A57975:679
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.
This supreme Law (saith the Prelate, begging it from Spalato, Arnisaeus, Grotius) advance the King, not the people: 1and the sense is, The Kingdom is really some time in such a case, that the Sovereign must exercise an Arbitrary Power, and not stand upon private mens interests, or transgressing of Laws, made for the private good of individuals, but for the preservation of it self, and the public, may break through all Laws. This he may, in the case when sudden foreign invasion threateneth ruin inevitably to King and Kingdom; a Physician may rather cut a Gangreened member, then suffer the whole body to perish. The Dictator in case of extreme dangers (as Livy and Dion. Halicarnass. show us) had power according to his own Arbitrament, had a sovereign Commission in peace and war of life, death, persons, &c. not co-ordinate, not subordinate to any.
This supreme Law (saith the Prelate, begging it from Spalato, Arnisaeus, Grotius) advance the King, not the people: 1and the sense is, The Kingdome is really some time in such a case, that the Soveraigne must exercise an Arbitrary Power, and not stand upon private mens interests, or transgressing of Lawes, made for the private good of individualls, but for the preservation of it selfe, and the publicke, may break through all Lawes. This he may, in the case when suddaine forraine invasion threatneth ruine inevitably to King and Kingdome; a Physitian may rather cut a Gangreened member, then suffer the whole body to perish. The Dictator in case of extreame dangers (as Livie and Dion. Halicarnass. shew us) had power according to his owne Arbitrament, had a soveraigne Commission in peace and war of life, death, persons, &c. not co-ordinate, not subordinate to any.
- 1Page 176.
Ans. It is not an Arbitrary power, but naturally tied and fettered to this same supreme Law, Salus populi, the safety of the people, that a King break through, not the Law, but the letter of the Law for the safety of the people; as the Chirurgeon, not by any prerogative that he hath above the Art of Chirurgery,