A26923:307
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.
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.
Ad 4. You say (Future is nothing; ergo, •• thing is future.) I am glad that the Creed a[…] Bible are not thus worded: Future in your fir[…] Proposition signifieth the Affection or somewh[…] real of the thing future, and so it is nothing; […] you take future so in the second, it is futile […] true, being but a gross expression of (Nothing hath real Futurity, which is aliquid rei.) But according to common use, your second Propositio[…] will be taken for a denial of the Saying (Somewhat will be) and this is a real truth. You say th[…] Proposition is identical, as (Nothing is Nothing.) We speak not of the Being or truth of Propositions or Conceptions, but of futurity it self as incomplexum. You after confess I told you so May you not equally say (Negations, Non-existents, Non-futurity are nothing; ergo Nothing is a Negation, Non-existent, Non-future?) Answer one and you answer the other. Negations in meant are Thoughts, and in the Mouth they are Words, but in re negata they are nothing: So I say of Non-futurity and Non-existence. Frail Man dreameth that the mundus naturalis is the same with the mundus fantasticus & notionalis in his Brain; and Oh! how commonly do Words and Thoughts go in Disputes for Extrinsic Realities?