Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
Imprimatur Junii 24. 1689. W. CANT Bishop OVERALL's Convocation-Book MDC VI. Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF God's CATHOLICK CHVRCH AND THE KINGDOMS OF THE Whole WORLD LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN Advertisement TO THE READER THat Convocation in which the Acts and Canons now Printed pass'd was first call'd An. 1603. 1 mo Jac. and continued by Adjournments and Prorogations to 1610. The Three following Books are publish'd from a Copy carefully and faithfully transcribed from the Original MS. which was Bishop Overall's and drawn up by him after whose Decease it came into the Possession of D r John Cosin sometime his Secretary and after Lord Bishop of Duresm who bequeathed it with other his Books both Printed and Manuscript to the Publick Library by him founded at Duresm for the use of that Church where it is suppos'd it is yet to be seen The First of these Three Books was also heedfully compar'd and in some casual defects supply'd from another MS which from the Attestation of Archbishop Bancroft who there presided at the end thereof under his own hand seems to have been the Original that then pass'd the Upper-House of Convocation And after his Decease it came to his Successors the Archbishops of Canterbury And among them to Archbishop Laud as appears under his own hand-writing in the last Page of it And is now or was lately in the Possession of D r Barlow the present Lord Bishop of Lincoln In the First and Second of these Books there were several Amendments made by the Upper-House of Convocation all placed at the end of Bishop Overall's MS. and according to such Amendments inserted in their proper places is the following Book Printed NOte That the Numeral Letters in the Margin throughout the First Book refer to the Pages in Bishop Overall's Original MS. at Duresm as in the second Page following ii p. in MS. means the second Page in that MS. sic de caeteris In the first Book of that MS. Placet is set at the bottom of every Page and in the Printed Copy that word is sometimes misplaced by a line or two as on the Margin p. 10. Placet is set against l. 8. which should have been against l. 10. ERRATA PAge 3. line 8. it be called read it be not called p. 15. marg r. Deut. 33. p. 17. marg r. Num. 27. p. 21. l. 26. expelled r. repelled p. 25. marg 1 K. 2. 9. p. 60. l. 25. our pleasure r. their pleasure p. 63. marg Joseph Antiq. l. 11. r. l. 2. p. 65. Artic. l. 7. of their r. other p. 75. marg Jos Ant. l. 15. r. l. 18. p. 77. l. 5. quia r. qui p. 88. l. 19. Priest r. Priests p. 103. marg r. Luc. 2. 51. p. 122. l. 21. unless r. and least p. 149. l. 13. were assured r. we are assured p. 165. l. 25. after did not add only p. 252. l. 27. But r. that p. 278. l. 19. Rulers r. rules p. 282. l. 14. Vrsinus r. Vrsicinus p. 296. l. 7. above r. about p. 297. l. 22. Charls's r. Charles p. 302. l. 21. deprived r. depraved p. 324. marg Cassan in catalog pro censid 28. r. consid 29. p. 332. l. 4. revenge our r. revenge thy p. 337. l. 7. ridiculous Joyes r. ridiculous Toies Bishop OVERALL's CONVOCATION-BOOK 1606. CONCERNING The Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole WORLD LIB I. CAP. I. AMongst those Attributes and Names of God which are common in the Scripture to all the blessed Trinity are these To be the Creator and Governour of the World the Lord of lords and King of kings which be there applied as well to the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the sacred Trinity as to God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Agreeably whereunto and not otherwise our chief purpose being to imitate the Scriptures in setting out and describing the Deity and Dignity of our Saviour Christ by his Almighty Power and universal Government of all the World as Heir of all things and Head of his Church we hold it fit to begin with his Divine Power of Creation and thereupon in the sense aforesaid do affirm That He in the beginning did create both Heaven and Earth and that amongst the rest of the Creatures which he then made he Created our first Parents Adam and Eve from whose Loins Mankind is descended CANON I. IF any Man therefore shall affirm with any Pagan Heretick Atheist or any other profane Persons which know not or believe not the Scriptures either that Heaven and Earth had no beginning or that the World was made by Angels or the Devil that the World was not otherwise made by Christ than as he was an Instrument of God the Father for the making of it or that he did not as God create our said Parents Adam and Eve he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. II. TO him that shall duly read the Scripture it will be plain and evident That the Son of God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their Seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Off-spring to rule and govern them Ordaining by the very Law of Nature That their said Children and Off-spring begotten and brought up by them should fear reverence honour and obey them Which power and Authority before the Flood resting in the Patriarchs and in the chief Fathers because it had a very large extent not only for the Education of their said Children and Off-spring whilst they were young but likewise for the ordering ruling and governing of them afterwards when they came to Mens Estate And for that also it had no superiour Authority or power over or above it on Earth appearing in the Scriptures although it be called either Patriarchal Regal or Imperial and that we only term it Potestas Patria yet being well considered how far it did reach we may truly say that it was in a sort Potestas Regia as now in a right and true construction Potestas Regia may justly be called Potestas Patria CAN. II. IF any Man shall therefore affirm that Men at the first without all good Education or Civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild Creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no superiority one over another until they were taught by Experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Iurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the people and disorder'd multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduced by their consents naturally
and for that they took great pains in teaching of their Children professing that they would refuse none that had any desire to be virtuously brought up and did thereupon draw unto them many Disciples and the rather for that they pretended themselves to be propugnatores pietatis The Issue of which godly pretence was that having thereby got a number to follow them they stirred them up to Sedition against the civil Magistrate under colour that in contempt of their Laws he had made some Innovation But they were presently vanquished Matthias and divers others were put to death and the High-Priest himself as having his part in that sedition was deprived from that Dignity When Herod upon occasion caused his Subjects to bind themselves by an Oath quòd non decessuri essent à fide officio the Pharisees refused to take that Oath whom he forbare at that time because he favour'd greatly one Pollio a chief Man of that Sect. But about fifteen years after when it was again thought fit to have the like Oath ministred and that all the whole Nation of the Jews did accordingly take the same and thereby bound their Faith and Allegiance both to Herod and unto Caesar saving the Pharisees being then in number six thousand who would not yet be induced to take it they were censured and fined for their offence and divers of them thereupon entring into some traiterous Courses and Conspiracies with sundry Courtiers against their Prince they were as they deserv'd put in like manner to death Not long after another Sect sprung up whereof the chief heads were Judas Gaulonites Sadoc a Pharisee Judas Galilaeus and one Simon of Galilee who profest themselves to be propugnatores libertatis publicae These men were so far from moving the people to obedience as they stirred them up as much as they could possibly to Rebellion telling them that to undergo any Impositions or Taxes was manifest acknowledgment of their servitude and that it was a shame for them to pay Tribute to the Romans or Dominos post Deum ferre mortales by which means they perturbed the whole Nation and filled every place with their Robberies and Slaughters under pretence indeed of defending their Countries sed reverâ privatorum lucrorum studio Also it was Eleazarus the Son of Ananias the High-Priest who would not suffer the inferiour Priests to offer Sacrifices and Prayers as formerly had been accustomed for the long life and prosperity of the Emperour nor could be drawn by any perswasion from his obstinacy therein but proceeded from evil to worse and so excited the people to Arms as his rebellious course therein was held to be the Seminary and matter of those Roman Wars which overthrew that Nation It is true that the High-Priests were not themselves so busie as the inferiour Priests that lived under them For the Romans suspecting of likelihood that if the Priesthood should have been held by Succession and for term of Life by the chief Persons of Aaron's Posterity the same might have grown dangerous unto their Government did thereupon take order that the Princes and Presidents which ruled in that Country should have the appointing of such as should be High Priests to be chosen by them out of Aaron's Kindred and that they should also have Authority to alter and change them from time to time as they found occasion Whereby the High Priesthood came to be but an annual Dignity and sometimes it was not held so long which caused them for the most part to keep themselves from entring into any actual Rebellion against their Governours though otherwise they were in effect as hollow-hearted unto them as any other of the Priests For albeit in their hatred and malice against Christ they could say We have no King but Caesar and tell Pilate flatly that if he delivered Christ he was not Caesar's Friend yet what their private opinions were doth plainly appear by their sending of the Pharisees unto Christ with their entangling Questions to know of him Whether it were lawful to give Tribute unto Caesar or not supposing if he were not a Dissembler as they themselves were that he would deny it to be lawful and so should incur the danger thereunto appertaining or if he answer'd that it was lawful he might thereby bring upon him the hatred of the People whom they suffer'd for ought that we find to the contrary to be brought up in the rebellious Doctrine of some of the Pharisees and to hold it unlawful to pay Tribute unto Caesar Besides what a false ignorant and wicked Generation they were is manifest by the whole course which they held with our Saviour Christ It being agreeable to the just Judgment of God that the most impious Hypocrites who then lived should be the chief Actors in the Crucifying of Christ which was the most horrible fact that ever was committed CAN. XXXIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that because the civil Magistrate had made some Innovation which they liked not or for any other respect the said Judas and Matthias might lawfully move the People to Rebellion though otherwise they taught Mens Children never so diligently or that the Pharisees in refusing to bind their Allegiance and Faith to Caesar by an Oath did not thereby shew themselves to be traiterously affected toward him or that it was not a seditious Doctrine to be detested of all good Subjects which Judas Gaulonites and his Fellows delivered to the People in teaching them to refuse all Taxations imposed by the Romans their lawful Magistrates and rather to rebel than to pay any tribute unto them or that they did not very grievously sin both the High-Priest's Son and the rest who either refused to offer Sacrifice or to pray for Caesar or that the High-Priests then were not a wicked Brood degenerated far from their first Institution or that they did not greatly offend God in permitting the People to be infected by their inferiour Priests and other religious Persons with any of the said false positions and traiterous conceits or that they the said High-Priests did not most grosly erre in all those points and particulars wherein they opposed themselves against the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXV WE have followed thus far that mild and moderate Form of civil Government which God himself established and preserved in the Lines of Seth and Sem until through the obstinate Rebellion from time to time of the Jews the Fame and the Authority thereof were first greatly diminished and afterward taken wholly away from them But it is further to be considered that as in the first Chapter we have shewed the Creation of all the World to be ascribed to the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity so is the Government of it in the same sense attributed to him The
know not what new Christianity or that there ought not to be now amongst Christians Ecclesiastical Courts for Ecclesiastical Causes as well as there were such Courts amongst the Jews for such kind of Causes or that all Christians are not now bound to repair as well to Ecclesiastical Courts and Governours for reformation of such Offences as are of Ecclesiastical Counusance as the Jews were bound to repair to their Sanhedrims to have those Evils redressed that were to be reform'd by those Courts or that as many as do profess themselves to be true Imitators of Christ in their Lives and Conversation are not bound to such obedience unto their Princes and Rulers how evil-disposed soever they be yea though they seek their Lives as Christ shewed and performed both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal State of the Iews at what time he knew they were plotting his Death He doth greatly Erre CAP. V. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not alter the form of temporal Government establisht by himself long before his Incarnation and that therefore Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes though they were then Infidels were nevertheless to be obey'd by the Subjects as formerly from the beginning they had been IT hath been before observ'd by us that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World was no temporal King nor had any temporal Dominion Court Possessions Regal State Dukes Earls Lords or any other Subjects as other temporal Kings had to obey and serve him But perhaps after his Resurrection it was for otherwise with him Indeed so it was For whereas the Son of God God himself equal to the Father by being made Man did cease to put in practice the Glory and Majesty of his Deity in his humane Nature otherwise than by doing such Miracles as he thought necessary for the Conversion of those who were to believe in him Now after his Resurrection and Ascension the state of his humane Nature was become as it may well be said much more glorious because his Divine Nature did communicate unto his Humane Nature So many divine Dignities and operations of his Deity in respect of the hypostatical Union betwixt them as the same was capable of without turning of his Divine Nature into his Humane Nature It being always to be understood that the said hypostatical and real Union notwithstanding there was never any Confusion betwixt the two Natures of Christ both of them always retaining their distinct and essential Proprieties Which ground observ'd we may truly say that the Attributes are admirable which in regard of the said Union are and may be ascribed unto our Saviour Christ as he is Man especially after his Resurrection and Ascension For some short proof hereof these following Places may suffice Before our Saviour Christ commanded his Apostles to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost he told them lest they should have doubted whether he had any Authority to make them so large a Commission that all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth He also was before as the Holy Ghost testifieth of him made Heir of all things and so had a true Interest in them and after his Resurrection had the full possession of them We see Jesus saith the Apostle crown'd with glory and honour And again When God raised up Jesus from the dead he set him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Domination and every Name that is named not in this world only but in that also which is to come and hath made all things subject under his feet And again The kingdoms of this world are our Lord's and his Christ's And again The lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings And to conclude He hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written The King of kings and Lord of lords Howbeit all that we have hitherto said notwithstanding though all the World doth actually appertain to our Saviour Christ now in Glory as he is Man in respect of the said Unition or hypostatical Union yet did he not alter after his Resurrection and Ascension the manner of temporal Government which he had ordained throughout the World before his Incarnation as he was God his humane Nature being invested by the power of his Divinity in manner before exprest with all his said Glory and Authority but doth still continue the sole Monarch over all distributing that his universal Kingdom as formerly he had done into divers Principalities and Kingdoms and appointing temporal Kings and Soveraign Princes as his Substitutes and Vicegerents to rule them all by the Rules and Laws of Nature if they be Ethnicks or if Christians then not only by those Rules but also as well by the Equity of the Judicial Laws which he gave to the Jews as by the Doctrine of the Gospel more throughly opened and delivered with all the parts of it by himself and his Apostles than in former times it had been Of Christian Kings we shall have fitter place to speak hereafter Now we will prosecute this point concerning the Regal Authority of Princes that are Infidels and consider more particularly Whether they did not and so consequently do not still as lawfully enjoy their Kingdoms and legal Soveraignties under our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension as they did before either of them and likewise as they did before his Incarnation according to that which we have delivered in the former Chapter And the especial Reason that moveth us so to do is the audacious temerity of the before-named ignorant Canonists and of their adherents the new Sectaries of the Oratory Congregation who with the like Ignorance and Folly that they told us how all Kings lost their Interest and Authority over their Kingdoms by the birth of our Saviour Christ do furthermore endeavour very wickedly and sottishly to pervert such especial places in the Apostles Writings as are most aparently repugnant to their said Fancy or rather Phrenzy To make their dealing with one place apparent is sufficient for our purpose Whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans willeth them to be subject to the higher Powers or teacheth them as a late absurd Canonist abridgeth the place Obediendum esse Principibus that Princes are to be obeyâ—d He speaketh not saith he de Ethnicis as that place is corruptly alledged sed quatenus de illis intellexit that is in such a sense as he meant it And what the Apostle meant he is not ashamed to tell us in this sort saying 1. the Apostle speaketh of the Roman Empire which Christ had approved when he bad the Jews pay Tribute to Caesar 2. the Text doth expound it self for he writeth to Christians whom he counselleth to be obedient to Princes lest they should sin for Princes are not to be feared for good works
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he