Cromwell Parliment Speech 1656 Pt 4 of 5

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Cromwell Delivers Greatest Parlimentarian Speech in World History, 1656! Pt. 4 of 5

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

Leaving off with his summation of the Major Generals, they having maintained the Peace until a real Parliament (devoted to the happiness of the Lord’s Bible-reading, Calvinist Protestant and Baptist Christian peoples) would assume power, His Royal Highness Oliver Cromwell continues in warning this Second Protectorate Parliament of the Designs—the ceaseless Conspiracy—of Rome and her Military Company of Jesus against their White English race, personal lives, meager fortunes, Biblical faith and Protestant Nation:

“Well; your danger is as you have seen.  And truly I am sorry it is so great.  But I wish it to cause no despondency;—as truly, I think, it will not:  for we are Englishmen; that is one good fact.  And if God give a Nation the property of valour and courage, it is honour and a mercy ‘from Him.’  And much more ‘than English’! Because you all, I hope, are Christian Men, who know Jesus Christ [Yea!---Carlyle], and know that Cause which hath been mentioned to you this day.

“Having declared to you my sense and knowledge,—pardon me if I say so, my knowledge [another most humble clarification on the part of the greatest man of his age and foremost enemy of Rome---EJP],—of the condition of these poor Nations, for it hath an influence upon them all, it concerneth them all very palpably; I should be to blame if I did not a little offer to you the Remedies. [Second head of method: the Remedies---Carlyle]  I would comprehend them under two considerations.  They are both somewhat general.  The one is, The Considering all things that may be done, and ought to be done, in order to Security; that is one.  And truly the other is a common head, ‘a general, nay a universal consideration,’—the other is, Doing all things that ought to be done in order to Reformation:  and with that I will close my Discourse [to extend for another tremendous 20 pages!---EJP]  All that hath hitherto been hinted-at was but to give you a sense of the danger; which ‘truly’ is most material and significant; for which principally you are called hither to advise of the remedies.—I do put them, ‘the remedies,’ into this twofold method, not but that I think they are scarcely distinct.  I do believe, truly, upon serious and deliberate consideration:  That a true Reformation, as it may, and will through God’s acceptance, and by the endeavours of His poor servants, be,—That that, ‘I say,’ well pleasing in His sight; and will prove not only what shall avert the present danger, but be a worthy return for all the blessings and mercies which you have received.  So, in my conscience, if I were put to show it, this hour, Where the security of these Nations will lie?—forces, arms, watchings, posts, strength; your being and freedom; be as politic and diligent, and as vigilant as you can be,—I would say in my conscience, and as before Almighty God I speak it:  I think your Reformation, if it be honest and thorough and just, it will be your best security! [Hear him; Hear, hear!---Carlyle]

“First, ‘however,’ with regard to Security ‘outwardly considered.’  We will speak a little distinctly to that.  You see where your War is.  It is with the Spaniard.  You have Peace with all ‘other’ Nations, or the most of them; Swede, Dane, Dutch.  At present, I say, it is well; it is at present so.  And so likewise with the Portugal, with France,—the Mediterranean Sea.  Both these States; both Christian and Profane; the Mahometan;—you have Peace with them all.  Only with Spain you have a difference, you have a War.  I pray consider it.  Do I come to tell you that I would tie you to this War?  No.  ‘According’ as you shall find your spirits and reasons grounded in what hath been said, so let you and me join in the prosecution of that War,—’according’ as we are satisfied, and as the cause shall appear to our consciences in the sight of the Lord. But if you can come to prosecute it, prosecute it vigorously, or don’t do it at all!—

“Truly I shall speak a very great word,—one man ask a very great question: “Unde; Whence shall the means of it come?”  Our Nation is overwhelmed in debts!  Nevertheless I think it my duty to deal plainly; I shall speak what even Nature teacheth us. [This same term "Nature," taken from the AV1611 Bible (I Cor. 11:14) would be used throughout this Speech as well as in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 by one of its five authors, Calvinist Roger Sherman.---EJP]  If we engage in a business,—a recoiling man may haply recover of his enemy:  but the wisdom of a man surely will be in the keeping of his ground!  Therefore that is what I advise you, That we join together to prosecute it vigorously [as did Cromwell during his invasion of Ireland---EJP].  In the second place, I would advise you to deal effectually,—even because there is such a “complication of interests,” ‘as some keep objecting.’  If you believe that there is such a complication of interests,—why, then, in the name of God, that excites you the more to do it!  Give me leave to tell you, I do not believe that in any war that ever was in former times, nor in any engagements that you have had with other ‘enemies,’ this Nation had more obligation upon it to look to itself,—to forbear waste of time, precious time! Needlessly to mind things that are essential [basic Bible doctrine, the common beliefs of all Christians save the Papists!---EJP]; to be quibbling about words, and comparatively about things of no moment; and in the mean time,—being in such a case as I suppose you know we are,—to suffer ourselves to be wanting to a just defence against the common Enemies abroad, or not to be thoroughly sensible of the Distempers that are at home—!—I know, perhaps there are many considerations which may teach you, which may incline you, to keep your own hands tender from men of one [Reformation Bible-based Christian] Religion ‘with ourselves,’ and of an Interest that is so spread in the nation.  However, if they seek the eradication of the Nation; if they be active as you have seen, and ‘as’ it hath been made manifest so as not to be denied, to the carrying-on of their designs; if England must be eradicated by persons complicated with the Spaniard; if this must be brought upon us through distempers and falseness of men among themselves,—then the question is no more than this:  Whether any consideration whatsoever shall lead us, for fear of eradicating distempers, to suffer all the honest Interests of this nation to be eradicated? Therefore, speaking generally of any of their distempers, ‘which are’ of all sorts,—where a member cannot be cured, the rule is plain, Ense rescindendum est immedicablie vulnus [i.e., remove the incurable].  And I think it is of such an advantage that nothing ever could more properly be put in practice since this or any nation ‘first’ was.

“As to those lesser Distempers of people that pretend Religion, yet which from the whole consideration of Religion, would fall under one of the heads of Reformation,—I had rather put these under this head; and I shall the less speak to it, because you have been so well spoken-to already today ‘elsewhere’ [by Preacher John Owen at Church---EJP].  I will tell you the truth:  Our practice since the last Parliament hath been, To let all this Nation see, that whatever pretensions to Religion would continue quiet, peaceable, they should enjoy conscience and liberty to themselves;—and not to make Religion a pretence for arms and blood. Truly we have suffered them, and that cheerfully, so to enjoy their own liberties.  Whatsoever is contrary, ‘and not peaceable,’ let the pretence be never so specious,—if it tend to combination, to interest and factions, we shall not care, by the grace of God, whom we meet withal, though never so specious, ‘if they be not quiet’!  And truly I am against all “liberty of conscience” repugnant to this. If men will profess,—be they those under Baptism, be they those of the Independent [Baptist] judgment simply, or of the Presbyterian judgment,—in the name of God, encourage them, countenance them; so long as they do plainly continue to be thankful to God, and to make use of the liberty given them to enjoy their own consciences!  For, as it was said today [by Minister John Owen], undoubtedly “this is the peculiar Interest all this while contended for.”

[The Protector is only for freedom of conscience for those Reformed peoples having a common Reformation Bible and common faith in Jesus Christ.  He encourages tolerance among these peoples whom he considered to be his brethren, though of diverse Protestant denominations.  Oliver, the Independent Baptist-Calvinist, is against  freedom of conscience for any religious sect that would justify the shedding of blood to impose their religion upon another.  Of necessity, Cromwell therefore opposed freedom of conscience for the Roman Catholic and the Muslim as the writings of both "works salvation" religions call for forced conversions and/or the shedding of the blood of the "heretic" and the "infidel."---EJP]

“Men who believe in Jesus Christ—that is the Form that gives being to true religion, ‘namely,’ to Faith in Christ and walking in a profession answerable to that Faith;—men who believe the remission of sins through the blood of Christ, and free justification by the blood of Christ; who live upon the grace of God:  Those men who are certain they are so,—’they’ are members of Jesus Christ, and are to Him the apple of His eye.  Whoever hath this Faith, let his Form be what it will; he walking peaceably, without prejudice to others under other Forms:—it is a debt due to God and Christ; and He will require it, if that Christian may not enjoy his liberty. [True tolerance; a noble thing:  Patience, indifference as to the Unessential; liveliest impatience, inexorable INTOLERANCE for the Want of the Essential!---Carlyle]

“If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form; if an Independent, for example, will despise him ‘who is’ under Baptism, and will revile him, and reproach and provoke him,—I will not suffer it in him.  If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist ‘judgment’ shall be censuring the Godly Ministers of the Nation who profess under that of Independency; or if those that profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking evil of them, traducing and censuring of them,—as I would not be willing to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ,—so I will not endure any reproach to them,  But God give us hearts and spirits to keep things equal. Which, truly I must profess to you, hath been my temper.  I have had some boxes ‘on the ear,’ and rebukes,—on the one hand and on the other; some censuring me for Presbytery; others as an inletter to all the Sects and Heresies of the Nation.  I have borne my reproach:  but I have, through God’s mercy, not been unhappy in hindering any one Religion to impose upon another.  And truly I must needs say (I speak it experimentally):  I have found it, I have, that those of the Presbyterian judgment— —I speak it knowingly, as having received from very many Counties—I have had Petitions, and acknowledgments and professions, from whole Counties; as from Corwall, Devon, Somerset, and other Counties.  Acknowledgments that they, ‘the Presbyterians there,’ do but desire they may have liberty and protection in the worshipping of God according to their own judgments; for the purging of their congregations, and the labouring to attain more purity of faith and repentance;—and that, in their outward profession, they will not strain themselves beyond their own line.  I have had those Petitions; I have them to show.  And I confess I look at that as the blessedest thing which hath been since the adventuring upon this Government, ‘or’ which these times produce.  And I hope I gave them fair and honest answers.  And if it shall be found to be the Civil Magistrate’s real endeavour to keep all professing Christians in this relation to one another; not suffering any to say or do what will justly provoke the others;—I think he that would have more liberty than this, is not worthy of any. [Perfectly said and well done, Your Highness and dearest of all Calvinist Statesmen!---EJP]

“This therefore I think verily, if it may be under consideration for Reformation:—I say, if it please God to give you and me hearts to keep this straight, ‘it may be a great means’ in giving countenance to just Ministers,— —in countenancing a just maintenance to them, by Tithes or otherwise.  For my part I should think I were very treacherous if I took away Tithes, till I see the Legislative Power settle Maintenance to Ministers another way.  But whoever they be that shall contend to destroy Tithes,—it doth as surely cut their ‘the Ministers’ throats as it is a drift to take Tithes away before another mode of maintenance, or way of preparation towards such, be had. Truly I think all such practices and proceedings should be discountenanced.  I have heard it from as gracious a Minister as any is in England; I have had it professed:  That it would be a far greater satisfaction to them to have maintenance another way,—if the State will provide it.—Therefore I think, for the keeping of the Church and people of God and professors in their several forms in this liberty,—I think as it, ‘this of tithes, or some other maintenance,’ hath been a thing that is the root of visible Profession, the upholding of this—I think you will find a blessing in it:—if God keep your hearts to keep things in this posture and balance, which is  so honest and so necessary.

“Truly, there might be some other things offered to you, in point of Reformation: a Reformation of Manners, to wit— —But I had forgot one thing which I must remember!  It is the Church’s work, you know, in some measure: yet give me leave to ask, and I appeal unto your consciences, Whether or no there hath not been an honest care taken for the ejecting of Scandalous Ministers, and for the bringing-in of them that have passed an Approbation? [Our two Commissions of Triers and Expurgators.---Carlyle] I dare say, such an Approbation as never passed in England before!  And give me leave to say, It hath been with this difference ‘from the old practice,’ that neither Mr. Parson nor Doctor in the University hath been reckoned stamp enough by those that made these Approbations;—though, I can say too, they have a great esteem for Learning; and look at Grace as most useful when it falls unto men with rather than without ‘that addition;’ and wish, with all their hearts, the flourishing all those Institutions of Learning, as much as any.  I think there hath been a conscience exercised, both by myself and the Ministers, towards them that have been Approved.  I may say, such an one, as I truly believe was never known in England, ‘in regard to this matter.’  And do verily believe that God hath, for the Ministry, a very great seed in the youth ‘now’ in the Universities; who instead of studying Books, study their own hearts. I do believe, as God hath made a very great and flourishing seed to that purpose; so this Ministry of England—I think in my very conscience that God will bless and favor it; and hath blessed it, to the gaining of very many souls. It was never so upon the thriving hand since England was, as at this day.  Therefore I say, in these things, ‘in these arrangements made by us,’ which tend to the profession of the Gospel and Public Ministry, ‘I think’ you will be so far from hindering, that you will further them,  and I shall be willing to join with you.

“I did hint to you my thoughts about the Reformation of Manners.  And those abuses that are in this Nation through disorder, are a thing which should be much in your hearts.  It is that which, I am confident, is a description and character of the Interest you have been engaged against, ‘the Cavalier Interest:’ the badge and character of countenancing Profaneness, Disorder and Wickedness in all places,—and whatever is most of kin to these, and most agrees with what is Popery, and ‘with’ the profane Nobility and Gentry of this Nation! In my conscience, it was a shame to be a Christian, within these fifteen, sixteen or seventeen years, in this Nation!  Whether “in Caesar’s house,” or elsewhere!  It was a shame, it was a reproach to a man; and the badge of “Puritan” was put upon it.—We would keep up Nobility and Gentry:—and the way to keep them up is, Not to suffer them to be patronizers or countenancers of debauchery and disorders!  And you will hereby be as labourers in that work ‘of keeping them up.’  And a man may tell as plainly as can be what becomes of us, if we grow indifferent and lukewarm ‘in repressing evil,’ under I know not what weak pretensions.  If it lives in us, therefore; I say, if it be in the general ‘heart of the Nation,’ it is a thing I am confident our liberty and prosperity depend upon,—Reformation.  Make it a shame to see men bold in sin and profaneness, and God will bless you.  You will be a blessing to the Nation; and by this, will be more repairers of breaches than by anything in the world.  Truly these are the men.  The mind is the man.  If that be kept pure, a man signifies somewhat; if not, I would very fain see what difference there is betwixt him and a beast.  He hath only some activity to do some more mischief. [A real "Head of the Church," this "King;" not an imaginary one!---Carlyle]

“There are some things which respect the Estates of men; and there is one general Grievance in the Nation.  It is the Law. Not that the Laws are a grievance; but there are Laws that are; and the great grievance lies in the execution and administration.  I think I may say it, I have as eminent Judges in this land as have been had, as the Nation has had, for these many years.—Truly I could be particular, as to the executive part ‘of it,’ as to the administration ‘of the Law;’ but that would trouble you.  The truth of it is, There are wicked and abominable Laws, which ‘it’ will be in your power to alter. To hang a man for Six-and-eightpence, and I know not what; to hang for a trifle, and acquit morder,—is in the ministration of the Law, through the ill-framing of it.  I have known in my experience abominiable murders acquitted.  And to see men lose their lives for petty matters:  this is a thing God will reckon for. And I wish it may not lie upon this Nation a day longer than you have an opportunity to give a remedy, and I hope I shall cheerfully join with you in it.  This hath been a great grief to many honest hearts and conscientious people; and I hope it is in all your hearts to rectify it.”

[With the subsequent blessing of God nearly 100 years from this sitting, Sir William Blackstone became the greatest Common Law jurist in history.  His works, Blackstone's Commentaries, became the foundation for American Common Law, its maxims later set forth in Chancellor James Kent's Commentaries on American Law.  In the capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a beautiful portrait of Sir William Blackstone is on the wall of the splendid courtroom of our Supreme Court.  Without Cromwell, there is no Blackstone; with no Blackstone, there is no Kent; and with no Blackstone the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would never have been blessed with the beloved Common Law unique to White Anglo-Saxon Protestant nations.  Thank you Your Highness, Sir Oliver Cromwell: we American AV1611 Reformation Bible-reading Protestants and Baptists shall never forget what you have done for the Body of Christ---and for us!---EJP]

Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1894), Vol. IV of V, pp. 200-210.

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