A57975:368
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.
Answ. This is not true, when the power is given for the conservation of the Kingdom, and is abused for the destruction thereof, for a power to destruction was never given, nor can it by rational nature be given. 2. Mortifications given to religious uses by a positive law, may be recalled by a more divine and stronger law of nature, such as is this: I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Suppose David of his own proper heritage, had given the Show-bread to the Priests, yet when David and his men are famishing, he may take it back from them against their will. Suppose Christ man had bought the Corns, and dedicated them to the Altar, yet might he and his Disciples eat the Ears of Corn in their hunger. The vessels of silver dedicated to the Church, may be taken and bestowed on wounded Soldiers. 2. A people free may not, and ought not totally surrender their liberty to a Prince, confiding on his goodness; 1. Because liberty is a condition of nature, that all men are born with, and they are not to give it away,1 no not to a King, except in part, and for the better, that they may have peace and justice for it, which is better for them, hic & nunc. 2. If a people trusting in the goodness of their Prince, enslave themselves to him, and he shall after turn Tyrant; a rash and temerarious ⟨p. 120⟩surrender obligeth not, Et ignorantia facit factum quasi involuntarium: Ignorance maketh the fact some way unvoluntary; for if the people had believed that a meek King would have turned a roaring Lyon, they should not have resigned their liberty into his hand; and therefore the surrender was tacitly conditional to the King as meek, or whom they believed to be meek, and not to a tyrannous Lord; and therefore, when the contract is made for the utility of the one party, the law saith their place is for after wits, that men may change their mind, and resume their liberty, though if they had given away their liberty for money, they cannot recall it; and if violence made the surrender of liberty, here is slavery, and slaves taken in war so soon as they can escape, and return to their own, they are free. D. Sect. item. ea Justit. de rerum divin. l. nihil. F. de capt. l. 3. So the learned Ferdin. Vasquez illustri. l. 2. c. 82. n. 15. saith, The bird that was taken, and hath escaped, is free;
Answ. This is not true, when the power is given for the conservation of the Kingdom, and is abused for the destruction thereof, for a power to destruction was never given, nor can it by rationall nature be given. 2. Mortifications given to religious uses by a positive law, may be recalled by a more divine and stronger law of nature, such as is this: I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Suppose David of his own proper heritage, had given the Shew-bread to the Priests, yet when David and his men are famishing, he may take it back from them against their will. Suppose Christ man had bought the Corns, and dedicated them to the Altar, yet might he and his Disciples eat the Ears of Corn in their hunger. The vessels of silver dedicated to the Church, may be taken and bestowed on wounded Souldiers. 2. A people free may not, and ought not totally surrender their liberty to a Prince, confiding on his goodnesse; 1. Because liberty is a condition of nature, that all men are born with, and they are not to give it away,