Chap. IV. The HIS T 0 RY if the PuRITANS~ 54-3 derate epifcopacy, at leaft in Engla11d, but that the more zealous pa_rty Interc h T h Regnum; were doing what they could to keep on 100t t. e covenant. o w 1ch 1659 . Douglafi replied, '! It is bell: that the preibytman government ~e fettled ~J " !imply, for you know that the judgment ofhoneft men here, IS for ad- " mitting the king on no other but cove~ant tern:s." . . The independents and anabCJptijis were 111 fuch d1fgrace, that the1r leaders Bebavtour of . ( J cl . h" · h 1r • G ltbe mdepenhad not the honour of bemg COJ;J u te 111 t IS we1g ty auat~. eniiera dents. Monk and the prefbyterians were united, and h ad force fu~ctent to u~- port their claims: the tide was with them, and tl1~ pa1:liame~t at th~1r mercy. The independents offered to ftand by thw fnends Ill parlia– ment, and to raife four new regiments from among themfelves, to force the general back into Scotland. Dr. Owen and Mr. Nye had frequent confultations with Mr. Whitlock and St. John; and at a private treaty with the officers at Wallingford-Houft, offered to raife one hundred thoufand pounds for the ufe of the army, provided they would proteCt them in their religious liberties, which they were apprehenfive Mr-nk and the prefbyterians deiigned to fubvert ; but thofe officers had loft their credit ;, their meafures were difconcerted and broken; one party was for a treaty, and another for the fword , but it was too late; their old veteran regi– ments were dillodged from the city, and Monk in poifdfion. In this confufion their general Fleetwood, who had brought them into this difhefs,. retired and left them a body withou t a heaq, after which they became infignificant, and in a few months quite contemptible. Here ended the power of the army, and of the independents. Being now to take leave of this people, it may be proper to obferve, '17uir rife that the independents fprang up and mightily increafed in the time of the and rcfolute·,, . '1 d h d h . f "ii d I' . 1 Th d" progrefs tbr~ CI.Vl wars, an a t e reputatiOn o , a Wl e an po I tiC peop e: ey 1- tbe war. · v1ded from the prefbyterians upon the foot of difcipline, and fought in the parliament's quarrel, not fo much for hire and reward, as from a real belief that it was the cau.fe of God; this infpired their foldiers with CQUrage, and made them face death with undaunted bravery, in fo muchthat when the army was new modelled, and filled up with men of this principle, they carried all before them. When the war was ended they b?ldly feized the perfon of the king, and treated him with ho~ ~ no_ur,_ till they found him unfteady to his promifes of a toleration if their pnnctples, and then they became his mofl: determined enemies; when· they were affured afterwards by the treaty of the ljle of Wight, that they were to b~ crufhed between both _Parties, and to lofe their religious liberty, for wh1ch they had been fightmg, they tore up the government by the roots, and fubv_erted_ t~e wh~le. conftitution. This they did, not in confequence of their rehgwus pnnc1ples, but to fecure their own fafety and liberty •.
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