Cromwell Parliment Speech 1656 Pt 2 of 5

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Cromwell Delivers Greatest Parlimentarian Speech in World History, 1656! Pt. 2 of 5

Oliver Cromwell: Protector of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, 1656

This magnificent speech of His Royal Highness, Oliver Cromwell, covers nearly 44 pages as found in Carlyle’s five-volume work, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches with Elucidations.  Documented by the author as “Speech V,” it covers a host of topics, all the while Cromwell quoting from the AV1611 Reformation English Bible.  This first of four portions of the speech will cover ten pages.  Please be patient, take time and allow the simple points of the speech to take hold of your meditations to the end that your heart will be inclined not only to the pure and wonderful life of Oliver, but to the Holy Spirit of God, Who wrought in him the greatest of Faith and Works in obedience to the glorious gospel of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Throughout Cromwell’s Speech, he will emphasize certain words and phrases.  Today we would put that emphasis in italics or in bold.  Below, during the 17th Century, that emphasis is put in quotes or is italicized in this fashion put in bold for clarification: ‘word or phrase.‘

Carlyle sets forth his introduction:

“At all events, on Wednesday 17th September 1656, Parliament, Protector, all in due state, do assemble at the Abbey Church; and, with reverence and credence, hear Doctor [John] Owen, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, very pertinently preach to them from these old words of Isaiah,—old and yet always new and true:

What shall one then answer to the Messengers of the Nation?  That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the Poor of His People shall trust in it.

Isaiah xiv.32 [AV1611 Reformation English Bible]

“After which, all having removed, still in due state, to the Painted Chamber, and there adjusted themselves, the Protector, rising in his elevated place and taking off his hat, now speaks.  The Speech, reported by one knows not whom, lies in old Manuscript in the British Museum; and printed in late years in the Book called Burton’s Diary; here and there which, as heretofore, a pious Editor strives to rescue it.  Sufficiently studied, it becomes intelligible, nay luminous.  Let the reader too read with piety, with a real endeavour to understand.”

“GENTLEMEN,

“When I came hither, I did think that a duty was incumbent upon me a little to pity myself; because, this being a very extraordinary occasion, I thought I had very many things to say unto you, ‘and was somewhat burdened and straitened thereby.’  But truly now, seeing you in such a condition as you are, I think I must turn off ‘my pity’ in this, as I hope I shall in everything else;—and consider you as certainly not being able long to bear that condition and heat that you are now in.— — ‘So far as possible, on this large subject, let us be brief; not studying the Art of Rhetoricians.’  Rhetoricians, whom I do not pretend to ‘much concern with;’ neither with them, nor with what they use to deal in:  Words!

“Truly our business is to speak Things!  The Dispensations of God that are upon us do require it; and that subject upon which we shall make our discourse is somewhat of very great interest and concernment, both for the glory of God, and with reference to His Interest in the world.  I mean His peculiar, His most peculiar Interest, ‘His Church, the Communion of the faithful Followers of Christ;’—and that will not leave any of us to exclude His general Interest, which is the concernment of the Living People, ‘not as Christians but as human creatures,’ within these three Nations, and all the Dependencies thereupon.  I have told you I should speak to things; things that concern these Interests: The Glory of God, and His Peculiar Interest in the world,—which ‘latter’ is more extensive, I say more extensive, than the People of all these three Nations with the appurtenances, or the countries and places, belonging unto them.

“The first thing, therefore, that I shall speak to is That that is the first lesson of Nature:  Being and Preservation.  As to that of Being, I do think I do not ill style it the first consideration which Nature teacheth the Sons of Adam:—and then I think we shall enter into a field large enough when we come to consider that of Well-being.  But if Being itself be not first well laid, I think the other will hardly follow!

“Now in order to this, to the Being and Subsistence of these Nations with all their Dependencies:  The conservation of that, ‘namely of our National Being,’ is first to be viewed with respect to those who seek to undo it, and so make it not to be; and then very naturally we shall come to the consideration of what will make it be, of what will keep its being and subsistence.

“‘Now,’ that which plainly seeks the destruction of the Being of these Nations is, out of doubt:  The endeavour and design of all the common Enemies of them.  I think, truly, it will not be hard to find out who those Enemies are; nor what hath made them so!  I think They are all the wicked men in the world, whether abroad or at home, that are the Enemies to the very Being of these Nations;—and this upon a common account, from the very enmity that is in them ‘to all such things.’  Whatsoever could serve the glory of God and the interest of His People,—which they see to be more eminently, yea more eminently patronised and professed in this Nation (we will not speak it with vanity) than in all the Nations in the world:  this is the common ground of the common enmity entertained against the prosperity of our Nation, against the very being of it.—But we will not, I think, take up our time, contemplating who these Enemies are, and what they are, in the general notion:  we will labour to specificate our Enemies; to know what persons and bodies of persons they practically are that seek the very destruction and Being of these Three Nations.

“And truly I would not have laid such a foundation but to the end I might very particularly communicate with you ‘about that same matter.’  For which ‘above others,’ I think you are called hither at this time:—That I might particularly communicate with you about the many dangers these Nations stand in, from Enemies abroad and at home; and advise with you about the remedies, and means to obviate these dangers.  ‘Dangers’ which,—say I, and I shall leave it to you whether you will join with me or no,—strike at the very Being and ‘vital’ interest of these Nations.  And therefore, coming to particulars, I will shortly represent to you the estate of your affairs in that respect: in respect ‘namely’ of the Enemies you are engaged with; and how you come to be engaged with those Enemies, and how they come to be, as heartily, I believe, engaged against you.

“Why, truly, your great Enemy is the Spaniard.  He is a natural enemy.  He is naturally so; he is naturally so throughout,—by reason of that enmity that is in him against whatsoever is of God.  ‘Whatsoever is of God’ which is in you, or which may be in you; contrary to that which his blindness and darkness, led on by superstition, and the implicitness of his faith in submitting to the See of Rome, actuate him unto!—With his King and State, I say, you are at present in hostility. We put you into this hostility.  You will give us leave to tell you how.  For we are ready to excuse ‘this and’ most of our actions,—and to justify them too, as well as to excuse them,—upon the ground of Necessity.  ‘And’ the ground of Necessity, for justifying of men’s actions, is above all considerations of instituted Law; and if this or any other State should go about,—as I know they never will,—to make Laws against Events, against what may happen, ‘then’ I think it is obvious to any man they will be making Laws against Providence; events, and issues of things, being from God alone, to whom all issues belong.

“The Spaniard is your enemy; and your enemy, as I tell you, naturally, by that antipathy which is in him,—’and also’ providentially, and this in divers respects. You could not get an honorable Peace from him: it was sought by the Long Parliament; it was not attained.  It could not be attained with honour and honesty.  I say, it could not be attained with honour and honesty.  And truly when I say that, ‘I do but say,’ He is naturally throughout an enemy; an enmity is put into him by God.  ‘I will put an enmity between thy seed and her seed;’ [Genesis 3:15]—which goes but for little among statesmen, but is more considerable than all things!  And he that considers not such natural enmity, the providential enmity, as well as the accidental, I think he is not well acquainted with Scripture and the things of God. And the Spaniard is not only our enemy accidentally, but he is providentially so; God having in His wisdom disposed it so to be, when we made a breach with the Spanish Nation ‘long ago.’

“No sooner did this Nation form what is called (unworthily) the Reformed Religion after the death of Queen Mary, by the Queen Elizabeth of famous memory,—we need not be ashamed to call her so!—but the Spaniard’s design became, By all unworthy, unnatural means, to destroy that Person, and to seek the ruin and destruction of these Kingdoms.  For me to instance in particulars upon that account, were to trouble you at a very unseasonable time:  there is a Declaration extant, which very fully hath in it the origin of the Spaniard venting himself upon this Nation; and a series of it from those very beginnings to this present day.  But his enmity was partly upon that general account which all are agree ‘about.’  The French, all the Protestants in Germany, all have agreed, That his design was the empire of the whole Christian World, if not more;—and upon that ground he looks, ‘and hath looked,’ at this Nation as his greatest obstacle.  And as to what his attempts have been for that end,—I refer you to that Declaration, and to the observations of men who read History.  If it would not be difficult to call to mind the several Assassinations designed upon that Lady, that great Queen: the attempts upon Ireland, the Spaniards’ invading of it; their designs of the same nature upon this Nation,—public designs, private designs, all manner of designs, to accomplish this great and general end.  Truly King James made a Peace; but whether this Nation, and the interest of all Protestant Christians, suffered not more by that Peace, than ever by Spain’s hostility, I refer to your consideration!

“Thus a State which you can neither have peace with nor reason from,—that is the State with which you have enmity at this time, and against which you are engaged. And give me leave to say this unto you, because it is truth, and most men know it, That the Long Parliament did endeavour, but could not obtain satisfaction ‘from the Spaniard’ all the time they sat:  for their Messenger [Mr. Ascham] was murdered: and when they asked satisfaction for the blood of your poor people unjustly shed in the West Indies, and for the wrongs done elsewhere; when they asked liberty of conscience for your people who traded thither,—satisfaction in none of these things would be given, but was denied. [Of course not dear Oliver, since Spain was the muscle of the Black Pope enforcing the wicked Council of Trent!] I say, they denied satisfaction either for your Messenger that was murdered, or for the blood that was shed, or the damages that were done in the West Indies.  No satisfaction at all; nor any reason offered why there should not be liberty ‘of conscience’ given to your people that traded thither.  Whose trade was very considerable there, and drew many of your people thither; and begot an apprehension in us ‘as to their treatment there,’—whether in you or no, let God judge between you and Himself.  I judge not:  but all of us know that the people who went thither to manage the trade there, were imprisoned.  We desired ‘but’ such a liberty as ‘that’ they might keep their Bibles in their pockets, to exercise their liberty of religion for themselves, and not be under restraint. But there is not liberty of conscience to be had ‘from the Spaniard;’ neither is there satisfaction for injuries, nor for blood.  When these two things were desired, the Ambassador told us, ‘It was to ask his Master’s two eyes;’ to ask both his eyes, asking these things of him!—

“Now if this be so, why truly then here is some little foundation laid to justify the War that has been entered-upon with the Spaniard!  And not only so:  but the plain truth of it is, Make any peace with any State that is Popish and subjected to the determination of Rome and ‘of’ the Pope himself,—you are bound, and they are loose. It is the pleasure of the Pope at any time to tell you, That though the man is murdered, yet his murderer has got into the sanctuary!  And equally true is it, and hath been found by common and constant experience, That Peace is but to be kept so long as the Pope saith Amen to it.—We have not ‘now’ to do with any Popish State except France:  and it is certain that they do not think themselves under such a tie to the Pope; but think themselves at liberty to perform honesties with nations in agreement with them, and protest against the obligation of such a thing as that,— ‘of breaking your word at the Pope’s bidding.’ They are able to give us an explicit answer to anything reasonably demanded of them:  and there is no other Popish State we can speak of, save this only, but will break their promise or keep it as they please upon these grounds,—being under the lash of the Pope, to be by him determined, ‘and made to decide.’ [Oh dear Oliver, how could you know that in a mere 19 years, the Jesuits would force King Louis XIV to revoke the pro-Protestant, freedom of conscience-protecting Edict of Nantes in 1685, murdering 500,000 French Protestant Huguenots and driving another 500,000 out of the country rendering the birthplace of the Order completely subservient to Rome until 1764 when the French did righteously expel the Sons of Loyola from their borders!]

“In the time when Philip Second was married to Queen Mary, and since that time, through Spanish power and instigation, Twenty-thousand Protestants were murdered in Ireland.  We thought, being denied just things,—we thought it our duty to get that by the sword which was not to be had otherwise! And this hath been the spirit of Englishmen; and if so, certainly it is, and ought to be, the spirit of men that have higher spirits!—With that State you are engaged.  And it is a great and powerful State:— though I may say also, that with all other Christian States you are at peace.  All these ‘your other’ engagements were upon you before this Government was undertaken:  War with France, Denmark,—nay, upon the matter, War, ‘or as good as War,’ with Spain ‘itself.’  I could instance how it was said ‘in the Long-Parliament time,’ “We will have a war in the Indies, though we fight them not at home.” I say, we are at peace with all other Nations, and have only a war with Spain.  I shall say somewhat ‘farther’ to you, which will let you see our clearness ‘as’ to that, by and by.

Having thus ‘said, we are’ engaged with Spain,— ‘that is the root of the matter;’ that is the party that brings all your enemies before you. It doth:  for so it is now, that Spain hath espoused that Interest which you have all along hitherto been conflicting with,—Charles Stuart’s Interest.  And I would but meet the gentleman upon a fair discourse who is willing that that Person should come back again!—but I dare not believe any in this room is.  And I say, it doth not detract at all from your Cause, nor from your ability to make defence of it, That God by His providence hath so disposed that the King of Spain should espouse that Person.  And I say ‘farther,’ No man but might be very well satisfied that it is not for aversion to that Person—!  And the “choosing out” (as was said today [in John Owen's sermon]) “a Captain to lead us back into Egypt,” ‘what honest man has not an aversion to that?’—if there be such a place?  I mean metaphorically and allegorically such a place; ‘if there be,’ that is to say, A returning ‘on the part of some’ to all those things we have been fighting against, and a destroying of all that is good (as we had some hints today [in Owen's sermon]) which we have attained unto—?—I am sure my Speech ‘and defence of the Spanish War’ will signify very little, if such grounds go not for good!  Nay, I will say this to you, Not a man in England, that is disposed to comply with Papists and Cavaliers, but to him my Speech here is the greatest parable, the absurdest discourse!  And in a word, we could wish they were all where Charles Stuart is, all who declare that they are of that spirit.  I do with all my heart;—and I wold help them with a boat to carry them over, who are of that mind!  Yea, and if you shall think it a duty to drive them over by arms, I will help in that also!—

“You are engaged with such an Enemy; a foreign enemy, who hath such allies among ourselves:—this last said hath a little vehemency in it: but it is well worth your consideration.

“Though I seem to be, all this while, upon the justice of the business, yet my desire is to let you see the dangers ‘and grand crisis’ this Nation stands in ‘thereby.’  All the honest interests; yea, all interests of the Protestants, in Germany, Denmark, Helvetia and the Cantons [Switzerland], and all the interests in Christendom, are the same as yours. If you succeed, if you succeed well and act well, and be convinced what is God’s Interest, and prosecute it, you will find that you act for a very great many who are God’s own.  Therefore I say that your danger is from the Common Enemy abroad; who is the head of the Papal Interest, the head of the Antichristian Interest,—who is so described in Scripture, so forespoken of, and so fully, under that characteral name ‘of Antichrist’ given him by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, and likewise so expressed in the Revelations; which are sure and plain things!  Except you will deny the truth of the Scriptures, you must needs see that that State is so described in the Scriputre to be Papal an Antichristian. I say, with this Enemy, and upon this accunt, you have the quarrel,—with the Spaniard.

“And truly he hath an interest in your bowels; he hath so.  The Papists in England,—they have been accounted, ever since I was born, Spaniolized.  There is not a man among us can hold up his face against that.  They never regarded France; they never regarded any other Papist State where a ‘hostile’ Interest was, ‘but Spain only.’ Spain was their patron.  Their patron all along, in England, in Ireland, and Scotland:  no man can doubt of it.  Therefore I must needs say, this ‘Spanish’ Interest is also, in regard to your home-affairs, a great source of your danger.  It is, and it evidently is; and will be more so,—upon that account that I told you of:  He hath espoused Charles Stuart!  With whom he is fully in agreement; for whom he hath raised Seven or Eight Thousand men, and has them now quartered at Bruges [in Roman Catholic Belgium]; to which number Don John of Austria has promised that, as soon as the campaign is ended, which it is conceived will be in about five or six weeks, he shall have Four or Five Thousand added.  And the Duke of Neuburg [Germany], who is a Popish prince, hath promised good assistance according to his power; and other Popish States the like.  In this condition you are with that State ‘of Spain;’ and in this condition through unavoidable necessity; because your enemy was naturally an enemy, and is providentially too become so.”

Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches with Elucidations, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1894), Vol. IV of V, pp. 177-188.

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