A petition delivered in to the lords sprituall and temporall, by Sir Thomas Aston, Baronet, from the County Palatine of Chester concerning Episcopacy To the high and honourable court of Parliament. / The nobilitie, knights, gentry, ministers, freeholders, and inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester, whose names are subscribed in the severall schedules hereunto annexed. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A74212 of text in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.4[66]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 7 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A74212 Thomason 669.f.4[66] 50811814 ocm 50811814 160688 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A74212) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 160688) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 245:669f4[66]) A petition delivered in to the lords sprituall and temporall, by Sir Thomas Aston, Baronet, from the County Palatine of Chester concerning Episcopacy To the high and honourable court of Parliament. / The nobilitie, knights, gentry, ministers, freeholders, and inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester, whose names are subscribed in the severall schedules hereunto annexed. Aston, Thomas, Sir, 1600-1645. England and Wales. Parliament. 1 sheet ([1] p.) Printed for John Aston, [S.l.] : 1641 [i.e., 1642] "Subscribed to this petition, foure noblemen. Knight baronets, knights and esquires, fourscore and odde. Divines, threescore and ten. Gentlemen, three hundred and odde. Free-holders and other inhabitants above six thousand, all of the same county." Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Church of England -- Government -- Early works to 1800. Church and state -- Great Britain -- 17th century -- Early works to 1800. Chester (England) -- History -- Early works to 1800. Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Early works to 1800. A74212 (Thomason 669.f.4[66]). civilwar no A petition delivered in to the lords sprituall and temporall, by Sir Thomas Aston, Baronet, from the County Palatine of Chester concerning E Aston, Thomas, Sir 1642 1092 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2008-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-11 John Pas Sampled and proofread 2008-11 John Pas Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A PETITION DELIVERED IN TO THE LORDS SPIRITVALL AND TEMPORALL , BY SIR THOMAS ASTON , BARONET , FROM THE COVNTY PALATINE OF CHESTER CONCERNING EPISCOPACY ; To the High and Honourable Court of Parliament . The Nobilitie , Knights , Gentry , Ministers , Freeholders , and Inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester , whose names are subscribed in the severall Schedules hereunto annexed . Humbly shew ; THat whereas divers Petitions have lately beene carryed about this Countie , against the present forme of Church government , ( and the hands of many persons of ordinary quality sollicited to the same , with pretence to be presented to this Honourable Assembly ) which wee conceiving not so much to ayme at reformation as absolute innovation of government , and such as must give a great advantage to the adversaries of our Religion , wee held it our dutie to disavow them all . And humbly pray , that wee incurre no miscensure , if any such clamours have ( without our privitie ) assum'd the name of the County . Wee , as others , are sensible of the common grievances of the Kingdome , and have just cause to rejoyce at , and acknowledge with thankfulnesse , the pious care which is already taken for the suppressing of the growth of Popery , the better supply of able Ministers , and the remooving of all innovation ; and wee doubt not but in your great Wisdomes , you will regulate the rigour of Ecclefiasticall Courts , to suit with the temper of our Lawes , and the nature of free-men . Yet when we consider , that Bishops were instituted in the time of the Apostles ; That they were the great lights of the Church in all the first generall Counsells ; That so many of them sowed the seeds of Religion in their bloods , and rescued Christianitie from utter extirpation in the primitive Heathen persecutions ; That to them we owe the redemption of the puritie of the Gospell wee now professe from Romish corruption ; That many of them for the propagation of the truth , became such glorious Martyrs ; That divers of them ( lately and ) yet living with us , have beene so great assertors of our Religion against its common enemy of Rome ; And that their government hath been so long approved , so oft established by the common and statute-lawes of this Kingdome ; And as yet nothing in their doctrine ( generally taught ) dissonant from the Word of God , or the Articles ratified by Law . In this case to call their gouernment a perpetuall vassalage , an intolerable bondage ; And ( prima facie & inaudita alter a parte ) to pray the present removall of them , or ( as in some of their Petitions ) to seeke the utter dissolution and ruine of their offices ( as Antichristian ) wee cannot conceive to relish of justice or charitie , nor can wee joyne with them . But on the contrary , when wee consider the tenor of such writings , as in the name of Petitions , are spread amongst the common people ; the tenents preached publiquely in Pulpits , and the contents of many printed Pamphlers , swarming amongst us ; all of them dangerously exciting a disobedience to the established forme of government , and their severall intimations of the desire of the power of the keyes , and that their Congregations may execute Ecclesiasticall censures within themselves , wee cannot but expresse our just feares , that their desire is to introduce an absolute innovation of Presbyterall Government , whereby wee who are now governed by the Canon and Civill Lawes , dispensed by twenty-six Ordinaries ( easily responsall to Parliaments for any deviation from the rule of Law ) conceive wee should become exposed to the meere arbitrary government of a numerous Presbytery , who together with their ruling Elders , will arise to neere forty thousand Church Governours , and with their adherents , must needs beare so great a sway in the Common-wealth , that if future inconvenience shall be found in that government , wee humbly offer to consideration , how these shall be reducible by Parliaments , how consistent with a Monarchy , and how dangerously conducible to an Anarchy , which wee have just cause to pray against , as fearing the consequences would prove the utter losse of learning and Lawes , which must necessarily produce an extirmination of Nobilitie , Gentry , and order , if not of Religion . With what vehemency of spirit , these things are prosecuted , and how plausibly such popular infusions spread as incline to a paritie , wee held it our dutie to represent to this Honourable Assembly ; And humbly pray , That some such present course be taken , as in your Wisdomes shall be thought fit to suppresse the future dispersing of such dangerous discontents amongst the common people . Wee having great cause to feare , that of all the distempers that at present threaten the wellfare of this State , there is none more worthy the mature and grave consideration of this Honourable Assembly , then to stop the Torrent of such spirits before they swell beyond the bounds of Government : Then wee doubt not but his Majesty persevering in his gracious inclination to heare the complaints , and relieve the grievances of his Subjects in frequent Parliaments , it will so unite the head and the body , so indissolubly cement the affections of his people to our Royall Soyeraigne , that without any other change of Government , he can never want revenue nor wee justice . Wee have presumed to annex a Coppy of a Petition ( or Libell ) dispersed , and certaine positions preacht in this County , which wee conceive imply matter of dangerous consequence to the peace both of Church and State . All which wee humbly submit to your great Judgements , praying they may be read . And shall ever pray , &c. Subscribed to this Petition , Foure Noblemen . Knight Baronets , Knights and Esquires , fourescore and odde . Divines , threescore and ten . Gentlemen , three hundred and odde . Free-holders and other Inhabitants above six thousand . All of the same County . Printed for John Aston . 1641 :