naturally adhere to the
human mind.

The military confessors were further encouraged in disobedience to
superiors, by that spiritual pride to which a mistaken piety is so
subject. They were not, they said, mere janizaries; mercenary
troops enlisted for hire, and to be disposed of at the will of their
paymasters.[**] Religion and liberty were the motives which had excited
them to arms; and they had a superior right to see those blessings,
which they had purchased with their blood, insured to future
generations. By the same title that the Presbyterians, in
contradistinction to the royalists, had appropriated to themselves the
epithet of godly, or the well affected,[***] the Independents did now,
in contradistinction to the Presbyterians, assume this magnificent
appellation, and arrogate all the ascendant which naturally belongs to
it.

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 134.

** Rush, vol. vii. p. 565.

*** Bush. vol. vii. p 474.

Hearing of parties in the house of commons, and being informed that
the minority were friends to the army, the majority enemies, the troops
naturally interested themselves in that dangerous distinction, and were
eager to give the superiority to their partisans. Whatever hardships
they underwent, though perhaps derived from inevitable necessity, were
ascribed to a settled design of oppressing them, and resented as an
effect of the animosity and malice of their adversaries.

Notwithstanding the great revenue which accrued from taxes, assessments,
sequestrations, and compositions, considerable arrears were due to
the army; and many of the private men, as well as officers, had near
a twelvemonth's pay still owing them. The army suspected that this
deficiency was purposely contrived in order to oblige them to live at
free quarters; and, by rendering them odious to the country, serve as
a pretence for disbanding them. When they saw such members as were
employed in committees and civil offices accumulate fortunes, they
accused them of rapine and public plunder. And as no plan was pointed
out by the commons for the payment of arrears, the soldiers dreaded,
that after they should be disbanded or embarked for Ireland, their
enemies, who predominated in the two houses, would entirely defraud them
of their right, and oppress them with impunity.

On this ground or pretence did the first commotions begin in the army.
A petition, addressed to Fairfax, the general, was handed about, craving
an indemn