that we shall have no cause to fear, as it may be ordered. "By this means a great part of the outward exercise of anti-Christian tyranny and bondage will be plucked up by the very roots; which, till some such course be held in it, will be always apt to renew and sprout out afresh, under some new form or refined appearances, as by late years' experience we have been taught. For since the fall of the Bishops and persecuting Presbyteries, the same spirit is apt to rise in the next sort of clergy, that can get the ear of the magistrate, and pretend to the keeping and ruling of the conscience of the governors; although this spirit and practice hath been all along decried by the faithful adherents to this cause as a most sore oppression, and insufferable yoke of bondage most unrighteously kept up over the consciences of the people, and therefore judged by them most needful to be taken out of the way; and in this matter the present governors have been willing very eminently to give their testimony in their public declarations, however in practice there is much of grievance yet found among us, though more, in probability, from the officiousness of subordinate ministers, than any clear purpose or design of the chief In such teaching the rights of conscience are planted on their proper ground. No one, after reading Vane's words, can fail to see the truth and justice of the lines addressed to him by John Milton : "Besides, to know Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, What severs each, thou hast learn'd, which few have done; Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son." 1 Forster's Statesmen of the Commonwealth, iii. 365. But views of religious liberty, worthy the admiration of posterity, were coupled in Vane's mind with an impracticable and un-English republican theory, which stripped them of the authority with which otherwise they might have been clothed. It was unfortunate for the interests of freedom that, in an age when it struggled to establish its sway, there were too often in alliance with its advocacy enthusiastic opinions or fanatical practices, impairing it at the time, and affording pretexts for opposing it in the next generation. Vane acted with characteristic honesty and candour in sending privately to Cromwell a copy of the "Healing Question," containing the sentences we have quoted, before he proceeded to publish what he had written. Perhaps it never reached the Protector's hands. Be that as it might, notwithstanding the moderate tone of the pamphlet sufficient, one would have thought, to protect the author against any unpleasant interference from the Government-some of the political passages which the pamphlet contained greatly displeased the Protector; a displeasure which was much increased by another violent publication, attributed to Vane's pen, but not with sufficient reason. The republican statesman was summoned before the Council. The Council required him to give a bond for £5,000 that he would not disturb the peace of the Commonwealth, in default whereof he should stand committed. He refused to give the bond, and to the great discredit of both Cromwell and his Council, they sent their honest brother patriot to prison. ENGL CHAPTER VII. NGLAND could not exist long without Parliaments. The Major-Generals had become intolerable. Sir Harry Vane and others, in their call for another of the old constitutional assemblies of the land, only expressed the deeply-seated desire of the nation. The Protector, therefore, made a further attempt to govern in the ancient fashion; and for that end writs were sealed and sent out in the month of July. After the corn had been garnered, while still the reaper's sickle in some parts was flashing amidst the wheat, the country was astir with elections, and citizens and yeomen were rushing to the poll. Cromwell and his supporters looked on with no little apprehension, finding so much of disaffection to the Protectorate. Cavaliers and Presbyterians could not be trusted. Anabaptists and Republicans, too, were objects of fear. When the elections were over, the following letter, which explains itself, was written to the Protector:-1 1 State Papers, Dom. Interregnum, August the 26th, 1656. We find the author of the Christian Armour giving advice before the election. The Magistrates' Portraiture: a Sermon at Stowmarket, in Suffolk, upon August the 20th, 1656, before the election of Parliament-men for the same county, on Is. i. 26: "And I will restore thy judges as at first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning;" by William Gurnall, of Lavenham. 1656. May it please your Highness,-After the election was over at Maidstone, many of the Commissioners for securing the peace of the county met, and upon consideration had of affairs (having seen such a sad spirit appearing in the county against what good soever your Highness and those under your commands have endeavoured to do, most of the Cavaliers falling in with the Presbyterians against all those persons that owned your Highness and present Government; and finding in the generality of the county such a bitter spirit against Swordsmen, Decimators, Courtiers, &c., as did appear in the field at the time of election, the most of those that are chosen to sit in the ensuing Parliament being of the same spirit,) were full of fears what the consequence of this meeting might be; and would have wrote to your Highness at present, but that there was not a full meeting, and therefore referred it to me to give your Highness an account of what was upon their hearts; -which was that if there was not a restraint upon them, they had cause to fear they would put all into blood and confusion, their party giving out they would down with the Major-Generals, and Decimators, and the new militia, so that they do apprehend it good for your Highness to consider beforehand what is fit to be done. And therefore they think it necessary to appoint some persons that shall have commissions dormant to some gentlemen, that the honest party may know to whom to repair, and to that end, at their next meeting, shall present you with names accordingly. They think a recognition, as it may be penned, may keep some that are most dangerous out, and better that they be kept out at first, than afterwards The preacher expresses a fear of the letting in of Popery through the sects, Anabaptists, Seekers, Quakers, VOL. II. K &c., and recommends his hearers to seek out men faithful to the ministers of the Gospel. your Highness be forced to turn them out. They think it will be your wisdom not to suffer them to meddle with the instrument of Government, but all that go into the House be engaged to own it as it is, and not to meddle with altering any part of it, without your Highness's consent. As also not to meddle with what hath been done out of necessity by your Highness and Council, in order to the peace and safety of the nation. Their hearts are with your Highness to stand by you with their lives and fortunes, they finding such a perverseness in the spirits of those that are chosen, that, without resolution of spirit in your Highness and Council to maintain the interests of God's people (which is to be preferred before a thousand Parliaments) against all opposition whatsoever, we shall return again to our Egyptian taskmasters. And therefore do earnestly beg that the Lord would direct your heart what to do in this juncture of affairs. And if Parliaments will not do it, then to take such to your assistance as will stand by you in that work, which God hath begun, and will yet undoubtedly own and carry on, maugre all His enemies; and we judge it better to persist in the work of the Lord than now we have put our hands to the plough to look back. And although the murmurings and discontents of God's people, together with all our unsuitable walkings under those precious enjoyments we have from the Lord, may provoke Him to leave us to be overcome by our enemies, and cause us to hang our harps upon the willows, and cause the enemy to call for one of the songs of Sion in a strange land; yet, if the Lord shall take pleasure in us, He will cause His face to shine upon us, and carry us well through the seas of blood that are threatened against us, and the waste howling wilderness of our straits and difficulties, and at length bring us to that |