A26923:306
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Chapter 6 › An ANSWER TO Mr. Polehill's Exceptions about Futurition.
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.
if none of these, what is […]t then? You must needs hold to the latter; and then in man, the futurity of things is nothing real, •ut the mode of his Cogitation or Conception; as I have afore said, we may have real thoughts, that here is not such or such a thing, but will be; in which we frame a real Idea of that which will be (and is not) in our minds (from the helps of similitudes or words) and so say, Such a thing (thought on and named, but not in being) will be. But in God there is nothing but God; the Creature is of him, and is in him dependently as their Cause and Comprehender, but not as constituent of his immanent acts.
if none of these, what is 〈…〉t then? You must needs hold to the latter; and then in man, the futurity of things is nothing real, •ut the mode of his Cogitation or Conception; as I have afore said, we may have real thoughts, that here is not such or such a thing, but will be; in which we frame a real Idea of that which will be (and is not) in our minds (from the helps of similitudes or words) and so say, Such a thing (thought on and named, but not in being) will be. But in God there is nothing but God; the Creature is of him, and is in him dependently as their Cause and Comprehender, but not as constituent of his immanent acts.
Why you add (Suppose nothing to have some Verity) is above my reach: I think Nothing hath no Verity: But, 1. God's Knowledge that it will be, hath Verity. 2. The Proposition (This will be) may have Verity. 3. But the thing future hath not Veritas rei. Futurity as in re hath no more Entity than Possibility: But to will or know that quid nominatum can be, and that it will be, are two real acts in Man, and two extrinsic Denominations of the Divine Will and Intellect. When you have answered what I said of Dr. Twice, I may review it.
Why you add (Suppose nothing to have some Verity) is above my reach: I think Nothing hath no Verity: But, 1. God's Knowledge that it will be, hath Verity. 2. The Proposition (This will be) may have Verity. 3. But the thing future hath not Veritas rei. Futurity as in re hath no more Entity than Possibility: But to will or know that quid nominatum can be, and that it will be, are two real acts in Man, and two extrinseck Denominations of the Divine Will and Intellect. When you have answered what I said of Dr. Twisse, I may review it.