So [is] the man [that] deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?
Ver. 19. Am not I in jest?] The wicked man's mirth is usually mixed with mischief. It is no sport, unless he may have the devil his play fellow - no good fellowship without horse play. Salt jests, and dry flouts, to the just grief or disgrace of another, is counted facetious and fine. But St Paul calls it foolish a Eph 5:4 and further saith, that "for such things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." Quid mihi cum fabulis, cum iocis? saith Bernard, - What hath a Christian to do with jesting and jeering? We allow a horse to prance and skip in a pasture, which if he doth when backed by the rider, we count him an unruly and unbroken jade. So, howsoever in heathens and atheists God may wink at jocularity aud dicacity, yet he looks for better things from his own people. Credo mihi, res severa est verum gaudium, saith Seneca; True mirth is a severe business. But what a madman was Robert de Beliasme, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1111 AD, delighting to do mischief and exercise his cruelty, and then to say, Are not I in jest? An example hereof he showed upon his own son, who, being but a child, and playing with him, the father, for a pastime, put his thumb in the boy's eyes, and thrust out the balls thereof. b
a ευτραπελια .
b Speed's Chron., 473.