HAving humbly invoked your Majesties most gracious inspiration^a Nam (que) aliud quid sit quod jam implorare queamus, ^b who are as well the^c Apollo of our Musoeum, as the^d Jupiter of our State) to this expressive ad­miring your Restorers vast worth, I am obliged I presume (how small soever the tribute of Loy­alty be) with submissive boldness to tender it to you, whose influence it is by which my poor Muse subsists. In your happy Restauration, your Subjects love is not so much our wonder, as your Majesties Divine Virtue, who change the hellish hue of such Negroes in wickedness as we, and perswade us, after so long an habit of Rebellion, to our duty of Obedience. When that Plague had spread it self over the body of the whole Kingdom, was possessed of its very heart and vitals, we admire that an Arm, one single member of it, should be left untouch'd, and that speedily to administer an effectual Re­medy [Page] to an inveterate Disease of twenty years continuance: but we are confounded to think that the Remedy should be a Prescript of your bounteous Royal hand, since your Worship and Honour lay rejected here, like the^a ruined Temple of Aesculapius in Carthage, who have ex­perienced your Subjects Insolence even to that height, as^b (O nostri infamia secli!) to be ba­nished from them, like the^c Physicians of old from the fanatick Romans, and (pro ne [...]andum scelus! O monstra hominum ex scelere & immani­tate concreta! to proscribe the remembrance of your Majesty as far as was possible from our ve­ry thoughts) whose return to repossess what the Usurpers matchless malice kept from You, they (horrendum dictu! a word of horror to think and write as well as speak) made^d Treason to men­tion. Our Victor George without force of Arms conquers all our Dragons; but with the charm [Page] of Your Authority. They yeeld to Him in Obedience to You. He as the^e Lacedemonian Apollo, is strengthened with four hands to fight victoriously for us: but two of these hands are those belong to your Most Sacred Person. His Voice, as Alectryons, scares away the Bats and Screech-Owls of our Night; yet no otherwise, but as he proclaims Your Coming, the approach of our Sun. Who can see a Loyal Orator plead for the Subjects Hearts to their true Lawful So­veraign, and not see withall their hearts (quite tired with the expensive, ridiculous, cursed and bloody Changes of a tedious Civil War, and tormented with the Remorse of their own most heinous^f Impiety, the sole cause of it) were their Soveraigns wholy before he speaks a word? And who can see lost hearts restored to their Royal owner by the kindness and virtue of such an Orator, and not have so much gratitude as to give him his suffrage? None certainly can more d [...]s [...] our applausi [...]e breath, than he that [Page] opens our dumb mouths to speak. The least we can render Him, who raiseth us out of the dust with three Kingdoms out of their ruines, is our Publick Acknowledgement of so matchless an Obligation. And none so fit to hear the report of his merit (were the^g Laus, as Seneca saith it should be umbra virtutis, could with equal proportion be the shadow of it, and an­swer its vast dimentions) as your Sacred Majesty, whose high goodness is the subject upon which his Virtue depends.

^* Et mihi tu faveas) May my presumption in what I dedicate here, I humbly beg, be made pardonable upon this account,

Your Majesties long happy Reign be ever bene­fited by this great Worthy's service. ^k —Laudata (que) Virtus Cr [...]scat. ¹⁷

IF it was the opinion of an^a Heathen, Qui contemnunt laudem, ut interim per ignaviam nihil gerant laudabile, quum eximiam virtutem honesta fama comitetur ultro, ac generosis ani­mis amor laudum veluti stimulus ad praeclara faci­nora sit innatus, ^b A Fathers authority thus makes it authentick. Praecipuum est beneficium in rebus honestis laudari. Laus enim parit emulat [...]o­nem, aemulatio virtutem, virtus felicitatem, quae fi­nis est omnium quae desiderantur, & quo omnis viri boni motus refertur. Whatever then the duty of humility, or the temper of a well governed mind may be judged to be, I hope, the mention of your worth here, need not make me fear to in­cur your displeasure, or render me obnoxious [Page] to the disgust of others for presenting it to your person, as if we were onely (according as ^c some fancy) Hominis memoriae laudem dare non vitae. I may boldly and truly say (to answer what they affirm not to be done while he whose merits indebt us, survives) Nec laudantem adu­latio movere potest, nec laudatum tentare elatio. ( ^d) If humility be contemptus propriae excellentiae, yet,^e nulla tanta humilitas, quae dulcedine glo­riae non tangatur. What if this modest and low esteem of ones own worth^f Magna acta lauda­biliter celat, this obligeth^† not others to conceal them too; since^g laus bonorum operum sit co­mes. Nay the great^h Stagarite himself will [Page] witness for us, that,^* Virtuti debetur laus. I praise not your,ⁱ Family, Palace or Possessions, no such things as these, which may be esteemed but^k Garland-flowers without odor; but as ^l Agathocles his Earth among his golden Vessels, and your Virtues; that cross Fate hath power to divest you of with the Robes you wear ere you take your rest: But what is^m propri­um hominis, animus & ratio in anima perfect [...]. What drops more naturally from the heart than ink from the pen that writes. That which hath the stamp of Divinity upon it. What is the Subject of Praise to those blessed Angels that wait upon you, and wil propagate the memory of you to all [Page] ⁿ Eternity. Therefore^o it having been the custom of the Lacedemonians before they went to war, to sacrifice to the Muses (Licet Musis nihil videtur cum Marte esse commercii) ut rebus fortiter gestis contingat honesta commemoratio, ut egregia gesta verbis celebrarentur a Musis, eloquen­tiae praesidibus petendis. Let liberty be granted us great Noble Sir, to sacrifice to the Muses too now our Warrs be done, in thankfulness to you our Victor Mars, whose prudent sweet conduct hath seemed to charm us to Peace with Musick, and to make you Apollo, the great president over them. Had I merit to be confident of your ac­cepting and liking this Incense I offer you, I might be excused for being ^† ambitious of such favour from one, I am so highly to honour, and who hath been so loyal a^* Bene­factor to my Soveraign. I shall remit my self to [Page] your Graces goodness, if you vouchsafe to cast your eye here, knowing^p Non minus est re­gium parva libenter ac prompte accipere, quam ma­gna tribuere. And shall onely say, the utmost and sole end of this Muses Sacrifice (such as it is, seeming now, at l [...]ast as an abrupt ^q Echo to the perfect Encomii that have been every where already heard of you) is to pay in part my debt of gratitude I owe, as a sharer in the heart-obliging kind Services you have done these Kingdomes, and to offer up my votes for a continuance and encrease of all^r Blessings [Page] and Honours to you, according to your just Merits and own just Desires,