Tract 2.

Note: There are no page numbers in the original. Page headings are present, and in this text have been numbered, the original page breaks being marked by a dot.

The ‘y’ in the abbreviations y^e and y^t is the letter ‘thorn’ (þ), pronounced ‘th’ - thus: ‘the’ and ‘that.’ The few examples of ‘ye’ (ie. ‘you’) are not spelt with the ‘thorn’ but with the letter ‘y’ in the original.

Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges / for it is worthy worke:

§ Or an epitome of the

fyrste Booke / of that right Worshipfull vo-
lume / written against the Puritanes / in the defence of
the noble cleargie / by as worshipfull a prieste / Iohn Bridges /
Presbyter / Priest or elder / doctor of Diuillitie / and Deane of
Sarum. Wherein the arguments of the puritans are
wisely prevented / that when they come to an-
swere M. Doctor / they must needes
say some thing that hath
bene spoken

Compiled for the behoofe and overthrow of
the vnpreaching Parsons / Fyckers / and Currats /
that haue lernt their Catechismes / and are past grace:
By the reverend and worthie Martin Marprelat
gentleman / and dedicated by a second Epistle
to the Terrible Priests.

In this Epitome / the foresaide Fickers / &c. are very in-
sufficiently furnished / with notable inabilitie of most vin-
cible reasons / to answere the cauill
of the puritanes.

WHy my cleargie masters / is it euen so with your terriblenes? May not a pore gentleman signifie his good will vnto you by a Letter / but presently you must put your selues to the paines and charges / of calling foure Bishops together. Iohn Canterburie / Iohn London / Thomas Winchester / William of Lincolne: and posting ouer citie & countrie for poore Martin? Why / his meaning in writing vnto you / was not that you should take the paines to seeke for him. Did you thinke that he did not know where he was himselfe? Or did you thinke him to haue bene cleane lost / that you sought so diligently for him? I thanke you brethren / I can be well though you do not send to knowe how I do. My mind towards you / you shal from time to time vnderstand by my pistles. As now / where you must know / that I thinke not wel of your dealing with my worship / and those that hane had of my bookes in their custodie. Ile make you rue that dealing of yours / vnlesse you leaue it. I may do it / for you haue broken the conditions of peace betweene vs. I can do it / for you see how I am fauored of all estates (the puritans onely excepted.) I haue bene entertayned at the Court: Euerye man talkes of my worship. Manye would gladly receiue my bookes / if they coulde tell where to finde them. I hope these Courtiers will one day see the cause tryed betweene mee and you. I haue manie sonnes abroad / that will sollicit my suite. My desire is / to haue the matter tryed / whether your places ought to be tollerated in any Christian commonwealth. I saye they ought not: And I say / Iohn Canterburie and all / ought to be out of his place. Euery Archbishop is a petty Pope / so is euery Lord bishop. You are all the pack of you / eyther hirelings or wolues. If you dare aunswere my reasons / let me see it done. Otherwise / I trow / my friends and sonnes will see you one day deposed.

    The Puritans are angrie with me / I meane the puritane preachers. And why? Because I am to open. Because I iest / I iested / because I dele against a worshipful iester. D.Bridges / whose writings and sermons tend to no other ende / then to make men laugh. I did thinke that Martin shoulde not haue beene blamed of the puritans / for telling the trueth openly. For may I not say / that Iohn of Canterbury is a pettie pope / seing he is so? You must then beare with my ingramnesse. I am plaine / I must needs call a Spade a Spade / a Pope a Pope. I speake not against him / as he is a Conncellor / but as he is an Archbishop / and so Pope of Lambeth. What will the Puritans seeke to keepe out the Pope of Rome / and maintaine the Pope at Lambeth? Because you will do this / I will tell the Bishops how they shall deale with you. Let them say that the hottest of you / hath made Martin / and that the rest of you were consenting there vnto: and so go to one magistrates and say / lo / such and such / of our puritans / haue vnder the name of Martin written against your lawes: and so call you in / and put you to your othes whether you made Martin or no. By this meanes M.Wigginton / or such as will refuse to take an othe against the lawe of the land / will presently be founde to haue made Martin by the bishops / because he cannot be gotten to sweare that he made him not: And here is a deuice to fynde a hole in the coat of some of you puritanes. In like sort / to fynde the Printer / put euery man to his othe / and fynd meanes that Schilders of Middleborough • shalbe sworne to / so that if any refuse to sweare / then he may be thought to be the printer. But bishops / let your fatherhoods tel me one thing? May you put men to their othe against law? Is there any law to force men to accuse themselues? No. Therefore looke what this dealing wil procure at the length: Euen a plain premunire vpon your backs / for vrging an oth contrary to statute: which is a piece of the forraine power bannished by statute.

    For the rest that will needs haue my bookes / and cannot keepe them close: I care not how the bishops deale with such open fellowes. And bishops / I woulde I could make this year 1388. to be the woonderful year / by remoouing you all out of England. Martin hath tolde the trueth / you cannot denie it / that some of you do iniudiously detayne true mens goods / as Iohn of London: And some haue accounted the preaching of the word to be heresie / as Iohn of Canterburie / &c. All of you are in an vnlawfull calling / & no better then a broode of pettie Popes. It will be but follie for you to persecute the Courtier Martin / vntill you haue cleared your selues (which you can neuer do) of the crimes he hath layd to your charge. Alas poore bishops / you would faine be hidden in a net I perceiue. I will grow to a point with you. Haue but a free disputation with the puritans / for the vnlawfulnes of your place / and if you be not ouerthrowen: I wil come in / and do vnto you what you thinke good: for then I will say that you are no Popes. There was the Demonstration of Discipline / published together with mine Epistles which is a booke / wherein you are challenged by the puritans / to aduenture your Bishoppricks against their liues in disputation. You haue gotten a good excuse to be deaff at that challenge / vnder couler of seeking for Martin: Your dealing therein is / but to holde my dishe / while I spill my pottage: you defend your legges against Martins strokes / while the puritans by their Demonstration / crushe the very braine of your Bishopdomes. Answere that booke / and giue the puritans the ouerthrow by disputation / or els I see that Martin hath vndone you. Be packing bishops / and keepe in the Purcivants / or if you will needs send them abroad to molest good men / then pay them their wages / and let them not pull it out of poore mens throates like greedie doggs as they do. You striue in vaine / you are layd open alreadie. Fryars and Monkes were not so bad: they liued in the darke / you shut your eyes / lest you should see the light. Archbishop Titus and Timothie / will neuer maintaine your popishe callings. I haue pulled off your vizarde / looke to your selues / for my sonnes will not see their father thus persecuted at your hands. I will worke your woe and ouerthrow / I hope: And you are alreadie cleane spoyled / vnlesse you will grant the puritans a free disputation / and leaue your persecuting.

 

Eyther from countrie or Court /
M.Martin Marprelate / will do you hurt.
Ainie doggrell /
Is good inough for bishops I can tell /
And I doe much maruell /
If I haue not giuen them such a spell /
As answere it how they cannot tell.
Doctor Bridges vp and downe /
Writeth after this fashowne.

1. A very portable booke, a horse may cary it if he be not too weake.

The Epitome of the first booke / of this
worthye volume / written by my brother Sa-
rum / Deane Iohn, Sic fœliciter incipit.

 

THe whole volume of M.Deanes / containeth in it / 16 bookes / besides a large preface / and an Epistle to the Reader. The Epistle & the preface / are not aboue 8. sheets of paper / and very little vnder 7. You may see when men haue a gift in writing / howe easie it is for them to daube paper. The compleat worke (very briefely comprehended in a portable booke / if your horse be not too weake / of an hundred threescore and twelue sheets / of good Demie paper) is a confutation of The learned discourse of Ecclesiasticall gouernement. This learned discourse / is a booke allowed by all the Puritane preachers in the lande / who would haue all the remnants and reliques of Antichriste bannished out of the Church / and not so much as a Lorde B. (no not his grace himselfe) dumbe minister (no not dumbe Iohn of London his selfe) nonresident / archdeacon / abbie lubber / or anye such loyterer / tollerated in our ministerie. Insomuch / as if this strong holde of theirs be ouerthrowne / hoe then all the fat is run to the fire with the puritanes. And therefore hath not the learned & prudent M.Deane delt very valiantly (how wisely let Iohn Cant. cast his cardes and consider) in assaulting this sort of our precise brethren / which he hath so shaké with good vincible reasons / very notably out of reason / that it hath not one steane in the foundation meare then it had.

    Trust me truely / he hath giuen the cause sicken a wipe in his bricke / and so lambskinned the same / that the cause will be the warmer a good while for it. The reasons that moued him to take this paines was / that at the first comming out

2. Challenged for his sermon.- A smoothe stile

of the Learned Discourse / the D. in a Sermon • of his at Paules crosse / did not onely confute a great part of this booke / but by his said learned sermon / made many of the puritans relent and distrust their owne cause: what cannot a smooth tongue / and a schollerlike wit bring to passe?¹ Some other of the puritans / in deede / being more vntoward to learne then the rest / stood stiffe in their former opinions / concerning the gouernment of bishopps / (notwithstanding this sermon of M.doctors) & challenged him for his sermon / offered him y^e disputation (yea & the non plus too / or els I am deceiued) here M.dean promised them a large confutation of the Learned discourse / which in this booke he hath now performed: wherein he hath behaued himselfe verye scholerlike. Vis stile is as smooth as a crabtree cudgell. The Reader cannot chuse but haue as great delight therein / as a Iacke an Apes hath in a whip: he hath so thumped the cause with crosse blowes / that the puritans are like to haue a good and a sound cause of it as long as they liue. In this one thing I dare preferre him before any that euer wrote: to wit / that there be not 3. whole periods for euery page in the book / that is not graced with a verie faire and visible solacism. O most excellent and surpassing eloquence. He speaketh every thing so fitly to the purpose / that he neuer toucheth the matter in question. A rare gift: in a learned writer. He hath vsed such varietie of lerning / that very often he hath translated out of one mans writing / 6. or 7. pages together / note here a newe founde manner of bookemaking. And which is more strange / he bringeth those testimonies for his purpose / whose very words translated & set down by him / are as flat against the purpose whereto he bringeth them / as fire in quallity is contrary to water. Had not he a right vse of his wits think you / while they were thus bestowed? Not to stand long in this place of those quallities in him / whereof before I haue made some mention to his praise in the former Epistle. Whatsoeuer might be

3. How M.D. playd my L. of Winchesters foole in his sermon.

for • the ornament and furthering of an honest cause / he hath in this booke so defied them all / that elsewhere you are to seeke for them / for here they are not to be found. Wherin he hath very wisely and prudently obserued the decorum of the cause in hand. Like lips / like Lettice / as it is in the prouerbe. The goodnes & honestie of the matter he handled / required such good & honest proffs as he brought. Let those that handle honest and godly causes / labor to bring good prooffs and a cleare stile. Presbyter Iohn defended our Church gouernement which is full of corruptions / & therefore the stile and the prooffs must be of the same nature that the cause is. The priest leaues not so much as the title of the Discourse vnexamined. The title forsooth is A learned discourse, &c. A sawcie title / but what sayth the lerned Bridges vnto it. O you know he is good at a stale iest / euer since he plaide my Lord of Winchesters foole in his sermon at Sir Maries Church in Cambridg / & therfore he iesteth at the title. I vs / the puritans haue nothing to doe with that sermon: why should they hit their brother in the teeth therewith? he hath made their betters to laugh at him for his Sermon since that time. And whye should he not? for his grace will allow him / because he is content that bishops should be Lords: he hath subscribed / weareth a corner cap and a tippet / & woulde gladly come to the honor / to weare that which might make him a lord spirituall / and if it were a shauen crowne / or a coxcombe / which his grace his articles would enioyn him to weare / what hurt could that do vnto him?

    Now I wonder what our brethren will say to this / that their booke is scoffed at / at the first dashe. I am sure their noses can abide no iest. What say they man / do you make anye question of that? I warraunt you they will affirme that the author of the Learned Discourse / and 500. green heads more that are on their side / within 2. Syllogismes / would set the

4. Blacke Oxe hath troden on his graces foot. - State of the question

deane of Sarum at a flat non plus, and • answere his whole worke in a threepenie booke. Are they so good at disputing and writing in deed? I hope his Canterburinesse will looke to this geare / and suffer them to haue liberty neither to write / nor to dispute / the black Oxe hath troden on his foote / he hath had some trial by woful experience / what small credite / and lesse gaine there is to be had / either in writing or disputing with these fellows.

    To the matter. The state of the whole controuersie betweene my brethren bishops / and my brethren the puritans / and so betweene this worthie doctor / and these discoursers / is: whether the externall gouernement of the Church of Christ / be a thing so prescribed by the Lorde in the new testament / as it is not lawfull for any man to alter the same / any more then it was lawfull to alter y^e form of regiment prescribed vnder the law in the old testamét. And see whether if there be any gouernment in y^e Church (as necessarily there must be / or els all confusion will ensue) the same must be by those offices and officers alone / and by no other / which the Lord hath set downe and limited in his word. Or els whether man may alter these offices and officers at his will and pleasure / and make newe offices and officers / as he may in the ciuill gouernments. The puritans saye / that these offices and officers / whiche our sauior Christe and his Apostles did ordaine / are vnchangeable / and that it is not lawfull for any prince to alter them / no not though the circumstances of times / places and persons / should seeme in regarde of conuenience / to enforce him thereunto. The Doctor with all the Lordly priests in the land / hold the contrarie. And sweare it to be lawfull for the magistrate to ordaine what gouernement he will in the Church: yea / that the Church gouernors / contrary to the flat commandement of our sauior Christ / Luke 22.25.26. may be Lordes. And that the Church gouernment prescribed by our Sauiour Christe / and enioyned by the Apostle / was not

5. Ministers of the old Testament. - Ministers of the new Testament.

immutable / as the regiment • vnder the lawe was. In so much as in the opinion of M.Bridges and the rest of the cleargie / Paul was deceiued Ephesians the 4.13. in saying that pastors and doctors were to cõtinue in the Church vntil we al meet together: that is vnto the ende of the worlde. Here then is the puritans I / for the permanencie of this gouernment / and M. doctors no. Our brethren (for so of his meere curtesie it pleaseth M.deane to call them / whome men commonly call puritans and precisians) to make their partie good / propound the cause by a like example after this sort.

    The sacrifices of y^e olde lawe (after the building of the temple / were to be offered ²* onely at Ierusalem / by a Leuite / of the line of Aharon ³* onely: vnlesse a prophet extraordinarily ordained it otherwise as ⁴* Eliah did. And the said sacrifices were to be consumed and burned / onely ⁵* by a fire proceeding from the Lord. Briefly / none were to meddle with the tabernacle / or any thing belonging to the seruice of God / but the sonnes ⁶* of Leui / whome the Lord appointed for his owne seruice. So that if anye sacrifice were offered out of Ierusalem / by any other then a sonne of Aaron / consumed by any ⁷* strange fire / or any seruice about the Tabernacle ⁸* performed by a stranger / not appointed by y^e Lord: then an horrible breach of gods ordinance was committed / and punished very memorable by the Lord in ⁹* Uzza /¹⁰* Corah Dathan Abiram / & the two hundreth and fiftie captaines of the Congregation / who not being of the sonnes of Aaron / would needs offer incense before the Lord.

    In like sort / Christe / Iesus ordained / that when there should be any ministers in his Church they should be able to gather together ¹¹* the saints / and that these in their proper and limited places / should be either pastors or doctors. In like sort / he ordained that som should ¹²* beare rule and ouersee the flocke with the minister / and they should be Elders /

6. What offices and officers the Church is to be gouerned by.

that the ouersight of the Church treasurie / & • the care for the maintenance of the poore should be committed ¹³* vnto Deacons / vnder which also the widowes & Church seruants are contained. He farther ordained / that before these officers shoulde be instituted / and as it were inuested into their offices / there should be had due examination of their ¹⁴* fitnes to execute the same / and their vnreprooueable ¹⁵* life. And that their ordination shoulde be ¹⁶* by imposition of hands / with fasting and prayer. And by these 4. officers (say our brethren) Pastors / Doctors / Elders and Deacons / God hath appointed that all matters of the Church / should be decided & determined. For these officers onely (and none else) must haue to do with the preaching of the word / administring the sacraments / making of ministers / excom-municating / and administring of all other Churche censures and punishmentes. But as for ciuill gouernment / punishment and censures / they must not meddle with them. Because these thinges onely belongeth to the ciuill magistrate / whose office is not to be vsurped by any of the former. Thus our brethré set downe the whol state of the controuersie / and thus by Scripture they confirme their I / and ouerthrow M.doctors no. Parlous fellowes I assure you. For beleeue me / it would put a man to his trumps / to answer these things soundly by scripture againe. Well / M.Deane on the other side / verye stoutly prooueth his no / page 54.¹⁷ of his by a conuex axiome to beginne withall / in this maner.

    If this Church gouernement, by pastors, doctors, elders and deacons, be necessarie, then the Church in some age & place, eyther had this gouernment, or hath labored for it.¹⁸ A most true and tried trueth / what then brother Sarum / do you assume from this true gouerment? Nay soft there ka masse deane / I trow the puritans will not driue me to make syllogismes in this booke. That is no part of mine intent / for if I had thought they would driue me to suche pinches /

7. M.D. prudencie, in omitting that which he cannot prooue

I would not haue medled with them. Naye by • their leaue / if the assumption or proposition bee eyther more then I can prooue / or be against my selfe / I will omit them. Pardon me I praye ye my masters / I will set downe nothing against my self / I haue brought in a true proposition / and that is inough for one man / I thinke. Let me see what you can saye to that.¹⁹ Mine assumption shalbe brought forth at leysure. Is the winde at that dore with you brother deane. I perceiue you will be of the surer side / howsoeuer it goeth. But brethren / what then say you to M.deanes reason? Your answere I know / may be of 3. sorts. First you may say that the reason is popish. Secondly / you may demand / whether it be midsommer Moone with him or no / because he bringeth in / a couer proposition / and assumeth nothing. Can you blame him in so doing: For the assumption must haue bene eyther affirmatiue / or negatiue. Now if he had assumed affirmatiuely / he had ouerthrowne himselfe: If negatiuely / then you brethren / would haue denied the assumption / which M.Deane woulde neuer haue bene able to prooue. So a man might put himselfe to a pecke of troubles in deede. And this is a point for your learning / closely to passe by that / wherewith a man shall haue no honestie to deale. Thirdly / you may grant the proposition to be verie true (to what end then did Sarum bring it in) because Geneva / and other the Heluetian Churches haue this gouerment / and you labor for it. Seelie fellowes / can you saye no more / then vppon them againe M.deane / with your second reason thus concluded / page 55. with 4. good substantiall tearmes. No gouerment is an vniforme prescript that cannot be altered, but that which God in his worde prescribeth to be such. But the Lorde hath not prescribed the Church gouernment to be such, as all things appertaining thereunto, is an vniforme prescript that cannot bee altered. Therefore the Church gouernment is not an vniforme prescript which cannot be altered.²⁰

8. What offices and officers the Church is to be gouerned by.

•    Thou knowest not how I loue thee for thy wit & learning sake / brother Iohn (as for thy godlines / I might cary it in mine eye / and see neuer a whit the worse) notwithstanding me thinkes your syllogisme should haue foure tearmes.   1 The Church gouernement.   2 All thinges belonging to a Church gouernment.   3 An vniforme prescript / &c.   4 A gouernement prescribed in the word.

    And ten to one brother / you neuer drempt to haue met with your brother Martin / when you wrot this volume. Well seeing we are now come together / let me about this point of Church gouerment / fathermillerly spur a question vnto you. Tell me then bethout dissimvlation / what the bishops and you meane / when the question is concerning Church gouernment / to run by and by into the controuersie of things appertaining to Church gouerment: which for the most part are indifferent / and not set down in the worde / but left to the discretion of the Church. As though there were no difference between the questions.²¹ By what and how many offices and officers / the Church is to be gouerned? In what causes is it lawful for Church gouernours to imploy themselues: whether it be lawful for one of them to meddle with the office of another? Or for one to do that action wherin the whol Church should be an agent? Whether they may be magistrates & church gouernours both at one time? As though (I saye) there were no difference betweene these questions which are grounded vppon the certaine prescript rule of the worde that cannot be chaunged / and other questions: which although they belong to the seruice of God / and the outward gouernment of the Church: yet depend not vppon any thing prescribed and exactly set downe in the worde / but vpon the grounds: of what in regard of the changeable circumstances of time and place / may be most comely / most decent / most orderly / and best belonging to edification. Of this latter sort

9. Deane o Lincolne (somtimes vnlearned Iohn Whitgift) his question

are these points: whether it be • most conuenient / that prayer should beginne at 8. or 9. of the clock whether the sermon should continue an houre or an houre and an halfe: whether the pulpit should be of wood or of stone / &c. Concerning which / the worde hath expresly set downe nothing / but commanded that al of then shoulde bee squared according vnto the rule / let all things be done honestly by order / and to edification.²²

    Now reason with one of our corrupt bishopps / or any other that defende their corruptions / and saye that our Church gouernement is wicked and vnlawfull / because it is not expressely set downe in the word. They will by & by demand / whether any thing belonging to the seruice of God be lawfull / but that wherof there is expresse métion made in the worde. And whether any thing belonging to Churche causes be changeable. As whether it may be lawfull for the minister to preach in his gowne / whereas there is no expresse mention that our Sauiour Christe and his Apostles did so? Or whether it may not be lawfull for the Church of Geneua to begin his sermon at 8. of the clock / whereas it may be the Church of Heluetia beginneth at 9. or at 10. So the worshipfull Deane of Lincolne (sometimes vnlearned Iohn Whitgift) not being able to denie / but that the ministers ought to be chosen by voyce: demandeth whether women forsooth were not to haue a voyce in their election or no? And thus all the packe of them run from the matter in controuersie / vnto the question of things indifferent. By this means / thinking they may bleare the eyes of men / if they cann bring any cauill / though neuer so impertinent to y^e matter. As who say / all men were so ignorant / vnlearned / & blinded with the worlde / as nonresidentes and Bb. are. Ile besire them to leaue this order / or els they are like to heare of it. And ile besire you presbyter Bridges / not to bring foure tearmes in your syllogisme again / for an you doe / it shall cost me the setting on. My brethren the

10. Iohn Elmar, the B. of London his booke.

• puritans in this place / it may be / wold grant your syllogism to haue but 3. tearmes in it / and so would saye / that the words (all things) in the assumption may be taken ambiguous / for if therby your worship mean all things appertayning to the circumstances of the outward seruice of God / as the houres of prayers / the nomber of communicantes in one congregation / &c. as you set downe your meaning to be / page 56. sect.3. Then they say your assumption is nothing to the matter in question. The question my masters? why what a question is that? Did not I warne you aforehand / that M.deane had made a vow / not to meddle with the question. But if say they / you meane the Churche officers and their subiects / concerning which the controuersie is instituted / then we denie the assumption.

    And I warrant you brethren / he proueth the assumption by 2. reasons / page 55.²³ First Christ is the owner and gouernour of his house which is the Churche, concerning the inward and spirituall gouernment of the heart. Therefore he hath not prescribed the outwarde gouernement thereof. Surely brother Iohn / I marueile vpon what topike place this reason is grounded / for scripture is not the foundation (you know) of the established gouernmét you defend. As though (will M.Bridges saye) you are ignorant brother Martin whence I drew this argumét. You would make the worlde beleeue / that you know not that I resoned as my brother London did / in his Harborough of faythfull subiects.²⁴ I tell you / I drew mine argument from that place whence he drewe his / which you shall finde set downe / page 42. of his booke (for I am sure M.Marprelat / your booke hath the pages set downe in it / although the printed boooke hath them not) O I remember well in deed brother Sarum / y^e place you mean / and I remember that Iohn Elmars

11. Paul hath gone beyond his commission, saith Iohn of London.

reason is very like yours. For (sayth Elmar) The scripture medleth with no • ciuill pollicie, anye farther then to teach obedience, therefore it teacheth not what persons should beare rule. And again / page 44. The ministers office is ouer the soule, therfore a minister must not reprehende disorders in the ciuill state. page 47. Paules commission is to teache obedience, therefore hee hath nothing to doe to call for a redresse of matters in ciuil pollicie: yea in this 47. page / line 19. Iohn of London hath these wordes / which to his commendation I will set downe as followeth.

    And this being a great matter of pollicie (sayth he) as it is the greatest (for it containeth the whole) it cannot be within the compasse of Paules commission, and so it followeth, that Paul in this place ment no such matter as they gather, or if hee did, he did it without the compasse of his commission, &c.

    Nowe truely brother Bridges / I thanke you heartily for putting me in minde of this point / I hope my brother London cannot be offéded with vs / for / quoting him for our authoritie. I see now it is no maruaile though Paul be put to silence within the diocesse of London / for I perceiue there is an olde grudg betweene my Lord and him: yet I commende your fatherhood / better then his Lordship in this point. For in the 57. page of your booke / you allowe Paule a larger commission / where you say / that the worde of God is able to make the ciuill gouernement perfect: yea, and that the perfection of the ciuill gouernement, must be out of the word, and in the word inclusiuely. But for all this / you must giue me leaue to doubt how this reson of yours followeth. Christ hath prescribed the inward gouernment / therfore he hath not prescribed the outwarde. It may be your seconde reason will make the matter more cleare vnto me / which is the same page²⁵ / & thus framed. We are his Church if we holde fast the confidence of our hope vnto the end. Therefore

12. Bellarmines opinion, and the M.D. all one in this point.

there is no externall gouernment of the Church set downe in the word. • This reason / to omit what ground it hath in the worde / is very plausible euen in nature: is it not thinke you? All man is a man though he go naked. Therefore by master deanes reason / the Lorde hath ordained no couering for his nakednes. Again / a man is a man if he be ouce born / though he neuer eate meat: therefore it is not the ordinance of God he should eat meat. Let our cauilling brethren / go see nowe what may be brought to reproche the credit of such inforcible proofes. M.Doc. doubtlesse will stand to his tackle whatsoeuer they bring. If they should be so ignoraunt as to denie the consequent of both these reasons / they must stay vntill M.Deane hath read ouer his predic-ables / & predicaments with fryar Titlemanes rules / De inveniendis medijs. vz vntil he hath gotten a bishoppricke / before he prooue eyther of them. And it may be then to / that he will prooue what they denie / as master Canterburie hath prooued / that which master Cartwright confuted.

    In the meane time / marke how stoutly M.deane goeth forward. And although page 56.²⁶ he meet by the way with his nowne sweet friend Bellarmines / a popish writers distinction / of agreeable / and not contrarye to the word (the papistes affirming all their traditions to be agreeable / and none of them contrary to the word) yet his answere / page 57.²⁷ to the place of Paule / 2.Tim.3.7. is as good and as canonicall / as anye of the former reasons / concluded thus. The place of scripture which doth not denie, but that ciuill gouernement, which must be inclusiuely according to the worde, may be elsewhere prescribed then in the worde, that place also doth not forbid the Church gouernment to be fetched from some other fountaine, then the prescription of the worde.²⁸ But this place 2.Tim.3.7. doth not denie, but that ciuill gouernment being a gouernement nor prescribed in the worde, may bee learned elsewhere, then out

13. William Woodcocks diuinitie. - Peter and Paule confuted.

of the word, and yet be • according to the worde. Also it doeth not denie but that the church gouernment may be a church gouernment according to the word, which is not therein prescribed.

    It is a hard matter I tell you / to conceiue all the wisdomnes of this syllogisme. For if you marke the proposition very well / you shall therein finde the errors (as M.doctor accounteth them) of Peter and Paule / verye notablie ouerthrown. The one of them calleth ²⁹* the ciuill gouernement / an humane ordinaunce: the other ³⁰* affirmeth our sauiour Christe to haue ordayned euery minister and Church officer / that were at anye time to be in the Church / and to haue tyed the ministerye vnto two ordinarie functions / of pastors and doctors. But his worship lighting vpon william Woodcockes diuinitie / putteth in the propositions / both / that the Church gouernment is an ordinance of man / inuented and ordayned by man / and also that there may be as many sortes of ministers in the Church (if the magistrate will haue it so) as there be degrees of ciuill officers in a commonwealth. For the Church gouernement is no more prescribed in the word (sayth the deane) then the ciuill gouernment is.

    You may see then / how headie and peruerse these our brethren are / that had rather sticke vnto a poore fisherman and Tentmaker / Peter and Paule / in a matter of trueth / then imbrace the manifest falsehood of so plaine an vntrueth / with a fat deane / and all the braue spiritual Lordes in the lande. Well fare our cleargie men yet / (who being like the priest whereof Iohn of London maketh mention of / in is foresaid booke / page 32. line 3. that sware by his priesthood / that if the Trinitie were not in his portesse / he would not beleeue it) will allow of nothing / but that which is in the B. of Canterburies Articles / be it neuer so often read in Paules writings.³¹

14. His grace is able now to make the puritans to stoope, I warrant you.

    And I trow M.doctors reasons following / wil make • the puritans stoope vnto his grace / and leaue their peeuishnes / and running beyonde their commisssion / after the example of Paule / in speaking against any established gouernement: yea and a gouernment established by act of parliament. I thinke my L. of London gaue Paule inough / as we heard before / for medling with state matters. And his grace admonisheth the puritan preachers often inough / that howsoeuer they haue trueth of their side: yet they must not runne beyond a law / and without law: if they doe / though they haue Peter and Paule to speak for them / yet by your leaue / hee hath in his hande that whiche will tame them and all their fautors: If the abusing of the high commission & an whole popedome be able to do it. But all this while / we go not on forward with you brother Sarum. Therefore in the next page³² / let vs here how you fetch your brethren ouer the coales with your next reason / whereof trust me / I know not / almost though it were to gaine a bishoprick / how I should make a good syllogisme / but I will do my best after this manner.

    It suffizeth that suche orders as are not prescribed in the word / as things necessarie to saluation / be they ciuill or ecclesiasticall / bee onely foulded vp within those that are prescribed / and to make them as things expedient to edification / order and comelines / for obedience sake / although they be none of those things that appertaine to any necessity of our saluatiõ / or to any absolute necessity of our obedience. But such is the Church gouernement as it is not prescribed in the word / as necessarie to saluation / or of any absolute necessity of our obedience. Therfore it is sufficient that the Church gouernment be onely foulded vp within the things prescribed in the worde / and be of the nature of the thinges that onely belong to edification / order and comlines.

15. William Woodcocks diuinitie.

    I was neuer so affraid in my life / that I shoulde not • come to an end / till I had bene windlesse. Do you not see how I pant? Our brethren now are to come to their answere / Concerning necessarie to saluation / then say they / we woulde knowe brother Bridges / & thrise learned brother Bridges / we woulde know what you meane: whether such a necessitie / as without which / men cannot bee saued. I meane euen the same (sayth M.deane) as it appeareth / page 60. line 21.22. of my booke: then we replie that nothing is of this necessity / but only iustifieng faith / and we denie the sacraments to be of this necessitie. For the theefe on the gallowes ³³* was saued without them. And we thinke moreouer / that your impietie and ignorance (M.deane) to be outragious / and intollerable (say they) in that you go about to teach the holy Ghost what he shall prescribe in the word: because by this proposition of yours / nothing should be prescribed therein? concerning the sacraments: for they are not there prescribed / as things necessarie to saluation / in such sort as men cannot be saued without them.

    But if you ment not this necessitie / then wee woulde knowe / if you can tell your selfe what you woulde haue / (forsooth brethren / a bishoppricke he would haue / and all such troublesome fellowes as you are / bannished y^e land) Hoe you meane such a necessitie / as euerie Church is not bounde to observe the same order vpon their obedience. For example / you meane that euery Churche or seuerall congregation in Europe / professing the trueth / is not bounde to haue their Churche couered with lead / as the monastery of Sarum is. For they may lawfully haue it couered with slade or tyle. You meane that they are not bound euerye one of them / to haue a sermon vppon the wednesday / for they may lawfully haue it vpon any other day in the weeke.³⁴ That euery Church is not bounde to haue a pulpit 4.foot high / for they may

16. A proposition set from Rome and like to breed a Iesuit.

without sin haue one lower or higher / if expediencie & edification require • the same. That is euen my meaning in deede / and so I would / page 59. (saith M.deane) That these things should be vrged no otherwise, then Paule doth vrge them: that is, not placing the perfection of religion in them, or making them orders necessarie for the building, but rather for the ornaments of the building, and so squaring them all according vnto the rule: Let all be done honestly, and by good order. Is this your meaning (M.doctor) you haue spun a fayre thread. Can you tell your brother Marprelat with all your learning / howe to decline what is Latine for a goose. Why this euery one of your brethren his selfe wil graunt to be true / and they neuer denied it at any time. But this is not the question. For it is neither concerning Churche officer / office / or anye part of Church gouernement / whereof the question is instituted: but it is concerning matter of circumstance. Yet (brother Iohn) what do you meane by these contrarieties in this point. For you haue heard / page 59. / you meane by things necessary to saluation / matters of indifferencie: and page 60. line 21/22. you meane an absolute necessitie / without which / men cannot be saued. Do you think that you can answer men / by saying that you in deed wrote / page 59. But D.Perne wrote page 60. the which you had no leysure to ouersee. This is a prettie aunswere / is it not thinke you? Let me take you againe in such a pranck / and ile course you / as you were better to bee seeking Gammer Gurtons needle / then come within my fingers. And learned M.doctor / saye the puritanes / we will giue you leaue to take eyther of these 2. necessities to be your meaning. If you meane / as page 59. be necessarie to saluation / then they denie the assumption. And yet they will haue one course more at the proposition before they goe / because it came from Rome: and will bring foorth a Iesuit / vnlesse betimes it be had to the house of correction. They say thé that you still ioyne with

17. M.Doctors collection out of popish writers.

Bellarmine. For in the state of • the question / concerning tradition: He hath the same cauill / cap.3.lib.2. against Caluin / Luther and Kemnitius / which you haue concerning comlines / and order in this place / against your brethren. What a sawcie fellow was that Bellarmine / that must needes publish his worke for the Pope / one iust yeare before you published yours for the Archbishop? Could he not keep it in / vntill both your books might be published together. For now these puritans do shake you very shrewdly / for borrowing popishe stuffe from Bellarmine / & ouerthrowing her Maiesties supremacie: whereas I am perswaded / that although Bellarmin had neuer written / yet the master that taught him / would in time haue fully instructed you / in all these points that are forged vpon his Anvil. And although (as I thinke) he saued you a great deale of studie / yet I pray you let D.Perne write vnto him / that he may know his fault / and you be certified when hee writeth againe / that both your bookes may come forth together.

    Nowe if in your assumption (saye our brethren) if you meane by necessitie to saluation / that without which men cannot be saued as before: it is true / that the Church gouernment is not of this necessitie / for in that sence as was sayd / the sacraments are not necessarie to saluation / or of any absolute necessitie vnto our obedience. Nay to be no traytor / no idolator / no whoremonger / is not of that absolute necessitie to saluation / but y^t he may be saued / whiche hath beene (so that now he be none) sometimes an idolator / &c. If you meane that other necessitie / wherby al they that will haue any gouernment in the Church / are bound to haue that onely / and none els which God hath prescribed in the worde / or else transgresse y^t inuiolable prescript ordinaunce of God / concerning the gouernement of his Church. Then they denie the assumption. Here is a pretie matter / that one poore syllogisme must be thus handled / I woulde his worshipp knewe who

18. Any thing in religion may be altered, by the bishops diuinitie.

they were / that thus • deale with him. I hope it should not be long ere Watson the Purciuant (as vnnaturall a fourfaced knaue / as euer was in that office) should trudge for them. They shall be met with one day I doubt not.

    M.deane page 58.³⁵ sheweth very wisely that men must warily take heed how they builde (for the Bb. haue these 30. yeares so builte / that they are almost come to digg at the foundation of the Church) lest belike men shoulde by building after the maner of the Apostles / ouerthrow the Monasterie of Sarum. And that were pittie / seing from thence these natural reasons following haue issued.

    Euerie thing that is prescribed in the word, contayneth in it the perfection of religion. But the Church gouernement doeth not containe in it, the perfection of religion. Therefore the Churche gouernement is not prescribed in the word. No brother Iohn / nor baptism neither: For baptism doth not containe the perfection of religion in it / and therefore as you may wisely conclude / it is not prescribed in the word. We may alter what we will now / so that the part which we alter / containe not the perfection of religion in it / & be agreeable vnto my L. of Cant. articles. For they must be altered in no case. And what reason is it that the Lords supper should be receiued vnder both kindes / if the ciuill magistrate and the Churche / will otherwise ordayne. For no sacrament containeth in it the perfection of religion: & therefore by M.deanes proposition / the celebration therof / is not prescribed in y^e word. A man might keep good stir in y^e pulpit / or in writing / hauing but this ground allowed him. And I thinke of such a preacher as this shoulde bee / Iohn of London spake in his foresaide booke / page 49. line 2. where he describeth his preacher after this maner: that he should be no milksop, no white liuered gentleman, that for the frowning & cloudy countenance of euery man in

19. Iohn Elmar, the B. of Londons preacher with quarter blowes.

authoritie, will leaue his flock & crie 'Pecassi'. And againe / in this page / When they come to • handigripes, they must not onely flourishe, but they must know their quarter strokes, and the way howe to defende their head, &c.³⁶ Such a precher I say as this / would quickly with his quarter strokes / ouerturne al religion / & with verye good reason / if deane Iohns proposition be true / That euery thing whiche is prescribed in the word / contayneth in it the perfection of religion.

    Will you haue any more of these blowes brethren / then touch them againe parson Iohn / with the second reason in this page. Euerie thing that is prescribed in the word, is of the substance of the building. The church gouernement is not of the substance of the buylding. Therefore it is not prescribed in the worde. Nothing but paralogismes. Sir Bridges / do you not know before whom you speak? You thinke now that you play my L. of Winchesters foole / do you? Or that you are in the monasterie of Sarum among your roring quiristers. I would aduise you / learn this of me: That the Church gouernment is a substantial point of religion. And therfore of the substance of the building. That it is a substantiall point / it appeareth / because it is included within the commaundement which our Sauior Christ gaue vnto his Apostles³⁷ / when he sent thé to build his Church / commanding them / not onely to teache and baptize all nations (which are the things that you thinke onely to be substantiall vnto the building (Naye wicked bishops / wil not acknowledge preaching to be of the substance of the building) but also to teache them to obserne whatsoeuer he commanded them. Now he ³⁸* ordayned / he commanded that the church should be gouerned by these 4. offices / or els the Apostles woulde neuer ³⁹* haue obserued them / and prescribed them vnto the Churche. Was there nothing wanting vnto the building in Creet / while they wanted Elders there. If there was not / why should Titus stay there / to ordain Elders in euerie citie?⁴⁰ If there was / what a

20. Archbishop Titus controlled by Paule in his owne diocesse.

dunse art thou to denie the Church • gouernment to be of the substance of the building. Paule saith in that place / Tit.1.5. that he apointed that Titus shuld ordaine Elders there. Paul belike in this place did appoint these thinges to be ordained / whiche were not of the substance of the building. You were best to say that Paul had nothing to do with Church gouerment / but to teache obedience / and therefore went beyonde his commission / in medling with these matters. Archbishop Titus belike whereof you speak now / should be all the doer in Church matters: yet I am glad of one thing / y^t Paul was so bold as to commaunde Archbishop Titus / and to enioine him what he should do in his own dioces.⁴¹ I say in his owndices / for M.D. proueth anon that Titus was Archbishop of Creete. Now if Titus whoe I doubt not / was as good an Archbishopp as his grace of Canterburie (if euer hee was any as he was not) & might euery day in the weeke / go cheeke by ioule with his grace / did yet suffer himselfe in his owne dioces / to be commaunded by Paule / & presumed to do nothing / but that which Paule commaunded him to doe / then I see no reason whie Paule shoulde not beare a little more swaie in Canterburie diocesse then he doth.⁴² And I see no reason whie his grace should presume to doe things so flat contrarie to Pauls mind as he doth. Whereas hee ought to doe nothing but by Paules commandement / his grace shall on day answer me this point or very narrowly escape me a scouringe / and you Deane Iohn go forward: I am content to let you passe my fingers at this time

    If I were saued (sayth the D. page 60.)⁴³ without this gouernment then it is not necessarie to saluation. But many were saued without this gouernment that our brethren woulde haue: therefore it is not necessarie to saluation. Iohn of London with his two hand sworde / could haue quited himselfe no better then this. Our brethren graunt all this

21. A lie may be dispensed with, aswel as M.D. facultie of two benefices.

brother Iohn / because you meane by necessitie to • saluation / such a necessitie / as without which men cannot be saued. The next reason is for the golden pen. Either necessarie , or vnnecssarie: But not necessarie to saluation. Ergo, vnnecessarie. Thus M.Doc. carrieth away the matter very clearly. Onely he strayneth a little curtesie with the Learned Discourse, in putting necessarie to saluation / for appertayning to saluation. You know he that can with a guilty conscience / haue a facultie for two liuings / may as wel be dispensed with / for a lye or two. And I wisse these fellowes neede not to be so precise of swearing by fayth & troth / and strayning out a small lye for a benefit / they cõmit groser sinnes many times. And thus M.Do. hath ouerthrowne their whole buylding in generall. Nowe hee commeth to the spoyling of euery particular part therof.

    But before I came to these pointes / I care not inasmuch as there hath bene often mention made of my L. of Londons booke / betweene our brother Bridges and me / If I set downe some part of my iudgement / concerning that booke.

    O but M.Martin / will my brother Bridges say / will you meddle with that booke / which M.Elmar wrote in the defence of her Maiesties gouernment. So you will giue me and the Bb. iust cause to say that you are a seditious fellowe / and one that disliketh of her maiesties gouernment. And by this meanes you will incense many against you / that otherwise could not but fauor your worthinesse and learning. I would they durst say / euen anye B. of them all / saye that I dislike her maiesties gouernement. I would make poore Bb. of thé or I had done with them / if they should slander me in this sort.⁴⁴ And they dare but raise vp this slander against me / I will persecute the whol generation of them / and make them wearie of slandering while they liue. Shall they deale with me / as you do (brother Bridges thinke you) with Daneus in your booke

22. The bishops dealing with M.Beza and Danæus.

/ whome you bring as an enemie to her maiesties • gouerment: whereas he by name / and in manifest words commendeth / and prayseth very highly her maiesties regiment aboue all others. Or will they deale with me / as they haue done with M.Beza? M.Beza cap.44 of his Confessions written in Latin / saith / that he disliketh their iudgements / who thinke it vnlawful for women to beare rule.⁴⁵ This book is translated into English / but it hath all this poynt left out in the Englishe copie / to the end they may (as it is reported) bear her maiestie in hand / that M.Beza is against her regiment / and so / that her maiestie may be brought in detestation of the Church gouerment which M.Beza fauoreth / as being a Church gouerment that cannot stand with the ciuill gouernment of women. What say you to this geare Bb. haue you delt well with M.Beza? Deale thus with me an you dare. If you will say that you had no such intent / as to slaunder M.Beza / in leauing out the said point. Then I say that you are enemies vnto her maiesties gouernment / in that you will wipe out of a printed / and a translated booke / that which was written in her defence: especially suffering the rest of the booke to be printed.

    To returne to Iohn of Londons foresaid booke / I say although he hath therein / spoken against bishopps / euen our bishops now liuing / and so against himselfe / as being nowe a B. yet that his booke is a carnall and vnlearned booke / smelling altogether of earth / without rime / and without reason. And that his speaking against bishops therein / was but a snare to catch a bishoppricke / as it now appeareth. The particular sentences & marginall notes shalbe set downe / and where I set anye note vpon your booke / there shalbe an m. for difference sake / added thervnto. We will beginn with your owne wordes vnto the Bb. that is vnto your selfe and your brethren / page 23.⁴⁶

    Oh they may thanke God⁴⁷ (say you) that they haue this time to breathe them, and bethinke them of their

23. The bishop of London, against protestant bishops.

• naughtie and hellishe crueltie, and to call dayly and hourely for pardon and forgiuenes, for let them thinke, that if they be not punished in this life nor repent: God accounteth their deedes so vile, and their faults so haynous, that no temporall paines be inough for such offences.⁴⁸ And therefore reserueth them to eternall damnation. Oh howle and wayle you priests and prelates, not for the danger you stand in, of loosing your bishopricks and benefices, your pride & your pompe, your dignities and honors, your riches and welth: But for that hel hath opened her mouth wide, and gapeth to swalow you, for the sheding of so much innocent blood, for murdering so manie martyrs (though this bee true in our bishops / yet let me in steede thereof say / for imprisoning so many innocents / and murthering the soules of so many in ignorance) and spoiling Christs church of so many glistering and glorious ornaments, commended of all for their learning and discommended of none for their liuing.⁴⁹ Nowe lest anye man shoulde thinke that he writeth these things to popish bishops / you are to know / that he wrote them vnto such as were bishopps in the raigne of her maiestie / vnto bishops professing the gospel in name / but in deed deniying the power thereof. And in the next page line 10.⁵⁰ he hath these words against those bishops / and now against himselfe.

    But Christ knowing the bounds of his office, would not meddle with externe pollicies, translating of realmes, and depriuing of true inheritors. No whé he was desired to be arbiter betwixt two brethren:⁵¹ he asked not how the plea stood, but who made him an officer? Diuines (me thinkes) should by this example, not giue themselues too much the brydle, and too large a scope, to meddle with matters of pollicie,⁵² as this is, whervpon dependeth, eyther the welfare or ilfare of the realme. If these two offices, I mean ecclesiasticall and ciuill, be so iumbled

24. Iohn Elmar, the B. of London his prophesie.

together, as it may be lawful for both parties to meddle in both functions⁵³, here can • be no quiet, nor well ordered common wealth.

    Thus the reader may see / what a paterne of hypocrisie this wicked bishop since he wrote this book / hath shewed himself to be: in taking vpon him / not onely that calling / whiche in his owne iudgement is vnlawfull / but also in ioyning those two offices together: the coupling whereof / he confesseth to be ioyned as well with the most vile disorder / as with the dangerous disquietnes of the common wealth. And yet he hath not here left off speaking against bishops. Therefore / as before in the Epistle hath bin touched / he dealeth more roundly with thé / page 103 then before / in these wordes. Come off you bishops,⁵⁴ away with your superfluities, yeeld vp your thousandes, be content with your hundreths, as they be in other reformed Churches, where be as great learned men as you are. Let your portion be pristlike, & not princelike. Let the Queen haue the rest of your temporallities⁵⁵ and other landes, to maintaine these warres which you procured, and your mistress left her, and with the rest to build and found schools throughout the realme:⁵⁶ that euery parrishe Church may haue his preacher, euerie citie his superintendent,⁵⁷ to liue honestly, and not pompously, which will neuer bee, vnlesse your lands be dispersed and bestowed vpon many, whiche now feedeth and fatteth but one. Remember that Abimelech, when Dauid in his bannishment woulde haue dined with him, kept such hospitallitie, that he had no bread in his house to giue him but the shewe bread.⁵⁸ Where was all his superfluitie to keepe your pretenced hospitallitie? For that is the cause you aleage, why you must haue thousands, as though you were commanded to keepe hospitallitie, rather with a thousand, then with a hundred. I woulde our countriman Wicklieffes booke which he wrote, De Ecclesia, were in print, and there should you see, that your wrinches and cauillations be nothing worth.⁵⁹

25. Iohn of London, Iohn of Exceter, and Thomas winchester, hypocrits

    Hitherto you see that this Balaam / who hath I feare • me / receiued the wages of vnrighteousnes / spoken in generall / as well against the callings of bishops / and their vsurping of ciuill offices / as against their pride / pompe & superfluitie. Must not he thinke you / haue eyther a most feared / or a most guiltie conscience / that can finde of his heart / to continue in that calling: yea / and in the abuse of that calling / which his owne conscience / if he woulde but awake it / telleth him to be vnlawfull? The Lord giue him repentance / if he belongeth vnto him / or speedely rid his Churche of such a scourge. And may not all the former speeches be fitly applied vnto him? Is without dout. But the next he may be thought to haue written to himselfe / which he hath set downe / page 34.⁶⁰ As if you shoulde saye, my L. Lubber of London is a tyrant, Ergo he is no Byshop. I warraunt you though he graunted you the antecedent, which he can hardlie denie, yet he woulde denie the consequent, or els he would call for wiely Watson to helpe him.⁶¹ Here brother London / you haue crossed your selfe ouer the costard once in your dayes. I thinke you would haue spent 3. of the best Elmes which you haue cut down in Fulham / and 3. pence halfepenie besides / that I had neuer met with your booke. But vnlesse you / and Iohn of Excetor / with Thomas Winchester / who haue beene in times past hypocrites as you haue bene / leaue off to hinder the word / and vex godly men / I will make you to be noble and famous bishops for euer. And might not a man wel iudge yon three to be the desperat Dicks / which you brother London / page 29. affirm to be good bishops in England. For to allude vnto your owne words / page 28.29. Whereas other bishops in the land / for the most / (onely Iohn Canterburie excepted) lest they should one day answere for their proceedings vnto her maiestie / and gaine the euill will of the noble men / and gentlemen that fauour the sinceritie of the gospell / will not seeme to bee such dealers as you 3. are /

26. Iohn of London against bishops, and so against himselfe.

though they serue at an inche • in their place / to maintaine his graces pride and cruelty / to stay the course of the gospell / and to fetch in men with in the compasse of subscription / yet are they those for the most part / that will imprison none / and trouble verie few vnles it be for fear that if they should tollerate to much / they should haue a checke of their worshipfull Paltripolitan. But you three / like furious & senceles brute beasts dread no perill / looke no farther then your feete / spare none / but with tooth and naile / cry out / downe with that side / that fauoreth the gospel so. Fetch them vp with purciuants / to the Gatehouse / to the Fleet / to the Marshalsey / to the Clinck / to Newgate / to the Counter with thé. It makes no matter with you (I folow your own words brother London) so you may shew your selues (in shewe though not in trueth) obedient subiects to the Queene / & disobedient traytors to God and the realme. Thus farre I haue followed your words / howbeit I thinke you are not well pleased w me / because you meane not to stand to any thing you haue written. Nay you holde it vnlawfull now / for a preacher / as far as the two tables of the lawe do reache / to speake against bishops / much lesse any vngodly statute. And yet you say / page 49.line 7. That prechers must not be afraid to rebuke the proudest, yea kings and Queenes, so far forth as the two tables of the law doe reache. As we see in Samuell, Nathan, Elias, Iohn Baptist, & many other. They may not stoope to euery mans becke, & studie to please man more then God. Thus far are your wordes / and they are as farr from your practize / as you are from the imitation of these godly examples whiche you haue brought. I see a bishoppricke hath cooled your courage / for in those dayes that you wrote this book / you woulde haue our parliament to ouer rule her maiestie / & not to yeelde an inche vnto her of their prileadges. Your words I will set downe.

27. Parliament men are to resist their Kings or Queenes.

    In like manner (say you / page 53.⁶²) if the parliament vse • their priuiledges⁶³ the king can ordaine nothing without them: if he doe, it is his falt in vsurping it, and their folly in permitting it: wherfore in my iudgement, those that in king Henrie the 8. daies, would not graunt him that his proclam-ations shoulde haue the force of a statute, weare good fathers of their countrie & worthie of commendation in defending there libertie, &c

    I assure you brother Iohn / you haue spoken many thinges worthie the noting / and I would our parliament men woulde marke this action done in King Henrie the 8. dayes / and follow it in bringinge in reformation / and putting downe lord Bishops / with al other points of superstition: they may in your iudgment not only doe any thing against their Kings or Queenes minde / that is behoofull to the honor of god / and the good of the common welth / but euen withstand the procedings of their soueraigne.

    But me thinks you haue a palpable error / in the 48.49. & 50. page of your booke⁶⁴ / which is that women are vncapable of the ministerie / not in regard of their sexe / but of certaine wants and imperfections in their sex / vz. their want of learning and corage / so that if a woman should be brought vp in learning / and trained in disputations / & were not milder in nature then men (of al which wants in women / you speake page 48) but knewe their quarter stroke (which knowledg you require in the minister page 49) then by your reason they might prech in your dioces: whosoeuer wil read your 50. and 51. pages / shal find this to be your iudgment.

    Besides al this / the reader shall find such earthly & carnal stuff in al these pages / that you must needs giue this iudgment of the whole book / surely fleshe / euen a lump of meere fleshe writ it. For there you shall see the Englishe man prefered before other people: only because he feedeth vpon (and hath in his possession plentie of sheepe /

28. Iohn of Londons rayling speeches.

• Oxen / kie calues (I keepe Iohn Elmars words) Conies / fish / and where as other nations feed vpon rootes / rawe hearbes / oyle / grapes / &c.⁶⁵ In this last place against the French King he raileth and outrageth in this wise. That Turkish valesius, that French tyraunt. Is he a king or a diuell, a christian or a Lucifer, that by his cursed confederacie with the turke.⁶⁶ Page 113.line 4. O wicked caitife & fyrebrand ofhell, And line 8. O foolish Germanes, which conspire not together with the rest of christian princes, to pull out such a traytour to God and his kingdome, by the eares out of France, & hang him against the Sun a drying.

    The discreet reader of that whiche hath bene spoken / may apparantly see the vndiscreete briutishnes that was in you / euen then / when you were best worthy to be accounted off. And thereby may gather what you are now / when you haue bidden farewell / not onely vnto the synceritie of religion / whiche then you seemed to imbrace / but euen vnto all humanitie and ciuill behauiour. And yet you doe not thus leaue the Frenche king / but in this page.113.line13. You say that the diuel hath none of his side now / but him to maintaine both the spirituall & the temporall Antichrist: in the same page / Wherefore seeing he hath forsaken God, like an Apostata, and folde himselfe to the diuell, &c. And line 27.28. Proud Holophernes. Oh blessed is that man that looseth his life against such a Termagaunt. Againe page 114.line 2. but this Iulia the Apostata, is named a diuels name, Christianissimus. Line 3. And like a trayterous Sarazen is Christes enemie. Here he leaueth the French king / and here I leaue his booke.

    Nowe I entreat the reader to consider these thinges / that I haue set downe out of his booke / and iudge whether such things as he wrote coulde proceed from a religious heart: and whether the booke be not an offspring proceeding from a

29. Iohn of Londons tyranny.

lumpe of earthly flesh. This booke is almost all the tokens of Christianitie / that euer he shewed. • Since the time he became bishop / he hath bene a continuall oppressor of the Churche of God. His practises against God and his saintes / was the onely cause whie I haue taken this paines with his booke / and he shall bee more beholding vnto me / vnlesse he leaue his tyrannie.

    But now alas / alas brother Bridges / I had forgotten you all this while / my brother London and I were so busie / that wee scarce thought of you. Why coulde not you put me in minde that you staid al the whyle. But it is no matter / we will make the quicker dispatche of our busines. You shall see I will bee the more fauorable to you. And let me see howe roundly you ouerturne these puritans / for you are now to ouerthrow the seuerall partes of their discipline. Our brethren say / that our Sauior Christ ordayned an holy ministerye of men / for the buylding of his Church / and prooue the saying by the place of Paule Ephe.4.11.12. Your mastership 3. maner of wayes shew the place they alleage / to make nothing for their purpose. First say you / Paule speaketh of diuers functions / therefore nothing of Ecclesiasticall gouernment. This reason brethren is a very sound one / if you should denie it / then in deede / I must thinke you not to be altogether so leadenheaded as yonr brother Bridges. For do you thinke that a man entreating of the Maior of London / the two Shiriffs and their offices / speaketh by & by of some part of the order & gouermeut of the citie of London? or of som of the gouernours of the citie. As though my L.Maior & the two Shiriffes were now become to be any of the gouernours of the citie of London / or their offices any part of that gouernment. Who seeth not by this example / the folly of our precise brethrens reason euidently declared. The Apostle (say they) speketh of Apostles / prophets / Euangelists / pastors / doctors / and their functions (for this M.D. confesseth) therfore he speaketh of some ecclesiasticall gouernours / and of

30. A coosening tricke of a bishop.

some part of ecclesiasticall • gouernement. Apostles / prophets / pastors and doctors / are church gouernours with them / and their office a part of ecclesiasticall gouerment. Let them learne / let them learn simple siginnes as they are / that the Apostle speaketh in this place / of ecclesiasticall functions / and not of any part of ecclesiasticall gouerment. For so M.D. in this 61. pag compare line 17. with line 22. teacheth vs to speake English: making an ecclesiasticall function / to be a thing altogether differing in nature / from euery part of ecclesiasticall gouernment. A very proper and pleasant distinction.

    In the second place / this testimonie brought in by our brethren / is prooued to make nothing to their purpose / by two reasons. And what bommination vmbertie of reasons here be / to perceede foorth one head / and yet euerye one sause / as it is true / that my good brother Overton / the B. of Liechfield and Couentree / sould his Chauncellorship at one time / vnto two senerall men: to wit / to D.Beacon / and the good Chauncellor / M. Zacharie Babington.⁶⁷ Well parson Bridges his 1. reason is after this sort. That place which sheweth gifts and functions to be ordayned in the Church / to the buylding vp of the bodie of Christe / in the vnitie of the fayth and knowledge: maketh nothing to prooue that there is an ecclesiasticall gouerment prescribed in the worde. Thou sayst euen true parson Iohn. For what hath the functions of pastors / doctors / Apostles / &c. to doe with Church gouernement. A prettie matter / euery beggerly Apostle / pastor / doctor / or Euangelist / y^t cannot spende / no I am sure not 40. marks yearely / by all the spirituall liuing he hath in his hande: must nowe be a Church gouernour with our brethren / & their offices be a part of Church gouernment. Why brethren / what meane you by this place you haue brought? Did you thinke / that the Apostle by those functions / and those persons / spoken of / Ephes. 4.12. meaneth that any of them functions shoulde be a Lordlike functiou / or any

31. Of ecclesiastical gouernment and gouernours.

• of the persons Lord. You saye he doth not. No doth not? Then out of your owne grant he speaketh nothing of ecclesiasticall gouernment and gouernors. Because euerie ecclesiasticall gouernour must needs be a Lord / and so ecclesiasticall gouern-ment / a lordly gouernement. If this be not true / aske my brother Bridges. For should God ordaine great men / and great Lords to be rulers in common wealths / ouer whome hee hath not so great care as he hath for his Church / and ordayne none but beggerly fellowes (not able to spend 200 markes by the yeare / nay nor 20. neither) to beare rule in his Church?

    I grant in deed / that you brethren puritans / saye the trueth as it ought to be / that bishops or ministers ought not to be Lords in any wise / eyther as ministers / or as ciuill magistrates. Thus in deed it ought to be / I and my brethren the Bb. do grant vnto you. And you knowe we would it were so. But you know also that our laws will haue Church gouernours to be Lords / and what? should our Bishops (good noble men) refuse that which the law would haue them to take? Get you the law to be against their lordly callings / and see whether they will not giue ouer their Lord bishopdomes / whensoeuer lawe compelleth them. And whensoeuer they giue ouer / they shall haue no cause to thanke suche enuious brethren as you are. Howsoeuer it be / you see the Apostle / speaking of all sorts of ministers / by your owne confession: speaketh nothing of any Lord / or Lordly gouerment among them all / and therefore speaketh nothing of Church gouernment. Againe / all those functions whereof the Apostle maketh any mention / (as my brother Bridges hath well noted) are ordayned to the buylding of the bodie of Christe / in the vnitie of fayth and knowledge. Nowe I would anye puritan of you all / durst say that our Church gouernors: that is / our venerable and worshipfull Lord bishops / are ordained of God / for the building of his

32. A syllogisme concluded in Perncanterburikenold.

bodie / which I • know you will say to be done by preaching? As though L. bishops / being ciuill gouernours should preach. Were it meete (I pray you) to see Steuen Gardiner / being thé of the priuie Counsell in the pulpit? Counsellors nowe / must haue something to doe with pulpit matters / muste they I pray you? Will you allow that ciuill gouernours should be ordinarie preachers in your new platforme of a reformed Church? I know you will not. And what reason is it then / that you should require Bb. to be ordinary preachers / seeing euery bishop is a ciuil gouernour. I tel you true / I am so far from thinking / that bishops ought to be ordinarie preachers / seeing they are ciuill gouernours / that I hold it a sin for them to preache ordinarily. And brethren / you doe not well therefore / in vrging ciuil gouernours to preach / especially seing your selues / in your platformes / are against this point. And because it shall be seene that I deale vprightly betweene you and the P.P.prelates. I will set downe my reason / & answer it when you can: it shall be concluded I warrant you in moode and figure. But in deed I haue inuented a newe moode of mine owne (for I haue bin a great schooleman in my daies) which containeth in it a great misterie. The misterie I will expound / it may be in a book for the purpose. In the meane time / if you resort to my sonne Martin senyor / that worthy wight / he it may be / shalbe able to vnfolde the secresie thereof. This is the syllogisme / the moode answereth vnto Celarent, elder daughter to Barbara, and I will haue it called / Perncanterburikenolde.

 

Perne	No ciuill magistrate can be an ordinarye preacher without sinne.	ö ÷	Ce
Canterburie	Euerie Lorde Bishoppe is a ciuill magistrate.        Therefore	ý ÷	la
Kenolde	No Lord Bishop can be an ordinarie preacher without sinne.	÷ ø	rent

33. No good order where ministers are ciuil magistrats, saith Iohn London

    What say you now brethren / would you haue ciuill gouernors (such as our Bishops are) to preach? I hope not. For although I cannot deny / but som of our bishops are very great breakepulpits / and haue as marueilous rawe gifts in preaching / as any that euer came to Pauls wharff / yet surely I cãnot see what warrant you haue to vrge ciuil officers to preach. Wherefore also you doe not well / in crying out against ciuil gouernors / because they preach not / as though their function were an ecclesiastical function / or as though you would haue any to preach who had not an ecclesiastical function. If you demaund then / whether bishops be Ecclesiasticall or ciuil gouernours. They themselues say beath / and ai say brethren / that for the stopping of your meathes and other causes / I wad counsell thé / if they wad be ruled bai me / to be nether nother. Now if yaw demaund againe / whether Bishops sin in being ministers / seing they are ciuil officers / or in bearing ciuil offices / seeing they are ministers. I haue already shewed that ciuil officers must be no ministers. And my brother London hath long since affirmed it to be dangerous for the common wealth / that ministers should be ciuil gouernors: and therfore brethren / to answer this question of yours / you are to know that I am fully of your brother Londons mind / who saith page 24.line 19. of his Harborough. These 2. offices, I mean the ecclesiasticall & ciuil, be so iumbled together, as it may be lawful for both parties to medle in both functions, there can be no quiet, nor any well ordered common wealth. Nowe brethren you must not think the worse of this lerned mans iudgment / because he is a Bishop him selfe. For euen since he hath ioyned these 2. offices together he hath proued his owne saying to be true for his part / in that his whole endeuor hath bene euer since he was Bishop / that we should haue no quiet nor any wel ordered

34. Deane Iohns prayer against the preaching of the word.

church or common wealth. I hope by this time you see it • plaine that Bishops sinne / both because they are ciuill gouernours / and being ciuill gouernours / because they are bishops.

    Your 2. reason is / page.61. line 39. Paule speaketh of these gifts and of this building, and of the orders and ends thereof: therefore he speaketh nothing of ecclesiasticall gouernment. This is to put home I trow / and ouerthroweth the puritans out of all eesse. It is altogether as good a reason / as an olde man yeelded sometimes to sir Thomas More / concerning the cause of Goodwine sandes / & the stopping of Sandwich hauen: which was / y^t Tentertons steeple was the cause of Goodwine sandes. M.D. 2. reason to shew that the place of Paul maketh nothing for ecclesiastical gouernment / is after this sort. Paul in rekoning vp these gifts, referreth all to the vnitie in doctrine of fayth, and to the holy conuersation of life. Ergo he maketh no mention of Ecclesiasticall order of gouernment.

    That were a pitifull hearing in deed sir / that the Apostle should speake of ecclesiastical gouernment / and speak not a word of any lordlike gouernment: that the Apostle should make any mention of ecclesiasticall gouernours / & not name a Lord among them all. Fie / fie / this were too bad / and my Lord of Canterbury would neuer abide such scripture.

    But in good sadnes (saith the puritans) presbyter Iohn Bridges / will this place of Paule prooue no part of this gouernment which you oppugne? will it not prooue that God hath ordayned pastors / and doctors / to continue in his Church vnto the worlds end? No forsooth will it not quoth the Deane. And I am so farre from thinking that God hath ordained your preaching pastors / and doctors / to continue alwayes in his Church / that I haue made a praier / pag 655. line 28. of my book⁶⁸ (as my brother Martin you know hath noted already) that we might neuer see that day in

35. Deane Iohn coseneth his brethren with popish reasons.

England, wherein preaching might be had in • all places. His grace of Canterburie (I tell you) hath condemned the preaching of the word (as being the onely ordinarie meanes to saluation) to be an heresie. This scripture of Paule / that God hath appointed preaching pastors / to continue in his Church vnto the worlds ende / is a chiefe ground of the former heresie. I will allow of no such scripture I trow / as may impech the opinion which my L. of Canterb. conceiued of the preaching of the word.

    You see therefore my friendes / that M.Deane in this point / will haue nothing to do with you / or Paules testimonie. And you are not ignorant I am sure / howe soone all lordes would be out of the ministerie / if we had none in England / but the pastors spoken of by Paule / & therefore M.doctor hath prayed against this order. Yea / and he hath brought such a reson against this your platform of gouernment / as is iust Secundum vsum Sarum. For in deed it is popish / and therefore you might smell it a farre off. If the Lord (sayth he page 62.) had thought this gouernement needful for his Churche, then he woulde not haue suffered his Churche to bee without the same. But he suffered his Churche of a long time to be without this gouernment. Ergo he thought it not needfull.

    Ah / craft / craft / craft and subtiltie / that can in iest deceiue his brethren with a popishe reason in this sort. But my masters / you must not thinke that our brother Sarum bringeth this in good earnest / but onely to trie whether you be so simple / as you cannot know a popish reason when you see it. And to this purpose / I thinke that both his worship / & Iohn Whitgifts grace / haue broght in their writings / many things that are palpable popish / that they might trie / whether of knowledge / or of peeuish and chollericke rashnes / you speake against their gouerment. Nowe if so be that you could not discerne their popish reasons (whereof in deed you shall finde great store / euery third reason I warraunt you / in all their

36. The bishops haue no better warrant for themselues, then the Pope.

bookes) • then they would haue this aduantage against you / that you were not able to knowe trueth from poperie. For (might they say) we brought in popish resons of purpose, but sielie fellows / their saill is so smal in all kinde of learning / that they cannot know a popishe reason / especially if we can face it out with a bragg / that we haue olde and new writers of our side. Now brethren / you must not thé / mislike your brother Bridges purpose / in bringing in this popishe syllogisme. This I speake / to the ende you should not crie out (as some of you haue done) that our bishops haue no better warraunt for themselues then the pope hath / for their gouernement. I grant in deede / that if you should take M.deane at the worst / you might saye that he might herein / reason as well for the Masse / as he doth for the established gouernement. As for example / hee might thus argue. If the Lord had thought the Masse to haue bene a false worship of him / then he would not haue suffered it so long to haue continued / where anye weake one should be endangered / of being enforced to be present thereat. But he suffered it to continue a long time / &c. Therefore he thought it not to be a false worship. I say you must not mistake M.doctor in this sort / but knowe that he delt after the manner of the schooles / wherein it is lawfull (as Thomas Cartwright who hath bene professour of diuinitie / both in Cambridge and in Geneua / knoweth well inough) for men to argue / pró and contrá, as well with / as against the trueth: and all is to trie out the trueth / whiche is onely the sole meaning that M.D. hath not at all thought off. But I pray you / let vs passe frõ hence / vnto the 64. pa. where you shal find the calling of an Archbishop most notablie prooued / out of our brethrens owne words. Our brethren (ka the cloyster master of Sarum) affirme that Paule & Barnabas, ordained presbyters, priestes or elders

37. Titus neither Archbishop, nor yet Deane of Sarum.

(for thus M.D. to his neuerlasting fame / hath full often in his booke / translated the • greeke word presbyteros) at Derbe, Iconium and Lystra. Ergo, some of these priestes or elders, were ordayned ouer whole towns, some ouer regions. And what could be more aptly spoké to the purpose / or more fitly proue an Archiepiscopall calling? But the reason following / prooueth it yet more euident / and that is the itsample of Archbishop Titus / whome the D. of diuillitie in this 65. page affirmeth to haue beene Arch. of Creet.⁶⁹ Nay good M.D / not many Archbishopps in the person of Titus I pray you. Titus was an Euangelist / therefore no Archbishoppe. Yea sayth he / Titus was a very Archbishopp / & there is playue scripture to prooue it / whiche is the subscription of the Epistle to Titus. Whope papist / say the puritans / is that become scripture with you? Why M.Beza hath long since prooued this to be no scripture / but an vncertaine and false gesse / added by som Scholiast. You know also that your brother Turrian the Iesuit / bringing in this for Scripture / was soundly confuted by M. Sadel / and dare you Deane Iohn / bring this in for Scripture? Yes that I dare (sayth he) and prooue Titus to haue bin an Archbishopp / euen by this reason:⁷⁰ because Paul gaue him the authoritie to be the ordinary of all the Bishopps in Creet. And this I prooue / because Creete / where my Lorde Archbishoppe Titus his grace / was Primate and Paltripolitane / had many famous cities in it. This is my very reason / page 65. line 21. and ile stand to it.

    Now M.Fickers / parsons and currats / if euer I hard better proofe in my life / I would all dumbe dogges were whipped out of the Churche. Now truely this is sport alone. But brother parson Bridges / I praye you tell me / was there canonicall obedience sworne to Archbisopp Titus? What els man. Did they cal him my Lords grace to? Do you dout of it? Did his gentleman Ussher go bareheaded before him? As though he could not be as popelike and pontificall / as my Lorde of

38. The bishops horses worke myracles.

Canterburie. But I • hope a pore hedge priest might haue his letters of orders of him / though he would giue no bribes vnto his Secretorie / cooke / butler / &c. Might he so goodman noddie? Then how should his men I pray you be able to liue? As though bishops should giue their men any wages? Their blessing I trow will serue their men in steed of wages.

    In page 66. M.doctor demaundeth a question / & that is / whether one man might not haue diuers of these offices and gifts which were in the Apostles time. In deed brother parson / we read of neuer an Apostle that was a nonresident / but of one Iudas / one Simon Magus / and one Diotrephes in all that time. The reason belike was / that men wrought miracles in those dayes / whiche gifte the noble Lords of our cleargie / haue now bestowed vpon their horses. For in the Apostles time / a horse vsually caried not aboue one or two men at the most: whereas you know / that Master D. Humffrie / and D. Mathew / had two horses betweene them / that neuer caried vnder 14. men / whensoeuer their masters were on their backes.⁷¹ And our bishopps are so expert in adorning horses with those miraculaous giftes / that they are no sooner on their horses backes / then presently the horse whereon they ride / is able to cary as many as either of the 2. former / besides their bootes? 2. or 3. pair of trulling square dice / and so many paire of cards.

    Parsou Bridges / page 68. saith / there are more giftes and callings then 4. pastors / doctors / elders and deacons remayning / because sayth he / page 69. the gifts of doing miracles, prophesie, the gifts of healing, diuers among the papists haue and do enioy, and especially, the gift of tongs, not attained vnto by studie, had diuers of them, as Anthonie, &c. Anthonie among the papistes / had the gifte of tongs without studie: Now what a goodyeare was that Anthonie? The god of the pigs trow ye? In deed master D. quoteth no author for his warraunt / hee is redd you

39. M.D. found Anthonie in Hodges breeches.

• know in the Legend of lies.⁷² There it is: what haue the puritans to doe where he found it? Let thé answere to it. What if he founde it in Hodge his breeches / seeking for Gammer Gurtons needle? Is the reason worse then the rest of his booke / because it is without authoritie.

    As for the matter contayned in the 70.71.72. pages / M.D. confirmeth it by the authoritie of a puritane writer / which wrote (as he sayth) A fruitfull sermon vppon the 1.Cor.12. printed by Robert Walde-graue / 1584. A sermon vpon the 1.Cor.12 printed by Robert Walde-graue: say our brethren / why there was neuer any sermon vpon that text / printed by Robert Walde-graue. M.D. belike meaneth the sermon vpon Rom.12. Tush brethren what should you tell vs of M.D. meaning / he meaneth the sermon vpon 1.Cor.12. If you doe not beleeue me / looke the 255. page of his booke / and there you shall see the sermon vpon 1.Cor.12. twise cited. M.D. if he were more beetleheaded then he is / could not possible misse so often in the naming of the sermon / vpon Rom.12. which is so commonly knowen. It may be in deede / you neuer saw any sermon extant vpon that text: but I warraunt you Deane Iohn knoweth the way to Salisburie / so doe not many thousands of you puritans. Whye / you neuer sawe the Syriacke Testament translated by Iunius (for that which is abroade / was done by Tremelius alone) but M.D. hath quoted Iunius his Syriack Testament. Why then may he not aswell finde a sermon vpon 1.Cor.12. printed by Robert Walde-graue / as a Syriacke Testament of Iunius his translation? Now say the puritans what a notorious blocke is this deane / who inasmuch as he hath heard that M. Tremelius / and M. Iunius were ioyned together in the translation of the Byble / thinketh therfore that Iunius translated the Syriack Testament / which was done by Tremelius onely.

40. M.D. reason in defence of Antichrist, against Christs gouernment.

    For shame my masters deale more charitably / & beare • with the infirmities of your brethren. I grant in deede it was M.D. ouersight / in naming Iunius his Syriacke Testament: and the sermon vpon 1.Cor.12. in steade of Rom.12. But what then / should you therefore take him vp fot it / as though he were the veriest asse in a countrie. Learned men may easily commit such ouersights / especially quoting authors vpon other mens reportes / as M.D. hath done. But it is no maruell that you deale thus with M.deane / when you dare abuse Antichrist / and say as the author of the Learned Discourse hath done / that this gouernment of yours continued in the Church vntil Antichrist brought in all kinde of false doctrine and confusion.⁷³ Naye who there masters mine / quoth M.deane / for these be his owne words / take my reason with you / you slander Antichrist.        For

    If your gouernment had continued in the Church vntil all kinde of false doctrine came in, it had beene exercised without interruption vntill this day⁷⁴ (especially vntill the yeare 1587. wherein you made this booke) For I doubt me whether all kinde of false doctrine hath beene yet sowen. But your gouernement hath beene interrupted long since. Therefore you slander Antichriste.

    They slander him in deed / Iohn O Sarum / if they say that hee brought in all kinde of false doctrine. And you haue neuer prooued proposition better in your life / then you haue prooued this. For any man that will read your book / or Iohn Whitgifts / wil say that Antichrist broght not in all kinde of false doctrine / if he had / your booke I am sure / had not bene sold for 7. shillings as it is. In the 78. page / M.D. sheweth that the office of Archbishops / and Lord bishops / are in nature pastorall / though in dignitie they are of another office and ministerie. And what say you to that brethren? Euen this say they. In dignitie they are popes / in office proud prelats / and in ministerie / plain dumb dogs for the most part. This is

41. L.Bb. in dignitie popes, in office proud prelates, &c.

proued / hath • bene prooued / and will be prooued / to the proudest of the Bishops teeth / if they doe dispute with vs in these points. I would with you / my puritan masters / to keepe you wel while you are well. It may bee you shall answer this saucines of yours / to offer disputation to my lords grace / before the high commissionrs. Master D. hath confuted all the packe of you. In the 82. page / by a tale or 2. of a Foxe tayl / & another of the Asse / loaden with spunges / page 83. From the 90. page / to the end of the book / he goeth so readely to worke about the office of the ciuil magistrate / that I maruel that men wil not say / that he deserueth to be cased in a good moatley clockbagg for his labor. In the 93. page / he proueth that no man ought to direct the magistrate in any thing. For saith he / brethren I goe plainly / & simply to worke⁷⁵ / he that directeth he gouerneth. Alas the day brother (cloister master) doe the puritans say in deed / that the magistrate should be directed by any within his owne dominions. Belike then if they shoulde finde a magistrat out of his way / they would goe about to direct him / woulde they? And that in his owne dominions to? Whie brother Bridges can this stand with the dutie of a good subiect? Why? He that directeth he gouerneth. I perceiue it is time that such fellowes weare looked vnto. We should neuer haue done with them I perceiue / if wee should stil stand answering their absurde fansies. By this time I hope / they see their folly. They haue beene sufficiently confuted / or else let Andrewe ambo⁷⁶ iudge betwene you / he is an indifferent man. From the 99. page vnto the 130. iust 31. pages / at which game O the cardes / D. Redman Archdecon of Canterbury is very good / besides his rare skill in iuglinge / & to the end of this book / they agree with you in any thing / that lawfully belongeth to the office of the ciuil magistrate.

    Howe say you now M. cuntry Parsons & Fickers. Are you not by this time able to withstande the cauells of the

42. All beetleheaded ignorance, lieth not in M.Doctor

• puritanes. Doe you not see vpon what good grounde our Church gouernement and my L. of Canterburies chaier is bullt? I would you did else. And let the learned reader iudg whether other men cannot play the ignorant sots as well as you brother Bridges. Tush / Tushe / I would not haue you claime all the skill / in Barbarismes and Solecismes vnto your self. Other men can behaue them selues with commendations that way as well as you / thoughe in deed not so naturally I graunt. Farwell sweete Doctor / and make much of the courtier Martin.

 

 

Errata, or faults escaped.

 

  1 Whersoeuer the prelats are called my Lords / either in the epistle to the confocation house / or in this Epitome / take that for a fault. Because they are none of M.Martins Lords / neither shal any priest of them all be my Lord. For I tell thee true / I think foul scorne they should be my Lords / or the Lords of any of my sonnes.

  2 There is nothing spoken at all / of that notable hypocrite Scambler / Bishop of Norwich. Take it for a great faulte / but vnlesse he leaue his close dealing against the truth / ile bestow a whole booke of him. And let the rest of you hypocrits take heede of persecuting.

  3 But the greatest fault of all is / that I coulde say against our vngodly priests / but vnlesse they mend / ise fullie amende this fault / and I can doe it with a small warninge. And I would deuise them not to persecute men for my worshipes booke as they doe.

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1 Ah brother dean that you are such a doer.

2 Deut.22.21.

3 I.King.8.29.

4 2.Chron.6.5. Nomb.3.3. Leuit. 8.9.

5 I.King.28.32. Leuit.9.24.

6 Nomb.3.12.35

7 Leuit.30.10.

8 Ezek.44.8.

9 2.Sam.6.7.

10 Nomb.16.1.35.

11 Ephes.4.12.

12 Acts.20.17.28. & 14.23.1.tim.5. 17.titus 1.5. Rom.12.8

13 Acts 6.6.rom. 12.8.Phil.1.1. 1.tim. 3.8.

14 1.Tim.5.22. & 3.

15 10.rom.12.3.

16 Titus 1.6.7. 1.tim.3.8.& 5.11. Acts. 14.23.& 6. 6.2.tim.1.6.

17 Page 54.

18 A very fit reason to prooue the mutabilitie of the Church gouernment.

19 Now good doctor send me the measure of thy head / that I may prouide thee a good nightcap.

20 Page 55.

21 The bishopps woonted maner in this controuersie / to runne from the consideration of those thinges that are morall vnto thinges indifferent.

22 1.Cor.14.40.

23 Page 55.

24 The bishop of Londons booke.

25 Page.55.

26 Page.56.

27 Page 57.

28 Your cõsequent is false master Deane.

29 1.Peter 2.13.

30 Ephes.4.12. rom. 12.8.1.Cor.12.28.

31 Another course at you brother London.

32 Page 57.

33 Luke 23.43.

34 M.deane / my friends is not so precise as hee thinkes it necessary for them to haue a sermon vpon the Sabboth.

35 Page 58.

36 Iohn Elmar you must knowe was verie good with a twoe hand swerd in his youth.

37 Math.28.19.20

38 Rom.12.6.1Cor. 12.9.28.Act.15.6. Ephes.4.12.

39 Actes.6.6.&.14. 23.1.Cor.23.1. tim.5.17.iam.5. 14.

40 Titus.1.5.

41 Paule commandeth Archbishop Titus in his owne diocess.

42 A worthie note.

43 Page 60.

44 Heere is an indecorum persone in this speech I know / for the D. should not giue me this warning / but you knowe my purpose is to play the dunse after his example.

45 A horrible Part and an vngodly. Confer the Eng-lish with the Latin copie

46 Page.23.

47 The Prelates haue time of repentance

48 Note you prelates.

49 The Queene deceiued by her churchemen.

50 Pag.24.

51 Luk.33.

52 Spirituall men should not medle with pollicies.

53 Mark this well you that are state men.      m

54 Aduise to the bishops.

55 Bishops lands.

56 Will you be content Bishop is shalbe so now?      m

57 In any case / let there be one minister aboue the rest of his brethren.      m

58 1.Sam.21.

59 And I woulde mine Epistomastix were in print / there should you see that would not like you.      m

60 Pag.34.lin.15.

61 Doth he meane Watson the purciuant trow you      m

62 Page 53.line 19

63 The parlament resisted King Henrie the 8.

64 Women capable of the ministerie in regard of their sex by the bishop of Londons iudgment.

65 Page.110.& 111. Yea wee haue such plentie of calues in England that wee haue calues to our Bishopes.

66 Page.112.line 27.

67 You see that cousenadge is likelye within a while to be the steward of my brother Lichefields house.

68 In the Epistle to the terrible Priests.

69 But truely I thinke brother Bridges that Titus was neyther Archbishop nor Deane of Sarum.

70 The reason of Archbishop Titus is no popish reason.

71 Or so manie Simonical promotions.

72 There is a book of this name / which the M.doctor made as they say.

73 For Antichrist / & against the gouernment of Christ.

74 This is the D. reason in very deede.

75 Simply Ile be sworn thou go so simply to worke

76 Doctor Perne

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