitation The Juncto at Westminster hearing of the King's March were exceedingly terrified therewith and presently raised all the Countries against him and declared it High Treason for any to assist him either with Men or Money But the Earl of Darby who was always Loyal both to him and his Father not fearing their Bug-Bear Threatning brought him a supply of Two hundred and fifty Foot and Sixty Horse out of the Isle of Man He met with no opposition till he came at Warrington in Lancashire where some considerable Forces of the Parliament were ready to cut down that Bridge and dispute his Passage But the Scots falling on them before they were aware prevented the breaking down of the Bridge and by their Valour forced their way over the Planks and put the Adversary to such a confused Retreat that had it been pursued as himself would have had it but was opposed by Lesly it might have proved the Conquest of all England and that unhappy and miserable War might thereby have been ended much sooner than it was From thence he marched toward Worcester in such excellent Order and with so little Damage to the Country that it lookt more like a Progress with his Nobles than a March with an Army which was a great demonstration of the powerful Influence of his goodness and care which could so easily frame Rudeness it self to so smooth and even a temper and form an unruly Camp into a well managed and orderly Court In his way to Worcester he summoned Shrewsbury by a Letter directed to Collonel Mackworth
own Prerogative and his Peoples Properties by the just Dimension of his Laws so that Justice was impartially administred throughout his whole Reign unless where himself was party and there he would rather lose his own Cause than have his Subjects seem oppressed nor was there ever known so few Executions in so long a Reign And truly when we especially for the first Eighteen Years after the Interregnum consider his great Mercy to Traytors it looks as if he design'd not to spare himself provided he could but people again or at least keep as full as possibly a Nation which had been so monstrously emptied of men by a long unnatural and sanguinary War For he was ever unwilling to inflict the least Severities upon his offending Subjects unless when necessity of State or the nature of the Crime did bind the hand of Mercy and render Severity absolutely necessary rather for the publick than his own Secuirty He always professed to love and seek Peace and prefer it before the Troubles and Hazards of War wherein he was like Solomon rather than David and imitated our Blessed Saviour who stiles himself the Prince of Peace ever bearing it in his Princely mind that when Christ came into the World Peace was sang by the Holy Angels and when he made his Exit Peace was the Legacy he bequeathed Nor can it be imagined That his desire of Peace was the effect of softness or fear for he was both Active and Valiant but he had a Conduct peculiar to himself in bringing about his Purposes His peaceable disposition and accomplishing his designs by the most easie and gentle means and would do that by Peace which others could not perform by War and effect more by shewing his Sword than others could do by using it He knew the way to preserve and obtain Peace was sometimes to pretend an inclination to embrace War and therefore would when provok'd make offers of the latter till he had mended the Conditions of the former By which means he was more absolutely and with far less charge to his Subjects the Arbitrator of Europe than any of his Predecessors had ever been and could at his Pleasure dispence War and Peace where and to whom he pleas'd which makes it the greater Wonder That He who was so great a Lover of Peace should be so successful in War for his Arms were always fortunate nor did he ever after his Restauration know what a miscarriage meant The Two Rebellions in Scotland were ended by Victory as if raised industriously to encrease the Fame of his Arms which after so long an interval of Peace wanted exercising and in his Wars with Holland France Spain and Denmark he was always sued to for peace before he granted it and the French King did ever fear his Threatnings more than other Princes performances In the exercising his Sovereignty he consulted his own Judgment rather than other mens Affections or Interests and always reserv'd the disposal of his Royal Favours to his own Will and Pleasure and to avoid the fate of too many Princes who are ruled by their Favourites and Govern'd by those whom they themselves have raised he never admitted any of his Nobles to so familiar an intimacy with him His care to maintain the Prerogatives of the Crown as to give others occasion to account them his Favourites For altho he had many Noblemen about him whom he greatly loved and upon whose Advice and Counsel he much rely'd as Clarendon Buckingham Lauderdale Danby and others yet none of them could be properly called his Favourites as Gaveston and Spencer were the Favourites of Edward the Second or the Duke of Norfolk of Richard the Second And altho he would frequently acquaint his Parliaments with his Intentions and require their advice and assistance for the executing of them yet he would not endure they should be too positive or peremptory therein accounting that too great an Invasion of his Prerogative and would tell them The Right of making and managing War and Peace was invested in Him and if they thought he would depart from any part of that Right they would find themselves mistaken for having the Reins of Government in his own hands he would have the same care to maintain them there as he would have to preserve his own Person His Prudence and Conduct in managing the great Affairs of his Kingdom was so admirable and successful that it is rather to be wondred at than believed and he made so many good and wholsome Laws every one whereof was grounded upon the most searching Maxims of State for the Welfare and security of His Subjects and the maintaining the prerogatives of the Crown as no Age before him could ever boast of which begot in all men the greater Awe and Veneration of him and yet there is nothing more certain than that his Reputation was as great if not greater abroad than at home His Prudence and Conduct tho perhaps not so well grounded for Forreigners could not see at that distance the passages of Affairs nor discern by what Secret Councils he always attained his own ends and disappointed the Expectation of his Enemies abroad and the Factions at Home and were therefore forced to make their Judgment upon the Issues and Success of them No Prince ever had a Wiser Council than He and yet no Prince ever needed it less for he was Himself a Counsellor to his Council and was able to direct those of whom he asked advice For he was as well skilled in the Art of Kingship as His Royal Grandfather was wont to term it and had as great an insight into and understood as well the best Rules and Methods of Government as any Prince that ever sway'd a Scepter which rendred him more capable of exercising his Kingly Office to the greatest advantage of Himself his Kingdom and the Protestant Religion and enabled Him to govern His Subjects for so long a Tract of Time with so much exactness that by his Wise and Prudent Management he so poized all jarring and different Interests as to preserve the publick Peace and Tranquility of his Kingdom to the very last Minute of His Life notwithstanding the many restless Attempts of unruly and designing Men to disturb it and left things in so good a posture at his Death that his most Illustrious Brother and Royal and Lawful Successor ascended his Imperial Throne with as much Facility and Applause as any of his Predecessors He loved so well to see his Subjects thrive that he coveted not so much to fill his Exchequer as to reign over a Rich and Wealthy People and thought Money as well bestowed when laid up in their Coffers as when it filled his own He was Religious toward God as well as just towards man and took care to promote the Interest of the Church as well as the State At His Restoration he found the Church involved in Trouble but left her possessed of Peace he found her robbed and
spoiled but left her Wealthy and Rich. Her Prelates He restored to their Ancient Rights and Dignities and filled Her Converts with Joy and Gladness His Religion and Piety He did not like most Princes make Religion an Artifice of State only but accounted it the Glory and Comfort of his Life His Soul in His private Devotion soared so high that he seemed to be wholly swallowed up with the Contemplation of the Holiness and Majesty of the God whom he adored and with whom he would plead in Prayer so earnestly and with such Affection as tho he were resolved to take no denial And one of the Presbyterian Ministers who attended the Commissioners sent over by the Parliament at Breda passing accidentally by when he was private in his Closet he was so astonished at the Ardency and Zeal wherewith he offered up his Sacrifices of Prayer and Praises to Almighty God that he suddenly clapt his hand upon his Heart and with a kind of Emotion of Spirit cried out to those that were with him We are not worthy of such a King And that which was the perfection of all his piety and zeal proceeded not so much from a desire to seem Religious as from a solemn Dedication of his great Soul to the Honour and Glory of his God by whom alone he knew Kings reign and Princes decree Justice Accounting himself like Theodosius the Emperor more happy in being a servant of Christ than in his being King of great Brittain and Ireland He was from his Infancy Eduducated in the Protestant Religion and Instructed by the Royal Martyr in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England And yet he was not a Protestant so much by Education as Choice as appeared by his constant adhering to the Church of England in the time of his unhappy Exile when he was absolutely free to have profess'd what Religion he pleased and had so many Temptations from the baseness and villany of his own Subjects and the kindness of those Popish Princes by whom he was entertained and from whose Assistance he expected relief against the unjust Oppression of those that had Vsurp'd his Throne to embrace the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And the reason why he so strenuously endeavoured to promote and maintain an Vniformity in Religion through all his Dominions was not so much to Justifie his own Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes as thereby to strengthen the Protestant Interest knowing that the safety of England consisted chiefly in the Vnion of her Inhabitants So that his knowledg in the sacred Mysteries of Religion was the Crown and Glory of all his other Perfections and the great end and design whereat He aimed in all his other Studies was the improving them to the Glory of God and the increasing in Himself the knowledg of more sublime and heavenly things wherein He so much excelled that He might have said with King David I am wiser than all my Teachers Knowing likewise that nothing obstructed the growth of Piety and the power of Godliness more than the wasting those parts and spending that time in disputing about Forms which ought wholly to be employed in promoting Holiness of Life and Sincerity of Heart He had during his Exile visited the Courts and Travelled through the Countrys of the three greatest and most Potent Monarchs of Christendom His Travels viz. Germany France and Spain and had by his Observation made himself Master of what was excellent and worth learning in their Forms and Methods of Government and exactly inform'd himself what were the Excellencies and what the defects of each of them And to the Admiration of those who had the Happiness to converse with him had by that means obtained an universal insight into all the great and weighty Affairs of Europe and understood by what Principles they were first moved and by what Counsels and to what ends they vvere aftervvards carried on vvhich tho he chiefly learned from themselves yet vvhat he gathered from them all in General vvas strange and surprizing to every one of them in particular who greatly wondred at the Comprehensiveness of his Knowledg So that as he had by right of Nature a Power of Empire over the Bodies of one Part of Europe He might seem by a Natural and acquired right to claim an Vniversal Monarchy over the Intellectual Powers the Minds and Wills of Mankind in all the Parts of it besides He understood Spanish and Italian and spake and wrote French correctedly was well versed in Ancient and Modern History and had read the choicest Pieces of Politicks and Divinity and understood the fundamental Laws of England so well His skill in Arts and Sciences that he could readily answer the most difficult Queries and resolve the greatest Mysteries and Critical Niceties that were at any time started about them and had his mind so well furnished with the knowledg of Nature and the Reasons of Things that He comprehended almost all kind of Arts which contributed any Thing either to the Delight or Service of Mankind He understood the truest and best Method for Building of Ships and could better than those who pretended themselves the greatest Crafts-masters therein direct the making them far more useful both for Strength and Sailing than any which had been formerly built and was as well acquainted with Rigging and Fitting forth a Fleet for Sea He had great Skill in Guns knew all that belonged to their casting and could tell upon first view whether they were mounted to do Execution or not He was a great Lover of stately Buildings and several Curious Edifices were either built or repaired by Him But his greatest Cost and Care in that kind was laid out in Windsor-Castle which he took more delight in than in any other of His Palaces Nor were His Buildings all for Pomp but some for Charity witness that Curious and Stately Fabrick of Chelsey-Colledg for the Entertainment of decayed Soldiers He understood Navigation Astronomy and all the parts of the Mathematicks to such a Degree that he is supposed to have attained a greater Perfection therein than any Prince ever did before Him and took so much delight in those Pleasant and Useful Studies that he endeavoured as much as possible the promoting them in others Witness His Worthy Gift to the Hospital of Christ-Church for the Annual breeding up a certain Number of the most Ingenuous of their Children in the Mathematical Studies and the Liberal Rewards which were frequently bestowed by Him upon Ingenious Men that had any way contributed toward the making those Studies more easie and delightful or had been imployed by him in any thing relating thereunto His Recreations for the most part were very stirring and such as tended to the making his Body more Robust and strong His Recreations and maintaining it in Health which he enjoyed to as great a degree as any Prince in the World ever did such as Riding Hunting Fishing Tennis and the like He loved Walking extreamly