but hee onely findes helpe in adversity that sought it in prosperity and ther can be no great hope of repentance at the houre of death where there was no regard of honesty in the time of life God useth not to give his heavenly and spirituall graces at the houre of death to those who have contemned them all their life yea it is sensles to think that God should accept of our dry bones when Sathan hath suckt out all the marrow that he should accept of the lees when we have given to his enemy all the good Wine But heare what himselfe saith by the Prophet Malachy c. 1.8 and S. Ierome upon the place it is a most base and unworthy thing to present God with that which man would disdaine and think scorne to accept of Wherefore Admonition not to deferre repentance as you tender your owne soule even to day heare his voyce set upon the work presently he that begins to day hath the lesse work for to morrow And proroge not your good purposes least ye saying unto God in this life with those wicked ones in Iob depart thou from mee for a time God say unto you in the life to come depart from me ye cursed and that for ever Hee hath spared thee long and given thee already a large time of repentance but he will not alwayes wait for denyals his patience at length wil turn into wrath Time was when hee stayed for the old world an hundred and twenty yeares he stayed for a rebellious Nation forty yeares he stayed for a dissolute City forty dayes but when that would not serve his patience was turned into fury and so many as repented not were cast into hell If in any reasonable time wee pray hee heares us if we repent he pardons us if we amend our lives he faves us but after the houre prefixt in his secret purpose there is no time for petition no place for Conversion no meanes for pacification The Lord hath made a promise to repentance not of repentance if thou convertest to morrow thou art sure of grace but thou art not sure of to morrowes conversion so that a fit and timely consideration is the onely thing in every thing for for want of this Dives prayed but was not heard Esau wept but was not pitied the foolish Virgins knockt but were denied and how many at the houre of death have offered their prayers supplications and services unto God as Iudas offered his money to the Priests and could not have acceptance but they died as they lived and went from despaire unto destruction § 154. BUt thou wilt say unto me Objection that must men are of a contrary judgement and practice if this be so that all the promises are conditionall that mercy is entayled onely to such as love God and keepe his Commandements that none are reall Christians but such as imitate Christ and square their lives according to the rule of Gods word that of necessity we must leave sinne before sinne leaves us and that God will not heare us another day when we call to him for mercy if we will not heare him now when he calls to us for repentance how is it that so few are reformed that most men minde nothing but their profits and pleasures yea count them fooles that doe otherwise I answer VVhereof a double reason there be two maine reasons of it though one be the cause of the other 1 Ignorance 2 Vnbeleife First First few men beleeve the whole written word few men beleive what is written of God in the Scripture especially touching his justice and severity in punishing sinne with eternall destruction of body and soule for did they really and indeed beleeve God when he saith that his curse shall never depart from the house of the swearer Zack 5. they durst not sweare as they doe Did they beleive that neither Fornicâ—tors nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Theeves nor Murtherers nor Drunkards nor Swearers nor Raylers nor Lyers nor Covetous persons nor Extortioners nor Vnbeleivers nor no Vnrighteous men shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven but shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Rev. 21.8 they durst not continue in the practise of these sinnes without feare or remorse or care of amendment Did they beleive that except their righteousnesse doe exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5.20 and that without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 with many the like it were impossible they should live as they doe Yea if they did in good earnest believe that there is either God or Devill Heaven or Hell or that they have immortall soules which shall everlastingly live in blisse or woe and receive according to that they have done in their bodies whether it be good or evill 2 Cor. 5.10 they could not but live thereafter and make it their principall care how to be saved But alas they are so farre from beleiving what God threateneth in his Word against their sinnes that they blesse themselves in their heart saying we shall have peace we shall speede as well as the best although we walke according to the stubbornnesse of our owne wills so adding drunkennesse to thirst Deut. 29.19 yea they preferre their condition before other mens who are so abstemious and make conscience of their wayes even thinking that their God deceiveth them with needlesse feares and scruples as once Rabshekah would have perswaded the Iewes touching their trust and confidence 2 King 18.22.25.30.32.33.35 They beleive what they see and feele and know they beleeve the lawes of the Land that there be places and kinds of punishment here below and that they have bodies to suffer temporall smart if they transgresse and this makes them abstaine from Murther Fellony and the like but they beleeve not things invisible and to come for if they did they would as well yea much more feare him that hath power to cast both body and soule into Hell as they doe the temporall Magistrate that hath onely power to kill the body they would thinke it a very hard bargaine to winne the whole world and lose their owne soules Luk. 9.25 but enough of this having proved the Drunkard an Atheist Sect. the 146. § 155. SEcondly 2 Ignorance is the cause of all sinne another maine reason is ignorance yea ignorance if we rightly consider it is the cause of all sinne sinne indeed at first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sinne Swearing and lying and killing and stealeing and whoring I may well adde drunkennesse abound saith the Prophet because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hosea 4.1.2 It is a people that doe erre in their hearts saith God why because they have not knowne my wayes Psal 95.10 yee are deceived saith our Saviour because ye know not the
swolne and inflamed Face beset with goodly Chowles and Rubies as if it were both rost and sod swimming running glaring gogle Eyes bleared rowling and red a Mouth nasty with offensive fumes alwayes foaming or driveling a fevorish Body a sicke and giddy Braine a Mind dispearst a boyling stomacke rotten Teeth a stinking Breath a drumming Eare a palsied Hand gouty staggering Legs that faine would goe but cannot a drawling stammering temulentive Tongue clambd to the roofe and gumms in fine not to speake of his odious gestures lothsome nastinesse or beastly behaviour his belching hickups vomittings his ridiculous postures and how easily he is knockt downe whose hamstrings Bacchus hath already cut in two nor of the unmeasurable grosenesse of such whose onely element is Ale especially your Ale-wives who like the Germane Froas are all cheekes to the belly and all belly to the knees whose dugs and chins meete without any forceing of either because you may dayly see such fustilugs walking in the streets like so many Tunnes each moving upon two pottle pots his essentiall parts are so obscured his Sense so dulled his Eyes so dazeled his Face so distorted his Countenance so deformed his Ioynts so infeebled and his whole body and minde so transformed that hee is become the child of folly and derision of the world a laughing stock to fooles a lothing stock to the Godly ridiculous to all Yea questionlesse had they a glasse presented them they could hardly be brought againe to love their owne faces much more should they reade a true character of their conditions would they runne besides their wits if they had any to lose or goe and dispatch themselves as Bupalus did at the sight of Hipponax his letter or as Hocstratus did upon view of a booke which Reuchlin writ against him oras Brotheus did who being mocked for his deformity threw himselfe into the fire and there died for Thersites like many are their bodily deformities but far more and worse are those of their soules Whence it was that the Lacedaemonians used to shew their slaves in the time of their drunkennesse unto their children thinking that their ugly deformity both in body and minde would be an effectuall argument to make them loath this vice which even at the first view seemed so horrid And indeed how should the Drunkard be other then ugly and deformed when experience shewes that intemperance is a great decayer of beauty and that wine burnes up the radicall moysture and hastens old age exceedingly § 16 2 NEither are his diseases and infirmities fewer then his deformities His inward infirmities for see but his body opened and it will appeare like a stinking and rotten sepulcher for excessive and intemperate drinking hath brought upon him a world of diseases and infirmities because this sinne by little and little quencheth the naturall heate and drownes the vitall spirits whereby above all it impaires the health debilitateth all the members turning strength into weakenesse health into irrecoverable sicknesse it being the seminary of incurable diseases which shorten the life the procurer of all infirmities and acceleration of death which is the reason that men are ordinarily now so short lived in respect of that they have beene heretofore Neither can there be any other cause alleaged why men in this our age are so weake diseased and short lived but our excessive drunkennesse and intemperance It is true indeed that the world now waxing old and as it were hoareheaded cannot generate children of such strength and vigour as it did in time of youth and full strength and therefore wee must needs decline as the world declineth it is true also that the mother earth is infeebled with much bearing and hath her strength much abated with so innumerable childbirths and being now come to her cold melancholy age cannot bring forth her fruits so full of vertue and strength and so fit for the nourishment of our bodies as shee did in former times but that there should be such a change so suddaine and extraordinary in the great difference of our health strength and long life betwixt this our age and that which went next before it can be imputed unto nothing more then that now drunkennesse and intemperance is after an extraordinary manner increased whereby the naturall and vitall heate of men is drowned and extinguished before it be neare spent like a candle cast into the water before it be halfe burned Indeed drunkards pretend they drinke healthes and for health Yea doubtlesse they thinke wine another kinde of Panace which is good for all diseases or some Moly good against all sorcery and mischiefe But to whom saith Salomon are all kinde of diseases infirmities deformities if not to Drunkards Who can recount the hurts that by this meanes come to the whole body especially the head stomack liver and the more noble parts Who can recite the Crudities Rhumes Gowts Dropsies Aches Imposthums Apoplexes Inflammations Pluresies Consumptions for though he devours much yet hee is the leaner every way with the Falling-sicknesse and innumerable other distempers hence ensuing which Drunkards know better by experience then I how to reckon up To whom are pearle faces Palsies Headakes if not to Drunkards What so soone brings suddaine old age What so much as swilling blowes up the cheekes with wind fills the nose and eyes with fier loads the hands and legs with water and in short plagueth the whole man with diseases of a Horse the belly of a Cowe the head of an Asse c. almost turning him into a very walking dunghill Believe a man in his owne Art The distempered body the more it is filled the more it is spilled saith Hippocrates and to this the Prophet sets his seale Hosea 7.5 And indeed but for the throats indulgence Paracelsus for all his Mercury had dyed a begger which made Callisthenes tell Alexander that hee had rather feede upon graines with Diogenes in his dish then carrouse the juyce of grapes with him in this standing cup for of all the gods said hee I love not Aesculapius In a word though wine being moderately taken is physicall yet if it be taken immoderately there is nothing more banefull saith St. Austin for by it the body is weakened strength decayed the members dissolved the whole body distempered and out of order so that the Drunkard drawes death out of that which preserves other mens lives That many have perished by this meanes we read Eccl. 37.30.31 if many then surely many millions now for in former ages it was as rare as now it is common For wee read that the Locrians would not permit their Magistrates to drinke wine whereas now with us the meanest by their good wills will drinke nothing els We read also that the ancient Romans would not suffer their women to drinke wine whereas many of ours are like Cleio who was so practised in drinking that shee durst challeng all men whatsoever to trye masteries who could drinke most and overcome
many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice and judge of truth not by weight or value of voices but by the number But what sayes the Proverbe of bad customes bad opinions and bad servants They are better to hang then to keepe I confesse where the Law written doth faile we ought to observe what is approved by manners and custome but though in this case custome be of great authority yet it never brings prejudice to a manifest verity and there are other cases wherein singularity is not lawfull only but laudable when vice groweth into fashion singularity is a vertue when sanctity is counted singularity happy is he that goeth alone and resolves to be an Example to others and when either evill is to be done or good to be neglected how much better is it to goe the right way alone then to erre with company Yea most happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repaire the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse that can resolve with Ioshuah what ever the world doth yet I and my house will serve the Lord Iosh 24.15 It was Noah's happinesse in the old world that he followed not the worlds fashions he beleeved alone when all the world contested against him and he was saved alone when all the world perished without him It was Lot's happinesse that he followed not the fashions of Sodom It was Abraham's happinesse that he did not like the Chaldeans Daniel's happinesse that he did not like the Babylonians It was good for Iob that he was singular in the land of Vzz good for Tobias that he was singular in Ninive good for Annanias that he was singular in Damasco good for Nichodemus that he was singular among the Rulers as now they all finde to their great comfort and exceeding great reward Yea it was happy for Ruben that he was opposite to all his brethren happy for Caleb and Ioshua that they were opposite to the rest of the spyes happy for the Iewes that their customes were divers and contrary to all other people though Haman was pleased to make it their great and heynous crime Ester 3.8 happy for Luther that he was opposite to the rest of his country And no lesse happy shall wee bee if with the Deere we can feed against the winde of popular applause if with the Sturgion and Crab-fish we can swimme against the streame of custome and example if with Atticus we can cleave to the right though losing side or if we doe not we shall misse of the narrow way and consequently faile of entring in at the straite Gate for the greatest part shuts out God upon earth and is excluded from God elsewhere Math. 7.13 14. But the graciously prudent will in things not indifferent rather doe well alone then let it alone and thinke it no disparagement to be singular among the vicious yea they know if the cause be good the more stiffe and constant the mind is so much the better If Jesus Christ and his twelve Apostles be of their side they care not though Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the Rulers and the whole nation of the Iewes together with a world of the Roman faction be against them And indeed if thou wert not a foole thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of Christs little flocke which are to be saved then in the numerous heards of those Goates which are destinated to destruction And so your excuses are taken away and all proved vaine coverings even no better then Fig-leaves which though they may seeme to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe yet they will stand thee in no steede another day Wherfore drink not without thirst here that you may not thirst without drink herafter Lu. 16.24.25 Play not the foole as Lysimachus did who being in battell against the Scythians for the satisfying of his appetite onely and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst gave himselfe over into his enemies hands and when he had drunke his fill and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy began to acknowledge his folly in these words O said he for how little pleasure what great liberty what sweet felicity have I lost and forgone Yea turne your laughter into sorrow your feasting into fasting be revenged of your selves of your lusts and meete your God and make your peace while now we call and you heare yea the Lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne that so seeing their danger they may be brought to confesse and forsake it that so they may be saved Pro. 28.13 § 56. BUt what doe I admonishing That drunkards have no faith in the Scriptures or speaking sence to a drunkard this is to make him turne the deafe eare and a stone is as capable of good counsell as hee besides they have no faith in the Scriptures they will not beleeve what is written therefore they shall feele what is written Wherefore politicall physicke the fittest for them In the meane time it were very fit if it pleased Authority they were debarred both of the blood of the Grape and the spirit of Barley a just punishment for consuming the countries fat for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such Gormundizers except we had the water of Clitorius a Well in the midst of Arcadia which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after I doe not wish them stoned to death as God commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the Law Deut. 21.20.21 nor banished the land as the Romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons that the rest might not be endangered and Lycurgus all inventers of new fashions least these things should effeminate all their young men for then I thinke the land would be much unpeopled Indeed I could wish there were Pest-houses provided for them in all places as there are for infected persons or that they were put by themselves in some City if any were big enough to receive them all as Philip King of Macedon built a city of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and irregular persons of all his subjects and having so done called it Poneropolis that is the City of wicked persons And certainely if it were considered how many Brokers of villany which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes every populous place affords whose very acquaintance is destruction the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times Yea this were marvelously expedient considering the little good they doe being as so many loose teeth in the Mandible of the Common-wealth which were better out then in and the great hurt by their ill examples by devouring the good creatures of God which they never sweat for by disturbing the peace of the Church and Common-wealth by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land and
our first Parents which tended to the ruine of them and all mankind It is usuall with drunkards to kisse when they meete and kill when they part Drunken Alexander killed Clytus for whom sober Alexander would have killed himselfe The Danes and Norwayes once purposing for England fell drunke on shipboard and so slasht one another that there was an end of their voyage Out of their gallant disposition you shall have one kill another upon the interpretation of a word a manifest confession that their life is not much worth sith they will sell it so good cheape yea there are not wanting of them that resemble Fimbria of Rome who meeting a Citizen that he hated gave him a deadly thrust into the body with his sword and the next day entred an action against him that he had received but part of his blade into his body and not all as he meant it Yea perhaps they may make you to doe that which you never dreamt of like Herod who cut off Iohn Baptist's head only to answer the expectation of the standers by Matth. 14.9 As for flattery it never wants welcome while selfe-love is at home but the plaine dealing man cannot live among these Vipers and not be stung by them yea he lives most in trouble that most seekes to have peace with them by a familiarity Well then if they are so offensive to the stomacke of our company that they will not let us be at peace our best way wil be to spevv them out to deale with our old vicious consorts as the Fox in the Fable did by his Fleas who wading backward into the water by degrees drew them all into a lock of Wooll which he had in his mouth and then left it swimming even leave them without taking leave of them or if you like not to teare friendship asunder upon the sudden you may unsowe it by little and little He that would not continue a friend may but neglect him and have his ayme § 203. OB. The agreement of wicked men not worthy the name of peace But I heare none boast so much of peace as the ungodly nor none taxed so with contention as the religious Answ Boast of it they may but it is apparent that the way of peace they have not so much as knowne indeed they have some kind of agreement among themselves and so have Serpents and Beares and Wolves it is a rare thing to see one Wolfe devoure or fight with another yea they have made a covenant with death and are at agreement with Hell Isay 28.15 and yet as there is no peace to the wicked Isa 57.21 so there is no peace among the wicked for every combination in evil is rebellion not peace rather a conspiracy then a concord like the agreement of Absolom and Achitophel combining together against David or of Herod and Pilate conspiring against Christ or of the false Apostles plotting against Paul so meeting in malice to doe mischiefe but a godly dissention is better then such a wicked peace Neither can any wonder that wicked men doe so conspire in evill that there is such unanimity in the broachers abbettors of it if he but take notice of those Devills which being many in substance were yet one in name action habitation even a whole Legion in one man Marke 5.9 all the praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is angelicall if sinnefull devilish true peace is to have peace with God warre with our lusts Ro. 5.1 and 7.22.23 peace with vertue warre with vice whereas they have peace and are at league with their sinnes but are at warre with God and good men all at once but a just warre is a thousand times better then such an ill conditioned peace yea it no way deserves the name of peace except we be at enmity with the Serpent at unity within our selves we ought so to be at peace with men as that we doe not warre with God and his graces peace must be followed with holinesse Heb. 12.14 wherefore Zachary joyneth faith peace and truth together Zach. 8.16 and St. Paul peace and righteousnesse peace and edification peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17.19.20 c. Thus the Scripture sets us our bounds for peace which we may not passe and shewes that ungodly men are not guilty of this grace that they doe but talke of peace not practise it But suppose we could enjoy peace in their company A dâ—unkard can never love him that is sober and religious yet we can never expect to have their loves for drunkards only love drunkards and one wicked man another but care not a rush for any that are good being like Phalaris the Tyrant who would never grant any request except it were to a dissolute woman but such he never denied Likenesse we know is the cause of love and love the cause of likenesse whereas the beleiver and the unbeleiver are altogether unlike the one being crucified and dead to the world Gal. 6.14 but made alive in Christ 1 Cor. 15.22 The other being spiritually dead even while they are alive 1 Tim. 5.6 We seldome see different dispositions entirely loving for hence growes the height of friendship when two similary soules doe blend in their commixions And hence it is that two friends are said to come into Vulcan's shop to beg this boone of him that he would either beate them on his Anvile or melt them in his Fornace both into one the which he granted I'ts likenesse that makes the true love knot of friendship when we finde another of our owne disposition it appeares the same soule in a divided body Nature that makes us love our selves makes us with the same reason love those that are like us A friend is a more sacred name then a Brother Pro. 18.24 For what availes it to have the bodies from the same originall when the soules within them differ And yet some Rehoboam-like passing over the religious will joyne themselves with ungodly persons like as some put away honest wives and goe to harlots wherein they deale as wisely as if a man should cast away his fleshy leg and set on another of Wood. Causa patrocinio non bona pejor erit Or A wicked mans love mercenary inconstant and not worth the having admit thou shouldst enjoy a wicked mans love it is but mercenary base and inconstant and so not worth the having Indeed there was never such abject and servile prostitutions of presentations as life soule devotion adoration servant slave c. as there is now amongst our drunkards and rorers and what love they expresse to one they professe to all every one they know or salute is their friend but friendship so distracted like as the River Ganges was by Cyrus into 365. brookes both looses her name and nature a lover of so many never loves any Or admit a drunkard doe love thee either he loves thee for his owne sake because he