Written the 1st day of September,
1658.
Cromwell was snatched away by death at unawares; however the day before
his decease this letter was delivered to his relations. It was not
but in the last period of his life that he named his son Richard to
be his successor. And when death looked in his face, remorse did not
stay behind; for, according to what Ludlow relates, he seemed above all
concerned for the reproaches, (he said,) men would cast upon his name,
in trampling on his ashes when dead. In this temper of mind he departed
this life about two in the afternoon, on the 3d of September, at the
age of about fifty-five years. The news of his death being brought to
those who were met together to pray for him, one Sterry stood up, and
said, ‘This is good news; because if he was of great use to the people
of God when he was amongst us, now he will be much more so, being
ascended to heaven, there to intercede for us.’ O horrid flattery! Thus
I call it, if he had been the greatest saint on earth; which he came
much short of, though he was once endued with some eminent virtues.
His dying day was remarkable by a most grievous tempest, not only in
England, but also in the Low countries, where trees were torn out of
the ground by the violence of the wind, and many ships foundered. ‘He
was,’ saith Edward, Earl of Clarendon, ‘one of those persons whom even
his enemies could not vilify without praising him.’ And I have heard
impartial men say, that in the beginning of his achievements, he was
indeed an excellent man; but being come to a high station, he soon lost
that zeal for the public welfare, by which at first he seemed to be
animated.
The body of the deceased was laid in Somerset House, in an apartment
enlightened only with wax tapers, the corpse being richly adorned.
After his death, Richard, eldest son to Oliver, was proclaimed
Protector of the Commonwealth; to whom E. Burrough wrote a letter,
superscribed to Richard Cromwell, chosen to be protector and chief
magistrate, &c. wherein he gave him some account of the most cruel
sufferings of his friends; and speaking of the rulers, he saith thus:
‘As for magistracy, it was ordained of God to be a dread and
terror, and limit to evil-doers, and to be a defence and praise
to all that do well; to condemn the guilty, and to justify the
guiltless; but the exercise thereof at this day in these nations
is degenerated, and some that are in authority are greatly
corrupted, and regard not the just and pure law of God, to judge
only thereby; but oppress the poor by injustice, and subvert
the good laws of God and men to a wrong end and use, abusing
authority, and turning the sword against the just, whereby true
judgment is turned backward, and the innocent made unjustly
to suffer for righteousness sake, through the corruption of
men in authority; and didst thou but know what we know in this
particular, it would pierce thy heart. Why? It is frequent
among some of the judges and magistrates, to commit a man to
prison, and impose some great fine upon him, and to cast him
into a dungeon, or hole, among thieves and murderers, for a long
season; for no other offence, or breach of any law, but because
he cannot put off his hat to them, and respect their persons, by
the hat or bowing the knee: and many others that fear God, and
for conscience sake cannot swear upon a book, by kissing it, and
laying hands upon it, because Christ saith, “Swear not at all;”
though they deny not to speak and do the truth in all things,
as in the presence of God and all men: and many others, that
because they are moved to cry against sin, and declare against
the iniquities of the times, in teachers, rulers, and people,
that highly abound; perhaps in a market or steeple-house, or
highway, or other places, as they are moved of God: and many
others, because for conscience sake they cannot pay tithes, nor
give money and wages to maintain a priest, or false teacher, that
they receive no profit by; or to maintain a steeple-house, where
the world worships in vain traditions, and not in the spirit and
power of God: and many have been taken out of peaceable meetings,
where they were waiting upon the Lord; and some out of their
inns and friends’ houses; and many have been taken on the way,
travelling about their lawful occasions; and some from their
callings and labours; and for these causes, through the envy of
wicked men, and without any just conviction of the breach of any
law, or any lawful trial or examination, have hundreds of just
men, being wholly innocent, been sent to prison, and lain many
months, and some for years; or whipped, or put in the stocks,
and grievously abused by cruel executioners of wicked men’s envy
and injustice. And upon such grounds only, and for such causes
mentioned, and without the transgression of any just law, have
and do at this day many hundreds of faithful subjects suffer hard
and cruel things, long and sore imprisonment, and cruel and sharp
whipping, and stocking, and unjust banishment out of towns and
cities; yea, friend, it is hard to be expressed, and large to be
declared, how many of the Lord’s servants do, and have suffered
great injustice in these nations, through the abuse of good
government, and degeneration of magistracy from its perfect state
and place, whereunto it was ordained of God in the beginning,’ &c.
This remonstrance, how powerful and large soever, had not its due
effect; but persecution continued, without being stopped by him: for
the churchmen fawned upon him, calling him not only their Joshua, but
the preachers of Suffolk said in their address to him, ‘Though our sun
is gone down, yet no night ensued.’ _Sol occubuit, nox nulla secuta
est._
About this time was given forth a paper, called, The Church Faith;
and G. Fox having got a copy of it before it was published, wrote an
answer to it; and when the book of the church faith appeared, his
answer was also in print. This so incensed some of the parliament men,
that one of them told G. Fox, they must have him to Smithfield. To
which he answered, that he was over their fires, and feared them not:
and further asked, whether all the people had been without a faith
these sixteen hundred years, that now the priests must make them one?
And since Christ Jesus was the author of the apostles’ faith, and of
the church’s faith in the primitive times, and of the martyrs’ faith;
should not all people look unto him to be the author and finisher of
their faith, and not unto the priests? Nothing material was answered to
this; but the priests called G. Fox’s friends, house-creepers, because
they met together in houses, and would not maintain the priests’
temples. One major Wiggan, that was present when G. Fox discoursed with
the parliament men, said, Christ had taken away the guilt of sin, but
had left the power of sin remaining in us. G. Fox told him this was
strange doctrine; for Christ came to destroy the devil and his works,
and the power of sin, and so to cleanse men from sin.
Now there was great persecution, both by imprisonment and breaking up
of meetings; and many died in prisons; for the priests speaking evil of
the Quakers, it did kindle the insolence of the rabble not a little,
so that they did not stick to throw squibs into the meetings, to cast
rotten eggs on those that were met, to beat on drums and kettles, and
so to make hideous noise, and to abuse people most grievously with
blows and violent pushes.
One day there being a meeting appointed near London, they beat and
abused about eighty persons that came out of the city to meet there,
tearing their coats and cloaks from off their backs, and throwing them
into ditches and ponds. The next First-day of the week after this, G.
Fox, though at that time very weak, went thither, and preaching with
the bible in his hand, he showed the rude people, their, and their
teachers’ fruits, and how disagreeable these mad actions were to the
doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures. Many of his imprisoned
friends were now brought up to London to be tried by the committee;
where sir Henry Vane, being chairman, would not suffer them to come
in, except they would put off their hats. But since many of them had
been imprisoned upon contempts, (as the not putting off hats before
magistrates was called,) others signified that it must not be expected
that now they should comply; and so through the mediation of some
that persuaded Vane, they were at length admitted; where they so well
defended their cause, that several were set at liberty.
Sufferings now growing very sharp, G. Fox, to encourage his friends,
wrote the following lines to them:
‘My dear friends, every where scattered abroad, in prison, or out
of prison, fear not, because of the reports of sufferings; let
not the evil spies of the good land make you afraid, if they tell
you the walls are high, and that there be Anakims in the land;
for at the blowing of the ram’s horns did the walls of Jericho
fall down; and they that brought the evil report, perished in
the wilderness. But dwell ye in the faith, patience, and hope,
having the word of life to keep you, which is beyond the law;
and having the oath of God, his covenant, Christ Jesus, which
divides the waters asunder; and makes them to run all on heaps;
in that stand, and ye shall see all things work together for
good, to them that love God; and in that triumph when sufferings
come, whatever they be: your faith, your shield, your helmet,
your armour you have on; ye are ready to skip over a mountain, or
a wall, or an hill, and to walk through the deep waters, though
they be heaps upon heaps: for the evil spies of the good land
may preach up hardness, but Caleb, which signifies an heart, and
Joshua, a saviour, triumph over all.