A57975:153
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.
2. If God doth regulate his people in making such a man King, 1not such a man, then he thereby insinuateth that the people have a power to make such a man King, and not such a man. But God doth regulate his people in making a King. Ergo the people have a power to make such a man King, not such a man King. The Proposition is clear, because Gods Law doth not regulate a non-e•s, a mere nothing, or an unlawful power; nor can Gods holy Law regulate an unlawful power, or an unlawful action, but quite abolish it, and interdict it; the Lord setteth not down rules and ways how men should not commit Treason, but the Lord commandeth loyalty, and simply interdicteth men of treason. 2. If people have then more power to create a King over themselves, then they had to make Prophets, ⟨p. 12⟩then God forbidding them to choose such a man for their King, should say as much to his people; as if he would say, I command you to make Isaiah & Jeremiah Prophets over you, but not these and these men. This certainly should prove that not God only, but the people also with God made Prophets; I leave this to the consideration of the godly. The Prophets were immediately called of God, to be Prophets, whether the people consented that they should be Prophets, or not. Therefore God immediately, and only sent the Prophets, not the people; but though God extraordinarily designed some men to be Kings, and anointed them by his Prophets, yet were they never actually installed Kings, till the people made them Kings. I prove the assumption, Deut. 17.—14. When thou shalt say, I will set a King over me, like all the nations round about me. 15. Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from amongst thy brethren shalt thou set King over thee, thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Should not this be an unjust charge to the people, if God only; without any action of the people, should immediately set a King over them? Might not the people reply, We have no power at all to set a King over our selves, no more then we have power to make Isaiah a Prophet, who saw the visions of God, to what end then should God mock us, and say, make a brother, and not a stranger King over you?