A92147:540
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.
Argum. 4. That power which maketh the benefit of a King, to1 be no benefit, but a judgement of God, as a making all the people slaves, such as were slaves amongst the Romans and Jews, is not to be asserted by any Christian: but an absolute power to do ill, and to Tyrannize, which is supposed to be an essential and constitutive of Kings, to difference them from all Judges, maketh the benefit of a King no benefit, but a judgement of God, as making all the people slaves. That the major may be clear, It is evident to have a King, is a blessing of God, because to have no King is a judgement, Judg. 17. 6. Every man doth what seemeth good in his own eyes, Judg. 18. 1. and 19. 1. and 21. 25. 2. So it is a part of Gods good providence to provide a King for his people, 1 Sam. 16. 1. so 2 Sam. 5. 12. And David perceived that the Lord had established him King over Israel, and that he had exalted his Kingdom, for his people Israels sake, 2 Sam. 15. 2, 3, 6. 2 Sam. 18. 3. Rom. 13. 2, 3, 4. If the King be a thing good in it self, then can he not actu primo, be a curse and a judgement, and essentially a bondage and slavery to the people: also the genuine and intrinsical end of a King is the good, Rom. 13. 4. and the good of a quiet a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, 1 Tim. 2. 2. and he is by Office, custos utriusque tabulae, whose genuine end is to preserve the law from violence, and to defend the subject; he is the peoples debtor for all happiness possible to be procured by Gods sword, either in peace or