Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

§ 112. Cromwell having thus far seemed to be a Servant to the Parliament, and work for his Masters the Rump or Commonwealth, doth next begin to show whom he served, and take that Impediment also out of the way: To which End he first doth by them as he did by the Presbyterians, make them odious by hard Speeches of them throughout his Army; as if they intended to perpetuate themselves, and would not be accountable for the Money of the Commonwealth, &c. and he treateth privately with many of them, to appoint a time when they would dissolve themselves, that another free Parliament might be chosen: But they perceived the Danger, and were rather for the filling up of their Number by New Elections, which he was utterly against.

§ 112. Cromwell having thus far seemed to be a Servant to the Parliament, and work for his Masters the Rump or Commonwealth, doth next begin to shew whom he served, and take that Impediment also out of the way: To which End he first doth by them as he did by the Presbyterians, make them odious by hard Speeches of them throughout his Army; as if they intended to perpetuate themselves, and would not be accountable for the Money of the Commonwealth, &c. and he treateth privately with many of them, to appoint a time when they would dissolve themselves, that another free Parliament might be chosen: But they perceived the Danger, and were rather for the filling up of their Number by New Elections, which he was utterly against.

His greatest Advantage to strengthen himself against them by the Sectaries, was their owning the public Ministry and their Maintenance; for though Vane and his party set themselves to make the Ministers odious by reproachful Titles, and to take them down, yet still the greater part of the House did carry it for a sober Ministry, and competent Maintenance. And when the Quakers and others did openly ⟨p. 70⟩reproach the Ministry, and the Soldiers favour them, I drew up a Petition for the Ministry, and got many thousand Hands to it in Worcestershire, and Mr. Tho. F• ley, and Coll. John Bridges presented it; and the House gave a kind and promising Answer to it, which increased the Sectaries Displeasure against them: And when a certain Quaker wrote a reviling Censure of this Petition, I wrote a Defence of it, and caused one of them to be given each parliament Man at the Door; and within one day after they were dissolved: For Cromwell impatient of any more delay, suddenly took Harrison and some Soldiers with him (as if God had impelled him) and as in a Rapture went into the House, and reproveth the Members for their Faults, and pointing to Vane, calls him a Juggler, and to Henry Martin, and calls him Whoremaster, and having two such to instance in, taketh it for granted that they were all unfit to continue in the Government of the Commonwealth; and out he turneth them: And so ended the Government of the Rump, and no sort of People expressed any great Offence that they were cast out, though all, save the Sectaries and the Army almost, did take him to be a Traitor that did it.