ments begun and continued, may perhaps be reduced to these three; First, The Defects of our Judgment and Understanding, occafioned chiefly by Ignorance, Inconfideration, and Rafhnefs or Precipitancy; then the Defects of our Will, occafioned by Malignity and Averfion to the Perfon against whom we pronounce the rafh Judgments; and laftly, the falfe Point of Honour in adhering too stiffly to our own Senfe and Opinion; all which by due Care may be rectified. 1. The proper Way to cure Ignorance is, by a calm unprejudicate Information as to Matters of Right from the Perfons most skilful in thofe Affairs; and as to Matters of Fact, from the most unbyaffed Witneffes. But in thefe Inquiries we must have a fpecial Care to do nothing to byafs either our felves, or those we confult, or those from whom we take our Informations, against their own Skill and Knowledge. In all fuch Cafes we should behave our felves with the Indifference of a Traveller; afking which of the two dividing Paths is the Right, as if we had no other Intereft, no other Inclination in our Enquiries, but purely to find out the right Way, and to follow it. But if we come with Prejudices either to the Caufe or to the Perfon, we fhall go near to be misled. An Inftance of which we have in Ahab, 2 Chron. xviii. where we have a notable Account how the Prophets were confulted about an Action, which the King was bent upon before, and only defired their Opinions to back his own Purpose; for they knew it was not fafe for them to give them against his Inclinations. In the Beginning of the Chapter we find the Refolution taken to go to War against the King of Syria,

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and King Jehoshaphat bespoke as a Confederate, before there was any Talk of Confulting of Prophets in the Matter. But afterwards, to put a good Glofs upon the Bufinefs to Jehoshaphat, and fome other of the People who feared God, it was agreed that the Prophets fhould be confulted. But whether it was a free, unprejudicate Confultation, we may guess by the Management of one of them, who was by much the beft of the whole Tribe; I mean, Micajah the Son of Imla. For, firft, King Abab, knowing him to be a Man that never flattered him, contrived to exclude him from this Convention of the Prophets, and called only fuch as he knew commonly fuited their Prophecies, not to what was right in it felf, but to what they knew would be moft gracious and acceptable to him. King Jehoshaphat probably having an inkling of this, infifted very much to know if there was no other Prophet of the Lord, befides these that were there prefent. At laft, when it could no longer be hid, Abab confeffed there was one more; but before he was heard, he gave fuch a black Character of him to Jehoshaphat, that he might not be diverted from the Refolution they had taken, altho' he should be againft it, as he expected he would. Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord befides, that we may enquire of him? faid Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron, xviii. 7. Yes, replied Ahab, There is one Man more, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him, for he never prophefieth good unto me, but always evil: the fame is Micajah the Son of Imla. And when Micajab, being fent for, had used Abundance of Freedom, in diffwading from that intended Expedition, we may obferve from the

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Treatment he met with, how little Freedom there was in that Confultation; for Orders were given to carry him to the Governour of the City, and to clap him up in Prison, and to feed him with Bread and Water till the King should return in Peace. From this Piece of History we may fee how dangerous it is to pretend to inform our felves, and to take Advice of Men skilled in any Profeffion, when they are not left at Freedom to give their Opinions and Advices, but one Way. And perhaps it was for this, among other Sins, that God permitted a lying Spirit to go forth in the Mouth of all Ahab's other Prophets. For it is a terrible Rule fet down by God himself, Ezek. xiv. 4. Against any that shall fet up his Idols in his Heart, and put the ftumbling Block of his Iniquity before his Face, and then come to enquire of a Prophet concerning him; that God will answer him according to the Multitude of his Idols.

2. The proper Way to cure Inconfideration, is, to take care that we be not hurried on by any present Luft or Paffion, or ftrong Prejudice or Byafs whatever; but to view Things calmly of all fides, and especially to excite our felves to confider what can be offered for that fide of the Question to which we are leaft inclined; by that Means to bring our Judgments to an equal Poize, that we may maturely and deliberately judge of Perfons and Things, without any Imputation of Rafhness. And what I fay of Inconfideration, is as true of Rafhnefs and Precipitancy; the proper Remedy of which is, to accuftom our felves to go more flowly, and to act with greater Deliberation in our Judgments. Let us confider, that what is true to Day, will be fo to Morrow; and there

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[SERM. fore that it will do no Hurt to take fome more Time to deliberate upon it. And therefore it is a good Advice to curb the Impetuosity of our Spirit, and the Looseness of our Tongue, even in Matters that are pretty evident; to accuftom them not to precipitate in Things doubtful and obfcure.

3.Then the proper Way to cure our. Averfion to any Perfon is, by Confidering all the good Qualities more than the bad of fuch a Perfon, and of how great Use they might be, if fet in a due Light, and not obfcured by our Hatred and Enmity. But this is the Nature of Malice, that it either totally blinds us as to the good Qualities of an Adverfary, that we think he has none; or if he has any, by diverting our Thoughts from them, and poring continually on the black Side his Character, we totally extinguish any good Ideas of them and his Actions, and fuffer none but the bad to remain. And till this Malignity is overcome by the contrary Principle of Charity, we are not like to be in a Capacity to make any other but rash Judgments of fuch a Person and -all his Actions.

Laftly, To cure the falfe Point of Honour of an Opiniaftrete and ftiff Adhering to our own Opinion, and to the Maintenance of our own rafh Judgments, and as rafh Actions flowing therefrom; we fhould do well to obferve the many Mistakes in Judgment we have often been guilty of, and to recollect how often we have been deceived in Men, and Actions, and Events; and likewife how many others, otherwise Men of Worth and Goodnefs, we have feen carried a way with Prejudices; how they have taken Flat

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tery for good Coin, and hugg'd thofe Perfons who had nothing elfe to recommend them, but that they were always, Right or Wrong, of their Opinion; and how many honeft Men they have known flighted and discarded, purely on Account of their Honesty and plain Dealing. But the Mifery is, tho' we are ever fo fharpfighted to obferve these Things in other Men, we can fee none of them in ourselves; the fame Pride and Vanity, which discovers to us other Men's Errors, hiding our own. If ever we have made any right Judgments of Men or Things in all our Life-time, we can readily produce the Instances of them, and tell how the Succefs happened according to our Opinion; but as to all the precipitate, wrong Judgments, and falfe Steps we have made, which are many more than the other, we have forgotten all fuch; which, if we had preserved the Catalogues of them, and revolved them often in our Memories, would be infinitely more useful in keeping us modeft and humble, and diffident of our own Judgments, and ready to perceive our Errors, and would help us to come eafily off of them; and make us more cautious and deliberate for the future. So much for the Antidotes to the rafh Judgments, which have proceeded from our own Observation. But we are no lefs apt to be impofed upon, and to be carried to rafh Judgments, by believing the Reports of others. For fo many of these are altogether falfe and groundless; fo many others are made up partly of Facts, and partly of the Reporter's Obfervations upon the Facts; and both these blended together, as if it were all Facts; there are commonly likewise so many true

Facts