their fences; hunt harmless animals, or any how vex, worry, or irritate, the weak and helpless; it is a feast and a holiday to them. But this their way is their folly." He that can willingly and needlessly give pain to any, even to a beast or a fly, shews not merely a foolish, but a hellish disposition.

That dishonest persons are fools, the jail proves, and often the gallows. Did not Achan find himself a fool, when for stealing some money and cloaths, he lost his life. Josh. vii. 20. When a person stands before a justice, how like a fool he looks! when he is publicly whipped for his theivery, or transported into foreign lands for his dishonest gains, where is the wisdom, the cunning he so much prided himself in, when he slyly purloined his booty? If he got a guinea by his theft, and lost his character; or even gained a thousand pounds, and lost his liberty, his country, or his life, it was a foolish business to say nothing of losing his soul; for no pilferers are loved of that God, who forbids us even to covet, much more take, our neighbours goods.

Can it be douhted whether drunkards are fools; persons who, if they have any

reason, do all they can to drown and destroy it, making themselves worse than the brute beasts. Look at a man in liquor, how he staggers, like an infant; how he grins, like a monkey; how he, like an ideot, rolls his goggling eyes; if he speaks, it is as the chattering magpye; if he is silent, it is like the stupid owl; nay, often worse than the filthy swine, he wallows in the mire, unable to lift himself from it: Are you at any loss to say whether he be a wise man or a fool? Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes? they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine." Look not with greediness at the tempting liquor; at last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Prov. xxiii. 29,-32.

Sabbath breakers are among the worst of fools. God as given us this time in which to take care of our souls, and we throw it away. If it be foolish to neglect the business of this life, it is far worse not to attend to the concerns of eternity. If it is sinful to be idle about our own business, it is tenfold so to be

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idle in God's work. If it be dangerous not to provide for the body, it is more dangerous still to starve the soul. A man who has any sense will take most care of what is most valuable; when we see a man who does not, what can we call him but a fool.

There is another terrible fool of whom David speaks, Psa. xiv. 1. Who saith in his heart there is no God. The man whom God has made, denies the existence of the God who made him! Sinners wish there were no God, for they know if there is, he must hate them: but to say there is nonc, upon this earth which shews his power; and in the face of that sun which shadows forth his glory, is so horrid that it is not to be supposed any of you can believe a thing so stupidly blasphemous.

Secondly. Having seen Having seen who those wicked persons are, who are called fools, let us enquire why they are so called. It is because, as wisdom chuses the best means to obtain happiness, folly on the contrary adopts such as cannot succeed, and seeks what is desired, by methods which must disappoint those who hope in them.

1. Thus the wicked seek a portion in time, not in eternity. Every man

wishes to have a portion, to lay up treasure for his future benefit. The wicked foolishly endeavour to do it in this world, like him who said to his soul, "Take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years." But to lay up treasure here, where every thing is mean, uncertain, and perishing, instead of the world to come, where only is true substance, which neither moth nor rust can corrupt, which no thieves can injure or steal, is the way of folly and disappointment.

2. They seek pleasure in sin, not in holiness. Every man wishes for pleasure, it is the first desire of the heart: but how stupid to seek it in sin, as the wicked do. Nothing but holiness, and the favor of God, can give pleasure to the soul; those who run in the ways of riot and debauchery to obtain it, will find they have made a foolish choice. Wisdom's ways that are ways of pleasantness, but the wages of sin is death, how foolish to seek life there? the way of transgressors is hard, how silly to seek ease there? God hateth the path of the wicked, how absurd in us to love it.

3. When persons seek happiness for the body, and not for the soul; the mean,

the dying body, instead of the more noble, the immortal soul; do they not shew their folly? They enquire very earnestly, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be cloathed? To keep the body from hunger, from nakedness, from sickness, from pain, they are very anxious; but to feed the soul with knowledge, to clothe it with the righteousness of Christ, to cure the disease of sin, which like a leprosy makes them odious, and threatens their destruction; or to enjoy the great blessings of the everlasting gospel, held out to poor wretched sinners, takes up none of their care.

4. The wicked regard the means only, without looking to God, whose blessing makes the means effectual. Thus care and industry are the means of attaining wealth, "the hands of the diligent maketh rich;" but these cannot succeed, without God's blessing upon them. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watcheth in vain.'

5. Sometimes they expect to prosper without using any means. They think they shall have the blessing of God, without ever asking for it; shall please him without