and considers things as they are, finds no pleasure in mockery; especially, when sin is the object of it. The ruin of an immortal soul; the displeasure of Almighty God the terrors of everlasting judgment; all of which are inseparable from the consideration of sin, are so serious, that they check the mirth of a righteous man, and dispose him to sentiments of soberness and compassion. Instead of mocking at the sin, he is afflicted for the sinner; he makes every charitable allowance for him, and is ready to do every thing in his power to deliver him from the effects of his own folly.

On this occasion, we have the fool appearing to us under his worst character, and the righteous under his best. The fool is never so much a fool, as when he becomes censorious, and mocks at sin: the righteous is never so respectable in his righteousness, as when he is favourable and compassionate to sinners. You will readily guess at the reason, why I have chosen to set these things before you at this time*. My desire is to lead you to the proper use which ought to be made of the example we have before us this day in the church; and to stop the mouths of those (if there be any such) who may forget their Christian profession so far, as to mock at the offence, when they ought to be grieved for the offender. I hope very few of those who are here present will be tempted to trespass in this way. They who are sensible of their own sins, and intend to repent of them, will be too wise to mock, either at the sin, or the repentance, of others: and they who, perhaps, at present do not resolve to amend, may yet have sense enough to condemn

• March 17, 1777, when this sermon was preached, two young women, by their own choice, did public penance in the church, at Pluckley in Kent.

themselves; and that self condemnation will be sufficient to make them serious. The time may come when it shall be improved, by the grace of God, into true conversion.

On these considerations, I persuade myself, you will attend to me, while I proceed to shew you,

First, what sort of person we are to understand by the fool, who is here said to mock at sin.

Secondly, on what principles favour is shown to sinners by the righteous.

After which I shall make some remarks, and add such advice as shall arise from the subject.

First then, the fool here meant does not signify a person so weak in reason, as to be void of common sense and understanding: but one who being without a sense of religion, has no consistent rule of action; no proper considerations to him; and is therefore given up to the follies of pride, vanity, selfishness, and all those other evil passions, by which the men of this world are commonly agitated: and a dreadful character it is the harmless driveller, who can scarcely distinguish between fire and water, is a prince, when compared with a person whose delight is in mischief, and whose wickedness has made a fool of him. The one knows little about men; the other knows nothing about God; and the latter sort of ignorance is by far the most deplorable.

Amongst all his ill qualities, his disposition to mockery is what we are at present chiefly concerned with. Being evil himself he is disposed to make the worst of all mankind, that he may reduce them to his own level. Let a man be never so bad, yet he will invent some way or other to keep up, in his own mind, a tolerable opinion of himself; and as he cannot make himself good, he must make others evil.

Thus, though he is still no better than before, yet he seems not quite so bad, if others are no better than he. When he finds any sin in others, he triumphs in the discovery; as if his favourite maxim were exemplified, that all men are as wicked as himself: and where he cannot find sin, he supposes it. Virtue (with him) is not what it seems to be; and all apparent goodness has so much art and hypocrisy underneath it, that he pronounces all men alike at the bottom. But this of supposing evil does not quite satisfy him; he is never happy till he finds some appearance of it; and when he has found it, he makes the most of it, exposing every fault to the utmost of his ability. As to wit, such a person generally employs what he hath in rendering other people odious and contemptible. His business is to condemn, even though his ill-natured reflections return with double force against himself; for it is no uncommon thing with bad men to censure unmercifully that very of fence, which is much more notorious in themselves : if they can hurt others, they care not how they disgrace themselves at the same time.

This of mocking at sin is the property of the worst of men ; who think they have no other way of covering themselves, and escaping the censures they justly merit: and thus far mockery is a work of convenience. But in some tempers, where envy and hatred prevail, it is also a work of inclination. There are some natures which take pleasure in railing and defamation, as there are animals in the creation which feed themselves upon the sores of others; if there were no carcases they would be starved to death; and if there were no ill reports to be propagated, some people would have little or nothing to say: for what is all that scandal with which vain talkers amuse one

another, but mockery at sin? This is the life of their conversation and if we could suppose the world at once to become prudent and virtuous, such persons would be struck dumb.

As this mockery is the sign of a bad disposition, it is also an argument of a weak understanding. It requires judgment to distinguish excellence, and to give praise where it is justly due; while very little knowledge is necessary to discover what is amiss: and there is in all men living something either of offence or infirmity, for a malicious mind to fix upon; something that is evil, or something that may be interpreted into evil. What is light and worthless floats upon the surface, like scum and straws, which every eye can find out; but what is valuable, is concealed by its weight, and cannot be discovered without some penetration: therefore we always see the shallowest people most addicted to censure: so that in short, mockery, according to the terms of our text, is the proper employment of fools; and mockery at sin, being the most ill-judged mockery in the world, is a sign of the greatest folly.

If we would see how compleatly odious this prac tice is, we must take some examples of it: for vice never appears to be what it is, till we consider it in a vicious person. When the Israelites fell into sin, and were afflicted for it at home, or sent away into captivity abroad; the cruel heathens, who hated them for their religion, never failed to rejoice at their fall, and mock at their calamity; like the savage Moors on the coast of Barbary, who were heard to express themselves by shouts of laughter, when poor Christian people slipt into the sea and were drowned, as they were escaping from a wreck to the shore in a storm. When David, who had shone as a warrior,

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prince, a saint, and a prophet, was drawn away by his lust at an unhappy hour into adultery and murder, the drunkards made songs to turn him into ridicule; and the enemies of the Lord made use of his fall as an occasion to blaspheme the religion he professed. The Scribes and Pharisees, the greatest of all sinners, because they added a sanctified hypocrisy to their wickedness, were always ready to seize the opportunity of blackening other people, and of deriding the wisdom even of Christ himself. When a woman was taken in the act of adultery, they were not only clamourous against her, insisting upon her condemnation; but they made use of her crime as a snare upon the mercy of our Redeemer; who they supposed would be ready to pardon her offence, and give them an opportunity of accusing him for not observing the laws of Moses. None were ever more busy than these hypocrites in bringing sin to light; not through any hatred against sin, or any zeal to the glory of God, but for some malicious purpose; either to make themselves appear better than they were; or with a view to some farther accusation against those who were better than themselves.

So odious is this vice of mockery against sin, that satan himself is distinguished by it; who is never so much a devil, as when he is employed in accusing the brethren; insomuch that the word devil, in the original Greek, signifies an accuser. He first tempts men to sin; then ridicules them for their folly, and accuses them to God for their offences. Half his employment consists in treasuring up all the evil he can find in the best men, that he may have it to plead against them in the day of judgment. No faith, no virtue, no charity, no truth, no devotion, will ever charm that deaf adder into a good opinion of any one