A92147:327
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. de facto, As a man cometh into the world a member of a politic society, he is by consequence borne subject to the laws of that society; but this maketh him not from the womb and by nature subject to a King, as by nature he is subject to his Father who begat him; no more then by nature a Lyon is borne subject to another King-Lyon; for it is by accident that he is borne of parents under subjection to a Monarch, or to either Democratical or Aristocratical governors, for Cain and Abel were borne under none of these forms of Government properly: and if he had been borne in a new planted Colony in a wilderness, where no government were yet established, he should be under no such Government.
1 Assert. de facto, As a man commeth into the world a member of a politick societie, he is by consequence borne subject to the laws of that societie; but this maketh him not from the wombe and by nature subject to a King, as by nature he is subject to his Father who begat him; no more then by nature a Lyon is borne subject to another King-Lyon; for it is by accident that he is borne of parents under subjection to a Monarch, or to either Democraticall or Aristocraticall governours, for Cain and Abel were borne under none of these formes of Government properly: and if he had been borne in a new planted Colonie in a wildernesse, where no government were yet established, he should be under no such Government.
2 Assert. Slavery of servants to Lords or Masters, such as were1 of old amongst the Jews, is not natural, but against nature; 1. Because slavery is malum naturae, a penal evil, and contrary to nature, and a punishment of sin. 2. Slavery should not have been in the world, if man had never sinned, no more then there could have been buying and selling of men; which is a miserable consequent of sin, and a sort of death, when men are put to the toiling pains of the hireling, who longeth for the shadow, and under iron harrows and saws, and to hew wood, and draw water continually. 3. The original of servitude was, when men were taken in war, to eschew a greater evil, even death, the captives were willing to undergo a less evil, slavery. S. Servitus, 1. de jur. Pers. 4. A man being created according to Gods image, he is res sacrae, a sacred thing, and can no more by natures law be sold and bought, then a religious and sacred thing dedicated to God. S. 1. Instit. do invtil. scrupl. l. inter Stipulantem. S. Sacram. F. de verber. Obligat.