at last.

And even should there come an age which fancies it has for ever buried God's truth, -should any volcanic eruption of society overwhelm it with the ashes of another Vesuvius,..... Pompeii after seventeen centuries has again restored to the light of day its houses and its tombs, its palaces and its temples, its circus and its amphitheatres. Can it be thought that the truth and the life, which God has given in his Gospel, will be less perennial than the frail tenements of man? There are perhaps now subterranean fires threatening the truth of God. A daring pantheistic and socialist philosophy imagines that it has done with the crucified One. And should it even so far succeed as to throw a little dust and lava on the eternal doctrine, the Lord of heaven will blow upon it, and the dust shall be scattered and the lava be melted.

Cromwell, as a Christian, is the representative of one of those epochs in which the light reappears after darkness, according to the device of a city which shone forth with a new and great brightness in the days of the Reformation.* It was not to England alone that he wished to restore the doctrine of the Gospel; he put his candle on a candlestick, and the house which he desired. by this means to illumine was Europe,-nay, the whole world. He has been compared to Bonaparte, and there are, indeed, striking features of resemblance between them. Neither was satisfied

*Post tenebras lux is the motto of Geneva: on its shield is also a sun bearing in its centre the name of Jesus, I. H. S.

with confining himself to his own country alone, and both exerted their activity abroad. But while Napoleon bore to other nations French tyranny and indifference, Cromwell would have given them religious liberty and the Gospel. The everlasting revelations having reappeared in England and received the homage of a whole people, it was Cromwell's ambition to present them to the entire world. He did not succeed, and to the majority of European countries the Bible is a book hidden in the bowels of the earth. But this noble design, which Oliver could not accomplish, has again been undertaken in our own days on the banks of the Thames. The revelations of God are printed in the language of every people. The time will come when the thick veil, which still hides these sacred characters from so many nations, shall be rent at last. The massive walls, the proud courts, the magnificent porches of Nineveh are now rising from beneath the sands of the desert. Its inscriptions, numbering two, three, and four thousand years, are reappearing to the eyes of the civilized and astonished children of the distant and barbarous Europe, and the light of day once more falls upon the antique characters traced by Ninus, Sardanapalus, or Nabopolassar!.....The books which Moses began, not less ancient than these Assyrian inscriptions, possess, we may be sure, more vitality than they; and future ages, by giving to Europe religious liberty, will realize the mighty plan which Cromwell could not accomplish.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE KINGSHIP.

New Parliament-Ludlow-The Protector's Speech-Exclusions— Proposals about the Kingship-Discussions on this Subject between the Parliament and the Protector-Struggles-Cromwell's Refusal-Was he right ?-His Character-Ambition.

THE Protector could not perform all these various tasks without difficulty. Notwithstanding the religious liberty he gave to England at home, and the glory with which he encircled her name abroad, the strict republicans were discontented, and often told him to his face that his government was illegitimate, and that they and their friends had not been lavish of their blood for the purpose of enthroning anew the power of one man.

In 1656, he determined to call a new parliament. This was necessary for the approval of hostilities with Spain, and for obtaining the needful supplies. But he feared that the republicans, who were determined to oppose everything, would vote against this war—a war so glorious in his eyes and so advantageous to England. He accordingly sent

for Major-general Ludlow, the leader of this party, and required him to give security not to act against the present government. Ludlow answered, "I "desire to have the nation governed by its own con"sent."" And so do I," replied Oliver; "but "where shall we find that consent; among the prelatical, presbyterian, independent, anabaptist, or levelling parties?"-" Among those of all "sorts," rejoined the other, "who have acted with fidelity and affection to the public." The Protector feeling convinced that Ludlow was for throwing England again into confusion, said to him: “All men now enjoy as much liberty and "protection as they can desire; and I am resolved "to keep the nation from being embrued again in "blood. I desire not," he continued, "to put any

more hardships upon you than upon myself; "nor do I aim at anything by this proceeding but "the public quiet and security. As to my own "circumstances in the world, I have not much "improved them, as these gentlemen (pointing to "his council) well know."* All that he said was strictly true. After a revolutionary storm, liberty exists most of all in order; and to possess order there must be strength.

When the parliament met according to appointment on the 17th of September 1656, Dr Owen, vice-chancellor of Oxford, preached a sermon before them in Westminster Abbey, from the text: What shall one then answer the messengers of the

*Neale, ii. 658.

nation? that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor

of His people shall trust in it (Isaiah xiv. 32). It was not only the poor of her own people, but the poor of other nations that trusted in the protection of England. Voices might be heard from the shores. of France and from the lofty valleys of the Alps, replying to this sermon: "Yea, verily " Amen!"

The members having adjourned to the Painted Chamber, the Protector took off his hat and delivered one of the noblest, most sensible, energetic, and religious speeches ever uttered by a statesman. After touching in succession upon Spain, the papists, the levellers, the equality of all sects, on the reformation of morals, and on the necessity of prompt and extraordinary remedies for sudden and extraordinary maladies, he concluded in the following words:

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Therefore I beseech you in the name of God, set your hearts to this work. And if you set

your hearts to it, then you will sing Luther's "Psalm (Ps. xlvi.). That is a rare Psalm for a "Christian-and if he set his heart open, and can approve it to God, we shall hear him say: God "is our refuge and strength, a very present help in "time of trouble. If Pope and Spaniard, and Devil "and all set themselves against us,-though they "should compass us like bees, as it is in the hundred "and eighteenth Psalm,-yet in the name of the "Lord we should destroy them! And, as it is in "this Psalm of Luther's, We will not fear, though "the earth be removed, and though the mountains be