e Vulgate., or
cxx. in the English translation. He says to the same correspondent, "You
know what my manner of life hath been. Oh! I lived in and loved darkness,
and hated light. I was a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true. I
hated godliness. Yet God had mercy on me. Oh, the riches of his
mercy!"--Cromwell's Letters and Speeches by Carlyle, i. 121. Warwick bears
testimony to the sincerity of his conversion; "for he declared he was ready
to make restitution to any man who would accuse him, or whom he could
accuse himself to, to have wronged."--Warwick, 249.]

fruit of his malady at Huntingdon, or of his recovery from it, accompanied
him to the close of his career: it gave in his eyes the sanction of Heaven
to the more questionable events in his life, and enabled him to persevere
in habits of the most fervent devotion, even when he was plainly following
the unholy suggestions of cruelty, and duplicity, and ambition.

It was probably to withdraw him from scenes likely to cause the
prolongation or recurrence of his malady, that he was advised to direct
his attention to the pursuits of agriculture. He disposed by sale of his
patrimonial property in Huntingdon, and took a large grazing farm in the
neighbourhood of the little town of St. Ives.[a] This was an obscure, but
tranquil and soothing occupation, which he did not quit till five years
later, when he migrated to Ely, on the death of his maternal uncle, who had
left to him by will the lucrative situation of farmer of the tithes and of
churchlands belonging to the cathedral of that city. Those stirring
events followed, which led to the first civil war; Cromwell's enthusiasm
rekindled, the time was come "to put himself forth in the cause of the
Lord," and that cause he identified in his own mind with the cause of the
country party in opposition to the sovereign and the church. The energy
with which he entered into the controversies of the time attracted public
notice, and the burgesses of Cambridge chose him for their representative
in both the parliaments called by the king in 1640. He carried with him to
the house the simplicity of dress, and the awkwardness of manner, which
bespoke the country farmer; occasionally he rose to speak, and then, though
his voice was harsh, his utterance confused, and his matter unpremeditated,
yet he seldom failed to command respect and attention by the originality
and boldness of his views, the fervour with which he maintained them, an