t 252 The Proud and Scornful S E R M. of fin, and been long accuftomed to do X. evil, that they at laft banifh the truth they °'' long detained in unrighteoufnefs, and get rid of thofe principles which were trouble - fome when believed, by reproaching their wicked praaices. This they do not arrive to fuddenly ; not till having often baffled confcience, and by indulging them, given fuch a power to corrupt tufts and vicious habits, that they overcome all refiftance. But it is the greateft height of impiety, and an infolent defiance of almighty God, when religion and all that is facred, even the eter- nal moral differences of good and evil, are made the fubje1s of ridicule. There is ob. ferved, in the ift Pfalm, a gradation in evil. Bleed is the man that walketh not in the counfèl of the ungodly, nor'landeth in the way of /lnners, nor fitteth in the feat of the fcornful. It is our unhappinefs to tread at all in thefe deftruäive paths; but it is (till worfe to be fixed and obftinate in them; and worft of all is the Rate of that Sinner, who is eftablifhed in the fociety of thofe who have call off all reftraint, and openly deride all goodnefs. They are fools, Solomon faith, who make a mock at fin, divert them - felves with it as only a trifling amufement, and laugh at the evil of it and the tremend- ous
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