Impiety and zeal to Christ or his Worship for he had lately struck a Bargain with the Jews that deny him but the Ministers who were to dispute with Ben Israel their Agent dissenting from his covetous project He only gulled them of their earnest mony By this mixture of subtlety with Cruelty and Rapine of all sorts he had so establish'd himself and his formidable greatness engaging in a forraign War with the French against the Spaniard in Flanders whither he sent Commissary General Reynolds with 6000 men who joyntly took in St. Venant Mardike in the close of the Summer 1647 the latter being put into English hands that the Royal party began truly to dread his mischievous power the effects whereof were felt also in very remote parts of the World in the Polish and Danish War by his partaking with and assisting to the King of Sweden when he pretended a Mediation between them having dispatcht Mr. Rolt of his Bedchamber and Colonel Jephson to Carolus Gustavus and Mr. now Sir Philip Meadows to Frederick King of Denmark to the diverting the German Emperour to the care of his own Dominions and by that means depriving the Spaniard of his aid and consequently frustrating all His Majesties designs of recovering his rights to these Kingdoms I must omit his Successes by Blake at Porta Ferina and Sancta Cruz for which the English valour was famous as also Sir Richard Stayners taking and Spoyling 7. Galleys from the West Indies laden with Plate which were substantial Tropnies and made his power dreadful And therefore now he thought it time to shew his Son Richard to the World whom to â—avoid the Suspicion of designing the Soveraignty to be Hereditary in his Family and to amuse Lambert who would not brook other Successor then himself His Kival if not Superiour now in the affection of the Army He had kept in the Country in Hampshire where he had married the Daughter of one Major of Southampton with a very plentiful fortune the support and maintenance of him now among the Conveâ—e of the Centry Royaâ—sts to insinuate into their affections and good liking by some kind of Offices and Civilities he procured from â—ourt and by his own debonair and affable Dispositions The first publiâ—ue Honour done him was the Chancellorship of Oxford in which he was â—emnly invested after his Father had purposely resigned it at Whitchall next he was â—worn a Pirvy Councellor and made a Colon I in the Army to have an interest in all parties and parts of the body politique and not long after in the next Parliament after their recesse the first Lord of the other House and now styled the most noble Lord Richard and rife discourses there were of Richard the Fourth but it proved no more then the story of Queen Dick. His Son Harry Cromwell lately married to Sir William Russells Daughter he likewise sent in the â—lity of Lord Lieutemant to succeed his Son Law Fleetwood in Ireland only Scotland could not be taken from General Monk and disposed in the hanâ—s of his more consident Relations Flectwood or Desborough being designed for that Government â—s Daughters likewise were all married Elizabeth his Darling before his late Greatnesle to a private Gentleman one Mr. Cleypoâ—e of Warwickshire his Daughter Mary to the Lord Viâ—count Falconbridge the noble Family of the Bellasis and his younger Daughter Frances to Mr. â—obert Rich eldest on to Robert Lord Rich and â—randson to Robert Earl of Warwick all three whereof dyed within one year after this unfortunate and unglorious Match So that he thought he had established his House but the Foundation being laid in Sand tempered with Blood the next gust and boy sterous Wind blew it like Chaffe and seattered and dispersed it to nothing From this haughty confidence he was invited to call another Parliament and to assume from thence the long awaited result of his Ambition the Crown Imperial of England All other things moreover did â—eâ—m to comspire to the same purpose except the Levelling Fifth Monarchy party and Lambert for the Presbyterian and other Sectâ—ries vvho had their hands full of Sacrilegious and Treasonable Penny-vvorths of Ecclesiâ—stical and Crovvn and Delinquents Lands vvere most eagerly desirous of a settlement of the Government by Law that might secure and confirm their purchases the more indifferent Royallists preferred any Legal no manner how or what Authority rather then be continually tisked and oppressed by the outragious unlimited violence of the Major Generals whom Cromwel had on purpose set up as he did the little or foolish Parliament to make another Title he gaped at more acceptable to the people As to the Fifth Monarchy men he had neerly pried into that danger and seized and took the chief of that party among whom was Venner the Wine-Cooper being engaged somewhat after in a Plot in a house in Shorditch where some Arms were taken and and an Ensign with a Lyon couchant of the Tribe of judah painted in it having this Motto Who shall raise him up And hereupon Harrison Carew Rich Vice-Admiral Lawson Courtney Portman Day and the like were imprisoned in remote places as Col. Overton Major Holms and others of the same party had been seized in Scotland and disbanded by Gen. Monck according to Cromwell's Order and sent up Prisoners to the Tower of London As to the Levellers he had lately discovered their practices and combinations against him and had likewise clapt up the chief of them one Major Wildman in order to his Tryal being taken at Marleborough inditing and drawing Declarations against him so that they were at a stand and a loss which â—ay to proceed to the unsetling and overthrow of his Tyrannical power procured by so many tricks and cheats put upon them by him so that afterwards when they began private Subscriptions to Petitions and Addresses to the Parliament against the Kingship he peremptorily upon their peril forbid them to intermeddle with their Consultations and so awed and dashed them that they never offered any more afterwards to hold up so much as a Finger against him Lambert was the only impediment and we shall see him neatly and quietly removed and discarded like the rest of his former Confidents This Olivarian Parliament brought together by these means was not lesse awed in its Election by the Major Generals they themselves and all their friends being returned for Members while the Gentry and other Honest men being confined or under some qualification or other could not or dared not appear particularly Col. Berkstead and Kiffin the Anabaptist by Voyces of Redcotes got themselves returned Knights of the Shire for Middlesex with Sir William Roberts and Mr. Chute 4 as the Instrument directed then in the Admission to the House where a Recognition of his Highness and the Government by a single person with a Guard of Soldiers was ready placed and unless each Member swallowed the one he might not pass the other by which means almost 200. were at the
were made Serjeants and Mr. Hales one of the Justices of the Common-Pleas where St. Johns yet sate and of the Cabinet to his Protector besides having preferred his Man Thurloe his Secretary at the Hague to be his Secretary of State the Candle or Light of that Dark-Lanthorn which St. Johns was said to be in these mysterious times of Cromwell in all his attempts and designs of consequence and moment The Dutch Peace was also concluded on by the Ambassadors and the Commissioners of the said â—ouncil for the Protector between whom this private Article was agreed that the Prince of Aurange should never be restored to the Dignities Offices and charge his Ancestors held and enjoyed and this was urged for the better conservation of the Peace which would in his Restitution be endangered because of his Relation to the King The Protector dined in great State upon an Invitation from the Lord Mayor c. at Grocers-Hall the 8. of February being Ashwednesday a very unsuitable day for any Festival but his Entertainment who inverted all things the streets being railed from Temple Bar thither the Liveries in their Gowns in their gradual standings awaiting Him he was met at the said Gate by Alderman Viner the Lord Mayor who delivered him the Sword there and having received it from him back again bore it on Horseback before him all the way through which the same silence was kept as if a Funeral had been en passant and no doubt it was that muteness which Tacitus mentioned in Tiberius quale Magnae Irae vel magni metus est silentium no apprecations or so much as a How do ye being given during the Cavalcade After Dinner he was served with a Banquet in the conclusion whereof he Knighted Alderman Viner and would have done the same to the Recorder Steel for his learned Speech of Government calculated and measured for him but he for good Reasons avoided it My Lord Maior was forced to carry it home and anger his Wife with it who had real Honour both in her Name and Nature Oliver at his return had the second course of a Brick-bat from the top of a House in the Strand by St. Clements which light upon his Coach and almost spoiled his Digestion with the daringness of the affront search was made but in vain the person could not be found and vengeance was not yet from Heaven to rain upon him He published a little after an Ordinance for the Trial and Approbation of Ministers wherein Phillp Nye Goodwin Hugh Peters Mr. Manton and others were named Commissioners the question these men put to the Examinants was not of Abilities or Learning but grace in their hearts and that with to bold and saucy Inquisition that some mens spirits trembled at their Interrogatories they phrasing it so as if as was said of the Council of Trent they had the Holy Ghost in a Cloak Bag or were rather Simon Magus his own Disciples and certainly there were never such Symoniacks in the World not a living of value but what a Friend or the best purchaser was admitted into to which humane learning even where a former right was was a good and sufficient Bar no less to the ruine then scandal of the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Professors thereof â—everal ignorant bold Laicks being inducted into the best Spiritualities as best consisted with Olivers Interest which depended upon the Sectary and their hideous divisions in Religion To return During those Protectoral Intrigues the King's Interest had got such footing again in England that all or most of the Gentlemen and Counties thereof were engaged for it and therefore while Lambert managed one Province the Affairs of the Parliament wherein Oliver would not descend so low as to be pragmatical and Sceptically busy with their Debates against His power as wrested and usurped from the people He was mainly intent upon the proceedings of the Royallists the particulars whereof he had betrayed to him weekly a constant correspondence being held betwixt Him and one Manning a Retainer and Under-Secretary to the King at Colen his Father being killed in his Service at Alresford in the year 1644. The price of this Treason was no lesse then 6000. l. a year most whereof came to the King by this fellows hands as sent over by his and his friends procurement but on purpose by so notable a service in the Kings necessities to sâ—rue himself into the secrets of His Majesties designs Hence came the Western Association and Attempt of the noble Penruddock in the West to be so suddenly defeated with the like Insurrections in several parts of England in the year 1654. For upon certain notice of the days appointed for their rising Cromwell to be before hand with them gave out supposed and false days and made the like Appearances particularly at Shrewsbury by which means the Confederates came to perceive there was some Treachery among themselves and did then wisely desist from the danger of taking publique Arms against Him For a fuller accompt of all which I must refer the Reader to the Histories of the Times lately published though I should take notice of his cruelty against those unfortunate Gentlemen The Event of this by which he had overreached the King in his own designs and the Hopes of his rich successes in the West-Indies by robbing another Prince whether his Fleet and Army under General Pen and Venables was now arrived which also I shall only mention for the Story is trite and vulgar made Oliver most blith and confident and his Court of Beggars and such like mean people very gay and jocund A great deal of State was now used towards him and the French Cringe and other ceremonious pieces of gallantry and good deportment which were thought unchristian and favouring of Carnality introduced in place of austere and down looks and the silent Mummery of Starch'd and Hypocritical gravity the only becoming Dress forsooth of Piety and Religion He had now a Guard of Halberdiers in Gray Coats welted with black Velvet over whom Walter Strickland was Captain and a Lord Chamberlain Sir Gilbert Pickering Two Masters of Requests Mr. Bacon and Mr. Sad'er a Master of his Horse his Son Claypoolâ— and generally all persons of Honour both to His own person and his Wives who very frugally Huswifed it and would nicely and finically tax the expensive unthriftiness as said she of the Other Woman who lived there before her But I must not engage in her impertinencies though a many pretty stories might be told of this obsolete Princesse It will be requisite to speak something of his manner and course of Life now raised to a very neer fruition of the Soveraignty this being the Solstice of his Fortunes His Custome was now to divert himself frequently at Hampton-Court which he had saved from Sale with other Houses of the Kings for his own greatnesse whether he went and came in post with his Guards behind and before as not yet
under 9. The chief Officers of Seate as Chancellors Keepers of the Great Seal c. to be approved of by Parliament 10. That his Highnesse would encourage a Godly Ministry in these Nations and that such as do revile or disturb them in the Worship of God may be punished according to Law and where the Laws are defective new ones to be made in that behalf 11. That the Protestant Christian Religion and no other and that a confession of Faith be agreed upon and recommended to the people of these Nations and none be permitted by words or writings to revile or repreach the said Confession of Faith c. Which he having Signed declared his acceptance in there words That he came thither that day not as to a Triumph but with the most serious thoughts that ever he had in all his life being to undertake one of the greatest burthens that ever was laid upon the back of any humane creature so that without the support of the Almighty he must sink under the weight of it to the damage and prejudice of these Nations This being so he must ask help of the Parliament and of those that fear God that by their Prayers he might receive assistance from God for nothing else could enable him to the discharge of so great a duty and trust That seeing this is but an Introduction to the carrying on of the Government of these Nations and there being many things which cannot be supplied without the assistance of the Parliament it was his duty to ask their help in them not that he doubted for the same Spirit that had led the Parliament to this would easily suggest the same to them For his part nothing would have induced him to take this unsupportable burthen to flesh and blood but that he had seen in the Parliament a great care in doing those things which might really answer the ends that were engaged for and make clearly for the Liberty of the Nations and for the Interest and preservation of all such as fear God under various forms And if these Nations be not thankful to them for their care therein it will fall as a sin on their heads Yet there are some things wanting that tend to reformation to the discountenancing vice and encouragement of virtue but he spake not this as in the least doubting their progress but as one that doth heartily desire to the end God may Crown their work that in their own time and with what speed they judge fit these things may be provided for There remained only the Solemnity of the Inauguration or Investiture which being agreed upon by the Committee and the Protector was by the Parliament appointed to be performed in Westminster-hall where at the upper end thereof there was an Ascent raised where a Chair and Canopy of State was set and a Table with another Chair for the Speaker with Seats built Scaffold-wise for the Parliament on both sides and places below for the Aldermen of London and the like All which being in a readiness the Protector came out of a Room adjoyning to the Lords House and in this order proceeded into the Hall First went his Gentlemen then a Herald next the Aldermen another Herald the Attorney General then the Judges of whom Serjeant Hill was one being made a Baron of the Exchequer June 16. then Norroy the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury and the Seal carried by Commissioner Fiennes then Garter and after him the Earl of Warwick with the Sword born before the Protector Bare headed the Lord Mayor Tichborn carrying the City Sword being the special of Coaks of the Protector by his left hand Being seated in his Chair on the left Hand whereof stood the said Titchborn and the Dutch Ambassador the French Ambassador and the Earl of Warwick on the Right next behind him stood his Sons Richard Fleetwood Cleypoole and the Privy Council upon a lower descent stood the Lord Viscount Lisle Lords Montague and Whitlock with drawn Swords Then the Speaker Sir Thomas Widdrington in the name of the Parliament presented to him a Robe of Purple-Velvet a Bible a Sword and a Scepter at the Delivery of these things the Speaker made a short Comment upon them to the Protector which he divided into four parts as followeth 1. The Robe of Purple This is an Emblem of Magistracy and imports Righteousness and Justice When you have put on this Vestment I may say you are a Gown-man This Robe is of a mixt colour to shew the mixture of Justice and Mercy Indeed a Magistrate must have two hands Plectentem amplectentem to cherish and to punish 2. The Bible it is a Book that contains the Holy Scriptures in which you have the happinesse to be well vers'd This Book of Life consists of two Testaments the Old and New the first shews Christum Velatum the second Christum Revelatum Christ vailed and revealed it is a Pook of Books and doth contain both Precepts and Examples for good Government 3. Here is a Scepter not unlike a Staff for you are to be a Staff to the weak and poor it is of ancient use in this kind It 's said in Scripture that The Scepter shall not depart from Judah It was of the like use in other Kingdoms Homer the Greek Poet calls Kings and Princes Scepter-Bearers 4. The last thing is a Sword not a Military but Civil Sword it is a Sword rather of defence then offence not to defend your self only but your people also If I might presume to fix a Motto upon this Sword as the valiant Lord Talbot had upon his it should be this Ego sum domini Protectoris ad protegendum populum meum I am the Protectors to protect my people This Speech being ended the Speaker took the Bible and gave the Protector his Oath afterwards Mr. Manton made a prayer wherein he recommended the Protector Parliament Council the Forces by Land and Sea Government and people of the three Nations to the protection of God Which being ended the Heralds by Trumpets proclaimed his Highness Protector of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging requiring all persons to yeild him due obedience At the end of all the Protector with his Train carried by the Lord Sherrard Warwick's Nephew ahd the Lord Robert's his eldest Son returned in the same posture the Earl of Warwick sitting at one end of the Coach against him Richard his Son and Whitlock in one and the Lords Lisle and Mountague in the other Boot with Swords drawn and the Lord Claypool Master of the Horse led the Horse of Honour in rich Caparisons to White-hall The Members to the Parliament House where they prorogued their sitting to the Twentieth of January He vvas novv setled and established in his first assumed Dignity to the satisfaction of some part of the Army only Lambert vvas gravelled with that clause in it which gave the Protector power to name his Successor Whereby he savv himself deprived and frustrated