Cromwell’s Letter to Puritan Pastor John Cotton, Boston, New England, 1651
Coat of Arms, Cromwell’s Commonwealth of England, 1649-1660
In this most tender and moving letter, Oliver Cromwell bears his soul to John Cotton, a Puritan brother-in-Christ of like precious faith in Christ and pastor of the Church in Boston. Indeed, Boston would be the cradle of Puritanism, and, in memory of the Jesuit Order’s St. Bartholomew’s Massacre in 1572, its attempted invasion of England via the Spanish Armada in 1588, its Gunpowder Plot in 1605, its assassination of French King Henry IV of France in 1610 and its Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), the colony would pass a law imposing the death penalty upon any Jesuit that would dare to set his unclean foot within its borders, Praise God! For that Puritan colony would be the nexus of the American Revolution. Boston would also be the place from which, on the green at Lexington, “the shot would be heard around the world,” thus beginning the Protestant and Puritan Baptist-Calvinist American revolt against absolutist, Jesuit-directed British tyranny.
Puritan Pastor John Cotton, Boston, New England, 1650
Indeed, with no Oliver Cromwell, there is no American Revolution! This link between English Puritanism, having vanquished the Jesuit Order’s tyranny over Great Britain via Charles I and Charles II, and American Puritanism, that would ignite and fight the Order’s tyranny over the American Colonies via George III, is one of the keystones in understanding the the birth of the Protestant and Baptist, Federal Republic of these United States of America (1789-1868). Because of this connection to Calvinist Puritanism, America would be known in Protestant Europe as “the Kingdom of Calvin.” Our beloved Oliver writes:
“WORTHY SIR, AND MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND,
“I received yours a few days since. It was welcome to me because signed by you, whom I love and honour in the Lord: but more ‘so’ to see some of the same grounds or our Actings stirring in you that are in us, to quiet us to our work, and support us therein. Which hath had the greatest difficulty in our engagement in Scotland; by reason we have had to do with some who were, I verily think, Godly, but, through, weakness and the subtlety of Satan, ‘were’ involved in Interests against the Lord and His People.
“With what tenderness we have proceeded with such, and that in sincerity, our Papers (which I suppose you have seen) will in part manifest; and I give you some comfortable assurance of ‘the same.’ The Lord hath marvellously appeared even against them. And now again when all the power was devolved into the Scottish King and the Malignant Party,— they invading England, the Lord rained upon them such snares as the Enclosed will show. Only the Narrative in short is this, That of their whole Army, when the Narrative was framed, not five men were returned.
“Surely, Sir, the Lord is greatly to be feared and to be praised! We need your prayers in this as much as ever. How shall we behave ourselves after such mercies? What is the Lord a-doing? What Prophecies are now fulfilling? Who is a God like ours? To know His will, to do His will, are both of Him.
“I took this liberty from business, to salute you thus in a word. Truly I am ready to serve you and the rest of our Brethren and the Churches with you. I am a poor weak creature, and not worthy the name of a worm; yet accepted to serve the Lord and His People. Indeed, my dear Friend, between you and me, you know not me,—my weaknesses, my inordinate passions, my unskillfulness, and everyway unfitness to my work. Yet, yet the Lord, who will have mercy on whom He will, does as you see! Pray for me. Salute all Christian friends though unknown. I rest, your affectionate friend to serve you,
OLIVER CROMWELL.”
Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations, (London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1889), Vol. III of V, pp. 172-173.