Self-conceitednefs mull be denied. 'thecicareft reaCons , and yet felflconceitednep bolts the door again(' all : Yea fo wonderfully doth this fin prevail, that the ig- norant filly people that know almoll nothing, are as proudly .felf-conceited as ifthey were the wifeR men : They that will not learn,and cannot give an account of their knowledge,in thevery Catechifm or Principles of Chriflian Religion, nor cannot pray, nor fcarce (peak a word of fenfeabout the mattersof falvation, 'but excufe themfelves that they are no Scholars, yet thefe very people will proudly refill their Teachers, though they were the wifeft and learnedft men in the Land: Let us but crofs their con- ceits about any doctrine or practice in Religion ; about their own title to Church-priviledges, or fitnefs for them, and they are confident andfurious again(} their Minifters, as if we were as ignorant as they, and they were the wifefl men in the world : fo that pride and felf-conceitednefs makes people mad, or deal like mad men. We cannot humblemen for fin, nor reclaim them from it, till they know the fin, and the danger of it : and felf-coneeitednefs will not let them know it, no nor let them come tous to be taught : but they are wifeenough already : and ifwe tell them of the fin and danger, they are wifer then to be- lieve the Word of God or us I They will tell us to our faces, they will never believe fuch and fuch things , which we fhew them in the Scripture. 0 theprecious light that fhineth round about you all, and wouldmake you wife, iffe/f-conceitednefs did not keep it out by making you feem wife already. It Cor. 3. 18. Thefe men that thus deceive themfelves, by feeming wife to themfelves, mull become fools in their own eyes, if ever they will be truly wife ; and confefs themfelves, as Paul himfelfdid, that they were foolifh and deceived,when they ferved their.lufis and pleafures, Tit. 3. 3. This Pride and Self-conceitednefs is like the barn in thedrink, that feems to fill up the veffel, but indeed works it all over : This is the Knowledge that pufferh up, i Cor. 13 .like the pot that by boyling feetneth to be filied,that was half empty before ; but its empty in the botom, and prefencly boils over, and is emptyer then before. So is it with the felf--con- ceited, that have a fuperficial knowledge, while they are empty at the botom, and by the heat of pride, that little they have boileth over to their lots. It is the humble that God reveals his M farm
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