An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and A Panegyric to Charles the Second (1661) by John Evelyn
page 44 of 61 (72%)
page 44 of 61 (72%)
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with their insuperable Patience; nor can they in all that tract of Time,
hardly brag of having made one signal _Proselyte_ in twenty Years that this difference continu'd; and that because the obedience of your Majesties Subjects, is engraffed into their Religion and Institution, as well as into the adoration of Your Virtues. I would not therefore that Your Name should be painted upon Banners, or Carved in stone, _sed Monumentis æternæ laudis_; and Your Majesty did well foresee, and consult it, when you furnish'd a Subject for our _Panegyrics_, and our Histories, which should outlast those frail materials. The Statues of _Cæsar_, _Brutus_ and _Camillus_ were set up indeed because they chased their enemies from the Walls of a proud Citie; You have done it from a whole Kingdom; not (as they) by blood and slaughter, but by your prudence and Counsels: Nor is it lightly to be passed over, that your Majesty was preserved in that _Royal Oak_, to whom a Civical Crown should so justly become due. But I now arrive to the _Lawes_ you have made, and the excellent things which your Majestie hath done since you came amongst Your people. Truely, there is hardly an hour to be reckoned wherein your Majesty has not done some signal benefit. I have already touch'd a few of them, as what concern'd the most, I would I could say the best; for you have oblig'd your very Enemies, You have bought them; since never was there, till now, so prodigious a summe paid, a summe hardly in Nature, to verifie a Word only; and which the zeal of Your good Subjects (had you taken the advantage of the fervour which I but now mentioned, at Your wonderful Reception) might easily have absolv'd You of; had You paid them in kind, and as they were wont to keep faith with your Majestie. I provoke the World again to furnish an instance of a like generositie, unlesse he climb up to heaven for it. How black then must that ingratitude needs appear, |
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