Never man was highlier extolled, and never man was baselier reported
of, and vilified than this man. No (meer) man was _better_ and _worse_
spoken of than he; according as mens Interests led their Judgments.
The Soldiers and Sectaries most highly magnified him, till he began
to seek the Crown and the Establishment of his Family: And then there
were so many that would be Half-Kings themselves, that a King did seem
intollerable to them. The Royalists abhorred him as a most perfidious
Hypocrite; and the Presbyterians thought him little better, in his
management of publick matters.
If after so many others I may speak my Opinion of him, I think,
that, having been a Prodigal in his Youth, and afterward changed to
a zealous Religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious
and conscionable in the main course of his Life, till Prosperity and
Success corrupted him: that, at his first entrance into the Wars,
being but a Captain of Horse, he had a special care to get religious
men into his Troop: These men were of greater understanding than
common Soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the
Importance and Consequence of the War; and making not Money, but that
which they took for the Publick Felicity, to be their End, they were
the more engaged to be valiant; for he that maketh Money his End, doth
esteem his Life above his Pay, and therefore is like enough to save
it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can: But he that maketh
the Felicity of Church and State his End, esteemeth it above his Life,
and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it. And men of
Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business, and know
that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the
likeliest way to escape; there being many usually that fall in flight,
for one that falls in valiant fight. These things it's probable
_Cromwell_ understood; and that none would be such engaged valiant
men as the Religious: But yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing
such men into his Troop, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious
men that principally moved him; and the avoiding of those Disorders,
Mutinies, Plunderings, and Grievances of the Country, which deboist
men in Armies are commonly guilty of: By this means he indeed sped
better than he expected. _Aires_, _Desborough_, _Berry_, _Evanson_,
and the rest of that Troop, did prove so valiant, that as far as I
could learn, they never once ran away before an Enemy. Hereupon he got
a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties, where he
brought his Troop into a double Regiment, of fourteen full Troops; and
all these as full of religious men as he could get: These having more
than ordinary Wit and Resolution, had more than ordinary Success;
first in _Lincolnshire_, and afterward in the Earl of _Manchester's_
Army at _York_ Fight: With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain
and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation: And the
familiarity of many honest erroneous Men (Anabaptists, Antinomians,
&c.) withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments. Hereupon
_Cromwell's_ general Religious Zeal, giveth away to the power of that
Ambition, which still increaseth as his Successes do increase: Both
Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he
thought Godly of what Sect soever: Piety pleadeth for them as _Godly_;
and _Charity_ as Men; and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he
might make of them. He meaneth well in all this at the beginning,
and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly, and the Publick
Good, but not without an Eye to himself.
When Successes had broken down all considerable opposition, he was
then in the face of his Strongest Temptations, which conquered him
when he had conquered others: He thought that he had hitherto done
well, both as to the _End_ and _Means_, and God by the wonderful
Blessing of his Providence had owned his endeavours, and it was
none but God that had made him great: He thought that if the War was
lawful, the Victory was lawful; and if it were lawful to fight against
the King and conquer him, it was lawful to use him as a conquered
Enemy, and a foolish thing to trust him when they had so provoked him,
(whereas indeed the Parliament professed neither to fight against him,
nor to conquer him). He thought that the Heart of the King was deep,
and that he resolved upon Revenge, and that if he were King, he would
easily at one time or other accomplish it; and that it was a dishonest
thing of the Parliament to set men to fight for them against the King,
and then to lay their Necks upon the block, and be at his Mercy; and
that if that must be their Case, it was better to flatter or please
him, than to fight against him. He saw that the _Scots_ and the
Presbyterians in the Parliament, did by the Covenant and the Oath
of Allegiance, find themselves bound to the Person and Family of the
King, and that there was no hope of changing their minds in this:
Hereupon he joyned with that Party in the Parliament who were for the
Cutting off the King, and trusting him no more. And consequently he
joyned with them in raising the Independants to make a Fraction in
the Synod at _Westminster_ and in the City; and in strengthening the
Sectaries in Army, City and Country, and in rendering the _Scots_ and
Ministers as odious as he could, to disable them from hindering the
Change of Government. In the doing of all this, (which _Distrust_ and
_Ambition_ had perswaded him was well done) he thought it lawful to
use his Wits, to choose each Instrument, and suit each means, unto its
end; and accordingly he daily imployed himself, and modelled the Army,
and disbanded all other Garrisons and Forces and Committees, which
were like to have hindered his design. And as he went on, though he
yet resolved not what form the New Commonwealth should be molded into,
yet he thought it but reasonable, that he should be the Chief Person
who had been chief in their Deliverance; (For the Lord _Fairfax_ he
knew had but the Name). At last, as he thought it lawful to cut off
the King, because he thought he was lawfully conquered, so he thought
it lawful to fight against the _Scots_ that would set him up, and to
pull down the Presbyterian Majority in the Parliament, which would
else by restoring him undo all which had cost them so much Blood and
Treasure. And accordingly he conquereth _Scotland_, and pulleth down
the Parliament: being the easilier perswaded that all this was lawful,
because he had a secret Byas and Eye towards his own Exaltation:
For he (and his Officers) thought, that when the King was gone a
Government there must be; and that no Man was so fit for it as he
himself; as best _deserving_ it, and as having by his _Wit_ and great
_Interest_ in the Army, the best sufficiency to manage it: Yea, they
thought that _God had called_ them by _Successes_ to _Govern and take
Care_ of the Commonwealth, and of the Interest of all his People in
the Land; and that if they stood by and suffered the Parliament to do
that which they thought was dangerous, it would be required at their
hands, whom they thought God had made the Guardians of the Land.
Having thus forced his Conscience to justifie all his Cause, (the
Cutting off the King, the setting up himself and his Adherents, the
pulling down the Parliament and the _Scots_,) he thinketh that the
End being good and necessary, the necessary means cannot be bad: And
accordingly he giveth his Interest and Cause leave to tell him, how
far Sects shall be tollerated and commended, and how far not; and how
far the Ministry shall be owned and supported, and how far not; yea,
and how far Professions, Promises, and Vows shall be kept, or broken;
and therefore the Covenant he could not away with; nor the Ministers,
further than they yielded to his Ends, or did not openly resist them.
He seemed exceeding open hearted, by a familiar Rustick affected
Carriage, (especially to his Soldiers in sporting with them): but he
thought Secrecy a Vertue, and Dissimulation no Vice, and Simulation,
that is, in plain English a Lie, or Perfidiousness to be a tollerable
Fault in a Case of Necessity: being of the same Opinion with the
Lord _Bacon_, (who was not so Precise as Learned) That [_the best
Composition and Temperature is, to have openness in Fame and Opinion,
Secrecy in habit, Dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to
feign if there be no remedy,_] _Essay_ 6. _pag._ 31. Therefore he kept
fair with all, saving his open or unreconcileable Enemies. He carried
it with such Dissimulation, that Anabaptists, Independants, and
Antinomians did all think that he was one of them: But he never
endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians that he was one of them;
but only that he would do them Justice, and Preserve them, and that
he honoured their Worth and Piety; for he knew that they were not so
easily deceived. In a word, he did as our Prelates have done, begin
low and rise higher in his Resolutions as his Condition rose, and the
Promises which he made in his lower Condition, he used as the interest
of his higher following Condition did require, and kept up as much
Honesty and Godliness in the main, as his Cause and Interest would
allow.
40.