A57975:1006
Lex, Rex
Lex, rex The law and the prince : a dispute for the just prerogative of king and people : containing the reasons and causes of the most necessary defensive wars of the kingdom of Scotland and of their expedition for the aid and help of their dear brethren of England : in which their innocency is asserted and a full answer is given to a seditious pamphlet entitled Sacro-sancta regum majestas, or, The sacred and royal prerogative of Christian kings, under the name of J. A. but penned by Jo. Maxwell the excommunicate P. Prelate. : with a scriptural confutation of the ruinous grounds of W. Barclay, H. Grotius, H. Arnisœus, Ant. de Domi P. Bishop of Spalata, and of other late anti-magistratical royalists, as the author of Ossorianum, D. Fern, E. Symmons, the doctors of Aberdeen, &c. : in XLIV questions.Lex, rex The law and the prince : a dispute for the just prerogative of king and people : containing the reasons and causes of the most necessary defensive wars of the kingdom of Scotland and of their expedition for the ayd and help of their dear brethren of England : in which their innocency is asserted and a full answer is given to a seditious pamphlet intituled Sacro-sancta regum majestas, or, The sacred and royall prerogative of Christian kings, under the name of J. A. but penned by Jo. Maxwell the excommunicate P. Prelat. : with a scripturall confutation of the ruinous grounds of W. Barclay, H. Grotius, H. Arnisœus, Ant. de Domi P. Bishop of Spalata, and of other late anti-magistratical royalists, as the author of Ossorianum, D. Fern, E. Symmons, the doctors of Aberdeen, &c. : in XLIV questions.
London: printed for John Field, 1644London: printed for Iohn Field, 1644
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 we consider the fountain-power,1 the King is subordinate to the Parliament, and not coordinate; for the constituent is above that which is constituted. If we regard the derived and executive power in Parliamentary acts, they make but a total and complete sovereign power, yet so as the sovereign power of the Parliament being habitually and underived, a prime and fountain power, (for I do not here separate people and Parliament) is perfect without the King, for all Parliamentary acts, as is clear, in that the Parliament make Kings. 2. Make Laws, raise Armies, when either the King is minor, captived, tyrannous, or dead, but Royal power Parliamentary without the Parliament is null, because it is essentially but a part of the Parliament, and can work nothing separated from the Parliament, no more then a hand cut off from the body, can write; and so here we see two supremes coordinate: Amongst infinite things there cannot be two, because it involveth a contradiction, that an infinite thing can be created, for then should it be finite; but a royal power is essentially a derived and created power and supreme, secundum quid, onely in relation to single men, but not in relation to the Community; it is always a creature of the community with leave of the Royalist. 2. It is false, that to an act of Parliamentary supremacy the consent of the King is required, for it is repugnant that there can be any Parliamentary judicial act without the Parliament, but there may be without the King. 3. More false it is, that the King hath a negative voice in Parliament, then he shall be sole Judge▪ and the Parliament, the Kings Creator and Constituent, shall be a cypher.
Ans. 1. If we consider the fountaine-power,1 the King is subordinate to the Parliament, and not coordinate; for the constituent is above that which is constituted. If we regard the derived and executive power in Parliamentarie acts, they make but a totall and compleat soveraigne power, yet so as the soveraigne power of the Parliament being habitually and underived, a prime and fountaine power, (for I doe not here separate people and Parliament) is perfect without the King, for all Parliamentarie acts, as is cleare, in that the Parliament make Kings. 2. Make Lawes, raise Armies, when either the King is minor, captived, tyrannous, or dead, but Royall power Parliamentarie without the Parliament is null, because it is essentially but a part of the Parliament, and can work nothing separated from the Parliament, no more then a hand cut off from the body, can write; and so here we see two supremes coordinate: Amongst infinite things there cannot be two, because it involveth a contradiction, that an infinite thing can be created, for then should it be finite; but a royall power is essentially a derived and created power and supreme, secundum quid, onely in relation to single men, but not in relation to the Communitie; it is alwayes a creature of the communitie with leave of the Royalist. 2. It is false, that to an act of Parliamentarie supremacie the consent of the King is required, for it is repugnant that there can be any Parliamentarie judiciall act without the Parliament, but there may be without the King. 3. More false it is, that the King hath a negative voice in Parliament, then he shall be sole Judge and the Parliament, the Kings Creator and Constituent, shall be a cypher.