PART IV. (continued 2)

B. He was thereby the sixth part of the general of the whole forces of the commonwealth. If I had been as the Rump, he should have been sole general. In such cases as this, there cannot be a greater vice than pinching. Ambition should be liberal.

A. After the pulling down of the city gates, the general sent a letter to the Rump, to let them know that that service was much against his nature, and to put them in mind how well the city had served the Parliament throughout the whole war.

B. Yes. But for the city the Parliament never could have made the war, nor the Rump ever have murdered the King.

A. The Rump considered not the merit of the city, nor the good-nature of the general. They 416were busy. They were giving out commissions, making of acts for abjuration of the King and his line, and for the old engagement, and conferring with the city to get money. The general also desired to hear conference between some of the Rump and some of the secluded members, concerning the justice of their seclusion, and of the hurt that could follow from their readmission: and it was granted, after long conference. The general finding the Rump’s pretences unreasonable and ambitious, declared himself with the city for a free Parliament, and came to Westminster with the secluded members, (whom he had appointed to meet and stay for him at Whitehall), and replaced them in the House amongst the Rumpers; so that now the same cattle that were in the House of Commons in 1640, except those that were dead and those that went from them to the late King at Oxford, are all there again.

B. But this, methinks, was no good service to the King, unless they had learned better principles.

A. They had learned nothing. The major part was now again Presbyterian. It is true they were so grateful to General Monk as to make him general of all the forces in the three nations. They did well also to make void the engagement; but it was because those acts were made to the prejudice of their party; but recalled none of their own rebellious ordinances, nor did anything in order to the good of the present King; but on the contrary, they declared by a vote, that the late King began the war against his two Houses.

B. The two Houses considered as two persons, were they not two of the King’s subjects? If a king raise an army against his subject, is it lawful 417for that subject to resist with force, when, as in this case, he might have had peace upon his submission?

A. They knew they had acted vilely and sottishly; but because they had always pretended to greater than ordinary wisdom and godliness, they were loath to confess it. The Presbyterians now saw their time to make a Confession of their Faith, and presented it to the House of Commons to show they had not changed their principles; which, after six readings in the House, was voted to be printed, and once a year to be read publicly in every church.

B. I say again, this re-establishing of the Long Parliament was no good service to the King.

A. Have a little patience. They were re-established with two conditions; one to determine their sitting before the end of March; another to send out writs before their rising for new elections.

B. That qualifies.

A. That brought in the King: for few of this Long Parliament, the country having felt the smart of their former service, could get themselves chosen again. This New Parliament began to sit April the 25th 1660. How soon these called in the King; with what joy and triumph he was received; how earnestly his Majesty pressed the Parliament for the act of oblivion, and how few were excepted out of it; you know as well as I.

B. But I have not yet observed in the Presbyterians any oblivion of their former principles. We are but returned to the state we were in at the beginning of the sedition.

A. Not so: for before that time, though the Kings of England had the right of the militia in virtue of the sovereignty, and without dispute, and without any particular act of Parliament directly to that 418purpose; yet now, after this bloody dispute, the next, which is the present, Parliament, in proper and express terms hath declared the same to be the right of the King only, without either of his Houses of Parliament; which act is more instructive to the people, than any arguments drawn from the title of sovereign, and consequently fitter to disarm the ambition of all seditious haranguers for the time to come.

B. I pray God it prove so. Howsoever, I must confess that this Parliament has done all that a Parliament can do for the security of our peace: which I think also would be enough, if preachers would take heed of instilling evil principles into their auditory. I have seen in this revolution a circular motion of the sovereign power through two usurpers, from the late King to this his son. For (leaving out the power of the council of officers, which was but temporary, and no otherwise owned by them but in trust) it moved from King Charles I to the Long Parliament; from thence to the Rump; from the Rump to Oliver Cromwell; and then back again from Richard Cromwell to the Rump; thence to the Long Parliament; and thence to King Charles II, where long may it remain.

A. Amen. And may he have as often as there shall be need such a general.

B. You have told me little of the general till now in the end: but truly, I think the bringing of his little army entirely out of Scotland up to London, was the greatest stratagem that is extant in history.

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