Psalm 68:1
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You remember the story of Oliver Cromwell and his men at the Battle of Dunbar [during the English Civil War]―when before the battle they all of them knelt on the heather, and asked the Lord their God to be with them. And then springing up they chanted this old Psalm: “Let God arise and scattered let all His enemies be,
And let all those that Him do hate before His presence flee.
As the smoke is driven, so drive Thou them. As fire melts wax away,
Before God’s face let wicked men, so perish and decay.”
WILLIAM TAYLOR (1821-1902): Cromwell’s Ironsides were sneeringly called Psalm-singers; but God’s Psalm-singers are always Ironsides.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): When they became famous for piety, they became famous for bravery. Yes, there is an inseparable connection between the two things―he who truly fears God, fears not man. It is written, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion,” Proverbs 28:1.
OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658): It may be thought that some praises are due to those gallant men, of whose valour so much mention is made—their humble suit to you and all that have an interest in this blessing, is, that in the remembrance of God’s praises, they be forgotten. It’s their joy that they are instruments of God’s glory, and their country’s good.
A. W. PINK: After the battle at Naseby, in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Oliver Cromwell wrote, “Sir, this is none other than the hand of God, and to Him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with Him.”
OLIVER CROMWELL: Sir, they that have been employed in this service know that faith and prayer obtained this—I do not say ours only, but of the people of God all England over, who have wrestled with God for a blessing…Our desires are that God may be glorified by the same spirit of faith by which we ask all our sufficiency, and have received it. It is meet that He have all the praise. Presbyterians, Independents, all have here the same spirit of faith and prayer; the same presence and answer; they agree here, and have no names of difference: pity it is it should be otherwise anywhere! All that believe have the real unity, which is most glorious―because [it is] inward, and spiritual, in the Body and to the Head.*
J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): These are remarkable words. Glory to God in heaven―union among the children of God upon earth―such are Cromwell’s two grand thoughts…It is from this moral point of view that we must study Cromwell; this was his ruling principle; and this alone explains his whole life.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Many fail to realize what the situation was in this country at that time.
J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: The fearful commotions and sanguinary conflicts which shook the British isles in the middle of the seventeenth century, were in the main a direct struggle against Popery…
Cromwell was forty-two years old, and the father of six children. He was living quietly, like many other good citizens and loyal subjects…Every day these men were disturbed in their homes at London, or in their more tranquil rural retreats, by reports of the massacre of the Protestants in Ireland, of King Charles’ connivance at it, of his insincerity and falsehood, of the punishments already inflicted on many of their brethren, of the acknowledged Popery of the Queen, of the semi-Romanism of the King, of the persecutions in Scotland, the daily banishment of the best Christians in the kingdom, and by other signs and events no less alarming. When everything seemed to announce that the Protestants of England would ere long be either trampled down by Popery or massacred by the sword, these serious men arose, and called upon the King, through the House of Commons, not to deceive the expectations of his subjects. But when they found that prince, deaf to their prayers, raising troops to overawe Parliament, and already victorious in several encounters, they resolved in a spirit of devotedness, to save with God’s assistance their country and their faith.
C. H. SPURGEON: Oliver Cromwell was a real hiding place and cover to this land in the days when the crowned king was unworthy to rule. In him, God raised up a man who risked everything in defense of the liberties which we still enjoy.
J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: On the 7th of February, 1642, Cromwell contributed £300, a large sum for his small means, towards the salvation of Protestantism and of England. He then joined the parliamentary army with his two sons, respectively twenty and sixteen years of age; and shortly after raised two companies of volunteers at Cambridge…For the space of seventeen years, from this day until that of his death, all his thoughts, however well or ill conceived, were for Protestantism, and for the liberty of his fellow citizens.
C. H. SPURGEON: Family religion was the strength of Protestantism at first. It was the glory of Puritanism and Non-Conformity. In the days of Cromwell it is said that you might have walked down Cheapside at a certain hour in the morning, and you would have heard the morning hymns going up from every house along the street. And at night, if you had glanced inside each home, you would have seen the whole household gathered, the big Bible opened and family devotion offered…What made brave Oliver Cromwell, in the days gone by, so terrible an enemy to all who loved not liberty and right? It was his faith!
NEWMAN HALL (1816-1902): Faith in Christ—Christ crucified, the only foundation of the sinner’s hope, the only secret of the believers’ life and joy. “Here,” as old Oliver Cromwell says in one of his letters, “here rest I would, and here only.”
J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: All who were about him bore testimony to his piety―every day of his life he retired to read the Scriptures and to pray.
C. H. SPURGEON: I was reading, yesterday, the dying prayer of Oliver Cromwell and one sentence in that man of God’s last breath pleased me exceedingly. It was to this effect, I think. I have copied out the words―“Teach those who look too much on Thine instruments to depend more upon Thyself.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The great period during Cromwell’s Protectorate from 1649-60 was one of the most amazing epochs in the whole history of this country. To me it was certainly one of the most glorious―it was a time of great religious liberty. Thank God for Oliver Cromwell!―perhaps the most honest man in the 17th century, a man who strove to be true to his conscience above all others that I know of in political history.
J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: In studying the life of Cromwell, the reader will undoubtedly have frequent reason to bear in mind the saying of holy Scripture, “In many things we offend all,” James 3:2. He interfered violently in public affairs, and disturbed the constitutional order of the state. This was his fault—a fault that saved his country.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is related of Oliver Cromwell that when his portrait was about to be painted by an eminent artist, the painter desired to conceal the wart upon the Protector’s face, but the true hero said, “Paint me just as I am, wart and all.”
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*Editor’s Note: Oliver Cromwell’s remarks concerning unity in the Body and to the Head, refers to true believers as being the “Body of Christ,” and being united by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ as the “Head” of that body.
