A92147:306
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 Assert. Where God establisheth a Kingdom by Birth, that government, hic & nunc, is best: and because God principally distributeth Crowns, when God establisheth the Royal line of David to reign, he is not principally a King, who cometh nearest and most immediately to the fountain of Royalty, which is Gods immediate will; but God established, his & nunc, for typicall reasons ⟨p. 80⟩(with reverence of the learned) a King by birth.
1 Assert. Where God establisheth a Kingdome by Birth, that government, hic & nunc, is best: and because God principally distributeth Crownes, when God establisheth the Royall line of David to reigne, he is not principally a King, who commeth neerest and most immediately to the fountaine of Royaltie, which is Gods immediate will; but God established, his & nunc, for typicall reasons ⟨p. 80⟩(with reverence of the learned) a King by birth.
2 Assert. But to speak of them, ex natura rei, and according1 to the first mould and pattern of a King by law. A King by election is more principally King (magis univoce & per se) then an hereditary Prince; 1. Because in hereditary Crowns, the first family being chosen by the free suffrages of the people, for that cause ultimatè, the hereditary Prince cometh to the throne, because his first father, and in him the whole line of the family was chosen to the Crown, and, propter quod unumquodque tale, id ipsum magis tale. 2. The first King ordained by Gods positive law, must be the measure of all Kings, and more principally the King, then he who is such by derivation. But the first King is a King by election, not by birth, Deut. 17. 15. Thou shalt in any wise set (him) King over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, (One) from amongst thy brethren shalt thou set over thee. If the free will of the people be not the nearest cause of the first moulded King, God could have made no positive law to choose such a man, not such a man; for all positive laws presuppose free election. 3. The Law saith, Surrogatum fruitur privilegiis ejus, in cujus locum surrogatur: He who is substituted in the place of another, enjoyeth the privileges of him in whose place be succeedeth. But the hereditary King hath Royal privileges from him who is chosen King. Solomon hath the Royal privileges of David his father, and is therefore King by birth, because his father David was King by election. And this I say, not because I think sole birth is a just title to the Crown, but because it designeth him who indeed virtually was chosen, when the first King of the race was chosen. 4. Because there is no dominion of either Royalty, or any other way by nature, no more then an Eagle is born King of Eagles, a Lyon, King of Lyons; neither is a man by nature, born King of men: and therefore, he who is made King by suffrages of the people, must be more principally King, then he who hath no title, but the womb of his mother.