A57975:13
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.
The PREFACE.
Who doubteth (Christian Reader) but innocency must be under the courtesy and mercy of malice, and that it is a real martyrdom, to be brought under the lawless Inquisition of the bloody tongue? Christ, the Prophets and Apostles of our Lord, went to Heaven with the note of Traitors, Seditious men, and such as turned the world upside down: calumnies of treason to Caesar, were an ingredient in Christs cup, and therefore the author is the more willing to drink of that cup that touched his lip, who is our glorious forerunner: what if conscience toward God, and credit with men, cannot both go to heaven with the Saints, the author is satisfied with the former companion, and is willing to dismiss the other. Truth to Christ, cannot be treason to Caesar, and for his choice he judgeth truth to have a nearer relation to Christ Jesus, then the transcendent and boundless power of a mortal Prince.
WHo doubteth (Christian Reader) but innocencie must be under the courtesie and mercy of malice, and that it is a reall martyrdome, to be brought under the lawlesse Inquisition of the bloody tongue? Christ, the Prophets and Apostles of our Lord, went to Heaven with the note of Traytors, Seditious men, and such as turned the world upside down: calumnies of treason to Caesar, were an ingredient in Christs cup, and therefore the author is the more willing to drink of that cup that touched his lip, who is our glorious forerunner: what if conscience toward God, and credit with men, cannot both go to heaven with the Saints, the author is satisfied with the former companion, and is willing to dismisse the other. Truth to Christ, cannot be treason to Caesar, and for his choise he judgeth truth to have a nearer relation to Christ Jesus, then the transcendent and boundlesse power of a mortall Prince.
He considered that Popery and defection had made a large step in Britain, and that Arbitrary Government had over-swelled all banks of Law, that it was now at the highest float, and that this sea approaching the farthest border of fancied absoluteness, was at the score of ebbing: and the naked truth is, Prelates, a wild and pushing cattle to the lambs and flock of Christ, had made a hideous noise, the wheels of their chariot did run an equal pace with the blood-thirsty mind of the Daughter of Babel. Prelacy, the daughter planted in her mothers blood, must verify that word, As is the mother, so is the daughter: why, but