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DISCOURSE I.

PROVERBS XIX. 27.

Ceafe, my Son, to hear the Inftruction that causeth to err from the Words of Knowledge.

T

HAT by the Words of Knowledge in the Text we are to understand the Principles and Dictates of Virtue and Religion, is fo well known to all who are in the leaft acquainted with the Language of Scripture, especially of the Book of Pfalms, the Proverbs, and other Writings of the like Kind, that there is no need to infift upon the Proof of it. This being admitted, the Wife Man's Advice in the Text amounts to this; That we should be careful to guard against the Arts and Infinuations of fuch as fet for Teachers of Infidelity and

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Irreligion.
VOL. III.

B

These

These Teachers are not here confidered under the Character of vicious and profligate Men, given up to the Exceffes of Lewdness, or to be diftinguished by any Marks of desperate or notorious Wickedness: They are spoken of only as Inftructors, as Disputers, and as Reasoners against the Words of Knowledge. Such the Wife King forewarns us of, advising us to keep at a Distance from Danger, and to ftop our Ears against their pernicious Enchantments. He had often before spoken of the Danger of affociating with wicked Men, who fleep not, except they do Mifchief; who eat the Bread of Wickedness, and drink the Wine of Violence: But here he points out to us another Sort; Men who have arrived to a Pitch of being gravely and seriously irreligious; who fpend their coolest Hours and their calmeft Thoughts in the Service of Infidelity, and are maliciously diligent to pervert Men from the Acknowledgment of the Truth, and by the very Arms of Heaven, Reason and Understanding, to enlarge the Bounds of the Kingdom of Darkness.

There are two Things, which, in fpeaking to this Subject, I would beg leave to recommend to your ferious Confideration :

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First, The feveral Temptations which

Men lie under to liften to fuch Inftructors

as the Text refers to.

Secondly, The great Danger there is in liftening to them.

It is one Step towards Security to fee the Dangers we are exposed to: For, when we know the weak Places, which are least able to support themselves against the Enemy's Strength, we shall double our Diligence to guard against any Surprize from those Parts. It will be of great Service to us therefore to know the Weakneffes of our own Minds, to understand the Prejudices and Paffions which confpire together to deliver us up as a Prey to those who lie in wait for our Ruin. This, if any thing, will enable us to rescue ourselves, by arming us with Resolution to withstand the Temptations which we are acquainted with beforehand. Infidelity has no Rewards or Punishments to beftow: It affords at beft but a very hopeless and comfortless Profpect: Which would make a confidering Man wonder whence the Temptations to it fhould arife, and what should give that Keennefs which appears in the Paffion with which fome Men maintain and propagate it. Wicked and profligate

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Men

Men indeed are under fome Temptation from Self-Intereft to wish well to the Caufe of Infidelity, in oppofition to both Natural and Revealed Religion; because it fets them free from the Fears of Futurity, and delivers them from the many uneafy Thoughts that attend them in all their vicious Pleasures and Enjoyments. To live at once under the Dominion of our Paffions and the Rebuke of our Minds, to be perpetually doing what we are perpetually condemning, is of all others the moft wretched Condition: And it is no Wonder that any Man should strive to be delivered from it, or that thofe, who refolve to enjoy the Pleafure of Sin here, fhould wifh to be delivered from the Fear of Punishment hereafter. This then is a very great Temptation to Men to hope that all their Fears are falfe and ill-grounded; and that Religion, from whence they flow, is nothing but the Cunning of wife Men, and the Simplicity of weak ones. Since therefore the Fears and Apprehenfions of Guilt are such strong Motives to Infidelity, : the Innocence of the Heart is abfolutely neceffary to preferve the Freedom of the Mind: Which, if duly weighed, is a good Reason why a Man, as long as he finds himfelf

himself swayed by Appetite and the Pleasures of Vice, should fufpect his own Judgment in a Matter where his Reafon is fo abfolutely chained down by Paffion and Interest, and difabled from exerting itfelf to do its proper

Work and Office.

Confider too; In the most unhappy Circumstances of Sin and Guilt, Religion opens to us a much fafer and more certain Retreat, than Infidelity can poffibly afford, and will more effectually extinguish the Fears and Torments we labour under, and restore the long-forgotten Peace and Tranquillity of the Mind: For, after all the Pains we can take with ourselves to close up our Minds, and to shut out the Belief of a fuperior overruling Power, and of a future State of Rewards and Punishments, we cannot be fecure of enjoying long even the Comfort we propofe to ourselves from it in this Life. We may not always have Strength enough to fubdue natural Senfe and Reafon. Any fudden Shock, either in our Health or in our Fortune, will disperse our animal Spirits, and all the gay Imaginations which attend them, and give us up once again to the cruel Torments of cool Thought and Reflection. Then will our Fears rally their Forces, and

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