A92147:862
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.
Ans. 1. If this be true, Manasseh, a King, did not shed innocent blood, and use sorcery: he did not these great wickednesses as a man, ⟨p. 277⟩but as a King. Solomon played the Apostate as a King, not as a man: if so, the man must make the King more infallible then the Pope; for the Pope, as a man, can err; as a Pope he cannot err, say Papists. But Prophets, in their persons, were anointed of God, as Saul and David were: then must we say, Nathan and Samuel erred not as men, because their persons were sacred and anointed: and they erred not as Prophets, sure; Ergo, they erred not all. A King, as a King, is an holy Ordinance of God, and so cannot do injustice, Ergo, they must do acts of Justice, as men. 2. The inferior Judge is a Power from God. 2. To resist him, is to resist an ordinance of God. 3. He is not a terror to good works, but to evil. 4. He is the minister of God for good. 5. He is Gods Sword-bearer; his official power to rule, may by as good right come by birth, as the Crown: and the Kings person is sacred only for his office, and is anointed only for his office. For then the Chaldeans dishonoured not inferior Judges, Lam. 5. 12. when they hanged the Prince, & honoured not the faces of Elders. It is in question, if the Kings actual authority be not as separable from him, as the actual authority of the Judge.
Ans. 1. If this be true, Manasseh, a King, did not shed innocent blood, and use sorcerie: he did not these great wickednesses as a man, ⟨p. 277⟩but as a King. Salomon played the Apostate as a King, not as a man: if so, the man must make the King more infallible then the Pope; for the Pope, as a man, can erre; as a Pope he cannot erre, say Papists. But Prophets, in their persons, were anoynted of God, as Saul and David were: then must we say, Nathan and Samuel erred not as men, because their persons were sacred and anointed: and they erred not as Prophets, sure; Ergo, they erred not all. A King, as a King, is an holy Ordinance of God, and so cannot doe injustice, Ergo, they must doe acts of Iustice, as men. 2. The inferior Iudge is a Power from God. 2. To resist him, is to resist an ordinance of God. 3. He is not a terrour to good workes, but to evill. 4. He is the minister of God for good. 5. He is Gods Sword-bearer; his officiall power to rule, may by as good right come by birth, as the Crown: and the Kings person is sacred only for his office, and is annointed only for his office. For then the Chaldeans dishonored not inferior Iudges,