And
therefore we see, that in assemblies, impowered to act by
positive laws, where no number is set by that positive law which
impowers them, the act of the majority passes for the act of the
whole, and of course determines, as having, by the law of nature
and reason, the power of the whole.
Sec. 97. And thus every man, by consenting with others to
make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an
obligation, to every one of that society, to submit to the
determination of the majority, and to be concluded by it; or else
this original compact, whereby he with others incorporates into
one society, would signify nothing, and be no compact, if he be
left free, and under no other ties than he was in before in the
state of nature. For what appearance would there be of any
compact? what new engagement if he were no farther tied by any
decrees of the society, than he himself thought fit, and did
actually consent to? This would be still as great a liberty, as
he himself had before his compact, or any one else in the state
of nature hath, who may submit himself, and consent to any acts
of it if he thinks fit.
Sec. 98. For if the consent of the majority shall not, in
reason, be received as the act of the whole, and conclude every
individual; nothing but the consent of every individual can make
any thing to be the act of the whole: but such a consent is next
to impossible ever to be had, if we consider the infirmities of
health, and avocations of business, which in a number, though
much less than that of a common-wealth, will necessarily keep
many away from the public assembly.
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