A92147:1128
A treatise of civil policy
A treatise of civil policy: being a resolution of forty three questions concerning prerogative, right and privilege, in reference to the supreme prince and the people. / By Samuel Rutherford professor of divinity of St Andrews in Scotland.A treatise of civil policy: being a resolution of forty three questions concerning prerogative, right and priviledge, in reference to the supream prince and the people. / By Samuel Rutherford professor of divintiy of St Andrews in Scotland.
London, : Printed and are to be sold by Simon Miller at the Star in St Pauls Church-yard near the West end., 1657 i.e. 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Arnisaeus. 16. Every Prince is subject to God, but not as a vassal: for a Master may commit felony, and lose the propriety of his farm; can God do so? The Master cannot take the farm from the vassal without an express cause legally deduced, but cannot God take what he hath given, but by a law-Process? a vassal can entitle to himself a farm against the Masters will, as some jurists say, but can a Prince entitle a kingdom to himself, against the God of heavens will? though we grant the comparison, yet the subjects have no law over the Kings, because the coercive power of the vassal is in the Lord of the manor, the punishing of Kings belongeth to God.
Arnisaeus. 16. Every Prince is subject to God, but not as a vassal: for a Master may commit felonie, and lose the proprietie of his farme; can God do so? The Master cannot take the farme from the vassal without an expresse cause legally deduced, but cannot God take what he hath given, but by a law-Processe? a vassall can intitle to himself a farme against the Masters will, as some jurists say, but can a Prince intitle a kingdom to himself, against the God of heavens will? though we grant the comparison, yet the subjects have no law over the Kings, because the coercive power of the vassal is in the Lord of the mannor, the punishing of Kings belongeth to God.
Answ. We compare not the lord of a manor and the Lord of Heaven together, all these dissimilitudes we grant, but as the King is Gods vassal, so is he a noble and Princely vassal to the Estates of a kingdom, because they make him. 2. They make him rather then another their noble▪ servant. 3. They make him for themselves, and their own Godly, quiet, and honest life. 4. They, in their first election, limit him to such a way, to govern by law, and give to him so much power for their good, no more, in these four acts they are above the Prince, and so have a coercive power over him.
Answ. We compare not the lord of a mannor and the Lord of Heaven together, all these dissimilitudes we grant, but as the King is Gods vassal, so is he a noble and Princely vassal to the Estates of a kingdom, because they make him. 2. They make him rather then another their noble servant. 3. They make him for themselves, and their own Godly, quiet, and honest life. 4. They, in their first election, limit him to such a way, to governe by law, and give to him so much power for their good, no more, in these four acts they are above the Prince, and so have a coercive power over him.