A57975:212
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.
1 Chro. 11.1, 2. Chap. 12.38, 39. One man alone hath not the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, (as the Prelate dreameth) But it followeth not, that many convened in a Church way, hath not this power, Matth. 18.17. 1 Cor. 5.1, 2, 3, 4. One man hath not strength to fight against an Army of ten thousand: doth it follow? Ergo, An Army of twenty thousand hath not strength to fight against these ten thousand: So one Paul cannot Synodically determine the question, Acts 15. It followeth not; Ergo, The Apostles, and Elders, and Brethren, convened from divers Churches, hath not power to determine it in a lawful Synod: And therefore, from a disjoined and scattered power, no man can argue to a united power: So not any one man is an inferior Ruler, or hath the rays and beams of a number of Aristocratical Rulers: but it followeth not. Ergo, All ⟨p. 44⟩these men combined in a City, or Society, have not power in a joint Political body, to chose Inferior or Aristocratical Rulers. 3. The P. Prelates reason is nothing. All the Contribution (saith he) in the compact body to make a King, is only by a surrender of the native right of every single man, (the whole being only a voluntary constitution.) How then can there be any majesty derived from them? I answer. Very well. For the surrender is so voluntary, that it is also natural, and founded on the Law of nature, That men must have Governors, either many, or one supreme Ruler: And it is voluntary, and dependeth on a positive institution of God, Whether the Government be by one supreme Ruler, as in a Monarchy, or in many, as in an Aristocracy, according as the necessity and temper of the Common-wealth do most require. This Constitution is so voluntary, as it hath below it, the Law of nature for its general foundation; and above it, the supervenient institution of God, ordaining, That there should be such Magistrates, both Kings, and other Judges, because without such, all humane societies should be dissolved.1 4. Individual persons in creating a Magistrate, doth not properly surrender their right, which can be called a right; for they do but surrender their power of doing violence to these of their fellows in that same Community; so as they shall not now have Moral power to do injuries without punishment; and this is not right or liberty properly, but servitude: