A92147:364
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.
6. If that was a lawful covenant made by Asa, and the States of1 Judah, 2 Chron. 15. 13. That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of their fathers, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman: this obligeth the King for ought I see, and the Princes, and the people, but it was a lawful covenant, ergo the King is under a covenant to the Princes and Judges, as they are to him; it is replied, If a Master of a School should make a law, whoever 2shall go out at the School doors without liberty obtained of the Master, shall be whipped, it will not oblige the School-master that he shall be whipped, if he go out at the School doors without liberty; so neither doth this Law oblige the King the supreme Law-giver. Ans. Suppose that the Scholars have no less hand and authority magisterial in making the law, then the School-master, as the Princes of Judah had a collateral power with King Asa about that law; it would follow, that the School-master is under the same law. 2. Suppose going out at School doors were that way a moral neglect of studying in the Master, as it is in the Scholars, as the not seeking of God is as heinous a sin in King Asa, and no less deserving death then it is in the people; then should the Law oblige Schoolmaster and Scholar both without exception. 3. The Schoolmaster is clearly above all laws of discipline which he imposeth on his Scholars, but none can say that King Asa was clearly above that law of seeking of the Lord God of his fathers. Diodorus Siculus, l. 17. saith, the Kings of Persia were under an oath, and that they might not change the Laws; and so were the Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia. The Kings of Sparta, which Aristotle calleth just Kings, renew their oath every month. Romulus so covenanted with the Senate and People. Carolus V. Austriacus, sweareth he shall not change the Laws, without the consent of the Electors, nor make new laws, nor dispose or impledge any thing that belongeth to the Empire. So read ⟨p. 110⟩we, Spec. Saxon. l. 3. Act. 54. and Xenophon Cyriped. l. 8. saith,3 there was a covenant between Cyrus and the Persians. The nobles are crowned when they crown their King, and exact a special Oath of the King. So doth England, Polonia, Spain, Arragonia, &c. Alberi. Gentilis. Hug. Grotius, prove that Kings are really bound to perform Oaths and contracts to their people;