and being uncertain what issue might attend these measures, was
desirous of evading the proposal. He replied, that he could by no means
comply with the desire of the officers; being engaged in a business
of far greater importance to himself, which he could not omit on
any account, because it concerned the salvation of his own soul. The
officers pressed him to tell what it might be. He was preparing, he
said, to participate of the Lord's supper, which he resolved to take
next Sabbath. They insisted, that mercy was preferable to sacrifice; and
that he could not better prepare himself for that great duty, than
by contributing so the public service. All their remonstrances had no
effect.

However, on the appointed day, the speaker, being informed that a quorum
of the house was likely to meet, thought proper, notwithstanding the
salvation of his soul, as Ludlow observes, to join them; and the house
immediately proceeded upon business. The secluded members attempted, but
in vain, to resume their seats among them.

The numbers of this parliament were small, little exceeding seventy
members: the authority in the nation, ever since they had been purged by
the army, was extremely diminished; and, after their expulsion, had been
totally annihilated; but being all of them men of violent ambition, some
of them men of experience and capacity, they were resolved, since they
enjoyed the title of the supreme authority, and observed that some
appearance of a parliament was requisite for the purposes of the army,
not to act a subordinate part to those who acknowledged themselves
their servants. They chose a council, in which they took care that the
officers of Wallingford House should not be the majority: they appointed
Fleetwood lieutenant-general, but inserted in his commission, that it
should only continue during the pleasure of the house: they chose seven
persons, who should nominate to such commands as became vacant; and they
voted, that all commissions should be received from the speaker, and be
signed by him in the name of the house. These precautions, the tendency
of which was visible, gave great disgust to the general officers; and
their discontent would immediately have broken out into some resolution
fatal to the parliament, had it not been checked by the apprehensions of
danger from the common enemy.

The bulk of the nation consisted of royalists and Presbyterians; and
to both these parties the dominion of the pretended parl