Chap. V. Ve H I STORY ofthe PURITANS. 607 were (}ruck with defpair, and concluded very juftly that magna charta K. Charles I. and the oldengli(h confitution were at an end. 1637 Let the reader now recoiled himfelf, and then judge of the candour of L. CCllaren- the noble hiftorian, who notwithftanding the cruel perfecutions and op- don's repre- prefïions already mentioned, celebrates the felicityof thefe times in the fol- Inrarsn of lowing words : " Now after all this I muff be fo juft as to fay, that from v, i es. " the diffolution of the parliament in the fourth year of the king, to the p. 74, 76. " beginning of the long parliament, which was about twelve years, this " kingdom and all his majefty's dominions, enjoyed the greateft calm, and the fulleft meafitre of felicity that any people, in any age, for fo .r long time together have been bleffed with, to the wonder and envyof " all other partsof chriftendom the court was in great plenty, or ra c` ther excels and luxury ; the country rich and full, enjoying the plea- " Pure of its own wealth; the church flourifhed with learned and extra.. " ordinary men ; and the proteflant religion was more advanced againft " the church of Rome by the writings of archbi(hop Laud and Chilling- " worth, than it had been fence the reformation - -Trade encreafed to that degree, that we were the exchange of chriftendom -- Foreign. "merchants looking upon nothing fo much their own, as what they had " laid up in the warehoufes of this kingdom--The reputation of the °` greatnefs and power of the king with foreign princes was much more " than any of his progenitors. And laflly, for a complement of all thefe " bleffings, they wereenjoyed under the proteétion of a king of the moft harmlefs difpoftion, the moft exemplary piety, and the greateft fo- c' briety, chaftity, and mercy, that any prince had been endowed with, " and who might have Paid that which Pericles was proud of upon his t` death-bed, concerning his citizens, That no Englifh man had worn a °` mourning gown through his occa/ion. In a word, many wife men thought " it a time wherein thole. two adjuncts, imperium and libertas were as well " reconciled as poffible." Not a line of this panegyrick will bear examination. When his lord- Remarks. fhip fays, That no people in any age had been bleedwithfo great a calm, and filch afull meafure o ffelicity forfo long a time together [twelve years], he feems to have undervalued the long and pacifck reign of his majeffy's royal father king fames, whowas diffinguifhed by the title of BLESSED. But where was the liberty or fafety of the fubject, when magna charta and the petition ofright, which the king had figned in full parliament, were fwallowed up in the gulph of arbitrary power? and the ffatute laws of the land were exchanged for a ruleofgovernment depending upon the fovereign will and pleafure of the crown ? If the court was in excefs and luxury, it was with the plunder of the people, arifing from loans, bene- volences, (hip-money, monopolies, and other illegal taxes on merchan- doze.
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