in jest or in earnest; they must not, as St. Paul saith, be so much
as named among Christians. To meddle with them is not to disport,
but to defile one's self and others. There is indeed no more
certain sign of a mind utterly debauched from piety and virtue than
by affecting such talk. But further--

4. All unseasonable jesting is blamable. As there are some proper
seasons of relaxation, when we may desipere in loco; so there are
some times, and circumstances of things, wherein it concerneth and
becometh men to be serious in mind, grave in demeanour, and plain in
discourse; when to sport in this way is to do indecently or
uncivilly, to be impertinent or troublesome.

It comporteth not well with the presence of superiors, before whom
it becometh us to be composed and modest, much less with the
performance of sacred offices, which require an earnest attention,
and most serious frame of mind.

In deliberations and debates about affairs of great importance, the
simple manner of speaking to the point is the proper, easy, clear,
and compendious way: facetious speech there serves only to obstruct
and entangle business, to lose time, and protract the result. The
shop and exchange will scarce endure jesting in their lower
transactions: the Senate, the Court of Justice, the Church do much
more exclude it from their more weighty consultations. Whenever it
justleth out, or hindereth the despatch of other serious business,
taking up the room or swallowing the time due to it, or indisposing
the minds of the audience to attend it, then it is unseasonable and
pestilent. [Greek] (to play, that we may be seriously busy), is the
good rule (of Anacharsis), implying the subordination of sport to