A57975:177
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.
Therefore the people must make such a man King, following the rule of Gods Word, Deut. 17.14. and other rules showing what sort of men Judges must be, as Deut. 1.16, 17, 18. 2 Chro. 19.6, 7. 3. It is true, Kings in a special manner reign by Christ. Ergo, Not by the peoples free election. The P. Prelate argueth like himself: By this Text, a Major of a City, by the Lord, decreeth justice: Ergo, He is not made a Major of the City, by the people of the City. It followeth not, 4. None of us teach that Kings reign by Gods anger. We judge a King a great mercy of God to Church, or State: But the Text saith not, By the Lord, Kings and Judges do not only reign and decree justice, but also murder Protestants, by raising against them an Army ⟨p. 24⟩of Papists. And the word, 5. [Greek or Hebrew], Powers, doth in no Greek Author signify, irrevocable powers; for Uzziah was a lawful King, and yet 2 Chron. 26. lawfully put from the throne, and cut off from the house of the Lord: And Interpreters on this place, deny that the place is to be understood of Tyrants: so the Chaldee Paraphrase turns it well, Potentes virga justitiae: so Lavater, and Di• datus, 1and Thomas saith, this place doth prove, That all Kings, and Judges, Laws, derivari a lege aeterna, are derived from the eternal Law. The Prelate eating his tongue for anger, striveth to prove, That all power, and so Royal power, is of God: but what can he make of it? we believe it, though he say Sectaries prove, by [Greek or Hebrew], That a man is justified by faith only: so there is no power but of God only:2 but feel the smell of a Jesuit; it is the Sectaries doctrine. That we are justified by faith only; but the Prelates, and the Jesuits go another way, not by faith only, but by works also. And all power is from God only, as the first Author, and from no man. What then? Therefore men and people interpose no humane act in making this man a King, and not this man: It followeth, And let us with the Prelate, join Paul and Solomon together, and say, That Sovereignty is from God, of God, by God, as Gods appointment irrevocable. Then shall it never follow: it is unseparable from the person, except you make the King a man immortal: as God only can remove the Crown; it is true, but God only can put an unworthy, and an excommunicated Prelate from Office and Benefice, but how?