A57975:432
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.
Every giver of a benefit, as a giver, is superior to him to whom the gift is given; though after the servant hath given away his gift of liberty, by which he was superior, he cannot be a superior, because by his gift he hath made himself inferior. 3. The People constituteth a King above themselves, I distinguish, supra see, above themselves, according to the fountain power of Royalty, that is false; for the fountain-power remaineth most eminently in the people, 1. because they give it to the King, ad modum recipientis, and with limitations, ergo, it is unlimited in the people, and bounded and limited in the King, and so less in the King then in the people. 2. If the King turn distracted, and an ill spirit from the Lord come upon Saul, so as reason be taken from a Nebuchadnezzar, it is certain the people may put Curators and Tutors over him, who hath the Royal power. 3. If the King be absent, and taken captive, the People may give the Royal power to one, or to some few to exercise it as custodes regni. And 4. if he die, and the Crown go by election, they may create another with more or less power: all which evinceth, that they never constituted over themselves a King, in regard of fountain-power; for if they give away the fountain, as a slave selleth his liberty, they could not make use of it. Indeed they set a King above them, quoad potestatem legum executivam, in regard of a power of executing laws and actual government, ⟨p. 149⟩for their good and safety: but this proveth only that the King is above the people, [Greek or Hebrew], in some respect; but the most eminent and fountain-power of Royalty remaineth in the people, as in an immortal spring,1 which they communicate by succession to this or that mortal man, in the manner and measure that they think good: And Ulpian and Bartolus, cited by our Prelate out of Barclaius, are only to be understood of the derived▪ secondary and borrowed power of executing laws, and not of the fountain power, which the people cannot give away, no more then they can give away their rational nature; for it is a power natural, to conserve themselves, essentially adhering to every created Being: For, if the People give all their power away, 1. What shall they reserve to make a new King, if this man dye? 2. What if the Royal line surcease? there be no Prophets immediately sent of God, to make Kings. 3.