A92147:745
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.
Lex, Rex. › Question 26: QUEST. XXVI. Whether the King be above the Law or no?
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.
But if God have provided that the King, who is a part of the Common-wealth, shall be free of all punishment, though he be a habitual destroyer of the whole Kingdom, seeing God hath given him to be a Father, Tutor, Saviour, Defender thereof, and destinated him as a mean for their safety, then must God have worse, not better provided, for the safety of the whole, then of the part. The Proposition is clear in that God, Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. hath ordained the Ruler, and given to him the sword to defend the whole Kingdom and City; but we read no where, that the Lord hath given the sword to the whole Kingdom, to defend one man a King, though a Ruler come going on in a Tyrannical way of destroying all his subjects.
But if God have provided that the King, who is a part of the Common-wealth, shall be free of all punishment, though he be a habituall destroyer of the whole Kingdome, seeing God hath given him to be a Father, Tutor, Saviour, Defender thereof, and destinated him as a meane for their safety, then must God have worse, not better provided, for the safety of the whole, then of the part. The Proposition is cleare in that God, Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. hath ordained the Ruler, and given to him the sword to defend the whole Kingdome and City; but we read no where, that the Lord hath given the sword to the whole Kingdome, to defend one man a King, though a Ruler come going on in a Tyrannicall way of destroying all his subjects.
The assumption is evident: for then the King, turning Tyrant, might ⟨p. 236⟩set an Army of Turks, Jews, cruel Papists, to destroy the Church 1