[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 256, 289, 306.]

representatives for England, six for Wales, six for Ireland, and five for Scotland.[1] To each of them was sent[a] a writ of summons under the signature of Cromwell, requiring his personal attendance at Whitehall on a certain day, to take upon himself the trust, and to serve the office of member for some particular place.  Of the surprise with which the writs were received by many the reader may judge.  Yet, out of the whole number, two only returned a refusal:  by most the very extraordinary manner of their election was taken as a sufficient proof that the call was from heaven.[2]

On the appointed day, the 4th of July, one hundred and twenty of these faithful and godly men attended[b] in the council-chamber at Whitehall.  They were seated on chairs round the table; and the lord-general took his station near the middle window, supported on each side by a numerous body of officers.  He addressed the company standing, and it was believed by his admirers, perhaps by himself, “that the Spirit of God spoke in him and by him.”  Having vindicated in a long narrative the dissolution of the late parliament, he congratulated the persons present on the high office to which they had been called.  It was not of their own seeking.  It had come to them from God by the choice of the army, the usual channel through which in these latter days the Divine mercies had been dispensed to the nation.  He would not

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 395.  Compare the list of the members in Heath, 350, with the letters in Milton’s State Papers, 92, 94, 96.]

[Footnote 2:  Thurloe, i. 274.  Whitelock, 547.  “It was a great satisfaction and encouragement to some that their names had been presented as to that service, by the churches and other godly persons.”—­Exact Relation of the Proceedings, &c. of the last parliament, 1654, p. 2.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1653.  June 6.] [Sidenote a:  A.D. 1653.  July 4.]

charge them, but he would pray that they might “exercise the judgment of mercy and truth,” and might “be faithful with the saints,” however those saints might differ respecting forms of worship.  His enthusiasm kindled as he proceeded; and the visions of futurity began to open to his imagination.  It was, he exclaimed, marvellous in his eyes; they were called to war with the Lamb against his enemies; they were come to the threshold of the door, to the very edge of the promises and prophecies; God was about to bring his people out of the depths of the sea; perhaps to bring the Jews home to their station out of the isles of the sea.  “God,” he exclaimed, “shakes the mountains and they reel; God hath a high hill, too, and his hill is as the hill of Bashan; and the chariots of God are twenty thousand of angels; and God will dwell upon this hill for ever.”  At the conclusion “of this grave, Christian, and seasonable speech,” he placed on the table an instrument under his own hand and seal, intrusting to them the supreme authority for the space of fifteen months from that day, then to be transmitted by them to another assembly, the members of which they should previously have chosen.[1]