A10663:933
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the several dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edward Reynolds, late preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.
London: printed by R. Hearne and John Norton for Robert Bostock, 1640
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A third Corruption of this Faculty in regard of Knowledge, is in the Fluctuation, wavering, and uncertainty of Assents, when the Understanding is left floating, and as it were in Aequilibrio, that it cannot tell which way to incline, or what Resolutions to grow unto; and this is that which in Opposition to Science, is called Opinion: For Science is ever cum certitudine, with Evidence and Unquestionable ⟨p. 464⟩Consequence of Conclusions from necessary Principles: but Opinion is cum Formidine Oppositi, 1with a fear least the contrary of what we assent unto should be true: And so it importeth a Tender, Doubtful, and Infirm Conclusion.
A third Corruption of this Faculty in regard of Knowledge, is in the Fluctuation, wavering, and uncertainty of Assents, when the Understanding is left floating, and as it were in Aequilibrio, that it cannot tell which way to encline, or what Resolutions to grow unto; and this is that which in Opposition to Science, is called Opinion: For Science is ever cum certitudine, with Evidence and Unquestionable ⟨p. 464⟩Consequence of Conclusions from necessary Principles: but Opinion is cum Formidine Oppositi, 1with a feare least the contrary of what wee assent unto should be true: And so it importeth a Tender, Doubtfull, and Infirme Conclusion.
- 1Aqui•. 22 •. qu. •. Ar•. 4. C.
The Causes of Opinion, I conceive to be principally two: The first is a Disproportion between the Understanding and the Object, when the Object is either too bright and excellent, or too dark and base: the one dazzles the Power, the other Affects it not. Things too Divine and Abstracted, are to the Understanding Tanquam lumen ad Vespertilionem, as light unto a Batt; which rather astonish than inform; and things too Material and Immersed, are like a Mist unto the Eyes, which rather hinder, than affect it. And therefore, though whatsoever hath Truth in it, be the Object of the Understanding; yet the Coexistence of the Soul with the Body, in this present Estate, restrains and Limits the Latitude of the Object, and requires in it, not only the bare Nature and Truth, but such a Qualification thereof, as may make it fit for representation and Impression by the conveyance of the Sense. So that as in the True perception of the Eye (especially of those Vespertiliones, to which Aristotle hath compared the Understanding in this estate of subsistence