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by the excellency of the end, and their expediency to produce it; fo that must be the best knowledge that hath the directeft tendency to promote the beft ends, viz. a man's own true happiness, and that of others; in which the glory of GoD, the ultimate end, is ever neceffarily comprised.

Now, if we were to judge of the several kinds of science by this rule, we should find, (1.) Some of them to be very hurtful and pernicious, as tending to pervert the true end of knowledge; to ruin a man's own happiness, and make him more injurious to fociety: Such is the knowledge of vice, the various temptations to it, and the ways of practising it; especially the arts of diffimulation, fraud and dishonesty. (2.) Others will be found unprofitable and ufelefs; as thofe parts of knowledge, which, tho' they may take up much time and pains to acquire, yet anfwer no valuable purpose; and serve only for amusement, and the entertainment of the imagination. For inftance, an acquaintance with plays, novels, games and modes, in which a man may be very critical and expert, and yet not a whit the wifer or more useful Man. (3.) Other kind of knowledge are good only relatively (or conditionally, and may be more useful to one than to another) viz. a skill in a man's

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95 particular occupation or calling, on which his credit, livelihood or usefulness in the world depends. As this kind of knowledge is valuable in proportion to its end, fo it ought to be cultivated with a diligence and esteem agreeable to that. (Laftly,) Other kinds of knowledge are good, abfolutely and univerfally, viz. the knowledge of GOD and ourselves; the nature of our final happiness and the way to it; this is equally neceffary to all and how thankful fhould we be, that we, who live under the light of the Gofpel, and enjoy that light in its perfection and purity, have fo many happy means and opportunities of attaining this most useful and neceffary kind of knowledge !

A man can never understand himself, then, till he make a right estimate of his knowledge; till he examine what kind of knowledge he values himself most upon, and moft diligently cultivates; how high a value he fets upon it; what good it does him; what effect it hath upon him; what he is the better for it; what end it answers now; or what it is like to answer hereafter.

There is nothing in which a man's felfignorance difcovers itself more, than in the efteem he hath for his understanding, or

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for himself on the account of it: it is a trite observation, that empty things make the moft found; men of the leaft knowledge are most apt to make a show of it, and to value themselves upon it; which is very visible in forward confident youth, raw, conceited academics, and those who, uneducated in their childhood, betake themfelves in later life to reading, without tafte or judgment, only as an accomplishment, and to make a show of scholarship; who have just learning enough to fpoil company, and render themselves ridiculous, but not fufficient to make either themselves or others in the leaft degree wifer.

Befide the forementioned kinds of knowledge, there is another which is commonly called falfe knowledge; which, tho' it often imposes upon men under the show and femblance of true knowledge, is really worse than ignorance: fome men have learned a great many things, and have taken a great deal of pains to learn them, and ftand very high in their own opinion on account of them, which yet they must unlearn before they are truly wife: they have been at a vaft expence of time, pains and patience to heap together, and to confirm themselves in a fet of wrong notions, that they lay up in their minds as a fund

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of valuable knowledge; which, if they try by the forementioned rules, viz. the tendency they have to make them wifer and better, or more ufeful and beneficial to others,' will be found altogether infignificant.

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Beware of this falfe knowledge: for as there is nothing of which men are more obftinately tenacious, fo there is nothing that renders them more vain, or more averse to felf-knowledge; of all things, men are most fond of their wrong notions.

The Apostle Paul often fpeaks of these men and their felf-fufficiency, in very poignant terms; who, tho' they feem wife, yet, fays he, muft become fools before they are wife. Tho' they understand much in their own opinion, they know nothing yet as they ought to know †. But deceive themfelves, by thinking themfelves fomething when they are nothing. And whilst they defire to be teachers of others, underftand not what they fay, nor whereof they affirm §. And want themfelves to be taught what are the firft rudiments and principles of wisdom

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* Cor. iii. 18.
§ 1 Tim. i. 7.

+1 Cor. viii 2.
|| Heb. v. 11.

CHAP.

‡ Gal. vi. 3.

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Concerning the Knowledge, Guard and Government of our Thoughts.

XIII.

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NOTHER part of felf-knowledge confifts in a due acquaintance with our own thoughts and the inward workings of the imagination.

The right government of the thoughts requires no small art, vigilance and refolution; but it is a matter of fuch vaft importance to the peace and improvement of the mind, that it is worth our pains to acquire it: a man that hath so numerous and turbulent a family to govern as his own thoughts, which are too apt to be at the command of his paffions and appetites, ought not to be long from home; if he be, they will foon grow mutinous under the conduct of those two headftrong guides, and raise great disturbances, and fometimes on the flighteft occafions: and a more dreadful scene of mifery can hardly be imagined, than that which is occafioned by fuch a tumult within, when a raging confcience or inflamed paffions are let loose without controul: a city in flames, or the mutiny of a drunken crew aboard, who have murdered the captain, and are butchering

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