A57975:423
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.
7. That which is eternal, and cannot politically die,1 yea which must continue as the days of heaven, because of Gods promise; That is more excellent then that which is both accidental, temporary and mortal. But the People is both eternal, as People, because ⟨p. 142⟩Eccles. 1.4. one generation passeth away, 2and another generation cometh: And as a people in covenant with God, Jer. 32.40, 41. in respect that a People and Church, though mortal in the individuals, yet the Church, remaining the Church, cannot dye; but the King, as King, may, and doth dye: It is true, where a Kingdom goeth by succession, the Politicians say, the man who is King, dyeth; but the King never dyeth, because some other, either by birth or free election, succeedeth in his room. But I answer, 1. People by a sort of necessity of nature succeedeth to People, generation to generation, except Gods judgement, contrary to nature, intervene to make Babylon no people, and a land that shall never be inhabited, (which I both believe and hope for, according to Gods word of Prophecy) But a King by a sort of contingency succeedeth to Kings: for nature doth not ascertain us there must be Kings to the worlds end; because the essence of Governors is kept safe in Aristocracy and Democracy, though there were no Kings. And that Kings should necessarily have been in the world,3 if man had never fallen in sin, I am not, by any cogent argument, induced to believe. I conceive there should have been no Government but these of Fathers & Children, Husband and Wife; and (which is improperly Government) some more gifted with supervenient additions to nature, as gifts and excellencies of Engines. Now in this point, Althusius polit. c. 38. n. 114. saith, the King in respect of office is worthier then the people; (but this is but an accidental respect) but as the King is a man, he is inferior to the people.
7. That which is eternall, and cannot politically die,