A92147:772
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.
1. And Kings to do unjustice to their subjects, because by this the superior cannot sin against the inferior, for as much as ⟨p. 243⟩Kings can sin against none, but those who have power to judge and punish them; but God only, and no inferiors, and no subjects have power to punish the Kings, therefore Kings can sin against none of their subjects, and where there is no sin, how can there be a Law? neither Major or Minor can be denied by Royalists.
1. And Kings to doe unjustice to their subjects, because by this the superiour cannot sinne against the inferiour, for as much as ⟨p. 243⟩Kings can sin against none, but those who have power to judge and punish them; but God only, and no inferiours, and no subjects have power to punish the Kings, therefore Kings can sin against none of their subjects, and where there is no sin, how can there be a Law? neither Major or Minor can be denyed by Royalists.
2. We acknowledge Tyranny must only unking a Prince. The Prelate denieth it, but he is a green Statist. Barclay, Grotius, Winzetus, as I have proved granteth it.
2. We acknowledge Tyranny must only unking a Prince. The Prelate denyeth it, but he is a green Statist. Barclay, Grotius, Winzetus, as I have proved granteth it.
3. He will excuse Nero as of infirmity, wishing all Rome to have one neck, that he may cut it off. And is that charitable of Kings, that they will not be so mad as to destroy their own Kingdom? But when Stories teach us there have been more Tyrants then Kings, the Kings are more obliged to him for flattery, then for State-wit, except we say that all Kings who cate the people of God, as they do bread, owe him little, for making them all mad and frantic.