But if he parted with power for the moment, it was in such manner as to
warrant the hope that it would shortly return to him under another form,
not as won by the sword of the military, but as deposited in his hands by
the judgment of parliament.
It could not escape the sagacity of the lord-general that the fanatics,
with whose aid he had subverted the late government, were not the men to be
intrusted with the destinies of the three kingdoms; yet he deemed it his
interest to indulge them in their wild notions of civil and religious
reformation, and to suffer himself for a while to be guided by their
counsels. Their first measure was to publish a Vindication of their
Proceedings.[1] The long parliament they pronounced[a] incapable "of
answering those ends which God, his people, and the whole nation,
expected." Had it been permitted to sit a day longer, it would "at one blow
have laid in the dust the interest of all honest men and of their glorious
cause." In its place the council of war would "call to the government
persons of approved fidelity and honesty;" and therefore required "public
officers and ministers to proceed in their respective places," and conjured
"those who feared and loved the name of the Lord, to be instant with him
day and night in their behalf.
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