But, alas! Vice is now-adays grown too impudent to be laughed out of Countenance; and those Methods of a scurrilous Mockery, which some plead for, as rendering Vice ridiculous, have, I doubt, only made it the more taking and spreading, and encouraged others to be the more openly sinful, by teaching them to be the more wittily vile and wicked. Few will be deterred from sinning, when they think they shall but gratify others, by making Sport for them; and stir ⟨p. 12⟩up, not their Indignation and Abhorrence, but their Mirth and Laughter. 'Tis true, we read that Elijah mocked the Idolatrous Worshippers of Baal, and his Scoffs and Taunts at them were very biting and sarcastical, and cut them much deeper than they are said to cut themselves: But this he did in a serious and zealous reproving of their Sins, not in a jocular and sportive Merriment. There are two things in Sin, Impiety and Folly; we may lawfully enough scorn the one, while we are sure to hate and detest the other: And a due Mixture of both these together, Scorn and Detestation, are very fit to enkindle our Zeal for God, and may oftentimes be a requisite Temper for him who is to reprove confident and audacious Sinners. But to laugh and sport ⟨p. 13⟩at others Wickedness, and to make the Guilt & Shame of others our Mirth and Recreation, is both unchristian, and inhumane; and we may as well laugh at their Damnation, as at that which will lead them to it. Thus to make a Mock at Sin, is to make our very Mocks to be our Sins; and argues us, not only profane, but foolish; for this is to laugh and rejoice at our own Stain and Dishonour, and to abuse our own Nature, that Nature which is common to us, as well as others; that Nature which, were it not debased with Sin, renders us but a little lower than the Angels.
But, alas! Vice is now-adays grown too impudent to be laughed out of Countenance; and those Methods of a scurrilous Mockery, which some plead for, as rendring Vice ridiculous, have, I doubt, only made it the more taking and spreading, and encouraged others to be the more openly sinful, by teaching them to be the more wittily vile and wicked. Few will be deterred from sinning, when they think they shall but gratifie others, by making Sport for them; and stir ⟨p. 12⟩up, not their Indignation and Abhorrence, but their Mirth and Laughter. 'Tis true, we read that Elijah mock'd the Idolatrous Worshippers of Baal, and his Scoffs and Taunts at them were very biting and sarcastical, and cut them much deeper than they are said to cut themselves: But this he did in a serious and zealous reproving of their Sins, not in a jocular and sportive Merriment. There are two things in Sin, Impiety and Folly; we may lawfully enough scorn the one, while we are sure to hate and detest the other: And a due Mixture of both these together, Scorn and Detestation, are very fit to enkindle our Zeal for God, and may oftentimes be a requisite Temper for him who is to reprove confident and audacious Sinners. But to laugh and sport ⟨p. 13⟩at others Wickedness, and to make the Guilt & Shame of others our Mirth and Recreation, is both unchristian, and inhumane; and we may as well laugh at their Damnation, as at that which will lead them to it. Thus to make a Mock at Sin, is to make our very Mocks to be our Sins; and argues us, not only profane, but foolish; for this is to laugh and rejoyce at our own Stain and Dishonour, and to abuse our own Nature, that Nature which is common to us, as well as others; that Nature which, were it not debased with Sin, renders us but a little lower than the Angels.
