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scholarship; who have just learning enough to spoil company, and render themfelves ridiculous, but not enough to make either themselves or others at all the wifer.

But befide the forementioned kinds of knowledge, there is another which is commonly called falfe knowledge; which, though it often imposes upon men under the show and femblance of true knowledge, is really worse than ignorance. Some men have learned a great many things, and have taken a great deal of pains to learn them, and stand 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 vast expence of time, and pains, and patience, to heap together, and to confirm themselves in a fet of wrong notions, which they lay up in their minds as a fund of valuable knowledge; which, if they try by the forementioned rules, viz. The tendency they have to make "them wifer and better, or more useful "and beneficial to others," will be found to be worth just nothing at all,

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 a13 verfe

verfe to felf-knowledge. Of all things, men are moft fond of their wrong notions.

The apostle Paul often fpeaks of thefe men, and their felf-fufficiency, in very poignant terms; who, "though they feem "wife, yet (fays he) muft become fools "before they are wife," 1 Cor. iii. 18. Though they think they know a great deal, "know nothing yet as they ought "to know," I Cor. viii. 2. But "deceive "themfelves, by thinking themselves fome"thing when they are nothing," Gal. vi. 3. And whilft they defire to be teachers of others, understand not what they "fay, nor whereof they affirm," 1 Tim. i. 7. And "want themfelves to be taught "what are the firft rudiments and prin"ciples of wifdem," Heb. v. 12.

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CHAP. XIV.

Concerning the Knowledge, Guard, and Gevernment of our Thoughts.

XIII. "

A1 NOTHER part of self-know

"ledge confifts in a due ac"quaintance with our own thoughts, and "the inward workings of the imagina

❝tion."

The

The right government of the thoughts requires no fmall art, vigilance, and refolution; but it is a matter of fuch vast importance to the peace and improvement of the mind, that it is worth while to be at fome pains about it. A man that hath fo numerous and turbulent a family to govern as his own thoughts, which are fo apt to be under the influence and command of his pathons and appetites, ought not to be long from home: If he is, they will foon grow mutinous and diforderly under the conduct of thofe two headftrong guides, and raife great clamours and disturbances, and fometimes on the flighteft occafions; and a more dreadful fcene of mifery can hardly be imagined, than that which is occafioned by fuch a tumult and uproar within, when a raging confcience or inflamed paffions are let loofe without check or controul. A city in flames, or the mutiny of a drunken crew aboard, who have murdered the captain, and are butchering one another, are but faint emblems of it. The torment of the mind, under such an insurrection and mercilefs ravage of the paffions, is not easy to be conceived. The most revengeful man cannot with his enemy a greater. Of what vaft importance then is it for

a man

a man to watch over his thoughts, in order to a right government of them? to confider what kind of thoughts find the eafieft admiffion; in what manner they infinuate themselves, and upon what occafions?

It was an excellent rule which a wife heathen prescribed to himself, in his private meditations; "Manage (faith he) all 66 your actions and thoughts in fuch a man"ner, as if you were juft going out of the "world." Again, (faith he) "A man " is feldom, if ever, unhappy for not "knowing the thoughts of others; but "he that does not attend to the motions "of his own, is certainly miferable +."

It may be worth our while then here to difcufs this matter a little more parti

Marc. Anton. Medit. Lib. 2. § II.
Marc. Anton. Lib. 2. § 8.

cularly i

"Nothing can be more unhappy than that man "who ranges everywhere, ranfacks every thing, digs "into the bowels of the earth, dives into other men's "bofoms, but does not confider all the while that his "own mind will afford him fufficient fcope for in

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quiry and entertainment, and that the care and "improvement of himfelf will give him business " enough. Id. Lib. 2. § 13.

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"Your difpofition will be fuitable to that which you most frequently think on; for the foul is, as it were, tinged with the colour and complexion of its own thoughts." Id. Lib. 5. § 16.

cularly; and confider, 1. What kind of thoughts are to be excluded or rejected. And, 2. What ought to be indulged and entertained in the heart.

I. Some thoughts ought to be immediately banished as foon as they have found entrance. And if we are often troubled with them, the fafeft way will be to keep a good guard on the avenues of the mind by which they enter, and avoid thofe occafions which commonly excite them. For fometimes it is much easier to prevent a bad thought entering the mind, than to get rid of it when it is entered.-More particularly,

(1.) Watch against all fretful and difcontented thoughts, which do but chafe and wound the mind to no purpose. To harbour these, is to do yourself more injury than it is in the power of your greateft enemy to do you. It is equally a Chri ftian's intereft and duty to "learn in "whatever ftate he is, therewith to be content," Phil. iv. 11.

(2.) Harbour not too anxious and apprehenfive thoughts. By giving way to tormenting fears, fufpicions of fome approaching danger or troublesome event, fome not only anticipate, but double the evil they fear; and undergo much more from the apprehen

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