AS Magistrates are Rulers over the per­sons of the People, so are they but servants to the good of the People; As it is the duty of all to serve them, so it is their Office to serve all. 'Tis no Paradox to affirm, That Rulers are the greatest Servants. The Ancients were wont to place their statues of their Princes by their Fountains, intimating that they were, or at least should be, Fountains of the publick good: The Counsellor saith, That a man in publick place should give his will to God, his love to his Master, his heart to his Countrey, his secrets to his Friends, and his time to business. It is a base and unworthy spirit for a man to make himself the Cen­tre of all his actions. The very Heathen-man could say, A mans Countrey, and his friends and others, challenge a great part of him. The Sun that is the Prince of Lights, doth impartially serve all the Peasants as well as the [Page 2]Prince, the poor as well as the rich, the weak as well as the strong. Doth not the Sea feed and refresh the smal­lest Fish, as well as the greatest Leviathan? Doth not the Trees shade and shelter from heat the least Bird, as well as the greatest Beast? Let all Loyal Subjects then in­deavour to be like the Sun: For behold, The Son of righteousness was of a brave publick spirit; He healed o­thers, but was hurt himself; he laid out himself, and he laid down himself for a publick good. And shall not Christians; any English-men, return to their due and law­full obedience, and merit the praise and fame which of late years they have lost, and all to save the Ship of poor England from sinking; whose Pilot the raging violence of a tempestuous storm hath cast down head-long from the Stern, and caused her to stagger To and Fro a­mongst the unquiet Waves of the rough Ocean, some­times clashing against the proud surley Rocks, and at other times reeling up and down the smoother Waters; now threatning present shipwrack and destruction, by and by promising a seeming safety and secure arrival, yet ne­ver setled fast, nor absolutely tending to the quiet and desired Haven: So the vexed and various Government of bleeding and frantick England, ever since the furious madness of certain turbulent spirits, (divided her Head from the Body politick, and stern of Government, and took it into their Unlawfull and Ʋsurping Hands) it hath been tossed up and down through several Devouring In­terests, as a Lamb amongst Wolves; yet in all our Revo­lutions, although many Gaps have been laid open, the Government hath not steered its Course directly to Charls the second, its onely right and quiet Haven, till now; blessed be the instruments thereof.

And as for this Rising Sun, though hitherto obscured [Page 3]by the foggy mists of disobedient Subjects; yet do the rayes of His Sacred Majesty shine throughout all Europe, and His Renown ecchoeth in every part of the World, to the admiration of forreign Kingdomes, and the envy and hatred of all Disloyal Subjects: yet cannot their malice but marvel at the vertues and patience of their too long exi­led KING, whom they so much wrong; and it grieves them to see that royal Progeny (whose ruine they have so greedily hunted after) flourish with such glorious splen­dor amongst the Kings and Princes of the earth, growing in favour with God and Man, whilest they (odious to all but themselves) by their Tyranny and Disobedience, incur the displeasure both of Heaven and Earth. And certainly, had they not been infatuated with strange de­lusions to deny what their own Consciences telleth them tobe true, they wou d presently declare, that the onely way to settle our Distractions, and restore our Nation to its Pristine happiness and glory, were to call in the King, re-establish Him in His Own, and set Him upon His Fathers Throne and with the best of men cry out, and say, Fear God, Honour the King. Which that we may all doe, the Lord grant, that the cries of the People may ascend up unto the King of Glory, for the restoring Our Gracious King Charles the second to His Hereditary Crown, whose Youth His Divine Majesty hath been pleased to season with the Afflictions of King David, and Clouded the morning of His and Our happiness with the various chan­ges of some mens wicked Lusts and Passions; who as that holy Prophet and King saith; They rejoyce when they have ruined others; they laugh to see them lament. Belshaz­zers sumptuous feast was heightned by the Hogs of his delicious meats and drinks, as they were served in the Vessels of the Sanctuary: No Bowls, to such Atheists, [Page 4]like a consecrated Challice to carouse in; and no Flesh so sweet, as that which the Eagle rob'd the Altar of: Money gotten by stinking means (as the Roman Emperer told his Son) smells as sweet as honest gain. What care such fools though they rend and tear the Churches Garments, so theirs may be whole? Or to build up their Babels with the ruines of Sion; so that we may justly cry out with a learned Father; And when they have robbed the King and the Church of their Patrimony, and the whole King [...] [...] her ancient plenty, then a self-denying Ordina [...] [...] there is no more left to be taken away) not on [...]y makes sa­tisfaction for the Sacriledge, but justifi [...]s it to be no sin. So that it is evident, that our late changes have introduced into this Nation many woes and miseries; and they that took most delight in urging of these changes cannot yet give any satisfaction to themselves for the present, and much less can they assure themselves of any sound Go­vernment for the future in the way they took; For, as it is truly observed, all changes in Government, common­ly do cheat them most at last, who at first did most de­sire them. Indeed, it is hard for a good Historian to say on the sudden, how many several kinds of Government were introduced among the Romans, by this insatiable desire of change: It is notorious, that they had Kings, Senators, Dictators, Tribunes, Consuls, &c. of some of which that jeer was started, vigilantissimum habuimus procansulem &c. We have now had a mest vigilant Pro-Consul, for during the whole time of his Consulship, [...]e never slept, meaning, that he was elected at Noon and discarded before Night. And by name, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, three of their no [...]ed Emperors, enjoyed their Dignity so shor [...] a space, that Apollonius wittily ter­med them Lords of Greece but a short time, so these three [Page 5]continued but Emperors of Rome for a few moneths: so in-constant was the Humour of the Giddy-headed Romans in those dayes, that whom they had but newly set up, without any other reason then a meer affection of novelty, and desire of Change; they soon after pul­led down. And no marvel, though the Luxurant Ro­mans, that then knew little of God, were so desirous of Change, when as we find Gods own People, the Jews, [...] troubled with a spice, but desperately sick of [...] Disease; for they had their Dukes, or Leaders, their Judges, their Prophets, their High-Priests, their Kings; and for a time they had an Inter-regnum, and no King in Israel, besides divers other horrid Jaw-falls in Government. And if we draw near home, we cannot but take notice how praedominant, in all Ages, this desire of Change hath been in all parts of Christen­dome. What chopping and changing in several parts, espe­cially in the Kingdom of Naples, where they so often changed their Governours, that at last their estate was represented in an Asse, that having cast his Rider, turn­ed back, to see who would be so mad as to bestride him any more. And may it not be said of such who fight a­gainst God and his Annointed, instead of disingaging do the more intangle themselves; And like so many unru­ly Colts, get nothing by their disorderly desire of Change, but onely to have the Brand of Gods indignati­on fastned so much the deeper in their flesh.

Thus they that willingly and wilfuly resist Gods Or­dinances (as the Fanaticks of these Times do) turn that which they relyed upon as their likeliest Remedy, to the worst of mischiefs that could have befallen them. So it is pregnant in History, that very few Nations (out of the meer desire of Change) will long endure any Govern­ment, [Page 6]no, nor scarce any Governour; how then shall it satissie the too Arch-Enemies of Rule and Govern­ment, the Fanaticks and non-sensicall Quakers, who would (if they had power to their will) soon lay the Axe to the root of all Magistracy and Ministery what­soever. Intollerable mischiefs are ingendered by con­fusion, and the inordinate desire of Change amongst those Phanatques, who are so greedy of Parity, and so fond of Anarchy, may be termed to be like the fruit we call Medlers, which are never good till they be rotten. Men that are fancifully and fanatick, we need them not to make us happy: I am sure they made a shift to make Us miserable. And if God had not in mercy set bounds to the rage of that Sea, and the madness of that People they would have endangered to have made the City an heap of Ashes, and our Country a field of blood: It will be the wisdome therefore of our Rulers and their po­sterities Honour and Hapiness, to keep in the bounds of just, moderate, religious and sober Counsels, to aim at [...]egal, honest, and tried wayes of settlement, that by their indeavours the People may flourish, and Salvation break forth throughout the three Nations.