A57975:257
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.
3. If royal birth be equivalent to royal unction, and the best title, 1and if birth speak and declare to us the Lords appointment and Will, 2that the first born of a King should be King, as M. Symmons and others say; then is all title by conquest, where the former King standeth, in title to the Crown, and hath an Heir, unlawful. But the latter is against all the nation of the Royalists, for Arnisaeus, Barclay, Grotius, Jo. Roffensis Episco. the Bishop of Spalato, Dr. Ferne, M. Symmons, the excommunicate Prelate, if his poor learning may bring ⟨p. 70⟩him in the roll, teach that conquest is a lawful title to a Crown. I prove the Proposition, 1. because if birth speak Gods revealed Will, that the Heir of a King is the lawful King, then conquest cannot speak the contradicent Will of God, 3that he is no lawful King, but the conqueror is the lawful King. Gods revealed Will should be contradictory to himself, and birth should speak it is Gods Will, that the Heir of the former King be King, and the conquest being also Gods revealed Will, should also speak that that Heir should not be King. 2. If birth speak and reveal Gods Will that the Heir be King, it is unlawful for a conquered people to give their consent that a conqueror be their King. For their consent being contrary to Gods revealed Will, (which is, that birth is the just title) must be an unlawful consent. If Royalists say, God the King of Kings who immediately maketh Kings, may, and doth transfer Kingdoms to whom he will, and when he putteth the sword in Nebuchadnezzars hand, to conquer the King and Kingdom of Judah, then Zedekiah or his son is not King of Judah, but Nebuchadnezzar is King, and God being above his Law, speaketh in that case his Will by conquests, as before he spake his Will by birth; this is all can be said. Ans. They answer black treason in saying so, for if Jeremiah from the Lord had not commanded expressly, that both the King and Kingdom of Judah should submit to the King of Babylon, 4and serve him, and pray for him, as their lawful King, it had been as lawful to them to rebel against that Tyrant, as it was for them to fight against the Philistims, and the King of Ammon;