A57975:237
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.
But the question now is, if all power of governing (the Prelate, to make all the people Kings, saith, if all Sovereignty) be so in the people, that they retain power to guard themselves against Tyranny? And, if they retain some of it, habitu, in habit, and in their power? I am not now unseasonably, according to the Prelates order, to dispute of the power of lawful defence against tyranny; but I lay down this maxim of Divinity; Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin either habitual or actual, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsical end of his office, Rom. 13.4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinful nature, and the old serpent, then a license to sin: God in Christ giveth pardons of sin; but the Pope, not God, giveth dispensations to sin. 2. To this add, If for nature to defend it self be lawful, no Community, without sin, hath power to alienate and give away this power: for as no power given to man to murder his brother, is of God, so no power to suffer his brother to be murdered, is of God; and no power to suffer himself (à fortiori) far less can be from God. Here I speak not of physical power, for if free will be the creature of God, a physical power to acts which in relation to Gods law are sinful, must be from God.
But the question now is, if all power of governing (the Prelate, to make all the people Kings, saith, if all Soveraignty) be so in the people, that they retaine power to guard themselves against Tyranny? And, if they reteine some of it, habitu, in habit, and in their power? I am not now unseasonably, according to the Prelates order, to dispute of the power of lawfull defence against tyranny; but I lay down this maxime of Divinitie; Tyranny being a worke of Sathan, is not from God, because sinne either habituall or actuall, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsecall end of his office, Rom. 13.4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethicall, politick, or morall, to oppresse, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinfull nature, and the old serpent, then a license to sinne: God in Christ giveth pardons of sinne; but the Pope, not God, giveth dispensations to sinne. 2. To this adde, If for nature to defend it selfe be lawfull, no Communitie, without sin, hath power to alienate and give away this power: for as no power given to man to murther his brother, is of God, so no power to suffer his brother to be murthered, is of God; and no power to suffer himselfe (à fortiori) far lesse can be from God. Here I speake not of physicall power, for if free will be the creature of God, a physicall power to acts which in relation to Gods law are sinfull, must be from God.