114 CASE OF THE POST-NATI OF SCOTLAND. 



four submissions are evident to be natural and more 

 ancient than law. 



To speak therefore of law, which is the 

 second part of that which is to be spoken of 

 by way of inducement. Law no doubt is the 

 great organ by which the sovereign power doth 

 move, and may be truly compared to the sinews in 

 a natural body, as the sovereignty may be compared 

 to the spirits: for if the sinews be without the 

 spirits, they are dead and without motion ; if the 

 spirits move in weak sinews, it causeth trembling : 

 so the laws, without the king s power, are dead; 

 the king s power, except the laws be corroborated, 

 will never move constantly, but be full of staggering 

 and trepidation. But towards the king himself the 

 law doth a double office or operation : the first is to 

 intitle the king, or design him : and in that sense 

 Brae ton saith well, lib. 1. fol. 5. and lib. 3. fol. 107. 

 &quot; Lex facit quod ipse sit Rex ;&quot; that is, it defines 

 his title ; as in our law, That the kingdom shall go 

 to the issue female ; that it shall not be departable 

 amongst daughters ; that the half-blood shall be 

 respected, and other points differing from the rules 

 of common inheritance. The second is, that where 

 of we need not fear to speak in good and happy 

 times, such as these are, to make the ordinary power 

 of the king more definite or regular : for it was well 

 said by a father, &quot; plenitudo potestatis est plenitudo 

 &quot; tempestatis.&quot; And although the king, in his person, 

 be &quot; solutus legibus,&quot; yet his acts and grants are 

 limited by law, and we argue them every day. 



