With Cromwell’s defeat of the covenanting army at the battle of Worcester, the final military resistance was crushed in Scotland. The church itself was divided into the Resolutioners and Protesters, between the compromisers and those who stood fast to the covenants. These factions were so divided that a partition was put up in St Giles in Edinburgh in 1653, so that two separate church assemblies could operate in the same building. Oliver Cromwell suppressed the assemblies, but when Lieutenant-General Cotterel arrived in St Giles he found the Resolutioner Assembly in progress. Upon asking whether this assembly had the permission of either Cromwell or Charles II, the Moderator, David Dickson of Dalkeith, replied, ‘We sit here by the authority of Jesus Christ and by the law of this land.’ Cotterel ordered the assembly to be dismissed, with the commissioners being escorted outside Edinburgh.
Although Cromwell was regarded as a usurper in Scotland with his Commonwealth, the nation experienced peace under his rule. We even read of a tremendous ingathering of people to Christ through the Presbyterian preachers. James Kirkton wrote, ‘I verily believe there were more souls converted to Christ in that short period of time than in any season since the Reformation, though of triple its duration.’ Robert Blair’s son-in-law said ‘It was the Lord’s wonderful condescension and kindness to his own in Scotland, that, while they were under the feet of usurpers, the Lord sweetened the bitterness of their bondage, by blessing the labours of his faithful servants… in several parts of the kingdom.’
Alexander Jaffray, who had been present when Charles II feignedly signed the Solemn League and Covenant, and who had pleaded with him not to do so, spent time with Cromwell and his godly Puritan chaplain, John Owen. It was whilst he was there with Cromwell and Owen that he realized ‘the sinful mistake of the good men of this nation’ and ended up becoming a Quaker Christian.
When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, his son Richard replaced his father. Being of a weaker character, he was unable to hold together the leaders of the Commonwealth and it fell apart under the pressure of division and intrigue, leaving the citizens of both England and Scotland to cry out for a return of the king. When the monarchy was restored to the throne under Charles II, the masses celebrated with fireworks in London. Here in Edinburgh the city was mesmerized by the council’s shadow display of ‘the effigies of Oliver Cromwell, being set upon a pole, and the devil upon another, upon the Castle Hill, it was ordered by firework, engine, and train, that the devil did chase that traitor, till he blew him in the air.’ Little did they know what would face them in the future under this king, as Scotland came out of the frying pan and into the fire.
‘Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching’ (2 Timothy 4:2, NKJV).
Image: Oliver Cromwell, by Samuel Cooper, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons