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We must confider then the knowledge we have; and whether we do not fet too high a price upon it, and too great a value upon ourselves on the account of it; of what real ufe it is to us, and what effect it hath upon us; whether it does not make us too ftiff, unfociable, and affuming; tefty and fupercilious, and ready to defpife others for their fuppofed ignorance. If fo, our knowledge, be it what it will, does us more harm than good. We were better without it; ignorance itself would not render us fo ridiculous. Such a temper, with all our knowledge, fhows that we know not ourfelves.

"A man is certainly proud of that "knowledge he defpifes others for the ❝ want of."

How common is it for fome men to be fond of appearing to know more than they do, and of feeming to be thought men of knowledge? To which end they exhauft their fund almoft in all companies, to outfhine the reft. So that in two or three converfations they are drawn dry, and you fee to the bottom of them much fooner than you could at first imagine. And even that torrent of learning, which they pour out upon you at firft fo unmercifully, rather confounds than fatisfies you. Their

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visible aim is not to inform your judgment, but difplay their own. You have many things to query and except against, but their loquacity gives you no room; and their good fenfe, fet off to fo much advantage, ftrikes a modeft man dumb. If you infift upon your right to examine, they retreat, either in confufion or equivocation; and, like the fcuttle-fish, throw a large quantity of ink behind them, that you may not fee where to purfue. Whence this foible flows is obvious enough. Selfknowledge would foon correct it.

But as fome ignorantly affect to be more knowing than they are, fo others vainly affect to be more ignorant than they are; who, to fhow they have greater infight and penetration than other men, infift upon the abfolute uncertainty of fcience; will dispute even first principles; grant nothing as certain, and fo run into downright Pyrrhonifm; the too common effect of abstracted debates exceffively refined *. Every

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Socrates's faying, "Nihil fe fcire, nifi id ipfum," favoured of an affected humility. But they that followed went further; and particularly Arcefilas, " Negabat effe quicquam, quod fciri poteft; ne illud quedem ipfum quod Socrates fibi reliquiffet." And thus the alurdity grew to a fize that was monftrouss For to know that one knows nothing, is a contradiction;

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Every one is apt to fet the greatest vafue upon that kind of knowledge in which he imagines he himself moft excels, and to undervalue all other kinds of knowledge in comparifon of it. There wants fome certain rule then, by which every man's knowledge is to be tried, and the value of it eftimated. And let it be this,"That is the beft and most valuable kind "of knowledge that is moft fubfervient "to the best ends, i. e. which tends to "make a man wifer and better, or more "agreeable and useful both to himself "and others."-For knowledge is but a means that relates to fome end.. And as all means are to be judged of by the excellency of their ends, and their expediency to produce them; fo that must be the best knowledge that hath the directeft tendency to promote the best 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 feveral kinds of fcience by this rule, we fhould find, 1. Some of them to be very hurtful and pernicious; as tending to per

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and not to know that he knows even that, is not to know but that he may know fomething. Relig, of Nat. Del. pag. 40.

vert 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 fecret ways of practifing it; especially the arts of diffimulation, fraud, and difhonefty. 2. Others will be found unprofitable and useless; as thofe parts of knowledge, which, though they may take up much time and pains to acquire, yet anfwer no valuable purpose; and ferve only for amufement, 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 kinds of knowledge are good only relatively, or conditionally, and may be more useful to one than another; viz. a (kill in a man's particular occupation or calling, on which his credit, livelihood, or usefulnefs in the world depends. And as this kind of knowledge is valuable in proportion to its end, fo it ought to be cultivated with a diligence and efteem answerable 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

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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 makes a right eftimate of his knowledge; till he examines 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 is like to answer hereafter.

There is nothing in which a man's felfignorance difcovers itself more, than in the esteem he hath for his understanding, or for himself on account of it. It is a trite and true obfervation, "That empty "things make the most found." Men of the least knowledge are moft apt to make a fhow of it, and to value themselves upon; which is very visible in forward confident youth, raw conceited acadamics, and those who, uneducated in youth, betake themselves in later life to reading, without tafte of judgment, only as an accomplishment, and to maké a fhow of

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