A law
which is so holy and inviolable that it is practically a crime even to
cast doubt upon it, or to suspend its operation for a moment, is
represented of itself as necessarily derived from some supreme,
unblameable lawgiver. And this is the meaning of the maxim, "All
authority is from God", which proposition does not express the
historical foundation of the civil constitution, but an ideal
principle of the practical reason. It may be otherwise rendered
thus: "It is a duty to obey the law of the existing legislative power,
be its origin what it may."
Hence it follows, that the supreme power in the state has only
rights, and no (compulsory) duties towards the subject. Further, if
the ruler or regent, as the organ of the supreme power, proceeds in
violation of the laws, as in imposing taxes, recruiting soldiers,
and so on, contrary to the law of equality in the distribution of
the political burdens, the subject may oppose complaints and
objections (gravamina) to this injustice, but not active resistance.
There cannot even be an Article contained in the political
constitution that would make it possible for a power in the state,
in case of the transgression of the constitutional laws by the supreme
authority, to resist or even to restrict it in so doing. For,
whoever would restrict the supreme power of the state must have
more, or at least equal, power as compared with the power that is so
restricted; and if competent to command the subjects to resist, such a
one would also have to be able to protect them, and if he is to be
considered capable of judging what is right in every case, he may also
publicly order resistance.
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