To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England, &c. The humble Petition, &c.

THAT what neither is, nor ever was in nature, can never be in nature.

THAT without a king and lords, no government either is, or ever was in nature (but in mere force) other than by a senat indu’d with authority to debate and propose; and by a numerous assembly of the people wholly and only invested with the right of result in all matters of lawgiving, of making peace and war, and of levying men and mony.

WHERFORE your petitioner (to disburden his conscience in a matter of such concern to his country) most humbly and earnestly prays and beseeches this parlament to take into speedy and serious consideration the irrefragable truth of the premises, and what therupon must assuredly follow, that is, either the institution of a commonwealth in the whole people of England (without exception, or with exception for a time, of so few as may be) by way of a senat, and a numerous assembly of the people, to the ends, and for the respective functions aforesaid; or the inevitable ruin of this nation, which God of his mercy avert.

I would it had bin deliver’d.

Look you, if this had bin presented to the house, I intended to have added this other paper, and to have printed them together.