1he HISTORY oj the PuRITANS, VoL. II.- InterThe reverend Mr~ Tho. Cawton, born at Raynbam in Nor:folk and edu~ Re~num. cated in §(yeen's College Cambridge, he was afterwards ~inifler of 1.__~~ Wivenhoe in Eflex, r637, and at !all: of St. Bartbolomew behind the Mr. Tho. Exchange. He was (fays the Oxfird hifi:orian) a learned and religious Cawton. puritan, driven into . exil~ for preaching ag~infi: the murder of king Charles I. and for bemg 111 the f~me plot with Mr. Love, for raifing ~oney to fupply the ar~y ?f kmg Charles If. when he was coming mto England to recover his nght, He fled to Rotterdam, and became preacher to the englijh ~hurch there, where he died Aug. 7, I 65 9 , in the fifty fourth year of his age. King The new year began with the reftoration of king Charles IT. to the Charles II. throne of his ancefl:ors. The long parliament diifolved themfelves ~ March 16, and while the people were bufy in choofing a new one, ge– 'l'he •·1fora- neral Monk was courted by all parties. The republica/IS endeavoured to tion of king fix him for a commonwealth; the french ambaifador offered him the Charles II. aflifl:ance of France, if he would aifume the government either as kin<r l'refbyteri– ans in full power, or proteClor, which, 'tis faid, he would have accepted, if Sir Antbony Ajhley Cooper had not prevented it, by fummoning him before the coun~ cil, and keeping the doors locked till he had taken away the commif– fions from fome of his moll: trufiy officers, and given them to others of the council's nomination. But be this as it will, 'tis certain Monk had not as yet given the king any encouragement to rely upon him, though his majefiy had fent him a letter as long ago as July 2 1, I 659• by an exprefs meilenger, with the largeft offers of reward. The prefbyterians were now in poifeflion of the whole power of Eng– land; the council of fiate, the chief officers of the army and navy, and tne governors of the chief forts and garifons were theirs ; their clergy were in poif~::flion of both univerfities, and of the bell: livings in the king– dom. There was hardly a loyalifl:, or profeifed epifcopalian, in any poll: of honour or trufi; nor had the king any number of friends capable of promoting his refioration, for there was a difabling claufe in the qualifi– cation aCt, that all who had been in arms againjl the long parliament, Jhould be difqualijied from flrving t'n tbe next. The whole government therefore was with the prefbyterians, who were fhy of the independents as of a body of men more diftant from the church, and more enclined to a commonwealth. They were no lefs vigilant to keep out of parliament, the republicans of all forts, fome of whom, fays Burnet, run about every where like men that were giddy or amazed, but their time was pafb On the other hand, they. fecrctly courted the epifcopalians, who difBaxter, p. perfed papers among the people, protefiing t~eir refoluti?ns to. forget all 216, 218. pall: injuries, and to bury all rancour, mahce, and ammofitles, under Hilt. ~tuart~, the foundation of his majefiy's reftoration, " We refleCt (fay they) P• 45 • · " upon
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