A treatise of civil policy

Prelate. Learned Interpreters expound it so. Answ. It is an untruth, for none expound it only and principally of Kings. Produce one Interpreter for that conceit. Prelate. Paul wrote this when Nero was Monarch. Answ. Then must the Text be expounded of Nero only. 2. He wrote this when Nero played the Tyrant, and persecuted Christians: Ergo, We are not to disobey Nero's now. 3. He wrote it when the Senate of Rome had power to declare Nero an enemy, not a Father; as they did. P. Prelate. [Greek or Hebrew] must be referred to the Antecedent [Greek or Hebrew] ▪ and this, There is no power, [Greek or Hebrew] but of God; must undeniably infer, there is no supreme power but of God; and so Sovereignty relates to God as his immediate author; so Sectaries reason, Gal. 2. 16. Not justified by works, ([Greek or Hebrew]) but by saith only. Then [Greek or Hebrew], must be a perfect exclusive, else their strong hold for Justification is overthrown. Answ. [Greek or Hebrew], hath a nearer Antecedent, which is [Greek or Hebrew], it is alone without [Greek or Hebrew], And this Grammar is not so good as Beza's, which he rejected. 2. [Greek or Hebrew], will refer to God alone, as the only cause, In genere causae primae. God alone giveth rain: but not for that immediately, but by the mediation of vapours and clouds. God alone killeth and maketh alive, Deut. 32. 39. That is, excluding all strange gods, but not immediately; for by his peoples fighting, he slew Og King of Bashan, and cast out seven Nations, yet they used bow and sword, as it is in the book• of Joshua; and therefore God killed not Og immediately. ⟨p. 354⟩God hath an infinite, eminent, transcendent way of working, so that in his kind he only worketh his alone: Deus solus operatur solitudine primae causae, non solus solitudine omnis causae, God only giveth learning and wisdom, yet not immediately always; often he doth it by teaching, and industry. God only maketh rich, yet the Prelates make themselves rich also with the fat of the flock, and God only maketh poor; yet the P. Prelates Courts mediately also under God, made many men poor. 3. [Greek or Hebrew], is not such an exclusive Particle when we ascribe it to God, as when we ascribe it to two created causes, works, and faith; and the Protestants form of arguing