Law of Mofes requires that the Sabbathbreaker fhall furely be put to Death, Ex. xxxi. 15. Num. xv. 35. This Argument prevailed with Tenerilla, and the confented to the Profecution,

ENCRATES ufed the fame Means of Conviction when he faw a Mahometan drink Wine to Excefs, and heard him maintain. the Lawfulness and Pleasure of Drunkennefs: Encrates reminded him that his own Prophet Mahomet had utterly forbid all Wine to his Followers, and the good Man reftrained his vicious Appetite by this Superftition, when he could no otherwise convince him that Drunkenness was unlawful, nor with-hold him from Excels.

WHERE we find any Perfon obftinately perfifting in a Miftake in Oppofition to all Reafon, especially if the Mistake be very injurious or pernicious, and we know this Perfon will hearken to the Sentiment or Authority of fome favourite Name, it is needful fometimes to urge the Opinion and Authority of that favourite Perfon, fince that is likely to be regarded much more than Reafon. I confess I am almost ashamed to speak of using any Influence of Authority while I would teach the Art of Reasoning. But in fome Cafes it is better that poor filly perverfe obftinate Creatures should be perfuaded to judge and act right, by a Veneration for the Senfe of others, than to

be

be left to wander in pernicious Errors, and continue deaf to all Argument and blind to all Evidence. They are but Children of a larger Size; and fince they perfift all their Lives in their Minority, and reject all true Reafoning, furely we may try to perfuade them to practise what is for their own Intereft by fuch Childish Reasons as they will hearken to: We may overawe them from purfuing their own Ruin by the Terrors of a folemn Shadow, or allure them by a Sugar-plumb to their own Happiness.

BUT after all, we must conclude that wherefoever it can be done, it is beft to remove and root out thofe Prejudices which obAtruct the Entrance of Truth into the Mind, rather than to palliate, humour, or indulge them; and fometimes this must neceffarily be done, before you can make a Perfon part with fome beloved Error, and lead him into better Sentiments.

SUPPOSE you would convince a Gamefter that Gaming is not a lawful Calling or Bufinefs of Life to maintain one's felf by it, and you make Ufe of this Argument, viz. "That which doth not admit us to afk the

Bleffing of God that we may get Gain by it, cannot be a lawful Employment; "but we cannot afk the Bleffing of God on Gaming, therefore &c." The Minor is proved thus: "We cannot pray that our "Neighbour may lofe; this is contrary to the

i

"the Rule of feeking our Neighbour's Wel"fare, and loving him as ourfelves; this is "wifhing Mischief to our Neighbour. But "in Gaming we can gain but just so much re as our Neighbour lofes: Therefore in Gaming we cannot pray for the Bleffing "of God that we may gain by it."

PERHAPS the Gamefter fhrugs and winces, turns and twifts the Argument every Way, but he cannot fairly answer it; yet he will patch up an Answer to fatisfy himfelf, and will never yield to the Conviction, because he feels fo much of the fweet Influence of Gaming, either towards the Gratification of his Avarice, or the Support of his Expences. Thus he is under a ftrong Prejudice in Favour of it, and is not cafily convinced.

YOUR first Work therefore must be to lead him by Degrees to feparate the Thoughts of his own Intereft from the Argument, and fhew him that our own temporal Interefts, our Livelihood, or our Lofs, hath nothing to do to determine this Point in Oppofition to the plain Reafon of Things, and that he ought to put that Confideration quite out of the Question, if he would be honest and fincere in his Search after Truth or Duty: and that he must be contented to hearken to the Voice of Reafon and Truth, even tho' it fhould run counter to his fecular Interest. When this is done, then an Argument may

carry

carry fome Weight or Force with it toward his Conviction.

IN like Manner if the Queftion were whether Matriffa ought to expofe herself and her other Children to Poverty and Mifery, in Order to fupport the Extravagancies of a favourite Son? Perhaps the Mother can hear no Argument against it; fhe feels no Conviction in the most cogent Reafonings, so close do her fond Prejudices stick to her Heart. The firft Bufinefs here is to remove this Prejudice. Afk her therefore, Whether it is not a Parent's Duty to love all her Children so as to provide for their Welfare? Whether Duty to God and her Family ought not to regulate her Love to a Favourite? Whether her Neighbour Floris did well in dreffing up her Daughters with expenfive Gaudery, and neglecting the Education of her Son till the faw his Ruin ? Perhaps by this Method the might be brought to fee that particular Fondness for one Child fhould have no Weight or Force in determining the Judgment in Oppofition to plain Duty: And the may then give herself up to Conviction in her own Cafe, and to the Evidence of Truth, and thus correct her mistaken Practice.

SUPPOSE you would convert Rominda from Popery, and you fet all the Abfurdities, Errors, and Superftitions of that Church before her in the moft glaring Evidence:

She

She holds them faft ftill, and cannot part with them, for she hath a most facred Reverence for the Faith and the Church of her Ancestors, and cannot imagine that they were in the Wrong. The first Labour must be therefore to convince her that our Ancestors were fallible Creatures; that we may part with their Faith without any Difhonour done to them; that all Perfons must choose their Religion for themselves; that we must answer for ourselves in the great Day of Judgment, and not we for our Parents nor they for us; that Chriftianity itfelf had never been received by her Anceftors in this Nation, if they had perfifted always in the Religion of their Parents, for they were all Heathens. And when the has by these Methods of Reasoning been perfuaded that she is not bound always to cleave to the Religion of her Parents, the may then receive an eafier Conviction of the Errors of Rome.*

CHAP.

* But perhaps of all these different Methods of curing Prejudices none can be practifed with greater Pleasure to a wife and good Man, or with greater Succefs, where Success is moft defirable, than attempting to turn the Attention of well-meaning People from feme Point in which Prejudice prevails, to fome other o. greater Importance, and fixing their Thoughts and Heart on fome great Truth which they allow, and which leads unto Confequences contrary to fome other Notion which they efpoufe and retain. By this Means they may be led to forget their Errors, while

attentive