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Dr. Welwood compares the protector to an unusual meteor, which with its surprising influences overawed not only three kingdoms, but the most powerful princes and states about us. A great man he was, says he, and posterity might have paid a just homage to his memory, if he had not imbrued his hands in the blood of his prince, and trampled upon the liberties of his country.

Upon the whole, it is not to be wondered, that the character of this great man has been transmitted down to posterity with some disadvantage, by the several factions of Royalists, Presbyterians, and Republicans, because each were disappointed, and enraged to see the supreme power wrested from them; but his management is a convincing proof of his great abilities: he was at the helm in the most stormy and tempestuous season that England ever saw ; but by his consummate wisdom and valour, he disconcerted the measures and designs of his enemies, and preserved both himself and the commonwealth from shipwreck. I shall only observe farther, with Rapin, that the confusions which prevailed in England after the death of Cromwell, clearly evidence the necessity of this usurpation, at least till the constitution could be restored. After his death his great achievements were celebrated in verse, by the greatest wits of the age, as Dr. Sprat, afterward bishop of Rochester, Waller, Dryden, and others, who in their panegyrics outdid every thing which till that time had been written in the English language.

Four divines of the assembly died this year: Dr. John Harris, son of Richard Harris of Buckinghamshire, born in the parsonage-house of Hardwick in the same county, educated in Wickham-school near Winchester, and in the year 1606 admitted perpetual fellow of New-college. He was so admirable a Grecian, and eloquent a preacher, that sir Henry Saville called him a second St. Chrysostom. In 1619 he was chosen Greek professor of the university. He was afterward prebendary of Winchester, rector of Meonstoke in Hampshire, and in the year 1630, warden of Wickhamcollege near Winchester; in all which places he behaved with great reputation. In the beginning of the civil wars he took part with the parliament, was chosen one of the assembly of divines, took the covenant, and other oaths,

* P. 102.

and kept his wardenship till his death; he published several learned works, and died at Winchester, August 11, 1658, aged seventy years.

Mr. Sydrach Sympson, a meek and quiet divine of the Independent persuasion, was educated in Cambridge, but forced to fly his country for nonconformity in the times of archbishop Laud. He was one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly, and behaved with great temper and moderation. Bishop Kennet says, he was silenced for some time from preaching, because he differed in judgment from the assembly in points of church-discipline, but was restored to his liberty October 28, 1646. He afterward gathered a congregation in London, after the manner of the Independents, which met in Ab-church near Cannon-street. Upon the resignation of Mr. Vines in the year 1650, for refusing the engagement, he was by the visitors made master of Pembrokehall, Cambridge. He was a divine of considerable learning, and of great piety and devotion. In his last sickness he was under some darkness, and melancholy apprehensions; upon which account some of his friends and brethren assembled in his own house to assist him with their prayers; and in the evening, when they took their leave, he thanked them, and said, he was now satisfied in his soul; and lifting up his hands towards heaven said, " He is come, he is come." And that night died.

Dr. Robert Harris was born at Broad-Campden in Gloucestershire, 1578, and educated in Magdalen-college, Oxon. He preached for some time about Oxford, and settled afterward at Hanwell, in the place of famous Mr. Dodd, then suspended for nonconformity; here he continued till the breaking out of the civil wars, when by the king's soldiers he was driven to London. He was appointed one of the assembly of divines, and minister of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. In the year 1646, he was one of the six preachers to the university of Oxford, and next year one of their visitors, when he was created D. D. and made president of Trinitycollege, and rector of Garlington near Oxford, which is always annexed to it. Here he continued till his death, governing his college with a paternal affection, being reverenced by the students as a father. The inscription over his grave gives him a great character; but the royalists charge him, and I believe justly, with being a notorious

pluralist.* He died December 11, 1658, in the eightieth year of his age.+

Mr. William Carter was educated in Cambridge, and afterward a very popular preacher in London. He was a good scholar, of great seriousness, and though a young man, appointed one of the assembly of divines. After some time he joined the Independents, and became one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly. He had offers of many livings but refused them, being dissatisfied with the parochial discipline of those times; nevertheless, he was indefatigable in his ministry, preaching twice every Lord's day to two large congregations in the city, besides lectures on the weekdays: this wasted his strength, and put an end to his life about Midsummer 1658, in the fifty-third year of his age. His family were afterward great sufferers by the purchase of bishops' lands.

CHAP. IV.

THE INTERREGNUM FROM THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL TO THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES II. AND THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 1659.

UPON the death of the protector, all the discontented spirits who had been subdued by his administration resumed their courage, and within the compass of one year revived the confusions of the preceding ten. Richard Cromwell, being proclaimed protector upon his father's decease, received numberless addresses from all parts, congratulating his accession to the dignity of protector, with assurances of lives and fortunes cheerfully devoted to support his title.

* Against this charge, if the truth of it should be admitted, ought to be set his charity; which, we are told, exceeded the ordinary proportion of his revenues.-ED. t Clarke's Lives in his Martyrology, p. 314-339.

Of these addresses, Dr. Grey says, "nothing ever exceeded them in point of flattery, except those canting addresses of the dissenters to king James upon his indulgence" and he gives several at length, as specimens of the strain of adulation in which they were drawn up, from different corporations: from which the reader will see that mayors, recorders, and aldermen, of that day could rival the Independent ministers, whom the doctor reproaches as "most foully guilty," in their effusions of flattery. In truth, all were paying their devoirs to the rising suu.--ED.

He was a young gentleman of a calm and peaceable temper, but had by no means the capacity or resolution of his father, and was therefore unfit to be at the helm in such boisterous times. He was highly caressed by the Presbyterians,though he set out upon the principles of general toleration, as appears by his declaration of November 25, entitled, "A procla mation for the better encouraging godly ministers and others;" and for their enjoying their dues and liberties, according to law, without being molested with indictments for not using the Common Prayer-book.

The young protector summoned a parliament to meet on the 27th of January 1658-9. The elections were not according to the method practised by his father, but according to the old constitution, because it was apprehended that the smaller boroughs might be more easily influenced than cities and counties; but it was ill judged to break in upon the instrument of government, by which he held his protectorship. The parliament met according to appointment, but did little business, the lower house not being willing to own the upper. The army was divided into two grand factions; the Wallingford-house party, which was for a commonwealth; and the Presbyterian, which with the majority of the parliament, was for the protector. The Wallingfordhouse party, of which Fleetwood and Desborough were the head, invited Dr. Owen and Dr. Manton to their consultations. Dr. Owen went to prayer before they entered on business, but Dr. Manton, being late before he came, heard a loud voice from within, saying, He must down, and he shall down. Manton knew the voice to be Dr. Owen's, and understood him to mean the deposing of Richard, and therefore would not go in. But the writer of Dr. Owen's life discredits this story; though, in my opinion, it is very probable, for the doctor inclined to a republican government: he sided with the army, and drew up their address against Oliver's being king: upon which he declined in the protector's favour, and as soon as Richard became chan→ cellor of Oxford, he turned him out of the vice-chancellorship. The cabinet-council at Wallingford-house having gained over several to their party, prevailed with Richard to consent to their erecting a general council of officers, though he could not but know they designed his ruin, being all republicans; and therefore, instead of supporting the

protector, they presented a remonstrance, complaining of the advancement of disaffected persons, and that the good old cause was ridiculed. Richard, sensible of his fatal mistake, by the advice of lord Broghil dissolved the council, and then the parliament voted they should meet no more; but the officers bid him defiance, and like a company of sovereign dictators armed with power, sent the protector a peremptory message to dissolve the parliament, telling him that it was impossible for him to keep both the parliament and army at his devotion, but that he might choose which he would prefer; if he dissolved the parliament he might depend upon the army, but if he refused, they would quickly pull him out of Whitehall. Upon this the timorous gentleman being at a plunge, and destitute of his father's courage, submitted to part with the only men who could support him.

After the dissolution of the parliament, Richard became a cipher in the government; lord Broghil, afterward earl of Orrery, advised him to the last to support the parliament and declare against the council of officers; and if he had allowed the captain of his guard at the same time to have secured Fleetwood and Desborough, as he undertook to do with the hazard of his life, he might have been established; but the poor-spirited protector told him, that he was afraid of blood; upon which the captain, lord Howard, made his peace with the king. The officers at Wallingford-house, having carried their point, published a declaration about twelve days after, without so much as asking the protector's leave, inviting the remains of the long-parliament to resume the government, who immediately declared their resolutions for a commonwealth without a single person, or house of peers. Thus was the grandeur of Cromwell's family destroyed by the pride and resentment of some of its own branches: Fleetwood had married the widow of Ireton, one of Oliver's daughters, and being disappointed of the protectorship by his last will, was determined that no single person should be his superior. Desborough, who had married Oliver's sister, joined in the fatal conspiracy. Lambert, whom Oliver had dismissed the army, was called from his retirement to take his place among the council of officers. These, with sir H. Vane, and one or two more behind the curtain, subverted the government, and were the

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