Faction of the Two Houses Publish'd a Protestation which was but a Gentle slip into the Prerogative Royal to try their Interest and by degrees to inure the People to their intended and succeeding Usurpations Some four or five days after were signed those Two Fatal Bills for the Death of the Earl of Strafford and the Perpetuity of the Parliament And having now gain'd leave to sit as long as they please they have little futther to ask but that they may likewise do what they list Where Loyalty was made a Crime 't was fit Rebellion should pass for a Vertue Upon which suitable equity the Scots were Justified and Voted our Dear Brethren 300000 l. in Iune 1641 and Six-score thousand more in August following and so we Parted In this Perplexity of Affairs the King takes a Journey into Scotland it possible to secure an Interest there but the Conspiracy was gone too far to be composed by Gentleness Upon his Majesties Departure the Houses Adjourn and during the Recess appoint a standing Committee and They forsooth must have a Guard for fear of their own Shadows In which Interval of the King's Absence the Usurpers lost no time as appear'd by their readiness to Entertain him at his Return When the first Present they made his Majesty was the Petition and Remonstrance of December 15 which I cannot think upon but that Text comes into my mind of Mark 15.18 Hail King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spate upon him and bowed the head and did him reverence This Impious Libel was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the King's Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettors of these and other the like Indignities and Proclamation was accordingly made for the Apprehending of them which very Proclamation was declared to be a Paper False scandalous and Illegal After this Language what had they more to do but by Armed Violence to invade the Soveraignty and to improve a loose and popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastned to even beside the Terms of Ordinary Prudence to implunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulf into which their Sin and Folly was about to lead them To keep their Zeal and Fury waking the Faction had a singular Faculty at Inventing of Plots Counterfeiting Letters Intercepting Messages Over-hearing Conspiracies Which Artificial Delusions especially asserted by the pretended Authority of a Parliament and a Pulpit could not but work strong Effects of Scruple and Iealousie upon a pre-judging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd that Power which afterward they Employed in Opposition to those very ends for which they sware they Rais'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'l slip the War and see in the next place what Government they Gave us in Exchange for That they had Subverted CAP. V. A short View of the Breaches and Confusions betwixt the Two Factions from 1648 to 1654. IT cannot be expected that a Power acquir'd by Blood and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only Vnited against Iustice and at perpetual Variance with it self I say it cannot be expected that such a Power as this should be Immortal Yet is it not enough barely to argue the Fatality of Wickedness from the Certainty of Divine Vengeance and There to stop Vsurpers are not rais'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follies they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuity of their own Counsels down they Tumble Wherefore let us enquire into the Springs and Reasons of their Fortunes and Falls as well as Gaze upon the Issues of them A timely search into the Grounds of one Rebellion may prevent another How the Religious Opposers of the late King advanced themselves against his Sacred Authority we have already shew'd be it our business here to Observe their workings one upon the other To begin with Them that began with Vs The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterwards to Establish Themselves by using Pregogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect an Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation than to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretence or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supream Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more than they could overcome I mean great Difficulties in point of Interest and Conduct for those of Honour and Conscience they had subdu'd long since They strove however till opprest by a general hatred and the Rebound of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independent Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticism of a Free-State The better half of which time being successfully Employ'd in the subjecting of Scotland and Ireland to their power and Model and to compleat their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Vsurpations over his Royal Dominions Their next Work was to make themselves Considerable Abroad and 't was the Fortune of the Dutch to feel the First proof of That Resolution Betwixt these Rival States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloody the Last especially a Tearing one Upon the whole the Dutch lost more but the English got little beside the Honour of the Victory in which particular the Kingdom pay'd dear for the Reputation of the Common-Wealth This success rais'd the pride and vanity of the English so that at next Bout nothing less would serve them than an absolute Conquest But while they are providing for it and in the huff of all their Glory behold the Dissolution of the Long-Parliament which whether it began or ended more to the satisfaction of the People is a point not yet decided Dissolved however it is and Rebuk'd for Corruptions and Delays by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsel of State compos'd of Persons entirely disaffected to the Common-wealth This Little Ridiculous Convention thought to have done mighty Matters but the Plot Vented and Vanish'd Some of their Memorable Fopperies are These The Famous Act concerning Marriages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessment of 120000 l. per Mensem they Voted down the Chancery and Tythes they Voted also a total Alteration of the Laws All of a mind they were not and for Distinction sake the company was divided into the Honest party and the Godly party Of the former were Cromwell's Creatures and of the Other Barebones or rather Harrisons the Person they had design'd for
Lord Balmerino a Pardon'd Traytor and the Son of One. His Father had been a Favourite and principal Secretary to King Iames and rais'd by him out of Nothing to his Estate and Dignity Yet was this Thankless Wretch Arraign'd for and Attainted of High-Treason and after Sentence to be Drawn Hang'd and Quarter'd he was by the Kings Mercy pardon'd and restor'd Another eminent Covenanter was the Earl of Arguile of whom Walker gives this Accompt He brought his Father to a pension outed his Brother of his Estate Kintyre ruin'd his Sisters by cheating them of their portions and so enforcing them into Cloysters It must needs be a Conscientious Design with such Saints as These in the Head of it This Covenant was effectually no other then a Rebellious Vow to oppose the Kings Authority and Iustifie Themselves in the exercise of the Soveraign power which they assum'd to a degree even beyond the claim of Majesty it self pleading the Obligation of the Covenant to all their Vsurpations They Levyed Men and Moneys Seiz'd the Kings Magazines and strong Holds Rais'd Forts Begirt his Castles Affronted his Majesties Proclamations Summon'd Assemblies Proclaim'd Fasts Deprived and Excommunicated Bishops Abolish'd Episcopacy Issued out Warrants to choose Parliament-Commissioners Renounced the Kings Supream Authority Trampled upon Acts of Parliament pressing their Covenant upon the Privy-Council They gave the last Appeal to the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and within two Miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and the Incroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for Assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640 they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a Cessation is agreed upon referring the Decision of all Differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolencies against the Government committed and authorized under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees Matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct Attempt upon the Soveraignty but by Request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ianuary they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't But so that they Protest If his Majesty persist to deny it they are resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolved upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a posture of Defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642 the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King Entrance which was justified by an ensuing Vote and his Majesty proclaiming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Priviledge In May they pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trained Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the County for a Regiment of the Trained Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person Whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make a War against his Parliament and that whosoever shall assist him were Traytors They proceeded then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seise his Majesties Revenue and declare That whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their Proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any Right The Soveraign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voice The levying of War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his Presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying War against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest Precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Power by an absurd illegal and impious severing of the King's Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in execution and to subject the Sacred Authority of a lawful Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headless Parliament And That 's the Business of the 19 Propositions demanding That the great Affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by Consent and Approbation of Parliament all the great Affairs of State Privy-Council Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Teem that the Goverment Education and Marriage of the King's Children be by Their Consent and Approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should Sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further That his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Laws against them strictly in Execution and finally That the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councel and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon these Tearms they insisted and Rais'd a War to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power themselves which was to Suit their Liberty of Acting to that of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat their Design was to usurp the Government is manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they use to compass it The
as we here Imagine the Two main Mischiefs are These The Iniquity of the end or the Disorder of the Means The Former may in some Measure be Prevented by an Oath to deal Vprightly but the Grand Failing was in the Election The Latter may be Regulated by such a Clearness of Rule and Method together with such a Strictness in the Observation of That Rule that both Every man may know his Duty and no man dare to Transgress it But Concerning the Subject Matter now of their Consultations There lies the Peril when they come to reach at Affairs Forreign to their Cognisance The Hazard is This step by step They Eneroach upon the Soveraign Claiming a Right to One Encroachment from the President of another So that Meeting with an unwary Prince they Steal away his Prerogative by Inches and when perchance His Successor comes to Resume his Right That Pilfery is call'd the Liberty of the Subject and There 's a Quarrel started betwixt the King and his Subjects Then comes the Doctrine in Play That Kings are Chosen for the Good of the People and that the Discharge of that Trust and Care is the Condition of his Royalty The very Truth is All Government may be Tyranny A King has not the Means of Governing if he has not the Power of Tyrannizing Here 's the short of the Matter We are certainly Destroy'd without a Government and we may be Destroy'd with One So that in Prudence we are rather to choose the Hazard of a Tyranny than the Certainty of being worry'd by One-another Without more words The Vulgar End of Government is to keep the Multitude from Cutting One-anothers Throats which they have ever found to be the Consequence of Casting off their Governours When Popular Conventions have once found This Trick of gaining Ground upon the Soveraign they catch their Princes commonly as they do their Horses with a Sieve and a Bridle a Subsidy and a Perpetual Parliament If They 'll take the Bit they shall have Oats But These are the Dictates of Ignorance and Malice for such is the Mutual Tye and Interest of Correspondency betwixt a Monarch and his People that Neither of them can be Safe or Happy without the Safety and Felicity of the Other The best way to prevent the Ill Consequence of the Peoples Deputies acting beyond their Orb is Clearly and Particularly to State Those Reserves of the Prerogative with which they are not to Meddle And likewise to set forth the Metes and Bounds of their own Priviledges which They themselves are not to Transgress FINIS The Matter oâ— Sedition The Causes of it The Remedy Contempt more fatal to Kings than hatred Poverty breeds Sediâ—on A numerous Nobility causeth poverty Fears and Jealousies The dangers of Libels Sir F. B. The Rise of the late War The first Tumult against the Service-book The Covenanters Usurp the Supream Authority The Institution of the Scottish Covenant The promoters of it Hist. Indep Appendix pag. 14. The Covenant a Rebellious Vow A Plea for Treason The Usurpations of the Covenanters A Pacification with the Scots Their Infidelity They enter England The influence of the Scotish Army and the City-tumults upon the Long Parliament The two Houses usurp the Militia The Rebellion begins at Hull The Kings defence of himself Voted a War against his Parliament Teasonous Prositions of the two Houses Deposing Propositions of Iune 2. Che Cause of the War was Ambition The Rabble were the Pillars of the Cause Religion the pretence Their Zeal agaidst Popery The Method of the Reformation Rebellion divides God and the King Scandal Emproved and Invented The late King was betray'd by presbyterians in his Counsel A Dear peace the cause of a long War Tria priciipia The Method of Treason Rebellion begins in Confusion and ends in Order The English follow the Scottish pattern The prologue to the late War Loyalty persecuted Rebellion rewarded The King goes for Scotland His Welcome at his Return The King Affronted by Tumults first And Then for complaining of them The Presbyterians ruin'd by their own Arguments England a Free-State Quarrels with the Dutch The Long Parliament dissolved Barebones Parliament Their Acts. Their Zeal Their Dissolution The corruption of a Conventicle is the General of a Protector Cromwell Installed and Sworn Protector A Councell of one and Twenty Cromwells Masteries The Foundation of Cromwels Greatness Cromwels Character Cromwell Jelous of his Counsell And of his Army Oliver erects Major-Generals and then fools them The Persecution of the Cavaliers Cromwels Test of the House The Recognition Cromwels design upon St. Domingo Disastrous Blake makes amends at Tunis His Success against the Plate-Fleet near the Bay of Cadiz Addresses Oliver's Kindred stood his Friends The Petition and Advice to Declare his Successor Oliver's Other House privy-Council Revenue Cavaliers incapable of Office Cromwell Installed Protector Olivers Other House Enraged the Commons Thenew Peers The Commons pick a Quarrell with the Other House Olivers heart-breaking cross He Fools the City of London Addresses Barbarous Cruelties Cromwells Death Olivers Maximet Richard Recognized upon condition Each of the Three Parties Enemy to the Other Two The Army Ruffles the House The House Opposes the Army Richard dissolves his Parliament And is laid aside himself The Army acknowledge their backslidings And invite the old Parliament to sit again The Rump The Armies Petition The Faction flies high The Rump and the Army Clash The Rump thrown out The Army settles a Committee of Safety General M. Secures Scotland Hewsons Insolence toward the City Hazelrigg seizes Portsmouth The Rump sits again Lambert and his Party submit The City refuse to Levy Monies The Rump offended with the City The Secluded Members re-admitted Cromwel's Rise to the Soveraignty What hindred his Establishment He wâ—â—l Generally Hated The war with Spain was an Oversight A Standing Army dangerous The Rise of Cromwels Standing Army Exact Collect. Pag. 44. Ibid. The Consequences of the House of Commons Guard The Effects of a Standing Army Note Exit The Rump All Factious unite against the King They divide And Subdivide The Effects of a Military Government The English Impatient of Slavery This was calculated for 1662. It seems to be the Interest of France to maintain a Standing Army A Guard both Sutable and necessary about the Person of a King The Maries of France abus'd the Confidence of their Masters Pepin the Son of a Powerfull Subject deposed his Prince and sets up Himself The State of France The effects of a Standing Army in France A Standing Army more hazardous in England than in France Alterations of Customs dangerous Our Saxon Kings kept no Standing Army Nor Edmond Ironside Nor William the Conquerour Nor William Rufus Nor Hen. 3. Edw. 1. Edw. nor Ric. 2. Nor the Henries 4 5 6 7. Nor Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Mary nor Q. Eliz. Nor K. James nor Charles the MARTYR Expedients to prevent or disappoint Dangers A Standing Army destructive to the Government
own Notice that Libels were not only the Fore-runners but in a high Degree the Causes of our late Troubles and what were the frequent open and licentious Discourses of Cloak-men in Pulpits but the ill-boding Play of Porpisces before a Tempest We may remember also the false News of Plots agninst the Religion and Liberties of the Nation and how the King was charg'd as an Abetter of the Design We may remember likewise how the Irish Blood was cast upon the Account of his late Sacred Majesty even by Those men whose guilty Souls are to Reckon with Divine Justice for every Drop of it Neither have we forgotten with what Care and Diligence these Falshoods were dispers'd with what Greediness they were swallow'd nor what ensu'd upon it If we look well about us we may find this Kingdom at this Instant labouring under the same Distempers the Press as busie and as bold Sermons as factious Pamphlets as seditious the Government defam'd The Lectures of the Faction are throng'd with pretended Converts and scandalous Reports against the King and State are as currant now as they were twenty years ago These were ill Tokens then and do they signifie just nothing now What means all This but the new Christening of the Old Cause the doing over again of the Prologue to the last Tragedy Sir Francis Bacon proceeds That Disputing Excusing Cavelling upon Mandates and Directions is a kind of shaking off the Yoak and Assay of Disobedience especially if in those Disputings they which are for the Direction speak fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it audaciously Herein is judiciously expressed the Motion or Gradation from Duty to Disobedience The first step is to Dispute as who should say I will if I may The very Doubt of Obeying subjects the Authority to a Question and gives a dangerous Hint to the People That Kings are accountable to their Subjects To Excuse is a Degree worse for that 's no other than a Refusal of Obedience in a Tacit Regard either of an unjust Command or of an unlawful Power To cavil at the Mandates of a Prince is an express Affront to his Dignity and within one Remove of Violence Through these Degrees and slidings from Bad to Worse from one Wickedness to Another our late Reformers Travel'd the whole Scale of Treason as the Scene chang'd shifting their Habits till at last quitting the Disguise of the Kings Loyal Subjects they became his Murtherers What 's more familiar at this Day than disputing His Majesties Orders disobeying his Proclamations and vilifying Acts of Parliament Whereof there are so many and so Audacious Instances it shall suffice to have made this General mention of them Another Observation is that When Discords and Quarrels and Factions are carried openly and audaciously it is a Sign the Reverence of Government is lost This was the temper of that Juncture when the Schismatical Part of the two Houses and the Tumultuary Rabble joyn'd their Interests against Bishops and the Earl of Strafford which Insolence was but a Prelude to the succeeding Rebellion And are not Factions carried Openly and Audaciously now when the Promoters and Iustifiers of the Murther of the late King are still continued publick Preachers without the least pretence to a Retraction Dictating still by Gestures Shrugs and Signs That Treason to their Auditory which they dare not Vtter What are their Sermons but Declamations against Bishops Their Covenant-keeping Exhortations but the contempt of an establish'd Law How it comes to pass Heaven knows but These Honest Fellows can come off for Printing and publishing down-right Treason when I have much ado to scape for Telling of it Whither these Liberties tend let any Man look over his shoulder and satisfie himself When any of the Four Pillars of Government are mainly shaken or weakened which are Religion Iustice Counsel and Treasure Men had need to pray for fair weather To speak only of the last The want of Treasure was the Ruine of the late King Through which defect his Officers were expos'd to be Corrupted his Counsels to be Betray'd his Armies to be ill pay'd and consequently not well Disciplin'd Briefly where a Prince is Poor and a Faction Rich the Purse is in the wrong Pocket Multis little Bellum is an assured and infallible Sign of a State disposed to Seditions and Troubles and it must needs be that where War seems the Interest of a People it should be likewise the Inclination of them Touching the General Matter Motives and Prognosticks of Sedition enough is said We 'l now enquire into the special cause of the late Rebellion CAP. III. The True Cause of the late War was AMBITION THE True Cause of the late War was Ambition which being lodg'd in a confederate Cabale of Scotch and English drew the corrupted Interests of both Kingdoms into the Conspiracy to wit the factious covetous Malecontents Criminals Debters and finally all sorts of men whose crimes necessities or passions might be secur'd reliev'd or gratifi'd by a change of Government To these were joyn'd the credulous weak Multitude the clamour being Religion Law and Liberty And here 's the summ of the Design Pretence and Party This League we may presume was perfected in 1637. First from the Kings Charge of High-Treason against Kimbolton and the Five Members Secondly from the correspondent practices in both Nations appearing manifestly about that time Next 't is remarkable that the English pardon has a Retrospect to the beginning of the Scotch Tumults Ian. 1. 1637. Three Years before the meeting of the Long Parliament which Provision seems to intimate That Conspiracy And now the Poyson begins to work Upon the 23 of Iuly in the same Year according to a publique Warning given the Sunday before the Dean of Edinburgh began to read the Service-Book in the Church of Saint Giles whereupon ensued so horrid a Tumult that the Bishop was like to have been Murder'd in the Pulpit and after Sermon scaped narrowly with his Life to his Lodgings The particular recital of their following Insolencies upon the Bishop of Galloway the Earls of Traquair and Wigton the besieging of the Council-House and contempts of the Council their audacious Petitions against the Service-Book and Cannons I shall pass over as not belonging to my purpose Upon the 19 of Febru following a Proclamation was publish'd against their Seditious Meetings which they encounter with an Antiprotest and presently erect their publick Tables of Advice and Counsel for Ordering the Affairs of the Kingdom The Method whereof was This. Four principal Tables they had One of the Nobility a Second of the Gentry a Third of the Burroughs a Fourth of Ministers And these Four were to prepare Matters for the General Table which consisted of Commissioners chosen out of the Rest. The first Act of this General Table was their Solemn Covenant a Contrivance principally promoted by persons formerly engaged in a Conspiracy against the King and among others by the
General if they could perswade Cromwell to quit his Security for some additional Title of Dignity These Zealous Patriots Commonly brought their Bibles into the House with them and as I am Enform'd divers of them were seeking the Lord with Vavasor Powell when This following Trick was put upon them An Hour or two sooner in the morning then usual Decemb. 12. he that they call'd their Speaker took the Chayr and it was presently Mov'd and Carry'd for several Reasons to re-assign their power to him from whom they had it which was immediately persu'd and so they made Cromwell a Prince for making Them a Parliament This gracious Resignation produc'd that blessed Instrument of Government by which the Hypocrite was made Protector and now forsooth the style is chang'd from The Keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament into Oliver Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. who was Installed and Sworn Decemb. 16. 1653. To his Assistance was appointed a Counsel of 21. the Quorum 13. By whom immediately upon the Death of the present Protector should be chosen one to succeed him always excepted the Right Line from the choice 'T is suppos'd that Lambert had an eye upon himself in the reach of That Article and a particular influence upon the drawing of it being at That time Popular enough with the Army to hope for any thing A while after the Establishment of this Traytour comes forth an Ordinance Declaring Treasons and now his Highness thinks himself in the saddle especially having beaten the Dutch into One Peace and Treated the Swede into Another which were proclaim'd soon after Having run through the Narrative of those Considerable Changes and Confusions of Power which intervened betwixt the Murther of a most Gracious Prince and the appearing Settlement of an Vsurping Tyrant we 'l make a little stand here and look behind us The Two Main Engines that made Cromwell Master of the Army were first The Self-denying Ordinance by which he Worm'd out the Presbyterians and Skrew'd in his own Party The Second was the Vote of March 19. 1646. for the Disbanding of so many Regiments and sending Others for Ireland This Vote was privily procur'd by himself and Ireton which he foresaw must necessarily enflame the Army and so it did never to be reconcil'd This Breach was the setting up of Cromwell and the Foundation of his succeding greatness It was the Impression of That Vote that baffled and purg'd the House in 47. Forced it in 48. and Disolv'd it in 53. after which he call'd Another that dy'd Fe lo de fe and Bequeathed to his Excellency the Government Had the Devill himself destroy'd that Faction the Nation would have Thank't him for 't so 't is no wonder if his Advance was smooth and Prosperous but now He 's Vp how to maintain his Power against a General Odium and Interest how to get himself forc'd to exchange That Temporary Title of Protector for the more Stable Legal and desireable Name of King without discovering his Insatiate Longing for it This is a Point of Mastery and Cunning and Possibly the Thing that break his Heart was his Dispair to Accomplish it The Faction has already trod the Round of Government The Lords and Commons outed the King the Commons the Lords the Multitude the Commons and with the Fate of all Rebellious Causes seeking Rest but finding None At last up goes the Pageantry of a Monarch Cromwell whose Temper Straights and Politicks shall be the Subject of the next Chapter CAP. VI. The Temper Straights and Politicks of Cromwel during his Protectorship THe Character of This Glorious Rebel is no further my purpose then as it leads to a right Iudgment of his Actions and the Confusion of his Adorers Of strong Natural Parts I perswade my self he was though some think otherwise imputing all his Advantages to Corruption or Fortune which will not be deny'd however to have concurr'd powerfully to his Greatness Nor do I pretend to collect his Abilites from his Words any more then the World could his Meaning save that the more entangled his Discourses were I reckon them the more Iudicious because the fitter for his Business His Interest obliging him to a Reserve for he durst neither clearly Own his Thoughts nor Totally Disclaim them the One way endangering his Design and the Other his Person So that the skill of his Part lay in This neither to be mistaken by his Friends nor understood by his Enemies By This middle Course he gain'd Time to remove Obstacles and ripen Occasions which to emprove and follow was the peculiar Talent of that Monster To these enablements to Mischief he had a Will so prostitute and prone that to express him I must say He was made up of Craft and Wickedness and all his Faculties nay all his Passions were Slaves to his Ambition In fine he knew no Other measure of Good and Bad but as things stood in This or That Relation to his Ends which I the less admire when I consider that he was brought up in a Presbyterian School where Honour Faith and Conscience weigh nothing further then as they subserve to Interest But enough of This. In the foregoing Chapter we have Plac'd the Protector in the Chair but not the King in the Throne the Power he has already but wants the Title and which is worse he dares not offer at it being equally affray'd to own his Longing or to miss it In This Distraction of Thought his Iealousie joyns with his Ambition Sollicitous on the One hand for his Family and on the Other for his Safety For his Family in point of Grandeur and for his Safety Thus. After his Death according to the Instrument the Counsell is to chuse a Successour and whoever gapes to be the One is supposed to wish for the Other which probably they had rather hasten then wait for So that This Miserable creature being peyned betwixt the Hazard either of enlarging his Power or having it thus dependent and the disdain of seeing it limited enters into a restless suspition of his Counsell and no way to be quieted but by depressing Those that Rais'd him So much for the first Difficulty a second follows His Design had These Three Grand Enemies The Royalists The Presbyterians and the Common-wealths-Men the Last of which compos'd the Gross of his Army whom he had so inured to the Gust of Popularity and Freedom and so enflam'd against the Tyranny of King-ship that the bare Change of the word Common-wealth to Kingdom had been enough to have cast all into a Revolt These were the main Impediments of His Majesty that would be and now we 'l touch upon the Shifts and Tricks his Highness us'd to Remove them Cromwell having squander'd away his Mony and taking occasion from the Salisbury Rising in 1654. to Squeeze the Cavaliers for more Kills two Birds with one stone
and Folly Two of these Fellows Pride and Berkstead quarrell'd upon the Bench at Hicks his Hall about the meaning of the PREAMBLE that went AFTER The Commons though a little late resented the Indignity of Truckling under such Cattell and not enduring an Vpper-House so like a Bear-Garden they presenly took in their formerly Secluded Fellowes and fell to work upon the Authority of That New Creation not sparing His that Plac'd them there This course would soon have bred ill blood and Cromwell after 15 Dayes tryal of their Humour did Prudently Dissolve them From that Degree of Confidence to Fall beyond Ressource and from That point of Power to become Ridiculous did but demonstrate to him the Vanity of his Ambitious Hopes and that he aim'd at Things Impossible Of all the Cross-Encounters of his life This sank the Deepest and the Impression of That Anguish went with him to his Grave as may be fairly Gather'd from the wild disproportion of his following Actions which well consider'd will appear rather the Products of Revenge Rage and Despair then the form'd Regular Politicks of his wonted Reason Yet that he might not seem to abandon the persuit and utterly despond some Five weeks after the breaking up of the late Assembly The Major of London and his Brethren were summon'd to White-Hall and there March 2. 1658. the Citts are told a Formal Tale of the King of Scots 8000 Men in Readiness and 22 Vessels to Transport them A General Plot The City to be fired and twenty Terrible Things to start and Settle a New Militia which in some Six weeks time was perfected And Now from all Parts are to be procur'd Addresses which are no other then Leagues Offensive and Defensive Betwixt the Faction and the Vsurper Sweet London leads the way Then Michell's Ashfields Cobbetts Regiments The Officers of the English-Army and the Commission-Officers in Flanders All these in March In April the Officers of Biscoes Regiment and the Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich After These follow the Souldiery of South-Wales and Daniels Regiment The Well-affected of Nottingham c. These Numerous and Pretending Applications were but False Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them Other Gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity Half a Score pitifull wretches call themselves the People of such or such a County and here 's the Totall of the Reckoning 'T is Rumour'd that his Daughter Cleypoole in the Agonies of her Death-Sickness rang him a Peal that troubled him Whether 't were so or no 't is past Dispute his Grand Distress was for the Loss of That which while he hop'd to gain made the most horrid of his helpfull Sins seem Solaces and Pleasures While by the Artifice of These Addresses his broken Interest is pieced as Fair as well it may his Care is Divided between the engaging of One Party and the Destroying of Another And under the Masque of a pressing and Pious Necessity he breaks out into such Enormous Cruelties such Wanton and Conceited Butcheries that had not his Brain been Crackt as well as his Conscience Sear'd he would not have gone so Phantastical a way to the Devill Some of the Martyrs Hearts were quick and Springing in the Fire as I had it from several Eye-Witnesses Ashton did but desire to be Beheaded and it was seemingly Granted but the Order kept till 't was too late and Then tendered with a Ieere London was made the Altar for These Burnt Offerings God grant That City be not at last purg'd by Fire I mean before the General Confiagration for Those Polluting Flames The Crime was Loyalty and made out against them more by the doubling Artifice of Mercenary Tongues than any Pregnancy of Proofes What could This Furious and Inhumane Rigour avail That miserable Politician further then as it Gratifi'd his Malice and Revenge for his Lost Hopes and Fortunes Without a Paraâ—â—ment or somewhat like one he Perishes for want of Mony and an Assembly to his mind throughout he utterly despairs of so that no Remedy remains but by extremities of Violence and Bloud to do his Business And to That end he faintly labours the new Modelling of his Army a way which he had found by Long Experience made Enemies as well as Friends Those certain and Implacable These prone to change their Interest and without Mony True to None In fine his Fate was Irresistible and his Tormented Soul Inconsolable He Sinks Sickens and Dies Upon the Day of his grand Anniversary for Dunbar and Worcester Sept. 3. The Night before his Death arose a Tempest that seem'd to signifie the Prince of the Ayre had some great work in hand and 't is Remarkable that during his Vsurpation scarce any Eminent Action passed without a furious Storm I have drawn This Chapter to a length beyond my intention and should be too too Tedious to run through all his Wiles which were No other than an Habitual Craft diffused throughout the entire Course of his Tyranny But certain General rules he impos'd upon himself which must not be omitted One was to Buy Intelligence at any Rate by That means making every Plot bear it 's own Charges 2. Never to Engage Two Parties at once but to Flatter and Formalize with the One till he Ruin'd the Other Which was the Reason that he durst never make the Presbyterians Desperate for fear of Necessitating them to side with the King 3. To extirpate the Royallists by all possible means as Poverty Bondage Executions Transplantations and a Devise he had to dispose of several Levies out of That Party Some to serve the Spaniard Others the French that they might be sure to meet in Opposition and cut One the Others Throats 4. He ever made his Army his own Particular Care 5. To keep the Nation in a perpetual Hatred and Iealousie of the Kings Party which he promoted either by forging of Plots or Procuring Them So much for Olivers Temper Straights and Politicks CAP. VII A short Account from the Death of the Tyrant Oliver to the Return of Charles the Second whom God Preserve from his Fathers Enemies THe Heart of the Cause was broken long since and now the Soul of it is gone though the Protectorate be formally devolv'd to Richard as the Declar'd Successour to his Father Whether Declar'd or not was I remember at That time a Question But whether Thus or So it Matters not Oliver is Dead his Son Proclaim'd and at night Bon-fires with all the Clamor Bustle and Confusion that commonly attends those Vulgar Jollities The Souldiers took the Alarm and in my hearing threatned divers for daring to express their Joy so unseasonably but they came off with telling them that they were glad they had got a New Protector not that they had lost the Old In Truth the New Protector was look'd upon as a Person more Inclinable to do Good than
But what 's the Reason of all This Does any man Imagine that the Conspiratours work for One another or for Themselves They Joyn in the Necessity of a Common Assistance but they Divide in the Proposition of a several Interest Who is he in the Senate that had not rather Rule Alone then in Company if he could help it To be short where more then One Govern 't is because what Every man Wishes no Particular can effect That is to Master the Rest. Understand me only of Medlers to overthrow a Government The next Slide from an Aristocracy downward comes a little clearer yet Some of the Craftiest of Those that help'd the Peers to Cast off the King are now as Busie with the People to throw off the Nobility and Then they are within one Easie step of Confusion from whence the next Change brings him that can carry it from the Rest to the Soveraignty As arrant a Mockery is Religion in the Mouth of a Conspiratour Indeed it makes me smile sometime to hear how Soberly Men will talk of the Religion of This or That Faction as if a Traytour or an Hypocrite were of Any And then they cry This is against the Principles of the Presbyterians and That against the Principles of the Independents when Truly and Shortly they are but Thus Distinguished Those would subvert the Government One Way These Another And he that would rightly Understand them must Read for Presbytery ARISTOCRACY and DEMOCRACY for Independency I speak of the next Consequence if they Prevail not of the Vltimate Design of the Chief Leaders for That 's Monarchy Wee 'l drop ye a Little Story here An Officer of the Reformat on advises with an Ingenious Surgeon of my Acquaintance about a Grief as he pretended caught with a Streyn After divers Questions how and how The Surgeon tells his Patient that by his leave the Trouble he complains of can be no other then to Phrase it Modestly a Ladies Favour The good man blesses himself and still it must be a Strain Why then a Stain let it be but This I 'll tell you Sir The Thing that Cures That Strain will Cure the Pox. In fine the Officer submits and the Surgeon does his work This is the Case of the two Factions They Cry out of their Consciences but their Disease lyes somewhere else and Schism is cur'd just as they cure Sedition Nay does it not behove a Prince with the same strictness to require Submission to a Ceremony as to a Tax Or why may not a Justice as well refuse to Swear Obedience to the Civil Government as a Minister to the Ecclesiastick What can be more reasonable than for a Master either to Punish or dismiss an undutifull Servant Briefly That Monarch that would be safe must resolve to be Deaf to These Religious Clamours Alas let but the Ministers Begin the People Bawle in Course not that they are Troubled but they 'l do 't in Rudeness or Imitation They are as arrantly Taught to do 't as a Friend of mine Taught his Beagles Let him Gape first and the whole Kennell falls to howling Let him give off they are quiet too and just Thus stands the Case betwixt the Schismatical Clergy and the Multitude But it will be said what 's all this to the Court Or to Seditions thence proceeding Oh very much These Out-cryes of the Vulgar are but False Alarms The Dint is nearer hand They have their Demagogues and their Patrons as the late Glorious King and Martyr calls them and if a Prince look well about him in such a juncture as is here mention'd 't is odds he finds some of their Principals even at his Ear or Elbow So that his first Concern is to Inspect and Purge where he sees Cause his Royall Palace Beginning with his Counsell Where as Sir Francis Bacon the Danger is either the Over-greatness of One or the Combination of Divers Which Dangers we shall Obviate with their Remedies in Order Subsection I. The Remedies of certain Hazards arising from the Over-greatness of One COUNSELLOR ONE Over-great Counsellor may be Dangerous First In respect of His Particular Temper and Inclination Secondly In regard of His Credit with his Master And lastly In Consideration of the Influence of that Power and Inclination upon the People The Over-great Counsellor we here Treat of is as the Malus Genius of a Nation And in Two Words behold the Ground and Summe of the Whole Mischief 'T is either Vice or Weakness apply'd to the Dishonour or Damage of a Prince and People Now to the Application of That Vice or Weakness And first What ill use may be made of the One and what ill effects may proceed from the Other by vertue of his Credit with his Master If He be Ambitious He 's plac'd upon the very Point for Popularity Whom can he not Oblige by Hopes Rewards Preferments Whose Tongue cannot he Charm either to Speech or Silence Whose Reputation Suit Fortune nay in some Cases whose very Life it self and Liberty are not dependent upon his Favour If this Aspiring Humour be accompanied with a Sharpness of Iudging a Felicity of Contriving and an Impulse of Enterprizing The Master of such a Servant should do well to Look about him It may be Reply'd That doubtless so he would if he saw any Reason to apprehend his Abuse of that Power But the Knowledge of the Person does sufficiently warrant the Reason of the Dispensation To which we answer That though Soveraign Princes are not Accountable to Others yet They are to Themselves both for the Expedience and Equity of their Actions And entring into their own Souls it is very possible that they may discover some Incongruities betwixt their Affections and their Convenience Some Incongruities I say and such as may Induce the wisest Prince and the most Indulgent Master even toward the most Loyal and Meriting Servant to limit the Graces of his Inclination to the Rules and Respects of his Office and to be wary lest while He Divide his Heart with his Friend he share also his Authority with his Subject Therein both Endangering Himself and Grieving his People To Conclude It is great Prudence in Publike Affairs to commit little to Hazard and it is no small Hazard to Expose a Favourite to strong Temptations Where there are Servants that will employ their Masters Bounty against Himself and of such only we speak If the Design be to supplant the Soveraign many Remedies may be found out to frustrate That Ambition Nay as I have already hinted whether there be such a Design or not 't is good to provide against the very Possibility of it For it is fitter that the Publike should be Indebted for its well-being to the Care of the Prince than to the Honesty of the Favourite Ambitious Natures do better in the Field than in the Court and better yet Abroad than at Home If they Advance they grow Dangerous for their