and consequently hostile to the light, blinded by superstition, and anxious to put down the things of God; one with whom it was impossible to be at peace, and to whom, in relation to this country, might be applied the words of Scripture, “I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed.”  There was also Charles Stuart, who, with the aid of the Spaniard and the duke of Neuburg, had raised a formidable army for the invasion of the island.  There were the papists and Cavaliers, who had already risen, and were again ready to rise in favour of Charles Stuart.  There were the Levellers, who had sent an agent to the court of Madrid, and the Fifth-monarchy-men, who sought an union with the Levellers against him, “a reconciliation between Herod and Pilate, that Christ might be put to death.”  The remedies—­though in this part of his speech he digressed so frequently as to appear loth to come to the remedies—­were, to prosecute the war abroad, and strengthen the hands of the government at home; to lose no time in questions of inferior moment, or less urgent necessity, but to inquire into the state of the revenue, and to raise ample supplies.

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, v. 269, 317, 328, 329, 337, 341, 343, 349, 424.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1657.  Sept 17.]

In conclusion, he explained the eighty-fifth psalm, exclaiming, “If pope and Spaniard, and devil, and all set themselves against us, though they should compass us about like bees, yet in the name of the Lord we shall destroy them.  The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge."[1]

From the Painted Chamber the members proceeded to the house.  A military guard was stationed at the door, and a certificate from the council was required from each individual previously to his admission.[2] The excluded members complained by letter of this breach of parliamentary privilege.  A strong feeling of disapprobation was manifested in several parts of the house; the clerk of the commonwealth in Chancery received orders to lay all the returns on the table; and the council was requested to state the grounds of this novel and partial proceeding.  Fiennes, one of the commissioners of the great seal, replied, that the duty of inquiry into the qualifications of the members was, by the “instrument,” vested in the lords of the council, who had discharged that trust according to the best of their judgment.  An animated debate followed that such was the provision in “the instrument” could not be denied;[3] but that the council

[Footnote 1:  Introduction to Burton’s Diary, cxlviii-clxxix.  Journals, Sept. 17.  Thurloe, v. 427.  That the king’s army, which Cromwell exaggerated to the amount of eight thousand men, did not reach to more than one thousand, is twice asserted by Thurloe himself, 605, 672.]

[Footnote 2:  The certificates which had been distributed to the favoured members were in this form:—­“Sept. 17, 1656.  County of ——.  These are to certify that A.B. is returned by indenture one of the knights to serve in this parliament for the said county, and is approved by his highness’s council.  Nath.  Taylor. clerk of the commonwealth in Chancery.”]