is business, in whose
hands there is power to settle it, for no Court can end this
controversy but your Court of Parliament, as the case of this
Nation now stands."

After emphasising his fundamental contention that in Equity and by the
Law of Righteousness all should have the freedom of the Earth granted
unto them, he summarises the causes that have conspired to place the
Members of the House of Commons in power, as follows:

"You of the Gentry, as well as we of the Commonalty, all groaned
under the burden of the bad government and burdening laws of the
late King Charles, who was the last successor of William the
Conqueror. You and we cried for a Parliament, and a Parliament was
called, and wars, you know, presently began between the king that
represented William the Conqueror and the body of the English
people that were enslaved. We looked upon you to be our Chief
Council to agitate business for us, though you were summonsed by
the king's writ, and choosen by the Freeholders, who are the
successors of William the Conqueror's soldiers. You saw the danger
so great that without a war England was likely to be more enslaved,
therefore you called upon us to assist you with plate, taxes,
free-quarter and our persons: and you promised us, in the name of
the Almighty, to make us a Free People. Thereupon you and we took
the National Covenant with joint consent, to endeavour the freedom,
peace, and safety of the people of England. And you and we joined
person and purse together in the common cause, and Will. the
Conqueror's successor, which was Charles, was cast out; thereby we
have recovered ourselves from under that Norman yoke. And now
unless you and we be merely besotted with covetousness, pride and
slavish fear of men, it is and will be our wisdom to cast out all
those enslaving laws which was the tyrannical power the king
pressed us down by.[108:1] O shut not your eyes against the light;
darken not knowledge by dispute about particular men's privileges,
when Universal Freedom is brought to be tried before you; dispute
no further when truth appears, but be silent and practice it. Stop
not your ears against the secret moanings of the oppressed, under
these expressions, lest the Lord see it and be offended, and shut
His eyes against your cries, and work a deliverance