# Alexander Henderson: The magistrate was made for the people, not the people for the magistrate



## Reformed Covenanter (Nov 3, 2022)

From the end of magistracy. The Lord hath ordained magistrates to be his ministers for the good of his people, and their defence, whence have proceeded these common principles of policy, “Princes principally are for the people and their defence, and not the people principally for them: The safety and good of the people is the supreme law.” Magistracy is the inferior and subordinate law. The people make the magistrate, but the magistrate maketh not the people. The people may be without the magistrate, for the world was governed in another way, till Cain, building a city, made the godly first take this order for their defence; but the magistrate cannot be without the people. The body of the magistrate is mortal, but the people as a society is immortal. And therefore it were a direct overturning of all the foundations of policy and government, to prefer subjection to the prince to the preservation of the commonwealth, or to expose the public, wherein every man’s person, family and private estate are contained, to lie a prey to the fury of the prince, rather than by all our power to defend and preserve the commonwealth.

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Alexander Henderson: The magistrate was made for the people, not the people for the magistrate


From the end of magistracy. The Lord hath ordained magistrates to be his ministers for the good of his people, and their defence, whence have proceeded these common principles of policy, “Princes p…




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