A57975:546
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.
and certainly, if you give to a King a Prerogative above a Law, it is a power to do evil, as well as good; but there is no lawful power to do evil, and Doct. Ferne is plunged in a contradiction by this, for he saith, Sect. 9. pag. 58.1 I ask when these Emperors took away lives and goods at pleasure, Was that power ordained by God? No. But an illegal will and Tyranny: But, Pag. 61. The power though abused to execute such a (wicked) commandment, is an Ordinance of God.
and certainly, if you give to a King a Prerogative above a Law, it is a power to do evill, as well as good; but there is no lawfull power to do evill, and Doct. Ferne is plunged in a contradiction by this, for he saith, Sect. 9. pag. 58.1 I ask when these Emperours took away lives and goods at pleasure, Was that power ordained by God? No. But an illegall will and Tyranny: But, Pag. 61. The power though abused to execute such a (wicked) commandment, is an Ordinance of God.
- 1A contradiction in Ferne.
It is objected 1. For the lawfulness of an absolute Monarchy. 1The Eastern, Persian, and Turks Monarchy, maketh absolute Monarchy lawful, for it is an Oath to a lawful obligatory thing, and judgment, Ezech. 17.16, 18. is denounced against Judah, for breaking the Oath of the King of Babylon, and it is called the Oath of God, and doubtless was an Oath of absolute subjection, and the power, Rom. 13. was absolute, and yet the Apostle calleth it an Ordinance of God. The sovereignty of Masters over servants was absolute, and the Apostle exhorteth not to renounce that title as to ridged, but exhorteth to moderation in the use of it,