A57975:680
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. 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,1 but by necessity, cutteth off a Gangreened member, thus its not Arbitrary to the King to save his people from ruin, but by the strong and imperious Law of the peoples safety he doth it; for if he did it not, he were a murderer of his people. 2. He is to stand upon transgression of Laws according to their genuine sense of the peoples safety, for good Laws are not contrary one to another, though when he breaketh through the letter to the Law, yet he breaketh not the Law, for if twenty thousand Rebels invade Scotland, he is to command all to rise, though the formality of a Parliament cannot be had to indict the war, as our Law provideth; but the King doth not command all to rise, and defend themselves by a Prerogative Royal, proper to him as King, and incommunicable to any but to himself.
Ans. It is not an Arbitrary power, but naturally tyed and fettered to this same supreame Law, Salus populi, the safety of the people, that a King breake through, not the Law, but the letter of the Law for the safety of the people; as the Chyrurgion, not by any prerogative that he hath above the Art of Chyrurgery,1 but by necessity, cutteth off a Gangreened member, thus its not Arbitrary to the King to save his people from ruine, but by the strong and imperious Law of the peoples safety he doth it; for if he did it not, he were a murtherer of his people. 2. He is to stand upon transgression of Lawes according to their genuine sense of the peoples safety, for good Lawes are not contrary one to another, though when he breaketh through the letter to the Law, yet he breaketh not the Law, for if twenty thousand Rebells invade Scotland, he is to command all to rise, though the formality of a Parliament cannot be had to indict the war, as our Law provideth; but the King doth not command all to rise, and defend themselves by a Prerogative Royall, proper to him as King, and incommunicable to any but to himselfe.
- 1A King may though we should deny all Prerogative, break through the letter of a Law, for the safety of the whole Land.