of mankind; he may certainly be put to death with as much justice on the scaffold, as he is oppofed with arms in the field. Nor is this only my opinion, or one of recent date; for common fenfe has long fince dictated the fame to others. Hence Tully in his oration for Rabirius, declares, "If it were criminal to put Saturninus to death, arms could not, without a crime, have been taken up against Saturninus; but if you allow the juftice of taking up arms against him, you must allow the juftice of putting him to death." I have faid a good deal on this fubject at other times and in other places, and the thing is clear enough in itself; from which you may conjecture what the French would have done if they had the power. I add, moreover, that those who oppose a tyrant in the field, do all in their power to put him to death; indeed, whatever fophiftry they may use, they have already morally put him to death. But this doctrine is not to be imputed to us more than to the French, whom you wish to exempt from the imputation. For whence iffued that work of "Franco Gallia," except from Gaul, or "the defence against tyranny?" A book which is commonly afcribed to Beza. Whence oth rs, which Thuanus mentions? But, as if I were the only author of the doctrine, you fay, "Milton makes a pother about that, whose raving spirit I would have chastised as it deferves." You would have chastised, miscreant? You, whofe attrocious proceedings, if the church of Middleburgh, which was difgraced by your impieties, had punished as they deferved, it would long fince have committed you to the keeping of the Devil; and if the civil power had rewarded you according to your defert, you would long ago, have expiated your adulteries on a gibbet. And the hour of expiation feems on the point of arriving; for, as I hear, the church of Middleburgh, awakening to a right sense of your enormities and of its own difgrace, has expelled fuch a priest of lechery from her communion, and devoted you to perdition. Hence, the magiftrates of Am fterdam have excluded you from the pulpit, that pious ears may no longer be fcandalized, by hearing the founds of your profligate effrontery in the bofom of the fanctuary. Your Greek profefforship is now all that is left you;

and

and this you will foon lofe, except one fingle letter, of which you will not be the profeffor, but the pupil, penfile from the top 5. Nor do I omen this in rage; I express only the truth; for I am fo far from being offended with fuch revilers as you, that I would always wifh for such persons to revile me; and I esteem it a mark of the divine benevolence, that thofe, who have most bitterly inveighed against me, have ufually been perfons whofe abuse is praife, and whofe praife is infamy. But what ferved to reftrain the irruption of fuch impotence of rage? "Unlefs," you you fay," I had been fearful of encroaching on the province of the great Salmafius, to whom I relinquish the undivided praise of victory over his great antagonist.' Since indeed you now profefs to confider me great, as well as him, you will find the difficulties of your undertaking increased, particularly fince his death; though I feel very little folicitude about the victory, as long as truth prevails. In the mean time you exclaim, that "we are converting parricide into an article of faith, to which they fecretly defire, though they do not openly dare to afcribe, the unanimous confent of the reformed churches; and Milton fays, that it was the, doctrine of the greateft theologians, who were the principal authors of the reformation." It was, I fay; as I have more fully fhewn in the tenure of kings and magistrates, and in other places. But now we are become fcrupulous about doing what has been so often done. In that work, I have cited paffages from Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, Bucer, Martyr, Paræus, and lastly, from that Knox, who you fay alone countenances the doctrine which all the reformed churches at that time, and particularly thofe of France, condemned. And he himself affirms, as I have there explained, that he derived the doctrine from Calvin and other eminent theologians of that time, with whom he was in habits of familiarity and friendship. And in the fame work you will find the fame opinions fupported by the authorities of fome of our more pure and difinterested divines, during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. You conclude your work with a prolix effufion of your devotional abominations to the Deity. You dare to lift up your adulterous eyes and your obdurate heart to heaven! I will throw no impe. diments

diments in your way, but leave you to yourself; for your impiety is great beyond the poffibility of increase. I now return, as I promised, to produce the principal accufations against Cromwell, that I may fhew what little confideration particulars deferve, when the whole taken together is fo frivolous and abfurd." He declared in the prefence of many witneffes, that it was his intention to fubvert every monarchy, and exterminate every king." We have often feen before what credit is due to your affertions; perhaps one of the emigrants afcribed this faying to Cromwell. Of the many witneffes, you do not mention the name of a single one; but aspersions, so destitute of proof, must be deftitute of permanence. Cromwell was never found to be boaftful of his actual exploits : and much lefs is he wont to employ any oftentatiousness of promise or arrogance of menace refpecting atchievements which were never performed, and the performance of which would be fo difficult. Thofe, therefore, who furnished you with this piece of information, must have been liars rather from a fpontaneous impulfe or a conftitutional propenfity, than from deliberate intention, or they would never have invented a faying fo contrary to his character and difpofition. But the kings, whofe trembling apprehenfions and vigilant precautions you labour to excite, instead of accommodating their policy to the opinions which may be cafually uttered in the street, had better enter on the confideration of the subject in a manner more fuitable to its dignity, and more likely to throw light upon their interefts. Another accufation is, that Cromwell had perfuaded " the king fecretly to withdraw himself into the Isle of Wight." It is well known that the affairs of Charles were often rendered desperate in other ways, and thrice by flight; firft, when he fled from London to York, next, when he took refuge among the Scotch in the pay of England, and laftly, when he retired to the Isle of Wight. But "Cromwell perfuaded this last measure." This is to be fure beyond all poffibility of doubt; but I wonder that the Royalists should lavish fuch an abundance of praise respecting the prudence of Charles, who feems scarce ever to have had a will of his own. For whether he was among his friends or his enemies, in

the

the court or in the camp, he was generally the mere puppet of others; at one time of his wife, at another of his bifhops, now of his nobles, then of his troops, and last of all of the enemy. And he seems, for the most part, to have followed the worst counfels, and those too of the worst advifers. Charles is the victim of perfuafion, Charles the dupe of impofition, Charles the pageant of delufion; he is intimidated by fear or dazzled by hope; and carried about here and there, the common prey of every faction, whether they be friends or foes. Let them either erase these facts from their writings, or cease to extol the fagacity of Charles. Though therefore a fuperior degree of penetration is an honourable distinction, yet when a country is torn with factions, it is not without its inconveniencies; and the most discreet and cautious are most exposed to the calumnies of oppofite factions. This often proved an obftacle in the way of Cromwell. Hence the prefbyterians, and hence the enemy impute every harfh treatment which they experience, not to the parliament but to Cromwell alone. They do not even hesitate to afcribe their own indifcretions and mifcarriages to the fraud and treachery of Cromwell; against him every invective is levelled, and every cenfure paffed. Indeed the flight of Charles to the Isle of Wight, which took place while Cromwell was at a diftance, and was fo fudden and unexpected, that he acquainted by letter every member then in the metropolis with the extraordinary occurrence. But this was the state of the cafe. The king, alarmed by the clamours of the whole army, which, neither foftened by his intreaties nor his promises, had begun to demand his punishment, he determined to make his escape in the night with two trufty followers. But more determined to fly, than rightly knowing where to fly, he was induced, either by the ignorance or the cowardice of his attendants, to furrender himfelf to Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight, whence he thought that he might easily be conveyed by fhip into France or Holland. This is what I have learned concerning the king's flight to the Ifle of Wight, from those who poffeffed the readieft means of obtaining information. This is alfo one of the criminal charges; that" the English under Cromwell procured a

great

66

great victory over the Scots." Not" procured," fir, but, without any folecifm, gloriously atchieved. But confider how fanguinary that battle must have been, the mere idea of which excited fuch trembling apprehenfions, that you could not mention it without ftriking your head against Prifcian's pate. But let us fee what was the great crime in Cromwell in having gained fuch a complete victory over the Scots, who were menacing England with invasion, with the lofs of her independence. During this confufion, while Cromwell is abfent with his army:" yes, while he was engaged in fubduing an enemy, who had marched into the very heart of the kingdom, and menaced the fafety of the parliament; while he was employed in reducing the revolted Welch to their obedience, whom he vanquished wherever he could overtake, and dispersed wherever he could find; the prefbyterians "began to conceive a difguft against Cromwell." Here you speak the truth. While he is repelling the common enemy at the hazard of his life, and bravely defending their interests abroad, they are confpiring to ruin his reputation at home, and fuborn one Huntington to take away his life. Does not this atrocious inflance of ingratitude excite our abhorrence and our rage? By their inftigation a mob of worthlefs people, reeking from the taverns and the ftews, befieges the doors of the parliament, and (O indignity) compells them by clamour and intimidation, to vote fuch measures as they chofe to dictate. And we fhould now have feen our Camillus, on his return from Scotland, after all his triumphs, and all his toils, either driven into exile, or put to an ignominious death, if General Fairfax had not openly remonftrated against the difgrace of his invincible lieutenant; if the whole army, which had itself experienced a good deal of ill-treatment, had not interpofed to prevent fuch atrocious proceedings. Entering the metropolis, they quelled the citizens without much difficulty; they defervedly expelled from the fenate thofe members who favoured the hoftile Scotch; the reft, delivered from the infolence of the rabble, broke off the conference which had begun with the king in the Isle of Wight, contrary to the exprefs orders of the parliament. But Huntington the accufer was left to himfelf; and at

laft,