Chap. V. The HIS T 0 R Y 'of the PuRITANS. Few, if any of thefe criminals, were friends of the proteClor CROM· Ki11g WELL, but gave him all poffible difturbance in favour of a commonwealth. Cha~~s Il. Mr. H. Cromwell, in one of his letters from Ireland, 1657·8 fays, "'Tis ~" a fad cafe, when men knowing the difficulties we labour under, feek Rnnarkr. · " occafions to quarrel and unfettle every thing again; I hear Harri- ,, Jon, Carew, and Okey, have done new feats. I hope God w ill infa- .. tuate them in their endeavours to dillurb the peace of the nation ; " their folly {hews them to be no better than abufers of religion, " and fuch whofe hypocrify the Lord will avenge in due time." The regicides certainly confounded the caufe of the parliarpent, or the nece!lity of entering into a war to bring delinquents to juflice, with the king's execution; whereas they fall under a very diftintl: confideration ; the former might be neceflary, when the latter had neither b.w nor equity to fupport it; for admitting (with them), that the king is accountable to his parliament; the houfe of commons alone is not the parlia– ment; and if it was, it could not be fo, after it was under refl:raint, . and one half of the members forcibly kept fro1n their places by the military power. They had no precedent for ·their conduct, nor any meafure of law to try and condemn their "fovereign: Though the fcripture fays, he that fheds man's blood, by manjhall his blood be Jhed; yet this is not a rul e of duty for private perfons, when there is a government fubfifting. If the king had fallen in battle it had been a different cafe; but how crimi~ . nal foever his majefty might be in their apprehenfions, they had no war-· rant to fit as his judges, and therefore could have no right by their ver- - diCl: or fentence to put him to death.. . .tfafor an There was another act paffed thts feffions, for a perpetual anmverfary onniverfary thankfgiving on the 29th of May, for his rnaje!1:y's happy reiteration; •bfervati•n if ' upon which occafion the bifh~ps wt::;e commanded to dr~w up. a fuitable ~:;?th of form of prayer ; and Mr. Robmfon, w the preface to hts revzew qf"the cafe qf liturgies, fays, that in the firfl: form, which is fince altered, there are thefe unwarrantable expreffions, which I mention only to !hew the fpirit of the times. -- "We befeech thee to give us grace, to re- " member, and provide for our latter end, by a careful and ftudious imi- " tation of this thy bleffed faint and martyr. and all other thy faints and " martyrs that have gone before us; that we may be made worthy to re- '' ceive the benefit by their prayers, which they, in communion with thy . " church catholic, offer up unto thee for that part of it here malignant, . '' and yet in fight with, and danger from the fle(h - " M"! , . k . 1 "- . 1 ton sand The boo s of the great Mz ton, and Mr. John Goodwm, publiilied in Goodwin's defence of the fent~nce of death, paffed upon his late.majefl:y; were cal..! b•oks burnt. led .in by proclamation. And upon the 27th of Augufl, Milton's defe'!fio pro populo anglicano contra Salmafiurn ; and his anjwer to a book entituled, the,
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