5 Better lawes and a happier constitution of government no nation ever enioy'd, it being a mixture of monarchy, aristocratie, and · democracy, with suflkieut fences against the pest of every one of those formes, tiranny, faction, and confusion; yett is it nott possible for man to devizc such iust and excellent bounds, as will keepe in wild amb ition, when prince's flatterers encou rage that beast to breake his fence, which it hath often done, with miserable consequences both to the prince and people: but could never in any age so t!'ead downe popular liberty, but that it rose againe with renewed vigor, till at length it trod on those that trampled it before. And in the iust bounds wherein our kings were so well hcdg'd in, the surround-. ing princes have with terrol' sene the reproofe of their usurpations over thei r free brethren, whom they rule rather as slaves then subiects, and are only serv'd for fcare, but not for love; whereas this people have ever bene as afectionate to good as unpliable to bad soveraigncs. Nor is it only vallour and generosity that renowne this nation; in arts wee have advanc'd equall to our neighbors, and in those that are most excel lent, exceeded them. The world bath not yielded men more famous in navigation, nor ships better built or furnisht. Agricul ture is as ingeniously practis'd: the English archery were the terror of Ciui;tenrlome, and their clothf's the ornament: but these low things bounded not their greate spiritts, in all ages it bath yielded men as famous in all kinds of lea rning, as Greece or Ita!y can boast of. And to compl eate the crowne of all their glorie, reflected from the lustre of their ingt~nuity, vallour, witt, learning, iustice, wealth, aod bounty, their pielie and devotion to God, and his worship, hath made them one of the most truly noble nations in the Christian world. God baYing as it were enclosed a people here, out of the wast common of the world, to serve him with a pure and undefiled worship. Lncius the Bri ttish king was one of the first monarchs. of
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