Another reason is, that the fool there finds what is most gra- tifying to his corrupt taste. One has an appetite for conviviality and licentiousness : another affects the more decent gratifica- tions of music, and dancing, and such like : another, more elevated in the scale of being, desires rather the intellectual and refined pleasures of science and philosophy. But each is an epicure in his way ; and, though their pursuits be different, each in his own line is as insatiable as the other. He is never weary of his favourite pursuit. He desires to be amused ; and makes the gratification of his own particular taste the end of all his studies and pursuits. In a word, he lives only to have his own taste gratified, and to administer to the gratification of those who are like-minded with himself: and wherever he can attain these ends, there his heart is, and there his most select abode.
But there is yet another reason for his preference ; and that is, that "in the house of mirth" he fields himself countenanced in his neglect of God. Every man has a secret consciousness that he ought to seek after God in the first place, and to post- pone to that every other duty and enjoyment. But when he sees others as remiss in this duty as himself, he comforts him- self with the thought, that he is no worse than others ; and with the hope, that God will never mark with his displeasure what is so generally regarded as innocent and inoffensive. At all events, he finds nothing to reproach him there. " In a house of mourning" he would see many things repugnant to his habits ; for even a fool there puts on, for the time, the semblance of wisdom ; and assents to the truth, that the care of the soul is the one thing needful. But " in the house of mirth," all that he either hears or sees bids him to be of good courage, and not to question for a moment the approbation of his Judge.]
I think that the positions in my text are now made sufficiently clear ; so that we may with propriety proceed,
II. To point out their bearing on the Christian's life and conversation — These principles may doubtless be pressed too far: and they are then carried to excess, when they are regarded as prohibiting all friendly intercourse with the ungodly world : for our blessed Saviour himself honoured with his company a wedding feast, and a feast, too, that was provided for him by an ignorant and unhumbled Pharisee. But, taking these different positions with such a latitude as both reason and Scripture will fairly admit, the least that we should learn from them is,
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