A92147:465
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.
The P. Prelate beggeth from the Royalists another of our Arguments,1 Quod efficit tale, est magis tale. That which maketh another such, is far more such it self; if the people give Royal Power to the King, then far more is the Royal Power in the people. By this (saith the Prelate) it shall follow if the observator give all his goods to me, to make me rich, the observator is more rich; if the people give most part of their goods to foment the Rebellion, then the people are more rich, having given all they b•ve upon the Public Faith. Ans. 1. This greedy Prelate was made richer then ten poor Pursuivants, by a Bishopric, it will follow well; ergo the Bishopric is richer then the Bishop, whose goods the curse of God blasteth. 2. It holdeth in efficient causes, so working in other things as the virtue of the effect remaineth in the cause, even after the production of the effect. As the Sun maketh all things light, the Fire all things hot, therefore the Sun is more light, the Fire more hot; but where the cause doth alienate and make over, in a corporal manner, that which it hath to another, as the hungry Prelate would have the Observators goods, it holdeth not; for the effect may ⟨p. 154⟩exhaust the virtue of the cause, but the people doth, as the fountain,2 derive a stream of Royalty to Saul, and make him King, and yet so as they keep Fountain-power of making Kings in themselves; yea when Saul is dead to make David King at Hebron, and when he is dead to make Solomon King, and after him, to make Rehoboam King: and therefore in the people there is more fountain power of making Kings then in David, in Saul, in any King of the world; as for the Prelates jeer about the peoples giving of their goods to the good cause, I hope it shall by the blessing of God enrich them more, whereas Prelates by the Rebellion in Ireland (to which they assent, when they counsel His Majesty to sell the blood of some hundred thousands of innocents killed in Ireland) are brought from thousands a year, to beg a morsel of bread.
The P. Prelate beggeth from the Royalists another of our Arguments,1