tive and inquifitive in these Matters, though we acquit you of Malice or ill Design, yet become the Inftrument of Malice; you you pull the Trigger, though the other levels the Piece at the innocent Head; and fince your Curiosity and Impertinence are unjuftifiable, you can no ways excufe the Confequences of them. God has provided every Man with Business proper for him to employ his Time in. What you can spare from the neceffary Cares of Life, and from the Refreshments and Diverfions which Na ture requires, is little enough to lay out upon Eternity, upon the Thoughts of another and better Life; nor are there ever wanting Opportunities of doing good, in which all active Spirits might be usefully employed. How much more innocent and diverting is it to advise and instruct the Ignorant, to rejoice with your Friends in their Good, to comfort and to mourn with them in their Evil; or at least to pass the Time in fuch Discourses as are administered by innocent Mirth and friendly Society: How much better, I fay, is this, than to fit trying and condemning. your Acquaintance, and fetching in all you. know by Turns to receive at your Hands their Sentence, not for the Good or Evil which which they have done, but for the Good or Evil which you have heard of them? How entertaining foever you may think this Diverfion, yet you must remember the Conclufion of the Wife Man's Advice to the Men of Pleasure, Know, that for all thefe Things God will bring you into Judgment. Thirdly, Idle Words may imply fuch Words as are the Product of a loose and idle Mind, fuch as represent the impure Conceptions of a Mind polluted with Luft and Lafciviousness. This Notion includes the Filthiness and foolish Talking and Fefting, which the Apostle forbids even to be named among Christians. There is nothing more directly contrary to Morality and good Manners, than the Liberty which fome Men take of entertaining Company upon Subjects, which are unfit for the Mouth or Ears of a Christian. A greater Affront cannot be offered to civil Company than to break in upon their innocent Mirth and Conversation with filthy Jests, which put every modest Person to Pain, and under a Difficulty of behaving himself, whilst fuch Things are difcourfed on: Though it is the Pleasure the lewd Jefter delights in to put Modefty out of Countenance, and to fet fet Impudence and Buffoonry in Triumph over it. But whether this be an Employs ment that even common Senfe and Reafon fhould fubmit to, let every one, who is not quite lost to Shame, determine. It is a great Argument of the Impurity of Men's Minds, when Things of this nature lie uppermost, and are ever at their Tongue's End: And therefore for their own Sakes they should confine fuch Thoughts, unless they take Pleasure in hiding the Man to discover the Brute, and to let the World fee what Pains they have taken to furnish their Minds with a Knowledge, which Nature and common Decency have ever strove to conceal. This impudent Wit is in all Perfons abo→ minable, but never more truly infamous than when it is found in the Company of grey Hairs; when Men feem to be feeding upon the Dregs of the Pollutions of their Youth, and entertaining their Minds with Luft and Senfuality in spite of the Decays of Nature, which call for other Thoughts. I am almost afraid of calling these idle Words, because the Expreffion does not reach to the Heinousness of the Crime: For nothing is more contrary to the Modesty and Purity of our holy Religion, nothing more offenfive to God and all all virtuous Minds, nothing more deftructive of Morality, or that tends more to introduce Loosenefs and Brutality, than this lewd Wit, which fets at nought every thing that is chafte and pure, whofe prefent Glory is Shame, and whofe future Reward fhall be Confufion. If Men have a Knack of cloathing their unchafte Thoughts in cleanly Language, yet it cannot justly be pleaded in Mitigation of their Crime. This poffibly may be to fin more like a Gentleman, but it carries an Aggravation with it that cannot easily be forgiven. To improve upon Vice, and to take off that Mark of Infamy which God has fet upon it, is the highest Abuse of your Reafon and Senfe. To make Lewdness agreeable, to recommend it by an artful Address and a pleasant Wit, what is it but to convey the Poison in a precious Mixture, may tempt and deceive the Palate to admit the Destruction? Modesty is the Outguard of Virtue, and gives Notice of the firft Approach of Vice; and when Lewdnefs is fo dreffed up as to pafs unfufpected, it proves but the more dangerous Enemy within; and therefore we must expect to give a fevere Account for the Time and Words that |