A57975:747
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.
But the simple meaning is, Against thee only have I sinned, as my eye witness and immediate beholder; and therefore he addeth, and have done this evil in thy sight. 2. Against thee only, as my Judge, that thou mayest be justified when thou judgest, 1as clear from all unrighteousness, when thou shalt send the sword on my house. 3. Against thee, O Lord only, who canst wash me, and pardon me, v. 1, 2. And if this (thee only) exclude all together, Uriah, Bathsheba, and the Law of the Judges, as if he had sinned against none of these in their kind, then is the King because a King free, not only from a punishing Law of man, but from the duties of the second Table simply, and so a King cannot be under the best and largest half of the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self. 2. He shall not need to say, Forgive us our sins, as we forgive them that sin against us; for there is no reason from the nature of sin, and the nature of the Law of God, why we can say more the subjects and sons sin against the King and Father, then to say the Father and King sin against the sons and subjects. 3. By this, the King killing his Father Jesse, should sin against God, but not break the fifth Command, nor sin against his father. 4. God should in vain forbid fathers to provoke their children to wrath.
But the simple meaning is, Against thee only have I sinned, as my eye witnesse and imediate beholder; and therfore he addeth, and have done this evill in thy sight. 2. Against thee only, as my Iudge, that thou maist be justified when thou judgest, 1as cleare from all unrighteousnesse, when thou shalt send the sword on my house. 3. Against thee, O Lord only, who canst wash me, and pardon me, v. 1, 2. And if this (thee only) exclude all together, Vriah, Bathsheba, and the Law of the Iudges, as if he had sinned against none of these in their kind, then is the King because a King free, not only from a punishing Law of man, but from the duties of the second Table simply, and so a King cannot be under the best and largest halfe of the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe. 2. He shall not need to say, Forgive us our sinnes, as we forgive them that sin against us; for there is no reason from the nature of sin, and the nature of the Law of God, why we can say more the subjects and sonnes sin against the King and Father, then to say the Father and King sin against the sonnes and subjects. 3. By this, the King killing his Father Iesse, should sin against God, but not breake the fift Command, nor sinne against his father. 4. God should in vaine forbid fathers to provoke their children to wrath.