To the Honourable Assembly of COMMONS, In this present PARLIAMENT.  
The humble Petition of divers of the Knights, Gentlemen, Clergy and other Inhabitants of the county of Somerset.  
Showeth,  
THAT having with great joy of mind often heard of the pious inclination of this Honourable Assembly unto the Reformation of Church Government, and having of late (not without some regret) seen a Petition in the name of the Knights, Gentlemen and others of this County, tending most to the Confirmation of episcopal power: We have thought it our duty likewise to rouse up our affection unto God's cause, and in all humility to lay these expressions thereof at the feet of this great council, as being (under God) the chief Arbitrator between our joy and sorrow.  
FOr the Present Church Government, of what right it is we may not dispute, presuming it to be subject to the power of this Honourable Assembly; Neither doth it much import how ancient it is, or how near the Apostles days, seeing we know that in the days of the Apostles themselves, the mystery of iniquity began to work, and that by the efficacious operation of the same, the man of sin hath advanced himself from the episcopal chair to the top of Antichristian Tyranny. But that this Government is the wisest and most pious tha● any people hath been blessed withal since the Apostles days (what ever others may believe) we presume is no part of the Creed of this great council; whose godly zeal in purging the corruptions, and punishing the enemy 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 walk in an unknown path, but such as hath been trodden 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 gospel. Neither may it be conceived as the least degree of indignity offered to the blessed memory of those ancient 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 virtues being through the corruption and wickedness 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 they generations be presumed to be a reasonable inducement for the continuation of that Government, we leave it to consideration of this wise council, 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 effectual motive for the extirpation of the same. Hereunto if we add the present experience even in these our days of their many insolences and outrages against the truth and power of godliness, suppressing and corrupting God's Ordinances, Vnhollowing his day, persecuting his Ministers; Their late mischievous attempt to impose on us and our posterity an insupportable yoke of servitude and that which deserveth the highest pitch of zeal and all the bowels of this Honourable Senate, the notorious multitude of profane and scandalous Ministers, the most active and malicious enemies unto Reformation, and the authority from which it is desired. We trust that all this together, with much more well known to this honourable Assembly, will be sufficient to justify the fears we have conceived of so dangerous a power.  
WHEREFORE being persuaded in our minds, that it will be a work acceptable unto God, of great advantage and comfort to the Churches of Christ, and no less conducing to the safety, peace and strength of all His majesty's kingdoms; we most humbly implore the Authority and zeal of this Honourable Assembly to proceed unto the full accomplishment of the same; And having laid the Axe to the root of this Tree, to do unto it as to a plant which the Heavenly Father hath not planted, that neither the spreading boughs of the same may overshadow the vineyard 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 we are persuaded, would have been the expressions of Multitudes more of true-hearted Christians and Subjects, had there not been some indirect practices used in soliciting the former Petition; Whereby many were won to subscribe thereunto, who have sithence declared themselves in the point of episcopacy, 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 piety and wisdom of this Honourable Assembly, and the sincerity of our own intentions, we cannot want the comforts of a good hope, while we have the liberty to pour out our souls unto Almighty God to continue and increase his favours and gracious aspect towards this Honourable and Religious Assembly.   

Printed for R. Lownes, and are to be sold at his shop without Ludgate. 1642.