o hold trenchards. For what avails it
such as are unarmed, or (which is all one) whose education acquaints
them not with the proper use of their swords, to be called citizens?
What were 2,000 or 3,000 of you, though never so well affected to your
country, but naked, to one troop of mercenary soldiers? If they should
come upon the field and say, 'Gentlemen, it is thought fit that such
and such men should be chosen by you,' where were your liberty? or,
'Gentlemen, parliaments are exceeding good, but you are to have a
little patience; these times are not so fit for them,' where were your
commonwealth? What causes the monarchy of the Turks but servants in
arms? What was it that begot the glorious Commonwealth of Rome but the
sword in the hands of her citizens? Wherefore my glad eyes salute the
serenity and brightness of this day with a shower that shall not cloud
it.

"Behold the army of Israel become a commonwealth, and the Commonwealth
of Israel remaining an army, with her rulers of tens and of fifties, her
rulers of hundreds and thousands, drawing near (as this day throughout
our happy fields) to the lot by her tribes, increased above threefold,
and led up by her phylarchs or princes, to sit upon fifty thrones,
judging the fifty tribes of Oceana! Or, is it Athens, breaking from
her iron sepulchre, where she has been so long trampled by hosts of
Janizaries? For certainly that is the voice of Theseus, having gathered
his scattered Athenians into one city. This freeborn nation lives
not upon the dole or bounty of one man, but distributing her annual
magistracies and honors with her own hand, is herself King People--(At
which the orator was awhile interrupted with shouts, but at length
proceeded.) is it grave Lacedaemon in her armed tribe, divided by her
oboe and her mora, which appears to chide me that I teach the people to
talk, or conceive such language as is dressed like a woman, to be a fit
usher of the joys of liberty into the hearts of men? is it Rome in
her victorious arms (for so she held her concio or congregation) that
congratulates with us, for finding out that which she could not hit
on, and binding up her Comitia curiata, centuriata, and tributa, in one
inviolable league of union? Or is it the great council of incomparable
Venice, bowling forth by the selfsame ballot her immortal commonwealth?
For, neither by reason nor by experience is it impossible that a
commonwealth should be immortal; seeing the people bei