Vol. 7 No. 1 Nevin • 37 lengthy reply. “[W]hosoever pretended that they are Christians, and yet refuse so to do, do thereby clearly declare themselves notorious hypocrites, as also professed enemies to Jehovah the Lord Christ, and that by his own attestation, Luke 19:27.”50 Thus, Cromwell, and whoever else opposed the coming kingdom of Christ (in other words, refusing to implement a government according to the exact specifications of the Fifth Monarchists), were enemies of God. Another Fifth Monarchist, Christopher Feake, was a prolific writer and preacher who repeatedly denounced Cromwell. In 1654, while Feake was under arrest, he wrote The Oppressed Close Prisoner in Windsor-Castle, His Defiance to the Father of Lyes, in the Strength of the God of Truth. He declared that Cromwell’s government was still serving the beast, saying, “And for this Nation, I dare venture to make it good with the utmost peril of my life, that the spirit of the fourth Beast is yet living and acting its part in England.”51 Concerning what he expected all true Christians to do, he advocated, “The Ministers of Christ understanding this, that no expiations will be allowed, &c. and that yet, they cannot meddle with Antichrist, nor indeed come at him, or at the Beast, and his Horns, but they must of necessity 50 Spittlehouse, “An Answer to one part of The Lord Protector’s Speech: or a Vindication of the Fifth Monarchy-Men,” pg. 18 51 Feake, The Oppressed Close Prisoner in Windsor-Castle, pg. 4 52 Feake, The Oppressed Close Prisoner in Windsor-Castle, pg. 107 53 Feake, A Beam of Light, pg. 51 54 Early English Books Online. The Banner of Truth Displayed, pg. 26 meddle with State-affairs.”52 And meddle with state affairs he did. Feake continued to write and preach against the Commonwealth throughout the decade. Writing in 1659 of Cromwell and his army’s actions after the war, Feake said, “That General, Those great Commanders… which had publickly owned and submitted unto the Lord Jesus, by word and writing, in as choyce and full expressions as any in the New Testament, do now, all on a sudden… lift up an Idol into the Throne of Supream Authority in these Nations, which were to be Governed by none other then the Lord Jesus Christ himself.”53 Cromwell himself was becoming, in the eyes of the Fifth Monarchy Men, just as much an enemy as Charles I. The writings of the Fifth Monarchists continued to become more radical. In 1656, The Banner of Truth was published, quite plainly and openly asserting that the Commonwealth government under Cromwell was the beast’s kingdom. “[T]his Power and Government now in England, is the Power and Government of that little Horne.”54 It seemed that any subtlety was gone, as was any attempt at reconciliation. The culmination of the anger of the Fifth Monarchy Men came with the revolt of
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