to law, by violating, corrupting, or perverting, in any respect, the powers of government! And that excellent constitutional lawyer, Lord Sommers, informs us, that St. Edward's law even goes further,[1] viz: "That, unless the king performs his duly, and answers the end for which he was constituted, not so much as the name of a king shall remain in him." Now, when these constitutional principles of the English law are collated and duly compared with the precepts before cited from the apostle Paul, they are so far from being contradictory, that the full and clear meaning of them all may be maintained together without the least inconsistency or discrepance of doctrine; for we may surely say, with the apostle, "Render to all their dues," &c. without seeming to favour the pernicious and dangerous doctrine of an unlimited passive obedience! "Render, therefore, to all their dues; tribute, to whom tribute (is due); custom, to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honor, to whom honor."—For, though custom, tribute, fear, and honor, are certainly due to him who is the minister of God to us for good, yet, surely, no honor is due, or ought to be rendered, to the minister of the devil, to the perjured violator of a public trust, who, in the eye of the English law, is not even worthy of " so much as the name of a king!"
Fear, indeed, may too often be said to be due to such
- ↑ The judgment of whole kingdoms and nations, concerning the rights, power, and prerogative, of kings, and the rights, privileges, and properties, of the people, &c. See the 51st paragraph.
oppressive) government." "Nihil enim aliad potest rex in terris, cum sit Dei minister et vicarius, nisi id solum quod de jure potest, &c. Potestas itaque sua juris est, et non injuriæ, &c. Exercere igitur debet rex potestatem juris, ficut Dei vicarius et minister in terra, quia ilia potestas solius Dei est, potestas autem injuriae diaboli, non Dei; et cujus horum opera fecerit rex, ejus minister erit, cujus opera fecerit. Igitur duni facit justitiam, vicarius est regis æterni; minister autem diaboli, dum declinet ad injuriam. Dicitur enim rex a bene regendo et non a regnando, quia rex est dum bene regit, tyrannus dum populum sibi creditum violenta opprimit dominatione." Henrici de Bracton de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ lib. iii. c. ix. And nearly the same doctrine in substance is laid down in Fleta, lib. i. c. 17.
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