If after so many others I may speak my Opinion of him, I think, that, having been a Prodigal in his Youth, and afterward changed to a zealous Religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious and conscionable in the main course of his Life, till Prosperity and Success corrupted him:  that, at his first entrance into the Wars, being but a Captain of Horse, he had a special care to get religious men into his Troop:  These men were of greater understanding than common Soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the Importance and Consequence of the War; and making not Money, but that which they took for the Publick Felicity, to be their End, they were the more engaged to be valiant; for he that maketh Money his End, doth esteem his Life above his Pay, and therefore is like enough to save it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can:  But he that maketh the Felicity of Church and State his End, esteemeth it above his Life, and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it.  And men of Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business, and know that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the likeliest way to escape; there being many usually that fall in flight, for one that falls in valiant fight.  These things it’s probable Cromwell understood; and that none would be such engaged valiant men as the Religious:  But yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing such men into his Troop, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious men that principally moved him; and the avoiding of those Disorders, Mutinies, Plunderings, and Grievances of the Country, which deboist men in Armies are commonly guilty of:  By this means he indeed sped better than he expected. Aires, Desborough, Berry, Evanson, and the rest of that Troop, did prove so valiant, that as far as I could learn, they never once ran away before an Enemy.  Hereupon he got a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties, where he brought his Troop into a double Regiment, of fourteen full Troops; and all these as full of religious men as he could get:  These having more than ordinary Wit and Resolution, had more than ordinary Success; first in Lincolnshire, and afterward in the Earl of Manchester’s Army at York Fight:  With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation:  And the familiarity of many honest erroneous Men (Anabaptists, Antinomians, &c.) withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments.  Hereupon Cromwell’s general Religious Zeal, giveth away to the power of that Ambition, which still increaseth as his Successes do increase:  Both Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he thought Godly of what Sect soever:  Piety pleadeth for them as Godly; and Charity as Men; and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he might make of them.  He meaneth well in all this at the beginning, and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly, and the Publick Good, but not without an Eye to himself.