Great Throughts Treasury

"I would be willing to live and be farther serviceable to God and his people; but my work is done. Yet God will be with his people."

"I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the nation-to serve in parliaments,-and ( because I would not be over tedious ) I did endeavor to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services, to god, and his people?s interest, and of the commonwealth; having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidence thereof."

"I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have undertaken this government."

"If the remonstrance had been rejected i would have sold all i had the next morning and never have seen England more, and i know there are many other modest men of the same resolution."

"In every government there must be somewhat fundamental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable... that parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundamental."

"In a word, as he was guilty of many crimes against which Damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men in all Ages to be celebrated; and he will be look?d upon by posterity as a brave bad man."

"If we do not depart from God, and disunite by that departure, and fall into disunion among ourselves, I am confident, we doing our duty and waiting upon the Lord, we shall find He will be as a wall of brass round about us till we have finished that work which he has for us to do."

"It is not my design to drink or to sleep, but my design is to make what haste I can to be gone."

"It's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them....and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favor from the Lord; and he that is established in this shall ( being conformed to Christ and the rest of the Body) participate in the glory of a resurrection which will answer all."

"In short, every beast hath some evil properties; but Cromwell hath the properties of all evil beasts."

"Kingship is not so interwoven in in the laws...truly though the kingship be not a mere title but a name of office that runs through the whole of the law....as such a title hath been fixed, so it may be unfixed..."

"Leave off your fooling and come down, sir."

"I've been dreaming of a time when the English are sick to death of Labor and Tories and spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell and denounce this royal line that still salutes him and will salute him forever."

"Lieutenant-General Cromwell...a member of the House of Commons, long famous for godliness and zeal to his country, of great note for his service in the House, accepted of a commission at the very beginning of this war, wherein he served his country faithfully, and it was observed God was with him, and he began to be renowned."

"My design is to make what haste I can to be gone. [last words]"

"Not what they want but what is good for them."

"Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it."

"Of late I have not given so free and full a power unto (Cromwell) as formerly I did, because I heard that he used his power so as in honor I could not avow him in it....for his expressions were sometimes against the nobility, that he hoped to live to see never a nobleman in England, and he loved such (and such) better than others because they did not love Lords. And he further expressed himself with contempt of the Assemberly of Divines...these he termed persecutors, and that they persecuted honester men than themselves."

"On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens."

"Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I knew was at the battle of Dunbar, told me that Oliver was carried on with a Divine impulse; he did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtain?d a great victory; but the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized Oliver Cromwell just before the battle of Naseby; as a kinsman of mine, and a great favourite of his, Colonel J. P. then present, testified. Cardinal Mazerine said, that he was a lucky fool."

"One never rises so high as when one does not know where one is going."

"Our manly ways and stern simplicity wreak much confusion to the enemy's councils. For they are men yet garb themselves as women, wearing wigs and finery and lace. And for this offense if it be God's will we will come upon them in the night, from the rear, and penetrate their degenerate bodies with our holy truth. For we are manly saints and possess the full swelling hardness of our faith, which gushes forevermore from Christ's unyielding root."

"Saw the superb funeral of the Protector:...but it was the joyfullest funeral that I ever saw, for there were none that cried, but dogs, which the soldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise; drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they went."

"Shall we seek for the root of our comforts within us; what God hath done, what he is to us in Christ, is the root of our comfort. In this is stability; in us is weakness. Acts of obedience are not perfect, and therefore yield not perfect peace. Faith, as an act, yields it not, but as it carries us into him, who is our perfect rest and peace; in whom we are accounted of, and received by, the Father, even as Christ himself. This is our high calling. Rest we here, and here only."

"So restless Cromwell could not cease in the inglorious Arts of Peace, but through adventurous war, urged his active star... To ruin the great work of time, and cast the kingdom old into another Mold."

"Sir, what can be said of these things? Is it the arm of the flesh that hath done these things? Is it the wisdom and counsel, or strength of man? It is the Lord only. God will curse that man and his house that dares to think otherwise. Sir, you see the work is done by a Divine leading. God gets into the hearts of men, and persuades them to come under you."

"Put your trust in God, and keep your powder dry."

"Since providence and necessity has cast them upon it, he should pray God to bless their counsels."

"Sylla was the first of victors; but our own the sagest of usurpers, Cromwell; he too swept off the senates while he hewed the throne down to a block ? immortal rebel! See what crimes it costs to be a moment free and famous through all ages."

"Take away that fool?s bauble, the mace."

"That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was the Petition and Advice given me by you, who, in reference to the ancient Constitution, did draw me here to accept the place of Protector. There is not a man living can say I sought it, no not a man, nor woman, treading upon English ground."

"That slovenly fellow which you see before us, who hath no ornament in his speech; I say that sloven, if we should ever come to have a breech with the King (which God forbid) in such case will be one of the greatest men of England."

"The Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be "The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth"... That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector...for his life."

"The commonest charge against Cromwell is hypocrisy ? and the commonest basis for that is defective chronology."

"The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is for aught i know, a crowning mercy."

"The English monster, the center of mischief, a shame to the British Chronicle, a pattern for tyranny, murder and hypocrisie, whose bloody Tyranny will quite drown the name of Nero, Caligula, Domitian, having at last attained the height of his Ambition, for Five years space he wallowed in the blood of many Gallant and Heroick Persons."

"The people would be just as noisy if they were going to see me hanged."

"The next morning I sent Colonel Cook to Cromwell, to let him know that I had letters and instructions to him from the King. He sent me word by the same messenger, that he dared not see me, it being very dangerous to us both, and bid me be assured that he would serve his Majesty as long as he could do it without his own ruin; but desired that I should not expect that he should perish for his sake."

"The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies."

"There are some things in this establishment that are fundamental....about which I shall deal plainly with you...the government by a single person and a parliament is a fundamental...and though I may seem to plead for myself, yet I do not: no, nor can any reasonable man say it..i plead for this nation, and all the honest men therein."

"This day (to the stupendous and inscrutable Judgments of God) were the Carcasses of that arch-rebel Cromwell and Bradshaw the judge who condemned his Majestie & Ireton, son-in-law to the Usurper, dragged out of their superb tombs (in Westminster among the Kings), to Tyburn & hanged on the Gallows there from 9 in the morning til 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument, in a deep pitt: Thousands of people who (who had seen them in all their pride and pompous insults) being spectators: look back at November 22, 1658, & be astonish?d - And fear God & honor the King, but meddle not with those who are given to change."

"This is our comfort, God is in heaven, and He doth what pleaseth Him; His, and only His counsel shall stand, whatsoever the designs of men, and the fury of the people be."

"This is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood."

"Things will shortly happen which have been unheard of, and above all would open the eyes of those who live under Kings and other Sovereigns, and lead to great changes. Cromwell alone holds the direction of political and military affairs in his hands. He is one who is worth all the others put together, and, in effect, King."

"Truly, though kingship be not a title but a name of office that runs through the law, yet it is not so ratione nominis, but from what is signified. It is a name of office, plainly implying a Supreme Authority. Is it more, or can it be stretched to more? I say, it is a name of office, plainly implying the Supreme Authority, and if it be so, why then I would suppose, (I am not peremptory in any thing that is matter of deduction or inference of my own,) why then I should suppose that whatsoever name hath been or shall be the name, in which the Supreme Authority shall act; why, (I say) if it had been those four or five letters, or whatsoever else it had been, that signification goes to the thing. Certainly it does, and not to the name. Why then, there can be no more said, but this, why this hath been fixt, so it may have been unfixt."

"Truly England and the church of god hath had a great favor from the lord, in this great victory given us."

"To give the devil his due, he restored justice, as well distributive as commutative, almost to it?s ancient dignity and splendor; the judges without covetousness discharging their duties according to law and equity... His own court also was regulated according to a severe discipline; here no drunkard, nor whoremonger, nor any guilty of bribery, was to be found, without severe punishment. Trade began again to prosper; and in a word, gentle peace to flourish all over England."

"Trust in God, but keep your powder dry."

"Vote it as you please; there is a company of poor men that will spend all their blood before they see it settled so."

"We are Englishmen; that is one good fact."