Page:A Letter from a Person of Quality, to His Friend in the Country (1675).pdf/26

 Crown or Safety, and if the case should be put, that a future King of England of the same temper with Hen. 6. or Charl. 6 of France, should be taken prisoner by Spaniard, Dutch, or French, whose overgrowing power should give them thoughts of vast Empire, and should, with the person and commission of the King, invade England for a Conquest, were it not suitable to our Loyalty to joyn with the Son of that King, for the defence of His Fathers Crown and Dignity, even against his Person and Commission? In all these and the like Cases it was not justified, but that the strict Letter of the Law might be otherwise construed, and when wisely considerd, fit it should be so, yet that it was not safe either for the Kingdom, or person of the King and His Crown, that it should be in express words Sworn against; for if we shall forswear all Distinctions, which ill Men have made ill use of, either in Rebellion, or Heresy, we must extend the Oath to all the particulars of Divinity, and Politiques. To this the aged Bishop of Winchester reply'd, That to take up Armes in such cases, is not against, but for the person of the King: But his Lordship was told that he might then as well, nay much better, have left it upon the Old Oath of Allegiance, then made such a wide gapp in his new Declaration.

The third and last part of the Declaration was or against those that are Commissioned by him. Here the mask was plainly pluckt off, and Arbitrary Government appear'd bare-faced, and a standing Army to be established by Act of Parliament, for it was said by several of the Lords, That if whatever is by the Kings Commission, be not opposed by the King's Authority, then a standing Army is Law when ever the King pleases; and yet the King's Commission was never thought sufficient to Protect, or justify any man, where it is against his Authority, which is the Law; this allowed alters the whole Law of England, in the most essential and Fundamental parts of it, and makes the whole Law of property to become Arbitrary, and without effect, whenever the King pleases.

For instance, if in a Suit with a great Favourite, a man recovers House and Lands, and by course of Law be put into Possession by the Sheriff, and afterwards a Warrant is obtain'd by the interest of the person, to command some Souldiers of the standing Army to take the possession and deliver it back, in such a case, the man in Possession may justify to defend himself, and killing those who shall violently endeavour to enter his house, the party, whose house is invaded, takes up Armes by the King's Authority against those, who are Commissioned by him. And it is the same case, if the Souldiers had been Commissioned to defend the House against the Sheriff, when he first endeavored to take the Rh