1638.]

LETTER FROM

CROMWELL.

29

attention of every one, put a stop to all internal improvements. During this period, however, he was distinguished for his religious enthusiasm. He kept

days of fasting and prayer, and evening and morning knelt, with his workmen by his side, and poured forth his earnest supplications to heaven.

His health, however, suffered under the climate of St. Ives and his terrible mental excitement combined, and his appearance in church on Sundays, with his pallid, solemn face and a red flannel tied around his neck, was long remembered by the inhabitants. Of incorruptible integrity charitable and kind to the poor and oppressed -fervent in prayer, solemn, watchful, resolute and enthusiastic, he acquired unbounded influence over those who knew him, and already represented in himself the elements of that army whose battle shout afterwards made the world tremble.

We do not design to give many of Cromwell's letters, but the following, written during this year to his cousin, who had married Oliver St. John, a widower, the celebrated barrister who defended Hampden so nobly in his ship-money trial, exposes Cromwell's religious character so fully, that it is worthy especial notice. At this time he was a simple farmer-one of the disgraced and persecuted non-conformists-with every worldly motive against his expressing his religious belief-and hence, however true the charge of cant may be, that of hypocrisy is too absurd to be entertained for a moment. That as a private man-never anticipating public notoriety, and writing a private letter to a female cousin, he

assumed a religious sensibility, and spoke of religious things except as he felt them, no man of just mind will believe.

"To my beloved Cousin Mrs. St. John, at Sir William Masham his House called Otes, in Essex: Present these.

"ELY, 13th October, 1638. "DEAR COUSIN-I thankfully acknowledge your love in your kind remembrance of me upon this opportunity. Alas, you do too highly prize my lines and my company. I may be ashamed to own your expressions, considering how unprofitable I am, and the mean improvement of my talent.

"Yet to honor my God by declaring what He hath done for my soul, in this I am confident, and I will be so. Truly, then, this [ find: That He giveth springs in a dry barren wilderness where no water is. I live, you know where-in Meshec, which they say signifies Prolonging; in Kedar, which signifies Blackness; yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though He do prolong, yet He will, I trust, bring me to His Tabernacle, to His resting-place. My soul is with the Congregation of the First-born, my body rests in hope: and if here I may honor my God either by doing or suffering, I shall be most glad.

"Truly no poor creature hath more cause to put himself forth in the cause of his God than I. I have had plentiful wages beforehand; and I am sure I shall never earn the least mite. The Lord accept me in His Son, and give me to walk in the light-and give us to walk in the light, as He is the light! He it is that enlightened our blackness, our darkness. I dare not say, He hideth His face from me. He giveth me to see light in His light. One beam in a dark place hath exceeding much refreshment in it :-blessed be His name for shining on so dark a heart as mine! You know what my manner of life hath been. Oh, I lived in and loved dark

1638.]

THIRD

PARLIAMENT.

31

ness, and hated light; I was a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true I hated godliness, yet God had mercy on me. O the riches of His mercy! Praise Him for me; pray for me, that He who hath begun a good work would perfect it in the day of Christ. "Salute all my friends in that Family whereof you are yet a member. I am much bound unto them for their love. I bless the Lord for them; and that my Son, by their procurement, is so well. Let him have your prayers, your counsel; let me have them.

"Salute your husband and sister from me :-He is not a man of his word! He promised to write about Mr. Wrath of Epping; bnt as yet I receive no letters :-put him in mind to do what with conveniency may be done for the poor Cousin I did solicit him about.

"Once more farewell. The Lord be with you: so prayeth "Your truly loving cousin,

"OLIVER CROMWELL."

What a flood of light does this letter throw upon his character at this time. Absorbed in the contemplation of religious things, with the glory of heaven on one side, and the "blackness of darkness" on the other-angels and fiends beckoning him by turns-the shouts of "the congregation of the first-born," and the sad lament of the dwellers of Meshec, alternately falling on his excited ear-now looking into the abodes of light, and now gazing steadfastly into the deep abyss of the pit of despair— his strong intellect is shaken to its foundation, and nothing but a life of action, giving vent to his pent-up excitement, can save him from the gloomiest fanaticism. Swayed by one master passion, he is undergoing a fearful preparation for the scenes before him. The elegant

Hampden, the astute St. John, the firm Bradshaw and crafty Vane, nay, all England are yet to bend before this soul of fire. Fearless of consequences, ready to suffer martyrdom-indeed, ready for anything at the call of his Great Master, he stands on the threshhold of this long struggle, resolved to bear himself like a man, a Christian, and a hero. This letter shows in every line of it the most perfect sincerity. That passage in which he speaks of himself as the chief of sinners, has been adduced as proof that he formerly led a dissolute life; while it evidently is meant only to express his sense of the deep sinfulness of his heart in an unconverted state. He is full of that dread eternity, on the vast concerns of which he is ever gazing, and struggling after the perfect freedom of the "sons of God." Whatever he may become in after life, he is now a true-hearted Puritan, with all the peculiar views of conviction, regeneration, and a spiritual life, of that sect; and is straining forward “towards the mark for the prize of the high calling." Wars and rumors of wars are borne to his ears the land is filled with corruption, oppression and complaints, and old England is surging to and fro, like the sea before a storm. Across the blackness of the political horizon he can see no dawning light; and vainly seeking to abandon the home of his childhood and the land of his birth, that he may serve his God and win heaven, he has at length settled down with the firm resolution to suffer shame, reproach and persecution. Call him self-deluded, superstitious, fanatical, if you will, but honest he certainly is.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE LONG PARLIAMENT TO THE FIRST CIVIL WAR

1640-1642.

Short Parliament-Second Invasion of Scotland-Meeting of the Long Parliament-Its Stern Aspect-Impeachment of Laud-Trial and Death of Strafford-His Character-Personal Appearance of Cromwell-Appointed on a Private Committee-Defends the Poor-The King Visits Scotland-Grand Petition and Remonstrance-Stormy Debate upon It-Cromwell's View of It-Withdrawal of the Bishops-Their Impeachment-Attempt to Seize the Five MembersExcitement Caused by It-The King Leaves Whitehall never to Return except as a Prisoner-Recapitulation-Cromwell a Patriot.

CHARLES at length exhausted all the means which unscrupulous tyranny could devise, but his treasury was still empty; and as a last resort, he resolved to call a new parliament, in order to obtain money with which to raise another army to subdue the Scots. It met April 16, 1640. He had got along eleven years without a parliament, but was now fairly driven to the wall.

But during these eleven years the commons had not forgotten grievances; and when the king asked for supplies, he received in reply "grievances." Nothing could be done with a parliament that talked only of grievances, and in three weeks it was dissolved. Money be