II! d1 I81 THE IMPROTE'MENT OF THE MIND. baps with this disadvantage, that they are a little moreobstinate, and rooted in them without fresh reason, and they generally come off with the loss of temper and charity. V. Neither attempt nor hopo to convince a personof his mistake, byany penal met /sods or severe usage ; there is no light brought into the mind by all the fire and sword, and bloody per- secutions that were ever introduced into the world. One would think that the princes, the priests, and the people, the learned and the unlearned, the great and the mean, should have all, by this time, seen the folly and madness of seeking to propagate the truth by the laws of cruelty ; we compel a beast to the yoke by blows, because the ox and the ass have no understanding; but intellectual powers are not to be t ttered and compelled at this rate; men cannot believe what they will, nor change their reli- gion and their sentiments as they please ; they may be made hypocrites by the forms of severity, and constrained to confess what they do not believe ; they may be forced to comply with external practices and ceremonies, contrary to their own con- sciences ; but this can never please God, nor profit men. VI. Inorder to convince another, you should always make choice of those arguments that are best suited to his understand- ing and capacity, his genius and temper, his state, station, and circumstance. If I were to persuade a plowman of the truth of any form of church government, it should not be attempted by the use of the Greek and Latin fathers, but from the word of God, the light of nature, and the common reason of things. VII. Arguments should always be proposed in such a man- ner, as may lead the mind onward to perceive the truth in a clear andagreeable light, as well as to constrain the assent by thepower of reasoning. Clear ideas in many cases, are as useful toward conviction, as a well formedand unanswerable syllogism. VIII. Allow the person you desire to instruct a reasonable time to enter into the force of your argument. When you have declared your own sentiments in the brightest manner of illus- tration, and enforced them with the most convincing arguments, you are not to suppose that your friends should immediately be convinced and receive the truth : habitude in a particular way of' thinking, as well as in most other things, obtains the force of nature, and you cannot expect to wean a man from his accustom- ed errors but by slow degrees, and by bis own assistance; en- treat him therefore not to judge on the sudden, nor determine against you at once, but that he would please to review your scheme, reflect upon your arguments with all the impartiality he is capable of; and take time to think these over again at large ; at least that he would be disposed to hear you speak yet further en this subject, without pain or aversion. Address him therefore hr an obliging manner ; and say, I
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