42 II L' \FILIT7i REPRESENTED. But we are generally too wise to tread one step back. again, though it be to lay hold on the truth which we have out -run in our haste to assurance. We have sometimes found it in ourselves and observed it in others that the firmness of a pretended ortho- doxy has not been always derived from light and evidence : Want of humility in the heart is too often the reason why we have no want of.confidence in our opinions, whether they be true or false. The boldest and most peremptory assertions are no criterions of truth : Nor are they always the result of a sincere and unbiassed examination, but the fruit of our ownconceit and of the highesteem of our own understandings : We are sure we have been in the right even from our early years, or at least from the day of manhood, and we desire to be no wiser, nor can any man make us so. It is granted there may be some subjects that we have searched to the bottom, we have seen them through and through ; and by much labour and argument we are able to pronounce upon them with jost assurance. This may be al- lowed sometimes even to a wise and a modest speaker : But what is it, my friends, that emboldens the hulk of mankind, to talk with such a decisive air upon all manner of themes as they do, when they have read or studied almost nothing of the matter ? Hast thou found out, O" man, every truth in the heights and the depths, and known every secret thing so well as to be incapable of mistaking ? What inspires thee to dictate as though thou only wert the man of knowledge, and wisdom mast die with thee? What is it but vanity and fulness of self that gives any man sudi assuming airs, and such an overbearing manner in conversation, that others must not be suffered to speak, while he must be heard with silence and attention ? No is silence and attention enough without a submissive faith. If you dare to doubt of what the tongue of pride pronounces, you dare to be impudent in his opinion, and he is ready to tell you so to your face. What is it else but this inward arrogance that casts a scornful eye on any one in the company who dares to offer at an argument against his positions ? And a contemptuous scoff is thought sufficient to refute . the noblest reasoning. What is it but pride and a domineering spirit that tempts any man to oblige others to bind their understandings and their consciences for ever down to every punctilio of his own opinions, and reverence every sentence as though the pen of divinetruth had written them ?' Happy had it been for the christials world if this assuming and imposing spirit had never been found, but only and always on the heretical side ! Then we should have had a more evident and distinguished token where to seek for truth, that is, where this pride and tyranny of souls had no place. But alas, this is a vain and fruitless
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