A57975:508
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.
But that God hath given no absolute and unlimited power to a King, above the law, is evident by this:
Arg. 1. He who in his first institution, is appointed of God, by office, even when he sitteth on the throne, 1to take heed to read on a written copy of Gods law, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep all the words of this law, &c. He is not of absolute power above law. But, Deut. 17.18, 19. the King, as King, while he sitteth on the Throne, is to do this; Ergo, the Assumption is clear: for this is the law of the King, as King; and not of a man, as a man. But as he sitteth on the Throne, he is to read on the book of the Law: and ver. 20. Because he is King, his heart is not to be lifted up ⟨p. 184⟩above his brethren. And as King, v. 16. he is not to multiply horses, &c. So Politicians make this argument good: They say, Rex est lex viva, animata. & loquens lex: The King, as King, is a living, breathing,2 and speaking Law. And there be three reasons of this: 1. If all were innocent persons, and could do no violence one to another; the Law would rule all, and all men would put the Law in execution, agendo sponte, by doing right of their own accord; and there should be no need of a King to compel men to do right. But now, because men are, by nature, averse to good laws, therefore there was need of a Ruler, who by office should reduce the Law into practice: and so is the King the Law reduced in practice. 2. The Law is ratio five mens, the reason or mind, free from all perturbations of anger, lust, hatred, and cannot be tempted to ill; and the King, as a man, may be tempted by his own passions; and therefore as King, he cometh by office out of himself to reason and law; and so much as he hath of Law, so much of a King; and in his remotest distance from Law and Reason, he is a Tyrant. 3. Abstracta concretis sunt puriora & perfectiora. Justice is perfecter then a just man, Whiteness perfecter then the white wall: so the nearer the King comes to a Law, for the which he is a King, the nearer to a King; Propter quod unumquodque tale, id ipsum magis tale. Therefore Kings throwing laws to themselves, as men, whereas they should have conformed themselves to the Law, have erred. Cambyses the son of Cyrus, because he loved his own sister, would have the marriage of the brother with the sister, lawful. Anaxarchus said to Alexander, grieved in mind that he had killed Clytus: Regi ac Jovi Themin atque Justitiam assidere: