200 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND. Whether duty to God and her family ought not to regulate her love to a favourite? Whether her neighbour Plods did well in dressing upher daughters with expensive gaudery, and neglect- ing the education of her son till she saw his ruin : Perhaps by this method she might be brought to see, that particular fond- ness for one child, should have no weight or force in deter- mining the judgment in opposition to plain duty and she may then give herself up to conviction in her own ease, and to the evidence of truth, and thus correct her mistaken practice.- Suppose you would convert Rominda from popery, and you set all the absurdities, errors, and superstitions of that church before her in the most glaring evidence; she holds them fast still, and cannot part with them, for she hath a most sacred reve- rence for the faith and the church of her ancestors, and cannot imagine that they were in the wrong. The first labour must be therefore to convince her, that our ancestors were fallible crea- tures; that we may part with their faith without any dishonour done to them ; that all persons must choose their religion for themselves ; that we must answer for ourselves in the great day of judgment, and not we for our parents, nor they for us ; that christianity itself had never been received by her ancestors in this nation, if they had persisted always in the religion of their pa- rents, for they were all heathens. And when she has by these methods of reasoning been persuaded that she is not bound always to cleave to the religion of her Barents, she may then re- ceive an easier conviction of the errors of Rome.* CHAP. VI. Of Insdruçtion by Preaching. SECT. I. Wisdom better than Learning in the Pulpit. TYRO is a young preacher just come from the schools of logic and divinity, and advanced to the pulpit; he was counted a smart youngster in the academy for analysing a proposition, and is full, even to the brim, with the terms of his art and learn- ing. When he has read his text, after a short flourish of intro- duction, be tells you, in how many senses the chief word is taken, first among Greek heathen writers, and then in the NewTesta- * But perhaps of all these different methodsof curing prejudices, none can lie practised with 'greater pleasure to a wise and good man, orwith greatersue- sess, where success is most desirable, than attempting tp turn the attention of well meaning people from -some point in which prejudice prevails, to some other of greeter importance, and fixing their thoughts and heart on some great truth which they allow and which leads into consequences contrary to .some other no- tion which they espouse and retain. Bÿ this massa they may be led to forget their errors, while attentive to opposite truth; and in proportion to the degrees in which their minds- open, and their tempers grow more generous and virtuous, may be induced to resign it. And surely nothingcan give a benevolent mied more satisfaction, than to improvehis neighbour in knowledge, and is goodness ne the same time.
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