all along, so that we have seen nothing, in all His dispensations, long beforehand; — which is also a witness, in some measure, to our integrity. ["Integrity!" from Dryasdust.-Husht, my friend, it is incredible! A flat impossibility, how can it be believed? To the human Owl, living in his perennial London Fog, in his Twilight of all imaginable corrupt Exhalations, and with his poor head, too, overspun to such extent with red-tape, parliamentary eloquence, force of public opinion and such like, how shall the Azure Firmaments and Everlasting Stars become credible? They are and remain incredible. From his shut sense all light-rays are victoriously repelled; no light shall get admittance there. In no Heaven's-light will he for his part ever believe ;—till at last, as is the necessity withal, it come to him as lightning! Then he will believe it.]—I say, you are called with an high calling. And why should we be afraid to say or think, That this may be the door to usher in the Things that God has promised; which have been prophesied of; which He has set the hearts of His People to wait for and expect? We know who they are that shall war with the Lamb, "against His enemies :" they shall be "a people called, and chosen and faithful." And God hath, in a Military way,-we may speak it without flattering ourselves, and I believe you know it,-He hath appeared with them, with that same "people," and for them; and now in these Civil Powers and Authorities does not He appear?' These are not ill prognostications of

the God we wait for. Indeed I do think somewhat is at the door: we are at the threshold;-and therefore it becomes us to lift up our heads, and encourage ourselves in the Lord. And we have thought, some of us, That it is our duties to endeavour this way; not merely to look at

1 Hundred-and-tenth Psalm, and other Scriptures, are known to Ludlow and us!

that Prophecy in Daniel, "And the Kingdom shall not be delivered to another people," and passively wait.' Truly God hath brought this to your hands; by the owning of your call; blessing the Military Power. The Lord hath directed their [our] hearts to be instrumental to call you; and set it upon our hearts to deliver over the Power" to another people" [Therefore "we" are not the persons prophesied of?].-But I may appear to be beyond my line here; these things are dark. Only, I desire my thoughts1 to be exercised in these things, and so I hope are yours.

Truly seeing things are thus, that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophecies-[Does not say what results] — At least, if there were neither Promise nor Prophecy, yet you are carrying on the best things, you are endeavouring after the best things: and, as I have said elsewhere, if I were to choose any servant, the meanest Officer for the Army or the Commonwealth, I would choose a godly man that hath principles. Especially where a trust is to be committed. Because I know where to have a man that hath principles. I believe if any one of you should choose a servant, you would do thus. And I would all our Magistrates were so chosen :-this may be done; there may be good effects of this! Surely it's our duty to choose men that fear the Lord, and will praise the Lord: such hath the Lord" formed for Himself;" and He expects no praises from other than such' [O Secretary of the Home Department, my right honourable friend!].

This being so, truly it puts me in mind of another Scripture, that famous Psalm, Sixty-eighth Psalm ;3 which 1 'senses' in orig.

2 In some Speech now lost :-probably in many Speeches; certainly in all manner of Practice and Action.

3 We remember it ever since Dunbar morning; let us read a passage or two of it again: His Excellency and the Little Parliament will perhaps wait a moment; and it may do us good!

'Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate

indeed is a glorious Prophecy, I am persuaded, of the Gospel Churches, it may be, of the Jews also. There it prophesies that "He will bring His People again from the "depths of the Sea, as once He led Israel through the Red "Sea." And it may be, as some think, God will bring the Jews home to their station "from the isles of the sea," and answer their expectations" as from the depths of the sea." But,' at all events,' sure I am, when the Lord shall set up the glory of the Gospel Church, it shall be a gathering of people as "out of deep waters," "out of the multitude of waters:" such are His People, drawn out of the multitudes of the Nations and People of this world.—And truly that Psalm is very glorious in many other parts of it: When He gathers them, "great was the company" of them that publish His word. Kings of Armies did flee apace, and they that tarried at home divided the spoil" [Consider Charles Stuart, First and Second; and what we see this day!]; and "Although ye have lain among the pots, yet "shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver, "and her feathers with yellow gold" [Hah!]. And indeed the triumph of that Psalm is exceeding high and great;

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'Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as

wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish before the presence of 'God.' The unhappy!

'But let the righteous be glad let them rejoice before God, yea let them rejoice exceedingly. Sing unto God, sing praises to His name. A father of 'the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.'— 'O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy People, the Earth shook, the Heavens also dropped. Kings of Armies did flee apace; and 'she that tarried at home divided the spoil.' Ye poor and brave, be ye of 6 courage! Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the 6 wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

'The Hill of God is as the Hill of Bashan; an high Hill as the Hill of 'Bashan.' Inexpugnable, that! 'Why leap ye, ye high Hills? This is 'the Hill of God which God desireth to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it forever. The chariots of God are twenty-thousand, even thousands of Angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai in the holy place.'

and God is accomplishing it. And the close of it,—that closeth with my heart, and I do not doubt with yours, "The Lord shakes the hills and mountains, and they reel." And God hath a Hill too; "an high-Hill as the Hill of "Bashan and the chariots of God are twenty-thousand, "even thousands of Angels, and God will dwell upon this "Hill forever!”—[PROCUL PROFANI! The man is without a soul that looks into this Great Soul of a man, radiant with the splendours of very Heaven, and sees nothing there but the shadow of his own mean darkness. Ape of the Dead Sea, peering asquint into the Holy of Holies, let us have done with THY commentaries! Thou canst not fathom it].

،

I am sorry I have troubled you, in such a place of heat as this is, so long. All I have to say, in my own name, and that of my fellow Officers who have joined with me in this work, is: That we shall commend you to the grace of God, to the guidance of His Spirit: That' having thus far served you, or rather our Lord Jesus Christ in regard to you,' we shall be ready in our stations, according as the Providence of God shall lead us, to be subservient to the farther' work of God, and to that Authority which we shall reckon God hath set over us. And though we have no formal thing to present you with, to which the hands, or visible expressions, of the Officers and Soldiers of the three Nations of England, Scotland and Ireland, 'are set;' yet we may say of them, and we may say also with confidence for our brethren at Sea,—with whom neither in Scotland, Ireland, nor at Sea, hath there been any artifice used to persuade their consents to this work, -that nevertheless their consents have flowed in to us from all parts, beyond our expectations: and we may with all confidence say, that as we have their approbation and full consent to the other work, so you have their hearts and affections unto

this. And not only theirs: we have very many Papers from the Churches of Christ throughout the Nation; wonderfully both approving what hath been done in removing of obstacles, and approving what we have done in this very thing. And having said this, we shall trouble you no But if you will be pleased that this Instrument2 be read to you, which I have signed by the advice of the Council of Officers, we shall then leave you to your own thoughts and the guidance of God; to dispose of yourselves for a farther meeting, as you shall see cause.3

more.

I have only this to add. The affairs of the Nation lying on our hands to be taken care of; and we knowing that both the Affairs at Sea, the Armies in Ireland and Scotland, and the providing of things for the preventing of inconveniences, and the answering of emergencies, did require that there should be no Interruption, but that care ought to be taken for these things; and foreseeing likewise that before you could digest yourselves into such a method, both for place, time and other circumstances, as you shall please to proceed in, some time would be required,-which the Commonwealth could not bear in respect to the managing of things: I have, within a week 'past,' set up a Council of State, to whom the managing of affairs is committed. Who, I may say, very voluntarily and freely, before they see how the issue of things will be, have engaged themselves in business; eight or nine of them being Members of the House that late was.—I say I did exercise that power which, I thought, was devolved

1other work' delicately means dissolving the old Parliament; 'this' is assembling of you, this very thing.'

2 The Instrument is to be found among the Old Pamphlets; but being of a much lower strain, mere constitutionalities, &c., in phrase and purport alike leaden, we do not read it.

3 Report in Parliamentary History, and the common Pamphlets, ends here.