CHAPTER IV. 317! for it signifies the head of a nail, or of a pin, as well as of an animal: nail is'an equivocal word, it is used for the nail of the hand, or foot, and for an iron nail to fasten any thing. Post is equivocal, it is a piece of timber, or a swift messenger. A churl' is a religious assembly, or the large fair building where they meet; and sometimes the same word means a synod of bishops, or of presbyters, and in some places it is the pope and a general council. Mere let it be noted, that when tWo or more words signify the same thing, as wave and billow, mead and meadow, they are usually called sr'nonyrnous words, but it seems very strange that words, which are directly contrary to each other, should sometimes represent almost the same ideas ; yet thus it is in some few instances; a valuable, or an invaluable blessing; a shameful, or a shameless villain ; a thick skull, or a thin skall'd fellow, a mere paper skull; a man of a large conscience, little conscience, or no conscience; a famous rascal, or an infamous one. So uncertain a thing is human language, whose foundation and support is custom ! As words signifying the same thing are called synonrymous, so equivocal words, or those which signify several things, are called homonymous, or ambiguous ; and when persons use such ambiguous words, with a design to deceive, it is called equi- vocation. Our simple ideas, and especially the sensible qualities, fur- nish us with a great variety of equivocal or ambiguous words ; for these being the first, and most natural ideas we have, we borrow some of their naives, to signify many other ideas, both simple and complex. The word sweet expresses the pleasant perceptions of almost every sense; sugar is sweet, but it bath not the same sweetness as music ; nor hath music the sweetness of a rose; and a sweet prospect differs from them all ; nor yet have any of these the sarne sweetness as discourse, counsel, or meditation hath ; yet the royal Psalmist saith of a man. We took sweet counsel together ; and of God, My meditation of him shall be sweet. Bitter is also such an equivocal word ; there is bitter wormwood, there are bitter words, there are hitter enemies, and a bitter cold morning. So there is a sharpness in vinegar, and there is a sharpness in pain, in sorrow and in reproach ; there is a sharp eye, a sharp wit, and a sharp sword : but there is not one of these seven sharpnesses the same as another of them, and a sharp east wind is different from them all. There are also verbs or words of action, which are equivo- cal, as well as nouns or naines. The words to bear, to take, to cerne, to get, are sufficient instances of it : or when we say, to bear a burden, to bear sorrow or reproach, to bear a name, to
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