had remained on in London
perseveringly, Sharp making interest with the Protector through
Broghill; Thurloe, and the London Presbyterian ministers, while Owen,
Lockyer, and the rest of the Independent ministers, with Lambert and
Fleetwood, took part rather with the agents of the Protesters.
Wearied with listening to the dispute personally, Cromwell had
referred it to a mixed committee of twelve English Presbyterians and
Independents, and at length had told both parties to "go home and
agree among themselves." Sharp, Simpson, and Guthrie had,
accordingly, returned to Scotland before the autumn of 1657; and,
though Gillespie, Warriston, and Argyle were left behind, it was
difficult to say that either party had won the advantage. Baillie,
indeed, writing from Glasgow after Sharp's return, could report that
the Protesters had, on the whole, been foiled, and chiefly by the
instrumentality of "that very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent young
man, Mr. James Sharp." But, on the other hand, the Protesters had
obtained some favours. As far as one can discern, Cromwell's judgment
as between the two parties of Scottish Kirkmen had come to be that
they were to be treated as a Tory majority and a pugnacious Whig
minority, whose differences would do no harm if they were both kept
under proper control, and that both together formed such a
Presbyterian body as might suitably possess, and yet divide, the
Church of Scotland. For, as has been remarked already, Cromwell, in
his conservatism, had come, on the whole, to be of opinion that the
national clergy of Scotland must be left massively Presbyterian, and
that it would not do to weld into the Scottish Establishment, as into
the English, Baptists, or even ordinary professing Independents, in
any considerable number. This would be bad news for those Scottish
Independents and Baptists who had naturally expected encouragement
under Cromwell's rule, but had already been disappointed. It would be
the common policy of the Resolutioners and Protesters to keep or
drive such erratic spirits out of the Kirk.[1]--Whether because the
long stay of the Scottish deputations in London had turned much of
Cromwell's thoughts towards Scotland, or simply because his own
anxiety for the "Propagation, of the Gospel" everywhere in his
dominions, had led his eyes at last to that portion of Great Britain,
we have now to record one of Cromwell's designs for Scotland worthy
of strong mark even in the total histor