¶ TO THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT, The humble Petition of all Colleges and Halls, and others well-willers to Piety and Learning, throughout the Kingdom of England,  
SHOWETH  
THAT whereas many Persons disaffected to the present form of Government of the Church of England (established not noly by the Ecclesiastical, but also by the Common Law of this Realm, and divers Acts of Parliament,) have of late in great multitudes Petitioned this Honourable Court against the Orders, honour, jurisdiction, and means of the Clergy; And have published such their desires in Print, and Pulpit, and daily seek to advance and propagate the same: To the great disheartening of all Learning, (if such disignes find favour,) the grievous scandal of the Reformed Religion as unstable, and the unspeakable advantage of our Enemies of Rome.  
WE therefore (well weighing, that the Seminaries must decay when the Garden shall be wasted,) in all humility most hearty pray this Honourable Court, that all the Orders of holy Church, of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which from the Apostles times till these, have withstood so many Practices, may have yet hopes to flourish under Your gracious protection. And that by Your assistance under our most Religious Sovereign the ancient Catholic Faith, and Discipline, may be defended from all Jnnovations, and novelties: The means and liberties of the Churches, as well Cathedral, and Collegiate, as Parochial to them hitherto of right belonging, according to the pious Wills of their blessed Founders, may be continued and preserved: Many thousand Families which on them depend secured from ruin: And that our Nation whose Laws already favours as much as any in the world, the right of the First borne, may ratain Ecclesiastical promotions, as the Patrimony of younger Children, the prize of Labour and Study, an incitement of Learning, and a reward of those that can entitle themselves thereto by honest desert.  
And Your Petitioners etc.