[Quaestiones Theologicae Breviter Propositae & expositae, in gratiam tyronum (Frankfurt, 1627)]

Biography: Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), that industrious and God-fearing servant of the Church, was born in Mittenaar within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and was educated under the noble tutelage of Johannes Piscator at Herborn, and afterward under such men as Goclenius and Polanus, blending the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and the liberal arts. He was deeply steeped in the Reformed faith, trained in Ramist method and Lullist art, and rose swiftly to prominence as professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn Academy. In his later years, having been driven by the fury of the Thirty Years' War, he settled in the land of Transylvania, where, at the city of Alba Iulia, he established a Calvinist academy, laboring for the propagation of pure doctrine among the churches recently reclaimed from Socinian heresy. As a man whose very name was anagrammed into Sedulitas (diligence), Alsted pursued the systematization of knowledge with a singular zeal. His crowning achievement, the Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Distincta (1630), was not merely an inventory of sciences, but a theological and philosophical edifice structured according to the order of divine wisdom. He sought to demonstrate that all branches of learning, rightly understood, flow from and return unto Sacred Scripture. His labors were praised by the godly Cotton Mather and influenced John Amos Comenius, while even Leibniz once considered revising his great work. Though some censured him for his unacknowledged borrowings, yet none could deny the utility or magnificence of his efforts. In theology, he was a fierce opponent of the Socinians, authoring his Prodromusto confound their impieties. Thus lived and died this encyclopaedic divine, whose writings form a citadel of Reformed learning, erected to the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.

Biography: Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), that industrious and God-fearing servant of the Church, was born in Mittenaar within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and was educated under the noble tutelage of Johannes Piscator at Herborn, and afterward under such men as Goclenius and Polanus, blending the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and the liberal arts. He was deeply steeped in the Reformed faith, trained in Ramist method and Lullist art, and rose swiftly to prominence as professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn Academy. In his later years, having been driven by the fury of the Thirty Years' War, he settled in the land of Transylvania, where, at the city of Alba Iulia, he established a Calvinist academy, laboring for the propagation of pure doctrine among the churches recently reclaimed from Socinian heresy. As a man whose very name was anagrammed into Sedulitas (diligence), Alsted pursued the systematization of knowledge with a singular zeal. His crowning achievement, the Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Distincta (1630), was not merely an inventory of sciences, but a theological and philosophical edifice structured according to the order of divine wisdom. He sought to demonstrate that all branches of learning, rightly understood, flow from and return unto Sacred Scripture. His labors were praised by the godly Cotton Mather and influenced John Amos Comenius, while even Leibniz once considered revising his great work. Though some censured him for his unacknowledged borrowings, yet none could deny the utility or magnificence of his efforts. In theology, he was a fierce opponent of the Socinians, authoring his Prodromusto confound their impieties. Thus lived and died this encyclopaedic divine, whose writings form a citadel of Reformed learning, erected to the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.

Table of Contents:

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CHAPTER XXI. Of the Civil Magistracy.

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I. Is the magistracy ordained of God?

Yea, for it is of the Lord, whose author in all things is God.

II. How many kinds of lawful magistracy are there?

Threefold: civil, ecclesiastical, and scholastic. And of these, some are supreme, others inferior.

III. What are the forms of governing magistracies?

Three: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. These forms, though simple, may in many ways be mingled; yet the denomination is rightly taken from the predominant form.

IV. Is it lawful for Christians to undertake the office of civil magistracy?

It is affirmed, according to Romans 13, and by the practice of the faithful in the Old Testament.

V. Ought an unbelieving or wicked magistrate to be tolerated by the people of God?

Yea, for the power of the magistrate, which is from God Himself, must be distinguished from the unbelief or wickedness that ariseth from the corrupt mind of the magistrate. As such, it must be separated, and the office distinguished from the vice. The ordinance of God, which is in itself good, ought not to be prejudiced or defrauded thereby.

VI. May the orders or estates of a kingdom or province resist a tyrant?

They may, if he violateth the fundamental laws, and moreover, if they have offered petitions and admonitions which he hath rejected.

VII. Are ecclesiastical persons by divine right exempt from the yoke of the civil magistrate?