HAving (with much remorse and morosity of mind) received clear and unfallible Intelligence of your Majesties late defeat in England: as also how miraculous an escape you made thence, we thought fit to let you know, that we think our self (in a high nature) obliged to congratulate your Majesties mag­nanimity (the essence of a Prince) in the managing of that Heroick and unparalleld attempt (an Act which shall eter­nize your name) as also to exult and rejoyce with you for your unheard of deliverance after so dire a storm, provi­dence appointing so safe an Harbour, alotting you an Asy­lum or residence in such a metropolis, where, as you are honoured of all, so are you dearly beloved by our Brother the Monarch of France, and all the Princes of the blood, your Majesty (we doubt not) needs no Phylosophical Lecture of patience, or aequanimity, since you breath that [Page 2] virilem sapientiam stoicorum (which Seneca doth so much ex­tol) that masculine and heroick bravery of the Stoicks, whereby they did put of man, and tread above the stage of humane chance.

It is a High-way saying, that we are Architects of our own fortune; but fortune cannot be wrought or fram'd without the tools of vertue, and so it becomes a Statute of vertue, which was carv'd for the statute of fortune: yet it is true, that though we be not Authours of of its entity, yet we are of its quality, and the present power now Dia­meter to your Majesty, may perceive how fickle the blind Goddess may be, by your late invading them, when they least doubted such an Inroad; and had you but given them one blowe, those that sung Hosanna before, would soon have tuned their Pipes to a Crucifixion. If every man have his fortune, and every fortune its wheel, how can we com­plain that our wheel descends, since one part of the wheel doth not descend so much one way, but it ascends another way, those men only complain of fortune, who have their soules so tack'd to their bodies, that when one falls and precipitates, the other doth so too; but those who pos­sess one part of the wheel with their soules, and another part with their bodies, do wish alwayes the adverse or contrary part of the wheel, and if they have it not, they make it so, because the one part mounts towards Heaven, when the other hurries down towards Hell. But your Ma­jesty may (perhaps) say, you have lost your Kingdoms; you have not left them, but surrendred them, they are the favours of fortune, what other goodness have they in them but what he stamps that doth enjoy them? Dignity is like a purple Attyre, which doth embellish dirt, because it hides the ugliness of it; but disgraceth Gold, because it hides [Page 3]the splendor of it, every thing is bright where the Sun shi­neth; but a Carbuncle if it glitter and sparkle, must be placed in the dark, it must be removed out of another light if you would see its own vertue, desire to be naked, dis­poiled of Dignities, and sequestred from Wealth: you are come down from the Hill, not thrown down from thence: Men are not therefore nearer Heaven, because they are ad­vanced above us; he that is sometimes nearest unto it, sees it least; he that stands on the top of a Mountain sees no­thing else but the Sun, whereas he that is in the bottom of a Well, can thence number the Starres: Also you may (perhaps) be agrieved that your Kingdoms are taken from you, with as much violence as your Fathers Head was ta­ken off; but your Majesty may please to consider that na­ture which hath planted in Man that most ardent desire o Command would have shewed her self an envious Mother, if she had not also given something to command: There is no Man but hath a Kingdom within himself, and he is not worthy to be a King over others, that is not first a King o­ver himself; rejoyce that you are a Monarch over your own affections, to see your passions so good Subjects: this Harmony brings you to hear that of the sphears, and to contemplate that of God himself; and in this most de­lightful Symmetry, you shall taste that peace and tranqui­lity of mind which was by ancient Sages reputed the feli­city of the blessed; if you may not come in place to right the oppressed, yet you may procure it to be done, and though you have not to relieve your friends, yet you have whereby to pitty them: is not this body of Clay enough to presse down the soul, unless we clog it also with the weight of Kingdoms and Provinces? the greatest of Dig­nities is a circumstance that doth alwayes add weight to [Page 4]our faults: it is very true, that the transition from a place of eminent Command, unto a private life, is not easily concocted, except only by those who do not change their intellect by changing their condi­tion: the changing of a mans condition is the death of one man, and the Generation of another; all E­states and conditions of men in the world are equal, the felicities of this world are not in things them­selves, they subsist in opinion only, and become great or small, according as they are apprehended, and they have the greatest share of them that be­lieve they have it. Soveraignty is like a Mountain which seems to the Subjects (who are at the feet of it) with his towring head to touch the Skies; but to those that are at the top, it seems with its basis to reach Hell.

Divine providence by an inscrutable de­cree, by a most strange Revolution, hath mutated the English Nation (your Fa­thers Subjects in times past, and over whom you claim a power) from a Monarchical to a popular Estate, your Majesty hath ex­perience (I hope) that this change hath [Page 5]not hapned by Fate or Fortune, but by Gods immediate decree; nor is this more then hath hapned in all Ages to Bodies po­litick, of a far vaster size then that of Great Brittain, viz. to the Medes, Persians, and Romans, &c. those democratical demi-Gods that now sit at Helm, and steere their Argosie of England, Scotland, and Ireland, think themselves obliged to accept of that which divine providence (I shall not determine why) not only hath offered, but thrust upon them, pleading the same Right which William the Norman first laid claim to, and his Posterity after him; your Ma­jesties best revenge will be to wait on the will of Heaven, who in his own time will [...] (for ought we know) all back again to [...] form: the wisdom of this Age [...] the folly of the next; however for [...] shall ever endeavour all we may, [Page 6]though with the hazzard of our life (should the whole Universe beside, conspire against your Majesty) to make the World sensi­ble that we are