TO THE RIGHT honourable ASSEMBLY OF KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, and Burgesses of the House of Commons. The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the city and liberty of Westminster.  
Showeth,  
THAT your Petitioners being sensible of the miserable effects of war, and the ruin and Desolation that will unavoidably overwhelm this miserable kingdom, now distracted and much divided, and engaged in an unnatural intestine and bloody war, and in their own particulars having already tasted of some part of those Miseries, by the death of some of their nearest and dearest Friends, and great Losses in their Callings: And also taking into consideration the lamentable and miserable effects that the late unhappy civil wars have produced in Germany, and by the present Rebellion in Ireland; And that if this war and dissension still continue in England, the same will not only greatly prejudice, but also hazard the Religion, Estates, Lives, and Liberties of their poor distressed Brethren in that kingdom, they cannot but seek Peace (the only Cure of their Miseries) both by their Prayers to God, and in their humble Petitions to this honourable Assembly, desiring your concurrence with the House of peers, to whom they are bold to make their humble Addresses.  
Wherefore the Petitioners most humbly and heartily beseech you to take into your most honourable consideration the miserable estate of this kingdom, in which your Petitioners Calamities are involved, and thereby (if it be possible) to prevent the further Miseries thereof, and the effusion of more Christian blood, by a speedy, seasonable, and happy Accommodation between his gracious majesty and both Houses of Parliament; wherein they doubt not but you will, to the glory of God, settle the true Protestant Religion in the purity thereof, as in the best times since the Reformation, against all Papists, Sectaries, and schismatics, that shall dare to oppose it, to restrain all profaneness of the Lord's Day, and establish the orderly Worship of God in his House, and to provide for the preservation of the Person and honour of his sacred majesty, the upholding the just Rights and privileges of Parliament, and the present and seasonable settling of the Peace of the kingdom, whereby they may enjoy the benefit of the laws (the great Protector) of their Lives, Liberties, and Properties.  
And they shall pray, that the God of Peace will bless you in this work of Peace.  
The like Petition is to be delivered to the Right honourable the Lords now Assembled in the House of peers in Parliament.   

Decemb. 15. Printed for Thomas Purslow. 1642.