to this work, it will not depend 'for them' upon formalities, nor notions, nor speeches! [A certain truculency on his Highness's visage.] I do not look the work should be done by these. 'No;' but by men of honest hearts, engaged to God; strengthened by Providence; enlightened in His words, to know His Word, to which He hath set His Seal, sealed with the blood of His Son, with the blood of His Servants: that is such a spirit as will carry on this work. [Scant in the Pedant Parliament, scant in the Rota Club; not to be found in the Reform-Club Attorney, or his Ballot-box, at all.]

Therefore I beseech you, do not dispute of unnecessary and unprofitable things which may divert you from carrying on so glorious a work as this is. I think every objection that ariseth is not to be answered; nor have I time for it. I say, Look up to God; have peace among yourselves. Know assuredly that if I have interest,* I am by the voice of the People the Supreme Magistrate; [We will have no disputing about that, you are aware!] and, it may be, do know somewhat that might satisfy my conscience, if I stood in doubt! But it is a union, really it is a union, 'this' between you and me: and both of us united in faith and love to Jesus Christ, and to His peculiar Interest in the world, that must ground this work. And in that, if I have any peculiar Interest which is personal to myself, which is not subservient to the Public end, it were not an extravagant thing for me to curse myself: because I know God will curse me, if I have! [Look in that countenance of his Highness!] I have learned too much of God, to dally with Him, and to be bold with Him, in these things. And I hope I never shall be bold with Him;· *Means "if you see me in power."

Carlyle, Cromwell. III.

28

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though I can be bold with men, if Christ be pleased to assist!

I say, if there be love between us, so that the Nations may say, "These are knit together in one "bond, to promote the glory of God against the Com"mon Enemy; to suppress everything that is Evil, and "encourage whatsoever is of Godliness," yea, the Nation will bless you! And really that and nothing else will work-off these Disaffections from the minds of men; which are great, perhaps greater than all the 'other' oppositions you can meet with. I do know what I say. When I speak of these things, I speak my heart before God; and, as I said before, I dare not be bold with Him. I have a little faith: I have a little lived by faith, and therein I may be "bold." If I spoke other than the affections and secrets of my heart, I know He would not bear it at my hands! [Deep silence; his Highness's voice, in sonorous bass, alone audible in the Painted Chamber.] Therefore, in the fear and name of God: Go on, with love and integrity, against whatever arises of contrary to those ends which you know and have been told of; and the blessing of God go with you, and the blessing of God will go with you! [Amen!]

I have but one thing more to say. I know it is troublesome: But I did read a Psalm yesterday; which truly may not unbecome both me to tell you of, and you to observe. It is the Eighty-fifth Psalm;** it is very instructive and significant: and though I do

The Three Nations.

** Historical: Tuesday, 16th Sept. 1656: Oliver Protector reading the Eightyfifth Psalm in Whitehall. We too might read it; but as his Highness recites it all here except one short verse, it is not so necessary.

but a little touch upon it, I desire your perusal at pleasure. [We will many of us read it, this night; almost all of us, with one view or the other; and some

of us may sing a part of it at evening worship.]

It begins: "Lord, Thou hast been very favourable "to Thy Land; Thou hast brought back the captivity "of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy "People; Thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast "taken away all the fierceness of Thy wrath: Thou "hast turned Thyself from the fierceness of Thine "anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause "Thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry "with us forever; wilt Thou draw out Thine anger to "all generations? Wilt Thou not revive us again, that "Thy People may rejoice in Thee?" Then he calls upon God as "the God of his salvation," "* and then saith he: "I will hear what God the Lord "will speak: for He will speak peace unto His "People, and to His Saints; but let them not turn "again to folly. Surely His salvation is nigh them "that fear Him;" Oh "that glory may dwell in "our land! Mercy and Truth are met together; Rightแ eousness and Peace have kissed each other. Truth "shall spring out of the Earth, and Righteousness shall "look down from Heaven. Yea the Lord shall give "that which is good, and our Land shall yield her in"crease. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall "set us in the way of His steps." [What a vision of celestial hope is this: vista into Lands of Light, God's Will done on Earth; this poor English Earth an Emblem of Heaven; where God's Blessing reigns supreme; where ghastly Falsity and brutal Greed and Baseness, and

* Verse 7, "Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation."

Cruelty and Cowardice, and Sin and Fear, and all the Helldogs of Gehenna shall lie chained under our feet; and Man, august in divine manhood, shall step victorious over them, heavenward, like a god! O Oliver, I could weep,

and yet it steads not. Do not I too look into "Psalms,” into a kind of Eternal Psalm, unalterable as adamant, which the whole world yet will look into? Courage, my brave one!]

Truly I wish that this Psalm, as it is written in the Book, might be better written in our hearts. That we might say as David, "Thou hast done this," and "Thou hast done that;" "Thou hast pardoned our "sins; Thou hast taken away our iniquities!" Whither can we go to a better God? For "He hath done it." It is to Him any Nation may come in their extremity, for the taking away of His wrath. How did He do it? "By pardoning their sins, by taking away their iniquities! If we can but cry unto Him, He will "turn and take away our sins." Then let us listen to Him. Then let us consult, and meet in Parliament; and ask Him counsel, and hear what He saith, "for He will speak peace unto His People." If you be the People of God, He will speak peace; and we will not turn again to folly.

"Folly:" a great deal of grudging in the Nation that we cannot have our horse-races, cock-fightings, and the like! [Abolished, suspended, for good reasons!] I do not think these are lawful, except to make them recreations. That we will not endure 'for necessary ends' [For preventing Royalist Plots, and such like] to be abridged of them: Till God hath brought us to

another spirit than this, He will not bear with us. Ay, 'but He bears with them in France;" "they in France

are so and so!" Have they the Gospel as we have? They have seen the sun but a little; we have great lights. -If God give you a spirit of Reformation, you will preserve this Nation from "turning again" to those fooleries: and what will the end be? Comfort and blessing. Then "Mercy and Truth shall meet together." Here is a great deal of "truth" among professors, but very little "mercy!" They are ready to cut the throats of one another. But when we are brought into the right way, we shall be merciful as well as orthodox: and we know who it is that saith, "If a man could "speak with the tongues of men and angels, and yet "want that, he is but sounding brass and a tinkling "cymbal!"

Therefore I beseech you in the name of God, set your hearts to this 'work.' And if you set your hearts to it, then you will sing Luther's Psalm.* That is a rare Psalm for a Christian! and if he set his heart open, and can approve it to God, we shall hear him say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." If Pope and Spaniard, and Devil and all, set themselves against us, though they

* Psalm Forty-sixth; of which Luther's Paraphrase, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott, is still very celebrated. Here is the original Psalm:

"God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble; there"fore we will not fear, though the Earth be removed, and though the 66 mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters roar "and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof!

"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the City of "God, the Holy Place of the Tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the "midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right "early. The Heathen raged, the Kingdoms were moved: He uttered His "voice, the Earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob "is our refuge.

"Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made "in the Earth! He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth; He "breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the "chariot in the fire: - Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted 66 among the Heathen, I will be exalted in the Earth! The Lord of Hosts 'is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."