Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

The Preitvë. be taken for Pride and Singularity for anyman to convince them of ignorance or error. 9. Many of them are godly men and excellent Preach- ers, and cryed up (defervedly) by good people : And therefore they take the reputation of more knowledge than they have, to be their due ; and the people are ready to joyn with them in reproaching all that differ from them. to. Great knowledge being rare , the half-knowing men are Will the major part by far ( alas how far !) And fo ifSynods becalled,or molt Voicesheard, thefe will Will pais for the Orthodox men, and a more judicious man will fcarce be heard among them. u. Learning is of many ages got into certain forms of words ; and he that hath got fome organical arbitrary No- tions, paffeth for a Learned man ; or he that can fpeak many Languages : while true real wifdom (which con- fifteth t. In knowing the Greatefl Things, and z. In fitting words to things) is muchnegle&ed : whereby as hypocrites deceive themfelves and others with forms of piety, fo do Scho- lars with forms and notions inflead of knowledge. tz. Thefe humane formalities of wifdom have prevail- ed to bring the Scripture, and the belt part ofwifdom, into difefteem, as a dull and low kind of knowledge ; as if Logical, Physical and Metaphylcal trifling, were a higher matter. t;. No man is fufficiently apprehenfive of the greatnefs of the Curie in the confufion ofTongues : whereby as we can preach but to fewNations in the World, fo we cannot intelligibly converfe with one another. All words (being arbitrary fgns) are fmbiguous ; And few Vmaters have the ïaioufie and skill which is neceffary to difcufs equivocations, and to agree of the meaning of all their terms before they ufe them in difputing : And fo taking Verbal differences for Material, doth keep up molt of the wretched Academical andTheological Warsof the World. 14. And nothing here undoeth all the.World in point of wifdom, fomuch as over-hafly judging or prefidence : It is natural to almoft all to fallen prefently upon the firft appearances, and to be confident before they have half tryed : In cafes where (even and (even years ferious Rudy is necelfary to a through digePted knowledge, every No vice will prefently conclude as if he were Pure; And theft as

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