A57975:383
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.
2. The Pupil when he cometh to age, may call his Tutor to an account for his administration; I do not acknowledge that as a truth, which Arnisaeus saith, De authoritate. prin. c. 3. n. 5. The Common-wealth is always minor, and under Tutorage, because it alway hath need of a curator and governor, and can never put away its governor, bu• the pupil may grow to age and wisdom, so as he may be without all Tutors, and can guide himself, and so may call in question ⟨p. 125⟩his Tutor, and the pupil cannot be his Judge, but must stand to the sentence of a superior Judge, and so the people cannot judge or punish their Prince, God must be Judge betwixt them both.
2. The Pupill when he commeth to age, may call his Tutor to an accompt for his administration; I doe not acknowledge that as a truth, which Arnisaeus saith, De authoritate. prin. c. 3. n. 5. The Common-wealth is alwaies minor, and under Tutory, because it alway hath need of a curator and governour, and can never put away its governour, bu• the pupill may grow to age and wisedome, so as he may be without all Tutors, and can guide himselfe, and so may call in question ⟨p. 125⟩his Tutor, and the pupill cannot be his Iudge, but must stand to the sentence of a superiour Iudge, and so the people cannot judge or punish their Prince, God must be Iudge betwixt them both.
But this is 1. a begging of the question, every comparison halteth, no community but it is Major in this,1 that it can appoint its own Tutors, and though it cannot be without all Rulers, yet it may well be without this or that Prince and Ruler, and therefore may resume its power, which it gave conditionally to the Ruler for its own safety and good, and in so far as this condition is violated, and power turned to the destruction of the Common-wealth, it is to be esteemed as not given; and though the people be not a politic Judge in their own cause, yet in case of manifest oppression, nature can teach them to oppose defensive violence against offensive: a community in its politic body is also above any Ruler, and may judge what is manifestly destructive to it self.