Work for a Cooper 2

The reverend T.C. to the reader. page 1.

I draw great danger upon myself / in defending our bishops and others the chief of the clargy of the church of England. Their adversaries are very eger: the saints in heaven have felt of their tongs / for when they speak of Paul / Peter / Mary / &c. whom others justly call saints: they in derision call them sir Peter / sir Paul / sir Marie.

Reverend Martin.

Alas poor reverend T.C. Be not afraid. Here be non but friends man. I hope thou art a good fellow / and a true subject / ye but I defend the bishops of the church of England saith he / then in deed I marvel not though thy conscience accuse thee / and thou art sure to be as well fauoredly / thwacked for thy lalour / as ever thou wast in thy life. Thy conscience I say / must needs make thee fear in defending them. For they are petty popes / and petty Antichrists as I have proved / because they are pastor of pastors / &c. thou hast not answered my reasons / and therefore swaddled thou shalt be for thy pains / and yet if thou wilt yield I will spare thee. Thou canst not be a good and a sound subject and defend the hierarchy of Lord bishops to be lawful / as I will show anon. Concerning Sir Paul / I have him not at all in my writings. And therefore the reader must know / that there is a canterbury trick once to patch up an acusation with a lie or two.

Sir Peter was the oversight of the printer / who omitted this Marginal note viz. He was not Saint Peter which had a lawful superior authority over the universal body of the church. And therefore the priest whereof Dean John speaketh was Sir Peter.

And good reverend T.C. I pray thee tell me / what kin was Saint Mary Oueries / to Mary the Virgin. In my book learning / the one was some popish Trull / & the other the blessed virgins. But will you have all those / who are saints in deed / called saints? Why then why do you not call saint Abraham / saint Sara / saint Jeremiah. If John of Canterbury should marie / tell me good T.C. dost thou not think that he would not make choice of a godly woman. I hope a would. And T.C. though you are learned / yet you go beyond your books if you said the contrary: being a godly woman / then she were a sainte. And so by your rule / her name being Marie / you would have her called sainte Marie Canterbury. But I promise thee / did his grace what he could / I would call her sir Marie Canterbury as long as he professed himself to be a priest / and this I might do lawfully. For he being sir John / why should not his wife be sir Marie. And why not sir Marie Oueries / as well as sir Marie Canterbury? I hope John of Canterbury whom I know / (though I know no great good in him) to be as honest a man as M. Oueries was / whom I did not know. Neither is there any reason why you T.C. should hold M. Oueries and his Marie / because they are within the diocese of Winchester / to be more honest then M. Canterbury and his wife. Nay there is more reason / why M. Canterbury and his wife dwelling at Lambehith / should be thought the honester of the two / then Oueries and his wife / because they dwell O the banks side. But good Tom tubtrimmer / tell me what you mean by the chief of the clergy in the Church of England? John Canterbury I am sure. Why good T.C. this speech is either blasphemous / or traitorous / or by your own confession an evident proof / that John of Canterbury is Lord over his brethren. He that is chief of the clergy / is chief of God's heritage / and that is Jesus Christ only / & so to make the pope of Canterbury chief of God's heritage / in this sense is blasphemous. If you mean by clergy / as Dean John doeth page 443. of his book / both the people and ministers of the Church of England: in this sense her Majesty is chief of the clergy in the Church of England / and so your speech is traitorous. Lastly / if by clergy you mean the ministers of the Church of England / none in this sense can be chief of the clergy / but a petty pope. For our Savior Christ flatly forbiddeth any to be chief of the clergy in this sense / Luke 22.26. And none ever claimed this unto him self but a petty pope. Therefore T.C. you are either by your own speech / a blasphemer or a traitor / or else John of Cant. is a petty pope. Here is good spoonemeat for a Cooper. Take heed of writing against Martin / if you love your ease.

Reverend T.C. page 2. Epistle.

But I fear them not / while I go about to maintain the dignity of priests.

Reverend Martin.

Well fare a good heart yet / stand to thy tackling / and get the high commission to send abroad the purciuants / and I warrant thee thou wilt do something. Alas good priests / that their dignity is like to fall to the ground. It is pity it should be so / they are such notable pulpit men. There is a neighbor of ours / an honest priest / who was sometimes (simple as he now stands) a vice in a play for want of a better / his name is Gliberie of Hawsteade in Essex / he goes much to the pulpit. On a time / I think it was the last Maie / he went up with a full resolution / to do his business with great commendations. But see the fortune of it. A boy in the Church / hearing either the summer Lord with his Maie game / or Robin Hood with his Morrice dance going by the Church / out goes the boy. Good Gliberie / though he were in the pulpit / yet had a mind to his old companions abroad (a company of merry grigs you must think them to be / as merry as a vice on a stage) seeing y ^e boy going out / finished his matter presently with John of London's Amen, saying / ha / ye faith boie / are they there / then ha w ^t thee / & so came down & among them he goes. Were it not then pity / that the dignity of such a priest should decaie. And I would gentle T.C. that you would take the pains to write a treatise against the boie with the red cap / which put this Gliberie out of his matter at another time. For Glibery being in the pulpit / so fastened his eyes upon a boy with a red cap / that he was clean dashed out of countenance / in so much that no note could be hard from him at that time / but this. Take away red cap there / take away red cap there: it had been better that he had never been borne / he hath marred such a sermon this day / as it is wonderful to think. The Queen and the Counsel might well have heard it for a good sermon / & so came down. An admonition to the people of England / to take heed of boi •… s with red caps / which make them set light by the dignity of their priests / would do good in this time / brother T.C. you know well.

Reverend T.C.

The cause why we are so spighted / is because we do endeavor to maintain the laws which her Majesty and the whole state of the Realm have allowed / and do not admit a new platform of government / devised I know not by whom.

Reverend Martin.

Why T.C. say Eulojin for Eulogein as often as you will / and I will never spite you / or the Bishop of Winchester either for the matter. But do you think our Church government / to be good and lawful because hir Majesty and the state / who maintain the reformed religion alloweth the same? Why the Lord doth not allow it / therefore it cannot be lawful. And it is the fault of such wretches as you bishops are / that her Majesty and the state alloweth the same. For you should have other / wise instructed them. They know you not yet so thoroughly as I do. So that if I can prove / that the Lord disliketh our Church government / your endeavors to maintain the same / show that thereby you cannot choose / but be traitors to God and his word / whatsoever you are to her Majesty and the State. Now T.C. look to yourself / for I will presently make all the hoops of your bishoppricks fly asunder. Therefore

Our Church government, is an unlawful Church government, and not allowed in the sight of God.

Because

That church government is an unlawful church government / the offices and officers whereof / the civil magistrate may lawfully abollish out of the church / mark my craft in reasoning brother T.C. I say the offices and officers for I grant that the magistrate may thrust the officers of a lawful church government out of the church if they be Diotripheses / Mar-elmes / Whitgifts / Simon Maugustes / Coopers / Pernes / Kenoldes / or any such like Iudases / (though the most of these must be packing offices and all) but their offices must stand / that the same may be supplied by honester men. But the offices of Archbishops and bishops / and therefore the officers much more / may be lawfully abolished out of the church by her Majesty and our State. And truly this were brave weather to turn them out: it is pity to keep them in any longer. And that would do me good at the heart, to see John of London / and the rest of his brethren so discharged of his business / as he might freely run in his cassocke and hose after his bowle / or flourish with his 2. hand sword. O tis a sweet trunchfiddle.

But the offices of Archbishops and bishops / may be lawfully abolished out of the church by her Majesty / and the state. As I hope one day they shall be. Therefore (mark now T.C. and carry me this conclusion to John O Lambehith for his breakfast) our church government by Arch. and bishops / is an unlawful church government. You see brother Cooper / that I am very courteous in my minor / for I desire therein no more offices to be thrust out of the church at one time / but Archb. and Bishops. As for Deans Archdeacons and Chancellors / I hope they will be so kind unto my Lord's grace / as not to stay / if his worship and the rest of the noble clergy Lord's wear turned out to grass. I will presently prove both major and minor of this sillogisme. And hold my cloak there sombody / that I may go roundly to work. For ise so bumfeg the Cooper / as he had been better to have hooped half the tubbes in Winchester / then write against my worships pistles.

No civil maiestrat may lawfully either maim or deform the body of Christ / which is the church / but whosoever doth abollish any lawful church officer / out of the church government / he doth either maim or deform the church. Therefore T.C. no civil magistrate / no prince / no state / may without sin abollishe any lawful officer / together with his office / out of the government of the church / and per consequence, the offices of Archbishops and Lord bishops / which her Majesty may without sin lawfully abollish out of the church / are no lawful church officers / and therefore also / the church government practiced by John Whitgift / John Mar-elme / Richard Peterborow / William of Lincoln / Edmond of Worcestor / yea and by that old stealecounter mass priest / John O Glossester / with the rest of his brethren / is to be presently thrust out of the church. And me thinks this gear cottons in deed my masters. And I told you T.C. that you should be thumped for defending bishops. Take heed of me while you live. The minor of my last sillogisme / that whosoever doth abollish the office of any lawful thurch officer out of the church / he either maimeth or deformeth the church / I can prove with a wet finger. Because every lawful Church officer / even by reason of his office / is a member of the body of Christ Jesus / which is the church / and being a member of the body / If the magistrate doth displace him by abollishing his office / and leaveth the place thereof void / then the magistrate maimeth the body. If he put another office unto an officer instead thereof / he deformeth the same. Because the magistrate hath neither the skil nor the commission / to make the members of the body of Christ. Because he cannot tell to what use / the members of his making may serve in the church. Do you think T.C. that the maiestrat may make an eye for the visible body of the church. (For you must understand / that we all this while speak of the visible body) can he make a foot or a hand for that body? I pray you in what place of the body would you have them placed? If our Savior Christ hath left behind him a perfect body: surely he hath left therein no place or / no use for members of the maiestrates making & invention: if an imperfect and maimed body / I am well assured that the magistrate is not able to perfect that which he left unfinished. But I hope T.C. that thou wilt not be so mad / and wicked / as to say that our Savior Christ / left behind him here on earth an imperfect and maimed body. If not / then where shall these offices / namely these members invented by the magistrate be placed therein.

Would you have the natural eyes put out (as your brethren the bishops have don in the church of England / ever since John of Canterbury urged his wretched subscription) and unnatural squint gogled eyes put in their steed: when the body cannot see with any eyes / but with the natural eyes thereof / displace them howsoever you may seme to help the matter / by putting others in their steed / yet the body shall be still blind and maimed. What say you T.C. may the Maiestrate cut of the true and natural legs / and hands of the body of Christ / under a pretence to put wooden in their steed. I hope you will not say that he may. How then cometh it to pass T.C. that you hold John of Canterbury his office / and John Mar-elms to be true and natural members of the body / that is true officers of the church / and yet hold it laweful for her Majesty to displace them out of the church. I-cannot tell brother what you hold in this point. Me think I have disturbed your senses. Do you think that the maiestrat may displace the true members of the body of Christ / and place wooden in their steed. Why this is to hold it lawful for the magistrate to massacre the body. Do you think he may not? Then may not her majesty displace John of Canterburies office out of our church: if she may not displace his office / then either he by virtue of his office / is a lawful Pope above all civil magistrates / or else the Church government is so prescribed in the word / as it is not lawful for the magestrate to alter the same. But John of Canterbury / as the puritans their selves confess / is no Pope. Then either the church government is so prescribed in the word as it may not be altered / or else the magestrat may abolish a lawful church government / and place another instead thereof. If the Church government be so prescribed in the word / as it cannot be altered / then either our government is y ^e same which was therein prescribed / or our Church government is a false Churchgouerment. If ours be the same which is mentioned in the word: Then Paul and Peter were either no true Church governors / or else Paul and Peter / and the rest of Church governors in their time were Lord's / for all our Church governors are Lord's. But Paul and Peter / &c. were no Lord's / and yet true church governors. Therefore our Church government is not that which is prescribed in the word: and therefore a false and unlawful church government. If you think that the magistrate may displace the lawful offices of the body / then as I said before / you hold it lawful for the magistrate to maim or deform the body. Because whatsoever he pulleth in the room of the true and right members / must needs be a deformity / and what place soever he leaveth unfurnished of a member / must needs be a maim. And this is the only and sole office of Christ only / to place and displace the members of his body: to wit / the officers of his Church / he may lawfully do it / so cannot man. And therefore the sots (of which number you T.C. and you John Whitgift / and you Dean John / and you D. Coosins / and you D. Copcot / with the rest of the ignorant and wretched defendors of our corrupt church government are to be accounted) which think that the offices of pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / or the most of them / may be as well now wanting in the Church / as the offices of Apostles / prophets and Evangelists: do notably bewray their vile ignorance / but the cause they do not hurt. For the beasts do not consider that the offices of Apostles / Evangelists and Prophets / were removed out of the church / not by man / but by the Lord / because he in his wisdom did not see any use of such members in his body / after the time of the first planting of the Church. I say they were removed by the Lord himself and not by man: because / partly the gifts wherewith they were endued / partly the largeness of their commission / with certain other essential properties to them belonging / were by him abrogated and taken away / which no man could do. Again / the Apostolical / Evangelical and prophetical callings / were either lawfully or unlawfully abolished out of the Church / if lawfully / then they were abolished by the Lord: & therefore they are neither to be called back until he showeth it to be his pleasure that it should be so / neither can the church be truly said to be maimed for want of them: because he which could best tell / what members were fit for his Church did abolish them. If unlawfully / then those callings may be lawfully called back again into the church / & the church without them is maimed / that is / wanteth some members. For if their callings were injuriously abrogated / they are as injuriously kept out of the church: & being members of the church / the church is maimed without / unless the Lord hath shown / that the time of their service in the body is expired. But they are not injuriously kept out (for so her Majesty should be said to injury the church / unless she would see Apostles / prophets and Evangelists / planted therein) neither can the church be said to be maimed for want of them / because the Lord by taking them away hath declared / that now there can be no use of them in the body: therefore the Lord abrogated them. Therefore also they may be wanting / & the church neither maimed nor deformed thereby. Whereas the keeping out of either of the former offices of pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / is a maiming of the church / the placing of others in their steed / a deforming. Now reverend T.C. I beseech you entreat mistress Cooper / to write to M.D. Day / sometimes of magdalins / that he may procure D. Cooper / to know of him that was the last Thomas of Lincoln / whether the now B. of Winchester be not persuaded / that reverend Martin hath suffiently proved it to be unlawful / for the civil magestrate / to abolish any lawful church officer out of the church. Because it is unlawful for him to maim or deform the body of Christ / by displacing the members thereof. But it may be / your Coopers noddle profane T.C. doubteth / (for I know you to be as ignorant in these points / as John Whitgift / or dean John their selves.)

Whether a lawful Church officer, in regard of his office, be a member of the body of Christ, which is the Church.

Therefore look Rom. 12. verse. 4.5. &c. and there you shall see / that whosoever hath an office in the body / is a member of the body. There also you shall see / that he that teacheth / which is the Doctor: he y ^t exhorteth / which is the Pastor: he that ruleth / which is the Elder: he that distributeth / which is the Deacon (as for him that showeth mercy that is there spoken off / he is but a church servant / and no church officer) There I say / you shall also see / that these 4. offices / of Pastors / Doctors / Eleders & Deacons / are members of the body: and 1. Cor. 12.8. & 28. you shall see that God hath ordained them. Out of all / which hitherto I have spoken T.C. I come upon you / & your bishopprickes / with 4. or 5. (yea half a dozen and need be) such dry soopes / as John of London with his two hand sword never gave the like. For they answer your whole profane book. First / that the platform of government / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and deacons / which you say was devised you know not by whom / is the invention of our Savior Christ. For God ordained them / saith the apostle / 1. cor. 12.8.28. And therefore unless you will show yourself / either to be a blasphemer / by terming Jesus Christ / to be you cannot tell whom / or else to be ignorant who is Jesus Christ: you must needs acknowledge the platform of government / which you say / was invented by you know not whō / to have Christ Jesus for the author thereof.

Secondly / that the word of God teacheth / that of necessity / the government by Pastors / doctors / elders / &c. ought to be in every Church / which is neither maimed nor deformed. Because that Church must needs be maimed which wanteth those menbers / which the Lord hath appointed to be therein: unless the Lord himself hath / by taking those members away / shown that now his body is to have no use of them. But as hath been said / God hath ordained pastors / doctors / elders and deacons to be in his Church / proved out of Rom. 12.6.7.8. 1. cor. 12.8.28. ephe. 4.12. And he hath not taken these officers away out of his church / because the Church hath continual need of them. As of Pastors to feed with the word of wisdom: of the Doctors / to feed with the word of knowledge / and both to build up his body in the unity of faith: of Elders / to watch and oversee men's manners: of Deacons to look unto the poor / and church treasury. Therefore / where these 4. officers are wanting / there the Church is imperfect in her regiment.

Thirdly that this government cannot be inconvenient for any State or kingdom. For is it inconvenient for a State or kingdom / to have the body of Christ perfect therein?

Fourthly that every Christian magestrate is bound to receue this government / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders & deacons into the church / within his dominions / whatsoever inconvenience may be likely to follow the receuing of it. Because no likelihood of inconvenience ought to induce the magistrate willingly to permit the church under his government / to be maimed or deformed.

Fifthly that the government of the church by Lord Archbishops and bishops / is a government of deformed and unshapen members / serving for no good use in the church of God. Because it is not the government by pastors / doctors elders and deacons / which as I have shown are now the only true membes / that is the only true officers of the visible body.

Sixthly and lastly. That they who defend this false and bastardly government of Archbishops and bishops / and withstand this true & natural government of the church / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and deacons / are likely in awhile to become / Mar-prince / Mar-state / Mar-law / Mar-magestrate / Mar-common wealth. As for Mar-church / and Mar-religion / they have long since proved them selves to be.

These six points do necessarily follow / of that which before I have set down / namely that it is not lawful for any to abollish or alter / the true and lawful government of the church / because it is not lawful for them to maim or deform the body of the church.

And I chaleng you T.C. and you Dean John / and you John Whitgift / and you D. Coosins: and you D. Copcot / and all the rest that will or dare defend our established Church government / to be tried with me in a judgment of life and death / at any bar in England in this point. Namely /

That you must needs be, not only traitors to God and his word, but also enemies unto hir Majesty and the land, in defending the established Church government to be lawful.

You see the accusation which I lay to your charge / and here followeth the proof of it. They who defend that the prince and state / may bid God to battle against them / they are not only traitors against God and his word / but also enemies to the Prince and state. I think John of Gloucester himself / will not be so senseless as to deny this.

But our Archbishops and bishops / which hold it lawful for her majesty and the state / to retain this established form of government / and to keep out the government by pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / which was appointed by Christ / whom you profane T.C. cal you know not whom / hold it lawful for her majesty and the state to bid God to battle against them. Because they bid the Lord to battle against them which maim and deform the body of Christ / viz. the church. And they as • as declared maim & deform the body of the church / which keep out the lawful offices / appointed by the Lord to be members thereof / & in their steed / place other wooden members of the inuenteon of man. Therefore you T.C. and you Dean John / and you John Whitgift / and you the rest of the beastly defendors of the corrupt church government / are not only traitors to God and his word / but enemies to her majesty and the state. Like you any of these Nuts John Canterbury. I am not disposed to jest in this serious matter. I am called Martin Marprelat. There be many that greatly dislike of my doings. I may have my wants I know. For I am a man. But my course I know to be ordinary and lawful. I saw the cause of Christ's government / and of the Bishops Antichristian dealing to be hidden. The most part of men could not be gotten to read anything / written in the defense of the 〈◊〉 and against the other. I bethought me therefore / of a way whereby men might be drawn to do both / perceiving the humors of men in these times (especially of those that are in any place) to be given to mirth. I took that course. I might lawfully do it. I / for jesting is lawful by circumstances / even in the greatest matters. The circumstances of time / place and persons urged me thereunto. I never profaned the word in any jest. Other mirth I used as a covert / wherein I would bring the truth into light. The Lord being the author both of mirth and gravity / is it not lawful in it self / for the truth to use either of these ways / when the circumstances do make it lawful?

My purpose was and is to do good. I know I have don no harm howsoever some may judge Martin to mar all. They are very weak one that so think. In that which I have written I know undoubtedly / that I have done the Lord and the state of this kingdom great service. Because I have in some sort / discovered the greatest enemies thereof. And by so much the most pestilent enemies / because they wound God's relligion / and corrupt the state with Atheism and loosnes / and so cal for God's vengeance upon us all / even under the color of relligion. I affirm them to be the greatest enemies that now our state hath / for if it were not for them / the truth should have more free passage herein / then now it hath. All states thereby would be amended: and so we should not be subject unto God's displeasure / as now we are by reason of them.

Now let me deal with these that are in authority. I do make it known unto them / that our bishops are the greatest enemies which we have. For they do not only go about / but they have long since / fully persuaded our state / that they may lawfully procure the Lord / to take the sword in hand against the state: if this be true / have I not said truly / that they are the gretest enemies which our state hath. The papists work no such effect / for they are not trusted. The Atheists have not infected our whole state / these have. The attempts of our foreign enemies may be pernicious. But they are men as we are. But that God / which when our bishops have / and do make our prince / and our governors to wadge war / who is able to stand against him?

Well to the point / many have put her majesty / the parliament & counsel in mind / that the church officers now among us / are not such as the Lord alloweth of: because they are not of his own ordaininge. They have shown that this fault is to be amended / or the Lord's hand to be looked for. The bishops on the other side / have cried out upon them / that have thus dutifully moved the state. They with a loud voice gave out / that the maiestrat may lawfully maintain that church government / which best fitteth our estate / as living in y ^e time of peace. What do they else herein / but say that the magestrat in time of peace / may maim and deform the body of Christ his church. That Christ hath left the government of his own house imperfect / and left the same to the discretion of the magestrate / whereas Moses before whom in this point of government / the Lord Christ is justly preferred / Heb. 3.6. made the government of the legal polity so perfcet / as he left not any parte thereof / to the discretion of the magestrate. Can they deny church officers / to be members of the church. They are refuted by the express text. 1. Cor. 12. will they affirm Christ to have left behind him an imperfect body of his church / wanting members at the lest wise / having such members as were only permanent at the magestrates pleasure. Why Moses the servant / otherwise governed the house in his time. And the son is commended in this point for wisdom / and faithfulness before him. Heb 3.6. Either then / that commendation of the son before the servant / is a false testimony / or the son ordained a permanent government in his church. If permanent / not to be changed. What then / do they that hold it may be changed at the magestrates pleasure / but advise the magistrate by his positive laws / to proclaim that it is his will / that if there shall be a church within his dominions / he will maim and deform the same. He will ordain therein / what members he thinketh good. He will make it known / that Christ under his government / shall be made less faithful then Moses was. That he hath left the placing of members in his body unto the magestrate. O cursed beasts / that bring this guilt upon our estate. Repent Caitifes while you have time. You shall not have it I fear when you will. And look you that are in authority unto the equity of the controversy / between our wicked bishops / and those who would have the disorders of our Church amended. Take heed you be not carried away with slanders. Christ's government is neither Mar-prince / Mar-state / Mar-law nor Mar-magistrate. The living God whose cause is pleaded for / will be revenged of you / if you give ear unto this slander / contrary to so many testimonies as are brought out of his word / to prove the contrary. He denounceth his wrath against all you / that think it lawful for you / to maim or deform his church: he accounteth his Church maimed / when those offices are therein placed / which he hath not appointed to be members thereof: he also testifieth that there be no menbers of his appointment in the Church / but such as he himself hath named in his word / and those that he hath named / man must not displace / for so he should put the body out of joint. Now our bishops holding the contrary / and bearing you in hand / that you may practice the contrary / do they not drive you to provoke the Lord to anger against your own souls? And are they not your enemies? They hold the contrary I say / for they say that her Majesty may alter this government now established / and thereby they show either this government to be unlawful / or that the magistrate may presume to place those members in God's Church / which the Lord never mentioned in his word. And I beseech you mark howe the case standeth between these wretches / & those whom they call puritans.

1 The puritans (falsely so called) show it to be unlawful for the magistrate / to go about to make any members for the body of Christ.

2 They hold all officers of the Church / to be members of the body / Rom. 12.6. 1. cor. 12.8.28.

3 And therefore they hold the altering / or the abolishing of the offices of church government / to be the altering & abolishing of the members of the Church.

4 The altering & abolishing of which members / they hold to be unlawful / because it must needs be a maim unto the body.

5 They hold Christ Jesus to have set down as exact / and as unchangeable a church government / as ever Moses did. Heb. 3.6.

These and such like are the points they hold / let their cause be tried / and if they hold any other points in effect but these / let them be hanged every man of them.

Now I demand / whether they that hold the contrary in these pointes / and cause the State to practice the contrary / be not outrageous wicked men / and dangerous e / nemies of the state / it cannot be denied but they are. Because the contrary practice of any the former points / is a way to work the ruin of the state.

Now our Bishopps hold the contrary unto them all / save the 3. and 2. points / whereunto it may be they will yield / & cause our estate to practice the contrary: whence at the length / our destruction is like to proceed. For

1 They deny Christ Jesus to have set down as exact / and as unchangeable a form of church government as Moses did. For they say / that the magistrate may change the church government established by Christ / so could he not do that / prescribed by Moses.

2 In holding all offices of the Church to be members of the body / (for if they be not members / what should they do in the body) they hold it lawful for the magistrate to attempt the making of new members for that body.

3 The altering or abollishing of these members by the magistrates / they hold to be lawful. And therefore the maiming or deforming.

Now you wretches (Archb. and L. Bishops I mean) you Mar-state / Mar-law / Mar-prince / Mar-maiestrat Mar-commonwealth / Mar-church / and Mar-religion Are you able for your lives / to answer any part of the former syllogism / whereby you are concluded / to be the greatest enemies unto her Majesty and the State? You dare not attempt it I know. For you cannot deny / but they who hold it and defend it lawful / (yea enforce the magistrate) to maim or deform the body of Christ / are utter enemies unto that magistrate / and that state / wherein this disorder is practiced. You cannot deny yourselves to do this / unto our magistrate and State: because you bear them in hand / that a lawful church government / may consist of those offices / which the magistrate may abollishe out of the church without sin: and so / that the magistrate may lawfully cut off the members of Christ from his body / and so may lawfully massacre the body. You are then the men by whom our estate is most likely to be overthrown / you are those that shall answer for our blood which the Spaniard / or any other enemies are like to spil / without the Lord's great mercy: you are the persecutors of your brethren / (if you may be accounted brethren) you & your hirelings are not only the wound / but the very plague and pestilence of our church. You are those who maim / deform / vex / persecute / grieve / & wound the church. Which keep the same in captivity & darkness / defend the blind leaders of the blind / slander / revile and deform Christ's holy government / that such broken and wooden members as you are / may be still maintained / to have the romes of the true and natural members of the body. Tel me I pray / whether the true and natural members of the body may be lawfully cut of by the magestrate. If you should say they may / I know no mā would abide the speech. What? May the maiestrat cut of the true and natural members / of the body of Christ? O impudency / not to be tolerated. But our magestrate / that is her majesty / and our state / may lawfully by your own confession / cut you of / that is displace you and your offices out of our church. Deny this if you dare Then in deed it shall appear / that John of Canturbury meaneth to be a Pope in deed / & to have the sovereignty over the civil magestrate. Then will you show yourself in deed / to be Mar-prince / Mar-law & Mar-state. Now if the magestrate may displace you as he may then you are not the true members. Then you are (as in deed you ought) to be thrust out / unless the magestrate would incur the wrath of God / for maiming and deforminge the body of the church / by joining unnatural members thereunto.

Answer but this reason of mine / and then hang those that seek reformation / if ever again they speak of it / if you do not / I will give you little quiet. I fear you not. If the magestrate will be so overseen as to believe / that because you which are the maim of the church are spoken against / therefore they / namely our prince & state / which are God's lieftenaunts / shall be in like sort / dealt with / this credulity will be the magestrates sin. But I know their wisdom to be such as they will not. For what reason is this / which you profane T.C. have used. pag. 103.

The sinful / the unlawful / the broken / unnatural / false and bastardly governors of the church / to wit archb. and bishops / which abuse even their false offices / are spoken against. Therefore the true / natural and lawful / and just governors of the common wealth / shall be likewise shortly misliked. Ah senseless and undutiful beasts / that dare compare yourselves with our true magestrates / which are the ordinances of God / with yourselves / that is / with Archbishops and bishops / which as you yourselves confess (I will by and by prove this) are the ordinances of the Devil.

I know I am disliked of many which are your enemies / that is of many which you cal puritans. It is their weakness / I am threatened to be hanged by you. What though I were hanged / do you think your cause shall be the better. For the day that you hange Martin / assure yourselves / there will 20. Martins spring in my place. I mean not now you gross beasts / of any commotion as profane T.C. like a senseless wretch / not able to understand an English phrase / hath given out upon that which he calleth the threatening of fistes. Assure yourselves / I will prove Marprelat ere I have don with you. I am alone. No man under heaven is privy / or hath been privy unto my writings against you / I used the advise of non therein. You have and do suspect diverse, as master Paggett / master Wiggington / master Udall / & master Penri / &c. to make Martin. If they cannot clear their selves their silliness is pitiful / and they are worthy to bear Martins punishment. Well once again answer my resons / both of your Antichristian places in my first epistle unto you / and these now used against you. Otherwise the wisdom of the magistrate must needs smell what you are. And cal you to a reckoning / for deceauing them soe long / making them to suffer the church of Christ under their government to be maimed and deformed.

Your reasons for the defense of your hierarchy / and the keeping out of Christ's government / used by this profane T.C. are already answered. They show what profane beasts you are. I will here repeat them. But here first the reader is to know what answer this T.C. maketh unto the syllogisms / whereby I prove all L. bishops to be petty popes / and petty Antichrists. I assure you no other then this / he flattly denieth the coiclusion / whereas he might (if he had any learning in him / or had read anything) know / that every dunstical logician / giveth this for an inviolable precept / that the conclusion is not to be denied. For that must needs be true / if the major and minor be true / he in omitting the major and minor / because he was not able to answer thereby / granteth the conclusion to be true. His answer unto the conclusion is / that all lord Gb. were not petty popes. Because pag. 74. Cranmer / Ridley / Hooper / were not petty Popes. They were not petty popes / because they were not reprobates. As though you block you / every petty pope and petty Antichrist were a reprobate. Why no man can deny Gregory the great / to be a pettye Pope / and a petty & petty Antichrist. For he was the next immediate pope before Boniface the first / that known Antichrist: and yet this Gregory left behind him / undoubted testimonies of a chosen child of God: so might they / & yet be petty Popes / in respect of their office. Profane T.C. his 1. and 2. reason / for y ^e lawfulness of our church government. And what though good men gave their consent unto our church government / or writing unto bishops / gave them their lordly titles? Are their offices therefore lawful / then soe is the popes office. For Erasmus was a good man you cannot deny / and yet he both allowed of the popes office since his calling / and writing unto him / gave him his titles. So did Luther / since his calling also / for he dedicated his book of Christian liberty unto pope Leo the tenth. The book & his Epistle unto the Pope / are both in English. Here I would wish the magistrate / to mark what good reasons you are able to afford for your hierarchy.

Thirdly / saith profane T.C. page 75. All Churches have not the government of Pastors and Doctors: but Saxoni and Denmake / have L. bishops. You are a great State man undoubtedly T.C. that understand / the state of other Churches so well. But herein the impudency of a proud fool appeareth egregiously. As though the testimony of a siely Schoolmaster / being also as unlearned / as a man of that trade and profession can be / with any honesty / would be believed against known experience. Yea / but Saxony and Denmark have Superintendents / what then? ergo L. Archb. and bishops? I deny it. Though other Churches had L. Archb. and Bb. this proveth nothing else / but that other Churches are maimed and have their imperfections. Your reason is this / other good Churches are deformed / therefore ours must needs be so to. The kings son is lame / therefore the children of no subjects must go upright. And these be all the good reasons which you can bring for the government of Archb. and bishops / against the government of Christ. You reason thus. It must not be admitted into this kingdom / because then Ciuillians shall not be able to live / in that estimation / and wealth / wherein they now do. Carnal and senseless beasts / who are not ashamed to prefer / the outward estate of men / before the glory of Christ's kingdom. Here again / let the magestrate and other readers consider / whether it be not time / that such brutish men / should be looked unto. Which reason thus. The body of Christ which is the church / must needs be maimed and deformed in this common wealth / because otherwise ciuillians should not be able to live. Why you enemies to the state / you traitors to God and his word / you Mar-prince / Mar-law / Mar-magestrate / Mar-church / and Mar-common wealth: do you not know that the world should rather go a begging / then that the glory of god by maiming his church / should be defaced? Who can abide this indignity. The prince and state / must procure god to wrath against them / by continuing the deformity of his church / and it may not be otherwise / because the ciuilians else must fall to decay. I will tell you what / you monstrous & ungodly bishops / though I had no fear of God before mine eyes / and had no hope of a better life / yet the love that I owe / as a natural man / unto her majesty and the state would enforce me to write against you: her majesty and this kingdom / (whom the Lord bless / with his mighty hand / I unfeignedly beseech) must endanger them selves under the peril of God's heavy wrath / rather then the maim of our church government must be healed / for we had rather it should be so / say our bishops / then we should be thrust out / for if we should be thrust out / the study of the civil law / must needs go to wrack. Well / if I had lived sometimes a citizen / in that old and ancient (though heathenish) Rome / and had heard king D • iotarus / Caesar / yea or Pompei himself give out this speech / namely: that the city and empire of Rome must needs be brought subject unto some danger / because otherwise / Catelin / Lentulus / Cethegus / with other of the nobility / could not tell how to live / but must needs go a begging. I would surely / in the love I ought to the safety of that state / have called him that had used such a speech / in judicium capitis, whosoever he had been: and I would not have doubted to have given him the overthrow. And shall I being a Christian English subject / abide to hear a wicked crew of ungodly bishops / with their hangones and parasites / affirm that our Queen / and our State / must needs be subject unto the greatest danger that may be / viz. the wrath of God / for deforming his Church / and that God's Church must needs be maimed and deformed among us / because otherwise / a few Ciuillians shall not be able to live. Shall I hear and see these things professed and published / and in the love I owe unto God's religion and her Majesty / say nothing. I cannot / I will not / I may not be silent at this speech: come what will come of it. The love of a Christian Church / prince and state / shall I trust / work more in me / then the love of a heathen Empire and state should do. Now judge good reader / who is more tolerable in a commonwealth / Martin that would have the enemies of her Majesty removed thence / or our bishops which would have her life / and the whole kingdoms prosperity hazarded / rather then a few Ciuillians should want maintenance. But I pray thee tell me T.C. why should the government of Christ impoverish Ciuillians? Because saith he / pag. 77. the Canon law by which they live / must be altered / if that were admitted. Yea but Ciuillians live by the court of Amraltie / & other courts as well as by the Arches / viz. also the probatts of Testaments / the controversies of tithes / matrimony / and many other causes / which you bishops Mar-state / do vsurpingly take from the civil magistrate / would be a means of Ciuillians maintenance. But are not you ashamed / to profess your whole government / to be a government ruled by the Popes Canon laws / which are bannished by statute out of this kingdom? This notably showeth that you are Mar-prince and Mar-state. For howe dare you retain these laws / unless by virtue of them / you mean either to enforce the supremacy of the prince to go again to Rome / or to come to Lambeth. It is treson by Statute / for any subject in this land / to proceed doctor of the Canō law / and dare you profess your church government to be ruled by that law. As though one statute might not refer all matters of the Canon law / unto the temporal & common law of this Realm: and is this all you can say / T.C.

Yes saith he / the government of Christ / would bring [unspec 2] in the judicial law of Moses. As much as is moral of that law / or of the equity of it / would be brought in. And do you gainsay it. But you sodden headed Ass you / the most part of that law is abrogated. Some part thereof is in force among us / as the punishment of a murderer by death / and presumptuous obstinate theft by death / &c. Hir [unspec 3] Majesty's prerogative in ecclesiastical causes / should not be a whit diminished / but rather greatly strengthened by Christ's government. And no law should be altered / but such as were contrary to the law of God / & against the profit of the common wealth: and therefore there can be no danger in altering these.

The ministers maintenance by tythe / no puritane denieth [unspec 4] to be unlawful. For Martin (good M. Parson) you must understand / doth account no Brownist to be a puritane / nor yet a sottish Cooperist.

The inconvenience which you show of the government [unspec 5] which is that men would not be ruled by it / is answered afore. And I pray you / why should they not be better obedient unto God's law / if the same also were established by the law of the lande / then to the Popes law and his Canons. You think that all men are like yourselves: that is / like bishops / such as cannot choose but break the laws and good orders of God and her Majesty.

[unspec 7] The laws of England have been made / when there was never a bishop in the Parliament / as in the first yere of her Majesty. And this reason as all the rest / may serve to maintain popery / as well as the hierarchy of Bb.

[unspec 8] The government of the church of Christ / is no popular government / but it is Monarchical / in regard of our head Christ / Aristocratical in the Eldership / and Democratical in the people. Such is the civil government of our kingdom: Monarchical in her Majesty's person: Aristocratical in the higher house of Parliament / or rather at the Council table: Democratical in the body of the commons of the lower house of Parliament. Therefore profane T.C. this government seeketh no popularity to be brought into the Church: much less intendeth the alteration of the civil state / that is but your slander / of which you make an occupation. And I will surely pay you for it. I must be brief now / but more warke for Cooper shall examine your slanders. They are nothing else but prooffes / that as by your own confessions you are bishops of the Devil / so you are enemies unto the state. For by these slanders / you go about to blind our state / that they may never see a perfect regiment of the Church in our days. I say / that by your own confession / you are bishops of the Devil. I will prove it thus. You confess that your Lordly government / were not lawful and tolerable in this cōmonwealth / if her Majesty & the state of the land did disclaim the same. Tell me / do you not confess this. Denie it if you dare. For will you say / that you ought lawfully to be here in our commonwelth whether her Majesty and the Counsel will or no: Is this the thanks that her Majesty shall have / for tolerating you in her kingdom all this while / that now you will say / that you and your places stand not in this kingdom by her courtesy / but you have as good right unto your places / as she hath unto her kingdom. And by this means your offices stand not by her good liking / and the good liking of the state / as do the offices of our L. high Chancellor / high Treasurer / and high Steward of England. But your offices ought to stand & to be in force / in spite of her Majesty / the Parliament / Counsel / and every man else / unless they would do you injury. Soe that I know / I / you dare not deny but that your offices wear unlawful in our common wealth / if her Majesty the Parliament / and the Counsel would have them abolished. If you grant this / then you do not hold your offices as from God / but as from man. Her majesty she holdeth hir office / and her kingdom / as from God / and is beholding for the same / unto no prince nor state under heaven. Your case is otherwise / for you hold your offices as from her Majesty / & not from god. For otherwise / you needed not to be anymore beholding unto her Majesty for the same in regard of right / then she is bound to be beholding unto other states in regard of her right: and so you in regard of your Lordly superiority / are not the bishops of god / but as Jerome saith / the bishops of man. And this the most of you confess to be true / and you see how dangerous it would be for you / to affirm the contrary: namely / that you hold your offices as from god. Well sir / if you say that you are the bishops of man. Thē tell me whether you like of Dean John his book. O yes saith T.C. For his grace did peruse that book / & we know the sufficiency of it to be such / as the Puritans are not able to answer it. Well then / whatsoever is in this book is authentical. It is so / saith T.C. otherwise / his grace would not have allowed it. What say you then to the 140. page of that book / where he saith / (answering the treatise of the bishop of God / the bishop of Man / and the bishop of the Devil) that there is no biship of man at all / but every B. must be either the Bishopp of God / or the Bishop of the Devil. He also affirmeth / none to be the bishop of god / but he which hath warrant / both inclusively and also expressly in gods word. Now you Bishops of the Devil / what say you now / are you spighted of the Puritans / because you like good subjects dofend the laws of her Majesty / or else because like incarnate Devils / you are bishops of the Devils / as you yourselves confess.

Here again / let the Magistrate once more consider / what pestilent and dangerous beasts these wretches are unto the civil state. For either by their own confession / they are the Bishops of the Devil (and so by that means will be the undoing of the state / if they be continued therein) or else their places ought to be in this commonwealth whether her Majesty and our state will or no: because they are not (as they say) the bishops of man / that is / they have not their superiority / and their Lordly callings over their brethren by human constitution / as my LL. Chancellor / Treasurer / and other honorable personages have / but by divine ordinance. Yea / & their callings / they hold (as you have heard) not only to be inclusively / but also expressly in the word. What shift will they use to avoid this point? Are they the Bishopps of men / that is / hold they their jurisdiction as frō men. No saith Dean Gridges / no saith John of Canterbury and the rest of them / (for all of them allow this book of John Bridges) for then we are the bishops of the devil / we cannot avoid it? Are they then the bishops of God / that is / have they such a calling as the Apostles / Evangelists / &c. had: that is / such a calling as ought lawfully to be in a Christian common wealth (unless the magistrate would injury the Church / yea maim / deform / and make a monster of the Church) whether the magistrate will or no. We have say they. For our callings are not only inclusively / but also expressly in the word. So that by Dean Bridges his confession / and the approbation of John Canterbury / either our bishops are bishops of the devil / or their callings cannot be defended lawful / without flat and plain treason / in overthrowing her Majesty's supremacy. And so Dean Bridges hath written / and John Whitgift hath approved and allowed / flat treason to be published.

Is Martin to be blamed for finding out and discovering traitors? Is he to be blamed for crying out against the Bb. of the Devil. If he be / then in deed have I offended in writing against bishops? If not / whether is the better subject Martin or our bishops: whether I be favored or no / I will not cease / in the love I owe to her Majesty / to write against traitors / to write against the Devils bishops. Our bishops are such by their own confession. For they protest them selves to be bishops of the Devil. If they should hold the preeminence to be from man / If they hold it otherwise then from man / they are traitors. And until this beast Docter Gridges wrote this book / they never as yet durst presume to claim their Lordships any otherwise lawful then from her majesty / yea and D. Bridges about the 60. page saith the same. But they care not what contrariety they have in their writings / what treason they hold / as long as they are persuaded that no man shall be tolerated to write against them. I have once already shown treason to be in this book of the Dean of Sarum / page. 448. I show the like now to be pag. 340. Because Dean Bridges durst not answer me. They have turned unto me in his stead / a beast whom by the length of his cares / I guess to be his brother / y ^t is / an Ass of the same kind. But I will be answered of the Dean him self in this and the former point of treason / or else / his cloister shall smoke for it. And thus profane T.C. you perceue what a good subject you are / in defending the established government. Thus also I have answered all your book in the matters of the lawfulness of the government by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and Deacons / and the unlawfulness of our bastardly Church government / by archbishops and bishops / where also the reader may see / that if ever there was a church rightly governed / that is a church without maim or deformity / the same was governed by Pastors / Doctors / elders and deacons.

whan / whan / but where have I been all this while. Ten to one among some of these puritans. Why Martin? Why Martin I say / hast tow forgotten thyself? Where hast ti been / why man / cha been a seeking for a Samons nest / and cha vound a whole crew / either of ecclesiastical traitors / or of bishops of the Devil / of broken and maimed members of the church: never wink on me good fellow / for I will speak the truth / lett the puritans do what they can. I say then that they are broken members / and I say John of Canterbury if he be a member of the church / I say he is a broken member / and that Thomas of Winchester is a Cholerick member. Yea and cha vound that profane T. C. is afraid left her Majesty should give Bishops livings away from them. And therefore shutteth his book with this position / viz. That it is not lawful to bestow such livings upon lay men / as are appointed by God's law upon ministers. But hereof more warke for Cooper shall learnedly dispute.

Reverend. T. C. Admonition page. 1. 2. 3.

We use the Ministers most vile now a days. God will punish us for it / as he did those which abused his prophets.

Reverend Martin.

Look to it T.C. then. For out of thine own mouth shalt thou be judged / thou unrighteous servant. Our bishops are they which abuse the ministers. Our bishops were never good ministers as yet / and therefore they are not to be compared with the prophets.

Reverend. T. C. Page. 4.

Some men will say / that I do great injury to the prophets and apostles / in comparing our Bishops unto thē. But we may be happy if we may have tolerable ministers in this perilous age.

Reverend Martin.

I hope T.C. that thou dost not mean to serve the church with worse then we have: what worse then John of Canterbury? worse then Tom Tubtrimmer of Winchester? worse then the vickers of Hell / syr Iefferie Jones / the parson of Micklain / &c. I pray thee / rather thē we should have a change from evil to worse / let us have the evil still. But I care not if I abide y ^e venture of the change. Therefore get John with his Canterburinesse / removed / &c. (whom thou acknowledgest to be evil) and I do not doubt / if worse come in their stead / but the devil will soon fetch them away / and so we shall be quickly rid / both of evil and worse. But good T.C. is it possible to find worse then we have. I do not marvel though thou callest me libeller / when thou darest abuse the Prophets far worse / then in calling thē libeliers: for I tell thee true / thou couldest not have any way so stained their good names / as thou hast done / in comparing them to our bishops. Call me Libeller as often as thou wilt / I do not greatly care: but and thou lovest me / never liken me to our bishops of the devil. For I cannot abide to be compared unto those. For by thine own comparison / in the 9. page / they are just Balaam's up and down.

Reverend T.C. page 8. 9. 10.

Though our bishops be as evil as Judas / the false Apostles / and Balaam / yet because they have sometimes brought unto us God's message / we must think no otherwise of them / then of God's messengers. For God will not suffer devilish and Antichristian persons to be the chief restorers of his gospel.

Reverend Martin.

First T.C. I have truly gathered thine argument / though thou namest neither Judas nor the false apostles. Prooue it otherwise. Then hast thou reverend Martin / proved thyself a liar. Now secondly then seeing it is so / I pra • e thee good honest T.C. desire our Judases (who was also one of the first Apostles) not to sell their master for money / desire our false Apostles (who preached no false doctrine for the most part) not to insult over poor Paul / & desire our good Balaam's / not to follow the wages of unrighteousness. The counsel is good. For Judas / though one of the first publishers of the gospel (so were not our bishops in our time) yet hung himself. The false apostles had their reward / I doubt not. And Balaam / as soon as ever the Israelites took him / was justly executed for his wickedness. The forced blessing wherewith he blessed thē saved him not.

Reverend T.C. page 10. 11. 12. 13.

May conjectural speeches fly abroad of bishops / as that they are covetous / give not to the poor / hinder reformation / Simoniacks / &c. but the chief governors ought to take heed / that they give no credit to any such things. I trust never any of them / committed idolatry as Aaron did.

Reverend Martin.

Yea / I beseech you that are in authority in any case / not to believe any truth against our bishops. For these puritans (although the bishops grant themselves / to be as evil as Balaam) could never yet prove the good fathers / to have committed idolatry as Aaron did. And as long as they be no worse then Balaam was / there is no reason why they should be disliked. You know this is a troublesome world / men cannot come unto any mere living without friends. And it is no reason why a man should trouble his friend and give him nothing / a hundred pounds and a gelding / is yet better then nothing. To b • w • e but seven days in a week / is a very tolerable recreation. You must know / that John of London / hath sometimes preached (as this profane T.C. hath given out to his no small commendations) thrice in a year at Paul's cross. A sore labor / it is reason that he should bestow the rest of they care / in maintaining his health by recreation / and providing for his family: give him leave but to keep out the government of the Church / to swear like a swag / to persecute / and to take some small ten in the hundred: and truly he will be loath ever to commit idolatry as Aaron did. I hope / though Judas sold his master / yet that it cannot be proved since his calling / that ever he committed idolatry.

Reverend T.C. page 16. 17.

Though bishops should offend as Noah did in drunkenness / yet good childrē should cou • r their fathers falts. For natural children / though they suffer injuries at their fathers hands / yet they take their griefs very mildly.

Reverend Martin.

Bishop Westphaling. But what then? Parson Grauat parson of sir John Pulchres in London (one of dumb John's housing mates) will be drunk but once a week. But what then? good childrē should take links in a cold morning & light them at his nose / to see if by that means some part of the fire that hath so flashed his sweet face / might be taken away: this were their duty / saith T.C & not to cry red nose / redd nose. But T.C. what if a man should find him lying in the kenill / whether should he take him up (all to be mired like a swore) in the sight of the people and • ary him home on his back or fling a cover 〈…〉 him / and let him there take his rest / until his legs would be advised by him to carry him home. But me thinks brother T.C. you defend the bishops but 〈◊〉 fauoredly in these pointes. For you do / as though a chief should say to a true man / I must needs have thy purse / thou must bear with me / it is my nature / I must needs play the thief. But yet thou dealest uncharitably with me / if thou blasest it abroad: for though I make an occupation of theft / yet charity would cover it. So say you / though our bishops make a trade of persecuting and depriving God's ministers / though they make a trade of continuing in Antichristian callings / yet charity would have their faltes covered / & have them mildly dealt with. As though T.C. there were no difference / betwixt those that fall by infirmity into someone sin / not making it their trade / and not defending the same to be lawful / and our bishops which continue in an Antichristian calling / and occupation / and defend they may do so. But will they leave think you / if they be mildly & gently dealt with. Thē good John of Canterbury / I pray thee leave thy persecuting: good John of Canterbury leave thy Popedom: good father John of London / be no more a bishop of the Devil: be no more a traitor to God and his word. And good sweet boys / all of you / become honest men: maim & deform the church no longer: sweet fathers now / make not a trade of persecuting: gentle fathers keep the people in ignorance no longer: good fathers now / maintain the dumb ministry no longer. Be the destruction of the Church no longer / good sweet babes now: leave your Nonresidencie / & your other sins / sweet Popes now: and suffer the truth to have free passage. Lo T.C. now I have mildly dealt with the good fathers / I will now expecte a while / to see whether they will amende by fair means / if not / let them not say but they have been warned.

Reverend T.C. from the 20. to the 30.

Though the bishops be faltie / yet they are not to be excused that find fault with them for synister ends. And the prince and magistrates / is to take heed that by their suggestions / they be not brought to put down L. bishops / to take away their livings / and put them to their pensions. For the putting of them to their pensions / would discourage young students from the study of divinity.

Reverend. Martin.

I thought you were afraid to loose your livings / by the courtier Martins means. But brethren fear it not. I would not have any true minister in the land / want a sufficient living. But good souls / I commend you yet / that are not so bashful / but you will show your griefs. Is it the treading under foot of the glory of God / that you fear good men. No no say they / we could resonably well bear that loss. But we die if you diminish the allowance of our Kitchen. Lett us be assured of that / and our Lordly callings / and we do not greatly care / how other matters go. I will when more work is published / help those good young students unto a means to live / though they have none of your Bishopdomes / if they will be ruled by me.

Reverend. T.C. page. 5 36.

There have been within these few weeks. 3. or 4. pamphlets published in print / against bishops. The author of them calleth him self Martin / &c.

R. Martin.

But good Tom Tubtrimmer / if there have been 3. or 4 published / why doth bishop Cooper name on only / why doth he not confute all? why doth he invent objections of his own / seeing he had 3. books more to confute / or 2. at least then he hath touched / nay / why doth he not confute one of them thoroughly / seeing therein his Bishopdome was reasonably caperclawed I have only published a Pistle / and a Pitomie / wherein also I grant that I did reasonably Pistle them. Therefore T.C. you begin with a lie / in that you say that I have published either 3. or 4. books.

Reverend. T.C. page. 38.

His grace never felt bl • w as yet / &c. What is he past seeking wilt thou tell me that T.C he sleepeth belike in the top of y ^e roust. I would not be so well thwacked for the popedom of Canter. as he hath borne poor man. He was never able to make good syllogism since I am sure. He allowed D. Bridges his book quoth T.C. I pray thee what got he by that / but a testimony against him self / that either he hath allowed treason / or confessed him self to be the bishop of the Devil.

T.C. page. 38. He that readeth his grace his answer / & M. Cartwrights reply / shall see which is the better learned of the twoe. So he shall in deed T.C. and he were very simple which could not discern that. And there is soe much answered already as thou faist / that his grace dare answer no more for shame. And T.C. you yourselves grant T. Cartwright to be learned / so did I never think John Whitgift to be / what comparison cann you make between them? But Thomas Cartwright / shall I say / that thou madest this book against me / because T.C. is set to it well take heed of it / if I find it to be thy doing / I will so besoop thee / as thou never bangedst John Whitgift better in thy life. I see here that they have quarrelled with thee Water Trauerse / John / Penri / Thomas Sparke / Giles Wiggington / Master Dauison / &c. Nay it is no matter / you are een well served / this will teach you I trow to become my chaplaines. For if you were my chaplains once / I trow John Whitgift / nor any of his / durst not once say black to your eyes. And if I had thy learning Thomas Cartwright / I would make them all to smoke. But though I were as very an Asschoad as John Catercap is / yet I could deal well enough with clergy men: yea with old Winken de word D. Prime his self. And ile bepistle you D. Prime / when I am at more leisure / though in deed I tell you true / that as yet I do disdain to deal with a contemptible trencher chaplain / such as you / D. Bankcroft / and Chaplain Duport are. But ise be with you all three to bring one day / you shall never scape my fingers / if I take you but once in hand. You see how I have dealt with Dean John / your entertainment shall be alike. But Thomas Cartwright / thou art T.C. so is Tom Cooper too. The distinction then / between you both / shall be this: he shall be profane T. C. because he calleth Christ Jesus / by whom the government by Pastors / Doctors / Elders & Deacons was commanded / to be he knows not whom: and thou shalt be simple T.C.

Concerning Mistress Lawson / profane T.C. is it not lawful for her to go to Lambeth by water / to accompany a preachers wife / going also (as commonly godly matrons in London do) with her man: No saith T.C. I do not like this in women. Tushe man / Thomas Lawson is not Thomas Cooper / he has no such cause to doubt of Dame Lawsons going without her husband / as the bishop of Winchester hath had of dame Coopers gadding But more work for Cooper / will say more for Mistress Lawson.

From whom soever Charde had his protection / his Face is glad of it / for otherwise he knoweth not how to get a printer / for the established government / because the books will not sell.

Touching the Premunire / let the Libeller and his / do what he dare. Why brethren / what wisdom is this in you to dare your betters? do you not know that I can find you my mind by a Pistle / and then prove you to be petty Popes / and enemies to the State. And how can you mend yourselves. It is certain you are in a premunire. If her Majesty will give me leave to have the law / I will be bound to bring 10000. pounds into her coffers upon that bargain. And therefore foolish men / dare your betters no more. And here I pray thee mark how I have made the bishops to pull in their horns. For whereas in this place / they had printed the word dare, they bethought themselves / y ^t they had to deal with my worship / which am favored at the Court / and being afraid of me / they pasted the word can upon the word dare, and so / where before they bad me and mine do what we durst: now they bid us do what we can / hoping thereby to have a frinde in a corner / who would not suffer us to do what we ought and durst: and so our ability should not be according unto their demerit. Mark now / ye bishops of the Devil / whether you be not afraid of me: I will see you iolled with the Premunire one day.

The like thing you shall find in the 135. page. For there having said / that they will not deny the discipline to have been in the Apostles time / they have now pasted there upon that / That is not yet proved. So that although their consciences do tell them / that the discipline was then / yet they will bear the world in hand / that that is not yet proved. Here you see that if this patch T.C. had not used two patches to cover his patcherie / the bishops would have accounted him to be as very a patch as Dean John.

A / but these knave puritans are more unmannerly before his grace / then the recusaunts are / and therefore the recusants have more favor. I cannot blame them / for we ought to have no popes. The papists liketh the Archiepiscopall Pall / and therefore reverenceth a petty Pope therein. And though the recusant come not to hear the sermons / yet he is an informer very often / upon other men's information.

His grace denieth that ever he hard of any such matter / as that the Jesuit should say / he would become a brave Cardinal / if popery should come again. I know T.C. that long since he is past shame / and a notorious liar / otherwise how durst he deny this / seeing Cliffe an honest and a godly cobler / dwelling at Battle bridg / did justify this before his grace his teethe / yea and will justify the same again if he be called. So will Atkinson too. Send for them if he dare. Ministers of the Gospel ought to be called priests / saith his grace / what say you by that? Then good sir John O Cant. when wilt thou say Mass at our house. His grace is also persuaded / that there ought to be a Lordly superiority among ministers. So was Judas persuaded to sell his master. If you would have these things proved / profane T.C. referreth you to his grace his answer unto simple T.C. and to doctor Bridges. That is / if you would learn any honesty / you must go to the stews / or if you would have a good savor / you must go to the sink for it. Why thou vnsauorly snuff / dost tow think that men know not D. Bridges and John Whitgift. Yea but his grace also firmly believeth / that Christ in soul descended into Hell. This is the 3. point of his catholic persuasion: but tell him from me / that he shall never be saved by this belief / and my finger in his mouth. Let him tell what our savior Christ should do / if he did not harrow Hell. Where thou sayest M. Yong had only the dealing with Thakwel the popish printer / without his graces privity / thou liest in thy throat: M. Yong him self brought him to his grace / who ordered the matter as it is set down in my Pistle. But did not I say truly of thee / y ^t thou canst cog / face & lie / as fast as a dog can trot / and that thou hast a right seasoned wainscoate face of ti noun / chwarnt tee / ti vorehead zaze hard as horn.

Concerning Walde-grave / its no matter how you deal with him / heez a foolish fellow / to suffer you to spoil his press and letters: an a had been my worships printer / ide a kept him from your clouches. And yet it is pity to bely the devil: and therefore you shall not bely / him and go scot-free. As for the press that Walde-grave sold / he did it by order / viz. He sold it to an allowed printer / I.C. one of his own company / with the knowledge of his Warden / Henry Denham / &c. And cal you this favor / in releasing him after long imprisonment? But I will give you a president of great favor in deed / wherein you may see what an vngrateful fellow Walde-grave is to his grace / who hath been so good unto him from time time. There being a controversy between another printer and Walde-grave (all matters of printing being committed by the LL. of the Counsel to his grace) Walde-grave made one of his company his friend (who could do much with his grace) to deal for him / who brake the matter to his worship / being at Croydon in his Orcharde: so soon as the party named Walde-grave / he sweetly answered him / saying: if it had been any of the company save him / he would have granted the suite / but in no case to Walde-grave. Well Walde-grave / obtained the R. H. Lord Treasurers letter in his behalf to his grace / who when he had read it / said / I will answer my L. Treasurer: with that Walde-grave entreated for his favorable letter to the Wardens of his company / which in the end through D. Coosins he obtained (though late) yet went home at night / thinking to deliver it in the morning: but before he was ready / the Wardens were with him / and rested him with a Purciuant upon his graces commandment / Walde-grave telling them there was a letter from his grace / which he received late the last night at Croidon: who answered / they knew it well enough / but this is his pleasure now: so they carried Walde-grave to prison / and in this / his grace was so good unto him / as to help him with an hundred marks over the shulders. If this be your favor / God keep me from you / ka M. Marprelate. Bishops have justly received according to their deserts / having found greater favor at my worships hands thē ever they deserved / being notorious / disobedient & godless persons / unthrifty spenders & consumers of the fruits / not of their own labors / (as you say Walde-grave was) but of the possessions of the church / persons that have violated their faith to god / his church / hir majesty / & this whole kingdom / & wittingly bring us all without the great mercy of god to our undoing: so that our wives / children & servants have cause to curse all L. Bb. Lo T.C. you see that I have a good gift in imitation / and me thinks I have brought your words into a marvelous good sense / where as before in the cause of Walde-grave / they were ilfauoredly wrested: and as for his wife & children / they have just cause to curse John of London / and John of Canterbury / for their tyrannizing over him: by imprisoning and spoiling his goods / and vexing his poor wife and children / with continual rifeling his house with their purciuants: who in November last / violently rusht into his house / breaking through the main wall thereof after midnight / taking away his goods / for some of the purciuants sold his books up and down the streats / to watchmen and others. Ah you Antichristian prelates / when will you make an ende of defending your tyranny / by the blood and rapine of her majesties subjects? You have been the consumers of the fruits of Walde-graves labors: for have you not sent him so often to prison / that it seemed you made a common occupation thereof? For as soon as any book is printed in the defense of Christ's holy discipline / or for y ^t detecting of your Antichristian dealings / but your ravening purciuantes fly city & country to seek for Walde-grave / as though he were bound by statute unto you / either to make known who printed seditious books against my L. Face / or to go to prison himself / and threatened with the rack. And are you not ashamed to say / that he ever violated his faith? you know well enough / that he is neither Archb. nor L.B. The case thus stood / after he had remained a long time in prison / not that time when Hartwell his graces secretary wisht that his grace might never eat bit of bread after he released him. Nor at that time when you profane T.C. to •• him / that all puritans had traitorous hearts. Nor at that time Wald-grave told his grace / that he was worse thē Boner in regard of the time. Nor that time when he was straungely released by one of the Lord of good London's Swans. Neither was it at y ^t time / when his grace (good conscionable noble man) violated his promise / in that he told the wardens of the staciouers / that if Walde-grave would come quietly to him / & cease printing of seditious books / he would pardon what was past / & the wardens promised his wife / that if he were committed / they would lie at his graces gate til he were released / and for all this / yet he was committed to the white Lyon / where he lay six weeks. Nor it was not at that time / when his grace allowed Watson the purciuant / to take of Walde-grave / 13. s. 4. pence / for cariyng of him to the white Lyon. But it was that time / when his grace kept him 20. weeks together in the white lyon / for printing the Complaint of the comminaltie / the Practize of prelates / A learned man's judgment / &c. Means being used for his liverty / his freud who was bound for him told him / his liberty was obtained in manner following. You must be bound saith he / in a 100. pounds / to print no more books hereafter / but such as shall be authorized by hir Majesty or his grace / or such as were before lawfully authorized: whereunto he answered / that it was not possible for him to contain himself within the compass of that bond / neither should his consent ever go to the same (the same will D. Coosins witness (that maidenly Doctor / who sits cheek by ioll with you) if he will speak a truth / which words Walde-grave uttered to him / going in the old pallas at westminster with his keeper before he was released) yet he would gladly have his liberty if he might lawfully. For said he / I being a poor workman to my company / cannot possibly observe it. For many books heretofore printed / had cum priuilegio, & yet were never authorized: & again / that it were but a folly for him to sue to her Majesty / the office were very base and unfit for her. And he might be well assured that Caiaphas of Cant. would never authorize anything for his behoove / and so it fell out. And thus Martin hath proved you in this / as in all other things / to be liars. And what is it that you Bb. & your hangones will not say by Walde-grave / whom you would hang if you could. I will be brief in the rest / but so / as reader may perceive that T.C. was hired to lie by commission.

I will stand to it / that his grace accounteth the preaching of the word / being the only ordinary means of salvation to be an heresy / & doth mortally persecute the same: his appellation to the obedient clergy shall stand him in no steed / when more work for Cooper / is published. And there I will pay thee for abusing M. Wiggington / and Master Dauison / whose good names can take no stain / from a bishops chopps. If his grace rejected Master Euans for want of conformity / why is the quare impedit gotten against the biship of Worcester / by the noble Earl of Warwick his patron. I hope he will see both the quare impedit, and the premunire to / brought upon the bones of father Edmond of Worcester. It is a common brag with his grace his parasites / and with him self / that he is the second person in the land. More work shall pay his grace for commending the Apocrypha a profane and a lying story in many places / to be inseparably joined with the holy word of God. You grant D. Spark to have set his grace and yourself T.C. at a non plus, for the septuaginta is contrary to the Hebrew / and therefore / you maintain contrary translations / and require men to aproue both. Martin hath marred Richard patriks market / for otherwise he was in good hope to have a benefice at his grace his hand / & to be made a minstrel. Shamelesse and impudent wretches that dare deny John of Cāt. to have been at any time under D. Perne / but as a fellow of the house / where he was master / whereas all the world knoweth him to have been a poor scholar in that house / yea and his grace hath often confessed / that he being there a poor scholar / was so poor as he had not a napkin to wipe his mouth / but when he hadd gotten some fat meat of O the fellows table / would go to the skrine / and first wipe his mouth on the on side and then O the other / because he wanted a napkin / judge you whether this be not a meaner state / then to carry a cloakbag / which is not spoken to upbraid any man's poverty / but to pull the pride of God's enemy / an ase lower. Although we cannot believe D. Perne in the pulpit / yet in this point we will not refuse his testimony. I am gladd John of London you will not deenie / but you have the Diars cloth / make restitution then: thou madest the porter of thy gate a minister John / and thou mightest do it lawfully. Why so I pray thee / why man / because he was almost blind / and at Paddington being a small people / he could not starve as many souls / as his master doth / which hath a great charge. I hope M. Madox will think scorn / to ask John of London forgiveness. The substance of the tale is true. I told you that I had it at the second hand. Are you not ashamed / to deny the elmes to be cut down at Fulham? Why her majesties taker took them from John of London. And simple fellows / are you not able to discern between a pleasant frump given you by a counselor / and a speech used in good earnest. Alas poor John O London / doest thou think / that M. Vicechamberlain spake as he thought. Then it is time to beg thee for aswagg. And so it is if thou thinkest we will believe the turncoate D. Perne speaking unto us in his own name / who like an Apostatae / hath out of the pulpit / told so many untruths. And as it is as lawful to boule / O the Sabbath / as it is to eat / and for you to make dumb ministers as it was for David to eat of the show bread pag. 110. or for the Maccabees to fight on the Sabbath / or for Moses to grant a bill of divorcement? I perceive these men will have the good divinity / if it be to be gotten for money. Yea and our Savior Christ / sware by his faith very often. How so good John. I never hard that before / why saith T.C. he said Amen Amen very often / and Amen / is as much as by my faith / page. 62. horrible and blasphemous beasts / whither will your madness grow in a while / if you be not restrained. M. Allen the Grocer is paid all save 10. pound: for the use of that / the executors have John O London's blessing. And I think they are reasonably well served. If the tale of Benison be not true / why was John of London allotted by the counsel / to pay him (I think) 40. pounds for his false imprisonment. John of London is not dumb / because he preacheth sometimes thrice a year at Paul's cross. Then we shall never make our money of it I see. But I pray thee T.C. howe canst thou excuse his blaspeemie / of Eli, Eli, lammasabackthani: there have been 2. outrageous facts amongst others committed in the world / by those that profess true religion / the on was the betraying of our savior by Judas an apostle / the other was the horrible mocking of his agony and bitter passion / by John Elmar a bishop in this speech. If he had been in some reformed Churches / the blaspheemer would have hardly escaped with his life. And is it true sweet boy in deed? Hath Leicestorshiere so embraced the Gospel without contention / and that by Dumb John's means? Little doest thou know what thou hast done now / howe if Martin be a Leycester shiere man / hast not thou then set out the praise of thine own bane? For martin I am sure / hath wrought your Caiaphas Chair more wrack and misery / then all the whole land beside. And therefore thou seest / a man may be so mad sometimes / that he may praise he cannot tell what. The bishop of Rochester in presenting him self to a parsonage / did no more then law allowed him. And do so again good John of Rochester / and it will be for thy credit. Fo / these puritans would find fault I think with John of Cant. (if he believing that Christ in soul went to Hell) should hold it unlawful for a man to pray unto Christ being in hell. And sweet John of Cant. if ever thou praiedst in thy life for any bodies souls / now pray for thy brother D. Squire and Tarletons souls. They were honest fellows / though I think dean John's ears be longer. For why good sweet John / may not your worship do this / as well as William of Lincoln might pray / that our souls should be with the souls of professed traitorous papists.

The good B. of Winchester did not protest / that at sir M. Oueries which was laid to his charge / but he spake some things that way. Well brother Winchester / you confess the most part / & we will believe the rest for your sake without witness. The B. of Winchester never said that it was an heresy / to hold that the preaching of the word was the only ordinary means to salvation / but inasmuch as Penri held that the effect of salvation could not be wrought by the word read / he said that was not far from heresy: why brother Cooper / what is this else but open confession. For John Penri as appeareth in his writings holdeth the word read / to be no ordinary means of salvation at all. This I know you will account an heresy / otherwise your case is damnable / that cause the people to content themselves with reading / & hold that they may ordinarily be saved thereby. Yea but T. of Winchester disputed a M. of Art / 45. year ago in divinity. Here is an old lad once. I hope that disputation was very cholerickly performed. And he did once as pretty a thing as that came to. For once preaching at Canter. he was disposed to note out T.C. I mean simple T.C. in his sermon / his part he plaid after this sort. He noted 4. great Hidraes of the gospel in his sermon. 1. Carnal security. 2. Heathnish gentility. 3. Obstinat papistry / 4. saith he / when I look in his forehead / I find T. C. written therein / which I cannot otherwise interpret / then thankles curiosity / thankless for the benefits already received / & more curious then needs in vain & needles questions. The old studēt did not know himself to be T.C. when he thus spake / & this is y ^e thankles curiosity y ^t hath answered Martin. Yea & he saw martins picture drawn when he was a young man. I perceive then he was not blind / as the old porter of Paddington / whom John of London be deaconed & beminstrelled. Lucian of Winchester himself was Nje painter. Mydas of Cant. the judge. The one of the 2. womē called ignorance / was the good wife of Bath / D. Culpable warden of new college / y ^e other called ielious suspicion / was y ^e fox John of Exetor. Thē came in Winkendeword / allas D. Prime callumniator. This Winken & his L. of Winchester / drew innotencie: to wit / Martin Marprelat gentleman by the hair of the head. Then followed Dolus fraus insidiae. To wit / D. Perne / D. Kenold & D. Cosins. The treader was cankered malice / his eyes were fiery / his face thinn & withered / pined away with melancholi / & this was D. Copcoat. Then followed dolfull repentance / y ^t is / dean John / repenting that ever he had writ̄ in the Bb. behalf / because his grace is not as good as his word. T.C. consider this picture until we meet again. Now my business calleth me away / I am traveling towards Banbury / for I here say that there hath been old ado. For bakers daughters would have knights whether they would or no. I will learn the truth hereof / & and so I will post to Solihill / & visiting some parts of Stafford / Warwick / & Northampton shires / I will make a journey back again to Norfolk and suffolke: I have a register at Burie / & by that time my visitors will be come out of Cornwall / Deuon & Hampshire. And now fare thee well good profane T.C. I cannot now meddle with the long period which thou hast in the 33. 34. pag. of thy book / it is but 38. lines: thou art longer wided then Dean John is I see / though he hath longer periods then that which I set down. Whereas thou dost complain that the livings of our bishops are so small / that some of their children are like to go a begging. There is a present remedy for that. For to what end else / is John of Cant. unmarried / but to provide for the bishops children who shall be poorly left. Though in deed / I never said in my life / that there was ever any great familiarity (though I know there was some acquaintance) between mistress Toye and John Whitgift. And ile befie em / ile befie em that will say so of me. And wherefor is Richard of Peterborowe unmarried / but to provide for other men's children. O now I remember me / he has also a charge to provide for / his hostesse and cosin of Sibson. The peticoat which he bestowed upon her / within this six months was not the best in England / the token was not unmeet for hir state. Farewell / farewell / farewell old Martin / and keep thee out of their hands for all that. For thou art a shrewd fellow / thou wilt one day overthrow them Amen. And then thou swearest by thy faith / quoth John of London.

Martin the Metropolitan to John the Metropolitan saith / Nemo confidat nimium secundis.

Martin to his troubled sons saith / Nemo desperet meliora lapsus.

Anglia Martinis disce favere tuis.