WE your long oppressed and overpressed subiects in all humble and loyall ma­ner shew and declare to your Maie­stie, That whereas we the Knights, Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other the Inhabitants of the abovesaid Counties, have very long and sorely borne and sustai­ned the heavie and intolerable burthen and pressur [...] of the [...]e Civill and unnaturall Wars, and been over­prest with the inutterable miseries and calamities thereby ensuing, and resolved to go forwards and per­sist, though to the utter losse and ruine of our estates, lives and fortunes, without wearinesse, notwithstan­ding any matter or thing that was or could be obiect­e [...] to the contrary on the adverse party: never once beleeving but that you were firmly grounded and s [...]t­led in the true Protestant Religion, according to your sundry Protestations to the whole Kingdome, which [Page 2] we fully and verily beleeved had beene for to main­taine and uphold the true Reformed Protestant Reli­gion, though to the hazard of your Posterity and for­tunes, without any mentall reservation, equivocation, or any other by or sinister end whatsoever: We ten­dring your prosperity and welfare, and the peace of your Kingdomes from the bottome of our hearts, nei­ther regarding wives, children, goods, or lives, were re­solved to stand fast to you and your posterity, to the last drop of our blood: But now after serious debate at d [...]vers and severall meetings had among us of la [...]e, and deeply and seriously weighing the miscariage of the great affaires of this bleeding Kingdome, which so neerly concernes the Church of God, and the deepe and lamentable grones of your poore oppressed and murdered subiects in every corner and angle of this your Kingdome: We the Knights, Gentlemen, Free­holders, and Inhabitants of the aforesaid Counties, being credibly informed, to our hearts griefe, of your late and fearful revolt from your Religion to Po [...]y; your daily correspondence w [...] Pope of Rome; your countenan [...] and upholding of the bloody Irish re [...]els, who [...] mos [...] inhumanely with bloody hands and re [...]eless [...] hearts shed the blood of above a hundred thousand Protestants, yet no men so great and high in your Maiesties favour, as these devouring Wolves; your absolute promise to your queene for maintenance of Popery, under your owne hand, now extant to be seen; and for the introducing of Popery into this kingdom; your receiving and asking counsell and advice of the most knowne [...]esuited Papist in this Kingdome; you [...] [Page 3] former underhand releasing of many knowne and no­torious Iesuits out of prison, who by the known Laws of the Land were to suffer death; your giving tolera­tion for the profanation of the Lords Day, with your licensing and permitting of divers horrid and unchri­stian cruelties to be inflicted in a most barbarous ma­ner, upon many honest, Christian, and religious sub­iects of yours, both men and women, to the unspea­kable griefe and astonishment of the beholders; your taking counsell with Bristoll, Cottington, and Digby, and at this present no place but Ragnol Castle is your seat, where is the greatest confluence of Papists in all those parts, nay in the whole Kingdome: and if such like fellowes as these are fit supporters to the Prote­stant Religion, let the world iudge.

The affaires of this bleeding Kingdome being such, and the horrid oppressions and unheard of outrages committed against your poor subiects, being so great▪ and unpa [...]lleld: We therefore here testifie and de­clare to your Maiestie and the world, that we are not any longer able to beare this intolerable bondage and slavers: We have therefore resolved, and do [...] [...]ani­mously resolve to shake off this y [...]ke, which hath lien and yet lies so heavy on us, for that you have made a cessation of Armes with the barbarous and bloody Irish Rebels, and stiled them your good Catholicke subiects, notwithstanding they have cruelly butchered and massacred above a hundred thousand of as good Protestants as ever any Prince had in this world; your correspondency with the Pope, subscribed in your se­verall Letters to him with your owne hand; your pro­mise to your queene subscri [...] with your own hand, [Page 4] as we are [...]uly informed, to bring in Popery as afore­said. Nay the body of your Councell is from the Romish and Spanish faction, witnesse Bristol, Cotting­ton, Digby &c. and even iust now who did your Ma­iesty goe to for counsell, but the archest Iesuited Pa­pist in all those parts, Worcester? Besides your conti­nuall favouring and fostering of the Iesuites from time to time: and now your hand taken at Nazeby in your Cabinet, extant to be seene, for bringing in of Popery, and have used all wayes and meanes to the uttermost of what hath in you beene to favour pro­phane pastimes, witnesse the Booke of tolerating of sports, printed by your authority, and commanded to be read in all Churches and Chappels within your Dominions; your aversenesse to comply with your great Councell your Parliament now resident at West­minster, who would to the utmost of their power and strength have established your Throne for ever in peace and happinesse.

May it therefore please your Maiestie, the premis­ses seriously considered, to return at last to your great Councell the Parliament at Westminster, where you may by your great repentance and sorrow of heart begge and implore pardon of God for your many and great prevarications, and that God would be pleased to take away your stony heart, and give you [...] heart of flesh, and to take you once againe into his favour and mercifull protection; that your subiects may have cause to blesse God for you and yours, and that you may end the rest of your daies in peace and happi­nesse, to his glorie, and [...]e welfare and benefit of this [Page 5] poore afflicted and distressed Kingdome, nay of the three Kingpomes now lamentably dilacerate and rent in sunder by our bloody and intestine adversaries.

We therefore once againe most humbly and ear­nestly beseech your Maiestie, That you bee pleased seriously to consider what is laid truly to your charge and to consider Ieriously of the blood of many thou­sands of your subiects that hath beene spilt on the earth as water, and God give you an understanding and prudent heart, and lead you to your great Coun­cell aforesaid▪ that these unnaturall and bloodie wars may cease and be extinct, and the voice of ioy and re­ioycing may once more be heard in the streets of Eng­land; that God may have the glorie, and you and your posteritie (that shall succeed you) will be sure to find the comfort inexpressible, and be at last a Father to your people, a good Shepheard to your sheepe; not a Wolfe, a blood-sucking Nero. Prove not a Bramble utterly to consume and destroy your selfe, your king­domes and subiects over whom God hath made you Steward, for the most high God will require their blood at your hands, when hee makes inquisition for blood.

But if all that hath beene spoken (out of our zeale to Gods glorie; his peoples good, and our dutie to your Maiestie) will not finde acceptance nor favour, out be sleighted and disregarded, we take God and the whole world to witnesse that we will by our swords quit our selves and our estates free from these bloody Monsters, nor suffer them no longer to harbour and [Page 6] lurke among us, to the immi [...]ent h [...]ding of our lives and fort [...], nay of what is and should be most deare to all good Christians, our Religion, Lawes, and Liberties: and our prayers shall be night and day that God would open your eyes to see and em [...]race the Truth, and your heart to bee truly inclined to helpe to close up the bleeding and gaping [...]ounds of our gasping native Countrie, and to heale the great breaches thereof, for it shaketh.

We make bold with your Maiestie to strike tw [...]ce on a string, because your Maiestie hath a short me­morie, remember your Protestation [...] and Declar [...] ­tions.