A57975:826
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.
The Authority, and Gods ordinances can never do wrong; for it commandeth that Vice and wicked men be punished, and Virtue, with virtuous men and just. be maintained: But the corrupt Person placed in this Authority, may offend, and most commonly do contrary to this Authority: and is then the corruption of Man to be followed, by reason that it is clothed with the name of Authority? And they give instance in Pharaoh and Saul, who were lawful Kings, and yet corrupt Men. And certainly, the Man, and the Divine authority, differ as the Subject and the Accident; as that which is under a Law, and can offend God; and that which is neither capable of Law, nor sin. 13. The King, as King, is a j•st creature, and by office a living and breathing Law: His Will, as he is King, is nothing but a just Law: But the King, as a sinful man, is not a just creature, but one who can sin, and play the Tyrant: and his Will, as a private sinful man, is a private Will, and may be resisted. So the Law saith, The King, as King, can do no wrong: but the King, as a Man, may do a wrong. While as then the Parliaments of both Kingdoms resist the Kings private will, as a Man, and fight against his illegal Cut-throats, sent out by him, ⟨p. 270⟩to destroy his native subjects, they fight for him as a King, and obey his public Legal will, which is his Royall will, de jure, and while he is absent from his Parliaments as a man, he is Legally and in his Law-Power present, and so the Parliaments are as Legal, as if he were personally present with them.
The Authoritie, and Gods ordinances can never doe wrong; for it commandeth that Vice and wicked men be punished, and Vertue, with vertuous men and just. be maintained: But the corrupt Person placed in this Authoritie, may offend, and most commonly doe contrary to this Authoritie: and is then the corruption of Man to be followed, by reason that it is clothed with the name of Authoritie? And they give instance in Pharaoh and Saul, who were lawfall Kings, and yet corrupt Men. And certainly, the Man, and the Divine authoritie, differ as the Subject and the Accident; as that which is under a Law, and can offend God; and that which is neither capable of Law, nor sinne. 13. The King, as King, is a j•st creature, and by office a living and breathing Law: His Will, as he is King, is nothing but a just Law: But the King, as a sinfull man, is not a just creature, but one who can sinne, and play the Tyrant: and his Will, as a private sinfull man, is a private Will, and may be resisted. So the Law saith, The King, as King, can doe no wrong: but the King, as a Man, may doe a wrong. While as then the Parliaments of both Kingdomes resist the Kings private will, as a Man, and fight against his illegall Cut-throats, sent out by him,