Note 157 — Chapter VII

In connection with this notice of a godly ministry at the re-opening of Parliament, it may not be irrelevant to mention that the daily meetings of Cromwell's Parliament commenced with prayer; and that whereas in the Little Parliament the members turned the legislative assembly into a prayer-meeting—and "engaged" one after another in devotional exercises—in the Parliaments which followed, no such custom obtained; but some regular minister officiated each morning. So scrupulous did the Commons become in confining the performance of Divine worship to the Clergy, that in the last of Oliver's Parliaments, the House on one occasion waited half an hour for the minister, and because he did not make his appearance proceeded without prayer.—Cromwellian Diary, i. xxvii., and Parry, 522.