CHAPTER I7. 349 used, for the sake of decency, to cover a foul idea :. for the most chaste and modest, and well -bred persons, having sometimes a necessity to speak of the things of nature, convey their ideas in the most inoffensive language by this means. And indeed, the mere poverty of all languages makes it necessary to use equivocal words upon many occasions, as the common writings of men, and even the holy book of God, sufficiently manifest. 2dly, Equivocal words are usually distinguished, according to their original, into such, whose various senses arise from mere chance or accident, and such as are made equivocal by de- sign ; as the word bear signifies a shaggy beast, and it signifies also to bear or carry a burden ; this seems to be the mere effect of chance : but if .I call my dog bear, because he is shaggy, or call one of the northern constellations by that name, from a fan- cied situation of the stars in the shape of that animal, then it is by design that the word is made yet further equivocal. But because I think this common account of the spring or origin of equivocal words is too slight and imperfect, I shall reserve this subject to be treated of by itself, and proceed to the third division. idly, Ambiguous, or equivocal words, are such as are some- times taken in a large and general sense, and sometimes in a sense more strict and limited, and have different ideas affixed to them accordingly. Religion, or virtue, taken in a large sense, includes both our duty to God and our neighbour ; but in a more strict, limited and proper sense, virtue signifies our duty towards men, and religion our duty to God. Virtue may yet be taken in the strictest sense, and then it signifies power or courage, which is the sense of it in some places of the New Testament. So grace, taken in a large sense, means the favour of God, and all the spiritual blessings that proceed from it, (which is a fre- quent sense of it in the bible) but in a limited sense it signifies the habit of holiness wrought in us by divine favour, or a com- plex idea of the christian virtues. It may also be taken in the strictest sense ; and thus it signifies any single christian virtue, as in 2 Cor. viii. 6, 7. where it is used for liberality. So a city, in a strict and proper sense, means the houses inclosed within the walls ; in a larger sense, it reaches to all the suburbs. This larger and stricter sense of a word is used in almost all the sciences, as well as in theology, and in common life. The word geography, taken in a strict sense, signifies the know- ledge of the circles of the earthly globe, and the situation of the various parts of the earth ; when it is taken in a little larger sense, it includes the knowledge of the seas also; and in the largest sense of all, it extends to the various customs, habits, and governments of nations. When an astronomer uses the
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