Talk Against which Scorners in their Chair shaking with Laughter will wrest what is said Wherefore let Christian Readers attend what follows Very possible indeed it is that Religious Talk may be drawn forth to a sinful Length What is most laudable for the Matter may be culpable for the Measure and is so and is not for Edification but against it when Religious Prudence doth not gage it When no Care is taken that Company be not Glutted as well as that they be not Starved But alas in our day real Defects are reputed Excesses generally All Talk-of-another-World Men would have confined to holy Days and consecrated Places Yea and to Church-men and Bed-ridden ones Those that are one jot wiser and can relish a little when they can tend for it do conclude that what exceedeth Laodicean's Use is Long and what is Long is Tedious and what is Tedious to their Lusts may be justly enough Odious to their Hearts But every Man is not a Thief at whom Dogs do bark or whom the Children in the Street call so Nor is every Religious Talker a Sinful Oppressor of his Hearers though he be named so by the Weak and the Wicked among them Nor is all that they will call so Cant and Nonsense Nor is it sure that 't is Vain-Glory and not Godly-Zeal doth act him because it 's audaciously said so by them Or that it is not his Duty to exceed their Desires and his Wisdom and Kindness to do it because they do think otherwise In short They that Fear God will Speak often of him one to another and very much Even to an Excess of Carnal Mens Patience Wittingly they will not extend their Talk of him beyond what they believe to be for his Glory and their Good And if through inadvertence they sometimes do slip and fall into a peccant Prolixity they will truly upon Reflection Humble their Souls And beseech their God to take away that Iniquity among others of their holy things Nor is it to be doubted but his rich Grace will Pardon their Failings Accept their Services Vindicate their Names and in due time Abase and Shame their Reproachers But Upon the whole it appears that we are Foolish when we make not Conscience of Keeping Silence as well as of Breaking it And that it 's our Duty to Pray the Holy Spirit to teach us alway both to Open our Mouths and to Shut them with Discretion 7. Vncharitable Talk is Foolish Uncharitable is what Positively or Negatively violates the Royal Law of Love Love of Men for the Sake of God true Love of all Men and best Love of good Men exemplified and required by the God of Love He talketh Uncharitably whose Talk flows not from Love and tends not unto Kindness Who either speaks Evil of his Neighbour when no just occasion is offered or speaks not well of him when opportunity is given A Folly most manifest a Sin most mighty For a Practice it is most Opposite to the Nature and Inconsistent with the Tenor of Christianity Contrary to the principal Laws and Destructive of the precious Fruits of its Spirit and Grace Insomuch that if this Talk be not Foolish to Renounce the Gospel and our Baptism must be to be Wise The Holy Ghost expresly and frequently maketh this Talk the Property of the Wicked and the Character of the Damned Yea and charges those that hope for Heaven not to Eat with a Man of such a Tongue 1 Cor. 5. 11. Declaring thereby that as such are excluded from Heaven they are to be Excommunicated from the Church on Earth That they are Dogs to be Kept out of God's Lower House and Upper one Nor need we lift up our Hands with any Wonder if we open our Eyes with any Care and look into the filth of an Uncharitable Mouth It 's a Superfluity of Naughtiness that maketh Silent of the Good and Eloquent of the Evil of our Neighbours It 's no less than Contempt and Hatred of God and Men that is the true Cause and Spring And like Cause like Effects This Talk fights against God and murders Men and of all Men the Talkers themselves It is a World of Iniquity full of Iniquity as the World of things Visible and Invisible It Defiles the Body turns all the Members into Weapons of Unrighteousness makes Hands and Feet Swords and Spears Sets on fire the Course of Nature horribly destroys the whole Course of our Lives takes away the Wheel of Humane Conversation Quenches every relickspark of Love Infuses more Hatred Kindles more Malice Inflames Wrath Founds a Hell of Revenge and Makes the very Heaven and Earth of Friendship to pass away Hence is it that Earth as Hell is full of Weeping Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth Of Strife and Clamor of Tumult and Care of Suspicion and Fear of Trouble and Danger of Vexation and Regret No Peace to them that are Uncharitably spoken of no Peace in them that speak Uncharitably of them In them who turn the sweetest Instrument of Kindness into the sharpest Weapon of Bitterness Who by that excellent faculty of Speech which distinguisheth them from Bruits do make themselves far more Noxious Creatures By that which next to God's Glory was given us for our Neighbour's Good do to God's Dishonour do them all manner of Evil By that which God gave us to Counsel and Comfort them do Defame and Disquiet them Turning the great Gift of Tongues into the worst of Curses A Folly which we call Atheistical by Scripture-Authority Swords are in their Lips i. e. They Talk Uncharitably Who say they shall hear us i. e. They deny the Deity Psal 59. 7. And vain are the Fig-Leaves wherewith fond Fools would cover their Shame e. gr We speak ill of none but of ill Men. No But a higher than the Kings of the Earth faith Speak Evil of no Man They speak ill of us of whom we speak ill It may be so but your Saviour when he was Reviled reviled not again And his Sheep do not bark at Dogs when Dogs bark at them We speak no more ill than we know of Men. So much the less is your Sin but it 's a very great one when your Charity covers not a Multitude of your Neighbours Sins We cannot but speak ill when we are Angry No It is the Unregenerate Tongue that no Man can tame Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty and Power and there is putting away of Evil Speaking and of Anger Of both the ill Child and Mother of Ishmael and of Hagar We speak but such ill words as bleak no Bones How know you that but it 's too much if you break your Neighbour's Peace in his Mind and your own Peace in the highest King's Court. We mean no hurt in the Ill we speak Pity but you spake well if you meant so You construe others ill Words in ill Senses and so will others construe yours Men that are Good do shun the very Appearance of Evil. They be our
Inferiours of whom we speak ill and if we wrong them we recompence them A Rare Restraint and most Unfrequent Restitution But what if made both of ' em It is he that is void of Understanding that despiseth any Neighbour He only who dares despise his Maker dares to mock the Poor Nor can any Hands heal some Wounds that are given by Tongues We speak ill of some Men as constrained to it by the Love of God How good is it to be sure that we are not in an Errour when we presume that we do well It is possible to speak wickedly for God And it 's sure though you do speak for him it is wickedly if you speak without his Call and speak not according to his Rule You dishonour and displease him your King if without his Warrant you inflict a deserved Punishment on your Fellow-Subjects Nor will he take such an Usurpation of undue Power for a token of your Love And supposing that you have indeed his Commision and thereby a just right to Sentence your Neighbour making him that has done ill to hear ill alike Criminal you will be found if you transgress his Laws of Equity Humanity and Pity If you say more than you Know if what you Know you speak maliciously without Compassion and to ill Purposes What a Malefactor was Achan and what a Storm raised he to the Publick What a Lover of his God was Joshua how True how Zealous But with what words doth Joshua fall upon Achan My Son What Balm more benign what Oil more gentle I pray thee How courteous is the Mouth of Love to the most Unlovely And that from the Seat of the highest Authority Give Glory to God and make Confession What Pity is here and Bounty Pity of a perishing Creature and Bounty in instructing and exhorting that he might not perish Why hast thou Troubled us No Railing Accusation a Blow no harder than might serve to awaken Conscience The Lord will Trouble thee No Insultation no Imprecation Not the Curse of God take thee c. O imitable Example and worthy of all Acceptation In short as much as our Age does abound in this Uncharitable Talk and the rather because it doth so it must be said He that utters it is a Fool. Slander is as truly Sin and Folly as either Murder or Adultery Nor is Bearing false Witness the only Kind of Slander though it be the most gross Affixing of reproachful Names upon innocent Persons is Slandering So is Aspersing their Actions with Scornfully-expressed-Censures So is Perverting their Words by affected Misconstructions So is Representing their Words or Deeds but partially suppressing some part to blemish the whole So is Instilling sly Suggestions apt to breed unworthy opinions of them So is Reflecting on them ever so covertly with design to fasten a reproach by it So is Aggravating their faults oat of measure and making Beams of their Motes So is Charging of them with the ill Consequences of their Judgment which they themselves aver they do not see and protest they do much abhor And so is the Aiding and Abetting and being foster-fathers unto any Slanderous Reports Nor are Slanderous Ears much less odious to God or Wise Men than Slanderous Tongues Those Receivers seem as bad as these Thieves And it 's more than probable that all the Guilty would strait-way find themselves to be Uncharitable could they but bring their Minds to reflect better upon their Principles and Ends. To consider what it really is that makes Evil-speaking the far greatest part of their Talk as Talk is out of question the much biggest Imployment of their Life They would find that either an in-rooted Ill-will or a rash Anger an old Spite or a newly raised Spleen brought their Neighbours Faults into their Mouths That either Contempt of Men as thought hugely below them or Envy at them as supposed someway above themselves was the common Parent of their disparaging Talk That ever and anon Coveting hath brought them to Slandering and they have for no other reason disgraced others but that they might enrich themselves That not unfrequently Wantonness hath given the rise to their Calumny nor have they for any thing but Sport murdred Men in their Credit Yea and that sometimes there has certainly been a much more abstruse cause pure Malignity and Love of Inhumanity without any formed Reason which has made them bite their Neighbours meerly to gratify their currish Humours just as other Mad-dogs do A Disposition that is more common than is well thought of or Prayed against One Planted in corrupt Nature watred by the Example of all the World and Encreased by Mens own assiduous Use But Of Vncharitable Talkers come not into the Secret O my Soul unto their Assembly mine Honour be not thou Vnited I proceed to enquire nextly §. 2. What is Foolish Jesting Foolish-Talking or Jesting saith the Text that is or Jesting which is Foolish And it may be the Sense designed is somewhat more q. d. Detest ye Foolish-talking of all Kinds even Jesting it self that Admired and Beloved one that Alamode and Sugared one Abhor Foolish Talk the Meat yea and Jests that are the Sawce It is surely predicated of both that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not Pertinent or conducible to any good Purpose but only serve very ill ones Are insufferable therefore in Jesus Christ's School as hath been aforesaid By Jesting all Men understand Speech framed and intended for Mirth Talk is the Business of the Lips Jests are their Play Speaking is their Trade Jesting is their Game In That they do but make a Noise in This they make Musick That is the Employment This the Recreation they give their Hearers And as of other Recreations it must be said of Jests No doubt but some are Lawful yea Needful and unto some Men they are a Duty say the gravest Casuists When it is that they are our Duty and Wisdom and when our Folly and our Sin is to be judged by the same Rules Lawful Recreation is some Action not forbidden apt to exhilarate the Fancy or exercise the Body so as to whet the Sithe of both for Sacred and Civil Work And Lawful Jesting is some innocent Expression apt to raise drooping Spirits and sharpen blunted Minds so as to mend their Plight for all good Service All is one whether it be by its Beauty or its Rarity whether by its Perspicuity or Abstrusity an Expression so instilleth Pleasure and reneweth Vigor Thus may an holy Isaac Sport with his Rebecca Laugh as the Hebrew Play as the Chaldee Jest as the Syriack and Arabick speak All that can be said for Melancholy-Christians of another Mind is that their Error erreth upon the Right hand He that is no otherwise a Jester is far from being a Fool and he that is contradictiously Morose therein is not Wise Broken Spirits dry our Bones and unfit us to fight the Lord's Battels Merry Hearts do good like generous Medicines and strengthen
before their time they are as properly called their foul Miscarriages And the greatest Charity that holds Wisdom company must think Evil of them and ever doth so For whatever their Figure is or their Stature it 's certain they are Lepers Because so it is and the Guilty know it is so that God hath no pleasure in Fools Fools that will go unto Tarsus when sent unto Nineve Will be about one thing when set about another And neglect the Time if not the Manner and very Matter of his Commands Who doubts but unseasonable Talk is the Apolluon and Destroyer of Family and Closet-duty A more bloody Persecutor than any Nero making worse Havock of Christian Churches A wretched Herod that especially falls foul upon Children who are left uncatechiz'd and have their Souls starved by means of this Sin of their Parents Who as they incense God do not always please Men. Men that are wise and good draw the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God upon them Esteeming them as Enemies of Righteousness and as worthy to be so slain as the Hypocrites and Profane Unto Men of but unregenerate Morality they are an Offence very frequently and acceptable to none but the Froth and Skum of a Neighbourhood To the most vile or at best the most silly and vain Creatures Who are seldom ever pleased but they are poisoned also and corrupted in some kind or other by the unseasonable Talker Whose very Hellebore maketh mad those whom it finds not so Whose best Discourses raise good Mens Passions and are unlikely Means to lay ill Mens In short There is no Man be he Carnal Moral or Spiritual that can or ought to like the Gnats that sing about him when he needs Sleep Or the Pillories that hold his Ears when he should be at work The Turks that take away his Clothes in cold Weather wherein he most needs them Or the Vinegar that falls on his Nitre and makes it useless as the Royal Preacher expresses himself The Talkers we are mentioning are perfectly these things and as unworthy of our good Esteem and Affections Consequently none of Wisdom's Children being not accepted of God or approved of Men. Being also as many of them are so very near to the Good which they rise not up unto Having it so easy to them to please God and profit Men and doing neither of them For Valuable Gifts and Graces many of them do possess and the Church and World might be greatly serv'd with their discreet Use and seasonable The Diseases of neither are so incurable but that if Time and Judgment were discerned both might be reformed Yea and the Reformation whose Name is of so frightful Sound among us might be wrought with Ease and Pleasure Very Idiots are not ignorant how the Season of Things doth facilitate and sweeten them All know the Labour is not great to sail with the Tide though out of that time a Boat is a Gally and a Rower is a Slave None question but that in Hungry-hours every Meal is a Feast and without any Miracle Water is turned to Wine and every bitter Thing is sweet Although otherwhiles Wine is Wormwood Bread is Stone Fish Serpent and it is an unmerciful thing to make a Man eat and drink With sweet Ease and with exquisite Pleasure do their Lips feed and feast many whose Care and Conscience takes the fit Opportunity Whose Lips bring forth their Fruit in due Season And of them it may be said Their Leaf doth not wither and what they say doth prosper Blessed Jesus give thy Servants the Learned Tongue to speak our Words in season So shall they be like the best Wine for thee our Beloved going down sweetly and causing the Lips of them that are asleep to speak Cant. 7. 9. 6. Excessive Talk is Foolish That is viciously Excessive which exceeds the Limit set by Law It is the End that gives Law unto Means The End of Speech is God's Glory and Man's Good and the due Measure of it therefore is that which appears most serviceable and best conducive thereto Whatsoever is more cometh of Evil. A sinful Defect it is when we speak less than these require as though good Words cost more than we owed to God and our Neighbour Nor is it other than a sinful Excess when we speak more than makes for these and consequently must make against them as though our Tongues were Masters and not Servants or Servants left to themselves by God and Conscience to make as much unprofitable Noise as we list I will not determine which Spirit is the more unclean the Dumb Devil or the Talkative Both come from Hell and both serve the Kingdom thereof This latter is shamed and condemned by the memorable Divine Proverbs In the multitude of Words there wanteth not Sin but he that refraineth his Lips is wise He that hath Knowledg spareth his Words But he that openeth wide his Lips shall have Destruction Prov. 10. 19. 17. 27. 13. 3. Nature also as well as Scripture condemns this Excess of Speech This Excess against which it hath made very observable Provisions Giving us but one Instrument of Speech though two of Hearing and two of Sight Not giving us the use of our one Tongue neither till we arrive unto the use of Reason in some measure Also then setting Bounds to it when we come to the Use of it hedging it in with Rowes of Teeth So that we are plainly taught if we will learn it that we are to hear twice as much as we speak in Converses Are to speak no more than we understand good Reason for And when we do otherwise we do break Nature's Bounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Iliad Wherefore All the World agrees 't is no Musical Tongue that keeps not Time Nor are Men found to love any Loquacity beside their own or their own it self under the Name of Excess It 's a common Observation that the most Tedious Tongues have the least Patient Ears and the most Incontinent Talkers do not own their Love to hear themselves talk By which they betray their Self-condemnation and shew how much their Judgment is against their Practice And who thinks the Man wise who condemns himself in a thing that he allows Be it further asked who ever knew a Galloping Tongue but it often Stumbled One that running very much fell not into Sin very oft The Scripture foresaid is in every guilty Company verified The nimblest Wits are out-run by Tongues of Perpetual Motion Much less can the strongest Judgments keep pace with restless Ones If the Mountains will be always in travail Mice will be the inglorious Birth The most admired Oracles of Eloquence must speak Trash if they speak to excess It is easily divined how very ill this may be applied by corrupt Minds By the Impure to whom all things are impure Those who take not the Law against the Excess of any other Talk are still commencing vexatious Suits against that of Religious
§. 3. What makes Foolish-Talking and Foolish-Jesting so Detestable as our Doctrine speaks A Needless Question this were but that if any where here Wicked Love like Sacred will Believe no Evil. Against these their Darling Sins and Dalilahs Men will not believe their Eyes These Plagues of Leprosy have been all along proved as well as pronounced such Nor have the Arguments been too short for the Censures but the Discoveries have justified the Invectives Nevertheless Measure pressed down and running over shall be given I may be Vile in some Eyes for having laid so much already but I shall say more and I will yet be more Vile if by any means I may gain some And bring them to a wiser Heart and purer Language In Foolish Talking and Jesting Sins of common occurrence to all Men and of daily occurrence to every one it shall be briefly said what in general All Men do and in special What Good Men do 1. All Men Sin In the fore-described Talks and Jests they really and may I not say confessedly Sin And consequently in the same they do the worst that Creatures can do Sin is Man's Worst done against God They Contemn the Supream King's Authority and deny him to be Lord over their Tongue They Vsurp his Government and Deposing God set up themselves to Reign in His stead Subjecting their Lips to their own Lusts instead of the Divine Laws And should Dust and Ashes so set up themselves They Deny God's Propriety in them constructively saying their Tongues and therefore their Whole Persons are their own The Clay is its own and what hath the Potter to do with it Hellish Conceit They Believe not his VVisdom but say in Effect they have found out a better Language than the Holy Tongue which he hath taught Thus wiser is Darkness than Light and thus do things of Yesterday take themselves for more Prudent than the Ancient of Days They Disown his Goodness constructively saying they be Cruel Laws he hath laid on their Lips As if Reason and Religion bloodily galled their Mouths And as though our heavenly Law-giver loved us so very little as we love our selves They Confess not his Mercies and Benefits but deny themselves to be so much in his Debt as to owe him the rule of their Mouth Alas what have they that they have considered themselves to have received of God And do they owe any Debt of Gratitude Is Life and the Means of Eternal Bliss such a Matter as that for them one 's Lips should be still praising the Giver They believe it not They Despise Divine Promises and Threats and interpretatively tell the World that Earth out-bids Heaven Makes firmer or greater Promises for Vain words than the Gospel makes unto Savoury ones And thunders more fearful Threats against Edifying Discourse than the Gospel doth against Corrupt Communication For alas is Hell such a Little-Ease And is Heaven so great a Preferment No not in their sight They Reject God's very Intreaties and say in a manner Though he doth Pray and Beseech them to Speak Wisely they will not grant him No that wondrous Condescention shall not move them that miraculous Good shall not overcome their Evil. For why if All-mightiness will court Worms must they presently be won Nay they are not To turn Grace into Wantonness they are Wise but for Grace to turn from Wantonness they have no Knowledg They give the Lie to Eternal Truth Virtually saying that the Fountain of Truth is the Father of a Lie when he faith that an unbridled Tongue can have but a Vain Religion What cannot they with the same Mouth bless and curse Cannot their Fountain send forth sweet Water and bitter They will not believe themselves to be Leopards because of these Spots of their Lips They put the Son of God to open Shame Telling him in the Rhetorick of Practice that they cannot think the Blood shed of his Heart to have deserved his Lording it over their Mouth No and if he expect to command the Doors thereof he shall fail of it What is Redemption such a Kindness that the Redeemed must never speak but as the Redeemer pleases They have other Thoughts They do Despite to the Spirit of Grace Telling him that though they hear of his Divine Essence and Wonderful Office yet if his Striving with them be to circumcisetheir Lips they shall strive against him and not so easily part with those Fore-Skins Indeed his Coming to fit us for Heaven was friendly done but he exacts too much they think if he look to have so perpetual Acknowledgments They Reproach the Divine VVord and the Seals of it They make them ill spoken of and cause Men to ask To what End is your Reading the Word and so much Hearing of it Of what Use is your Baptism and who is ever the better for the Lord's Supper The Mouth utters the Heart and who among you is any cleaner than Infidels in the Mouth They Imitate Satan and Please him As he so they are Evil-Speakers A Likeness to him which cannot but highly please him it doth so extraordinarily serve his Interest and manifest his Empire They Murder their own Souls For Sin 's Wages is Death Tongues set on Fire of Hell must bear Fire in Hell And they who will not here with holy Waters cleanse them shall not there have a Drop of Water to cool them They endanger the Lives of all that come into their Companies For Poison may be drank in at the Ears and these fill the Ears of their Companions with it They Rob and Steal perpetually Rob God of his Glory themselves of the Reward that there is in using our Tongues to glorify him and their Friends of innumerable good things These they rob one while of their Purity imparting to them a Filth which costs many a Prayer and Tear to scour it out other-whiles of their Patience which is their Souls very Mansion-house but always of their Golden Hours and convertible unto glorious Uses They bear false VVitness against Holiness For they take forbidden Words and Jests into their Mouths purely to please themselves Nor stick they to say that this is the main Pleasure that they know under the Sun Which is plainly enough to say God's Commandments are very grievous and Christ's Yoke is an uneasy one and it is in Breaking of his Commands that we can find any Comforts They wage a wilful VVar against God and Men and themselves Sin fights against all and it 's wilfully that Men do Sin Without God Tempting without Satan Compelling without any Creature Forcing The worst Flattery and all Force used with them is their own In Foolish Talks and Jests it is most freely that Fools shoot their Bolts and at no fewer Marks or lesser But it remains to be said that in these twain 2. Godly Men do most aggravatedly sin They incurring these Guilts do present us with the most prodigious Sights They committing these Sins are as follows in these Particulars
both for Spiritual Warfare and for Secular Merchandise The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word Jesting is originally of no ill Signification the Abuse hath brought it into disrepute as the anciently honorable Name of Tyrant and very many others Our Wisdom will be neither to be Frighted with the harsh sound of its Name among our selves nor be Charmed with its Magnificent Titles found in Pagan Moralists But less regardful of its Denomination ever to mind its Nature End and Vse By them forming our judgments of it Briefly then All that are Hatched of Forbidden words are Foolish Jests such as are Irreligious are more Mad than Facetious And if Eating and Drinking without aiming at God's Glory be foolish Jesting without that Design cannot be Wise Holy Intention is essential to all Moral Good and is the savour of it If the Salt of Jests be without that savour they be good for nothing but to be cast out But we will be more particular 1. Profane Jesting is Foolish Prating loosely about things that are Holy Trifling with the Names whereat Heaven and Earth trembles Making Sport with the aweful Word by which we must be judged A certain Effect of worst Causes and as sure a Cause of worst Effects For nothing less than a Reign of Sin can make a Play of Religion Nor can it be but Playing with Religion must needs heighten Sins Dominion Only Contempt of Sacred Things can breed jocular Familiarity and that worse than Devilish Familiarity greatens the Contempt I say worse than Devilish for though Profane Men Believe and Jest Devils do Believe and Tremble If Profane Wits believe not that there is a God they are blinder than Heathens If they do believe there is one they are on this account more mad than Devils And who save mad and blind Men can think it valuable Wit to make God and Men one 's Enemies for Merriment expose one's self to Everlasting Fire for a fit of Laughter Once a Merry Atheist never a Sober Christian saith Dr. Hammond 2. Vnclean Jesting is Foolish The Holy Ghost hath named Obscenity very Folly and called words of Smut Rotten and Corrupt What an extream Phrenzy then is it ever so wittily to commit this Folly to Spue forth worse than Street-Dirt and name it a Fine Sport But hereunto rise none save highest Graduats in the University of Wickedness Wherefore I advance but this single Thought God's Law in old time required cutting off of the Hand which did an Indecent Act to save the nearest Relation's Life Deut. 25. 11. And hereby we may easily judg of his Wrath against the Mouth that utters Unclean words for nothing but an once to Disport and Debauch its Hearers 3. Vnnatural Jesting is Foolish That which makes merry with the Sins and sporteth with the Miseries of Men. That plays upon their Misdeeds and taunts at their Parts their infirm Bodies or mean Conditions and particular Disasters A Practice so horrid that it would be as Impossible as Unrighteous did not Men together put off the Humane and put on Diabolical Nature For Humanity will Compassionate not Patratragediate on a Stray or a Faln-beast and it cannot draw mirth from the Misery of a Man There is a Beast and none of the gentlest neither which they say sheddeth Tears over them whom it Devours But a gentle one it is and a most merciful Creature compared to this Kind of Jester For there is a Clemency in those that wound us Modestly nor is he near so much the Tyrant that doth us our wrongs as he who Mocks at us for them The first gives the Wound but it 's this Second that makes it Smart and Kill In short he is rather a Stock than a Man that deplores not Evil but more a Devil than a Man that derides it And his monstrous Mirth is seldom long from a Hell above Ground 4. Immoral Jesting is Foolish In all things the Wisdom that is from above requires good Manners Whereinsoever they are not found good Conscience is lost It 's Asleep Blind or Dead The fifth Commandment is without Restriction 't is not said Honour thy Father and Mother in all Talk except Raillery Or Speak not Evil of Dignities in any Discourse but Drolling Or Honour all Men unless while you are Jesting Wherefore they make an unwise Bargain who sell God and Mens Peace for the Musick of their Jest For the tickle of their Fancies in prejudicial and disgraceful Gibes For the luscious but prodigious Pleasure of a Wasp to Sting others and Kill it self 5. Vnprofitable Jesting is Foolish I mean That which is not as truly intended and desired for a Whet to our Minds as our Eating is intended for Nourishment and Sleeping for Refreshment to our Bodies That wherein Religious Profit is not designed nor any thing more than the transient Pleasure of a Laugh and Giggle A Sorry thing and below any Ambition save that of Children who prefer their Toy above the Tower of London as the Proverb speaks It would be ask'd what Understanding is in them should Men use other Whetstones without Thought or Care whether their Instruments were sharpned at all by them and for nothing but an unaccountable Delight taken in Grinding for nothing A practice which would soon so sensibly and notoriously grind them to the Dust and Depth of Poverty and Scorn among Men. Awake Conscience and say whether all Jesters grind to fetch an Edg or no! Particularly I appeal to God's Register in the Hearts of such as grind in the Game of Chess That operose Syntax of Jests by which let them say whether they find their Minds more Sharpned or Blunted for Business Civil or Sacred Wondrous it seems that the Board whereon Men Strain their Thoughts as hard as the Mechanick on his Shopboard or the Lawyer or Divine on his Desk should be taken for a Recreation of them any more than carrying of Sacks of Corn on one's Back should be reputed a Sport for the Body's Refreshment But Witchcraft there is in all Error Candles-Ends and Coals be Sweet-meats when Girls are in a Pica And Rowling in the Dirt doth a wanton Boy 's heart good Wracks are Recreations if Men fancy them such This Game saith one is not only Lawful but it may be the most Ingenious and Delightful that ever was invented I hope he Dreamed not that the more Ingenious the more Lawful and the more Delightful to his Fancy the more undoubtedly Harmless and Innocent in it self He knows how Witty the worst of Creatures is and how Sweet abundance of Forbidden Fruit Well but after that he droppeth these more memorable words Many precious Hours have I profusely spent in this Game and It is a Time-waster It hath had with me a Fascinating Property I have been Bewitched by it When I have Begun I have not had the Power to Give over I will not Vse it till I find I can Refuse it Reason and Religion shall order my Recreation It hath not done with me