The Epistle Dedicatory,
326 ]
A PATHETICAL and SERIOUS .
DISSUASIVE
From the horrid and detestable SINS of Drunkenness, Swearing, Uncleanness, forgetfulness of Mercies, violation of Promises, and Atheistical Contempt of Death.
Applied by way of CAUTION to SEAMEN, and now added as an APPENDIX to their NEW COMPASS .
Being an Essay toward their much-desired Reformation : fit to be seriously recommended to their profane Relations, whether Seamen or others, by all such as unfeignedly desire their eternal
Welfare.
To the right worshipful Sir JOHN FREDERICK, Kt, one of the worshipful Aldermen of the City of London, and their honourable BURGESS in the present Parliament:
And to the truly religious and ever honoured Mr JOHN LOVE RING, of the city of London, merchant.
Muchhonoured and esteemed, A Lthough dedications are too often abused to a vain flattery, yet there is an excellent use and advantage to be made of them: partly to encourage persons of worth and eminency to espouse the interest of religion themselves ; and partly to oblige those readers, for whom such books are principally intended, to a diligent perusal of them,by interesting suchperfons in them, for whom they have great respects, or on whom they have any dependence.
Upon the first account, a dedication would be needless to you; for I am persuaded, you do not only in your judgment approve the design I here manage, viz. The reformation of the profane and looser fort of our seamen; but are also heartily willing to improve your interest to the uttermost for the pro motion of it.
I cannot look upon you as persons acted by that lowandcommon spirit that the most of your profession are acted by, who little regard, if they be good servants to them, whe-
The Epistle Dedicatery.
therGod have any service fromthemorno; and if they pay them the wages due for their work, never think of the wages they are to receive for their fin.
You are judged to be persons of another spirit, who do not only mind, but advance Christ's interest above your own, and negotiate for his glory, as well as for your own gain: andyethereinyou consult your own interest as well as God's : Subordinatanonpugnant. Your interest is never more profperoufly managed, or abundantly secured, than when it is carried on in a due fubordination to God's.
Their reformation will apparently tend to your advantage.
Those sins of theirs, against which I have here engaged, are the Jonahs in your thips ; it is fin that finks them, and drives them against the rocks. " One sinner destroyeth much good, "
Eccl . viii. 11. How much more a lewd crew of them conspiring to provoke God! the death of their lusts, is the more probable means to give life to your trade. And as these counsels prosper in their hearts, fo will your business thrive in your hands.
Piety and prosperity are married together in that promise, Psal. i. 3.
Onefimus was never so profitable a servant to Philemon, as when he became his brother in a spiritual, as well as his fervantina civil capacity, Philem. verf. 11. and 16. compared.
And yet if your interest were forced to step back, to give way to Christ's, I hope you would (notwithstanding) rejoice therein.
So that my present business is, not so much to persuade you, whose hearts, I hope, God hath already persuaded to fo good a work ; as to make your fames and respects, which are greatamongthem, aninnocentbaittotemptthem to their duty. And if eitheryournames or interest may be useful to such an end, I presume Imayuse them freely, and welcome; for, sure I am, they can never be put toa better use.
Well then, I will make bold to fend this small adventure in your ships ; and if the return of it be but the converfionof one soul to God, I shall reckon that I have made abetter voyage than you, let your returns be never fo rich .
How these things will affect them, I know not.
I do suppose it will produce different effects upon them, according to the different tempers of their spirits, and according as God shall command, or suspend the blessing.
Possibly some will storm at the clole and cutting rebukes of the word, (for most mens lusts are a great deal more sensible and tender than their consciences) and will fondly imagine that this necessary plainness tends to their reproach .
But if none but the guilty can be supposed to be angry at them, they will thereby reproach themselves a great deal more than ever I intended to do.
A Sober Consideration I confess it is a bitter pill, and compounded of many opera. tive and strong ingredients, which do acute it; but not ajot more than is necessary.
I shall beg the assistance of your prayers to God for them, and of your grave admonitions and exhortations to them for God; which will much help its operation, and facilitatemydesign, to do their souls apiece of ever-
lasting service; with which design I can truly say, I even travel in pain for them. Your assistance therefore in this good work, will put the highest obligation upon Yourmostaffectionate Friend and Servant, to be commanded,
JOHN FLAVEL.
SOBER CONSIDERATION
Of the SIN of
DRUNKENNESS.
INN the former treatise I have endeavoured to spiritualize earthly objects, and elevate your thoughts to more sublime and excellent contemplations; that earthly things may rather bea step, than a stop to heavenly.
You have therein my best advice to guide you in your course to that port of your eternal reft and happiness.
In this I have given warning of some dangerous rocks and quick-sands that lie upon your left hand ; upon which millions of foul shave perished, and others are wilfully running to their own perdition.
Such are the horrid sins of drunkenness, uncleanness, profane swearing, violation of promises, engagements made to God, and atheistical flighting and contempt of deathandeternity.
All which I have here given warning of, and held forth a light to discover where your danger is.
If after this you obstinately prosecute your lusts, and will not be reclaimed; you perish without apology, I have freed mine owa foul.
of the Sin of Drunkenness.
Let none interpret this necessary plainneis, as a reproach to seamen, as if Ireprefentedthem to the world worse than they are.
If, upon that account, anyofthembe offended, methinks thefethreeor four considerations should remove that offence.
First, That if this closeandplaindealingbe necessary, in order to your cure, and you will be offended thereat, it is better you should be offended than God.
Ministers areoftenputupon lamentable straits, they fail betwixt Scylla and Charybdis; the wrath ofGoduponone side, if we do not speak plain and home, as the necessity of the case requires ; and man's wrath if we do: what shall we do in this strait Either God or you, it seems, must be offended; and if it cannot be avoided,
I shall rather hazard your anger than God's, and think it far more tolerable.
Secondly, If you did but fee the necessity and end of this manner of dealing with your souls, you would not be offended.
But put it into a more sensible case, and you will fee and acknowledge it presently.
If I should fee an high built wall giving way, and ready to fall upon you, would you be angry with me, if by plucking you out of the danger, I should pluck your arm out of joint; certainly you would not.
Why, this is the case here : See Ifa. xxx. 13. " Therefore this iniquity shall be
" to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, " whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant."
Thirdly, Whatamadness is it to abide in a condition over - which all woes and curses hang, and yet not be able to endure to hear of it! Why, what will it profit you to have your misery hid from your eyes, and kept from your ears a little while ?
You must see this wrath, and hear louder vollies of woes from your own consciences, if you remain in this condition.
You cannot bear that from us, which your conscience will one of these days preach themselves to you, and that in a more dreadful dialect than I have used here.
Fourthly, I do not charge these sins indifferently upon all seamen. No, I know there are some choice and good men amongst your men, that fear an oath, and hate even the garments spotted with the flesh, who are (I question not) the credit and glory of our English nation, in the eyes of strangers that converse with them.
Nor yet do I think that all that are wicked amongst them are equally guilty of all thele evils ; for though all that are graceless, be equallyunderthe dominion of original corruption, yet it follows not from thence, that therefore actual fins musl reign alike in them: there is agreatdiffe
VOL. VI.
Afober Consideration rence, even among ungodly men themselves, in this respect; which difference ariseth from their various customs, constitetions, abilities, educations, and the different administrations of the Spirit, in enlightening, convincing, and putting checks uponconfcience: for thoughGodbe not the author, yet he is the orderer of fin. And this makes a great disparity, even among wicked men themselves. Some are persons of good morals, though not gracious principles, which produce a civil and sober, though not a holy and religious life. And others, though they live in some one of these lusts, yet are not guilty of some others of them.
For it is with original corruption, just as it is with the sapof the earth, which though it be the matter of all kind of fruits, yet in some ground it forts better with one grain than with another : and so in plants, in one tree it be comesanapple, in another a cherry; even so it is with this original corruption, in one man it runs most into swearing, in another into uncleanness, in a third into drunkennets.
Lust is nothing else but the corrupt appetite of the creature to some sinful object ; and therefore look as it is with the appetite with refpectto food, so it is with the vitiated appetites of fouls to fin.
Oneman loves this food best, and another that; there is endless variety in that, and so in this.
Having spoken thus much to remove offence, I shall now beg you to peruse the following discourse.
Confider what evidence these things carry with them.
Search the alledged scriptures, see if they be truly recited and applied to the case in hand:
And if so, O tremble at the truth you read ! bring forth your lusts, that they may die the death.
Will you not part with these abominable practices till death and hell make the separation ? Ah ! how much better is it for you that hat grace should do it ? And because many of you fee not the danger, and therefore prize not the remedy, I do here request all those that have the bowels of pity in them, for their poor relations, who are
finking, drowning, perishing, to spread these following cautions before the Lord for a blessing, and then put them into their hands. And that all pious masters would persuade all those that are under their chargetobuy this ensuing treatise, and diligently peruse it. And the first caution I shall give themis this >
T CAUTION Г.
Ake heed, and beware of the detestable fin of drunkenness, which is a beastly fin, a voluntary madness, afin thatunmansthee, and makes thee like the beasts that perishes; yea, sets thee below the beasts, which will not drink to
of the Sin of Drunkenness.
excess; or, if they do, yet it is not their sin.
+ One of the ancients calls it, 'Adistemper of the head, asubversion of the senses, a tempest in the tongue, a storm of the body, the shipwreck of virtue, the loss of time, a wilful madness, a pleasant devil, a sugared poison, a sweet sin, which he that has, has not himself, and he that commits it, doth not only commit fin, but he himself is altogether sin.'
It is a fin at which the most sober heathens blushed. The Spartans brought their children to loath it, by shewing them a drunkard, whom they gazed at as a monster : Even Epicurus himself, who esteemed happiness to consist in pleasure, yet was temperate, as Cicero observes.
Among the heathens he was accounted the best man, that spent more oil in the lamp, than wine in the bottle.
Christianity could once glory in its professors.: Tertullian faith of the primitive Christians, they sat not down before they prayed; they eat no more than might suffice hunger, they drank no more than was sufficient for temperate men; theydidfoeat and drink, as those that remembered they must prayafterward. But now we may blush to behold such beastly sensualists adorning themselves with its name, and sheltering themselves under its wings.
And amongst those that profess Christianity, how ordinarily is this sin committed by seamen ? This insatiable dropsy is a disease that reigns, especially among the inferior and ruder fort of them.
Some of them have gone aboard drunk, and laid the foundation of their voyage in fin. Owhat a preparation is this!
They know not whether ever they shall see the land of their nativity any more ; the next storm maysendthem into eterniry :
Yet this is the farewel they take, this is their preparation to meet the Lord. And so in their returns, notwithstanding the terrible and astonishing works of the Lord, which they have beheld with their eyes, and their marvellous preservation in fo great and terrible extremities; yet thus do they requite the Lord, as soon as their dangers are over, as if they had been delivered to commit all these abominations. But a few hours or days since, they were reeling to and fro upon a stormy ocean, and staggering like drunken men, as it is said, Psal. cvii. 27.
Tt2 +Turbatio cap it is, subversio sensus, tempeftas linguae, procella corporis,naufragium virtutis, amissio temporis, infania voluntaria, blandusdaemon, dulcevenenum, suavepeccatum, quam qui habet, feipfum non habet ; quam qui fecit, peccatum non fecit, fed ipfe totus eftpeccatum. Aug. ad, lacr. Virgin is.
Afober Consideration andnowyoumay fee them reeling and staggering in the streets, drowning the senseofallthose preciousmerciesand deliverances in their drunken cups.
Reader, if thou be one that is guilty of this sin, for the Lord's fake, bethink thyself speedily, and weigh, with the rea fonof am an, what I shall now say, in order to thy conviction, humiliation, and reformation. I need not spend many words, to open the nature of this sin to you ; we all grant, that there is a lawful use of wine and strong drink to support nature, not to clog it; to cure infirmities, not to cause them. " Drink no " longer water, but use a little wine, for thy stomach's fake,
" and thine often infirmities," faith Paul to Timothy, Tim, v. 23.
Mark, drink not water, but wine ; Sed modice, (i . e.) me dice ; pro remedio, non pro delicus, faith Ambrose * ; that is, use it modestly, viz. medicinally, not for pleasure, but for remedy.
Yea, God allows it, not only for bare necessity, but for chearfulness and alacrity, that the body maybe more fit and expedite for duty, Prov. xxxi. 7. but further noman proceeds, without the violation of sobriety.
When men fit till wine have inflamed them, and reason be disturbed, (for drunkennets is the privation of reason, caused by immoderate drinking), thendothey come under the guilt of this horrid and abominable fin. To the satisfaction and refreshment of nature, you may drink: for it is a part of the curse to drink, and not be far tisfied; but take heed you go no further ; "For wine is a " [mocker] , strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived
" thereby, is not wife," Prov. xx. 1. The throat is a slippery place; how easily may a sin slip thro' it into the soul ?
These sensual pleasures have a kind of in chanting poweruponthe foul, and by custom gain upon it, till they have in slaved it, and brought it under their power. Now, this is the fin against whichGodhath delivered so many precepts, and denounced fo many woes, in his word.
Eph. v. 18. " Be not drunken with " wine, wherein is excess." Rom. xiii. 13.
Not in rioting "and drunkenness,not inchambering andwantonness." Isa v.
11. " Woe to them that rifeup early in the morning, that they " mayfollowstrong drink, that continue until night, till wine
" inflame them:" with many other of dreadful importance.
Now, to startle thee for ever from this abominable and filthy lust, I shall here propound to thy consideration these ten ensuing arguments; and oh that they might stand in the way, as the angel did in Balaam's, when thou art in the prosecution of thy sensual pleasures ! And the first is this :
* Qui dedit aquam, dedit vinum.
: of the Sin of Drunkenness.
Argument 1. It should exceedingly diffuadefrom this fin, to -confider that it is an high abuse of the bounty and goodness of God, in affording us those sweet refreshments, to make our lives comfortable to us upon earth.
In Adam we forfeited all right to all earthly, as well as heavenly mercies : God might have taken thee from the womb, when thou walt a sinner but of as pan long, and immediately have sent thee to thine own place; thouhadst no right to a drop of water, more than what the bounty of God gave thee : And whereas he might have thrust thee out of the world as soon as thou camest into it, and fo all those days of mercy thou haft had on earth, might have been spent in howhng and unspeakable misery in hell:
Behold the bounty and goodness of God to thee; I say, behold it, and wonder: He hath suffered thee for fo many years to live upon the earth, which he hath prepared and furnished with all things fit for thy necessity and delight: Out of the earth, on which thou treadeft, " he bringeth forth thy food, and [wine] to <<make glad thy heart," Pial. civ. 14, 15. And dost thou thus requitethe Lord ? Hath mercy armed an enemy to fight against it with its own weapons ? Ah ! that ever the riches of his goodness, bounty, and long-suffering, all which are arguments to lead thee to repentance, should be thus abused!
If God had not been so bountiful, thou couldst not have been fo sinful.
Arg. 2. It degrades am an from the honourof his creation, and equaliseth him to the beasts that perisheth : Wine is laid to take away the heart, Hos. iv. 11. i. e. the wisdom and ingenuity of a man,, and so brutifies him ; as Nebuchadnezzar, who lost the heart of am an, and had the heart of a beast given him, Dan. iv . 32. The heart of am an hath its generosity and sprighthness, brave, vigorous spirits in it, capable of, and fit. ted for noble and worthy actions and employments ; but his lust effeminates, quenches, and drowns that masculine vigour in the puddle of excess and sensuality : For no sooner is am an
⚫brought under the dominion of this lust, but the government of reason is renounced, which should exercise a coercive power overtheaffections, and all is delivered up into the hand of lust and appetite; and so they act, not by discretion and reason, but by lust and will, as the beasts do by instinct. The spirit of man entertains itself with intellectual and chaste delights; the foul of a beast is only fitted for such low, sensitive, and dreggy pleasures. Thou hast something of the angel, and something of the beast in thee: thy soul partakes of the nature of angels, thy body of the nature of beasts. Oh! how many
Afober Consideration pamper the beast, while they starve the angel? God, in the first chapter, put all the creatures insubjection to thee ; by this lust, thou put test thyself in subjection to the creature, and art brought under his power, 1 Cor. vi. 12.
If God had given thee the head or feet of a beast, oh ! what a misery wouldst thou have esteemed it ? and is it nothing to have the heart of a beast ?
Oh ! consider it sadly.
Arg. 3. It is a siaby which thou greatlywrongest and abufest thine own body.
The body is the soul's instrument ; it is as the tools are to a skilful artificer ; this lust both dulls and spoils it, so that it is utterly unfit for any service of him that made it.
Thy body is a curious piece, not made by a word of command, as other creatures, but by a word of counsel; "I " am fearfully and wonderfully made, and curiously wrought," faith the Pfalmist, Psal. cxxxix. 14. or as the vulgar, Acepictus sum, Painted as with needle-work of divers colours, like a garment richly embroidered.
Look how many members, so many wonders !
There are miracles enough, faith one, betwixt head and foot, to fill a volume.
There is, faith another, such curious workmanship in the eye, that, upon the first sight of it, some atheists have been forced to acknowledge a God; especially that fifth muscle in the eye is wonderful, whereby,
(as a learned + author observes) man differeth from all other creatures, who have but four; one, to turn the eye downward, a second to hold it forward, a third to move it to the right hand, a fourth to the left; but none to turn it upward as a man hath .
Now, judge in thyself; Did God frame such a curious piece, and enliven it with a soul, which isa spark, a ray of his own light, whose motions are so quick, various, and indefatigable, whole flights of reason are so transcendent; did
God, thinkest thou, send down this curious piece, the top and glory of the creation, the index and epitome of the whole world, Eccl. xii. 2. did God, I say, send down this picture of his own perfection, to be but as a strainer for meats and drinks, aspunge to fuck in wine and beer ?
Or canst thou answer for the abuse and destruction of it ?
By this excess thou fillest it with innumerable diseases, under which it languisheth ; and at last thy life, like a lamp, extinguished, being drowned with too much oil.
+ ' Infinite diseases are begotten by it, (faith • Zanch) ; hence come apoplexies, gouts, palsies, sudden death,
* Columb, de re an at.
↑Infinitae morborumgenera inde nafcuntur apoplexae, paralyses, arthrides, &c.
Ille optimus medicus fibi, qui modicus cibi. Aug.
of the Sin of Drunkenness.
• trembling of the hands and legs;' herein they bring Cain's curieuponthemselves, faith Ambrose : Drunkennessslays more than the sword.
Oh ! what a terrible thing will it be to confider upon a death-bed, that these pangs and aches are the fruits of thy intemperance and excess ! " Who hath woe?
Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling ? Who hath wounds without cause ? Who hath red- •" ness of eyes ?
They that tarrylong at the wine, they that "
" go tofeekmixed wine," Prov. xxiii. 29, 30. By this enumeration, and manner of interrogation, he seems to make it a difficult thing to recount the miseries that drunkenness loads the outward man with ; for look as vermin abound where there is store of corn, so do diseases in the bodies of drunkards, where crudities do so abound.
Now, methinks, if thou hast no regard to thy poor soul, or the glory of God, yet such a sensible argument as this, from thy body, should move thee.
Arg. 4. Drunkenness wastes and scatters thine estate, poverty attends excess; the drunkard shall be clothed with rags, and brought to a morsel of bread. Solomon hath read thy fortune, Prov. xxi . 17. " He that loveth wine and oil shall not be
" rich ;" luxury and beggary are seldom far asunder.
When Diogenesheard a drunkard's house cried to be fold; ' I thought, (quoth he) it would not be long e'er he vomited up his house
• also .' The Hebrew word שורית and the Greek word ασωτίας which signify luxury ; the former is compounded of two words, which signify, Thou shalt be poor ; and the latter signifies the losing of the possession of that good which is in our hand.
" The drunkard and the glutton shall furelycome to poverty,"
Prov. xxiii. 21.
In the Hebrew it is, he shall be disinherited, or difpoffeffed.
It doth not only dispossess a man of his reason, which is a rich and fair inheritance given to him by God, but it also dispoffefses him of his ettate : It wastes all that either the provident care of thy progenitors, or the blessing of God upon thine own industry, hath obtained for thee. And how will this sting like an adder, when thou shalt consider it ?
Apicus the Roman, hearing that there were seven hundred crowns only remaining of a fair estate that his father had left him, fell into a deep melancholy, and, fearing want, hanged himself, faith Seneca. And not to mention the miseries and sorrows they bring hereby upon their families, drinking the tears, yea, blood of their wives and children : Oh ! what an account will they give to God, when the reckoning day comes !
Believe it, firs, there is not a shilling of your estates, but God will reckon with you for the expence thereof.
If you have :
Afober Consideration spent it upon your lusts, whilst the neceffityof your families, or the poor, calleduponyou for it; I should be lothtohave your account to make, for a thousand times more than ever you possessed. O woful expence, that is followed with such dreadful reckonings!
Arg. 5. Confider what vile and ignominious characters the Spirit of God hath put upon the subjects of this fin.
The scripture every where notes them for infamous, and most abominable persons.
When Eli supposed Hannah to be drunken, " Count not thine handmaid a daughter of Belial," said the,
1 Sam. i. 16. Now, afon or daughter ofBelial is, in scripture language, the vilest of men or women.
So Plalm lxix. 12.
"They that fit in the gate, speak against me, and I am the " fongofdrunkards," (i. e.) of the basest and vilest of men, as the opposition plainly shews; for they areopposedtothem that fit in the gate, that is honourable persons.
The Lord would have his people shun the society of such as a pest, not to eat with them, I Cor. v. 11.
Yea, the scripture brands them with athaism; they are such as have lost the sense and expectation of the day of judgment; mind not another world, nor do they look for the coming of the Lord, Matth. xxiv. 27, 28.
He faith the Lord delayeth his coming, and then falls a drinking with the drunkard.
The thoughts of that day will make them leave their cups, or their cups will drown the thoughts of such a day. And will not all the contempt, shame, and infamy which the Spirit of God hath poured on the head of this fin, cause thee to abhor it? Do not all godly, yea moral perions, abhor the drunkard ?
Oh ! methinks the shame that attends it, should be as a fence to keep thee from it.
Arg. 6. Sadlyconfider, therecanbenothing of the fanctifying Spirit in a foul that is under the dominion of this lust; for upon the first discovery of the grace of God, the soul renounces the government of fentuality : " The grace of God that " bringeth salvation, teacheth mentolive soberly," Tit. ii.
11, 12.
That is one of its first effects.
Drunkenness indeed maybe found among heathens, that are lost in the darkness of ignorance ; but it may not be once named among the children of the day.
" They that be drunken, are drunken in the 66 night: but let us that are of the day, be sober," 1 Theff. v.
7,8. Andtheapostlesoften oppose wine and the Spirit as things incompatible, Eph. v. 18. " Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit.".So Jude 19. "Sensual, not having the Spirit. " Now, what a dreadful confiderationis this ? "Ifanymanhave not the Spirit of Christ, he is
of the Sin of Drunkenness.
そこnone of his," Rom. viii. 9.
Sensual persons have not the Spirit of Christ, and so can be none of his.
It is true, Noah, a godly man, once fell into this fin ; but, as Theodoret faith, and that truly, it proceeded ab inexperientia non ab intemperantia, from want of experience of the force and power of the grape, not from intemperance; and, besides, we find not that ever he was again overtaken with that fin ; but thou knowest it, and yet persistest. O wretched creature ! the Spirit of Christ cannot dwell in thee.
The Lord help thee to lay it to heart sadly!
Arg. 7. It is a fin over which many direful woes and threats hang in the word, like so manylowring clouds, ready to pour down vengeance upon the heads of such sinners.
Look, as the condition of the saints iscompassed round with promises, so is yours with threatenings, Ifa. v. 11. " Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, thattheymayfollow strong drink, and continue until night, until wine inflame them." So If. xxviii
1, 2.
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim," &c. with many other, too long to enumerate here.
Now, confider what a fearful thing it is to be under these " woes of God! Sinner, I beseech thee, do not make light of them, for they will fall heavy; assure thyself not one of them thail fall to the ground; they will all take place upon thee, except thou repent.
There are woes of men, and woes of God: God's woes are true woes, and make their condition woful, to purpose, on whom they fall.
Otherwoes, as one faith, do but touch the skin, but these strike the soul; other woes are but temporal, these are eternal ; others do only part betwixt us and our outward comforts, these betwixt God and us for ever.
Arg 8. Drunkenness is a leading fin, which has a great retinue and attendance of other sins waiting on it; it is like a Tudden land-flood, which brings a great deal of dirt with it. So that look as faith excels among the graces, because it enlivens, actuates, and gives strength to them, so is this among fins. It is not fo much a special fin against a single precept of God, as a general violation of the whole law, faith accurate Amesius.
Ic doth not only call off the guard, but warms and quickens all other lusts, and so exposes the soul to be prostituted by them.
(1.) It gives occasion, yea, is the real cause of many contentions, and fatal quarrels, Prov. xxiii. 29. " Who hath woe ?
."Whohathforrow ? Who hath [contentions] babbling,wounds "without cause?
They that tarry long at the wine," 66.
VOL . VI.
1 338 Afober Consideration Contentions and wounds are the ordinary effects of drunken meetings : When reason is deposed, and lust heated, what will notmenattempt ?
( 2.) Scoffs and reproaches of the ways and people of God, Psal. lxix. 12. " David was the song of the " drunkards."
(3.) It is the great incendiary of lust :
You shall find rioting and drunkenness joined with chambering and wantonness,Rom. xiii. 13. Nunquam ego ebrium caftumputabo, faith Hierom ; I will never think a drunkard to be chaste.
Solomon plainly tells us what the issue will be, Prov. xxiii. 33.
" Thine eyes shall behold a strange woman, and thy heart shall " utter perverse things," speaking of the drunkard.
It may be calledGad, for a troop followeth it. Hence one aptly calls it, The devil's bridle, by which he turneth the sinner which way he pleases; he that is overcome by it, can overcome no other fin.
Arg. 9. But if none of the former considerations can pre vail, I hope these two last may, unless all sense and tenderness beloft.
Confider, therefore, in the 9th place, that drunkards are in scripture marked out for hell; the characters of death are upon them.
You shall find them pinioned with other sons of death, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. " Know ye not that the unrighteous
" shall not inherit the kingdom of God ?
Be not deceived :
" Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effe.
" minate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, " nor covetous, nor [drunkards], nor revilers, nor extortion66 ers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Oh dreadful thunder-bolt ! He is not asleep but dead, that is not startled at it.
Lord, how are guilty sinners able to face such a text as this is !
Oh foul ! darest thou for a superfluous cup, adventure to drink a cup of pure unmixed wrath ? O think when the wine sparkles in the glass, and gives its colour, think, I say, what a cup of trembling is in the hand of the Lord for thee. Tu wilt not now believe this : Oh! but the day is coming, when thou shalt know the price of these brutish pleasures.. Oh ! it will then sting like an adder. Ah ! this short lived beastly pleasure is the price for which thou sellest heaven, and rivers of pleasure that are at God's right hand.
Obj. But I hope I shall repent, and then this text can be no bar tomyfalvation.
Sol. True; if God shall give thee repentance, it could not.
But, in the last place, to awaken thee thoroughly, and startle thy secure conscience, which sensuality hath brawned and cauterized, let me tell thee,
Arg. 10. That it is a fin out of whose power few, or none, are ever rescued and reclaimed. On this account it was that St
of the Sin of Drunkenness.
Auguline called it the pit of hell. He that is addicted to this fin, becomes incurable, faith a * reverend divine ; for seldom, or never have I known a drunkard reclaimed. And its power to hold the soul in subjection to it, lies in two things especially:
(1.) As it becomes habitual ; and habits are not easily broken.
Be pleased to view an example in the case, Prov. xxiii. 35.
" They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake ?
" I will seek it yet again." (2.)As it " takes away the heart, "
Hos. iv. 11. that is, the understanding, reason, and ingenuity of am an, and so makes him uncapable of being reclaimed by counsel. Upon this account it was that Abigail would not speak less or more to Nabal, until the wine was gone out of him, I Sam. xxv. 36, 37.
Plainly intimating, that no wholesome counsel can get in, until the wine be gone out. When one asked Cleostratus, whether he were not ashamed to be drunken, he tartly replied, 'And are not you ashamed to ad- 'monish a drunkard ?"
Intimating that no wise man would castawayan admonition upon such an one. And it not only renders them uncapable of counsel for the time, but by degrees it besots and infatuates them ; which is a very grievous stroke from God upon them, making way to their eternal ruin.
So then you see upon the whole, what a dangerous gulph the fin of drunkenness is. I beg you, for the Lord's fake, and by all the regard you have to your souls, bodies and eates, beware of it. O consider these ten arguments I have here produced against it.
I should have proceeded to answer the several pleas and excuses you have for it ; but I mind brevity, and shall shut up this first caution, with a very pertinent and ingenious poem of Mr George Herbert, in his TEMPLE.
Drink not the third glass, which theu canst not tame When once it is within thee ; but before May'st rule it as thou list, and pour the shame
Which it will pour to thee, upon the floor.
It is molt just to throw that on the ground, Which would throw me there, if I kept the round.
He that is drunken, may his mother kill, Lie with his sister : he hath loft the reins ;
Is outlaw'd by himself; all kind of ill Did with the liquor slide into the veins.
. Uu2 * Ames, de Confc. p. 139.