A CLEAR OPTIC DISCOVERING To the EYE of REASON; 

That Regality is not inconsistent with the Ends of Government.  
That Episcopacy and Presbytery are of the Essence of Government.  
That Independency is incorporated into the Body of Government.  
That Levelling is allowable in the constituting of Government.  
And that the Recusants are hugely mistaken in the Constitution of their Roman Hierarchy.    
Roughly set out in an humble address TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND.  
By ANTHONY NORWOOD, A cordial Votary for the Peace of the Nation.  
London, Printed for Richard Moon, and Edward Thomas, and are to be sold at the seven Stars in Paul's Churchyard, and in Green Arbour, 1654.   

To the Right Honourable the Speaker of the Parliament of England, and to the Earls, Lords, Knights, Gentlemen and Burgesses respectively, now invested by the Suffrage of the People, with the Supreme Authority of the Nation.  
Right Honourable,  
THe reasonable Caveat of a poor obscure man may sometimes save a City, and may possibly therefore be serviceable to a Commonwealth. I own a duty to my Nation, and must either endeavour to perform it, or be condemned of want of Religion and humanity. This hath obliged and emboldened me to tender this Mite as an oblation for the peace and welfare thereof to you the honourable trusties of the Nation, by whom the people are in a longing expectation to be restored to their often promised and dearly purchased Rights and Liberties.  
Sir, I have been too long a sad Spectator of those bloody embroilments, which have pierced through the Heart of this Nation, whereof I am a sympathising Member, and have observed that the diversity of opinions in point of Government, is that which hath been a principal motive to the mournful Tragedy, and still renders the people unsatisfied and unreconciled. This cause being taken away, the effects may happily follow; and therefore I humbly crave leave to present these my solitary conceptions upon that subject.  
Not to trouble you over long with their vanity who are enemies to all Government, I shall only say, that albeit it be true, that during the short time that Man continued in his innocency, there was none manifestly appearing, because then there was no need of any, and none might have been had he continued still in the same spotless condition: yet sin being since crept into the whole mankind by the fall of Adam, to question now whether God doth tolerate and approve of Government, is to question whether he hath left Man power to prevent those infinites of inconveniences, which every day are multiplied by the growth and overspreading prevalency of sin, and by consequence to draw a suspect upon the Creator, as if he were too unmindeful of the preservation of his own creatures.  
This being blown over, I shall now with your patience, endeavour to demonstrate upon what right the Authority of your Assembly is founded, what power you have by virtue of that right, and how invalid their pretences are who stand in competition with that right. That so the lawfulness and fullness of your Authority being made clear, you may cheerfully proceed in the managing of that trust which the people of this Nation have reposed in you, and they reduced to their wont compliance with your Authority.  
Sir, That which hath appeared your most eminent opponent is Monarchy, which being by the Abetters truly defined, to be a sole Government in one without Copartners or limitation, is totally destructive to your Authority: Yet this form of Government (say they) is of divine Ordination. But he that compares the definition with the doctrine that hath been every where published by those of that opinion, wherein some of them contend, that the Government of a Christian Commonwealth ought to be partly Regal, and partly Episcopal; othersome partly Regal and partly Presbyterian, and that both the one and the other (though in the hands of distinct and contemporary persons) are of divine institution, will hardly apprehend any safety in adhering to a doctrine wherein he finds so much contradiction.  
Indeed in the judgement of any considering man the doctrine will seem extremely impertinent, not only because, if it should be admitted that Monarchical Government is of divine Ordination, yet it will rest disputable who amongst infinite millions of men ought to be the only Monarch: But also because according to their own definition and doctrine, he only can be said to be a Monarch, who, as Nabuchadnezzar had, hath from God the sole dominion over the People of all Nations, and in the Beasts of the field the like sole propriety; and if it be true of that, or of the Monarchy of Augustus Caesar, which comes nearest to it, which they pretend of others, that they ought to descend hereditarily, either the late world knew no lawful Monarches, if it did, it will be no less lawful to subdivide every of them into as many more as they contain families, then to divide those Monarchies into so many as are now said to be in Christendom.  
This than may be concluded from their own premises, that it is as agreeable to the will of God to reduce Monarchical Government into Families, as to continue it in Commonwealths. And this seems to be the clear intendment of the institution, aswell by the example of the sons of Noah, who without regard to the priority of blood in the elder brother did each of them govern his own family Monarchically; as by that of Abraham, who having the advantage of extraordinary illumination, years and blood, did not take cognizance in a case of difference between his own and the servants of his Nephew Lot, but rather advised a separation to prevent the growing contention.  
There needs no more to prove, that every Master of a family did or might originally govern his own dependants Monarchically and independently of any other humane authority: the disposing therefore of the world into several Colonies or Commonwealths composed of divers families, cannot truly be taken to be the product of divine Ordination; but of some political humane institution, which howsoever they may probably at the first be quartered out by the violent decision of the sword thirsty after rule and domination; yet where God, who only may dispense with his own laws, made it not lawful by some particular known Commission, could not be legally established, but by the voluntary combination of agreeing families, over every of which the Superior being by nature independent, and having a sole jurisdiction within his own verge, whosoever did assume a power in prejudice to that right did commit an act inconsistent with the end of associating, which mainly regards the preservation of each incorporated Members propriety, and made himself guilty with Nimrod, of that violence which was never yet approved by Divinity.  
Be pleased to take a scantling by a family, wherein, besides only where nature seals the obligation, what allegiance is created is by consent, as between Masters and servants, Husbands and Wives, though that sex be condemned to servitude by God himself, and you will easily admit that the Master's subjection is not lawfully acquirable upon lower terms: for it is too much below reason to think that the Superior is naturally in a more servile condition than his subordinate's; or allowing him the same freedom not to allow the same rule to hold in Commonwealths, which are but larger copies of that smaller Original. And therefore whosoever hath not a disposition to contend (against all right) that the customary pretences and practices of man have power to supersede everlastingly a positive Law of God, will grant, that the Supreme Authority of this Nation is of right really and independently in the Fatherhood, not to be alienated but by consent.  
Sir, For the further manifestation of this truth, give me leave to offer to you these following reasons; The first drawn from the necessity of a known allegiance; that is a necessity of knowing that Magistrates and subordinate's have a lawful personal relation one to another; and a necessity of knowing what the power of the one, and duty of the other is being so related. And this aswell in respect of the Governor, as of the governed: because as the first may sin by imposing upon those over whom, and in such cases wherein he hath no warrantable jurisdiction, so may the other by betraying their own persons, liberty or propriety to an obtruded power, or by declining the duty he owes to his real Superior to comply with the more irregular power of an Alien.  
Now amongst Masters of Families equally free, independent and uncompellable to associate, who have a sole and equal jurisdiction over their respective subordinate's, it will be but lost labour to find out such an allegiance but by consent; and this, being passed, without limitation, by associated Masters of families, to such of the Association, as they esteem most trusty and able to manage public concernments, conveys to the elected a sole and independent power over the persons and estates of the Electors, and all those who do depend upon them, to all intents and purposes relating to common accommodation.  
To make out such an Allegiance between a King and a People, or between the Lords and them, in the way wherein they usually claim: is altogether impossible; For first, they have no warrant to lay a foundation for Government, they cannot lawfully compel people to associate. Next because the Royal pretences are generally drawn from the quality of the Office, that of the Lords for the effects of that qualification, and admitting that every Nation ought to be governed by a King, yet it will rest questionable, whether every King ought to have that latitude of power which may be pretended; and that being allowed will not assert the lawfulness of his personal calling to that Office, or determine what people are unquestionably under his jurisdiction.  
The next is from the nature of municipal laws, by which it is unavoidably necessary, for the peaceable being of every populous Commonwealth, that many actions be made criminal, and many crimes liable to punishment diversely from what is prescribed by the finger of God. Such as are many of the several sorts of Treasons, petty Treason, Felony, & the like, punishable by death, or confiscation, or both. Some whereof differ little from that of Shimei his going over the Brook Kedron, for which Solomon his King had no power to take away his life, had not Shimei himself first consented to forfeit it upon that condition.  
In the making of these Laws there is an absolute necessity, that the Lawmakers have a right of power over the persons and Estates of the whole People of that Nation wherein they are to be executed: because no man may dispose of that wherein he hath not a lawful interest. That such a right is not annexed to the Regal Office, is plainly demonstrable by that sour vengeance, which God took upon Ahab and his house, for tampering to take away the Vineyard and life of his known subject Naboth; and if Kings have not, neither have the Lords who derive only from Regal Prerogative; and if neither of these two have such a right, it remains wholly in the Representatives of the People, and they are the only Lawmakers; unless there be something more in the Clergy then in other Christians, which will wind them in upon another score to be sharers in the same Authority. And that (with your patience) comes in the next place to be experimented.  
What claim they lay is said to be derived from the Apostles, of whom it is written, that they did not take upon them to dispose of the goods of Ananias without his consent, nor punish the detention without Miracle; and I think that unless they can entitle themselves to the like qualifications, they will hardly Ex Officio prove themselves competent Lawmakers.  
Sir, I remember that Linsy-woolsie garments were forbidden to be worn by the children of Israel, as those which being composed of ingredients of discordant and fretting quality, would not endure long in one and the same piece. God's Word is positive, that no man can serve two masters. And when I observed how wide the rents are which have been every where made in the Church of Christ by dividing the polity thereof into Ecclesiastical and Civil, and how little light there is in the Word of God to direct people into a due and safe course of obedience to each of these two capacities respectively, I was not apt to think the continuance to be at all consistent with the ways of God, or peace of the Nation.  
Yet something they have to shore up the Tradition, and that is the Priesthood of Israel, which they say doth typically relate to these Gospel-times. Which no doubt is true; & let them but suspend their Hierarchy till they can produce one Law made by that Priesthood whilst it continued in its purity, and I think that will put an end to the business. But here seems to me to lie the great mistake: They would have that Nation to be a type of one, or of all Christian Nations only, whereas it was a Type of the whole world; the Levitical Priesthood representing who are, the rest of the Tribes who are not of the household of faith, who though they be not within the pale, yet are not out of the purlew of the great Forest of Christ; and though not actually in, yet potentially and in expectance are of the Church; for the benefits of Christ's merits are extendable to all, though not taken hold of by all mankind. And thus between the Type and the Antitype, there hold still due correspondence, which would not hold so currently if the Type were applied only to the Christian part of the World: because Christ hath made all those Priests to God his Father, who have laid hold on him by faith.  
Their spiritual Charter of Authority is vacated, if they cannot prove themselves to be solidly invested by God with the Priesthood. And since the Son would not suffer his Disciples to forbid that stranger to cast out Devils in his Name, who followed not him their Master, me think I may easily infer, that no man who is endowed with so much grace as to believe all the Articles of faith essentially necessary to Salvation, is prohibited by the Father to impede the Devils entrance, by interposing those outward ordinary means which he hath prescribed. And this not alone in themselves, but to all others: for love is a general duty, which hath reference to all mankind; and it is little less than blasphemy to think that God requires that at man's hand, without giving him a plenary Commission to express it, nor can it be any way so well expressed as by endeavouring to make people capable of the merits of their Saviour. Amongst Christians then there is none of the Quorum in this Commission, and I see not how any can be without the approbation and consent of their associated fellow-Commissioners; and I need not say, that the same reason which holds for Discipline that does for Doctrine.  
I might here for a further confirmation of the premises, mind you of some pertinent Texts in Scripture both under the Law and in the time of the Gospel; and show you that before God permitted the Israelites to have Kings, which was upon an emergent occasion, he gave a general Commission to the People to choose them Judges and Officers in all their Tribes. That David and Hezekiah, two Kings of that Nation, who have left behind them as good a Character of righteous Government as any, called the people to consult with them about two businesses of greatest importance, the one touching fetching home of the Ark, the other about keeping the Passeover. And that the Apostles, in that weighty controversy concerning Circumcision, advised with the Elders and Brethren; and by their approbation sent letters of reconciliation to the dissenters. Whereby it is manifest in what regard the consent of the People was had in those first and best ages, whether it were in spiritual or temporal concernments. But I must not spin out an Epistle into a Volume.  
Sir, by what hath been already offered to your consideration, I suppose that the necessity of a known mutual Allegiance between Magistrates and subordinate's is made manifest to you; and I conceive it no less apparent that such an Allegiance cannot be created but by consent: but seeing there is no truth that meets not with some opposition, besides those already mentioned, bear a little longer I beseech you with my boldness, whilst I endeavour to remove some other rubs of a later date, which possibly may yet be thought equivalent or superlative to this consent.  
Suppose the provident hand of God in sending down so many pregnant blessings upon the Army, should be urged as an evidence of God's pleasure to confer the right of Authority upon the Instruments. To manifest that this will not beget that known mutual Allegiance which is necessarily insisted upon, I shall humbly beseech you to call to mind that the Parliament did first vote the War, and then form and give Commission to the Army. That the People did elect, and thereby give power to the Members of that Parliament, and assist the Army in their persons, by their prayers, contributions, and correspondence. That together with the Commanders, the Infantry and Cavalry bore no inconsiderable share in the great adventure for Liberty; and amongst all these I believe you will find it as hard to determine upon whom Providence hath cast the lot of Government, as to understand by what Organ it was conveyed; and no less difficult to discover precisely who are subjected to the effects. Many public spirited men there were, who laboured hard to prepare the way before ever the Parliament could be convened, or the Army march into the field; and not a few under whose conduct, during the long contest, God sent the People seasonable and signal deliverances; and though the good Master of the Vine-yard gave as large a salary to the last comers as to the first, yet he gave to all alike.  
I offer this only in relation to those who have not been tainted with Delinquency to the State: for I should not speak my own reason, should I say that an Army raised by Authority of Parliament to protect the Nation hath not power, so long as the Government continues unsettled, to use all requisite means to discover and prevent clandestine machinations, to suppress outrages and conspiracies eminently destructive to the People's peace, to punish those who are convicted offenders, and to hold those under subjection who have forseited their freedom, by being parties in an offensive War against the Supreme Authority of the Nation: for they have appealed to their own swords, and being cast at a Bar of their own choosing, they cannot truly be said to suffer without their own consents.  
Should it again be supposed, that, as it hath been of old insisted upon by the pretended Clergy, some peculiar and singular dispensation of grace to some Christians above other some, doth carry with it a right to Sovereignty: I am confident you would not think that this rule will reach all those who are endowed with the same spirit; and I think not infallibly those who are not therewith endowed: because all other graces waiting upon, and receiving their virtue and efficacy through faith, and that being a hidden Mystery wrapped up in the soul of man, and visible only to the Eye of God, amongst those who profess to this faith, it is not discoverable by any third person, who is and who is not capable of the same privileges with real Believers.  
I confess that it is undeniably true, that whosoever hath a true and lively faith, will show it by his works: but good works (that is, morally good) may be done by those who have no faith. Besides, if works be the only outward cognizance of grace, and that of Sovereignty, it may be concluded from the rule of contraries, that sin denotes a want of grace, and a secluding from Sovereignty. And this will be so far from begetting a known mutual Allegiance between the Governors and governed, that it will either destroy all Government, or tolerate those to be Governors who are void of Grace: because upon this account, either there will be no more Magistrates found to punish Malefactors, than there were accusers remaining to cast the first stone at the Adulteress, or such only as by professing themselves to be without sin do disclaim any interest in a Saviour.  
Sir, It is not many months since there came a little pamphlet to my hands, which had something in it not impertinent to the present purpose, the Author said to be a person, who formerly had written a larger Tract in vindication of the power and proceed of the People's late elected Representatives: but in this last urgeth that of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, advising them to be obedient to Nero, who (without all contradiction) far surpassed the late King in all kind of wickedness, as an obligation upon all Christians to submit to that power whatsoever it be under which their lot is fallen. I shall leave it to your better judgement to calculate what a huge weight of blood this doctrine (if it be true) will lay upon the then Parliament, their Army, and all those who did adhere or contribute to them, and waving the dispute as that which hath been the subject of many satisfactory impressions, apply myself only to show how far the Author's opinion goes along with the Premises. From whence first it may be concluded, that if those primitive Christians, who doubtless had then as much of the Spirit, and thereby as great privileges as any since their times, were enjoined by the Apostle to submit to an Infidel power, certainly the gifts of the Spirit do not render the Receivers unquestionably capable of command.  
Secondly, He acknowledgeth that if Nero had attained the Throne by the suffrage of the people, it had been more orderly then by the Senate, which it seems by him was not so elected; and if by the Senate less disorderly, then by the artifice of his mother, and help of the Cohorts and rest of the Soldiery. All this comes very near to what I have delivered. And had he not been short of telling his Readers of the sin that Nero committed by falling upon the most disorderly way of the three, he had fully justified my saying; for I endeavour to maintain, that the right to choose their own Magistrates is in the people, and if it be granted that he that takes upon him to superintend them without their consent, is guilty of sin, their right is fully asserted.  
If not in Nero an Infidel, yet to usurp a power upon a self-account is certainly a sin in a Christian, and that not of the smaller size: yet I will not determine that that Scripture in the Thessalonians, wherein the Man of sin is said to sit in the Temple of God as God, may in a degree be applied to any persons, who being Members of Christ's Church, do under the pretence of some peculiar divine dispensation, exercise a coercive jurisdiction over their brethren of the same faith, though that in Peter, wherein Christians are forbidden to Lord it over God's inheritance, seems very much to countenance the application: But I may say, and yet preach no false doctrine, that it is not the vocal appellation, but the actual prelation or Prelating that contracts the guilt.  
Be this the sense of the Holy Ghost or be it not, it had not been unworthy the late self-voters serious thoughts to consider, whether he that makes a Law to compel others to pay Subsidies and Contributions, or to hazard their lives in the face of an enemy, or by which any other is deprived of his Liberty, Goods, Lands, or Life for counterfeiting the public coin or Seals, do not thereby commit a sin little inferior to that of Ahab, and make himself obnoxious to the like punishment, unless he have some such warrant as Solomon had to take away the life of his subject Shimei.  
Liberty hath been proclaimed, which, amongst associated people, who must live under a Law, consists only in the freedom of electing Lawmakers. Indeed consent is that alone that takes the stain of oppression and antichristian usurpation out of the authority of Christian Magistrates. It is the spring that gives motion to all the wheels in the Watch of National Government. And whether the case of Government be handled under a Civil or under an Ecclesiastical notion, your Authority springing from the consent of the people, still remains the same sole and entire, without any dependency or commixture, what pretences soever have been interposed. The people's independent power is consigned over to you, by which you are invested as well with the Supreme as with the Legislative power, for they are twins not to be separated, but by a mutual and total Annihilation. This is the authority and privilege of Parliament; and you are the Guardians of this Privilege and Authority. If it miscarry through your default, you fail in your Trust, and the sin will lie at your own door.  
You need not object the want of Precedents, you have the example of the people's last Representatives, who undauntedly acted by these justifiable Principles, and were cheerfully seconded by the people with liberal Contributions. You have the concurrence of the Scottish nation before it was seduced; and the agreement and cooperation of the Commanders in chief, and of the rest of the Commanders, Officers and Soldiers of both Armies. You have the same Army still under the same Commanders, who would not certainly have engaged so deep in the quarrel, had they not been fully satisfied of the justness of the Cause. And therefore seeing your authority is the same, and that you are not convened without their approbation, to fear to proceed upon the same just and honourable principles, were to seem to suspect them of the ignominious crime of Apostasy, and that would be taken as ill, as to tell a Soldier that he is run from his colours.  
You have had a fair Copy set you, and the people will have little cause to give you thanks, if you suffer it to be sullied in your transcribing. By their insisting upon their own power the Laws of the land are rendered more authoritative: for the legislative power being solely in the Representatives of the People, there wanted not cause to apprehend that all the former Statutes and Charters of this Commonwealth, not excepting Magna Charta, or any other Statute or Charter whatsoever, being hammered out under a kind of controlment of Kings and Lords Spiritual and Temporal, who seldom were remiss to improve their own pretensions, were (if not illegitimate and invalid, yet) not virtual enough to prevent unquiet expostulations; and whatsoever virulent and exasperated tongues may suggest, posterity will entertain it as an act of prudence, justice and honour in your Predecessors, who were entrusted with the interest of the people, to free the legislative power out of the former Wardship, and to reassume it to themselves, by whose sole authority the Laws and Statutes of the Nation might be tendered less subject to querulous censure, and more obliging.  
As it is in making, so it is in executing of Laws, the power by which they are executed will be doubtful and controvertable, if it be not derived from the clear stream of the people's consent. This was plainly experimented the late King's case, whose claim being of another nature, and his title and power therefore uncertain, filled the Nation full of consuming dissensions. Whereas had he insisted only upon the consent of the people, he might have preserved the peace of the Nation, rescued his person and family from those sharp encounters under which they have since suffered, and secured his office from that hideous storm with which it was at last overwhelmed: for had he owned his investiture from the People, by which all those litigations that caused the distempers had been removed, the Regal office (besides that it had the trust of seeing the Laws duly executed) being military, and so taken to be in the sense of Scripture, there was no cause why it should be thought an office prohibited by God, or why the compliment of a title should make wise men stumble at so necessary a supplement to their own defence and safety.  
But no title would serve turn, but divine right, and that mounting him upon too elevating wings, precipitated him to destruction; and prevailed with his adherents, apprehending thereby something in his person or office, above the ordinary pitch of humanity, to hazard their persons and estates in a war against that authority, against which had they prevailed, they had fought themselves into such a servitude, as their own vassals will not brook to hear of without regret and indignation.  
The very same Simple was found out, aswell by the Episcopal as by the Presbyterian party, and each of them applied it as a cordial to their Ecclesiastical polity. You will best judge of the virtue, if you please to observe the operation. That you may see how low they have brought it, give me leave to uncase this their Patient.  
Grant they must, that the primitive Christians had within themselves a peculiar kind of Government, or else their insisting upon the like in the present Church is merely idle, and they cannot make any pretence to any Government peculiar to Christians of the first ages, but what was in their hands who were distinguished by the denominations of Bishops, Presbyters, or Elders and Deacons. So that although all of these did or might preach, yet their office was not Doctrinal but Disciplinary. And this I shall endeavour to make further appear by these reasons. First, because they were approved fit for those Offices by their known care and skill to govern well their own families. Next, because the direction of the Apostle to choose some to officiate in concernments relating to discipline, to the end, that they who were set apart for Doctrine, might not be withdrawn from that more necessary duty, would have exempted them also from any office of that nature, had those Bishops and the rest been of the Doctrinal order.  
They were then no more but civil Magistrates in a Christian colony; and I think that the Government of this Nation by a Representative Council of the Fatherhood, wherein the Speaker may be properly termed the Bishop, Superintendent or Prelate, and the rest of the Members the Eldership or Presbytery, is not at all different from that of the primitive Churches, save only in the variation of title, which, though it hath made a huge noise in the Christian world, are no more but the same sense in a different dialect.  
It is as possible to stop water from returning to its proper Centre, as to damn up authority from the Sea of the people. But the opinion of holiness dazzles the eyes of wise men. It will cast a sad reflection upon the soul of every tender hearted Christian, who is no enemy to the unity and prosperity of this Nation, when he considers how many of her natives, men of able and active parts, who might therefore be of singular use to this Commonwealth, have made themselves uncapable of being employed in the managery of public affairs, and of joining together in Communion with their brethren of the same faith and Nation, by drawing counter to a mild and warrantable Authority, in the more rigid and chargeable yoke of the Roman Hierarchy, that hath not whereupon to lay a foundation, but what hath been here expressed.  
The attribute of holiness is common to all Believers; and, although in the primitive times, when Christians were under a twofold kind of Government, the one peculiar to themselves, the other Imperial and in common with them to all other people under that jurisdiction, they might make use of the term, to distinguish between their own and the Imperial polity, yet being in that point now all equal, their polity cannot be otherwise form but by moral and prudential Principles, which had it been so understood, would have long ago reconciled the native Recusants to the English Discipline; and the nonconforming Protestants to those indifferent things of decency and order, which have been heretofore bogled at as superstitious and idolatrous, in regard they were stained with the suspicious spots of imputative sanctity.  
This, together with the activity of the Ministry in intruding themselves into disciplinary negotiations, is that which hath wrought the Office into distaste with the people; but were this Remora removed, and they content to conform themselves to the Apostles Rule, not to leave the Word of God to serve tables, I cannot think that in this Commonwealth, any ingenuous man would imagine it less convenient to have a settled Ministry for all public oratory's, then to have Judges selected from amongst others of the same profession to sit in places of judicature, as that which is providentially necessary to avoid confusion where there is a parity. And thus the quarrelings about the ordination and maintenance of Ministers, together with those formal accommodations, which do pertain to their officiating, may receive a satisfactory composure, being taken only as civil institutions, and regulated by the Representatives of the nation, who by the unlimited consent of the people interested in all capacities, are qualified to prescribe, aswell unpresidented forms of administration in public devotions, as unexampled punishments for new coined crimes; and with the same obligation upon the consciences of the consenters.  
Some object that the Galatians had Congregations independent one of another, which were accounted and called Churches, and therefore they think that national Churches are not allowable. What then? A Parliamentary power they acknowledge. Must then every Congregation or Classis smell of the old leaven, and have within itself an Ecclesiastical jurisdiction? Admit they must. From whence comes this Jurisdiction, but from the consent of the parties congregated? and by the like consent it is conveyed again to the Representatives of the Nation, by which they are invested with their sole power, unless they can produce some clause of reservation.  
But truly I conceive their allegation will not hold: for it is plain that in the first ages, there were Churches in private houses, which by their own confession did not go against God's order in forming themselves into Congregations; and to enlarge Congregations into National Churches, seems not to be less agreeable to his pleasure: because it comes nearer to that great design of God, to bring all true Believers into one fold under one Shepherd Christ Jesus. And therefore this of the Galatians I conceive to be caused by the interposition of their circumferencing neighbours, who being Infidels hindered that free intercourse and Communion, which had been more agreeable to their profession.  
What should I say more? You are the independent Presbytery or Eldership of this Classis or Congregation of the Christian World, who have the sole power of making and repealing Laws, and of placing and displacing subordinate Officers, whether Magisterial or Ministerial, as shall in your judgements seem most conducing to public accommodation. And this form of Government wherein the native equality and liberty of every individual Member of this Commonwealth is indifferently and unanimously submitted to persons elected by themselves, for the advancement of every man's private together with the public interest, may (besides those that I have already run over) fully satisfy the Levelling party, who have as well an equal freedom to elect, as an equal possibility to be the elected; except their design runs so high, as an aim to cast all sublunary blessings into one joint stock, for an equal benefit to all mankind; and if this be their plot (though it were the way to restore me to the capacity of eating daily bread, yet) I must not bear a part in it: because the command of God to relieve the poor is a void command, if in the Goods of this world they have a right to an equal proportion; nor may it be admitted that God forbids not Man to cover his neighbours, but his own propriety.  
Thus have I wound myself out of the maze of National Government assisted by the clew of Consent. And now (me thinks) I might more properly call it a National Directory, instructing associated families to continue in an honest and peaceable correspondence one towards another for public preservation; and this drawn out by their own Representatives, prescribing civil rules, and ordaining Officers aswell to see those rules observed, as to punish offenders according to the rules by them prescribed, wherein there is no injury or compulsion, because acted by consent, which being voluntary lays upon every man an equal obligation; and these rules being repealable by the trusties of the Nation, and by what titles soever those Magistrates who are by them constituted, are distinguished, the power of the people is not taken away, but they continue still the Vicegerents under Christ their King.  
Sir, What desolations have befallen this Commonwealth by the fatal divisions which happened amongst the Members of the late elected Parliament, cannot be remembered without a sad resentment; and it is not impossible that some of those different opinions, which have hitherto nourished private animosities amongst the people, may yet have too great a reflection upon your Assembly. Your unity may bind up these wounds; and truly in this which I have offered to that end, I see nothing deviating from the Will of God, or inconsistent with the just ends of Government; and therefore not the Jesse likely to be instrumental to concord.  
It is the restraining of sin, and a tendency to his glory, that renders National Government accepted with God. There is a failer in both these, if Government be not built up upon a just and right foundation; and sin seldom draws along with it Gods protection. Justice exalteth a Nation, but sin is a shame to any People, is the aphorism of the wisest Solomon. Besides that it cannot be without sin, this Nation hath experimentally felt that two counterpoising powers in one politic, is as monstrous as a heart and a heart in one natural body.  
Sir, My zeal for God and my Nation hath made me too much a trespasser upon your patience. But prosperity flows there, where righteousness and peace do kiss each other. This is the object of my prayers, this the object of my wishes, this the object of my endeavours, and this is that which hath drawn upon you the trouble of this rude presentment. I have heard the sad complaints of the People who justly cry out for redress, and I despair not of seeing some healing applications. I know that the many tempestuous counter blasts, which have broken in upon this Nation, have driven in before them exasperating irregularities. But let him that expects a strict observance of rule amidst such high distractions, betake himself to frame some curious masterpiece, in the main top of a ship tossed with ahideous storm, constant in no point of the Compass, and there try what credit he can get by the undertaking. The rigour of the Law is often injurious, where it meets not with some qualification. In those actions which are not steered in a direct course, necessity excuseth the Pilot, if they be directed to a right Haven.  
Sir, I have heard that one of the bravest Generals that ever commanded the Roman Legions, after he had victoriously asserted the people's liberty, and put an end to a Civil war, offered up his power and Commission to the then assembled Senate, by whom he was re-invested and gratified with more triumphant dignities. Here was a fair and honourable correspondence. And this procured a present and lasting peace to that Empire, and rendered it flourishing and formidable.  
Sir, I have now discharged my Conscience without design, without partiality, without prejudice. Your business is great, Your trust great, I have now no more to do but to prostrate myself at the feet of him who is the Fountain of all goodness, humbly praying that he will direct you in all your consultations to reflect still upon his glory, the salvation of your own souls, and the unity and welfare of this disjointed Nation. This will draw down the blessings of Heaven upon your endeavours. And for this shall be the daily oblations of  
Your Honours poor Orator And humble Servant Anthony Norwood.