Likewise children,fools,and madmen that have no use of reason may be personated by guardians,or curators,but can be no authors during that time of any action done by them,longer than (when they shall recover the use of reason)they shall judge the same reasonable.
Yet during the folly he that hath right of governing them may give authority to the guardian.But this again has no place but in a state civil,because before such estate there is no dominion of persons.
An idol,or mere figment of the brain,may be personated,as were the gods of the heathen,which,by such officers as the state appointed,were personated,and held possessions,and other goods,and rights,which men from time to time dedicated and consecrated unto them.But idols cannot be authors:for an idol is nothing.The authority proceeded from the state,and therefore before introduction of civil government the gods of the heathen could not be personated.
The true God may be personated.As He was:first,Moses,who governed the Israelites,that were that were not his,but God's people;not in his own name,with hoc dicit Moses,but in God's name,with hoc dicit Dominus.Secondly,by the Son of Man,His own Son,our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ,that came to reduce the Jews and induce all nations into the kingdom of his Father;not as of himself,but as sent from his Father.And thirdly,by the Holy Ghost,or Comforter,speaking and working in the Apostles;which Holy Ghost was a Comforter that came not of himself,but was sent and proceeded from them both.
A multitude of men are made one person when they are by one man,or one person,represented;so that it be done with the consent of every one of that multitude in particular.For it is the unity of the representer,not the unity of the represented,that maketh the person one.And it is the representer that beareth the person,and but one person:and unity cannot otherwise be understood in multitude.
And because the multitude naturally is not one,but many,they cannot be understood for one,but in any authors,of everything their representative saith or doth in their name;every man giving their common representer authority from himself in particular,and owning all the actions the representer doth,in case they give him authority without stint:otherwise,when they limit him in what and how far he shall represent them,none of them owneth more than they gave him commission to act.
And if the representative consist of many men,the voice of the greater number must be considered as the voice of them all.For if the lesser number pronounce,for example,in the affirmative,and the greater in the negative,there will be negatives more than enough to destroy the affirmatives,and thereby the excess of negatives,standing uncontradicted,are the only voice the representative hath.
And a representative of even number,especially when the number is not great,whereby the contradictory voices are oftentimes equal,is therefore oftentimes mute and incapable of action.Yet in some cases contradictory voices equal in number may determine a question;as in condemning,or absolving,equality of votes,even in that they condemn not,do absolve;but not on the contrary condemn,in that they absolve not.For when a cause is heard,not to condemn is to absolve;but on the contrary to say that not absolving is condemning is not true.
The like it is in deliberation of executing presently,or deferring till another time:for when the voices are equal,the not decreeing execution is a decree of dilation.
Or if the number be odd,as three,or more,men or assemblies,whereof every one has,by a negative voice,authority to take away the effect of all the affirmative voices of the rest,this number is no representative;by the diversity of opinions and interests of men,it becomes oftentimes,and in cases of the greatest consequence,a mute person and unapt,as for many things else,so for the government of a multitude,especially in time of war.
Of authors there be two sorts.The first simply so called,which Ihave before defined to be him that owneth the action of another simply.The second is he that owneth an action or covenant of another conditionally;that is to say,he undertaketh to do it,if the other doth it not,at or before a certain time.And these authors conditional are generally called sureties,in Latin,fidejussores and sponsores;and particularly for debt,praedes and for appearance before a judge or magistrate,vades.