1658.
Whatever common rumour might relate, the domestic letters and the dying words of Cromwell attest the sincerity of his spiritual experience. It seems impossible that any human being could so successfully have worn the mask of hypocrisy in the privacies of life and in the moment of death. Of all hypotheses for explaining his character, the most monstrous is to set him down as playing the part of a wilful deceiver in his professions of religion. As if anticipating the uncharitable judgments of posterity, he had written to Fleetwood, in the year 1653: "I am in my temptation ready to say, 'Oh, that I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest;' but this I fear is my 'haste.' I bless the Lord I have somewhat keeps me alive—some sparks of the light of His countenance; and some sincerity above man's judgment."[576] Nobody who has studied human nature can believe this passage to be a piece of clever affectation; he will rather pronounce it the unfeigned utterance of a thoughtful soul. And if ever an experience of the real Puritan type was luminously and honestly uttered, it was in the words which Oliver employed on his death-bed, according to a testimony on which we can rely.[577]
Last Words.
"The Covenants," said the dying man, "they were two—two, but put into one before the foundation of the world." "It is holy and true, it is holy and true, it is holy and true! Who made it holy and true? Who kept it holy and true? The Mediator of the Covenant." "The Covenant is but one. Faith in the Covenant is my only support, yet if I believe not, He abides faithful." Enquiries and ejaculations were caught up at intervals, "Is there none that will come and praise God." "Whatsoever sins thou hast, doest, or shalt commit, if you lay hold upon free grace, you are safe, but if you put yourself under a Covenant of works, you bring yourself under the law, and so under the curse—then you are gone."[578] "Is there none that says, Who will deliver me from the peril?" "Man can do nothing, but God can do what He will." "Lord, Thou knowest, if I desire to live, it is to shew forth Thy praise, and declare Thy works. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." This was spoken three times, his repetitions usually being very weighty, and with great vehemency of spirit. "All the promises of God are in Him yea, and in Him, Amen; to the glory of God by us, by us in Jesus Christ." "The Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of His pardon, and His love, as my soul can hold." "I think I am the poorest wretch that lives; but I love God, or rather, am beloved of God." "Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "I am a conqueror, and more than a conqueror, through Christ that strengthened me." "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." "Little children, let no man deceive you, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." "Love not the world, I say unto you it is not good that you should love the world."[579] "Children, live like Christians, and I leave you the Covenant to feed upon." "Truly God is good; indeed He is, He will not—" There his speech failed him, but as I apprehended it was: "He will not leave me." This saying that God was good, he frequently used all along, and would speak it with much cheerfulness and fervour of spirit in the midst of his pains. Again, he said: "I would be willing to live to be further serviceable to God and His people; but my work is done. Yet God will be with His people." He was very restless most part of the night, speaking often to himself. And there being something to drink offered him, he was desired to take the same, and endeavour to sleep, unto which he answered: "It is not my design to drink or sleep; but my design is, to make what haste I can to be gone."[580] Afterwards, towards morning using divers holy expressions, implying much inward consolation and peace; among the rest he spake some exceeding self-debasing words, annihilating and judging himself. And truly it was observed, that a public spirit to God's cause did breathe in him (as in his life time) so now to the very last, which will further appear by that prayer he put up to God two or three days before his end, which was as followeth: "Lord, although I am a miserable and wretched creature, I am in covenant with Thee through grace, and I may, I will, come to Thee, for Thy people. Thou hast made me (though very unworthy) a mean instrument to do them some good, and Thee service; and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though others wish and would be glad of my death; but, Lord, however Thou dost dispose of me, continue and go on to do good for them. Give them consistency of judgment, one heart, and mutual love: and go on to deliver them, and with the work of reformation; and make the name of Christ glorious in the world. Teach those who look too much upon Thy instruments, to depend more upon Thyself. Pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too. And pardon the folly of this short prayer. Even for Jesus Christ's sake. And give us a good night, if it be Thy pleasure. Amen."[581]
Death.
Oliver died on the 3rd of September, "it having been to him," says the Court Newspaper announcing his death, "a day of triumphs and thanksgiving for the memorable victories of Dunbar and Worcester; a day which after so many strange revolutions of Providence, high contradictions, and wicked conspiracies of unreasonable men, he lived once again to see, and then to die, with great assurances and serenity of mind, peaceably in his bed. Thus it hath proved to him to be a day of triumph indeed, there being much of Providence in it, that after so glorious crowns of victory placed on his head by God on this day, having neglected an earthly crown, he should now go to receive the crown of everlasting life."[582]
The passages we have cited have an interest beyond their bearing upon the Protector's character. They are specimens of the domestic and social piety of the age. Letters like his in tone and spirit, varying in intellectual conception and style of language, passed in those days by thousands over the rough roads of broad England in the pocket of some friendly traveller or in the postman's bag. So fathers and mothers, and parents and children, and brothers and sisters, wrote to one another, feeling every word they wrote—living under a deep apprehension of those higher bonds which unite souls to souls, families to families, Churches to Churches, and all to God and Christ. Hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows, such as the Protector expressed, although utterly unreal to multitudes of their neighbours, were experienced by many a man and woman in those times, and were to them as real as the everlasting hills or the unchanging stars.
1658.
The ruler, in mortal agony,[583] by his faith and prayers, presents a luminous contrast to another death-scene at Whitehall, a few years afterwards, when a different spirit passed away amidst symbols of popish superstition, the accessories of an abandoned Court, and the memories of a sensual life. But, beyond that contrast, and apart from all circumstances of royal splendour; dismissing from our minds images of the quaint magnificence of the sick chamber in Whitehall, with its, perhaps, tapestried walls and bed of damask hangings, and the figures of generals, chaplains, and state servants, clustering round the form wasted by disease, and the countenance growing pale in death; putting aside, also, the memory of the marvellous career of the departing soldier and statesman of the Commonwealth—we meet in Cromwell's last words with an expression of the inmost soul of many a Puritan in such dark nights, doing battle with the last enemy. Nor, perhaps in the sorrows of his beloved family, and the sympathies of brother generals, and the intercessions of attached chaplains, was there more of religious affection than gathered about other pilgrims at that era, whilst at last they were laying down all life's heavy burdens at once and for ever. Such sentiments were often heard, such consolations were often imparted, and such prayers, whatever of infirmity there might be clinging to them, often went up to the throne of grace: but on account of Oliver's high position, and the vast interests which depended on his life, there would be in his case additional grounds for earnestness and the inspiration of a much wider sympathy. Thurloe wrote to the Protector's son Henry, when all was over, "that never was there any man so prayed for as he was during sickness; solemn assemblies meeting every day to beseech the Lord for the continuance of his life, so that he is gone to heaven embalmed with the tears of his people and upon the wings of the prayers of the saints."[584] And in these impassioned supplications we can see even now the reflection of a devout temper then very common; and in the parish congregations, and the church gatherings of that day, may be recognized the interest felt in the life of one who was the pillar of their strength, and the shield of their freedom.