godfathers of men that were truly wise, and, out of their great hatred to God, call souls, that God has inspired, fools. "The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred," Hosea ix. 7. And those in the New Testament which, Christ says, saw and hated both him and his Father, gave the same title to the apostles, as Paul relates, "We are fools for Christ's sake," 1 Cor. iv. 10. And these fools God undertakes to lead, protect, and guide, in his way; and takes such pains to make the road plain, that these wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, Isaiah xxxv. 8.

A fourth rank of fools are such as make a profession without possession. Neither driven to Christ by a sense of guilt and wrath, nor drawn to him by a sense of mercy and love, they seem to me to be volunteers in religion. They think it an honour to have the name of being devout Christians; or else, what could induce the foolish virgins to set out, and to set off, to meet the bridegroom, seeing they had no knowledge of him, no love to him, no sense of their need of him, nor any one promise of life from him. They had not his Spirit in them, nor one grace from his fulness, to influence them. They had no unction, no oil, no anointing from him; for they took no oil with them. These are called foolish virgins.

5. The next class of fools are such as are blinded, influenced, pushed on, and puffed up, by Satan, to assume and invest themselves with the office of the

ministers of Christ. And there are many of them so duped, blinded, and inflamed, with a false zeal by the devil, as to think that God really sent them; and they often challenge the Almighty for their sovereign and their patron, as Balaam did when he said, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more." This class of fools so effectually mimicked the servants of Christ as to make many hearts glad who were the simple followers of the Lamb. Of such simple believers Paul sarcastically says, "Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." Wise you must be, because you gladly suffer false apostles to lead you. But the fool in my text is a more exalted character than any of these; he is ranked in the highest class, and is, in his own conceit, the wisest creature in all the celestial or terrestrial globes; for he attributes folly to both worlds, as will appear in the following account of him. We are to know this fool from all others by the appellation that is joined to his name, "Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath," Prov. xxi. 24. Proud and haughty scorner is his name; pride and wrath lie at the bottom of all his hard speeches. And scorning eases the burden of his heart, and affords him some desperate, infernal, and momentary delight. These scorners are said to delight in their scorning; and, though fools, yet they hate knowledge, Prov. i. 22.

This sort of fools make a mock at sin. And, in

doing this, they mock at all the anger, wrath and just indignation of God. They mock at all the dreadful threatenings, sentences, and curses of a broken law; yea, they mock at all the weeds, briers, and thorns, on the earth, and at all the toil of man in rooting them up, and keeping them under. They mock at all the chains and torments of devils; at all the labour, toil, and misery, 'of men; at all the sufferings and agonies of the Son of God; at all the sorrows and afflictions of the saints; at the day of judgment; at the awful sentence of God; and at all the groans of the damned; for not one of these had ever been either revealed, threatened, feared, felt, borne, or endured, if sin had not entered into the world.

A scorning fool is one that scoffs at all real religion, and makes a jest of the worship and worshippers of God. The very preaching of Christ, Paul says, is the power of God, and the wisdom of God; and even this the scorning fool calls the weakness of God, and the foolishness of God. Be it so, says Paul; "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," 1 Cor. i. 25. Thus this fool sets his mouth against the heavens, and his tongue walks through the earth. He sets his mouth against the heavens by insulting his Maker, and ridiculing his gospel, which is from above, and by despising those that are born from above; and his tongue walks through the earth by his pupils and admirers, who zealously circulate his bold and arrogant speeches.

We are forbidden to offer any advice or counsel to this character: "Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words." No reproof nor rebuke, no judgments nor afflictions, can have any humbling or softening effects upon him, he is so completely in league with Satan, and so hardened under his influence. "Though thou shouldst bray this fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him," it is so interwoven in his soul.

I come now to shew his promotion. In every class of rational creatures there are some promoted above the rest. We read of angels and archangels in heaven; and of thrones and dominions, of principalities and powers; and, even among fallen angels, we read of a king, which is Satan, and his inferiors, who are in subjection to him. And we read of Beelzebub, the prince of devils; yea, Paul says that Christ, by his death, spoiled principalities and powers upon the cross, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And so in bodies politic, and in all senates and civil societies, there are promotions. Hence we hear of emperors and empires; of kings and kingdoms; of princes and principalities. The house of lords hath a speaker, the house of commons the same; and all assemblies and clubs of inferior rank, evẹn these have a chairman.

Now, the fool in my text, which Solomon describes to be a fool that delights in scorning, and hates knowledge, this dignity that he is in, this

promotion, is refused by all but the scorning fool, according to Jotham's parable; for, when all the corrupt trees went to anoint a king over them, every plant in the wood begged to be excused but one. "They said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" All these trees seem to show some regard either to God or man, and therefore refuse promotion. But the next offer is made to the scorning fool. "Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow," Judges ix. 8-15. None in all this parable would accept of promotion but the bramble, and that is a badge of God's curse upon the earth, and a lively type of that sort of sinners called briers and thorns, which are rejected, and are nigh unto cursing, and whose end is to be burned, Heb. vi. 8. The same choice has been put to this sort of trees since, and the