A57975:746
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.
Lex, Rex. › Question 26: QUEST. XXVI. Whether the King be above the Law or no?
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.
Nor can I think that Gods Law, or his Deputy the Judges are to accept the persons of the great, because they are great,1 Deut. 1.17. 2 Chro. 19.6, 7. and we say, We cannot distinguish where the Law distinguisheth not, The Lord speaketh to under Judges, Levit. 19.15. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty, or of the Prince, for we know what these names [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew] meaneth. I grant, it is not Gods meaning that the King should draw the sword against himself, but yet it followeth not, that if we speak of the demerit of blood, that the Law of God accepteth any Judge, great or small, & if the Estate be above the King, as I conceive they are, though it be a humane politic constitution, that the King be free of all coaction of Law, because it conduceth for the peace of the Common-wealth, yet if we make a matter of conscience, for my part I see no exception that God maketh it, if men make,2 I crave leave to say, A facto ad jus non sequitur. And I easily yield that in every case the Estates may coerce the King, if we make it a case of conscience. And for the place Ps. 51.4. Against thee only have I ⟨p. 242⟩sinned. [Greek or Hebrew] flatterers allege it to be a place that proveth that the King is above all earthly Tribunals, and all Laws, and that there was not on earth any who might punish King David; and so they cite Clemens Alexandrin. Strom. l. 4. Arnobi. Psal. 50. Dydimus, Hieronim. But Calvin on the place giveth the meaning that most of the Fathers give. Domine, etiam si me totus mundus absolvat, mihi tamen plusquam satis est, quod te solum judicem sentio. It is true, Bede, Euthymius, Ambrosius, Apol. David, c. 4. &. c. 10. do all acknowledge from the place, De facto, there was none above David to judge him, and so doth Augustine, Basilius, Theodoret say, and Chrysostomus, and Cyrillus, and Hyeronim. Epist. 22. Ambrose Sermo. 16. in