64 7he E of the L I B. I. and kwas too late to make Refiflance. But not long after, when War was deter- mined againfl Scotland, he laid down his Commilìon, and never had todo with the Army more, and Cromwell was General in his head. § 98. If you ask what did the Minifters all this while; I anfwer, they Preach'd and Pray'd againfl Difloyalty : They drew up a Writing co the Lord General, de. daring their Abhorrence of all Violence againfl the.Perfonof theKing, and urg- ing him and his Army to take heed of Inch an unlawful Aet : They prefent it to the General when they taw the King in Danger : But Pride prevailed against their Counfels. .A.1649 4 99- The King being thus taken out of the way, Cromwell takes on him to be for a Commonwealth ( but all in order to the Security of the good People) till he had removed. the other Impediments which were yet to be removed : So that the Rump prefently drew upa Form of Engagement, to be put upon all Men, viz. Er do promifè to helm and Faithful to the Commonwealth as it is now eftablifhed with- out a King or Houfe of Lords. So we mutt take the Rump for an eftablifhed Com- monwealth, and promife Fidelity to them. This the Se6tarian Party fivallowed eafily, and fo did the King's old Cavaliers, fofar as I was acquainted with them, or could hear of them ( not heartily, no doubt, but theywere very few of them lick of the Difèafe called tendernefs of Confcience, or Scrupulofity : But the Pres- byterians, and the, moderate Epifcopal Men.refuted it, ( and I believe fo did the Prelatical Divines of the King's Party for the molt part ; though the Gentlemen had greater Neceflities.) Without this Engagement no Man muft have the Benefit of firing another at. Law ( which kept Mena littlefrom Contention, and would have marr'd the Lawyers trade) ; nor mutt they have any Mafterlhips in the Univer- fities, nor travel above fo many Miles from their Houfes, and more fuck Penalties, which I remember not (fo Ihort Lived a Commonwealth deferved no long Re- membrance) : Mr. Vines and Dr. Rainbow, and many more were hereupon put out of their Headthips in the Univerfrties, and Mr. Sidracb Sympfon, and Mr. Jo. Sadler, and fuck others put in ; yea, fah a Man as Mr. Dell, the Chaplainof the Army, who, I think, neither underftood himfelf, nor was underftood by others any farther than to be one, who took Reafon, Sound Doctrine, Order and Concord to be the intollerable Maladies of Church and State, becaufe they were the great- eft Strangers to his Mind, But poor Dr. EdwardReignolds had the harden Meafure ; for when he refuted to take the Engagement, his Place was forfeited; and after- wards they drew him to take it, in hopes to keephis Place, (which was no lets than the Deanarie of Cbrift's- Church) and then turned him out of all, and offered his Place to Mr. Jof. Caryll; but he refuting it, it was conferred on Dr. Owen, to whom it was continued from year to year. me. Eaton And becaufethe Presbyterians ftfll urged the Covenant againtt killing theKing, rorot, a and pulling down the Parliament, and fetting up a Commonwealth, and taking prow ttbat the Engagement, fome of the Independent Brethren maintained,' that its Obli- the oath f gation ceafed, becaufe it was a League, and the Occafion of it ceafed And fome Allegiance of the Rump faid it was like an Almanack out of date ; and fome of the Souldiers nor the co- Paid they never took it ; and others of them railed at it as aScotrifb Snare : So that uenantbind when their Idterelt would not fuffer them to keep fo folemn a Vow, their Wills net- would not fuffer their Judgments to confefs it to be Obligatory, at leafl, as to the part which they malt violate. § too. For my own part, though I kept the Town and Parilh of Kiderminfter from taking the Covenant (and feting howit might becomea Snare to their Con- fciences) yea, and moll of Worceflerfbire betides, by keeping the Minitters from offering it in any of the Congregations to the People (except in Worcefer City, where I had no great Intereft, and know not what theydid); yet I could not Judge it feemly for him that believed there is a God, o play fait and trefe with a dreadful Oath, as if the Bonds of National andPerfonal Vows were as eafily rhak'd off as Sampfon's Cords. Therefore I fpake and preach'd againfl the Engagement, and diffuaded Men from taking it : The fart hour that I heard of it, being in Company with fome Gentlemen of Worcefterfhire, I prefently wrote down above twenty Queries againrt it, intending as many more almoft againfl the Obligation, as thofe were about theSenfe and Circumftances : And one that was prefent got the Copy of them, and Ihortly after, 1 met with them verbatim in a Book ofMr. Henry Hals as his own : ( one that was long imprifoned for writingagainfl Cromwell. ) Some
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