prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and Judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great Disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other Diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is First From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the Primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joyning with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being overcharged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received than if the Morbisick matter were more ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparative is of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quicker and easier digestion So that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous than those peracute distempers arising from Liquors So likewise those bad symptoms in other Diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal than the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes and a spirituous matter that layes not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by the soporiferous vertue stupifies them for a time until they recover their agility again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by overcharging the Stomach vomiting is procured and so carries off something that was lodged there which might breed Diseases This is a bad excuse for good Fellows and a poor plea for drunkenness for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise you introduce twenty inconveniences by it I do not like the preventing of one Disease that may be by procuring of one at the present certainly and many hereafter most probably and if the Disease feared or may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tolerate and allow it but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards than by overcharging with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many the benefit hoped for but pretended or if any but very small and inconsiderable And although as I said before the drunken fit is not mortal and the danger perhaps not great for the present yet those drunken bouts being repeated the relicts do accumulate debilitate Nature and lay the foundation of many chronick Diseases Nor can it be expected otherwise but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceed from the internal impulses and disordered motions of the faculties which general disturbance and discomposure being frequent must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane Nature and consequently ruine the Fabrick of mans body The ill effects and more eminent products of Ebriety are first A changing of the natural tone of the Stomach and alienating the digestive faculty That instead of a good transmutation of food a degenerate Chyle is produced Common experience tells that after a drunken debauch the stomach loseth its appetite and acuteness of digestion as belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature and continue the custom of eating some food is received but we cannot expect from such a Stomach that a good digestion should follow and it is some dayes before the Stomach recover its eucrasy and perform its office well and if these miscarriages happen but seldom the injury is the less and sooner recompenced but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices the Stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity Secondly An unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow or a degenerate macilency and a decayed consumptive constitution Great Drinkers that continue it long few of them escape but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body for if the Stomach discharge not its office a right the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependance is there upon the Stomach that other parts cannot perform their duty if this leading principal Part be perverted and debauched nor can it be expected otherwise for from this Laboratory and prime office of digestion all the parts must receive their supply which being not suitable but depraved are drawn into debanchery also and a degenerate state the whole Body fed with vitious alimentary succus Now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery happens upon this score As there are different properties and conditions of bodies so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various one puffs up fills and grows hydropical another pines away and falls Consumptive from excess in drinking and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts for in some persons although the stomach be vitiated yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great from the integrity and vigor of those parts destinated to such offices that they act strenuously though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate und therefore do keep the body plump and full although the juyces be foul and of a depraved nature Others è contra whose parts are not so firm and vigorous that will not act upon any score but with their proper object does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter but receiving it with a nice reluctance transmits it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture or emunctory and from hence the body is frustrated of nuâ—â—ition and falls away So that the pouring in of much liquor although it be good in sua natura does not beget much aliment but washeth through the body and is not assimilated But here some may object and think That washing of the body through with good Liquor should cleanse the body and make it fit for nourishment and be like good Physick for a foul body But the effect proves the contrary and it is but reason it should be so for suppose the Liquor whether Wine or other be pure and good yet when the spirit is drawn off from it the remainder is but dead flat thick and a muddy flegm As we find in the distillation of Wine or other Liquors so it is in mans body the spirit is drawn off first and all the parts of mans body are ready Receivers and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener freely and readily but the remainder of greatest proportion that heavy dull phlegmy part and of a narcotick quality lies long fluctuating upon the digestions and passeth but slowly turns sowre and vitiates the Crases of the parts So that this great inundation and supposed washing of the body does but drown the Faculties stupifie or choak the Spirits and defile all the Parts not purifie and cleanse And although the more subtile and thinner portion passeth away in some persons pretty freely by Urine yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecillity of the Nerves which is procured from the disorderly motions of the Animal Spirits being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong Liquors which vibration being frequent begets a habit and causeth a trepidation of Members Transcribed verbatim out of Dr. Maynwaring's Treatise Of long Life FINIS Are to be Sold near the Exchange and in Popes-head-Alley Primum crater ad sitim pertinere secundum ad hilaritatem tertium ad voluptatem quartum ad insaniam dixit Apulius Omne nimium naturae est inimicum A Cacotrophy or Atrophy
other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction than impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observations of the one or the other There are three sorts of persons one cannot drink cold Beer the other cannot drink warm the third either You that cannot drink cold Beer to you it is hurtful cools the Stomach and checks it much therefore keep to warm drink as a wholsome custom you that cannot drink warm Beer that is find no refreshment nor thirst satisfied by it you may drink it cold nor is it injurious to you you that are indifferent and can drink either drink yours cold or warmed as the company does since your Stomach makes no choice That warm drink is no bad custom but agreeable to Nature in the generality First Because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the Body and similia similibus conservantur every thing is preserved by its like and destroyed by its contrary Secondly Though I do not hold it the principal Agent in digestion yet it does excite is auxiliary and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion ut signum causa Thirdly Omne frigus per se pro viribus destruit Cold in its own nature and according to the graduation of its power extinguisheth natural heat and is destructive but per accidens and as it is in gradu remisso it may contemperate allay and refresh where heat abounds and is exalted Therefore as there is variety of Palates and Stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of Meats and Drinks which to others are utterly disgustful disagreeing and injurious though good in themselves so is it in Drink warmed or cold what one finds a benefit in the other receives a prejudice at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idiosyncratical properties of several bodies one thing will not agree with all Therefore he that cannot drink warm let him take it cold and it is well to him but he that drinks it warm does better And this is to be understood in Winter when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the Spirits of the Liquor in a torpid inactivity which by a gentle warmth are unfettered volatile and brisk whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the Stomachs fermenting heat being so prepared than to be made so by it There are three sorts of Drinkers one drinks to satisfie Nature and to support his body without which he cannot well subsist and requires it as necessary to his Being Another drinks a degree beyond this man and takes a larger dose with this intention to exhilerate and chear his mind to banish cares and trouble and help him to sleep the better and these two are lawful Drinkers A third drinks neither for the good of the body or the mind but to stupifie and drown both by exceeding the former bounds and running into excess frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by Nature converting this support of Life and Health making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death Many such there are who drink not to satisfie Nature but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination and when there is a reluctancy against it as Drunkards that pour in Liquor not for love of the drink or that Nature requires it by thirst but onely to maintain the mad frolick and keep the Company from breaking up Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholesom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physician for it Whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of Health is fit to be examined It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The supports of Life may prove the procurers of Death if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective Meat and drink is no longer sustenance but a load and overcharge if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person and then they are not what they are properly in themselves and by the appointment of Nature the preservatives of Life and Health but the causes of sickness and consequently of Death Drink was not appointed man to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties but to supply nourish and strengthen them Drink exceeding its measure is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers It puts a man out of the state of Health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gone out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other than an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise than as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Disease denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatarctick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or Sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of Health for as Health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the Body and Mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally if we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangely perverted if we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the palate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates his legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and
the King was sorry nevertheless for the Oaths sake and them which sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her And he sent and beheaded John in the prison And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel and she brought it to her Mother Titus 2. 12. Teaching us that denying all ungodliness and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World 1 Pet. 4. 3. 4. For the time past of our Life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you Other Examples Forreign and Domestick 1. Whilest the Gaul's besieged the Roman Capitol they sent out a great party to Sack the Countrey thereabouts who being Loaden with spoil were returning towards Rome And at night being full of Wine they laid them down to sleep not fearing any Enemy At which time Camillus with his men came upon them all his Souldiers giving a mighty shout yet could the Gauls hardly be awakened they were so deadly drunk so that they were easily all of them slain either upon the place or by the Horsemen in the pursuit Plutarch 2. The Tuscans besieging Sturium a City that was confederate with Rome Camillus marched privately with his Army against them and coming upon them found the Tuscans secure Eating and Drinking themselves Drunken by which means he slew most of them without resistance And thereby freed the City from danger Plutarch 3. Many Dutch-men in Joppa drinking themselves drunk upon St. Martins-day their Arch-Saint the Turks came in suddenly upon them and cut every ones throat to the number of 2000. And indeed they were quickly stabbed with the Sword who were Cup-shot before Fullers Holy War 4. Edgar King of England perceiving that his people had learned of the Danes many of which were in this land at that time to drink excessively whereupon ensued much Drunkenness together with many other Vices He ordained certain wooden Cups with pins or nails set in them commonly used making also a law That whosoever drank past that mark at one draught should forfeit a summe of Money one part to the Informer and the other to the Judge or Chief Officer Sp. Chron. 5. Eschines commending Philip King of Macedon for a Jovial man that would drink freely Demosthenes Answered That this was a good quality in a Spunge but not in a King Plut. in vit Demost. 6. Alexander the Great having taken Persepolis wherein was a stately Pallace of the Kings of Persia in a drunken fit by the perswasion of Lais the Harlot burned it down to the ground Diod. 7. A Turk having in one of their great Feasts drunk wine too freely which is a thing forbidden in their Law being apprehended and carryed before the Gand Visier and there found guilty was adjudged to have boiling Lead poured into his Mouth and Ears which was accordingly executed Turk Hist. p. 1332. 8. Phocas a drunken bloody and Adulterous Tyrant was worthily slaughtered by Heraclius who cut off his hands and feet and then his privy parts by Piece-meal 9. Not long since a Souldier in Salisbury in the midst of his health-drinking and Carousing in a Tavern drank a health to the Devil saying That if the Devil would not come and pledge him he would not believe that there was either God or Devil Whereupon his Companions strucken with horror hastened out of the room and presently after hearing a hideous noise and smelling a stinking favour the Vintner ran up into the Chamber and coming in he missed his Guest and found the window broken the Iron Bar in it bowed and all bloody but the man was never heard of afterwards 10. A young Gentleman being drunk as he rode homewards was thrown by his Horse and had his brains dashed out by the Pomel of his Sword 11. Anno Christi 1629. there was one T. W. a notorious Blasphemer and Drunkard upon a small occasion being angry with his Wife not daring to proffer violence to her drew his Knife and stabbed himself 12. The same year one J. B. of Ely a Gentlemans Coachman being exceedingly given to Swearing and Drunkenness drinking himself drunk on a Sabbath-day at Sermon-time fell from his Coach-box and was killed by his Horses 13. Anno Christi 1621. one R. B. of Ely who used to travel on the Sabbath-dayes seldom or never coming to Church as he went to the Market at St. Ives being drunk Gods Judgment overtook him for going up the River in his Boat he fell over into the water and was drowned 14. Anno Christi 1618. one T. A. of Godmanchester being a common Drunkard was intreated by a Neighbour to unpitch a Load of Hay And being at that time drunk the Pitchfork slipt out of his hand which he stooping to take up again fell from the Cart with his head downward and the Fork standing with the Tines upward he fell directly upon them which striking to his heart killed him immediately 15. Anno Christi 1628. J. V. of Godmanchester a known Drunkard and Scoffer at Religion fell from the top of a Pear tree and brake his neck All these are attested by sundry Godly Ministers 16. Anno Christi 1551. In Bohemia five Drunkards were Quaffing and blaspheming the Name of God And the picture of the Devil being painted upon the wall they drank healths to him who the night after paid them their Wages for they were found dead with their necks broken and quashed to pieces as if a wheel had gone over them the blood running out of their mouths nostrils and ears in a Lamentable manner Fincelius 17. A Vintner that accustomed himself to swearing and drunkenness as he was upon the Lords day standing in his door with a pot in his hand to invite guests there came suddenly such a violent Whirlewind as carryed him up into the Air after which he was never more seen 18. Armitus and Cinanippus two Syracusians being drunk committed Incest with their two Daughters Plut. The like did Lot Gen. 19. 33 c. 19. Cleomenes King of Laceaemonia drinking himself drunken fell distracted never recovering his wits again 20. Anacreon the Poet a notable drunkard was choaked with the Husk of a Grape 21. Zeno the Emperour was such a drunkard that he would often lye as one dead for many hours so that he grew odious to all and to his own Wife who once sinding him in that case caused him to be laid in a Tomb with a great stone on the top of it where he was miserably pined to death Platina 22. But a few years since in Gloucester-shire an horrid Patricide was committed by another ungracious Son being drunken upon his Father whom he desperately slew 23. The like unnatural villany was committed by one Purchas an Essex Monster upon the Body of his Mother whom he
slew for the same cause 24. John Maginus reports that Fliolmus King of the Goths was by his drunken Servants thrown headlong into a great Vessel of Ale and therein drowned 25. Plato who elsewhere holds that men should be sober and forbids drunkenness as an unseemly thing yet in the Feasts celebrated to Bacchus he lets loose the reins to intemperancy and thinks it then no fault at all to be drunk 26. In the Parish of Castleterra in the county of Cavan in Ireland a Gentleman when he met with Jovial Comrades used to drink healths and to fling the Glasses against the Walls he delighted also to contradict what Ministers delivered in their Sermons and having heard one preach of the benefits and tryal of a justifying Faith after Sermon he demanded of the Preacher Whether he could remove mountains If I could see you do that then said he I would believe you had faith otherwise not for doth not the Gospel say If a man have faith but as a grain of Mustard-seed he shall say to Mountains Be removed hence and it shall be done But at length this Gentleman was strucken with the Small-pox which got into his throat in such manner that he could not swallow nor let down a little Beer to cool his excessive internal heat wherewith being tormented he broke out into these expressions to an honest man that stood by O Thomas would I could now receive one of those glass-fulls of drink which formerly I have thrown against the walls in a frolick And afterwards when he saw there was no remedy but die he must he said again O! that now I had Faith like a grain of mustard-seed And a little after he deceased in the fifty seventh year of his age 27. We read of a drunkard who in the midst of his Cups sold his Soul to the Devil for a Tankard of Wine And the Devil forthwith had his bargain Theat Hist. 28. The like of a Woman who at a Whitson-Ale fell a cursing God having nothing but the Devil in her mouth so long till at last the Devil came and hoisting her up into the Air threw her down again in a place not for remote where she was found dead 29. Acosta and Benzo write of the West-Indians that they are exceedingly given to Drunkenness the people there for the most part delighting themselves beyond measure in intoxicating their brains in strong Liquors in which mad and distempered fits they many times commit many salvage Outrages and unruly pranks one against another and account it a matter of praise so to do I saw saith Acosta two men coming drunk out of a Tavern for a very trifle kill one another with the same Sword 30. Alexander the great when he was drunk would hack and hew kill and slay he cared not whom and oft-times his very Friends as he did Clytus his dear friend who had formerly saved his life whom in a drunken mood he commanded presently to be slain Neither would he hearken to Ptolomy and Perdiccas two of his great Captains who upon their knees would have begged one dayes respite for him Though the same Alexander when he was sober would have slain himself for having caused Clytus to be slain Q. Curt. 31. Tenthio King of the Illyrians in his drunkenness slew his own brother Pleuratus Polybius 32. Of Bonosus the Emperor it was said that he was born Non ut vivat sed ut bibat Not to live but to drink And when being overcome by Probus he hanged himself it was said in scorn that a Tankard hanged there not a Man 33. What a Beast was Marcus Antonius that he wrote a book in Commendation of his great strength to bear strong drink 34. Philip King of Macedon in his drunkenness once passing an unrighteous sentence the Woman concerned therein appealed from Philip now drunk to Phiilp when he should be sober again 35. The Carthagenians made a Law that no Magistrate of theirs should drink Wine 36. The Persians permitted their Kings to be drunk but one day in a year 37. Solon made a Law at Athens that drunkenness in a Prince should be punished with death Prov. 3. 1 5. 38. Domitius the Father of Nero slew Liberius an honest Roman because he refused to take off his Cups as he commanded him 39. Amos 6. 6. That drink Wine in Bowls Not in Cups Pots or Chalices but in Vessels of price and largest receipt that they may be accounted and called as young Cicero was Tricongii such as can drink whole ones and no small ones neither 40. Diotimus of Athens for his excessive drinking was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tundish 41. Aeneas Silvius tells us of one Henry Earl of Goricia who having two Sons drunkards both was wont oft-times in the night to call upon them and ask whether they were a thirsty And when they gave him no Answer he would himself carry Wine unto them pressing them to drink and if by reason of sleepiness or late excess they refused he would return in a rage to his Wife and call her Whore saying they were Bastards and not his Sons who could sleep all night without being athirst 42. Vortigern King of the Brittains being well warmed with Wine was ensnared by the Daughter of Hengist the Saxon which proved the undoing of the Brittish Nation Pol. Virg. Hist. Ang. 43. Venter Mero aestuante cito despumat in libidines A Belly or stomach boiling with Wine doth suddenly foam up into a scum of sinful lusts and foul Affections Hierom. 44. Bonzo relates of the Indians of Peru that when they have drunk away that little reason wherewith they are endowed they use to fall to immodest embracings without respect had to Mothers Daughters Brothers Sisters or any other Relations whatsoever 45. Saint Jerom could not be perswaded that a Drunkard could be a chast man 46. A certain young Man that had devoted himself to a pious and retired course of life was much assaulted by the Devil by sundry temptations and pressed to make choice of one of these three sins Once to be drunk or to lye with his Neighbours Wife or to kill his Neighbour and the temptation so far prevailed that at the last he chose the first viz. Once to be drunk as deeming it the least sin But when the Devil had drawn him to that at the same time both the other sins were committed by him 47. Ad universa vel crudelitatis vel turpitudinis facinora perpetranda facilis invenitur via cui nulla sobriae mentis ratio sed ebrietas dominatur A drunken man is easily drawn to commit any villany Bern. 48. Pausanias makes mention of a Company of young men in Greece who upon a time contrary to the command of their Captain Aristomenes being drunk offered Violence to the Chastity of certain young Virgins and so violent they were therein till the sword and death put an end to the same 49. The cruel Tyrant Lucius being drunk became like a mad Horse and when