A57975:539
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.
2. Because the Prince is the Minister of God for the good of the subject; and therefore the Law saith, He cannot pardon, and free the guilty, of the punishment due to him. Contra l. quod favore, F. de leg. l. non ideo minus. F. de proc. l. legata inutiliter. F. de lega. 1. And the reason is clear; He is but the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. And if the Judgement be the Lords, 1not mans, not the Kings, as it is indeed, Deut. 1.17. 2 Chron. 19.6. he cannot draw the sword against the innocent, nor absolve the guilty, 2except he would take on himself to carve and dispose of that which is proper to his master. Now certain it is, God only, univocally and essentially, as God, is the Judge, Ps. 75.7. and God only and essentially King, Ps. 97.1. Ps. 99.1. and all men in relation to him, are mere ministers, servants, legates, deputies: and in relation to him equivocally and improperly, Judges or Kings, and mere created and breathing shadows of the power of the King of Kings. 3And look as the Scribe, following his own device, and writing what sentence he pleaseth, is not an officer of the Court in that point, nor the pen and servant of the Judge: so are Kings, and all Judges, but forged intruders, and bastard Kings and Judges, in so far as they give out the sentences of men, and are not the very mouths of the King of Kings, to pronounce such a sentence as the Almighty himself would do, if he were sitting on the Throne or Bench.
2. Because the Prince is the Minister of God for the good of the subject; and therefore the Law saith, He cannot pardon, and free the guilty, of the punishment due to him. Contra l. quod favore, F. de leg. l. non ideo minus. F. de proc. l. legata inutiliter. F. de lega. 1. And the reason is cleare; He is but the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill. And if the Judgement be the Lords,