A92147:908
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.
6. By the law of nature a ruler is appointed to defend the innocent. Now by nature an infant in the womb defendeth it self first, before the parents can defend it, then when parents and magistrates are not, (and violent invading magistrates are not in that magistrates) nature hath commended every man to self-defence.
6. By the law of nature a ruler is appointed to defend the innocent. Now by nature an infant in the wombe d•fendeth it self first, before the parents can defend it, then when parents and magistrates are not, (and violent invading magistrates are not in that magistrates) nature hath commended every man to self-defence.
7. The Law of nature excepteth no violence, whether inflicted by a magistrate, or any other unjust violence from a ruler is twice injustice. 1. He doth unjustly as a man. 2. As a member of the common-wealth. 3. He committeth a special kind of sin of injustice, against his office, but it is absurd to say we may lawfully d• fend our selves from smaller injuries, by the law of nature; and not from the greater. If the Pope (saith Fer. Vasquez. illust. quest. l. 1. c. 24. n. 24, 25.) command to take away benefices from the just owner, these who are to execute his commandment, are not to obey, but to write back that that mandate came not from his holiness, but from the avarice of his Officers; but if the Pope still continue and press the same unjust Mandate, the same should be written again to him: and though there be none above the Pope, yet there is natural self-defence patent for all. Defensio vitae nece•aria est, & à jure naturali profluit: L. ut vim. ff. de just. & jure 16. Nam quod quisque ob tutelam corporis sui fecerit, jure fecisse videatur. C•jus naturale. 1. distinc. l. 1. ff. de vi & vi armata. l. injuriarum. ff. de injuria. C. significasti. 2. de hom. l. scientiam. sect. qui non aliter ff. ad leg. Aquil. C. si vero 1. de sent. excom. & l. sed etsi ff. ad leg. Aquil. etiamsi sequatur homicidium. Vasquez. l. 1. c. 17. n. 5. etiam occidere licet ob ⟨p. 336⟩