A92147:425
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.
He meaneth here of Kings indefinitely, who oppressed the people with taxes and tributes, as Solomon and others. qCornelius a lapide: This was an unjust law. rCajetanus▪ ⟨p. 133⟩calleth it, tyranny. sHugo Cardinal, nameth them, exactiones & servitutes, exactions and slaveries: And tSerrarius, he speaketh not here, Quid Reges jure possint, What they may do by right and law; Sed quid audeant, What they will be bold to do, and what they tyrannically discern against all Laws of nature and humanity. And so uspeaketh Tho. Aquinas: xSo also Mendoza, saith he, speaketh of the law of Tyrants: and yamongst the fathers, Clemens Alexandrinus saith on this place, Non humanum pollicetur dominum, sed insolentem daturum minatur tyrannum, He promiseth not a humane Prince, but threateneth to give them an insolent Tyrant; and the like also saith zBede. And an excellent aLawyer, Pet. Rebuffus saith, Etiam loquitur de Tyranno qui non erat a Deo electus. And that he speaketh of Sauls Tyrannical usurpation, and not of the law prescribed by God, Deut. 17. I prove, 1. He speaketh of such a power, as is answerable to the Acts here spoken of; but the Acts here spoken of, are Acts of mere tyranny, Vers. 11. And this will be the manner of your King, that shall reign over you, he will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his Chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his Chariots: Now to make slaves of their sons, was an Act of Tyranny. 2. To take their fields and vineyards, and oliveyards from them, and give them to his servants, was no better then Ahab's taking Naboths vineyard from him, which by Gods law he might not lawfully sell, except in the case of extreme poverty, and then in the year of Jubilee, he might redeem his own inheritance. 3. Verse 15, 16. To put the people of God to bondage, and make them servants, was to deal with them, as the Tyrant Pharaoh did. 4. He speaketh of such a law, the execution whereof should make them cry out to the Lord, because of their King: but the execution of the just Law of the King,