ders. Sir Henry, taking a rise from hence, offered his advice by a treatise, called The Healing Question': But Cromwell, angry at being taken at his word, seized, imprisoned, and endeavoured to proceed further against him, for doing only what he had invited him to do; and some may think, that Sir Henry suffered justly, for having known him so long, and yet would trust to any thing he said.

4thly, In Richard's assembly, certain prisoners in the Tower, under the then lieutenant, and some sent thence to Jersey, and other places beyond the sea, complained of false imprisonment. The jailor was sent for, and being required to shew by what authority he kept those persons in hold, produceth a paper all under Oliver's own hand, as followeth: Sir, I pray you seize such and such persons, and all others, whom you shall judge dangerous men ; do it quickly, and you shall have a warrant, after you have done.' The nature of this warrant was, by Richard's assembly, debated, and having first Richard's own council's opinion in the case, as serjeant Maynard, &c. they voted the commitment of the complaints to be illegal, unjust, and tyrannical; and that, first, because the warrant, by which they were committed, was under the hand of the then (as they called him) chief magistrate, who, by law, ought not to commit any by his own warrant. Secondly, because no cause was shewn in the warrant. And, Thirdly, in the case of those sent out of the reach of a Habeas Corpus, which in law is a banishment, because no Englishman ought to be banished by any less authority than an act of parliament. And therefore, for these reasons, they voted farther, that the prisoners should be set at liberty without paying any fees, or charges, but the turning out, and punishing the lieutenant by the assembly (for obeying so unjust a warrant) was prevented by their sudden dissolution.

5thly, The tyranny, in the decimating a party restored to common privileges with all others, and the publick faith given for it, by a law made to that end, by the then powers in being, is suffici ently shewed in the mentioning of it, only there is this aggravating circumstance in it: That Cromwell, who was the principal person in procuring that law, when he thought it for his advantage not to keep it, was the only man for breaking it. But to the honour of his first assembly, next following, it may be remembered, that they no sooner came together, than, like true Englishmen, who are always jealous of the rights and privileges of the people, they damned the act of decimation as an unjust and wicked breach of faith.

The third assertion of Cromwell's knowing no honesty, where he thought his particular interest was concerned, is made good; First, (tho' therein he mistook his interest) in his odious and unjust war with Spain, without the least provocations, meerly out of an ambitious and covetous design of robbing that prince of his silver and gold mines; and because he judged it for his credit to disguise his unlawful desires, he proceeded in it, by employing his creatures in the city, to draw the merchants to complain of inju

ries done them by Spain, and to petition for reparations; but, by a cross providence, his project had a contrary success; for, instead of answering his seekings, the merchants remonstrated to him the great prejudice that a war with Spain would be to England; and shewed, that that king had been so far from injuring us that he had done more for compliance, and preventing a breach with England, than ever he had done in favour of any other nation. But, when Oliver saw his method would not take, he called the remonstrators, malignants, and begun the war of his own accord, in which he was highly ungrateful in designing the ruin of that prince, who all along had been most faithful to his party.

Secondly, His falseness and ingratitude appeared superlatively in turning out his masters *, who had not only advanced him, but made themselves the more odious by their partial affection towards him; and in his doing it, with the breach of a positive negative oath, taken once a year, when made a counsellor of state, besides the breach of all other engagements, voluntary imprecations, protestations, and oaths, taken frequently upon all occasions in discourse and declarations; and yet further (when he had turned them out) and left them void of protection, and exposed them to the fury of the people, in pursuing them with false reproachful declarations, enough to have stirred up the rude multitude to have destroyed them, wherever they had met them.

Thirdly, His want of honour, as well as honesty, appeareth, yet further, in that having, by a long series of a seeming pious deportment, gained, by his dissimulation, good thoughts in his masters, the long-parliament, and, by his spiritual gifts, wound himself into so good an opinion with his soldiers (men, generally, of plain breeding, that knew little besides their military trade, and religious exercises) that he could impose, in matters of business, what belief he pleased upon them. He made use of the credit he had with each, to abuse both, by many vile practices, for making himself popu lar, and the parliament and army odious to one another; and, because the artifices he used are too many to enumerate, I shall but instance in some few: As his sly complaining insinuations against the army to the parliament, and against them to the army: His being the chief cause of the parliament's giving rewards to his creatures, and then, whispering complaints among his officers, of their ill husbandry: His obstructing the house in their business, by long drawling speeches, and other ways, and then complaining of them to his soldiers, that he could not get them to do any thing that was good: His giving fair words to every one, without keeping promise with any, except for his own advantage, and then excusing all with forgetfulness: And his deserting his major generals, in their decimations, crying out most against them himself, when he only had set them at work, because questioned by his assembly, is not to be forgotten, &c.

I would not be understood to remember any thing here, in fa

The long-parliament.

vour of the long-parliament, for what might be wicked in him, might be just as to them: And though, if what he did, had been for the restoration of his majesty, he might have been excused, yet, being for his own single advancement, it is unpardonable, and leaves him a person to be truly admired for nothing but apostasy and ambition, and exceeding Tiberius in dissimulation. I am not ignorant that some think it matter of praise in him, that he kept us in peace, four years and nine months; but that hath little in it, his majesty having done the like, almost double his time, since his return, with one fifth part of that number of soldiers which he commanded; though he hath also had the trouble of pressing, and sometimes forcing uniformity in religion, which he found under several forms; whereas Oliver kept the nation purposely divided in opinions, and himself of no declared judgment, as the securest way of engaging all several persuasions equally to him; which artifice, together with his leaving the church lands alienated as he found them, were all the true principles of policy that I know of, which he kept unto.

The honesty of these principles I refer to the judgment of every man's conscience, but, if we may judge of things by experience and success, they seem to have been very happy in the world: For, in comparing the condition of the protestant countries at present, to what they were in times of Popery, we shall find them more considerable now than formerly; for, in taking a true survey of the reformed dominions, we shall discover them to bear no proportion at all, in largeness, to the Popish*; and that there is nothing that keeps the balance betwixt the two parties, but the advantage that the first hath, in being free from the bondage of the church of Rome, and the latter's being under it: For, as the church of Rome's mercies are (by their principles) crueltiest, so, had they power answerable to the natural richness of the soil of their countries, and extent of their territories, they would long before this have swallowed up the protestant churches, and made bonfires of their members; but, as God, in his mercy and wisdom, hath, by his over-ruling hand of providence, preserved his church; so, for the Romish church's inability to effect that which they have will and malice enough to carry them on to do, there are these natural

reasons:

First, There being generally, of the Popish countries, above one moiety belonging to churchmen, Monks, Friars, and Nuns, who, like drones, spend the fat of the land, without contributing any thing to the good of mankind, renders them much the less cousiderable.

Secondly, Marriage being forbidden to all these sorts and orders, occasions great want of people every where, they being uncapable of any children but those of darkness, except in France, which is an extraordinary case, proceeding partly, by not being so sub

See page 41, &6.

† See page 36, &c.

Viz. Bastards.

ject to Rome, as other countries of that belief are; but especially from the multitude of protestants, that are among them.

Thirdly, The blind devotion of these people, carrying them on to vast expences, in the building and richly adorning of many needless and superfluous churches, chapels, and crosses, &c. with the making chargeable presents by the better, and pilgrimages by the meaner sort, to their idols, keeps all degrees under.

Fourthly, The many holydays, upon which, the labouring man is forbidden to work, adds much to their poverty.

But, Fifthly and Lastly, The vast number of Begging Friars, who living idly, and purely upon the sweat of other men's brows, without taking any labour themselves, make it impossible, for the lower sort of people, who think they are bound, in conscience, to relieve them, ever to get above a mean condition. Now whosoever shall seriously weigh and ponder these circumstances, under which the Popish countries lie, and consider the reformed's advantage in being free from them, must confess it the less wonder, that the Evangelical princes and states, with their small dominions, compared to the others great, are able to bear up against them. And now, as the alienation of church-lands, the turning out the Romish vermin, the Priests, Monks, Friars, and Nuns, who devour all countries wherever they come, and freedom from the Popish imposition upon conscience, hath mightily increased the greatness of the Protestant princes and states, to what they anciently were, and the not doing the same, in the Popish countries, keeps those princes under; so, even amongst the reformed, where the church-lands are most alienated, and liberty of conscience most given, they prosper most, as in Holland, and some parts of Germany, with other places. And, on the contrary, Denmark, where church-lands are least alienated of any of the reformed countries, and the city of Lubeck, where, of all the free imperial cities of Germany, liberty of conscience is least given, they thrive least in both places. And, I think, it will also hold, that, as this famous kingdom, in the times of Popery, was, in no measure, so formidable as now it is; so before the restoration of our Hierarchy to their lands, their hoarding up the money, which before went in trade, and their discouraging and driving into corners the industrious sort of people, by imposing upon their consciences, it flourished more, was richer, and fuller of trade, than now it is; and I dare undertake to be a prophet in this, That, if ever any protestant country should be so far forsaken of the Lord, as to be suffered to turn unto Popery, these observations will be made good in their visible loss of the splendor, riches, power, and greatness, that they now know.

Had Cromwell been a person of an open prophane life, his actions had been less scandalous; but, having been a professor of religion, they are not to be pleaded for; neither can it be consistent with religion to palliate them, which have been of so much offence,

Protestant, so called, because they take the word of God for their rule of faith.

and, as may be feared, made so many atheists in the world; and I cannot but stand amazed, when I hear him extolled by some, not ignorant of his practices, knowing in religion, and, as I hope, fearing God.

Now I will suppose, I may be suspected to have been injured, or disobliged by Oliver; but I can with truth affirm, I never received either good or evil from him in all my life, more than in common with the whole kingdom, which I think, may be allowed to render me the more a competent judge in his case; and, that I am so far from being moved unto this, out of any quarrel to him, that, as I have here mentioned some few of many injustices and state-errors, that he was guilty of in his short time, if I were conscious of any thing more, during his protectorship, worthy applause, than I have here mentioned, I should not envy it him, but freely remember it; and, if any think I have not said enough on his behalf, and too much to his disadvantage, I have this for my buckler, that I wish I could have said more for him, and had known less against him; professing, that, besides what I have here hinted, I am wholly ignorant of any one action in all his four years and nine months time, done either wisely, virtuously, or for the interest of this kingdom, and, therefore, that I am none of his admirers, I ought to be pardoned by my readers.

Much more might be said upon this subject, but this may suffice to shew, that, if Mazarin, at the hearing of Oliver's death, thought he had then reason for calling him a fortunate fool, if he were now living he would find more cause for it, Cromwell's lot, as to reputation, having been exceedingly much greater since his death, than whilst he was in the world: And that from forgetfulness of his im, politick government, from whose entrance we may date the commencement of our trade's decay; and, through want of memory, iu men's giving to him the cause of our former wealth and prosperity, which truly belongeth to others. But, what opinion soever Mazarin may have had of Oliver, he was, without all peradventure, a person of more than ordinary wit, and no otherwise a fool than as he wanted honesty, no man being wise but an honest man,