But yet it is to be
observed, that tho' oaths of allegiance and fealty are taken to
him, it is not to him as supreme legislator, but as supreme
executor of the law, made by a joint power of him with others;
allegiance being nothing but an obedience according to law, which
when he violates, he has no right to obedience, nor can claim it
otherwise than as the public person vested with the power of the
law, and so is to be considered as the image, phantom, or
representative of the common-wealth, acted by the will of the
society, declared in its laws; and thus he has no will, no power,
but that of the law. But when he quits this representation, this
public will, and acts by his own private will, he degrades
himself, and is but a single private person without power, and
without will, that has any right to obedience; the members owing
no obedience but to the public will of the society.
Sec. 152. The executive power, placed any where but in a
person that has also a share in the legislative, is visibly
subordinate and accountable to it, and may be at pleasure changed
and displaced; so that it is not the supreme executive power,
that is exempt from subordination, but the supreme executive
power vested in one, who having a share in the legislative, has
no distinct superior legislative to be subordinate and
accountable to, farther than he himself shall join and consent;
so that he is no more subordinate than he himself shall think
fit, which one may certainly conclude will be but very little.
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