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ROYALISTS, REPUBLICANS, FIFTH MONARCHISTS AND LEVELLERS
Cromwell was saluting what he believed to be
a glorious occasion, but one of perhaps many
that would precede the full establishment of
Christ’s kingdom, in a future as yet beyond
the calculation of man. . . . He expected the
coming of the kingdom at a point in future
time, as men reckon time; he hoped it might
come soon; he dared to speculate that the
calling of Barebone’s Parliament might be a
vital stage towards that realization.
… Nominated bodies were to play a strictly
temporal role, and he never suggested that
saintship in itself should confer an implicit
right to govern. It may be that in pitching his
exhortation to Barabone’s Parliament so high
he was trying, consciously or unconsciously, to
will it to compensate with good works for its
dubious constitutional standing. 248
Some members of Barebone’s certainly possessed Fifth
Monarchy assumptions, apparent in their July 12
Declaration. “The Dark black Clouds of the Night shall
flie before the bright morning Star, and the shakings of
heaven and Earth make way for the desire of all
Nations,” which is Christ. It conveyed a sense of
imminence too, claiming “the time is near at hand; for
we see the Clouds begin to scatter, and the Dark
Shadows flie away; streams of Light appear, and the Day
is surely dawned.” The Declaration ends with the desire
and expectation of Christ’s “glorious coming, Who is
King of kings, and Lord of lords,” and the eventual
“reign” of God. 249 Nevertheless, the Fifth Monarchy
element consisted of no more than thirteen members,
with three of them playing an intense legislative role. 250
John Spittlehouse referred to the new parliament as the
“Assembly of Elders” and “heads over the people” with
Cromwell as “Moses,” locating his textual parallel in
Exodus 18:25. He subtly invokes a foreign policy
priority in his association between Cromwell and Moses
too. Cromwell could avoid Moses’s fate on “Mount-
Nebo” if he prohibited a peace settlement with “any
other Nation which the Lord hath a controversie with,”
because they’re like “Gibeonites,” and “designed to
destruction.” Spittlehouse hoped that God would reveal
to Cromwell not only “the Land of Canaan,” but lead
him “into the Land of the Canaanites,”—to “Holland,
France, and so to Rome it self,” that he “may pluck up all
Antichristian power whatsoever doth oppose Jesus
Christ in the least.” 251 Godly reform was to go global, as
248
Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 149, 150.
249
A declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England
(London, 1653), 3, 7.
250
Austin Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate (London:
Phoenix Press, 1982), 194, 209.
251
John Spittlehouse, The first addresses to his excellencie the Lord
this new Parliament represented Jesus and His Kingdom
causes, not just Britain’s.
John Rogers offered up a similar foreign policy initiative
as Spittlehouse with his publication of Sagrir Sagrir. Or
doomes-day drawing nigh, with thunder and lightening to
lawyers on October 20, 1653. Rogers pronounced doom
to various sectors of British society he perceived as
engaging with the cause of Antichrist. He exclaims that
if this new Parliament was to be “in obedience to Gods
Word,” then “we must not onely endeavor to free our
selves, but our neighbors from Tyranny and Oppression,”
a foreign policy expressive of the command to “Love thy
neighbour as thy self.” Britain was “bound by the Law of
God . . . to aid the Subjects of other Princes, that are
either persecuted for true Religion, or oppressed under
Tyranny,” and to secure the liberty of other persecuted
“Protestants in France and Germany” “Well wo be to us, if
we help not the Lord. Judg. 5.23 against the mighty!” 252
Rogers charged Parliament to secure the settlement of
the Fifth Monarchy as opposed to reforming the
Fourth, “by bringing in the Lawes of God given by Moses
for Re-publicue Lawes (as well as the Lawes of God given by
Christ, which must be in for Church Lawes).” But what
sort of laws was Rogers referring to? “Hath not God
given you a Booke of Lawes ready to your hand? and can
men make Lawes better then God?” Since “Moses dare
not set up any other Lawes, but those given of God for
the State, or Politicke Government, how dare you?” 253
Parliament was to wield no legislative initiative, rather,
it could only replace all laws and ordinances. “For all
the Laws and Ordinances Civill and Ecclesiastick of the
Fourth Monarchy, must tumble at the entrance of the
fifth,” which Rogers believed would be inaugurated
within 40 years. 254 Where did Rogers locate God’s Law?
In “the Commandments . . . the Statutes . . . and the
Judgements,” or alternatively, the original “two Tables
given Moses on mount Sinai.” 255
William Aspinwall in his A brief description of the fifth
monarchy, mentioned above, hailed the sitting of the
new assembly as ushering in the “end of the fourth
Monarchy.” 256 Now that the saints were sitting in
power, Fifth Monarchists emphasised the substance of
Christ’s millennial civil rule. His power was not
General, with the assembly of elders elected by him (London, July 5,
1653), A3.
252
John Rogers, Sagrir Sagrir. Or doomes-day drawing nigh, with
thunder and lightening to lawyers (London, October 20, 1653), 13,
14.
253
Ibid., To the Readers of All Sorts.
254
Ibid., 124.
255
Ibid., 139.
256
Aspinwall, A brief description of the fifth monarchy, 9.
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