A57975:790
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.
5. It must follow,1 that there can be no necessity of written laws to the Subjects; against Scripture, and natural reason,2 and the law of Nations, in which all accord, That Laws not promulgated and published, cannot oblige as Laws: Yea, Adam, in his innocency, was not obliged to obey a Law not written in his heart by Nature, except God had made known the Law; as is clear, Gen. 3.11. Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? But if the Kings absolute Will may put on the Law what sense he pleaseth, out of his independent and irresistible Supremacy; The Laws promulgated and written to the Subjects, can declare nothing, what is to be done by the Subjects, as just, and what is to be avoided as unjust: because the Laws must signify to the Subjects, what is just, and unjust, according to their genuine sense. Now, their genuine sense, according to Royalists, is not only uncertain and impossible to be known, but also contradictorious: for the King obligeth us without gainsaying, to believe that the just Law hath ⟨p. 256⟩this unjust sense. Hence this of flattering Royalists, crueller to Kings, than Ravens, (for these ear but dead men, and they devour living men) when there is a controversy between the King and the Estates of Parliament, who shall expone the Law, and render its native meaning? (say Royalists) not the Estates of Parliament, for they are Subjects, not Judges to the King, and only Counsellors and advisers of the King. The King therefore must be the only judicial and final expositor. As for Lawyers (said Strafford) the Law is not enclosed in a Lawyers Cap. But I remember this was one of the Articles laid to the charge of Richard the Second, that he said, The Law was in his head and breast. 3And indeed it must follow, if the King, by the plenitude of absolute power, be the only supreme, uncontrollable Expositor of the Law, that is not Law which is written in the Acts of Parliament, but that is the Law which is in the Kings breast and head: which Josephus, lib. 19. Antiq. c. 2. objected to Caius. And all justice, and injustice should be finally and peremptorily resolved on the Kings will and absolute pleasure.