200 many parliament garri sons about them, encrea~ ' cl in power, and left at' leisure to turne all their designes against No tli 1glmm, which being so infii·me within itselfe, the governor had a very ditfi cult taske Lo preserve it, while the disaffected, who were subtile , c!.tcl not clearely declare themselves, hut watcht all opertuuities to worke tho govcmor's disturbance, by fomenl in.g the ill humours of the factious committee men and priests; for they now tooke occasion to f[lll in with them, upon the governor's release of his chicfe cannoneers out of prison, into which he, by the instigation of the ministers and the godly people, whom they animated allmost to mutiny, had put them, for separating from the public worship, and keeping li ttle conventicles in their owne chamber. It was with some reluctancy he had commitlecl them, for the men, though of different iuclgments in matter of worship, were otherwise honest, peaceable, and very zealous and faithful! to the cause; but the ministets were so unable to suffer their separation and spreading of their opinions, that the governor was fo rc'd to commit them ; yet when this g reate clanger was, he thought it not prudent to keepe them discontented and then employ them, and therefore sett them at li berty, for which there was a greate outcry against him as a favourer of separatists: T This being the first time that a disunion in religion among those of the parliament's party has been plainly named, it is proper here to state, that in the outset all' those sects, which have si nce taken so many various names, joined their torces to repel the encroachments of the P1·elates, - it wo uld not be fair to say of tbe Clturclt of E1tglaud, whose c haracteristic is moderation i_t selt~-but when they had almost crushed the Epi scopali ans, the Presbyterian min isters began to rise pre -emi nent in power, and to shew that though they had changed the name, they by no means intended to di minish the dominion of the hierarchy. There are prescrvcd in VVh itelock two speeches, one of his owu and one of Selden's, on this subject. To resist this usurpati on there arose a very powerful party or fact ion under the name of Independents, under whose banne-r e nli sted all who desired liberty of con!:ciencc, of whatever particular pe rsuasion they mi ght be; and, amo1igst others, most natu rally all such as wished to see the Church of England res tored to her purity, and redeemed from het_
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