A57975:552
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.
Ans. Who ever was the Author of this Treatise, he is a bad defender of the defensive wars in England, for all the lawfulness of wars then must depend on this. 1. Whether England be a conquered Nation at the beginning? 2. If the Law-will of an absolute Monarch, or a Nero be a reasonable Will, to which we must submit in suffering ill, I see not but we must submit to a reasonable will; if it be reasonable will in doing ill, no less then in suffering ill. 3. Absolute Will in absolute Monarchs is no Judge De jure, but an unlawful and a usurping Judge. 4. 1 Pet. 2.18, 19. Servants are not commanded simply to suffer (I can prove suffering formally not to fall under any Law of God, but only patient suffering. I except Christ, who was under a peculiar commandment to suffer.) But servants,1 upon supposition that they are servants, and buffeted unjustly by their Masters, are by the Apostle Peter commanded, v. 20. to suffer patiently. But it doth not bind up a servants hand, to defend his own life with weapons, if his Master invade him, without cause to kill him: otherwise if God call him to suffer, he is to suffer in the manner and way as Christ did, not reviling, not threatening. 4. To be a King and an absolute Master, to me are contradictory; a King essentially is a living Law. An absolute man is a creature, that they call a Tyrant, and no lawful King; yet do I not mean, that any that is a King, and usurpeth absoluteness, leaveth off to be a King: but in so far as he is absolute, he is no more a King, then in so far as he is a Tyrant. But further, the King of England saith in a Declaration.2 1. The Law is the measure of the Kings Power. 2. Parliaments are essentially Lord Judges to make Laws essentially, as the King is, ergo the King is not above the Law. 3. Magna Charta saith the King, can do nothing, 3but by Laws, and no obedience is due to him, but by Law. 4. Prescription taketh away the title of conquests.
Ans. Who ever was the Author of this Treatise, he is a bad defender of the defensive warres in England, for all the lawfulnesse of warres then must depend on this. 1. Whether England be a conquered Nation at the beginning? 2. If the Law-will of an absolute Monarch, or a Nero be a reasonable Will, to which we must submit in suffering ill, I see not but we must submit to a reasonable will; if it be reasonable will in doing ill, no lesse then in suffering ill. 3. Absolute Will in absolute Monarches is no Iudge De jure, but an unlawfull and a usurping Iudge. 4.