A57975:402
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.
Gersom saith, Terrifying them from their purpose of seeking a King, and foretelling the evil of punishment that they should suffer under a tyrannous King; But he speaketh not one word of these necessary and comfortable Acts of favour, that a good King by his good Government was to do for his people, Deut. 17. ⟨p. 134⟩15, 16. But he speaketh of contrary facts here; and that he is dissuading them from suiting a King, is clear from the Text. 1. Because he saith, Give them their will; but yet protest against their unlawful course. 2. He biddeth the Prophet lay before them the tyranny, and oppression of their King; which tyranny Saul exercised in his time, as the story showeth. 3. Because how uneffectuall Samuel's exhortation was, is set down, Verse 19. Nevertheless, they would not obey the voice of Samuel, but said, Nay, but we will have a King over us; if Samuel had not been dehorting them from a King, how could they be said in this, to refuse to hear the voice of Samuel? 16. The ground of Barclay and Royalists, here is weak, For they say, that the people sought a King like the Nations, and the Kings of the Nations were all absolute, and so Tyrants; And God granted their unlawful desire, and gave them a Tyrant to reign over them, such as the Nations had. The plain contrary is true, they sought not a Tyrant, but one of the special reasons why they sought a King, was to be freed of Tyranny; for 1 Sam. 8.3. Because Samuel's sons turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgement; therefore all the Elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel, to Ramah, and their they sought a King. 7. One could not more clearly speak with the mouth of a false Prophet, then the Author of active and passive obedience doth, while he will have Samuel here to describe a King,2 and to say; ye have formerly committed one error in shaking off the yoke of God, and seeking a King; so now beware you fall not in the next error, in casting of the yoke of a King, which God at your own desire hath laid on you, for God hath only power, both to make and unmake Kings; therefore prepare your selves patiently to suffer and bear. Answ. For if he were exhorting to patient suffering of the yoke of a King, he should presume it were Gods revealed and regulating will, that they should have a King;