A57975:389
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.
Object. 3. Though Royal power were given to the people, it is not given to the people, as if it were the Royal power of the people, and not the Royal power of God, neither is it any other ways bestowed on the people but as on a beam, a channel, an instrument, by which it is derived ⟨p. 127⟩to others, and so the King is not the minister or servant of the people.
Object. 3. Though Royall power were given to the people, it is not given to the people, as if it were the Royal power of the people, and not the Royall power of God, neither is it any other waies bestowed on the people but as on a beame, a channell, an instrument, by which it is derived ⟨p. 127⟩to others, and so the King is not the minister or servant of the people.
Ans. It is not in the people as in the principal cause; Sure all Royal power that way is only in God; but it is in the people as in the instrument: and when the people maketh David their King at Hebron, in that same very act, God by the people using their free suffrages and consent, maketh David King at Hebron: so God only giveth rain, and none of the vanities and supposed gods of the Gentiles can give rain, Jer. 14 22. and yet the Clouds also give rain, as nature, as an organ and vessel out of which God poureth down rain upon the dry earth▪ Amos 9.6. and every instrument under God, that is properly an instrument▪ is a sort of Vicarious cause in Gods room, and so the people as in Gods room, applieth Royal power to David, 1not to any of Sauls sons, and appointeth David to be their Royal Servant to govern, and in that to serve God, and to do that, which a Community now in the state of sin cannot formally do themselves: and so I see not how it is a service to the people, not only objectively, because the Kings Royal service tendeth to the good, and peace, and safety of the people; but also subjectively, in regard he hath his power and Royal authority which he exerciseth as King, from the people under God, as Gods instruments: and therefore the King and Parliament give out Laws and Statutes in the name of the whole people of the Land. And they are but flatterers, and belie the Holy Ghost, who teach that the people do not make the King; for Israel made Saul King at Mizpeh, and Israel made David King at Hebron.