Philos. [ad. med. L. futūritiōn-em, irreg. f. futūr-us FUTURE.
As a metaphysical term the med.L. word is used e.g. by St. Bonaventura Opera, ed. Peltier, 1864, II. 65 b, in discussions relating to God’s foreknowledge of events. A different sense, = ‘the act of forecasting the future,’ occurs in a letter of Bp. Jewel, 1 Aug. 1559, in Zurich Lett., ser. 1 (Parker Soc.), App. 22. The Parker Soc. translator renders Jewel’s valde deditum futuritionibus by ‘mightily addicted to futuritions’; but the sense is not otherwise authenticated either in Lat. or Eng.]
1. Existence or occurrence in the future; future existence or accomplishment. Now rare.
1641. D. Cawdrey, 3 Serm., 72. In the one there shall be a succession of punishments, and so there shall be a respect of futurition or time to come.
1654. Vilvain, Theorem. Theol., ii. 64. A certainty of divine Prescience touching the precise period of every mans life, as also the order or maner of its futurition.
1659. Pearson, Creed, ii. 139. In which words is clearly express’d the designation of the person, He, and the futurition of salvation certain by him he shall save.
1684–5. South, Serm. (1823), I. 207. Is it imaginable, that the great means of the worlds redemption … should hang so loose in respect of its futurition as [etc.].
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 147. The word shall … does not mean, to promise … in the third person, but the mere futurition of an event.
1882–3. in Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2524/1. While foreknowledge may insure the certain futurition of a volition.
b. quasi-concr. A future event or existence; a futurity.
1668. Shiells, Naphtali, Pref. 49. Let us not be anxious about futuritions.
a. 1670. Hacket, Cent. Serm. (1675), 996. There is a futurition of glory for the Soul.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 107. Seeing thorough the possibilities and futuritions of each [world].
1840. Blackw. Mag., XLVIII. 144. Some mere futurition, as metaphysicians love to speak, some event in futurity.
2. The quality, attribute, or fact of being future; the fact or circumstance that (something specified) will be.
1666. Spurstowe, Spir. Chym. (1668), 79. Futurition in respect of existency of things, is no prejudice to the Eye of Faith, in the beholding of them as present.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., xvii. (1700), 153. When God decrees that anything shall be, it has from that a certain futurition.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will, IV. viii. 251. The Acts and State of the Wills of moral Agents, which had a fix’d Futurition from Eternity.
1839. Blackw. Mag., XLV. 462. The Romans … had … forms expressing futurition and desire.
1847. Bushnell, Chr. Nurt., vii. (1861), 166. If there is any law of futurition.
