The British Churches Under Cromwell [pp. 629-655]

1867.] The British Churches under Cromwell. 643
cordant elements to harmony? Arduous would have been the
task for a governrnent unshaken in itself, and with all its
machinery in full operation; what must it be to that fragment
of the llouse of Commons, which has now assumed the burden
alone? Nay, even to sustain itself would have been impracticable to that body, but for the coo~peration of the army. And
the strength of the army was that remarkable man who, without being its commander-in-chief, was morally and virtually the
head of it.
The problem to be solved was new. At a time when
monarchy was in the full blossom of its power and pride, and
passive obedience to kings, as the anointed of the Lord, was the
doctrine of the high and the burden of the low, the representatives of the people of England had resisted their monarch,
brought him to trial before a court of commoners, and on the
fundamental principles of justice had condemned him as a
guilty man. The deed was not done secretly, nor timidly, but
open, held up, as a lesson to the world, inviting examination
and challenging its criticism. Men who took that unprecedented step must have felt well assured of the ground on which
they stood. The laws which they contemplated were not the
superficial and conventional. All such they obviously designed
to subject to a thorough revision. The principles of the
English constitution, and beneath them still, the eternal laws
of right and wrong, alone did those men regard with veneration; and by the latter were even the practices of the constitution to be tried. In their eyes, the problem was one of radical
revolution. This being admitted, it is not to the point to ~uestion them for non-conformity to prescriptive rule or mere
statute law. They were now in the condition of lawgivers,
empowered to abolish the old and create new. If it were
asked, who empowered them, the answer would readily be, the
people of England, who had elected them to the places which
they held, sustained them in the course they had pursued, and
backed them with an army of their very best and bravest: and
the doctrines~by which they were guided, they drew from Scripture, and were always ready to defend thereby. True, the
body of the nation had enjoyed no opportunity of publicly