solicitude of the Common wealth then either age or sickness untimely for us but timely for himself in height of all his fortunes and prosperities having never known misfortune nor adversity After he had refus'd the Crown and acquird more glory by 't then ever any did by accepting it in which as in all his other Actions he might well be compar'd to Caesar both alike fortunate and victorious in war both prudent alike in ordering the Civil Government as many prodigies devancing tons as to theirs death onely their ends were different Caesar dying a violent death he a natural Caesar satiate with living he desirous onely to prolong his life untill he had finished the great work he had in hand extending in manner beyond death it self his care and solicitude of the publique good Caesar finally leaving the Commonwealth all imbroyl'd in Civil wars through multiplicity of Competitors to the Government he to prevent it leaving the Government to his Son out of the way of all competition for who else could he have left it to but some ambitious or other might strait have start up and said And why not I as well as he now 't is answer sufficient to say He is his Son so are not you and sufficient to say of him that he is the worthy Son of such a Father and more worthy the Government the lesse he sought and courted it One capable of all the honours of peace and war born with the seeds in him both of civil and military Government as time and occasion will soon produce to light for that only 't is and the office which shews the man and many had never been thought so fit for Government had they never governed For example who would ever have imagined our Henry the fifth who seem'd only to mind his pleasures all his youth would afterwards have prov'd so brave a man yet we see how great a Souldier he became and how occasion was rather wanting unto him then he unto occasion during his Fathers life Or that Spinola coming from a City that had more commence with gold then steel should the first day of his going to Field become an accomplisht General and ever afterwards one of the renownedst Souldiers of his Age To say nothing of Card. Mazzarin nor his predecessor Card. Richelieu both superintendants of the Arms of France both by their diligence gaining more victories then their greatest Generals with all their experience A man of courage as easily becomes a Souldier as a wise man a Politique and 't is not the man but the Country makes the war and rather the Treasurer then General let them not be wanting to supply the Armies wants and they 'l nere be wanting to bring them home victories And this in vindication of his Fathers leaving him the Government which yet was rather others seeking then his own and rather his obedience then command putting no natural affection in the scale in weighing the interest of the Commonwealth and so far from partial for any interest of his own as we may well say of him nature it self was not more natural to him then his affection to the publick good Neither did he this without the example of other elective States the Polander still continuing the Government in the house of Iagalonii the Germans in that of Austria and Hollander in the Family of Nassan though no less jealous of their liberties then we of ours wisely imagining a certain Omen in that name as we may well in that of Cromwel to preserve that Liberty which it had purchast them they well foreseeing the harms and mischiefs still follow all changes of Families when new Officers and new Houses are introduc't new interests new factions to the destruction of the old new humors to comply with new Avarices to satisfie so as if the people but rightly understood how dangerous and pernicious all change and alteration is to States they would not change although 't were offred them to be well if they were but tolerably ill nor to be better if they were well To conclude with his Character he was of stature rather well set then tall strong and robustous of constitution of visage Leonin the true phisiognomy all great and martial men yet as much Lamb in the Chamber as Lion in the Field courteous affable and obliging to all nor can any Records shew a better Child unto his Parents Parent to his Children nor Husband to his Wife and no less a Friend to all but those who would needes make themselves his Enemies Bounteous of himself but frugal for the Commonwealth avoiding all superfluity in a State where superfluity is counted manificence living in the condition of a Prince with the moderation of a private man and free from all vice even in an Age when he is counted a good Prince who is not altogether vitious These were his vertues when living and who would find any fault with him now he 's dead assuredly shall find no other when th 'ave sought all they can but only his leaving so many ill tongues in England which yet he could not remedy leaving them the liberty as he did of free born English men Thus have we brought his life in its Idea all under one prospect of the eye and by brief glimpses reflexions given light to see how great a person he was no humain body being scarcely capable of a greater soul how fortune and vertue never more concur'd to the advancement of a man how never any past to the temple of honor by more directer ways through that of his own vertue and Heroick deeds how much he merited of England by his serving conserving it in its most dangerous times finally how both at home and abroad he was the honour of our Nation wherefore our Nation should be most unworthy and ungrateful should it not always honour him FINIS OF HIS BIRTH PARENTAGE OF HIS EDUCATION OF HIS PRIVATE FORTUNES OF HIS MARIAGE OF HIS BEING CHOSEN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT HOW HE BETOOK HIMSELFE TO THE MILITIAE HOW HE WAS CAPTAIN FIRST HOW HE WAS MADE COLONEL HOW HE WAS MADE LIEVTENANT GENERAL OF THE ARMY Amat victoria curam THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER HOW HE WAS MADE GENERAL OF HIS ACTIONS WHILST HE WAS GENERAâ— OF THE DISSOLVING THE PARLIAMENT HOW HE WAS MADE PROTECTOR OF THE HOLLAND WAR OF THE SPANISH WAR OF THE CONSPIRACIES AGAINST HIM OF THE CONSPIRACIES AGAINST HIS GOVERNMENT THE REASON WHY PRINCES ARE NOT BELOV'D OF REFORMATION OF HIS CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE COMMON PEOPLE OF HIS DEATH HIS CHARACTER THE CONCLUSION
land without culture but barren infructuous the force vertue of Education being such as man who is a mixt creature of Angel and Beast may be exalted by Education to the Nobility of the one or deprest to the ignobility of the other for want of it It follows we speak of his Education next He was bred a Schollar in the University where during his youth he gave the first Essay of that Admirable vivacity of spirit profoundnesse of judgment and indefatigable industry which afterwards inform'd all the Actions of his life Learning is as 't were another soul animating our minds just as our souls do our bodies It is a second Nobility purifying the minde as Nobility does the blood 'T is the only purge of vice ignorance without wch none are wise nor vertuous but by chance and of all knowledges the most excellent as teaching us the knowledge of all other things But ne quid nimis is the motto of a Gentleman whom it becomes to know every thing but make a Trade of nothing Whence 't is as great an errour never to apply them to Learning as alwayes to apply the 〈◊〉 to 't The University is a nobâ—â—Seminary where young plants receive their first growth and nurriture but they must be transplanted ere they produce their fruit It is an excellent seasoning of youth but as in vain we season vessels unless we infuse some better and more profâ—table liquors into them afterwards so 't were an idle action to imbue youth with Letters unless they afterwards receive the Tincture of some better and more profitable Literature and pass from studying books to study men Letters are but like pastimes the business of youth but the idleness of Age and application to books as barren and infructuous in those who learn only to learn as idle Gallants application to their Mistresses who make Love only to make Love This wisely considered he made them his business and apply'd himself no longer to them then till he had attained to riper years When he retir'd home from the University just as men do from plenteous feasts the better to digest the nourishment they have receiv'd before they apply them selves to action when he soon declared by the effect that as there is none more unfit for action then a crude Schollar so there is none fitter then a well digested one But fortune or better providence was long in providing that Action they intended to imploy him in Nor is it probable they had provided it so soon had they not found so fit an Agent to be imployed Mean time for his private Fortunes they were but justly competent and suitable to what the Royal Prophet prayed for when he said Divitias nec paupertatem dederis mihi Give me neither too great riches nor poverty but only a mediocritie betwixt both most consistant with vertue and where vertue doth most consist too great Riches but exalting a mind too much as too great Poverty but too much depresses it T' on blunting the edge of wit and industry tother by its hardship whetting it quite away But as too strait and narrow minds miserably contract themselves within their Fortunes as too vast and large as far dilate themselves beyond it So his minde was too great and high to be contain'd within the narrow limits of his Estate but it was still breaking forth till the same Fortune or better providence provided him with an Estate at last proportionable to the greatness of his minde when he might well glory that he had learnt that Art which the Apostle glories in so much Scio abundare penuriam pati to know both how to want to abound The wise wisely accompting those miserablest of all who never knew what belongd to misery During this Time he married into an honourable Family and had hopeful and numerous issue by his Wife And now fortune began to dispose him for Regiment the Government of a Family having a certain Analogy with the Government of a Common-wealth and now she began to make him a member of that body of which he was afterwards to be the Head The unmarried are no more members of a Commonwealth then our accidental parts are members of our bodies they are but Lay-worldlings only the married take orders in the world and who have Wife and children give pledges to their Country of their fidelity whilst it hath no security of the rest With good reason then the Romans gave Ius trium Liberorum or particular honors and priviledges to those who were married had children esteeming them only born for the Commonwealth whilst the others seem'd only born unto themselves and accounting the married only Citizens whilst those who lived in wild Celebat were but as strangers and passengers in the world In all which capacities and relations of Father good Patriot and member of the Commonwealth he lookt upon himself and shortly after was lookt upon by his Country when in one of the celebrous 't Elections of the Land he was chosen member of Parliament a place of highest trust and confidence only in regard of his great abilities of minde whilst many of greater Fortunes stood for the Election and were refused 'T is a great happiness for the Commonwealth when men of publick spirits are imploy'd in publick businesses Those who are of any particular faction interest or opinion indeavouring still to draw all to the same interest faction and opinion with themselves Whence consequently the Kingdom becomes miserably torn and dismemberd And you know who sayes Omne Regnum in se divisum desolabitur Every Kingdom divided in it self shall be destroy'd So important and necessary for the conserving a State intire is the concord and unity of its parts among themselves In this Parliament that fire at length burst forth which had been long secretly a kindling and now was as impossible to be quencht as that of Rome was in former times when those who should have quencht it were the chief Incenters of the Flame and now they concur'd on all hands to that fatal division which wholly separated King and Parliament when he as a member of the House took part with that body of which he was a member What other motives he had of siding with the Parliament I know not Whether he counted it more Noble and Generous to take part with the weaker side and more charitable to assist those he imagin'd most opprest or 't was purely his piety and godliness the publique sins of tother side in outward shew at least appearing more great and numerous then those of theirs and qui putant se obsequium praestare Deo who imagine they fight for God never scruple to fight against their King However it had been happy for the King had he fill'd his Court rather with such men as he neither hopes could perswade to the deserting of their side nor fear of danger nor death it self affright then with such as most
of his Courtiers were men who durst hazard nothing for an honest cause who at first sight of danger compounded with it perswaded by their fears and rather then venture their lives betrayed their honesties verifying that vulgar saying that he who is not valiant can never be an honest man But 't is their common Fates and Errors to imploy none but such who thrust themselves upon them commonly the unworthiest of all impudent forwardness only supplying the place of worth in them whilst the more worthy are neglected and unimployed only because they are modester then the rest This the late King dearly experien't who whilst he was abandon'd and betraid by those whom he most trusted oblig'd found many standing for him in time of need whom he had never oblig'd by any Favours but many more against him whom he had disoblig'd by his disfavouring them What other obligations or disobligations he had to either side I know not but this I know never any more oblig'd a Side nor better serv'd the Parliaments then he nor will I determine who took the better side but I 'm sure he took the more fortunate or made it so For speaking in the House he had a strong and masculine Eloquence more able to perswade more he was perswaded of what he said His Expressions hardy Opinions resolute Asseverations grave and vehement his Sentences weighty alwaies intermixt with sentences of Scripture to give them the greater weight with which he so governd swayd the House as he had alwayes the leading voice compar'd to which the following ones were only as cyphers in comparison of numbers Those who finde no such wonders in his Speeches may finde it in the effect I have read speeches that have workt strange effects and you would wonder at their plainness whilst others you would wonder at their eloquence have produc't no effect at all 'T is not the spirit of the thing that 's spoke that gives it its force and energy but of him who speaks it as 't is not the sword but arm gives force unto the blow The people were enemies to book-learning and whosoever should endeavour with an Eloquent Oration to reconcile them and make them friends should make them their enemies too And they were great Adorers of the Scripture phrase which mâ—de him usurp it so frequently as he did Mean time Cicero nor Demosthenes with all their Tropes and Figures could never have so perswaded and mov'd the people as he with one Text of Scripture aptly apply'd to purpose of what he said But talking in time of Action being but an inferiour kind of maintaining a side he who alwayes aspir'd to the most sublime the Wars once declared soon quitted the House and betook him to the Field to manifest his courage as well as eloquence and maintain by deeds what by words he had perswaded them Neither shewd he his courage more then wisedome in 't for though the reward of those who guard the camp be equal unto theirs who fight i' th field yet the honour is not so which usually followes the greatest danger neither is that followd with Envy as tothers is Men imagining that Honour we venture for in the field with hazard of our lives bought at the highest price whilst those who purchase it without danger at home have it at too cheap a rate Besides 't is an Authority of a higher kind the comanding in the Field then voting in the House and begets far other spirits and greater thoughts These only imagining they command both Army and General when in effect the General who commands the Army commands both it and them and they finde at last that they give but iron to make shackles for their feet whosoever gives weapons to arm the soldiers hands This your Polititians men wiser then the Truth who are all Linxes looking into passed times and moles looking into the future would have him to have foreseen from the beginning never considering how all things in this world being in perpetual revolution t is impossible from the beginning to see the end of things besides that which is ones end is but anothers meanes to the attaining his Onely there are certain periods of things and who has the carrying of them on when they are next that period is alwayes accounted most happy and fortunate But to declare how he pass'd through all degrees of the Militiae Resolv'd to build his Fortunes on the Wars he would not raise the building without foundation nor make himself Colonel without being Soldier first as many did and consequently in short time their honors in the warres fell to all ground but the higher he intended to raise the Edifice the deeper he diggd for the foundation beginning not only with simple Captain but to perfect his experiences descending even to the duty and condition of common soldier none lodging nor faring harder nor going plainer nor meaner clad then he indefatigable in labour exemplar in discipline humble and obedient to command first on all occasions of exercising his valour yet valiant not rash the Army being no place for single bravery farther then the bravery of one might encourage all the rest By this means gaining the love and affections of all whilst he yielded to none in doing praise-worthy things but unto all the praise of doing them whilst he was modest and patient and sought not the meanest honours nor preferments he was esteem'd by all worthy of the highest ones These were his Arts whilst under Officer till advanc't higher unto Colonel he differd in nothing from private Captain still but only in his greater care and diligence and greater occasions he had to serve the side which in short time conceav'd that opinion of him as it believd it could be servd by none better then by him When never any occasion there was but He and his Regiment were commanded forth whilst managing all those occasions to the greatest advantage of his Honour he alwayes perform'd his Actions in the publique eye of all whence he had alwayes the publique approbation of all he did for want of which many brave Actions had been lost For painted battels in nothing more resemble real ones then that in either a few heads appear the rest darkly shadowed and undistinguished remain undiscern'd in the confused crowd The Fame of his Actions arriving at the House they imagined they could not goe less in recompencing them then first to bestow on him the Generalship of the Horse and afterwards the Lieutenant-Generalship of all the Militiae This only encourag'd him to do more bravely not to go more bravely as it would have many others Honours in this resembling Viands that as one is the aliment of the body so the other is of gallant minds rendring them still more active and vigorous And as t' on in sickly bodies turnes only to diseases and crudities so tother in unworthy minds are converted only to pride vanity whilst to grow healthier and humbler