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CHRISTIAN MORALITY,
VIS.
ESE
RM.
XXIII.
Another purpose
for
which
laughter
was
made,
is
to
reprove and
punish
folly,
and
put
vice
out of
counte-
nance. There are
seasons wherein a wise.man
or
a
chris-
tian
may
treat
some
criminal or
silly
characters
with
ridi-
cule and
mockery.
Elijah
the
prophet,
condescended
thus
to
correct
the priests
and
worshippers
of
Baal
;
but
this
sort of
conversation
must
by
no means be the
busi-
ness
of our
lives,
and
the daily work
and
labour
of our
thoughts
and
our
tongues.
It
is
the
heart
of
a
fool that
is in the
house
of
mirth,
for he would
dwell
there conti-
nually; Ec.
vii.
4.
If
we
are
always affecting to
throw
out
some
turns
of
wit
upon
every
occurrence
of
life,
and
tack
on
a
jest
to
every thing
that
is
spoken
;
if
we
inter-
line
all
our discourse and conversation
with
merriment,
banter
and joking,
it
is
very
unworthy of
that
gravity
and
honour that
belongs to
the christian
life.
The
second head
of
discourse
which
I
proposed,
is
to
prove,
that
the light
of
nature, or
the
law
of
reason,
re-
quires
something
of
this
gravity
of
speech
and
behavi-
our;
and
this
is
manifest,
if
we consider
the
nature
of
man
in opposition to the
brute that
perishes,
or
the
growth and
age
of
man
in
distinction
from children
and
babes.
1.
If
we
consider man
in
opposition
to
the
brutal
world
:
Man,
who
has a
rational
soul,
should
act
conformable to
that
sublime principle within
him,
and
not
devote him-
self
to
a
life
of
fantastic humour,
or content
himself with
the character of
an everlasting
trifler.
What
a
poor and
contemptible account
is
it
of
any person to
say,
he
is
a
walking jest, a mere
living trifle?
His thoughts are made
up
of
vanity
and
emptiness,
his
voice his
laughter, and
his whole
life
is
composed
of
impertinences.
There
is
a
sort
of
persons
in
the world
who
never
think
well
of
themselves
but
when
they are dressed
in gay
attire, and
hope
to
command the respect
of
mankind
by
spreading
abroad
their
own
fine
feathers.
Their raiment
is
the brightest and best thing
that
belongs to them,
and
therefore
they affect to
chew
it.
There
is
another
sort
of
men
who
value themselves upon
their
merry humour,
and
that
they can make
their
company laugh
when they.
please.
Bat
the more
refined
and rational
part of
the
world value all
these
creatures
as
they
do peacocks,
or
other
animals
that
imitate the voice and actions of
man.
They
use
them
as
an entertainment
for their
eyes
or