explained and recommended. 373 ed to, and of deliberating, that we may S E R M. freely do what to our own underflandings XV. appeareth in the whole to be heft. This fheweth the advantage of what I mentioned at firft, fome certain principle fixed as a ge - neral rule whereby to govern our lives : To run haftily into every aEtion or courfe of aftion to which we are prompted, is un- worthy of intelligent beings, for the reafons already infinuated ; to go through the pro- grefs of a laborious inquiry upon every par- ticular cafe, without having any fettled maxim, to which we may appeal and be determined by it, would embarrafs our un- derftandings, and involve them in perplex- ing difficulties ; whereas to have an invari- able rule ready at hand with which we can compare every point - we are confidering, leads to a juft and eafy decifion: In fad, it may be truly faid in force fenfe, that every man doth fo condua himfelf, whether he attendeth to it or not ; he bath either a principle, or force prejudice, that hath the force of a principle, which guideth his whole courfe. What multitudes of man- kind are there, who being accuftomed to an uncontrouled gratification of their appe- tites and paffions, or having learned from their childhood, and merely from the ex- B b 3 ample
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