Colour or Consequences upon that Error from
which you would fain deliver him. There
are in Life some Molliffima tempora fundi,
some very agreeable Moments of addressing
a Person, which if rightly managed, may ren-
der your Attempts more fuccessful, and his
Conviction easy and pleasant.

II. MAKE it appear by your whole Con-
dust, to the Perfon you would teach that you mean
him well, that your Design is not to triumph over
his Opinion, nor to expose his Ignorance, or
his Incapacity of defending what he afferts.
Let him fee that 'tis not your Aim to advance
your own Character as a Difputant, nor to
fet yourself up for an Instructor to Mankind;
but that you love him, and teek his true In-
terest, and do not only assure him of this in
Words, when you are entering on an Argu-
ment with him, but let the whole of your
Conduct to him at all times demonftrate your
real Friendship for him. Truth and Argu-
ment come with particular Force from the
Mouth of one whom we trust and love.

III. THE foftest and gentlest Address to the erroneous, is the best Way to convince them of their Mistake. Sometimes 'tis necessary to represent to your Opponent, that he is not far off from the Truth, and that you would fain draw him a little nearer to it; commend and establish whatever he says that is just and true, as our blessed Saviour treated the young Scribe when he answered well concerning the two great Commandments;

Thou

Thou art not far, says our Lord, from the Kingdom of Heaven, Mar. xii. 34. Imitate the Mildness and Conduct of the Bleffed Jefus.

COME as near to your Opponent as you can in all your Propositions, and yield to him as much as you dare in a Consistence with Truth and Justice.

'Tis a very great and fatal Mistake in Persons who attempt to convince or reconcile others to their Party, when they make the Difference appear as wide as possible: This is shocking to any Person who is to be convinced, he will choose rather to keep and maintain his own Opinions, if he cannot come into yours without renouncing and abandoning every Thing that he believed before. Human Nature must be flattered a little as well as reason'd with, that so the Argument may be able to come at his Understanding, which otherwise will be thrust off at a Distance. If you charge a Man with Nonsense and Absurdities, with Heresy and Self-Contradiction, you take a very wrong Step toward convincing him.

REMEMBER that Error is not to be rooted out of the Mind of Man by Reproaches and Railings, by Flashes of Wit and biting Jests, by loud Exclamations or sharp Ridicule: long Declamatious and Triumph over our Neighbour's Mistake, will not prove the Way to convince him; these are Siges either

of

1

of a bad Cause, or of want of Arguments or Capacities for the Defence of a good

one..

IV. SET therefore a constant Watch over yourself, leaft you grow warm in Dispute before you are aware. The Paffions never clear the Understanding, but raise Darkness, Clouds and Confufion in the Soul: Human Nature is like Water which has Mud at the Bottom of it, it may be clear while it is calm and undisturbed, and the Ideas like Pebbles appear bright at the Bottom; but when once it is stirred and moved by Paffion, the Mud rises uppermost, and spreads Confufion and Darkness over all the Ideas; you cannot fet Things in so juft and so clear a Light before the Eyes of your Neighbour, while your own Conceptions are clouded with Heat and Paffion.

BESIDES when your own Spirits are a little disturbed, and your Wrath is awaken'd, this naturally kindles the same Fire in your Correfpondent, and prevents him from taking in your Ideas were they never so clear; for his Paffions are engaged all on a sudden, for the Defence of his own Mistakes, and they combat as fiercely as yours do, which perhaps may be awakened on the Side of Truth.

To provoke a Person whom you would convince, not only rouses his Anger, and sets it againft your Doctrine; but it directs its Resentment against your Person, as well as against all your Instructions and Arguments. You must treat an Opponent like a Friend, if you would perfwade him to learn any thing from you; and this is one great Reason why there is so little Success on either Side between two Difputants or controverfial Writers, because they are so ready to interest their Paffions in the Subject of Contest, and prevent the mutual Light that might be given and received on either Side: Ambition, Indignation and a professed Zeal, reign on both Sides: Victory is the Point designed, while Truth is pretended, and Truth oftentimes perishes in the Fray, or retires from the Field of Battle: The Combatants end just where they began, their Understandings hold fast the same Opinions; perhaps with this Disadvantage, that they are a little more obstinate, and rooted in them without fresh Reason, and they generally come off with the Loss of Temper and Charity.

V. NEITHER attempt nor bope to convince a Person of bis Mistake, by any penal Methods or fevere Ufage: There is no Light brought into the Mind by all the Fire and Sword and bloody Perfecutions that were ever introduced into the World. One would think both the Princes, the Priests, and the People, the learned and the unlearned, the great and the mean, should have all by this Time, seen the Folly and Madness of

seaking seeking to propagate the Truth by the Laws of Cruelty: We compel a Beast to the Yoke by Blows, because the Ox and the Ass have no Understanding; but intellectual Powers are not to be fettered and compelled at this Rate; Men cannot believe what they will, nor change their Religion and their Sentiments as they please; they may be made Hypocrites by the Forms of Severity, and conftrained to profess what they don't believe, they may be forced to comply with external Practices and Ceremonies contrary to their own Confciences, but this can never please God, nor profit Men.

VI. IN Order to convince another, you should always make choice of those Arguments that are best fuited to his Understanding and Capacity, his Genius and Temper, bis State, Station and Circumstances. If I were to per-, fuade a Plowman of the Truth of any Form of Church-Coverninent, it should not be attempted by the Use of the Greek and Latin Fathers; but from the Word of God, the Light of Nature, and the common Reason of Things.

VII. ARGUMENTS should always be proposed in such a Manner as may lead the Mind onward to perceive the Truth in a clear and agreeable Light, as well as to constrain the Affent by the Power of Reasoning. Clear Ideas in many Cafes, are as useful toward

Con