Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	reason_n	2,746	5	5.3703	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97251	The odious, despicable, and dreadfull condition of a drunkard, drawn to the life to deterre others, and cause them to decline the wayes of death, or, A hopefull way to cure drunkennesse (the root of all evill, and rot of all good) in such as are not (by long custome) past cure : composed, and published for their good, who (not for want of ignorance) prinde themselves in drunken good-fellowship : which probably may open their eies, as the tasting of honey did Jonathan, and cause them to say as the governour to the bridegroome, John 2.10, The good wine was kept back untill now / by Junius Florilegus.	Younge, Richard.	1649 (1649)	Wing Y167A; ESTC R43834	50,174	55

I must be forced to passe over with onely naming them as first pride or reputation of good fellowship is one speciall cause covetousnesse another evill company a third c. for they will by no meanes grant that they drinke for the love of drinke No will these swilbowles say yea sweare that is the basest thing in the world they are Epicures indeed that will do so though they love it as they should do God above all above health wealth credit child wife life heaven salvation all calling for it as the Pope once for his dish even in despight of heaven For is not their gullet their God do they not sacrifice more to their God Belly then those Babylonians did to their God Bel Alas they no more care for wine then Esau did for his pottage for which he sold his birthright then Lysimachus did who made away a whole Kingdome for drinke then Philoxenus and Melanthius did who that the drinke might yeeld them the more pleasure in going downe to their stomachs wish't the one a Swans throat the other a Cranes neck For let them say or sweare what they will I 'le beleeve the Prophet Esay who makes us privy to their heart and thoughts Esay 56.12 where they confesse as much and that other scripture 1 Sam. 1.16 2.12 where Drunkards are called the sonnes of Beliall that is all belly and for the belly Yea let some good fellow or other tell me whether it would not make his teeth water and his guts grumble yea whether in envy he would not feed upon his owne heart to see his companions drinke their healths round while he sate by only to see and heare them And if so confesse that you drink not to please others but your selves as Canus played upon his harp not for your friends sake but for the drinkes sake that you drinke not out of need but lust not for health but for delight § 18. But to goe on for I may seeme to have left them what hath been spoken proves them much worse then beasts but this is a small evill with them this is but to worke out their owne damnations their chiefe care industry and delight is to infect others the serpents speciall venome wherewith these his elves be intoxicated is to make others more beasts then themselves Yea Drunkards being the Devils deputies to turn others into beasts will make themselves Devils Wherein they have a notable dexteri●y making the Al●house or Taverne their study their circle the Pot themselves the conjurers mens soules the hire reputation of good fellowship the charme the characters healths the Goblin raised is the spirit of the buttery and to drinke God out of their bearts health out of their bodies wit out of their heads strength out of their joints all the money out of their purses all the drinke out of the Brewers barrels wife and children out of doors the land out of quiet plenty out of the Kingdome is all their businesse These Agents for the Devill Drunkards practice nothing but the art of d● bauching men for they will take no paines unlesse the Devill sets them on worke but being set like beasts to draw in the Devils Teeme they will l●ad captive unstable soules to sin with cords of vanity as it were with a Cart rep● Esay 5.18 For to sinne these pernicious seducers Devils in the shape of men are no niggards of their paines As ô how much is hell beholding to them 〈◊〉 for as the Pharisees would take great paines compasse Sea and Land to make one the childe of Hell like themselves so what will not some Drunkards do or spend to make a sober man a Drunkard or to drink another drunkard under the table § 19. Now for the effecting of this what comparable to drinking of Lealths which Antisthenes cals the onely occasion and meanes of surfeiting and disorder Another very fitly the palley or shooing-horne to all drunkennesse and excess For their drinking and beginning of healths is purposely and serves to no other end but to draw men on to drinke more liberally then else they would or should do As le● a sober and religious man fall into their company as a purse of mony may fall into a stinking privy O how they will conspire to provoke his unwilling appetite with drunken healths and if they can like the Baby●●●ish harlot make him taste poison in a golden cup O then they will sing and rejoice as in the division of a spoile and brag that they have drenched sobriety and blinded the light and ever after be a snussing of this Taper Psal 13.4 and the like to every one they light upon which is a most wofull glory yea how will they winde men in by drinking first a health to such a man then to such a woman my mistris then to every ones mistris then to such a great person naming some Lord or Lady or near friend their Magistrates their Captaines Commanders Parents Kindreds or Companions health and that not seldome upon their knees so making Gods of others Beasts of themselves Or rather doing homage to Satan for health-drinking upon their knees was first invented and used as the Devils drinke-offering or as a part of that honour and adoration which the Pagan Idolaters sorcerers and witches consecrated and gave to Beelzeb●b the Prince of Devils and those other Devill-gods which they used to worship as Basil and Augustine affirme so that it 's most rancke and devillish Idolatry And last of all they will drinke the Kings or the Queenes health as taking it for granted that none dare refuse to pledge their healths be they willing or unwilling able or ●mable and by this meanes they will winde men in to drinke even till their braines their wits their tongues their eyes their feet their senses and all their members faile them For commonly when these friends fall a drinking of healths it is as enemies fall to fighting with weapons to shew their valour and to get the mastery for hee is of most reputation with them that is able to drinke most and hee gets the greatest honour that can drinke the rest off their legs Yea if they but meet with a man that can gulpe downe wine through the channell of his throat without interspiration betweene gulpes as the Crocodile cats without moving of her nether jaw they thinke he deserves some great preferment As Tiberius the Emperour preferred many to honors in his time because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers Yea if they might have their wils none should refuse to be drunke unpunished or be drunke un●●warded at the common charge Yea they not onely thinke excessive drinking worthy all honour during life but they looke their associates should not cease to honour them being dead by mentioning their rare exploits herein § 20. But O you sottish sensualists how hath the Devill bewitched you to magnifie honour and applaud all that are enthralled to this worse then swinish swilling and on the

the whole world afford an expurgation of this melancholy Yea I 'le appeal from your selves in drink to your selves in your sober fits whether it fares not with you as it did with Menippus who went downe into Hell to seeke content for what is this other in mitigating the pangs of conscience then as a saddle of gold to a gauled horse or a draught of poison to quench a mans thirst Alas they which strive to cure their present misery in this case with present mirth have not their misery so much taken away as changed and of temporall made eternall Thou hast taken thy pleasure saith Abraham to that belly-god frying in Hell flames therefore art thou now tormented Luke 16.25 Little do drunkards consider that the Devill is a fisher sinne his hooke pleasure his bait fooles his fish or the danger they are in even making a recreation of misery sporting themselves in their sins round about the pits brinke without fear when as they are every houre ready to tople into hel that bottomless gulfe of easeless and everlasting flames They spend their dayes in mirth saith Job and suddenly they goe downe into hell Iob 21.13 Indeed your charmes may with their pleasantness bring conscience into some short slumbers but it waketh eftsoons and in spight of all your spells rageth as before Yea if but sickness come these carnall delights will runne from you afrighted like Rats from an house on fire Pleasure like Orpah kisses but parts onely griefe like Ruth weeps and tarryes with you No joy will downe till there be hope of a pardon as it fares with condemned persons So that no hand can heale you but the very same which wounded you the wounds of the minde can onely be cured by the word of God which teacheth what is to be said what to be knowne what to be beleeved what to be avoided and what not Thus in stead of repenting and labouring in a lawfull calling which saith Fulgentius is the onely cure of melancholy and destruction of all vices they adde sinne to sinne leaving Gods remedies to seeke remedy of the Devill whose office is not to quench fire but to kindle it even the fire of lust with the fire of drunkenness here and with those two the fire of hell hereafter But § 15. Secondly to this may be added the Drunkards idlenesse as another cause yea idleness is the cause both of drunkenness melancholy and all the residue of evils which accompany the same For as idlenesse is the Devils only opportunity so it is the most corrupting flye that can blow in any humane mind we learne to do ill by doing what is next it nothing an idle person is good for nothing but to propagate sinne as ground unoccupied produces nothing but noisome and unprofitable things The soule is like a River that is alwayes in progression the heart like a Wherry either goes forward or backward If the minde be not busied with good thoughts it will fill with evill cogitations the death of the one is but the birth of the other Now drunkards generally either do nothing or that which is worse then nothing all the drunkards labour is to satisfie his lusts and all his life nought else but a vicissitude of devouring and venting as how many of them make it their whole trade and imployment to keep company to go from their beds to the Taphouse for the drunkard thinks no wine good that is brought over two thresholds from the Tap-house to the Play-house where they make a match for the Brothel-house and from thence backe to the Taverne and so to bed againe Or else they spend the whole day yea every day in howsing and bowling and taking Tobacco for they onely sit to eat and drinke lye downe to sleep and rise up to play this is all their exercise herein lyes all their worth and no marvaile for if the world be a mans God pleasure must needs be his Religion The company-keeper is the barrenest piece of earth in all the Orbe the Common-wealth hath no more use of him then Jerchoam had of his withered hand He is like the dumbe Jacke in a Virginall for he hath not so much as a voice in the common-wealth What is recorded of Margites namely that he never plowed nor digged nor did any thing all his life long that might tend to any good is truly verified in him he is not more nimble tongued then lasie handed as Julian confest of himselfe Drunkards are like so many Gnats for as Gnats do nothing but play up and downe in the warme Sunne and sing and when they have done sit downe and sting the next hand or face they can seize upon so drunkards miserably spend their good houres in wicked or unprofitable pastime sit downe and backbite their neighbours And so much of the second cause § 16. Thirdly sottish feare and base cowardlinesse is another maine cause men dare not forsooth refuse to go to the Taverne when the motion is made and they seldome meet one another but they make the motion nor refuse when they come there to do as the rest that is to drinke drunke be it to the wounding of conscience hazard of health life soule c. for feare of seeming singular Yea he shall be scofft at and called Round-head or Puritane if he will not revell it with them in a shoarlesse excesse and the coward had rather goe to hell then be so reputed so that not God not their consciences come into any regard with them but they shall bee mocked the case of Zedekiah Ier. 38.19 of Saul who stood more upon the praise of men then the favour of God 1 Sam. 15.30 and of Herod when he cut off Iohn Baptists head for he did it full sore against his will and onely to answer the expectation of the standers by Mat. 14.8 9. Whence we may gather that too much modesty and want of courage to deny the requests of a seeming friend hath lost millions of soules that this is one notable meanes to fill hell loathness to displease And certainely there is something in it that the fearefull are placed by the holy Ghost in the forefront of that damned crue who shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 they are ashamed of Christ and of holiness before men on earth therefore Christ will be ashamed of them and not owne them before his Father and his holy Angels in heaven And indeed it is a damnable plausibility so to regard the vaine approbation or censure of the beholders as in the meane time to neglect the allowance or judgement of God A good heart will rather fall out with all the world then with his maker then with his conscience Nor is hee more wicked then foolish that will gaine the worlds favour and lose Gods escape derision to meet with confusion § 17. Againe other reasons and causes there bee of it though indeed there is no reason in it which