Book of Collections on the Art of Preaching

...rained for three years and six months. And again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth gave its fruit. Therefore, pray for one another that you may be saved. For the persistent prayer of a just man is of great value. The place is from the species. The maximum: what fits the individuals also fits the species. This argumentation, which is found without induction, is not urging but persuading, just like the other oratorical places. A regression can also be made from the species to the genus, as in Paul to the Galatians 5: "I testify again to every man circumcising himself that he is a debtor to do the whole law." The maximum: in the species, the property of the genera is to be viewed.

SIMILITUDE is the same quality of differing things. From this we shall argue thus: James 5, "Behold, the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, bearing it patiently until he receives the early and the late rain. Therefore, be you also patient, and strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord will draw near." The maximum proposition: of similar things, the judgment is the same.

DIFFERENCE are those things whose reasons are not the same. From these, such is the argumentation: John, chapter 15, "I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because everything that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." The maximum proposition: of differing things, the judgment is diverse.

CONTRARIES are found in four ways. For they are either opposite, like white and black; or privative, like justice and injustice; or relative, like master and servant; or negative, like seeing and not seeing. From such, an argument is taken in this way, from Paul to the Galatians, chapter 5: "For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposite to one another. And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, etc. But the fruit of the spirit is charity, modesty, continence, chastity, etc."