his Excellency all the Works from the Thames side to Islington Fort demolisht the eleven Members secur'd or given up and all the Reformados and Officers likewise who were ready to have fought for them This was as worthily by the Common Council yielded to their Ambassadors notably promoting it The eleven Members were not yet seiz'd nor deliver'd but as bad left to shift for themselves no care at all taken for their preservation tho the City had now this last time wholly embark'd in their trouble and engag'd them in their business petitioning the House of Commons to enjoin them to attend the Service of the House themselves not at all moving in or desiring it Nay they did not so much as provide for Major General Massey whom they had made their Commander in chief but like Isachar bow'd under the Burden betray'd themselves and all that had to do with them 159. Here was an end of the Parliament and in truth of the Câ—â—y all whose Glory is laid in the â—ust and as it was high before in reputation both at home and abroad so is it now become a hissing and reproach to all that see it or hear of it The next day Sir Thomas Fairfax sends to take possession and the day after that marches in state bringing with him those deserting Lords and Commons and the Earl of Manchester and Mr. Lenthal the two pretended Speakers not vouchsafing to look upon the Lord Mayor and Aldermen who were there with the Recorder provided with a Speech for his entertainment which he did not so well deserve as they did that scorn then put upon them 160. He goes strait to the Houses put those two Men in the Speakers places who had no more right to them than himself and has ever since continu'd them there by force and keeping out the true Speakers which the Lord Willoughby is to the Peers that House being under an adjournment and not sitting when the Intruder came in so not in a capacity to admit him and Mr. Pelham to the Commons who had been legally chosen when the House was free and under no force the other having deserted which is of all Crimes the greatest 161. So as without him it is no House but an Assembly of Men acting under the Army without lawful authority some of them by a combination and agreement with the Army but far the greater part by a terror and an awe from it and therefore to be look'd upon accordingly and questionless many of them continuing there out of a good intent like so many Hushais only to defeat the pernicious Counsels of those Achitophels who had design'd the destruction of David the ruin of honest Men and even the trouble and confusion of the whole Israel of God Church and State These are so far from deserving thereby either to become the object of blame or pardon as they merit exceedingly are worthy the praise both of present and future times but to be consider'd rather as faithful Patriots that act out of necessity in an extraordinary way stand in the Gap to keep off mischief than as Members of Parliament able or indeed qualify'd to exercise any parliamentary Power for the good of the Kingdom the House having been disturb'd and for the time suppress'd by a real Force not feign'd and imaginary as the other was and while this force continues not suffer'd to come together but as soon as it ceases will return of it self to be as it was before 162. For there is a difference between these two Cases one the Parliaments acting under a force remaining still to be a Parliament which dos not annual it nor the Acts it dos but makes them fit to be repeal'd yet standing good pro tempore 163. Many of our best Laws have been so made when Armies have been on foot and afterwards declar'd good in a free Parliament and what then done did appear to be inconvenient and unjust was by subsequent Parliaments repeal'd So is it fit that what was compel'd to be done by the Apprentices and others in that tumultuous way the Monday that the force was should be repeal'd as not fit to be continu'd And so all that has been done a great while under the power and force of the Army since it first rebel'd and gave Laws to the Parliament is as fit if not more to be hereafter repeal'd and questionless will if ever the Parliament come to be free again Nay even these pretenders do us that right as finding the proceedings of the Parliament after their desertion not sutable to their Ends but against them by an Ordinance to repeal and declare them null which otherwise had not been needful seeing they would fall of themselves being Crimes in their own nature as proceeding from an usurp'd Authority This is one case the other is when a force proceeds so far and so high as not to suffer a Parliament to be gives it such a wound as for the time it cannot act but must cease even as a wounded Body that lies in a Trance without sense or motion But when that force is over and the Spirits recollected it returns to it self to do the functions of life move and act as formerly It is but like a Parenthesis in a Sentence and remains one and the same as if the Parenthesis were not at all 164. But to return where I left This General a setter up and puller down of Parliaments has a Chair set him in either House where first in the Lords House then in the Commons those pretended Speakers make Speeches to him giving him thanks for all approving his Declaration of the Reasons of his coming to London desiring him to go on in taking care for the security of the Kingdom and to appoint a Guard for the Parliament Than which there was never any thing more base but Mr. Lenthal exceeded being both base and prophane applying a Higgaior Selah to this last act of his Excellency who as wisely took it Then that the prophaness might be compleat and God mock'd as well as Men abus'd they appoint the Thursday after for a day of Thanksgiving and fitted it with Preachers Mr. Marshal and Mr. Nye Simeon and Levi where they say Marshal outwent all that had gone before him and his Brother Nye was a modest Presbyterian in comparison of him but that Apostate went beyond Ela making this deliverance a greater one than the Gunpowder Treason as I have been credibly inform'd by those that heard him And some few days after Sir Thomas Fairfax and the whole Army marcht in triumph with Lawrel in their Hats as Conquerors through the subdu'd City of London to shew it was at his mercy which was an airy vanity I confess above my understanding and might have rais'd a spirit of Indignation not so easily to have been laid But a higher insolency of an Army compos'd of so mean people and a more patient humble submission and bearing of a great and populous City but a little before so
in his room The Self-denying Ordinance was a trick for this purpose In the begining of these troubles Sir William Lewis not agreeing with their Palate being Governour of Portsmouth they make the Earl of Essex who was then General send for him upon a supposition that he was a favourer of Malignants and of many other things which being examin'd by the Committee of Safety he gave so good an account of himself as the Committee could not do less than write a Letter in his justification to the General leaving it to him to repair him as he thought fit Then some of these honest Men who themselves had subscrib'd to it sent a Letter privately to my Lord of Essex by which they advis'd his not sending him back to Portsmouth which jugling of theirs he receiv'd with indignation and wish'd Sir William Lewis to return to his Command but he seeing what Men he had to deal with quitted the Employment and to say the truth he only can be happy who has nothing to do with them except it be in punishing them according to their demerits 173. They have now they think both Houses to their minds ready to do whatsoever they please Accordingly the House of Commons orders those of the eleven Members who were beyond Sea upon their Passes which gave them liberty of travelling six Months to appear the 16 th of October taking no course to have them summon'd only notice to be given at their Houses or places of their last abode where few of us had any Servants my self only an old Porter and a Maid or two 174. Then they go on to the publick business such work as the Army had cut out for them Which were certain Proposals that Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Council of War had sent them the 1 st of August sign'd by Iohn Rushworth Secretary now far above Iohn Brown and Henry Elsing In these they 〈◊〉 down a new platform of Government an Vtopia of their own take upon them to alter all give Rules to all cajole the King claw with the people cheat both never intending good to either The reading of the Articles themselves which are in print will satisfie every body they need no Comment and are so many and of so vast a comprehension as to treat of them all to shew the absurdities contradictions impossibilities unreasonableness which many of them contain would swell this to too big a Volume I will only speak to some few and shew how they dissolve the whole frame of this Monarchy taking a sunder every part pulling out every pin and new making it First The constitutions and proceedings of Parliaments projecting new things for their beginnings continuances and endings for the elections of Members privileges and customs of the Houses which they had violated before de facto but now must be alter'd de jure The Militia of the Kingdom where they will have a General appointed to command it Pay setled to maintain it a Council of State to superintend it which signifies to establish by Act of Parliament this holy Army the Council of War and General Cromwel Then matters of the Church where they will have no power exercis'd to preserve Religion and Piety they would have Bishops so they may be just Cyphers and all Acts to be repeal'd which hinder Men from being Atheists or Independents for no body must be enjoyn'd to come to the Church and there may be Meetings to practise any thing of superstition and folly the Covenant must be laid aside In sum it is to take away all Government and set up Independency They propose a new way for making grand Jury-men Justices of Peace and Sheriffs When these and many other things which they mention are settled which will take up time enough then the King Queen and Royal Issue to be restor'd which is as much as just nothing Next they make the people believe they do as great matters for them will have a liberty of petitioning which is but to make way for schismatical seditious Petitions for if any Petition stick at their Diana none so fierce to punish Who more than they against all the Petitions from London and the Counties for disbanding of the Army and complaining of their factious ways how eager were they against the Petitions promoted in the City in the beginning for which Benion was fined and many troubled and some Petitions out of Kent for which some Gentlemen were committed How barbarously did they fall upon some poor women which came one time to Westminster petitioning for Peace commanding a Troop of Horse to run over them the Train'd Bands to shoot at them whereby many were wounded and some kill'd Yet the world must think they will have it free for all to petition Then they will have the Excise taken off from some Commodities whereon the poor people live and a time limited for taking off the whole which was but to please and amuse them till they had got the mastery of those who they thought stood in their way but being Masters themselves they soon sent out a Command more now than any Proclamation or Ordinance to forbid all Soldiers any way to interrupt the levying of the Excise orany other Tax charg'd by the Parliament which they had made merely instrumental to poll the people for the support of them and their Faction They will have no Tythes to be paid and so Ministers to be starv'd for in truth they would have no Ministers at all or rather no Ministery like Iulian the Apostate take away presbyterium not presbyteros for Ministers that will be subservient to them like Mr. Marshal shall be much made of The rules and course of Law must be reduc'd indeed they will need no Law for they will rule by the Sword and the Councils of War shall supply all Courts of Justice Prisoners for debt if they have not wherewith to pay must be freed so we may be sure few debts shall be satisfy'd for it is an easie thing so to convey or conceal an Estate as nothing visible will be left for doing right to Creditors None must be compell'd to answer to questions tending to the accusing themselves or their nearest Relations in criminal Causes witness their Orders to make men under great Penalties state their Case in no less matter than Treason therefore this is understood to extend only to the privilege of their own Faction We must alter all Statutes and Customs of Corporations and of imposing Oaths which may be constru'd to the molestation of religious people that is Independents for all others are Greeks and Barbarians Yet these men in how many Letters and Declarations do they say and protest they have no thought of setting up Independency nor to meddle with any thing but what concerns the Soldiery and leave all the rest to the wisdom of the Parliament Indeed they conclude their Proposals with what concerns the Soldiery That provision may be made for payment of Arrears to the Army and the
Army and other places against these proceedings act their parts so to the life as the Life of a Man must go to make up the disguise an Agitator whom at a Council of War with two more they condemned was shot to death so as the King could not but have a great confidence in these Men to believe that they were really for his preservation At last Cromwel writes a Letter to Whalley who commands the Guards about his Majesty's Person to be shewn his Majesty and other informations are likewise brought him to make him believe that if he escap'd not presently he will be murder'd and he is advis'd to go to the Isle of Wight where they had beforehand provided him a Jaylor Colonel Hammond one for whom they said they could answer that there his Majesty would be in safety and they able to serve him 181. Here they have the King safe enough and now the Army is presently quiet the Agitators as obedient as Lambs and Councils of War are set up again to act as formerly And Sir Thomas Fairfax with their advice sets out a Remonstrance to give satisfaction to the Army which he concludes with a Protestation to adhere to conduct live and die with the Army in the prosecution of some things there express'd as namely To obtain a present provision for constant Pay stating of Accounts security for Arrears with an effectual and speedy course to raise Monies a period to be set to this Parliament provision for future Parliaments the certainty of their meeting sitting and ending the freedom and equality of Elections and other things which he had the impudence and boldness to publish in print 182. And now instead of the Proposals they intend to send the four Bills to his Majesty to sign which done they would treat with him By these Bills the Army was to be establish'd which was the English of that for the Militia and by another of them they would make sure that the countenance of the Parliament and the acting of the Army should never be separated which was the intent of that for power of adjourning So as if at any time the just sense of Indignation of so many Indignities and Injuries offer'd by the Army to all ranks of Men Magistrates both supreme and subordinate people of all conditions and degrees should stir them up to some endeavours of casting off this iron Yoke their Party in Parliament with their Speaker Mr. Lenthal's help should presently be ready to adjourn to the Army then damn and destroy all the world by colour of Law and power of the Sword so King and Kingdom must be subject to a perpetual slavery by Act of Parliament 183. The Scots were laid aside in this Address to his Majesty contrary to the Treaty and contrary to the Covenant By the Treaty there ought to have been no application for Peace but with their advice and consent here the Scots did not only not advise nor consent but protest against it By the Covenant all were bound to keep united firm and close one to another not to suffer themselves to be divided here these Men do divide from the whole Kingdom of Scotland make a rent and breach between the Kingdoms in settling of the Peace the very end both of Treaty and Covenant 184. And for that subterfuge that it is against the privilege of Parliament that any out of the Houses should interpose or have any thing to do with Bills it is a mere cavil Fig-leaves which cover not their nakedness for that would have been no more against Privilege than was the whole transaction of business in carrying on of the War and managing other great concernments of Parliament and Kingdom wherein the Scots all along were admitted to participate in Counsel and Interest 185. The King refusing to sign these Bills Hammond by Sir Thomas Fairfax's single order claps him up a Prisoner removes all his Servants It seems by this time they had forgot their Remonstrance of the 23 d of Iune where they say it is against their principles to imprison the King and that there can be no Peace without due consideration of his Majesty's Rights But then was then and now is now It was then necessary for the good of their Affairs to seem gracious desirous of Peace and of restoring the King Now they appear in their own colours their nature having no restraint nay Sir Thomas Fairfax's Command is so absolute and sacred as Captain Burley was hang'd for endeavouring to oppose it there being at that time no other pretence for his Majesty's Imprisonment but because Sir Thomas Fairfax had commanded it it is true that upon his signification to the Houses of what he had done it was approv'd of and confirm'd 186. All this while a rigorous hand is continu'd against the impeach'd Lords who were under the Black Rod the Gentlemen of the House of Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in the Tower who had been kept Prisoners so many Months upon a general Impeachment and no particular Charge against them It was often endeavour'd in the House to have pass'd the Articles which were brought in against the Lord Willoughby to be a leading Case to the rest Where I cannot pass by that I find he is charg'd with Treason for levying War against the King and this done by the same persons that imprison the King and had hang'd Burley for levying War for him One may see they will find matter to hang on all hands Many debates were had on this business and at last it was resolv'd to lay the Articles aside 187. The seven Lords still press'd for their Trial the House of Peers as often sent down to the House of Commons to give them notice of it and no Charge coming up they set them at liberty The Common Council likewise petition'd for the liberty of their Members in the Tower which the Army took so heinously as that and the laying aside of the Charge against the Lord Willoughby together with a Vote which had pass'd for disbanding the supernumerary Forces produce a thundring Remonstrance of December the 7 th casting in the Parliaments teeth their delays and neglects That the Army had with patience waited four Months upon them That finding such obstructions in matters of supply and such unworthy requital they apprehended God upbraids their care to preserve a people given up to their own destruction That they could to speak Amen with the power and advantages God had put into their hands for so is their expression have put the Army and other Forces engag'd with it into such a posture as to have assur'd themselves of Pay and made their opposers have follow'd them with offers of satisfaction That now all business seems to be wrapt up in one bare Vote That all supernumery Forces should be disbanded which Vote they say they cannot imagine to be absolute and soveraign They offer as their final advice that 40000 l. more per mensem be added to the 60000 l.
for that the King would be King still and would soon have had another Army tho they had gotten the better but if he had beaten them they had been utterly lost This served the turn for that time to cast a mist before the peoples eyes and stop their mouths Yet within very few Weeks after this worthy Knight forgot all he had said for it is by Cromwel laid as a Crime to the Earl of Manchester's Charge whom they then meant to lay aside that he was the cause they sought not with the King and Sir Arthur is a principal Witness to make it good But on the other side the Earl of Manchester returns the Bill charging Cromwel that it was his not obeying Orders who being commanded as Lieutenant General of the Horse to be ready at such a place by such an hour early in the Morning came not till the Afternoon and by many particulars makes it clear to have been only his fault 29. And to say the truth they could not else have carried on their Design of new modelling their Army of which then there had been no need and preventing a Peace which they feared might else have followed For if the King had been too sore prest at that time it was in their apprehensions probably he might have laid hold upon the Propositions for Peace which were then ready and sent to him to Oxford immediately after 30. Therefore now they set upon their great Work projected long before and which Cromwel had broken to my Lord of Manchester in the time of his greatness with him when he thought him to be one of their own that was to have an Army composed of those of the Independent Judgment to interpose if there were like to be a Peace only their Presumption and Impudence was swell'd to be so much higher as now they would have no other Army but of them Because they saw the danger was over there being no Enemy to take the Field against them but such an one as they had willingly set up and given time and means to get together so as there would be no great need of fighting that part having been acted by others for they were never good at it but excellent to assume the praise and reap the benefit when others had done the work 31. Therefore the whole force of the Kingdom must be theirs in the hands of their Creatures all the Noblemen and Gentlemen who had engaged in the beginning and born the heat of the day must be laid by all these gallant Officers who had done the Parliament the best Service indeed all must be cashier'd The Earl of Essex the Earl of Manchester Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Waller and the rest must be reduced cast by as old Almanacks in truth not fitted to their Meridian 32. For this Feat the Juggle of a Self-denying Ordinance is found out whereby it is ordained that no Member of either House shall bear any Office Martial or Civil which strikes them all out of Employment and Cromwel too but for him they will soon find a Starting-hole 33. Then there must be one body of an Army composed of so many thousand Horse and Foot out of the several Armies which were to be reduced as I remember some 20 or 21 thousand which number they have since doubled or trebled for the ease of the Kingdom the Officers to be named by the House and a Committee appointed under the specious name of a Committee of Reformation for this Work by which they tear in sunder all their Forces discontent all their best Officers and Soldiers utterly disjoynt the whole Frame of the Martial part of their Affairs and I dare say put the King's Party in greater hopes of being able to make it good by the Sword and less to apprehend the Consequence of not making a Peace at that time than the gaining of a Battel would have done nor in truth could it have any other Operation with rational Men. 24. So to work they go and find difficulties enough The Soldiers bore an affection to their old Officers which made them unwilling to be reduced Money there was not to give any reasonable satisfaction out of their Arrears to those who were to be cashier'd But a fortnights pay was ordered where many months were owing Yet such was the obedience of those Officers gallant Men old Soldiers most of them to the authority of Parliament so unlike to the late rebellious Carriage and Insolency of our new Model as shall be hereafter shewed that they submit to it are content to sit down themselves and which is more use their interest to perswade the Soldiers to a Conformity Some of the Horse who had served under my Lord of Essex were a little stiff and made some shew of standing out in Hertfordshire which our violent bloody new Modellers would have made advantage of presently to have faln on them and put them to the Sword but the Parliament followed more moderate Counsels endeavouring to gain them through fair means by sending down some of their old Officers to dispose them to a submission which employment they declined not but went and prevailed to which my Lord of Essex himself contributed very much an Example that this present young General Sir Thomas Fairfax would not follow when his Army was to be disbanded 35. Yet such was the wickedness and desperate madness of those Men who thirsted after nothing but blood mischief and confusion that at the very same time when the Parliament was going a gentle way Mr. St. Iohn the King's Solicitor one who I think has as much of the Blood of this Kingdom to answer for and has dipp'd as deep in all cunning pernicious Counsels as any one man alive wrote a Letter under-hand to the Committee of Hertfordshire which is yet extant that they should raise the Country and fall upon these men to put all into blood contrary to the desire and endeavour of the Parliament A Villany never to be forgotten nor forgiven in any man much less a Man of Law who should better know what price the Law sets upon the life of every Subject much more of many together and of a whole County which if he had been obeyed had run a great hazard 36. But I wonder not at this or any other such passage from him who could have the face to say in his Argument against my Lord of Strafford That some persons were not to have Law given them but be knockt on the head no matter how tho he knows it or should know it to be against the Laws both of God and Man that any should be put to death before a legal Conviction however he may have practised the contrary since the beginning of these unhappy troubles his composition being it seems like that Monster Emperor's Lutum Sanguine maceratum And to less than an Emperor I would not parallel him whose vast thoughts have carried him above King and Parliament to frame new mould alter and
destroy as he thinks good This mixture in his nature makes his actings so fierce and cruel I appeal to all who have seen and observ'd him this whole Parliament if on all occasions his Opinion did not still conclude in severiorem partem if he ever stopt where there was any way to it before he came to blood or to the destruction of Estate and Fortune But let him pass 37. To return to our business Those Soldiers were by these means perswaded and the new Army framed Colonels and other new Officers appointed and for a Commander in chief Sir Thomas Fairfax is found out one as Sir Arthur Haslerig said as if he had been hew'd out of the Block for them sit for their turns to do whatever they will have him without considering or being able to judg whether honourable or honest In the passing his Commission they made the first plain discovery of their Intentions concerning the Person of the King for with a great deal of violence and earnestness they prest it and carried it that the care of the preservation of his Person should be lest out and that this Army should go out in the name of the Parliament alone and not of King and Parliament as it was before under my Lord of Essex who otherwise would not have medled with it But this General made no Bones took it and thanked them resolved as it seems to do whatsoever those his Masters should bid him for I 'm sure he has at their command led his Army since against the Parliament which he seemed to adore above all things upon Earth 38. The next work was how again to get in my friend Cromwel for he was to have the power Sir Thomas Fairfax only the name of General he to be the Figure the other the Cypher This was so gross and diametrically against the letter of the Self-denying Ordinance that it put them to some trouble how to bring it about For this Cromwel's Soldiers forsooth must mutiny and say they will have their Cromwel or they will not stir Hereupon he must be sent down no word then of cutting or hewing or of forcing them to a submission as in the case of the Earl of Essex's Soldiers but they must have their wills Yet for these very men had Cromwel undertaken before when upon debate the inconveniency was objected which might follow by discontenting the common Soldiers who would hardly be drawn to leave their old Officers and go under new he could say that his Soldiers had learn'd to obey the Parliament to go or stay fight or lay by the Sword upon their command which I know prevail'd with a great many to give their Vote with that Ordinance 39. By this trick a little beginning was made towards the breach of it which was soon made greater For they caused a report to be spread That the King was bending with his Forces towards the Isle of Ely but none could save but Cromwel who must be sent in all haste for that Service and an Order of dispensation is made for a very few Months two or three I remember not well whâ—ther but with such protestations of that Party that this was only for that Exigency and that for the World they would not have the Ordinance impeached as Mr. Sollicitor said and that if no body would move for the calling him home at the expiration of that time he would But all this was to gull the House Mr. Sollicitor had forgot his Protestation and before that was out there is another Order for more Months and so renewed from time to time that at last this great Commander is riveted in the Army and so fast riveted as after all his Orders of continuance were at an end he would keep his Command still which he has done for several Months and dos yet notwithstanding that Ordinance without any Order at all of the House for it 40. There now they have the Sword where they would have it and resolve with it to cut all Knots they cannot untie yet they desire to keep that Resolution behind the Curtain as long as they could and would be thought very obedient to the Parliament hoping they should be always able to have it carried there according to their mind and partly by the awe of their Power partly by hopes of reward and advantage still to have the major Vote Which was easie for them having both Sword and Purse and withal an impudence and boldness to reward all those who would sell their Consciences For all such Members of the House and others were sure to be prefer'd have large Gifts given them out of the Commonwealth's Money Arrears paid Offices confer'd upon them countenanced and protected against all Complaints and Prosecutions had they done never so unworthy unjust horrid actions to the oppression of the Subject and dishonour of the Parliament All others discountenanc'd oppos'd inquisitions set upon them question'd imprison'd upon the least occasion colours of Crimes many times for doing real good Service and no favour nor justice for them Only that the World might see which was the way to rise and which to be sure to meet with contrary Winds and Storms and so to make all men at least to hold Candles to these visible Saints 41. But a Party in the House still troubled them which saw their Juglings their under hand dealings suspected their Designs found what they drove at and countermin'd them oppos'd them sometimes crost and defeated their Practices always vext them and did in a great measure divert and keep off Evil tho the stream was so strong they could not attain and effect the Good they desir'd 42. This knot must be broken and some of the persons removed who are represented to the Kingdom by these Men and their Agents as those who were rotten at heart not faithful to the Parliament holding correspondence and intelligence with the King This was upon Generals only to prepare Mens minds to make passage for an approbation of any attempts to their prejudice and give credit to such Lies and false Accusations as they should be able to set on foot and all means are us'd to procure Witnesses to testifie any thing against them Prisoners examin'd and encourag'd to say something any scandalous desperate Rogues receiv'd and hearken'd to Spies set to watch them their goings out and comings in what places they went to what persons they visited or that visited them Some of their Agents consest they have been two years together watching about some of our Houses yet it pleased God to protect the Innocent and notwithstanding all these endeavours it was never in their power to do any great mischief in this base unworthy way 43. They came nearest to their Mark when they had gotten the Lord Savil a known infamous Impostor to accuse me with keeping correspondence with my Lord Digby of which he said he had notice given him by a Letter in Cypher from the Dutchess of Buckingham and for what I did and