Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

8. These biting and devouring Contentions are Uncivil, Inhumane and barbarous. It hath been always reckoned for good Breeding, not to be confident and peremptory in asserting any thing, whereof any in the Company modestly doubts: And on the other side, if any cannot comply with the Sentiments of another, to enter his dissent with all possible respect, and without any reflection or provocation. We account it barbarous rudeness in discoursing, yea, or in discussing any point, to signify in civil company the least provoking gesture, much more to fall into a rage or to express revenge: And yet if you hear the Harangues, and read the printed discourses of some Gentlemen, you would conclude that they have but a small pittance either of good humour or of ingenious Education. Man is a rational Creature, and is not born with Teeth, nor formed with Sting or with Horns, neither is he teachable or ductile by such boisterous methods. When Love indites the reproof, when that accompanies the argument, it penetrates and prevails: Dilige & dic quod vis. But there not only were, Psal. 52.2. but yet there are tongues that devise mischief, like a sharp Razor, working deceitfully. Ver. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful Tongue! I should somewhat suspect their Divinity whose Ethics are no better. Thus you see the manifold Sinfulness and base Vileness of this sin, truly, but imperfectly described. And now,

8. These biting and devouring Contentions are Ʋncivil, Inhumane and barbarous. It hath been always reckoned for good Breeding, not to be confident and peremptory in asserting any thing, whereof any in the Company modestly doubts: And on the other side, if any cannot comply with the Sentiments of another, to enter his dissent with all possible respect, and without any reflexion or provocation. We account it barbarous rudeness in discoursing, yea, or in discussing any point, to signifie in civil company the least provoking gesture, much more to fall into a rage or to express revenge: And yet if you hear the Harangues, and read the printed discourses of some Gentlemen, you would conclude that they have but a small pittance either of good humour or of ingenious Education. Man is a rational Creature, and is not born with Teeth, nor form'd with Sting or with Horns, neither is he teachable or ductile by such boisterous methods. When Love indites the reproof, when that accompanies the argument, it penetrates and prevails: Dilige & dic quod vis. But there not only were,