O DE

UPON HIS MAJESTY'S RESTORATION AND

RETURN.

-Quod optanti divûm promittere nemo

N

Auderet, volvenda dies, en, attulit ultro." VIRG,

OW `bleffings on you all, ye peaceful stars,
Which meet at laft fo kindly, and difpenfe

Your univerfal gentle influence

To calm the stormy world and still the rage of wars!
Nor, whilft around the continent
Plenipotentiary beams ye fent,

Did your pacific lights disdain
In their large treaty to contain

The world apart, o'er which do reign

Your feven fair brethren of great Charles's-wain;
No ftar amongst ye all did, I believe,
Such vigorous affistance give,
As that which, thirty years ago,
At Charles's birth, did, in despite
Of the proud fun's meridian light,
His future glories and this year forefhow.

The ftar that appeared at noon, the day of the king's birth, just as the king his father was riding to St. Paul's to give thanks to God for that bleffing.

No lefs effects than these we may

Be affur'd of from that powerful ray, Which could out-face the fun, and overcome the day.

Aufpicious ftar! again arife,

And take thy noon-tide station in the skies,
Again all heaven prodigiously adorn ;
For lo! thy Charles again is born.
He then was born with and to pain ;.
With and to joy he 's born again.
And, wifely for this second birth,
By which thou certain wert to bless
The land with fuil and flourishing happiness,.
Thou mad'ft of that fair month thy choice,
In which heaven, air, and fea, and earth,
And all that's in them, all, does smile and does rejoice.
'Twas a right season; and the very ground

Ought with a face of paradise to be found,

Then, when we were to entertain

Felicity and innocence again.

Shall we again (good Heaven!) that blessed pair behold, Which the abused people fondly fold

For the bright fruit of the forbidden tree,

By feeking all like Gods to be?

Will Peace her halcyon neft venture to build.
Upon a fhore with shipwrecks fill'd,

And truft that fea, where the can hardly fay

She 'as known these twenty years one calmy day?

Ah! mild and galless dove,

Which doft the pure and candid dwellings love,

Canft

Canft thou in Albion ftill delight?

Still canft thou think it white? "Will ever fair Religion appear

In thefe deformed ruins? will the clear
Th' Augean stables of her churches here?

Will Juftice hazard to be seen

Where a High Court of Justice e'er has been ?
Will not the tragic scene,

And Bradshaw's bloody ghoft, affright her there,
Her, who fhall never fear?

Then may Whitehall for Charles's feat be fit,
If Juftice fhall endure at Westminster to fit.

Of all, methinks, we least should fee
The chearful looks again of Liberty.

That name of Cromwell, which does freshly still
The curfes of fo many fufferers fill,
Is ftill enough to make her stay,
And jealous for a while remain,
Left, as a tempeft carried him away,
Some hurricane should bring him back again.
Or, the might juftlier be afraid

Left, that great ferpent, which was all a tail

(And in his poisonous folds whole nations prifoners made)

Should a third time perhaps prevail

To join again, and with worse fting arise,
As it had done when cut in pieces twice.

Return, return, ye facred Four!

And dread your perish'd enemies no more.

Your

Your fears are caufelefs all, and vain,
Whilft you return in Charles's train;
For God does him, that he might you, reftore,.
Nor shall the world him only call

Defender of the faith, but of you all.

Along with you plenty and riches go,

With a full tide to every port they flow,

With a warm fruitful wind o'er all the country blow. Honour does as ye march her trumpet found,

The Arts encompass you around,
And, against all alarms of Fear,
Safety itself brings up the rear;
And, in the head of this angelic band,

Lo! how the goodly Prince at last does stand
(O righteous God !) on his own happy land :
'Tis happy now, which could with so much ease
Recover from fo defperate a disease;

A various complicated ill,

Whofe every symptom was enough to kill;
In which one part of three frenzy possest,
And lethargy the rest:

'Tis happy, which no bleeding does endure,.
A furfeit of fuch blood to cure :
'Tis happy, which beholds the flame
In which by hoftile hands it ought to burn,

Or that which, if from Heaven it came,
It did but well deserve, all into bonfire turn.

We

We fear'd (and almost touch'd the black degree
Of inftant expectation)

That the three dreadful angels we,

Of famine, fword, and plague, fhould here establish'd fee (God's great triumvirate of defolation !)

To scourge and to destroy the finful nation.
Juftly might Heaven Protectors fuch as thofe,
And fuch Committees for their Safety, impose
Upon a land which scarcely better chose.
We fear'd that the Fanatic war,

Which men against God's houses did declare,
Would from th' Almighty enemy bring down.
A fure deftruction on our own.

We read th' inftructive hiftories which tell
Of all thofe endless mifchiefs that befel

The facred town which God had lov'd so well,
After that fatal curfe had once been faid,

}

"His blood be upon ours and on our children's head." We know, though there a greater blood was spilt, 'Twas fcarcely done with greater guilt..

We know thofe miferies did befal

Whilft they rebell'd against that Prince, whom all The rest of mankind did the love and joy of mankind call..

Already was the fhaken nation

Into a wild and deform'd chaos brought,
And it was hating on (we thought)

Even to the last of ills- annihilation :
When, in the midst of this confused night,
Lo! the bleft Spirit mov'd, and there was light;