word of the Lord," saith he, "was made a reproach unto me, and a
derision daily."

This practice doth evidently in the highest degree tend to the
disparagement and discouragement of goodness; aiming to expose it,
and to render men ashamed thereof; and it manifestly proceedeth from
a desperate corruption of mind, from a mind hardened and emboldened,
sold and enslaved to wickedness: whence they who deal therein are
in Holy Scripture represented as egregious sinners, or persons
superlatively wicked, under the name of scorners ([Greek], pests, or
pestilent men, the Greek translators call them, properly enough in
regard to the effects of their practice); concerning whom the wise
man (signifying how God will meet with them in their own way) saith,
"Surely the Lord scorneth the scorners." '[Greek] (scoffers, or
mockers), St. Peter termeth them, who walk according to their own
lusts; who not being willing to practise, are ready to deride
virtue; thereby striving to seduce others into their pernicious
courses.

This offence also proportionably groweth more criminal as it
presumeth to reach persons eminent in dignity or worth, unto whom
special veneration is appropriate. This adjoineth sauciness to
scurrility, and advanceth the wrong thereof into a kind of
sacrilege. 'Tis not only injustice, but profaneness, to abuse the
gods. Their station is a sanctuary from all irreverence and
reproach; they are seated on high, that we may only look up to them
with respect; their defects are not to be seen, or not to be touched
by malicious or wanton wits, by spiteful or scornful tongues: the
diminution of their credit is a public mischief, and the State
itself doth suffer in their becoming objects of scorn; not only