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

§ 118. To return from this Digression to the Proceedings of Cromwell, when he was made Lord Protector, he had the Policy not to detect and exasperate the Ministers and others that consented not to his Government, (having seen what a stir the Engagement had before made): but he let Men live quietly, without putting any Oaths of Fidelity upon them; except his Parliaments; for those must not enter the House till they had sworn Fidelity to him. The Sectarian Party in his Army and elsewhere, he chiefly trusted to and pleased, till by the Peoples submission and quietness he thought himself well settled: And then he began to undermine them, and by degrees to work them out: And though he had so often spoken for the Anabaptists, now he findeth them so heady, and so much against any settled Government, and so set upon the promoting of their Way and Party, that he doth not only begin to blame their unruliness, but also designeth to settle himself in the Peoples Favour by suppressing them. In Ireland they were grown so high, that the Soldiers were many of them re-baptized as the way to Preferment: and those that opposed them they crushed with much uncharitable Fierceness. To suppress these, he sent thither his Son Henry Cromwell, who so discountenanced the Anabaptists, as yet to deal civilly by them, repressing their Insolencies, but not abusing them, or dealing hardly with them; promoting the Work of the Gospel, and setting up good and sober Ministers; and dealing civilly with the Royalists, and obliging all; so that he was generally beloved, and well spoken of. And Major General Ludlow, who headed the Anabaptists in Ireland, was fain to draw in his head.

§ 118. To return from this Digression to the Proceedings of Cromwell, when he was made Lord Protector, he had the Policy not to detect and exasperate the Ministers and others that consented not to his Government, (having seen what a stir the Engagement had before made): but he let Men live quietly, without putting any Oaths of Fidelity upon them; except his Parliaments; for those must not enter the House till they had sworn Fidelity to him. The Sectarian Party in his Army and elsewhere, he chiefly trusted to and pleased, till by the Peoples submission and quietness he thought himself well settled: And then he began to undermine them, and by degrees to work them out: And though he had so often spoken for the Anabaptists, now he findeth them so heady, and so much against any settled Government, and so set upon the promoting of their Way and Party, that he doth not only begin to blame their unruliness, but also designeth to settle himself in the Peoples Favour by suppressing them. In Ireland they were grown so high, that the Soldiers were many of them re-baptized as the way to Preferment: and those that opposed them they crusht with much uncharitable Fierceness. To suppress these, he sent thither his Son Henry Cromwell, who so discountenanced the Anabaptists, as yet to deal civilly by them, repressing their Insolencies, but not abusing them, or dealing hardly with them; promoting the Work of the Gospel, and setting up good and sober Ministers; and dealing civilly with the Royallists, and obliging all; so that he was generally beloved, and well spoken of. And Major General Ludlow, who headed the Anabaptists in Ireland, was fain to draw in his head.