A57975:802
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.
It is not a sin for the people to take some power, even of doing good from the King, that ⟨p. 259⟩he solely, and by himself, shall not have power to pardon an involuntary homicide, without advice, and the judicial suffrages of the Counsel of the Kingdom, least he, instead of this, give pardons to Robbers, to abominable Murderers, and in so doing, the people robbeth not the King of the power that God gave him as King, nor ought the King to contend for a sole power in himself, of ministering justice to all; for God layeth not upon Kings, burdens unpossible, and God by Institution, hath denied to the King, all power of doing all good, because it is his Will that other Judges be sharers with the King in that power, Num. 14.16. Deut. 1.14, 15, 16, 17. 1 Pet. 2.14. Rom. 13.1, 2, 3, 4. And therefore the Duke of Venice to me cometh nearest to the King, moulded by God, Deut. 17. in respect of power, de jure, of any King I know in Europe. And in point of conscience, the inferior Judge discerning a murderer, and bloody man to die, may in foro conscientiae, despise the Kings unjust pardon, and resist the Kings force by his sword and coactive power that God hath given him, and put to death the bloody murderer, and he sinneth, if he do not this; for to me it is clear, The King cannot judge so justly and understandingly of a murderer in Scotland, as a Judge, to whom God hath committed the sword in Scotland: Nor hath the Lord laid that unpossible burden on a King to judge so of a murder four hundred miles, removed from the King, as the Judge nearer to him, as is clear by Num. 14.16. 1 Sam. 7.15, 16, 17. The King should go from place to place, and judge; and whereas it is unpossible to him, to go through three Kingdoms, he should appoint faithful Judges, who may not be resisted, no not by the King.