A92147:530
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.
These go for Oracles, at Court▪ Tacitus. Principi summum rerum arbitrium Dii dederunt, subditis obsequy gloria relicta est. Seneca. Indigna digna habenda sunt, Rex quae facit. Salustius. Impun• quidvis facere, id est, Regem esse. As if to be a King, and to be a God, who cannot err, were all one. But certainly, these Authors are taxing the Licence of Kings, and not commanding their power.
These goe for Oracles, at Court▪ Tacitus. Principi summum rerum arbitrium Dii dederunt, subditis obsequii gloria relicta est. Seneca. Indigna digna habenda sunt, Rex quae facit. Salustius. Impun• quidvis facere, id est, Regem esse. As if to be a King, and to be a God, who cannot erre, were all one. But certainly, these Authors are taxing the Licence of Kings, and not commanding their power.
But that God hath given no absolute and unlimited power to a King, above the law, is evident by this:
Arg. 1. He who in his first institution, is appointed of God, by1 office, even when he sitteth on the throne, to take heed to read on a written copy of Gods law, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep all the words of this law, &c. He is not of absolute power above law. But, Deut. 17. 18, 19▪ the King, as King, while he sitteth on the Throne, is to do this; Ergo, the Assumption is clear: for this is the law of the King, as King; and not of a man, as a man. But as he sitteth on the Throne, he is to read on the book of the Law: and ver. 20. Because he is King, his heart is not to be lifted up