MR. SPEAKER,

F the Gentleman, that spoke last, had really

Army which he pretends, he durft not have provoked them with that bold Freedom, which he has taken; and therefore 'tis probable he does not believe himself; yet, left any Man elfe fhould, I hold it my Duty to discharge my Confcience too; though I am fure, these great Patrons of Liberty will be fo unwilling to allow the fame Freedom to others, which they take themselves, that, if they had equal Power to punish it, I fhould be loath to fay the fame Things, though with undeniable Truth, of them, with which most falfely and injuriously they accuse the Army.

For there is not any Crime, that they exclaim against, of which their whole Party is not most notoriously guilty; nor any Design to enslave the Nation, that is not wholly their own, and which they now drive on by laying their own Practices to the charge of those, who are the only means under Heaven to keep them from taking effect. And therefore they have the

Confidence, not only to charge the Army, with that Perjury and breach of Faith, which themfelves committed here (of which the Soldiers are innocent, unless the Guilt of fome of their chief Commanders, Members of this House, could infect all the reft) but exclaim against them before God and the World, as if they intended to introduce that, which, they confess, none can do but themselves, that is Tyranny; and which, were but the Army removed, would immediately fall of itself into their Hands ; though these good Patriots fhould but fit ftill, and not use their Chriftian Endeavours to bring it about, which they have fo long waited for an Opportunity to do. For Tyranny and Servitude are not so easily laid on the Neck of a Nation by plain downright Force, unless that Force be foreign and receive its Recruits from abroad, as the Turk does; or, not to travel so far for an Example, as you do by the Scots and Irish at this inftant. The more certain way to make a Nation enflave itself is performed by politic Impostures, and State Cheats, zealous Pretences to public good, the Glory of God, and Increase of Trade, under a Face of free Government. These are Nets into which the People are easily drawn, and rather than fail will catch themselves; and

by thefe, backed by wrefted Law, and tortured Scripture, muft domeftic Tyranny be upheld, and not by Force only: For as, when the Sea breaks over its Bounds, and overflows the Land, thofe Dams and Banks, that were made to keep it out, do afterward ferve to keep it in: fo, when Tyranny and Ufurpation break in upon common Right and Freedom, the Laws of God and the Land are abused to support that, which they were intended to oppose.

This hath been the Courfe, which these Men have taken, and this, were the Army now difpofed of, would immediately lay the heaviest Bondage upon the Nation, that ever People groan'd under. For can there be a greater Tyranny than a Government unlimited as theirs is an Authority unbounded by the Laws of God or Man, where all Things are laid waste to the Will of the Rulers, and they without fo much Tye or Obligation as a vain tranfitory Oath; where the Estates, Perfons, Confciences, and Lives of Men are merely at their difpofing, who can not only act what Injustice or Cruelty they lift, but when they have done, make it lawful; that may murder whom they please with the Sword of Juftice, and rob

legally; depopulate the Land by the Conftitution of the Government, and fell the free People by their own Laws. All this and more they may do, and when they have done, enact it; and nothing can hinder them, but their own Will and Pleasure, which, in probability, will not be nice, where the Wages of Iniquity is left to themselves, and they may freely fhare the Spoils of the Land, by Privilege of Parliament, as they did heretofore.

Certainly that Tyranny hath the Advantage of all other, that has Religion, Law, and Liberty among the Inftruments of Servitude, as this hath; that hath a greater Power in temporal Affairs than the Turk, and in spiritual than the Pope; that is, Head of Churches not yet in Being, and Judge of more Faiths than all the general Councils ever were; that can damn and fave, and bind and loofe in this World, in defpight of the next; make what it will holy or prophane, true or falfe, Scripture or Apocrypha, and no Man dare to question its Infallibility. So that if the Army would have them, as the Gentleman fays, establish Contradictions, they are the only fit Men in the World for fuch a Work; for nothing is impoffible to

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them, who are confined to nothing; that can not only vote, but fwear Contradictions, as they have often done, and made others do fo too, or pay them for it. For certainly these are the most prime Engineers of Oaths, that ever the World knew, (though they are too modeft to put it upon others) and have approved themselves the ableft Swearers, that ever made Perjury an Expedient. I have heard it was a Custom amongst the Jews, when any Man made a Vow to Almighty God, which afterward he found inconvenient to be kept, he might be by any three other Jews abfolved of it; but every one of thefe, as if he were three Jews, can abfolve himself.

Thus vaft is the Latitude of their Power; and yet you hear what Complaints they make, as if their Authority were hidebound: but if we confider the Perfons, into whofe Hands this overgrown Monster is intrusted, the Danger that hangs over all our Heads will appear to be fo much the greater, by how much they are the unfitteft Men in the whole World for fuch a Truft. For you cannot but know, that thefe, or the greatest Part of them, are the very fame Perfons, that for their approved Li