not unwise, not unjust, not unmerciful, and so on : but, if we should attempt to declare what he is, we should only " darken counsel by words without knowledge." Of man, too, how little is known ! Self-knowledge is exceeding rare : and the person in whom it exists in the highest degree will be the most ready to acknowledge the truth of that observation, " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : ivho can kriow it ?" In a word, " If any man would be truly wise, he must become a fool, that he may be wise s."]
2. Diffidence —
[Where such a multitude of opinions prevail on all sub- jects, who is he that shall claim an exemption from error? Who will venture to say, * All others are wrong, and I am right V Doubtless there are some truths of which, in a general view, we may be confident ; because they are revealed so plainly in the word of God, that they cannot be misappre- hended ; and because we have the witness of them in our own souls. But when we come to enter into particulars, we soon find ourselves involved in difliculties that are insurmountable, if not in absolute contradictions. Let us try this in reference to any point whatever ; and we shall have evidence enough of our ignorance, even in the things that we are best acquainted with : nay, we shall find, on many occasions, reason to alter our opinions, and, on fuller information, to adopt those which we had before rejected. We should be careful, therefore, so to embrace sentiments, as to hold ourselves still open to con- viction ; and so to maintain opinions, as to admit that others may be possessed of truth as well as we.]
3. Consideration —
[There may be much knowledge, where there is but little wisdom. Knowledge may be superficial and crude ; though, I confess, in that state it scarcely deserves the name of know- ledge. It ought to be matured by a large and comprehensive view of things, under all the variety of circumstances in which they can occur : for, without such an attention to circumstances our very knowledge may be foolishness, and our light no better than darkness. We know that we are to observe every ordi- nance that God has enjoined : but if the calls of mercy be heard, they must supersede even the plainest ordinance that is of a ritual nature. In the chapter before us, as in the Epistle to the Romans also^, the want of consideration was that which was particularly blamed in those who ate the meat which had been offered to idols. Had they done it in secret, there had been no harm : but, when they did it in the presence of a weak brother, they shewed a grievous want of consideration, to
g 1 Cor. iii. 18. '' Rom. xiv.