THAT having with great joy of minde often heard of the pious inclination of this Honourable Assembly unto the Reformation of Church Government, and having of late (not without some regret) seene a Petition in the name of the Knights, Gentlemen and others of this County, tending most to the Confirmation of Episco­pall power: We have thought it our duty likewise to rouse up our affection unto Gods cause, and in all humility to lay these expressions thereof at the feet of this great Councell, as being (under God) the chiefe Arbitrator betweene our joy and sorrow.

FOr the Present Church Government, of what right it is wee may not dispute, presuming it to be subject to the power of this Honourable Assembly; Neither doth it much import how antient it is, or how neere the Apostles dayes, seeing we know that in the dayes of the Apostles themselves, the mystery of iniquity began to worke, and that by the efficatious operation of the same, the man of sin hath advanced himselfe from the Episcopall chaire to the top of Antichristian Tyranny. But that this Government is the wisest and most pious tha [...] any people hath beene blest withall since the Apostles dayes (what ever others may beleeve) we presume is no part of the Creed of this great Councell; whose godly zeale in purging the corruptions, and punishing the enemie of the true Church, being already in part made manifest, doth give us rather a just cause to hope that God hath yet some further blessing of Reformation for us, to be wrought by the same hands, In prosecution whereof, if it shall enter into your hearts at this time to give a deadly wound unto that power, against which you have received so many Complaints, we are sure you shall not walke in an unknowne path, but such as hath beene troden before you by almost all the Churches of God which have exchanged the superstition and bondage of Rome, for the glorious light and liberty of the Gospell. Neither may it be conceived as the least degree of indignity offered to the blessed memory of those antient or later Bishops who have so well deserved of the Church of God both in life and death, if that Government which they have adorned by their singular piety and vertues being through the corruption and wickednesse of those which have succeeded them made intolerable, shall by your just authority be abolished. Or if the number and merit of learned and godly Bishops famous in theie generations be presumed to be a reasonable inducement for the continuation of that Go­vernment, we leave it to consideration of this wise Councell, whether the great and far surpassing multitude of ambi [...]ious, ungodly, and infamous Prelates, in most Countries and Ages by-past, be not a more effectuall motive for the extipation of the same. Hereunto if we adde the present experience even in these our dayes of their many insolencies and outrages against the truth and power of godlinesse, suppressing and corrupting Gods Ordinances, Vnhollow­ing his day, persecuting his Ministers; Their late mischevous attempt to impose on us and our posterity an insupportable Yoake of servitude and that which deserveth the highest pitch of Zeale and all the bowels of this Honourable Senate, the notorious multitude of profane and scandalous Ministers, the most active and malitious enemies unto Reformation, and the authoritie from which it is desired. Wee trust that all this together, with much more well knowne to this Honorable Assembly, will be sufficient to justify the feares wee have conceived of so dangerous a power.

WHEREFORE being perswaded in our mindes, that it will be a worke acceptable unto God, of great advantage and comfort to the Churches of Christ, and no lesse conducing to the safety, peace and strength of all His Majesties Kingdomes; Wee most humbly implore the Authority and zeale of this Honourable Assembly to proceed unto the full accomplishment of the same; And having laid the Axe to the roote of this Tree, to doe unto it as to a plant which the Heavenly Father hath not planted, that neither the spreading boughes of the same may over-shadow the Vineyeard of the LORD, nor the bitter fruit thereof make sad the heart of the people of GOD any more for ever.

THESE are the desires of your most humble Petitioners, and wee are perswaded, would have beene the expres­sions of Multitudes more of true-hearted Christians and Subjects, had there not beene some indirect practices used in soliciting the former Petition; Whereby many were wonne to subscribe thereunto, who have sithence declared themselves in the point of Episcopacie, to have been at the doing thereof otherwise affected. Howbeit unto us it is sufficient, that relying wholly on the good Providence of GOD, the Pietie and Wisedome of this Honourable Assembly, and the sincerity of our owne intentions, wee cannot want the comforts of a good hope, while we have the libertie to powre out our soules unto Almighty God to continue and encrease his favours and gratious aspect towards this Honourable and Religious Assembly.