CHAPTER IIlr 499 prodiges aild omens ; therefore Livy's Roman history is never to be believed in any thing. Or thus, There may be some mistake of transcribers in some part of scripture ; therefore scripture alone is not a safe guide for our faith. This sort of sophism has its reverse also ; as when we argue from that which is true simply and absolutely, to prove the same thing true in all particular circumstances whatsoever ; as if a traitor should argue from the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill a man, to provethat he himself ought not to be hanged: 'or . if a madman should tell ma, I ought not to withhold his sword from him, because no man ought to withhold the property of another. These two last, species of sophisms are easily solved, by chewing the difference betwixt things in their absolute nature, and the same things surrounded with peculiar circumstances, and considered in regard to special times, places, persons and 'occasions; or by showing the difference between a moral and a metaphysical universality, and that the proposition will hold good in One case, but not in the other. VII. The sophisms of composition and division come next to be mentioned. The sophism of composition is when we infer any thing concerning ideas in a compounded sense, which is only true in a divided sense. And when it is said in the gospel that. Christ made the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, we ought not to infer hence that Christ performed contra- dictions ; but those who were blind before, were made to see, and those who were deaf before, were made to hear ; &c. So when the scripture assures us, the worst of sinners may be saved ; it signifies only, that they who have been the worst of 'sinners may repent and be saved, not that they shall be saved in their sins. Or if any one should argue thus, Two and three are even and odd; five are two and three; therefore five are even and odd. Here that is very falsely inferred concerning two and three in union, which is only true of them divided. The sophism of division is when we infer the same thing concerning ideas in a divided sense, which is only true in a com- pounded sense; as, if we should pretend to prove that every soldier in the Grecian army put an hundred thousand Persians to flight, because the Grecian soldiers dici so. Or if a man should argue thus, five is one number; two and three are five; therefore two and three are one number. This sort of sophisms is committed when the word all is taken in a collective and a distributive sense, without a due dis. * This is arguing from a moral universality, which admits of soma excep- tions, in the same manner as may be argued from metaphysical sr a natural universality, which admits of no exception. = I i 2
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