Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B11858
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An apology of an appeale Also an epistle to the true-hearted nobility. By Henry Burton, pastor of St. Mathewes Friday-Street.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 4135; ESTC S106955
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19,673
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40
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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