"
Hooke, in a letter of April 16, 1658, has a passage worth quoting: "The
dissolucion of the last Parliament puts the supreme powers upon
difficulties, though the trueth is the Nacion is so ill spirited that
little good is to be expected from these Generall Assemblies. They [the
supreme powers, to wit, Cromwell] have been much in Counsell since this
disappointment, & God hath been sought by them in the effectuall sense of
the need of help from heaven & of the extreme danger impendent on a
miscarriage of their advises. But our expences are so vast that I know
not how they can avoyde a recurrence to another Session & to make a
further tryall.... The land is full of discontents, & the Cavaleerish
party doth still expect a day & nourish hopes of a Revolucion. The
Quakers do still proceed & are not yet come to their period. The
Presbyterians do abound, I thinke, more than ever, & are very bold &
confident because some of their masterpieces lye unanswered, particularly
theire _Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici_ which I have sent to Mr.
Davenporte. It hath been extant without answer these many years [only
four, brother Hooke, if we may trust the title-page]. The Anabaptists
abound likewise, & Mr Tombes hath pretended to have answered all the
bookes extant against his opinion.
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