A92147:703
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.
This supreme Law (saith the Prelate, begging it from Spalato,1 Arnisaeus, Grotius) advance the King, not the people: and the sense is, The Kingdom is really some time in such a case, that the Sovereign must exercise an Arbitrary Power, and not stand upon private mens interests, or transgressing of Laws, made for the private good of individuals, but for the preservation of it self, and the public, may break through all Laws. This he may, in the case when sudden foreign invasion threateneth ruin inevitably to King and Kingdom; a Physician may rather cut a Gangreened member, then suffer the whole body to perish. The Dictator in case of extreme dangers (as Livy and Dion. Halicarnass. show us) had power according to his own Arbitrament, had a sovereign Commission in peace and war of life, death, persons, &c. not co-ordinate, not subordinate to any.
This supreme Law (saith the Prelate, begging it from Spalato,1 Arnisaeus, Grotius) advance the King, not the people: and the sense is, The Kingdome is really some time in such a case, that the Soveraigne must exercise an Arbitrary Power, and not stand upon private mens interests, or transgressing of Lawes, made for the private good of individualls, but for the preservation of it selfe, and the publicke, may break through all Lawes. This he may, in the case when suddaine forraine invasion threatneth ruine inevitably to King and Kingdome; a Physitian may rather cut a Gangreened member, then suffer the whole body to perish. The Dictator in case of extreame dangers (as Livie and Dion. Halicarnass. shew us) had power according to his owne Arbitrament, had a soveraigne Commission in peace and war of life, death, persons, &c. not co-ordinate, not subordinate to any.
- 1Page 176.
Ans. It is not an Arbitrary power, but naturally tied and fettered to this same supreme Law, Salus populi, the safety of the people, that a King break through, not the Law, but the letter of the Law for the safety of the people; as the Chirurgeon, not by any