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Deen extensively elected; several of them twice and thrice: Fleetwood, Lambert, the Claypoles, Dunches, both the young Crom wells; Montague for his County, Ashley Cooper for his. On the other hand, my Lord Fairfax is here; nay Bradshaw, Haselrig, Robert Wallop, Wildman, and Republicans are here. Old Sir Harry Vane; not young Sir Harry, who sits meditative in the North. Of Scotch members we mention only Laird Swinton, and the Earl of Hartfell; of the Irish, Lord Broghill and Commissary-General Reynolds, whom we once saw fighting well in that country.* And now hear the authentic Bulstrode; and then the Protector himself.

'September 3d, 1654.-The Lord's day, yet the day of the Parliament's meeting. The Members met in the afternoon at sermon, in the Abbey Church at Westminster; after sermon they attended the Protector in the Painted Chamber; who made a Speech to them of the cause of their summons,' Speech unreported; after which, they went to the House, and adjourned to the next morning.

'Monday, September 4th.--The Protector rode in state from Whitehall to the Abbey Church in Westminster. Some hundreds of Gentlemen and Officers went before him bare; with the Life-guard; and next before the coach, his pages and laqueys richly clothed. On the one side of his coach went Strickland, one of his Council, and Captain of his Guard, with the Master of the Ceremonies; both on foot. On the other side went Howard,† Captain of the Life-guard. In the coach with him were his son Henry, and Lambert; both sat bare. After him came Claypole, Master of the Horse; with a gallant led horse richly trapped. Next came the Commissioners of the Great Seal,' Lisle, Widdrington, and I; Commissioners of the Treasury, and divers of the Council in coaches; last the ordinary Guards.

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'He alighting at the Abbey Church door,' and entering, 'the Officers of the Army and the Gentlemen went first; next them four maces; then the Commissioners of the Seal, Whitlocke carrying the Purse; after, Lambert carrying the Sword bare:

* Letter LXXII. vol i., p. 387.

† Colonel Charles, ancestor of the Earl of Carlisle.

the rest followed. His Highness was seated over against the Pulpit; the Members of the Parliament on both sides.

'After the sermon, which was preached by Mr. Thomas Goodwin, his Highness went, in the same equipage, to the Painted Chamber. Where he took seat in a chair of state set upon steps,' raised chair with a canopy over it, under which his Highness sat covered, and the Members upon benches round about sat all bare. All being silent, his Highness,' rising, 'put off his hat, and made a large and subtle speech to them.**

Here is a Report of the Speech, 'taken by one who stood very near,' and 'published† to prevent mistakes.' As we, again, stand at some distance,-two centuries with their chasms and ruins,— our hearing is nothing like so good! To help a little, I have, with reluctance, admitted from the latest of the Commentators a few annotations; and intercalated them the best I could; suppressing very many. Let us listen well; and again we shall understand somewhat.

GENTLEMEN,

You are met here on the greatest occasion that, I believe, England ever saw; having upon your shoulders the Interests of Three great Nations with the territories belonging to them;—and truly, I believe I may say it without any hyperbole, you have upon your shoulders the Interest of all the Christian People in the world. And the expectation is, that I should let you know, as far as I have cognisance of it, the occasion of your assembling together at this time.

It hath been very well hinted to you this day, that you come hither to settle the Interests above mentioned: for your work here, in the issue and consequences of it, will extend so far, 'even to all Christian people.' In the way and manner of my speaking to you, I shall study plainness; and to speak to you what is truth, and what is upon my heart, and what will in some measure reach to these great concernments.

After so many changings and turnings, which this Nation hath labored under, to have such a day of hope as this is, and such a door of hope opened by God to us truly I believe, some months since, would have been beyond all our thoughts!—I confess it would have been worthy of such a meeting as this is, To have remembered that which was the rise

Whitlocke, p. 582.

† By G. Sawbridge, at the Bible on Ludgate Hill, London, 1654. in the Sermon we have just heard.

§ commemorated.

:

'of,' and gave the first beginning to all these Troubles which have been upon this Nation and to have given you a series of the Transactions, -not of men, but of the Providence of God, all along unto our late changes as also the ground of our first undertaking to oppose that usurpation and tyranny* which was upon us, both in civils and spirituals; and the several grounds particularly applicable to the several changes that have been. But I have two or three reasons which divert me from such a way of proceeding at this time.

If I should have gone in that way, 'then' that which lies upon my heart' as to these things,' which is 'so' written there that if I would blot it out I could not, would 'itself' have spent this day: the providences and dispensations of God have been so stupendous. As David said in the like case, Psalm xl., 5, "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.". Truly, another reason, unexpected by me, you had to-day in the Sermon:† you had much recapitulation of Providence; much allusion to a state and dispensation in respect of discipline and correction, of mercies and deliverances, 'to a state and dispensation similar to ours,'-to, in truth, the only parallel of God's dealing with us that I know in the world, which was largely and wisely held forth to you this day: To Israel's bringing out of Egypt through a wilderness by many signs and wonders, towards a Place of Rest,-I say towards it. And that having been so well remonstrated to you this day, is another argument why I shall not trouble you with a recapitulation of those things;-though they are things which I hope will never be forgotten, because written in better Books than those of paper;-written, I am persuaded, in the heart of every good man !

'But' a third reason was this: What I judge to be the end of your meeting, the great end, which was likewise remembered to you this day; to wit, Healing and Settling. The remembering of Transactions too particularly, perhaps instead of healing,—at least in the hearts of many of you,-might set the wound fresh a-bleeding. 'And' I must profess this unto you, whatever thoughts pass upon me: That if this day, if this meeting, prove not healing, what shall we do! But, as I

* Of Charles, Wentworth, Laud and Company.

†This Sermon of Goodwin's is not in the collected Edition of his Works; not among the King's Pamphlets; not in the Bodleian Library. We gather what the subject was, from this Speech, and know nothing of it otherwise.

not yet at it; nota bene.

§ in the Sermon.

said before, I trust it is in the minds of you all, and much more in the mind of God, to cause healing. It must be first in His mind :-and He being pleased to put it into yours, this will be a Day indeed, and such a Day as generations to come will bless you for!—I say, for this and the other reasons, I have forborne to make a particular remembrance and enumeration of things, and of the manner of the Lord's bringing us through so many changes and turnings as have passed upon us.

Howbeit, I think it will be more than necessary to let you know, at least so well as I may, in what condition this Nation, or rather these Nations were, when the present Government* was undertaken. And for order's sake: It's very natural to consider what our condition was, in Civils; and then also' in Spirituals.

What was our condition! Every man's hand almost was against his brother; at least his heart' was;' little regarding anything that should cement, and might have a tendency in it to cause us to grow into one. All the dispensations of God; His terrible ones, when He met us in the way of His judgment† in a Ten-years Civil War; and His merciful ones: they did not, they did not work upon us! 'No.' But we had our humors and interests;-and indeed I fear our humors went for more with us than even our interests. Certainly, as it falls out in such cases, our passions were more than our judgments.-Was not everything almost grown arbitrary? Who of us knew where or how to have right 'done him,' without some obstruction or other intervening? Indeed we were almost grown arbitrary in everything.

What was the face that was upon our affairs as to the Interest of the Nation? As to the Authority in the Nation; to the Magistracy; to the Ranks and Orders of men,-whereby England hath been known for hundreds of years? [The Levellers!]. A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; 'the distinction of these:' that is a good interest of the Nation, and a great one! The 'natural' Magistracy of the Nation, was it not almost trampled under foot, under despite and contempt, by men of Levelling principles? I beseech you, For the orders of men and ranks of men, did not that Levelling principle tend to the reducing of all to an equality? Did it 'consciously' think to do so; or did it 'only uncon sciously' practise towards that for property and interest? At all events,' what was the purport of it but to make the Tenant as liberal a fortune as the Landlord? Which, I think, if obtained, would not have lasted

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*Protectorate. † punishment for our sins. Reiteration of the word is not an uncommon mode of emphasis with

Oliver.

long! The men of that principle, after they had served their own turns would then have cried up property and interest fast enough!-This instance is instead of many. And that the thing did and might well' extend far, is manifest; because it was a pleasing voice to all Poor Men, and truly not unwelcome to all Bad Men. [Far extended classes, these two both!] To my thinking, this is a consideration which, in your endeavors after settlement, you will be so well minded of, that I might have spared it here: but let that pass.

'Now as to Spirituals.' Indeed in Spiritual things the case was more sad and deplorable' still ;'—and that was told to you this day eminently. The prodigious blasphemies; contempt of God and Christ, denying of Him, contempt of Him and His ordinances, and of the Scriptures: a spirit visibly acting* those things foretold by Peter and Jude; yea those things spoken of by Paul to Timothy! Paul declaring some things to be worse than the Antichristian state (of which he had spoken in the First to Timothy, Chapter fourth, verses first and second,' under the title of the Latter Times'), tells us what should be the lot and portion of the Last Times. He says (Second to Timothy, Chapter third, verses second, third, fourth), “In the Last Days perilous times shall come; men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful," and so on. But in speaking of the Antichristian state, he told us (First to Timothy, Chapter fourth, verses first and second), that “in the latter days" that state shall come in ; ' not the last days but the latter,'—wherein "there shall be a departing from the faith, and a giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy," and so on. This is only his description of the latter times, or those of Antichrist; and we are given to understand that there are last times coming, which will be worse !f-And surely it

* A general temper visibly bringing out in practice.

†There is no express mention of Antichrist either here or elsewhere in the Text of Timothy at all; but, I conclude, a full conviction on the part of Cromwell and all sound Commentators that Antichrist is indubitably shadowed forth there. Antichrist means, with them and him, the Pope; to whom Laud, &c., with his four surplices at Allhallowtide' and other clothweb and cobweb furniture, are of kindred. "We have got rid of Antichrist," he seems to intimate, "we have got pretty well done with Antichrist: and are we now coming to something worse? To the Levellers, namely! The Latter times are over, then; and we are coming.now into the Last times!" It is on this contrast of comparative and superlative, Latter and Last, that Oliver's logic seems to ground itself: Paul says nothing of Antichrist, nor anything directly of the one time being worse or better than the other; only the one time is ‘latter,' the other is 'last.'-This paragraph is not impor

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