in the singular commonly denotes the prince, in the plural magistrates: a term which in the propriety of the Latin tongue belongs to subaltern officers, and doth not comprehend the prince himself, whose office it is to "redress' the unjust actions of the magistrates, and to make void whatsoever ought not to have been done by them." And herein he seemeth to make the same distinction between βασιλεὺς and ἄρχοντες, the king and magistrates, which Dio Chrysostomus doth between Baoiλɛía and ảo̟xù, άoxTM, or magistracy, is called a legal administration of men according to the law: Baoiλɛía, or regality, is such a government as is not subject to the control of any. The law is the decree of the king. A tyranny, which is contrary to these, is a violent and illegal usage of men by one that is of greater strength." XXII. For the clearer understanding whereof we may call to remembrance that difference which king James of never-dying memory, in the first book of his Basilicon Doron (out of Plato and Aristotle, the great masters of political learning) doth make between a lawful king and a tyrant: the words of that elegant writer are to this effect: "That the one acknowledgeth himself ordained for his people, having received from God a burthen of government, whereof he must be accountable; the other thinketh his people ordained for him, a prey to his passions and inordinate appetites, as the fruits of his magnanimity; and therefore that a good king, thinking his highest honour to consist in the due discharge of his calling, employeth all his study and pains to procure and maintain, by the "Intercedere iniquitatibus magistratuum, infectumque reddere quicquid fieri non oportuerit. Plin. Panegyric. ad Trajan. * Λέγεται γὰρ ἡ μὲν ἀρχὴ νόμιμος ἀνθρώπων διοίκησις κατὰ νόμον. Βασιλεία δὲ ἀνυπεύθυνος ἀρχὴ. Ὁ δὲ νόμος βασιλέως δόγμα. Ὁ δὲ τύ ραννος, καὶ ἡ τύραννις, ἐναντίον τούτοις, βίαιος καὶ παράνομος χρῆσις ȧvОрúжшv тоv dokouvтos ioxvε Tλέov. Dio Chrysost. in orat. 3. de regno. Ubi vocabuli dokouvтoç usum pleonasticum recte observat vir doctissimus Joannes Pricæus: ut etiam in loco illo Marci, cap. 10. ver. 42. oi doкOUVTES äpxeiv tŵv ¿0võv, pro quo Matt. cap. 20. ver. 25. simpliciter legitur, oi äpxovτες τῶν ἐθνῶν, making and execution of good laws, the welfare and peace of his people." XXIII. For the making of laws, whereof the force and penalty doth generally reach unto the whole kingdom, must be an act of the prince: and therefore where it is said, Psalm 60. ver. 7. "Judah is my law-giver," the Greek aud vulgar Latin translate it, "Judah is my king," agreeable to that in 1 Chron. chap. 5. ver. 2. "Of Judah came the prince." For "To" this end," saith Justinian, "God hath settled regal power among men, that by ordering upon all occasions such things as are needful, it should both supply the uncertainty of human nature, and conclude it within the bounds of certain laws." And St. Augustine to the same purpose: "The divine right we have in the Scriptures, the human right in the laws of kings; for human rights God hath distributed to mankind by the emperors and kings of this world, and this human right is in the power of the kings of the earth." Hitherto also belongeth that of Alexius Comnenus: "The' regal office is nothing else but a legal administration of things: the law is that which preserveth the indemnity of the commonwealth, removing far and expelling such things as are prejudicial to the civil state; and the power of making the laws is committed to the king :" and that of Plutarch long before him, "Justices is the end of the law, the law a work of the prince, and the prince the image of God." η Βασιλείαν ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τοῦτο καθῆκεν εἰς ἀνθρώπους, ὅπως ἂν τοῖς δεομένοις ἀεί τι διατάττουσα τῆν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἀοριστίαν ἀναπληροῖ τε, καὶ ῥητοῖς περικλείοι νόμοίς τε. Cod. de vet. jur. enucl. lib. 3. Græc. "Divinum jus in Scripturis habemus, humanum jus in legibus regum." August. in Joan. tract. 6. "Ipsa jura humana per imperatores et reges seculi Deus distribuit generi humano." August. in Joan. tract. 6. Jus humanum in potestate regum est terræ. August. in epist. 93. ad Vin centium. - Μηδὲν ἄλλο ἡ βασιλεία ἢ ἔννομος ἐπιστασία ἐστι. νόμοι δὲ οἱ τὴν που λιτείαν τηροῦντες ἀδιαλώβητον, πόῤῥω ἀπωθοῦντες τὰ τὸ πολίτευμα και ταβλάπτοντα, ἀνεῖται δὲ καὶ τὸ νομοθετεῖν βασιλλεῦσιν. Alex. Comnen. Novel. de solutione sponsalium. * Δίκη νόμου τέλος ἐστιν, νόμος δὲ ἄρχοντος ἔργον, ἄρχων δὲ εἴκων Oɛov. Plutarch. ad principem indoctum. The apxwv, or prince, makes the laws, not to himself, but to his subjects (to whom he standeth no way accountable for his own not observing any of them, as hereafter shall more fully be declared), the apxoVTEC judge and govern others according to the prescript of those laws, being themselves also obnoxious to them as well as other subjects. For, "magistrates are the ministers, judges the interpreters of the laws," saith Tully: and "the" laws do govern the magistrates no less than the magistrates do the people." To the maker of the law, Dio (in the place alleged) attributes Baoilsiav, or regal sovereignty, which by him, and Suidas out of him, is defined to be "ávuπεú0υvos apyn, a government without check," whereof no account is to be rendered unto any man: to the ministers of the law he ascribeth doxv simply; by which word likewise the scholiasty of Aristophanes, and Suidas also from him, observe the ministerial and inferior government most usually to be understood; for "in" every kingdom there are many doxaì, but under one king," saith Epiphanius. "The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it by direction of the law giver, with their staves," was a part of the song of Israel: and" Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob: and he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together." Here Moses is the lawgiver and king in Israel: the princes and heads of the people, those apxovτes and doxaì, without which Aristotled so oft tells us it is impossible a com "Legum ministri magistratus, legum interpretes judices; legum denique id circo omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possumus." Cicero pro A. Cluentio. "Ut magistratibus leges, ita populo præsunt magistratus." Cicero init. lib. 3. de legibus. * Suidas in Βασιλεία. * Κοινότερον καὶ τὰς τοιαύτας ψιλὰς ἐπιστασίας καὶ λειτουργίας ἀρχὰς λeyov, kai rò ẞovλɛvoaι (id est, jus dicere) dpxàç. Schol. in Aristoph. Plut. pag. 91. edit. Græco-Lat. anno 1607. 2 Suidas in "Αρχειν. * Καθ' ἑκάστην βασιλείαν πολλαὶ ἀρχαὶ, ἀλλ' ὑφ ̓ ἕνα βασιλέα. Epiphan. contra Archont. hæres. 40. b Num. chap. 21. ver. 18. Deut. chap. 33. ver. 4, 5. 'Avayкałoν yàp εivai rivas ápxàç. Aristot. politic. lib. 3. cap. 12. monwealth can consist. For, "One man," saith Philo, "though he have never so much alacrity and vigour in body and mind, cannot be sufficient to undergo the greatness and the multitude of the businesses, which every day do flow one upon the neck of another, unless they have coadjutors, chosen all of them out of the best, men of known wisdom, courage, justice, piety; and who not only are free from pride, but abhor it likewise as an hateful and exceeding great evil: for such men are most fit helpers and assistants to a good and worthy prince." For proof whereof he giveth an instance in Moses himself, who although he were a man mightyf in words and in deeds," and "going in this his might," (as God in anothers place biddeth Gideon to do) did for a time judge Israel all alone; yet mere necessity forced him in the end to profess unto the people: "I am not able to bear you myself alone: How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burthen, and your strife?" whereupon "hek took the chief of their tribes, wise men and known, and made them heads over the people, and officers among their tribes." 66 XXIV. And yet in his wisdom foreseeing withal, that these, as many as they were, could not be able to go through with the work, nor retain the people in due obedience, without the support of a supreme governor, before his departure out of this life he presenteth God with this petition: "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all *Ανευ ἀρχόντων ἀδύνατον εἶναι πόλιν. Arist. polit. lib. 4. cap. 4. Τῶν μὲν γὰρ ἀναγκαίων ἀρχῶν χωρὶς ἀδύνατον εἶναι πόλιν. Arist. polit. lib. 6. cap. 8. • Εἷς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ἐξαρκέσαι, κἂν προθυμότατος ἢ καὶ πάντων ἐῤῥωμενέσ τατος ἑκάτερον σώμα καὶ ψυχὴν, πρὸς τὰ μεγέθη καὶ πλήθη τῶν πραγ μάτων, ἐπὶ τῇ φορᾷ τῶν ἐπεισχεομένων καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀλλαχόθεν ἄλλων, εἰ μὴ τοὺς συλλεψομένους ἔχοι πάντας ἀριστίνδην ἐπιλεγμένους, φρονήσει, δυνάμει, δικαιοσύνη, θεοσεβείᾳ, τῷ μὴ μόνον ἐκτρέπεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ μισεῖν ὡς ἐχθρὸν καὶ μέγιστον κακὸν, ἀλαζονείαν· βοηθοὶ γὰρ οὗτοι καὶ παραστάται γένοιντ ̓ ἂν ἀνδρὶ καλῷ καὶ ἀγαθῷ τὰ κοινὰ ἐπηχθισμένῳ, συνεπικουφίζειν καὶ ἐπελαφρίζειν ἐπιτηδειότατοι. Philo, in libro de creatione principis. f Acts, chap. 7. ver. 22. h Deut. chap. 1. ver. 9. * Deut. chap. 1. ver. 15. with Exod. Num. chap. 27. ver. 16, 17. Judges, chap. 6. ver. 14. flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd:" and God thereupon giveth order unto him, that he should "put" some of his honour upon Joshua, that all the congregation of the children of Israel might be obedient:" which honour or regal sovereignty (for Moses had no less) how fully Joshua did enjoy after his decease, this profession then made by the people may sufficiently testify: "All that thou commandest us, we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses, so will we hearken unto thee only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be, that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage." And this ratification thereof made by God himself not long after: "On that day, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life." XXV. The supreme governor therefore hath not more need of the subordinate magistrates for his assistance, than they have of him to give them life and motion: no state being possibly able to subsist, unless a supremacy of power be placed in some head, from whence it may be derived through all the parts of the body politic. A lively manifestation of this we have from the old Persians', who m See 1 Kings, chap. 22. ver. 17. n Num. chap. 27. ver. 20. ⚫ Gen. chap. 36. ver. 31. wih Deut. chap. 33. ver. 5. P Jos. chap. 1. ver. 16, 17, 18. ↑ Jos. chap. 4. ver. 14. • Εντεῦθεν καὶ οἱ Περσῶν χαρίεντες νόμον ἔχουσι, βασιλέως παρ' αυτοῖς τελευτήσαντος, πέντε τὰς ἐφεξῆς ἡμέρας ἀνομίαν ἄγειν· οὐκ ὑπὲρ τοῦ δυστυχεῖν, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἔργῳ μαθεῖν ἡλίκον κακόν ἐστιν ἡ ἀνομία (σφαγὰς καὶ ἁρπαγὰς, καὶ εἰ τι χεῖρόν ἐστιν ἐπάγουσα) ἵνα πιστότεροι τῶν βασιλέων φύλακες γένωνται. Sext. Empir. adversus Mathematicos, lib. 2. Vide et Serinum apud Stobæum, serm. 42. |