A57975:518
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.
His will must be a law, either to do or suffer all the Tyranny and cruelty of a Tiger, Leopard, or a Nero, and a Julian, then hath God given actu primo, a power to a King as King, to enslave the people and flock of God, redeemed by the blood of God, as the slaves among the Romans and Jews, who were so under their masters, as their bondage was a plague of God, and the lives of the people of God under Pharaoh, who compelled them to work in brick and clay. 2. Though he cut the throats of the people of God, as the Lioness Queen Mary did, and command an Army of soldiers to come and burn the Cities of the Land, and kill man, wife, and children; yet in so doing, he doth the part of a King, so as you cannot resist him as a man, and obey him as a King, but must give your necks to him, upon this ground, because this absolute power of his is ordained of God; and there is no power, even to kill, and destroy the innocent, but it is of God, so saith Paul, Rom. 13. If we believe Court-Prophets, or rather Lying-Spirits, who persuade the King of Britain, to make war against his three Dominions. Now it is clear, that the distinction of bound and free, continued in Israel even under the most tyrannous Kings, 2 Kings 4.1. yea, even when the Jews were captives under Ahasuerus, Esther 7.4. And what difference should there be between the people of God under their own Kings, and when they were captives under Tyrants, serving wood and stone, and false gods, as was threatened, as a curse in the Law, Deut. 28, 25, 36, 64, 68. If their own Kings by Gods appointment have the same absolute power over them; and if he be a Tyrant, actu primo, that is, if he be endued with absolute power, and so have power to play the Tyrant, then must the people of God be actu primo, slaves, and under absolute subjection, for they are relatives, as lord and servant, conqueror and captive. It is true, they say, Kings by office are fathers, they cannot put forth in action their power to destroy: I answer, it is ⟨p. 189⟩their goodness of nature, that they put not forth in action, all their absolute power to destroy, which God hath given them as Kings; and therefore thanks are due to their goodness, for that they do not actu secundo play the Tyrant; for Royalists teach that by virtue of their office, God hath given to them a Royal power to destroy.