A92147:996
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.
The prophets cry against all sins, but never against the sin of non-resistance, and yet they had very Tyrannous and Idolatrous Kings. 1. This is but a weak argument. 1. The Prophets cry not out against all sins, they cry not out against men-stealers, and killers of father and mother in express terms, yet do they by consequence condemn all these sins, and so do they condemne non-resistance in wars, by consequence, when they cry out Jer. 5. 31. The Prophets prophesy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so. And when they complain, Ezek. 22. 26, 27, 28. That the Prophets and Priests violate the Law, her Princes are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and the people use oppression, and exercise robbery, and vex the poor. And when they say, Jer. 22. 2. not to the King only, but also to his servants, and the people that enter in by the gates, 3. Execute judgement and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. I pray you, who are the oppressors? I answer, The murdering Judges, Esa. 1. 21. And Esa. 3. 12. As for my 1people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them: And ver. 14, 15. The ancients of the people grind the faces of the poor: and when they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. And Prov. 24. 11. the Lord shall render to th•se men according to their works, which forbear to help men that are drawn to death, and those that be ready to be slain, if they shift the business, and say, Behold, we know not, doth not he that pondereth the heart, consider it? When therefore the Lords Prophets complain that the people execute not judgement, relieve not the oppressed, help not and rescue not those that are drawn to death unjustly by the King, or his murdering Judges, they expressly cry out against the sin of non-resistance. 2.