CHAPTER III.

FROM 1656 TO 1658.

HOWE'S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH CROMWELL.-PREACHES AT WHITEHALL-CROMWELL PROPOSES THAT HE SHOULD BECOME HIS CHAPLAIN. HOWE'S RELUCTANCE.- SCRUPLES OVERCOME.-MOTIVES WHICH ACTUATED CROMWELL IN THE SELECTION OF HOWE.-REMARKS ON THE PROTECTOR'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.-STATE OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES.-LETTERS OF HOWE TO BAXTER, PUBLISHED FROM THF BAXTER MSS.-HOWE'S RELUCTANCE TO CONTINUE AT WHITEHALL.-GROUNDS OF IT.-MANNER IN WHICH HE CONDUCTED HIMSELF DURING HIS CONNEXION WITH CROMWELL.-INSTANCES OF HIS DISINTERESTEDNESS, INTEGRITY, AND BENEVOLENCE.REFLECTIONS.

Howe was no longer to remain the pastor of an obscure country town. One of those trifling incidents, as men are wont to consider them, but on which Divine Providence seems to delight in suspending the most important events, changed the whole tenour of his life, and placed him in a situation of peculiar difficulty and delicacy. At the close of 1656, or in the beginning of 1657,* some important business brought Howe to London. On the last sabbath of his stay there, (and it is worthy of remark that he

* The exact period cannot be ascertained. The first of the letters of Howe to Baxter, which will be found in this chapter, is dated March 12, 1657; it shows that he was then Cromwell's Chaplain.

had been already detained beyond the period he had assigned for his return,) curiosity led him to the Chapel at Whitehall. The name of the preacher who attracted him thither is unknown. Cromwell was present; and as "he generally had his eyes every where,” (to use an expression of Calamy's, not very complimentary to Oliver's devotion,) the noble and expressive physiognomy of Howe soon fell under his notice. Nor was this to be wondered at;

observer of human nature, far less sagacious than Oliver Cromwell, might have discerned in the lineaments of Howe's face, the indications of no common character.

As soon as service was concluded, a messenger was despatched, to inform Howe that the Protector desired to speak with him. If surprised at such an extraordinary summons, he must have been still more surprised to hear the Protector (who had already concluded from his appearance that he was a minister) request him to preach at Whitehall Chapel on the following Lord's day. Howe, whose modesty recoiled from a proposal, which other and more ambitious men would have exulted to embrace, endeavoured to excuse himself. Cromwell, with that peremptoriness which ever characterized him, told him "that it was in vain to think of excusing himself, for that he would take no denial." Howe, who did not know much of

To

the arts of a courtier, and if he had, would have disdained to practise them, pleaded with much simplicity, that "he had despatched all the matters which had brought him to London, that he was now anxious to return home, and that he could not be detained longer without serious inconvenience." "Why," rejoined the pertinacious Oliver, "what great injury are you likely to sustain by tarrying a little longer?" this Howe, who, in the spirit of a true pastor, considered the welfare of his flock far more important than the favour of the Protector, their esteem as his highest honour, and their love as his most grateful reward; replied, "that his people were very kind to him; that they would be uneasy at his protracted absence; that they would think he neglected them, and that he had but little valued their esteem and affection." "Well," said Cromwell, "I will write to them myself, and will undertake the task of procuring them a suitable substitute." This he actually did; and Howe, being thus relieved from his scruples, or rather not knowing how to persist in opposing the wishes of one, whose requests, like those of kings, were little less than commands, consented to the Protector's

proposal. But after he had preached once, Cromwell in the same manner insisted upon a second and third sermon, and prevailed by the same pertinacity as before; and at length, after

much private conversation, told him, that "nothing would serve him but Howe must remove to London and become his domestic Chaplain, and that he would take care that the people at Torrington should be supplied to their satisfaction." Howe exerted himself to the utmost to escape such an unwelcome honour; but Cromwell, who, as Calamy truly observes, "could not bear to be contradicted after he had once got the power into his hands," would listen to no denial.* At length, therefore, Howe (who, as appears from a hitherto unpublished letter, which will shortly be laid before the reader,) was assured that he would have the means of doing great service to religion in the Protector's household, the whole arrangements of which were to be submitted to him and a reverend

* Palmer, in his "Nonconformist's Memorial," differs somewhat from Calamy in the account he gives of the manner of Howe's first introduction to the Protector. He says that his name had been already mentioned to Cromwell, when he appeared at Whitehall Chapel, and that he came there by appointment. But the account bears on its very front marks of improbability, which render it very questionable. Thus it represents Howe, and the gentleman who mentioned his name to Cromwell, as at that time dividing the suffrages of the congregation at St. Saviour's, Dartmouth. If so, one would think that Howe must have been at least in a condition to accept such a situation, since he would hardly have been proposed candidate against his known wishes. Yet at this period, so far as any evidence can be obtained, nothing could be farther from his thoughts than removing from Torrington, where he had been recently settled, and where he was exceedingly happy. On what authority Palmer's account rests, I know not. Some parts of the account Palmer had received were so ridiculously improbable, that I see he himself has suppressed them in his later editions. Calamy, from habits of personal intimacy with Howe, was more likely to know the truth.

colleague) was induced to consent. He accordingly removed with his family to Whitehall, where several of his children were born.

We might have concluded, a priori, that if Howe had been at liberty to shape his own destiny, such a situation would not have been pre cisely the one he would have selected; but the curious correspondence which will shortly be laid before the reader proves it. Indeed, such a post, even under far more inviting circumstances, would never have been his choice; for though he had practical talents, which eminently fitted him for important public functions, all the strongest tendencies of his nature were in favour of contemplative retirement and humble usefulness. Such a situation, however, as that in which he now found himself, must for special reasons have been peculiarly distasteful. The fanaticism which so strongly pervaded Oliver's court and household, must, as his conduct and his letters both testify, have been to the last degree repulsive to a mind so remarkably free from every tinge of enthusiasm, and so habitually under the dominion of the severest reason. Even the extravagances and eccentricities of manner, which marked so many of the religionists in the court of the Protector, must have excited strong disgust in one whose judgment was too sound

* Who this colleague was I know not.