as I am Christs Minister so I am the Kings faithfull subject crave justice at your hands according to the Kings lawes and oathes Yea his Sacred Majestie himselfe hath declared his will to this purpose in the Petition of Right saying The * And shal the greatest Prelates will or pleasure then countermand this his Maiesties will and Royall printed mantate to your Worships I proue not King willeth that Right be done according to the Lawes and customes of the Realme And that the Statutes be put in due execution that his Subiects may have no cause to complaine of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their iust Rights and Liberties to the preservation whereof he holds himselfe in conscience as well obliged as of His Prerogative And in Person thus I assure you my Maxime is that the Peoples Libertie strengthens the Kings Prerogative the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties This being so the Kings Prerogative his just lawes the Peoples liberties are so combined together that they must be altogether preserved intire so neither can you be so for God but you must be also for the true Religion for his faithfull Ministers nor secondly so for the King but you must be also for his Lawes and his peoples rights liberties sith the King and his people make one politicke body and hee cannot love the Head who seekes to hurt the members or who setts the Head against the members or who for advancing the Head destroyes the members or who maketh a Schisme and rent betweene the Head and the members And are not the Lawes of the Kingdome the ligaments which fasten and unite the Head and members the King his people together It is your charge to see that these ligaments bee not dissolved but preserved safe and sound else the whole both Head and bodie of which your selves and Posterity are members must needs suffer together O then what a waighty charge lyes upon your shoulders at this time when the whole frame both of the Republick and Religion so shaketh as it threateneth sudden ruine if the Lawes whereon they are established bee not maintained in their full strength and vigour Doe not your Wisdomes see a new generation of Innovators risen up in this Land who usurping and practising a Papall and Antichristian Power and Iurisdiction exempted from the Kings Lawes and not depending as they pretend and professe on the Kings sole Prerogative and Authority doe thereby beginne to overtoppe the Royall Throne and trample the Lawes Liberties and just rights of the Kings Subjects under their feet What meaneth that difficulty of obteineing of Prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects should be relieved against their unjust molestations oppressions in the Ecclesiasticall Court and high Cōmissions What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to plead a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate are either an menaced or imprisoned if they do it What meaneth that timidity in Ministers people who chuse rather to sit down with losse of al even of the cause of religion it selfe thē go to law against a Prelate What meaneth that lawlesse insolency and boldnesse of many Prelates who against law and conscience against the expresse Doctrines of our Church and against Gods word the ground and rule of our Faith and Religion dare of their owne heads bring in sett up in Churches and impose upon Ministers new rites and ceremonies contrary to the Act of Parliament before the Communion Booke Altars Images and Crucifixes with sundry superstitious gestures of bowing ducking standing up with other notorious innovations as even your selves cannot be altogether ignorant of and may further in one view behold in those sermons following suspending excommunicating and outing those Ministers that will not dare not conforme unto them What meaneth that Antichristian pride lawlesse power in vexing conventing the Kings good subjects for observing the Kings Lawes and executing of iustice upon or lawfully suing and indicting at the Common law transgressors of the same by their bold innovations the very hight of Antichristian tyrranny sedition and rebellion I beseech your Lordships well to examine the originall roote and cause of all these insolent irregularities and illegalities which not only tend to but hasten on inevitable ruine both to the Church and state if not spedily prevented And so vindicate yourselves herein as that you may cleare yourselves from being the prime and principall causes of all the mischiefes and maladies in the land by either fearing denying or delaying to doe iustice upon and against these insolent Innovators Have we not the best King in Christendom who hath so frequently solemnly as in the late Petition of right so in his royall * Declaration before the Articles of Religion And Declaration of yet Causes of dissolving the Last Parliament Printed by his Maiesties authority 1628. Declaration protested calling God to witnesse that neither in Doctrine or Discipline he will suffer the least innovation to creep in but will maintaine that Religion which was in Queen Elizabeths Raigne under which this Kingdom hath so long florished Notwithstanding all which shall any up start Innovators dare to set up their Popish rites and superstitious Formes of worship in our Churches contrary to the expresse Lawes of the Realme and can you the Reverend Iudges but be touched both in conscience of your duty of office Oath and in care of the peace an welfare of this Kingdome and Church and of the Kings honor and safety Can such furious and outragious alterations of Religion be in any state without drawing a long with it and after it infinit distractions and rents in the Kingdome and intolerable discontents and heart burnings in the peoples myndes both tending to stirre up sedition within and to expose the state to forraine invasion For Gods sake therefore sith his Majesty hath committed to you the sword of Iustice draw it forth to defend the lawes against such Innovators who as much as in them lyeth divide betwen the King his people Your selves know better then I can tell you that if there be oppressions in the Common weale especially against the ordinary Course of the Lawes and against the Liberties of the subject established by law how hardly it is digested and what dangerous discontents it may breed how much more perillous are such alterations of religion which would by a strong hand and that after so long and cleare light of the Ghospell bring us backe againe under an Antichristian yoake which tyranizeth over the conscience soule body goods and liberties poysoning religion with Idolatry superstition and all manner of Will-worship in human inventions and traditions condemned by Christ and his Apostles Vp therefore and play the men discharge that great trust which the King hath reposed in you which your Sa-Oaths require of you which all the good people of the Land expect of you and which Christ himselfe the great Iudge of quicke and dead will call you to a strict account for which you know not how soone hee may doe for though you be as gods yee shall dye like men and fall like one of the Princes Therefore as Christ saith Be instructed yee Iudges of the earth feare and tremble before this great God Kisse the Sonne least he be angry and yee perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little Blessed are all they that put their trust in him Which that you may be it shall be the prayer of Your Worships daily Orator at the throne of Grace Henry Burton
be admonished to beware of them in case they should ever come to be obtruded upon them as namely these Innovations in the Booke of Common Prayer First in the Collect for the Queen and royall Progeny these words are put out in the later Editions Father of thyne Elect and of theyr Seed as if they would blotte out the King Queene and the royall Progeny out of the number of Gods elect Secondly in the Epistle for the Sunday before Easter they have put out IN and made it AT the name of Iesus every knee c. Which alteration is directly against the Act of Parliament The second booke wherein I showed a notorious alteration was that ordered by Parliament to be read on the 5th of November in the First Collect or Thanksgiving for the happy deliverance of his Maiesty the Queen the Prince and the States of Parliament For in the former booke it is thus said 〈…〉 their Counsell and root out that Babylonist 〈◊〉 Antichristian Sect which say of Ierusalem Downe with it Downe with it even to the ground But in the new book printed 1635. it is thus Infatuate their Counsell and root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect OF THEM which say of Ierusalem c. Againe in the old booke it is said And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with judgement and justice to cutte of these workers of iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction c. But in the new book they have altered it thus And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with judgement and justice to cutte of THESE workers of iniquity WHO TVRNE RELIGION INTO REBELLION AND FAITH INTO FACTION The third Booke wherein they have made many alterations is the Fast-Book set forth by your Majesties Authority in the first yeare of your Raigne and which your Majesty in your late Proclamation commaunded to be reprinted and published and read in Churches at this Fast Yet notwithstanding we find these alterations in the last impression this yeare in the first Collect these words are expunged Thou hast delivered us from Superstition and Idolatry wherein wee were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleare and confortable light of thy blessed word by the which we are taught how to serve and honour thee and how to live orderly with our neighbours in truth and verity Also they have left out in three severall prayers the mention of the Lady Elizabeth your Majesties only Sister and her issue Also the prayer for the Navy and the prayer for seasonable weather And a whole Collect begining thus It had been best for us c. Also in the last page Order for the Fast are these words left out To auoyd the inconvenience that may grow by the abuse of Fasting some esteeming it a meritorious worke others a good worke and of it selfe acceptable to God without due regard of the end c. Againe they charge me that I spake against altering of Communion Tables into Altars and against bowing unto them and against setting up of Crucifixes over them and against saying a second Service at the High Altar at the end of the Chancel whence the people cannot heare especially in greater Churches and against putting downe of Sermons in the afternoones upon the Lords dayes and insteed thereof nothing allowed but Catechising by bare Question and Answere out of the Common Prayer Booke without expounding the Principles of Religion layd downe in the Creed ten Commaundements and the Lords Prayer so that the people and youth especially are left in their ignorance Also they charged me for saying that Ministers might not safely preach of the Doctrines of Grace and Salvation and against the Arminians without being troubled for it Also that Ministers in Norfolke and Suffolke were suspended from their Ministry and meanes for not conforming to new rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them contrary to the Law of the Land These things with sundry other of like nature were objected against me in the said Articles which because a Copy cannot be procured from the Registers office I cannot so punctually set downe but referre unto the Articles themselves remaining with the Register of the High Commission All which Innovations expressed being found by evident proofe to be most true contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme the established Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England your Maiesties Declarations and Proclamations and many of them of very dangerous consequence tending to iustify and extenuate notorious treasons and traitors advance and vsher in Popery Superstition and Idolatry and giving generall distaste to all your Majesties loyall and faitfull Subiects who here upon grow iealous of some dangerous plot now in agitation by these Innovators to undermine and overthrow both our Religion good Lawes yet my mentioning of them in my Sermons meerly out of loyalty and duty to your Maiesty upon that solemne day for which they were most proper to warne my flocke to take heed of such Innovations as whereby Popery and Superstition doe not only craftily creep steale in upon us but is haled in with head and shoulders is charged upon me as Sedition Here then let your Maiesty be pleased to iudge whither this be matter of Sedition as for which I should be suspended from my Ministry and meanes and openly defamed as a seditious person As if a Shepherd admonishing his sheep of the danger of the wolfe or a watchman the City of the approch of the enemy or a faithfull and vigilant Servant to his Prince and Country descrying Cunning traitors who under a colour of freindship and fidelity to the King and State doe practise the overthrow of both should therefore upon the outcry of the wolfe or the complaint of the enemy or the recrimination of the Traitors be adiuged and condemned of Sedition for discharging that duty which both God and his word and the soules of Gods people require of him Thus much of the matter of the Articles upon the very resoltancy where of I was moved to Appeale as aforesayd Againe for the further illustration of the iust cause of my Appeale I except against the in competancy of those Iudges who plainly appeare to be both parties in the cause and Adversaries to my person for the cause sake and therefore both by the Common Civil and Canon Law yea by the very Lawes of God and Nature which prohibit any man to be a iudge in his owne cause especially when the party is an enemy to him that is to be iudged by him and therefore by the Lawes of God and man I have iust cause of Appeale from them unto your Royall Maiesty Where in the first place I distinguish and put a maine difference between those Honorable Nobles Iudges Counseillors of State and other Lay persons of the High Commission whom I except not against but mention with all
AN APOLOGY OF AN APPEALE ALSO AN EPISTLE TO THE TRVE-HEARTED NOBILITY By Henry Burton Pastor of St. Matthewes Friday-Street ACT. 25. 11. No man may deliver mee unto them I appeale unto CAESAR Printed Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE MOST DEARE AND DREAD SOVERAIGNE When upon just grounds as I humbly conceive and am confident I appealed from Parties and Adversaries to your Sacred Majestie for iustice in so waighty a cause as here is presented before you I thought long ere this to have had the happines to have presented both an humble Petition and Apologie to my Appeale to your Maiestie in mine owne person But two causes especiallie hindred mee the one Gods hand of visitation in this Citty which continuing so long and great I durst not make my approch to the Court and chiefly to Your Maiesties Sacred Person least I might give offence the other and which of the twaine is much more perillous to my selfe the Pursuivants continuall watch about my dore threatning to catch me and make mee fast or run my Countrey as he saith so as I cannot passe in or out without present danger And I confesse I have small list to come into that Lions denne Quia me vestigia terrent not that I am affraid of any such terror as not if conscious to my selfe of any such crime as they lay to my charge but as the Apostle said in the like case If I bee an offender or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to dye but if there be none of those things whereof they accuse me as matter of sedition no man may deliver mee unto them I appeale unto Cesar And blessed bee God that I have such a Christian Cesar to appeale unto Neither yet have I neglected what possible or probable meanes I could use in Court being an old outcast Courtier worne out of all favour and friends there for the conveying of my said Apologie to your Maiestie but in vaine So as being now out of all hope of acquainting your Maiestie with so great a cause by that way and meanes as I desired I am at length compelled to give forth copies in hope at least that some well minded man or noble sparke may upon the sight thereof considering how neerely it concerneth the peace safety welfare and honor of your Maiestie and Kingdome bee inflamed witb so much zeale to your Maiestie as overcomming all cowardlie feares to dare to doe you so much worthie service in bringing a Copie to your Maiesties hand that so you may therein read the many and great disasters and dangers where into this your Kingdome is in a precipitancie of being ingulfed accordingly in your Princely Prudence provide a timely remedy before it be past hope And the rather conceived I this way so the more necessarie that comming haply into the hands of some of your Wise and Sage Counsellors Davids friends they might be a meanes not onely to bring it to your hands but the more to ingage your Maiestie to the perusall of it considering how many would bee readie to ease your Maiestie of such a commoditie And now my Gracious Soveraigne as I have ever bent my chiefe Studies to your Maiestie the best and faithfullest service I possibly could so I am persuaded I could not in all my life have had a fairer and fitter opportunitie to expresse my fidelitie to your Maiestie then now in a case so important as if your Maiestie shall but take sound notice of it it may prove the happiest service that ever a poore subiect could doe to his Prince and Countrey Nor am I ignorant how busie many would be to divert your Maiestie from the Consideration of such matters as this as if the great affaires of a Kingdome pertained not to the King but that hee might take his pleasure and leave the care of his Kingdome to others But my Lord the King is Wise as an Angell of God considering whose vicegerent hee is and before whose awfull Tribunall he must give a strict account how he hath mannaged so waightie a charge of so many soules committed to his trust Againe what censures may I expect of them who cannot indure to have their deeds brought to the open light They will be readie to charge me with Popularity Faction Sedition and what not and all for thus bringing their actions upon the open stage But first they will I hope excuse me when they shall reflect upon themselves and consider in cold blood how they have provoked mee by their calling mee forth upon the stage and by their strange molesting and prosecuting of me as if I were a fellon or a traitor and secondly for as much as they declare their deeds as Sodome and hide them not and with a high hand maintaine them too which is the highest pitch of all impiety can they with any reason blame me for divulging their practises which they shame not to pester your Kingdome and oppresse your good people withall who therefore have need publickly to be warned of them least they be seduced by them But not to detaine your Maiestie longer bee pleased to read over this my Apologie of Appeale to your Maiestie that your Maiestie may both discerne the depth of the whole businesse and may be pleased thereupon to rescue your old servant out of those troubles which hee suffereth for discharging a good conscience towards God and your Maiestie Now the Lord give you understanding in all things Your Majesties loyall subject and faithfull servant Henry Burton TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE The humble Appeale of me Henry Burton Clerke from the proceedings lately made in the name of some Commissioners for causes Ecclesiasticall against mee together with an humble Apology of the said Appeale THE occasion of my Appeale was upon the reading of certaine Articles unto me by the Register of the Court before Dr. Duke and by his appointment who there upon tendering to me the said Henry Burton an Oath to answere to the said Articles I replied in these words or to the like effect I humbly Appeale to the Kings Majesty my Soveraigne and Patron as my Iudge in this cause before whom I shal be both a defendant and a complainant for I hold it unfit that they who are my Adversaries should be my Iudges Now the reasons and grounds of this my Appeale are these following First the generall matter of the Articles chargeth me with seditious preaching more particularly objecting unto me my Sermons which I preached to my stock on the 5th of Nouember last upon this text of Scripture Pro. 24. 21. 22. My Son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both And in the Sermons sundry specialties and those chiefely concerning diverse Innovations which my text did naturally lead me to speake of and to reprove to the end that my Parishioners might
and accuse my selfe in a matter of Sedition which if true might call not only my reputation but also my life liberty into question whereas Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury in the Conference at Hampton Court printed by Authority there publickly averred that in matter of life liberty or scandall it is not the course of that Court to require any such Oath or to inforce any man that hath taken the Oath to answere to any such Articles And Paul himselfe when he was accused for Sedition by Ananias the High Preist Tertullus was neither required nor inforced to take any such Oath as appeares by Acts. 25. Fourthly in that they would inforce me to answere upon Oath and bring in a Copy of what I publickly preached in my Parish Church which I conceive I am not bound by the Law of God or man to doe nor ought they to require For Iohn the 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. when the High Preist asked Iesus being convented before him of his Disciples and of his Doctrine Iesus answered him saying I spake openly to the world I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iewes allwayes resort and in secret have I said nothing Why askest thou me Aske them which heard me what I have said unto them Behold they know what I said And when he had thus spoken one of the officers which stood by strooke Iesus with the palme of his hand saying Answerest thou the High Preist so Iesus answered him If I have spoken evil beare witnesse of the evil but if well why smitest thou me A plaine testemony from our Saviours owne Doctrine and Example which no man can condemne as unjust or illegall that no Minister ought to be put so much as to give an answere much lesse a Copy of what he publickly preached in the Church and that upon Oath to prejudice or accuse himselfe thereby but what ever he delivered ought to be proved by witnesses that heard him and the High Preist being satisfied with this answere of our Saviour I hope no High Commissioner but ought to have rested satisfied with the like from me though as yet they still proceed to presse â—e to an Oath Fiftly in calling a Private Commission out of Terme â—n or neere Dr. Duckes private Chamber at Doctors â—ommons and no publick Court and there proceeding to suspend me in my absence under pretence of a contempt in not appearing before them when as first I had â—o lawfull Citation under Seale then and there to appeare Secondly no sufficient legall notice of the time and place of the said Commissioners meeting and so was not bound by Law to appeare before them especially in a Corner out of Terme in an unusuall manner Sixtly in suspending me notwithstanding my Appeale to your Sacred Majesty entred formerly at Dr. Duckes house at Cheswick by their owne Register before the said suspension of which my Appeale being registred in the Court they ought all to have taken notice Seventhly in suspending me against all Law and Iustice both from my Office and Benefice in my absence as if formerly lawfully convented before them and publishing the said suspension in an unusuall manner in my Parish Church and commaunding all Parsons Vicars Curats Clerkes and Ministers within the City of London to whom rhe said suspension is directed upon the Sunday next and immediately following the receipt thereof openly to publish and declare me to be suspended both from my Office and Benefice in their severall Parish Churches when the Congregation shal be then and there assembled to my intollerable disgrace and scandall Eightly in taxing and condemning me of Sedition and other misdemeaners in their said suspension before either heareing my Answere or the Cause Ninthly in denying me a Copy of the Articles exhibited against me to perfect this my Appeale to your Majesty by and to annex them thereunto and refusing to give me a Copy of the Acts of the Court and proceedings against me though I have often sent for them These my most Gratious Soveraigne are the grounds reasons of my Appeale from the said Commissioners excepted against to your Majesty my Soveraigne Lord and Patron which together with my person and cause I here humbly prostrate at your Majesties royall feet imploring the justice of your royall Throne which is established by righteousnesse and that in so important a Cause of God and of the King which I am certaine you will never deny to your meanest Subject much lesse to your auncient Servant and dayly Orator to the Throne of Grace Henry Burton TO ALL THE TRVE-HEARTED NOBILITY OF HIS MAIESTIES Most Honorable Privy Councell MY HONORABLE LORDS Expect not here from mee the Court language or dialect it will not suit my person much lesse the cause which here I present to your Honors being such a cause as I know not how the Court spirit will relish it much lesse digest it Let me therefore be bould in the first place to awaken those Nobler spirits if haply either layd and luld asleepe by the inchantments of these present times or otherwise smothered under the heape of Court imployments and the like yea spirits heavenly inspired which respiring a while and retiring into the closet of your inmost Muse may summon all your cares and powers to the sad and solid eonsideration of a cause so important as all circumstances and consequences well weighed I dare say the like hath not come upon the stage for these many yeares being a cause so much concerning the honor of God the peace welfare and honour of the King the State of Religion and of the Commonweale by good Lawes established the liberty of our consciences and the honour of your Lordshipps being Peeres of the Realme Counsellors of State and so pillars of the Kings Throane of Religion and of the Republique all which doe now exceedingly suffer and are terribly shaken yea ready to fall to ground if not prevented by some speedy and effectuall remedy And whence should remedy be expected but next unto God from his Sacred Majestie and from his prudent and faithfull Counsellors of State the great chariots and horsemen of Israel To the end therefore that his Majestie may take notice of so weighty a cause in hand and lay it to heart and strengthen his hands with Iustice to vindicate his honor therein I have humbly addressed my selfe to his Majestie both by petition and Appeale and next to your Honors by way both of information and of sollicitation to give your eyes no sleepe till you have effectually moved his Majesty to a serious consideration of such a cause that so neerely concerneth the weale or woe of this Kingdome Not that I take upon mee to judge of such high matters but that his Majesty would bee pleased to weigh the cause in the just scales of his mature wisedome and unpartiall judgement all respect of persons layd aside and also consult his sage Senators therein that some thing may bee forthwith