A92147:236
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.
1 Chro. 11. 1, 2. Chap. 12. 38, 39. One man alone hath not the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, (as the Prelate dreameth) But it followeth not, that many convened in a Church way, hath not this power, Matth. 18. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 1, 2, 3, 4. One man hath not strength to fight against an Army of ten thousand: doth it follow? Ergo, An Army of twenty thousand hath not strength to fight against these ten thousand: So one Paul cannot Synodically determine the question, Acts 15. It followeth not; Ergo, The Apostles, and Elders, and Brethren, convened from divers Churches, hath not power to determine it in a lawful Synod: And therefore, from a disjoined and scattered power, no man can argue to a united power: So not any one man is an inferior Ruler, or hath the rays and beams of a number of Aristocratical Rulers: but it followeth not. Ergo, All ⟨p. 44⟩these men combined in a City, or Society, have not power in a joint Political body, to chose Inferior or Aristocratical Rulers. 3. The P. Prelates reason is nothing. All the Contribution (saith he) in the compact body to make a King, is only by a surrender of the native right of every single man, (the whole being only a voluntary constitution.) How then can there be any majesty derived from them? I answer. Very well. For the surrender is so voluntary, that it is also natural, and founded on the Law of nature, That men must have Governors, either many, or one supreme Ruler: And it is voluntary, and dependeth on a positive institution of God, Whether the Government be by one supreme Ruler, as in a Monarchy, or in many, as in an Aristocracy, according as the necessity and temper of the Common-wealth do most require. This Constitution is so voluntary, as it hath below it, the Law of nature for its general foundation; and above it, the supervenient institution of God, ordaining, That there should be such Magistrates, both Kings, and other Judges, because without such, all humane societies should be dissolved. 4. Individual persons in creating a Magistrate, doth1 not properly surrender their right, which can be called a right; for they do but surrender their power of doing violence to these of their fellows in that same Community; so as they shall not now have Moral power to do injuries without punishment; and this is not right or liberty properly, but servitude: