different names allotted to our fenfation, and to the cause of it; as, we do not fay, pain is in the fire that burns us, or in the knife that cuts and wounds us; for we call it burning in the fire, cutting in the knife, and pain only when it is in ourselves. Numerous inftances of this kind might be derived from the words fweet, four, loud, fhrill, and almost all the fenfible qualities, whofe real natures we mistake from our very infancy, and we are ready to fuppofe them to be the fame in us, and in the bodies that cause them; partly because the words which fignify our own fenfations are applied alfo to fignify thofe unknown fhapes and motions of the little corpufcles, which excite and cause those fenfations. Direct. IV. In converfation or reading be diligent to find out the true fenfe, or diftinct idea, which the speaker or writer affixes to his words; and especially to those words which are the chief subject of his difcourfe. As far as poffible take heed, left you put more or fewer ideas into one word, than the perfon did when he wrote or fpoke; and endeavour that your ideas of every word may be the fame as his were; then you will judge better of what he fpeaks or writes. It is for want of this that men quarrel in the dark; and that there are fo many contentions in the feveral fciences, and efpecially in divinity, multitudes of them arife from a mistake of the true fenfe or complete meaning, in which words are used by the writer or speaker; and hereby fome times they feem to agree, when they really differ in their fentiments; and fometimes they feem to differ, when they really agree. Let me give an inftance of both. When one man by the word church fhall understand all that believe in Chrift; and another by the word church means only the church of Rome; they may both affent to this propofition, there is no falvation out of the church, and yet their inward fentiments may be widely different. Again, if one writer fhall affirm that virtue added to faith is fufficient to make a chriftian, and another fhall as zealously deny this propofition, they feem to differ widely in words, and yet perhaps they may both really agree in fentiment: if by the word virtue, the affirmer intends our whole duty to God and man; and the denier by the word virtue means only courage, or at most our duty towards our neighbour, without including in the idea of it the duty which we owe to God. Many fuch fort of contentions as these are, traced to their original, will be found to be mere logomachines, or ftrifes and quarrels about names and words, and vain janglings, as the apoftle calls them in his first letter of advice to Timothy. In order therefore to attain clear and distinct ideas of what we read or hear, we must search the sense of words; we must confider what is their original and derivation in our own or foreign languages; what is their common fenfe amongst mankind, or in other authors, especially fuch as wrote in the fame century, in the fame age, about the fame time, and upon the fame subjects: we must confiderin what sense the same author ufes any particular word or phrafe, and that when he is difcourfing on the fame matter, and efpecially about the fame parts or paragraphs of his writing we must confider whether the word be used in a ftrict and limited, or in a large and general fenfe; whether in a literal, in a figurative, or in a prophetic fenfe; whether it has any fecondary idea annexed to it befides the primary or chief fenfe. We muft enquire farther what is the fcope and defign of the writer; and what is the connection of that fentence with those that go before it, and thofe which follow it. By these and other methods we are to fearch out the definition of names, that is, the true fenfe and meaning in which any author or fpeaker ufes any word, which may be the chief fubject of difcourfe, or may carry any confiderable importance in it. Direct. V. When we communicate our notions to others, merely with a defign to inform and improve their knowledge, let us, in the beginning of our difcourfe, take care to adjust the definitions of names wherefoever there is need of it; that is, to determine plainly what we mean by the chief words which are the fubject of our difcourfe; and be fure always to keep the fame ideas, whenfoever we use the fame words, unless we give due notice of the change. This will have a very large and happy influence, in fecuring not only others but ourselves too from confufion and mistake; for even writers and speakers themselves, for want of due watchfulness, are ready to affix different ideas to their own words, in different parts of their "difcourfes, and hereby bring perplexity into their own reafonings, and confound their hearers It is by an obfervation of this rule that mathemati cians have fo happily fecured themselves and the sciences which they have profeffed, from wrangling and controverfy; becaufe whenfoever in the progress of their treatises they have occafion to use a new and unknown word; they always define it, and tell in what fense they shall take it; and in many of their writings you will find a heap of definitions at the very beginning. Now if the writers of natural philosophy and morality had ufed the fame accuracy and care, they had effectually fecluded a multitude of noisy and fruitlefs debates out of their feveral provinces: nor had that facred theme of divinity been perplexed with fo many intricate difputes, nor the church of Christ been torn to pieces, by fo many fects and factions, if the words grace, faith, righteousness, repentance, juftification, worship, church, bishop, prefbyter, &c. had been well defined, and their fignifications adjusted, as near as poffible, by the use of those words in the New Testament or at least, if every writer had told us at first in what fense he would use those words.. Direct. VI. In your own ftudies, as well as in the com munication of your thoughts to others, merely for their information, avoid ambiguous and equivocal terms as much as poffible. Do not use fuch words as have two of three definitions of the name belonging to them, that is, fuch words as have two or three fenfes, where there is any danger of mistake. Where your chief business: is to inform the judgment, and to explain a matter, rather than to perfuade or affect, be not fond of expressing yourselves in figurative language, when there are any proper words that fignify the fame idea in their literal fenfe. It is the ambiguity of names, as we have often faid, that brings almoft infinite confufion into our conceptions of things. But where there is a neceffity of using an ambigueus word, there let double care be used in defining that word, and declaring in what fenfe you take it. And be sure to fuffer no ambiguous word ever to come into your definitions. Direct. VII. In communicating your notions, ufe every word as near as poffible in the fame fenfe in which mankind commonly uses it; or which writers that have gone before you have usually affixed to it, upon condition that it is free from ambiguity. Though names are in their original merely arbitrary, yet we fhould always keep to the established meaning of them, unlefs great neceffity require the alteration; for when any word has been used to fignify an idea, that old idea will recur in the mind, when the word is heard or read, rather than any new idea which we may fasten to it. And this is one reafon why the received definition of names fhould be changed as little as poffible. But I add farther, that though a word entirely new, introduced into a language, may be affixed to what idea you pleafe, yet an old word ought never to be fixed to an unaccustomed idea, without just and evident neceffity, or without prefent or previous notice, leaft we introduce thereby a licence for all manner of pernicious equivocations and falfehoods; as for inftance, when an idle boy, who has not seen his book all the morning, fhall tell his mafter that he has learned his leffon, he can never excufe himself by faying; that by the word learning he meant his breakfast, and by the word leffon he meant eating; furely this would be conftrued a downright lie, and his fancied wit would hardly procure his pardon. In ufing any ambiguous word, which has been used in different fenfes, we may choose what we think the moft proper fenfe, as I have done, p. 75. in naming the poles of the loadstone, north or fouth. And when a word has been used in two or three fenfes, and has made a great inroad for error upon that account, it is of good fervice to drop one or two of thofe fenfes, and leave it only one remaining, and affix the other fenfes or ideas to other words. So the modern philofophers, when they they treat of the human foul, they call it the mind or mens humana, and leave the word anima or foul to fignify the principle of life and motion in mere animal beings. The poet Juvenal has long ago given us a hint to this accuracy and diftinction, when he fays of brutes and men, Indulfit mundi communis conditor illis Exception. There is one cafe, wherein fome of these laft rules concerning the definition of words, may be in fome measure difpenfed with; and that is, when ftrong and rooted prejudice hath established fome favourite word or phrafe, and long used it to exprefs fome mistaken notion, or to unite fome inconfiftent ideas; for then it is fometimes much easier to lead the world into truth by indulging their fondness for a phrafe, and by affigning and applying new ideas and notions to their favourite word; and this is much fafer alfo than to awaken all their paffions by rejecting both their old words, and phrafes and notions, and introducing all new at once: therefore we continue to fay, there is heat in the fire, there is coldness in ice, rather than invent new words to exprefs the powers which are in fire or ice, to excite the fenfations of heat or cold in us. For the fame reafon fome words and phrafes which are lefs proper, may be continued in theology, while people are led into clearer ideas with much more eafe and fuccefs, than if an attempt were made to change all their beloved forms of speech. In other cafes thefe logical directions fhould generally be obferved, and different names affixed to differ ent ideas. Here I cannot but take occafion to remark, that it is a confiderable advantage to any language to have a variety of new words introduced into it, that when in course of time new objects and new ideas arise, there may be new words and names affigned to them: and also where one fingle name has sustained two or three ideas in time paft, thefe new words may remove the |