" Well might Cromwell adjure them in that war of
words which followed the sterner conflict on the heights of Dunbar, "I
beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be
mistaken."
Though the number and variety of the dissentients in England were far
greater than in Scotland, where the bulk both of the people and the
clergy stood firmly within the old Presbyterian lines, yet in the latter
country the separation was far more bitter and productive of far more
violent results. In the former the strong hand of Cromwell, himself an
Independent, but keen to detect a useful man under every masquerade of
worship, and prompt to use him, kept the sects from open disruption.
Quarrel as they might among themselves, there was one stronger than them
all, and they knew it. The old Committee of Estates, originally
appointed by the Parliament as a permanent body in 1640, was not strong
enough to control the spirit it had helped to raise: it was not even
strong enough to keep order within its own house. The new Committee was
but a tool in the hands of Argyle. The old Presbyterian viewed with
equal dislike the sectaries of Cromwell, the men of the Engagement which
had cost Hamilton his head, and the Malignants who had gathered to the
standard of Montrose. The Resolutioner, who wished to repeal the Act of
Classes, was too lukewarm: the Remonstrant was too violent.
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