A57975:439
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.
5. If the people (saith the Prelate, begging the answer from Barclay) the constituent be more excellent then the effect, and so the people above the King, because they constitute him King. Then the Counties and Corporations may make void all the Commissions given to the Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons, 1and send others in their place, and repeal their Orders, therefore Buchanan saith, that Orders and Laws in Parliament were but [Greek or Hebrew] preparatory consultationis, and had not the force of a Law, till the people give their consent, and have their influence authoritative, upon the ⟨p. 152⟩Statutes and Acts of Parliament. But the observator holdeth that the legislative power is whole and entire in the Parliament. But when the Scots were preferring Petitions and Declarations, they put all power in the collective body, and kept their distinct tables. Ans. There is no consequence here, the Counties and Incorporations that send Commissioners to Parliament, may make void their Commissions and annul their Acts, because they constitute them Commissioners; if they be unjust acts, they may disobey them, and so disannul them, but it is presumed God hath given no moral power to do ill, nor can the Counties and Corporations give any such power to evil, for they have not any such from God, if they be just acts, they are to obey them,2 and cannot retract Commissions to make just Orders. Illud tantum possumus quod •ure possumus, and therefore as power to govern justly is irrevocably committed by the three estates who made the King, to the King, so is that same power committed by the Shires and Corporations to their Commissioners, to decree in Parliament, what is just and good irrevocably, and to take any j•st power from the King which is his due, is a great sin; but when he abuseth his power to the destruction of his subjects, it is lawful to throw a sword out of a mad-mans hand, though it be his own proper sword, and though he have due right to it, and a just power to use it for good, for all fiduciary power abused may be repealed;3