it but see the different natures of the godly and the wicked God forbeareth the wicked for the godlies sake As when Augustus had conquered Anthony and taken Alexandria the Citizens expecting nothing but present massacre the Emperor proclaimed a generall pardon for Arrius his sake a Philosopher of that City and his familiar friend Whereas the wicked in requitall persecute the godly for whose sake they are forborne and contemne those to whom they owe their very lives like as Brutus Cassius Domitius Trebonius Cimber Tullius and many others slew Iulius Caesar with 23. wounds in the Senate house albeit hee had lately pardoned them for fighting against him on Pompie's side or as they whom William the conqueror most advanced had the speciall hand in his destruction or as Pompilius Laena whom Marcus Tullius Cicero saved from the Gallowes by pleading his cause before the judges when he was accused for murthering his Father was the prime man that puld his head out of the Litter and cut it off But O foolish and unwise is this any other peece of policy then if the Sodomites should make hast to turne out Lot and his familie that fire and brimstone may make hast to destroy them for as when the Prophets went from Hierusalem then Sword and Famine and Pestilence and all plagues rained upon them even as fire came downe upon Sodome so soone as Lot was gone out Or as when Noah and his family were once entred the Arke the Flood came and destroyed the first world Gen. 7.11.13 so the number of Christs Church being accomplished fire shall come down to destroy the second world yea the raine should not fall nor the earth stand but for the elects sake the earth should burne the elements melt the heavens flame the divels and all reprobates bee laid up in hell the elect men and Angels imparadised in heaven all but for this Gods number is not yet full till this be done Sathan may range abroad the wicked domineere the righteous suffer misery and sinne walke their round the heavens move the Seas ebb and flowe the world stand and the Lord suffers all Wherefore cease yee malicious sinners to vex the religious you are beholding to them for your very breath if they were taken away you should be tormented before your time yea make you friends of such as feare God for it is no smal happinesse to be interrested in them who are favourites in the Court of Heaven one faithfull man on these occasions is more worth then millions of the wavering and uncertaine Indeed you may so long provoke the Lord that he will not suffer his people to pray nor intreat for you as is well set forth Ier. 7.13 to 17. and then can you expect nothing but death and hell Yea the time will come when all Christs enemies shall be dragged out of the prison of their graves to behold him whom they have pierced Revelation 1.7 at what time there shall be no Moses to stand in the gap for them no Aaron to stand betweene the living and the dead no Noah Daniel or Iob to pity or pray for them yea when there shall bee no more mercy no more patience no more repentings in God towards them but judgement without mercy or mitigation but God laughing at their destruction and the Saints which shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. rejoycing to see the vengeance that they may at length wash their feet in the blood of the wicked Prov. 1.26 Psal 58.10 when there shall be no Rocks nor Mountaines to fall upon them when the earth shall melt with heate when the day of the Lord shall burn as an oven and eat their flesh as it were fire Revel 6.16 2 Pet. 3.10 Mal. 4.1.2 3. Iam. 5.3 § 140. TEnthly 10 Their sin is not against the life of body or estate but against the soules of men thy sinne is incomparably greater and consequently thy punishment shall be in that the hurt which thou doest to thy neighbour is against his soule For as the hurting and endamaging of the person and life of another is a more hainous offence then is the diminishing of his goods and outward estate so the hurt which redowndeth by our meanes unto the soule of any is much more abominable every way both in it selfe and in the sight of God then is that wrong which is offered unto his body Now thou art a soule murtherer yea many are the soules which thou hast intentionally and as much as in thee lyeth slaine with death eternall and what canst thou expect without repentance and an answerable endeavour to win soules as fast to God as formerly thou hast to Sathan but to bee many fathoms deeper in Hell then other men will God powre out his curse and vengeance on them which make the blind stumble to the hurt of his body Deut. 27.18 and will he not much more do this to soule-destroyers An objection answered Objection But thou like those Disciples Iohn 6.60 wilt think this a hard saying neither canst thou believe that thou art a soule murtherer though I have made it undeniable in Section the 100.101.113.134.115.116.117 Answer But it will one day be a harder saying if you take not heed when Christ shall answer all your apologies with depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Luk. 13.25 to 29. As for further proofe of what I lay to thy charge I could easily shew thee how The daily scoffes reproaches c. of thee and thy fellovves 1. Detaines 2. Staggers 3. Keepes 4. Beates 5. Hardens many From entering into a religious course Which have made some progresse in the vvay From doing the good vvhich they vvould or appearing the same which they are Clean off from their profession And makes them resolve against goodnesse For there is no such rub in the way to Heaven as this Sathan hath not such a tryed shaft in all his quiver which makes our Saviour pronounce that man blessed that is not offended in him Matth. 11.6 But of these severalls elsewhere least I should overmuch seeme to digresse only I grieve to see how they wrong themselves in thus wronging others for in that wicked men doe so mock and deride such as are in love with heavenly things it is hard to say whether they doe most offend in hindering the honour of God thereby or their neighbours wellfare or their own salvation What are the waters of thine own sinns so low that thou must have streames from every place to run into thine Ocean thy owne burthen is unsupportable yet thou wilt adde to the weight other mens that thy rising may be irrecoverable Content thy selfe for assuredly thou shalt once pay deare for it either by teares or torment Yea let such take heed for the fire of Hell will be hot enough for a mans owne iniquities he needs not the iniquities of others like fuell and Bellowes to blow and increase the flame which if they
goes in Now no marvaile that Starchaterus did exceed other men in strength and savagenesse when he fed onely upon Beares flesh and frequently drank their blood Secondly another reason is when the drink is in the wit is out and so having lost the stern of reason hee is apt to say or doe any thing hee can stand to execute except vertue a meere stranger to him And it shall go hard but he will either give offence or take it for having once fallen out with his owne wits and members that one goes one way and another another way he can agree with no body but becomes raging mad as a heathen hath it in Salomons words A drunken man you know will make a fray with his own shadow suppose he but nods against some post or table for they will even fall a sleepe as they sit he is so stupified that in revenge he will strike his opposite for the wrong and then call for drinke to make himselfe friends againe which friendly cup gives occasion of a second quarrel for whether he laughs or chafes he is a like apt to quarrell or let but a friend admonish him hee were as good take a Beare by the tooth When Cambyses being drunk was admonished thereof by Prexaspes No admonishâ—ng a drunkard who was one of his councell what followed Cambyses commandes his admonishers sonne to be sent for and bound to a post while he shot at him and then having pierst his heart vauntingly cryes out now judge whether I am drunk or no. This sinne scornes reproofe admonition to it were like goads to them that are mad already or like powring Oyle down the chimney which may set the house on fire but never abate the heate Neither can the rest better brooke what he speaks then he what they speak for these Pompeian spirits think it a foule disgrace either to put up the least wrong from another or acknowledge to have overslipt themselves in wronging of another whereby thousands have been murthered in their drink it faring with them as it did with that Pope whom the Divel is said to have slaine in the very instant of his adultery and carry him quick to hell For this is the case of drunkards as of Souldiers and Marriners the more need the lesse devotion I am loth to trouble you with the multitude of examples which are recorded of those that having made up the measure of their wickednes have Ammon like dyed and beene slaine in drink God sometimes practising martiall law and doing present execution upon them least fooles should say in their hearte there is no God though he connives at and deferres the most that men might expect a Judge comming and a solemne day of judgement to follow And what can be more fearefull then when their hearts are merry and their wits drowned with wine to be suddenly strucken with death as if the execution were no lesse intended to the soule then to the body or what can bee more just then that they which in many yeares impunity will find no leisure of repentance should at last receive a punishment without possibility of repentance I know speed of death is not alwayes a judgement yet as suddennes is ever justly suspicable so it then certainly argues anger when it findes us in an act of sinne Leisure of repentance is an argument of favour when God gives a man law it implies that hee would not have judgement surprise him § 20. NOw as drunkennesse is the cause of murther Drunkennesse the cause of adultery so it is no lesse the cause of adultery yea as this sinne is most shamefull in it selfe so it maketh a man shamelesse in committing any other sin whereof lust is none of the last nor none of the least Yea saith Ambrose the first evill of drunkennesse is danger of chastity for Bacchus is but a pander to Venus hereupon Romulus made a law that if any woman were found drunke shee should dye for it taking it for granted that when once drunke it was an easie matter to make her a whore The stomach is a Limbeck wherein the spirit of lust is distilled meates are the ingredients and wine the onely fire that extracts it For as the flame of mount Aetna is fed onely by the vapours of the adjacent sea so this fire of lust is both kindled and maintained by surfeiting and drunkennesse When the belly is filled with drinke then is the heart inflamed with lust and the eyes so filled with adultery that they cannot but gaze upon strange women as Salomon shewes Prov. 23.33 whereas love saith Crates is cured with hunger You know when the Iron is hot the Smith can fashion it to his pleasure and wine tempers the heart like wax for the divels impression when a man is drunk Sathan may stamp in his heart the foulest sinne but lust will admit no denyall Yea drunkennesse inflames the soule and fills that with lusts as hot as hell high diet is adulteries nurse They rose up in the morning like fed Horses saith the Prophet and what followes every man neighed after his neighbours wife Ier. 5.8 which is more then true with us for drunkards like the Horse and Mule which have no understanding no shame no conscience c. especially your brazen brain'd and flinty foreheaded clownes can no sooner spie a woman or maide chast or unchast even in the open streets but they will fall to imbraceing and tempting her with ribaldry scurrility turning every vvord she speakes to some lascivious obscene sense vvhereof they are not a little proud though it vvould make a vvise and modest man even spue to heare them But to goe on When Lot is drunke hee is easily drawne to commit incest with his owne daughters not once perceiving when they lay downe nor when they rose up Gen. 19.32 to 36. Rarò vidi continentem quem non vidi abstinentem saith St. Austin you shall rarely see a man continent that is not abstinent and it 's a true rule for that heate which is taken at the Taverne must be alaid at the brothelnouse the blood which is fired with Bacchus must be cooled with Venus and soe Sathan takes two Pigeons with one beane And the Divell should forget both his office and malice if hee did not play the pander to Concupiscence this way for idlenesse makes way for loose company loose company makes way for wine wine makes way for lust and lust makes worke for the Devill Venus comes out of the froth of this Sea I will never believe that chastity ever slept in the Drunkards bed for although I cannot say that every whormonger is given to drunkennesse yet I may truely say that there are no Drunkards but are either given over or greatly inclined to whoredome This sinne fills the heart and eye both eyes if not the whole life with horrible filthinesse naturall unnaturall any this is so cleare a truth that darknesse it selfe saw and confest it even a
out in thy good purposes 5 Shame not to confesse thy dislike of it in thy selfe and others and meanest to bring thy thoughts to the birth thou must not be ashamed to confesse with that honest theife upon the crosse even before thy companions and fellow drunkards that thou art not now the same man thou wast both thy mind and judgement is changed and so shall thy practise God assisting thee nay thou wilt not only forsake thy sin but their company too except they will forsake their old customes of drinking and scoffing and jeering at sobriety and goodnesse And so doing thou mayst perchance winne thy Brother even as that penitent wanton in St. Ambrosse did his old love who when she courted him according to her accustomed manner and wondred at his overmuch strangnesse saying why doe you not know who I am answered yes I know you are still the same woman but I am become another man I am not I now neither would You be You any longer if yee knew so much as I doe 4 But if yet they persist 6 Fly evill company and seeme incorrigible flye their company for feare of infection least it happen with thee as once it did with a chast person among Penelopes suters who went so often with his friend till in the end he was caught himselfe for if thou keepest them company there is no possibility of thy holding out to the end though thou shouldest for a time as a man may make some progresse in a good way and yet returne before he is halfe at his journeys end as Saul kept himselfe well for two yeares Iudas for three yeares and as it is storied Nero for five yeares yet all fell into damnable wickednesse scarce three worse in the world But of this more in it's proper place Besides how hard a thing is it for thee a coward to shew thy dislike of this sin in some companies where thou shalt be scoff't at thy selfe if thou dislike their drinking and scoffing at others Fiftly 7 Take heede of delayes another thing which I had need to advise thee of is to take heede of delayes for to leave sinne when sin leaves us will never passe for true repentance besides if the evill spirit can but perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter he knowes it is all one as if thou hadst never purposed to leave thy sinne at all as you have it largely proved Sections 151.152.153 Sixtly 8 Omit not to pray for divine assistance omit not to pray for the assistance of God's spirit to strengthen thee in thy resolution of leaving this sinne St. Ambrosse calls prayer the key of Heaven yet prayer without answerable endeavour is but as if a wounded man did desire helpe yet refuseth to have the sword puld out of his wound Sevently be diligent in hearing God's Word which is the sword of the Spirit 9 Be diligent in hearing that killeth our corruptions and that unresistable cannon-shot which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne Eighthly 10 frequent in the use of the Lords-Supper be frequent in the use of the Lord's Supper wherein we dayly renew our covenant with God that we will forsake the Devill and all his workes of darkenesse Ninthly 11 Meditaâ—e what God hoth done for thee ponder and med tate on Gods inestimable love towards us who hath not spared to give his Sonne to death for us and the innumerable benefits which together with him he hath plentifully bestowed upon us both in temporall and spirituall things say unto the Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits but love my Creator and become a new creature Tenthly meditate on that union 12 Meditate on that union we have with Christ c which is betweene Christ and us whereby wee become members of his glorious body and so shall we stand upon our spirituall reputation and be ashamed to dishonour our Head by drawing him as much as in us lyeth into the communication of this swinish sinne consider that our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost the which we shall exceedingly dishonour if by drinking and swilling we make them to become like wine vessells Eleventhly 13 Consider that the Lord beholdeth thee whersoever thou art consider that the Lord beholdeth thee in all places and in every thing thou doest as the eyes of a well drawne picture are fastned on thee which way soever thou turnest much more while in a brutish manner thou liest wallowing in this sinne and consider him as a just judge who will not let such grosse vices goe unpunished Twelftly be ever or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of Iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning 14 Often thinke of the day of judgment not only for this sinne but for all other our sinnes which this shall occasion to our very words and thoughts And lastly if thou receivest any power against this great evill forget not to be thankfull and when God hath the fruite of his mercies he will not spare to sow much where he reapes much § 176. MOre especially 15 Morcespecially consider the heinousnesse of thiâ— sin and the evills which accompany it that thou maist master and subdue this abominable sin doe but set before thee in a generall view the heinousnesse thereof and the manifold evills and mischiefes which doe accompany it of which I have already spoken as that it is a vice condemned by God and men Christians and infidells that thereby we grievoussy offend God by making our bellies our god by unfiting and disabling our selves for his service by abusing his good creatures which with a plentifull hand he hath bestowed upon us the necessary use whereof many better then we want that thereby we sinne in a high degree against our neighbours generally and particularly against the whole Church and common wealth strangers and familiar acquaintance and most of all against our owne family that hereby we most grievously sinne against our selves by making us unfit for our callings and for the performance of all good duties by disgracing our profession and bringing our selves into contempt by making our selves the voluntary slaves of this vice by impoverishing our estate and bringing upon us want and beggery by infatuating our understandings and corrupting our wills and affections by deforming disabling weakning and destroying our bodies and bringing our selves to untimely death by excluding our selves out of the number of Christs members by quenching the gifts of the Spirit and strengthening the flesh and lusts thereof by causing our soules to be possessed with finall impenitency which is inseparably accompanied with eternall damnation Also remember that as in it selfe it is most sinfull so it is also the cause of almost all other sinnes as of the manifold and horrible abuses of the tongue of many wicked and outragious actions and particularly of those fearefull sinnes of murther and adultery Also call to
mind that as it is the cause of sinne so also of many heauy and grievous punishments as making a man lyable to a fearefull woe and Gods heauy curse subjecting his name to infamy his state to beggery his body to diseases infirmities deformities and immature death his soule to senselesse sottishnesse and depriving the whole man of the joyes of Heaven entereth him into the possession of eternall hellish torments and this will be a good meanes to make thee moderate thy greedy desires mortifie thy carnall affections and curbe thy unruly appetite by putting a knife to thy throate as Salomon adviseth saying I could but I will not take more then is good or fit Yea the consideration of these things and of the wofull condition that drunkards are in will provoke thee to hate their opinions to strive against their practise to pity their misguiding to neglect their censures to labour their recovery and to pray for their salvation For O how ugly doth this monster appeare to the eye of that soule which hath forsaken it how doth she hate her selfe for loving so foule so filthy a fiend for to an understanding rectified The Drunkard is a strange Chimaera more prodigious then any Monster being in Visage a man but a Brotheus Heart a Swine Head a Cephalus Tongue an Aspe Belly a Lumpe Appetite a Leech Sloth an Ignavus a Ierffe for Excessive devouring Goate for Lust Siren. for Flattery Hyaena for Subtilty Panther for Cruelty in Envying a Basiliske Antipathy to all good a Lexus Hâ—ndering others from good a Remora Life a Salamander Conscience an Ostrich Spirit a Devil 1 in surpassing others in Sinne. 2 in tempting others to Sinne. 3 in drawing others to Perdition even the most despicable peece of all humanity and not worthy to be reckoned among the Creatures which God made § 177. SEcondly 16 Abstaire from oâ—unken company for all depends upon this if thou vvouldst reclaime thy selfe from this vice have a speciall care to refraine the company of this drunken Route Pro. 23.20 1 Cor. 5 11. who not only make a sport of drunkennesse but delight also to make others drunke I say as Christ said beware of men Matth. 10.17 for he that goes into wicked company will come wicked out at least worse then he went in It is rare if wee denie not Christ with Peter in Caiaphas his house with Salomon it is hard having the Egyptian without her Idolls whereupon the Fuller in the Fable would not have the Colliar to live in his house least what he had made white the other should smut and collow yea be as wary and as wise as a Serpent to keepe out and get out of their company but as innocent as a Dove if it be possible while thou art in it and canst not choose remembring alwayes that they are but the Devills deputies yea humane Devills as once our Saviour called Peter being instrumentall to Sathan Sathan himselfe get thee behind me Sathan Matth. 16.23 they that will have his trade must have his name too Now by thy observing or not observing this Rule it will appeare whether there be any hope of thy reclaiming for all depends upon this yea could the most habituated incorrigible cauterized drunkard that is even dead in this sinne but forsake his ill company I should not once doubt of his recovery for doe but drive away these uncleane birds from the carkasse a million to a mite the Lord hath breathed into his nosthrills againe the breath of life and he is become a living soule Thirdly and lastly 17 abstaine from drunken places abstaine from drunken places which are even the nurseries of all ryot excesse and idlenesse making our land another Sodom and furnishing yearely our Jayles and Gallouses farre be it from me to blame a good calling to accuse the innocent in that calling I know the Lord hath many in the world in these houses but sure I am too many of them are even the dens and shops yea thrones of Sathan very sinkes of sinne which like so many common-shores or receptacles refuse not to welcome and encourage any in the most lothsome pollutions they are able to invent and put in practise Admonition to sellers of drâ—nke Church-wardens Constables c. who if there were any hope of prevailing would be minded of their wickednesse in entertaining into their houses encouraging and complying with these traitors against God and of their danger in suffering so much impiety to rest within their gates for if one sinne of theft or of perjury is enough to rot the rafters to grind the stones to levell the walls and roof of any house with the ground Zac. 5.4 what are the oathes the lyes the thefts the whoredomes the murthers the numberlesse and namelesse abominations that are committed there But should I speake to these I should but speed as Paul at Ephesus I should be cryed downe with great is Diana after some one Demetrius had told the rest of this occupation Sirs ye know that by this craft we have our wealth surely if feare of having their Signes pulled downe their Licences called in c. cannot prevaile it little booâ—es me to speake Only to you Church-wardens Constables and other Officers that love the Lord the Church the State your selves and people helpe the Lord the King and his lawes against this mighty sinne Present it indite it smite it every one shoote at it as a common enemy doe what you can to suppresse and prevent it Tell me not he is a friend a Gentleman such an ones kinsman that offends for he is better and greater and nearer to you that is offended learn to feare to love and obey your Maker and Saviour your gracious Protector yea learne this Normane distinction when William the first censured one that was both Bishop of Baieux and Earle of Kent his Apologie to the plaintife popeling was that he did not meddle with the Bishop but the Earle doe you the like let the Gentleman escape but stocke the drunkard meddle not with your friend and kinsman but for all that pay the drunkard or if you doe not to your power you shall have Ahab's wages his faults shall be beaten upon your backes 1 King 20.42 But most of all are they to be desired who are within the commission of peace in God's name whose servants they professe themselves to be to remember him themselves their countrey their oathes to bend their strength power against this many headed monster that they will purge the country much more their own houses of this pernicious and viperous brood yea if there be any love of God any hatred of sin any zeale any courage any conscience of an oath away with drunkennesse out of your houses Towns Liberties balk none beare with none that offend say they be poore in whose houses the sinne is practised it is better one or two should loose their gaine than Towns of men should loose their wits their wealths their
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
Poet of the Heathens could call eating and drinking the fuell that maintaines the fier of Lust for Lust saith hee is quenched by abstinence kindled by excesse and nothing sooner kills this tetter then that fasting spittle of abstinence for how should the wieke burne without tallow or the lampe without oyle That Wine is an inducement to Lust David well knew or else hee had spared those superfluous cups but when hee would have forced Vriah to lye with his wife that so shee might have a colour for her great belly and the child might appeare legitimate hee first made him drunke 2 Sam. 11.13 Even as Ice is ingendered of water so is Lust of intemperance The Drunkard is like a Sâ—lamander stone which fires at the sight or every flame yea if hee but see a whore and shee him like the Weesell and Basiliske they poyson each other with their sight Pro. 7. One Devill is ready to helpe another in mischiefe hee that tarrieth long at the wine saith Salomon his eyes shall looke upon strange women and his heart shall speake lewd things Proverbs 23.33 and St. Paul witnesseth that the fruits of gluttony and drunkennesse are chambering and wantonnesse Rom. 13.13 Yea as drunkennesse is the onely businesse of loyterers so lewd love is the onely businesse of Drunkards for while they are awake they thinke and speake of it and when they are asleepe even when other mens thoughts lye at Anchor they nothing but dreame of it and what is it a Drunkard loves halfe so well as a whore Yea Wine so inflames the Drunkard with Lust that were his power equall to his desire were his dreames and wishes all true hee would not leave a Virgin in the world might but his acts answer the number of his desires nature could scarce supply him with severall objects or could his wishes take effect Popery might have many Nuns it should have no maids Now what decayes health and strength and consequently shortens a mans dayes more then whoredome when so many dye of the Pox a disease which slayes thousands though they will not be known of it for because of the whorish woman a man is brought to a morsell of bread Pro. 6.26 yea shee causeth many to fall downe wounded and all the strong men are slaine by her her house is the way unto the grave which leadeth downe to the chamber of death Pro. 7.26.27 And so much of the drunkards body § 21. SEcondly if wee dive deeper into him Drunkennes Beastiates the soule and search into his soule what one sinne more mangles and defaces Gods Image and mans beauty then this how doth it damme up the head and spirits with mud how doth it infatuate the understanding blind the judgement pervert the will and corrupt all the affections how doth it intrap the desires surprise the thoughts and bring all the powers and faculties of the soule out of order which occasioneth one to say where drunkennesse raignes as King there reason is banished as an exile the understanding is dulled counsell wandereth and judgement is overthrowne And with this accordeth Seneca who defines drunkennesse to be a voluntary madnesse or a temporary forfeiture of the wits yea the Holy Ghost affirmes that the excesse of wine makes men mad foolish and outragious Pro. 20.1 for being worse then the sting of an Aspe it poysoneth the very soule and reason of man Yea wee finde this and a great deale more by experience for many a man drinkes himselfe out of his wits and out of his wealth and out of his credit and out of all grace and favour both with God and good men Neither is the Scripture lesse expresse for Salomon calls wine a mocker and tells us that strong drinke is raging And Hosea affirmes that wine takes away the heart Chap. 4.11 And wee reade elsewhere that wine makes men forget God and his lawes Pro. 31.5 Yea utterly to fall away from God and to be incapable of returning for it is commonlie accompanied with hardnesse of heart and final impenitence Esa 5.11.12 and 56.12 Pro. 23.35 For admonish such as are bewitched and besotted with the love of wine you speak to men senseles past shame and past grace Tell them of some better imployment they will say as once Florus an idle fellow was wont I would not be Caesar alwayes marching in armor to whom Caesar replyed and I would not be Florus alwayes drinking in a Taverne Yea being wrapt in wine and warme cloathes they so like their condition that they would not change upon any termes no not to be glorified Saints in Heaven as those swine and other brutish creatures which Circe transformed would by no meanes be perswaded to become men againe though they were put to their choice by the said goddesse or sorceresse rather upon the earnest request of Vlysses You shall never perswade a Drunkard that the water of life is the best wine In a word by long custome they turne delight into necessity and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst that they will as willinglie leave to live as leave their excessive drinking in regard whereof St. Austin compares drunkennesse to the pit of Hell into which when a man is once fallen there is no redemption Yea this vice doth not onely rob men of reason but also of common sense so as they can neither prevent future danger nor feele present smart But of this enough having already proved them as much worse then beasts as beasts are better then Devills Besides I shall occasionallie treate more of the soules Character in sundry particulars which follow § 22. 5 FIfthly Drunkennes brings poverty as hee deformes his body impaires his health shortens his life beastiates his soule c. so he consumes his estate and brings himselfe to poverty and want as to whom is poverty as Salomon speakes but to Drunkards who thinke no cost too much that is bestowed on their bellies who consume their wealth at the wine even while they have swallowed downe their whole estates As let the Drunkard have but a groate it burnes in his purse till it be drowned in drinke if hee have gold he will change it if plate hee will pawne it and rather then not satisfie his gut away goes all to the coate on his backe yea rather then hee will scant as they say his belly had hee a jewell as rich as tenne Lordships or as Cleopatra's was that womanlike swaggerer his throate shall have it O that either wealth or any other blessing should be cast away thus basely Or suppose he bee a labouring man and must earne it before he have it he will drinke as much in a day saith St. Ambrose as hee can get in a weeke spend twelve pence sooner then earne two pence And hence it commeth to passe that the company keeper goes commonly in a ragged coate as it is seldome seene that they offend the Statute against excesse in apparell for rather then so they will goe naked and
for being drunke then for the fact he committed in drinke as Pittacâ—s in his statute-law enacted And as hee disgraceth and shameth himselfe so he shameth his parents Pro. 28.7 kinsfolks friends and all his acquaintance and maketh them so ashamed of him that they are afraid and ashamed to owne him Yea drunkennesse disgraceth and discrediteth the Gospell unto which it is cleane contrary for whereas the Apostle would have our conversation such as becommeth the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST Phil. 1.27 both the Gospel and the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through such ill livers Rom. 2.24 Yea it bringeth a scandall upon all that professe the same Religion with him Revel 2.9 Yea the Apostle tells us that their workes of darknesse which are done of of them in secret are so shamefull that it is a shame even to speak of them or once name them Ephes 5.11 12. Wherefore the drunkard shall bee filled with shame and shamefull spewing shall be all his glory Hab. 2.15 16. untill he be trodden under feet as the Lord threatens Isa 28.3 Thus drunkards by their drinking receive much hurt some in their bodies some in their braines some in their estates whilst they are called from their callings some in their names whiles bucking with drinke they are laid out to bee sunned and scorn'd some in their chastity whilst they are used as Lots daughters did their father c. which may serve to have beene spoken of his outward parts Now of his inward and more odious qualities for although the drunkards sorrow strife shame poverty and diseases together with his untimely death as one would thinke were enough to make this sin odious yet looke we further into him as namely into his more inward parts his secret abominations which follow and are occasioned through drunkennes that will make it hidious and fearefull at least if I had the skill to cut him up and paint him to the life § 24 IN speaking whereof Drunken nesse and Idâ—eâ—esse â—f each â—o 〈◊〉 â—â—â—h 〈…〉 â—auâ—e â—â—â—affect I will first lay open the ground of all which is idlenesse for although in one sense idlenesse may be called an effect of drunkennesse yet in another it may be called the cause both of it and all the residue of evills which accompany the same for idlenesse is the most corrupting Flie that can blow in any humane minde We learne to doe ill by doing what is next it nothing and hence it is that vice so fructifies in our Gentry and servingmen who have nothing to employ themselves in It is said of Rome that during the time of their warres with Carthage and other enemies in Africa they knew not what vices meant but no sooner had they got the conquest then through idlenesse they came to ruine Rust you know will fret into the hardest iron if it bee not used Mosse will grow on the smoathest stone if it bee not stirred Mothes will consume the finest garment if it bee not worne so vice will infect even the best heart if given to idlenesse Standing water is sooner frozen then the running streame hee that sitteth is more subject to sleepe then hee that walketh so the idle man is farre more subject to temptation then hee that is profitably exercised yea idlenesse saith one of the Fathers is the Devills onely opportunity for if hee come and finds us well busied hee leaves us for that time as having small hope to prevaile An idle person is good for nothing but to propagate sinne Idlenesse the most corrupting Fly that can blow in any humane minde to bee a factor for the Devill it faring with man as with the earth of which hee was made which if it bee not tilled or trimmed doth not onely remaine unfruitfull but also breeds and brings forth Bryers Brambles Nettles and all manner of noysome and unprofitable things so that Seneca seemes to be mistaken in calling an idle person the image of death for though the body be idle yet the soule like a river is alwayes in progression and his heart like a wherry either goes forward or backward It may be resembled to a well with two buckets the mind no sooner empties it selfe of good thoughts but it fills with evill cogitations If the seede dyes the blade springs the death of grace is but the birth of corruption Now all the Drunkard's labour All the drunkards labour is to sctisfie his Lusts 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 trade and whole vocation to keepe company Whereas sweat either of the Brow or of the Braine is the destiny of all trades be they mentall or manuall for God never allowed any man to doe nothing Are not most populous places by reason of this vice like Antiochus his army fuller of mouthes then hands for if you marke it the company keeper and good fellowe according to the vulgar is the barronest peece of earth in all the Orbe the Common wealth hath no more use of him then Ieroboham had of his withered hand hee is like the dumbe Iacke in a Virginall for he hath not so much as a voice in the common wealth Whereas hee was borne for the good of his countrey friends family c. well may hee disturbe the common wealth and give offence and scandall unto all that are neere or about him Rom. 14 20 21. as being unfit to doe service or subject himselfe to be ruled by his Governors civill and ecclesiasticall but profitable hee is to none except Vinteners Inkeepers and Ale drapers who are the greatest loosers by him of all the rest though they seeme to gaine much for these are accessary to the Drunkards sinne and have a fearefull accompt to make for their tolleration of such seing they might and ought to redresse it so that their gaine is most unjust as may not that be written upon what ever they possesse which Diogenes writ under the golden Statua which Phryne the strumpet dedicated at Delphos this was gotten by the intemperance of the people and in the end will prove as unprofitable for hereby they endanger themselves and without repentance lose their soules Math. 16.26 What is recorded of Margites namely that hee never plowed nor digged nor did any thing all his life long that might tend to any good is truly verified in him hee is not more nimble tongu'd then gowty handed as Iulian the Apostate confest of himselfe and yet never thinkes hee shall give an account for this sinne of all the rest but surely if wee must give an account for every idle word much more for every idle day nay moneth nay yeare But I proceede All the paines hee takes is for the enemy of mankinde if you will have him worke you must chaine him in a celler where are good store of springs and give him the option or choice whether hee will pumpe or drowne which is
Secondly will a thiefe or murtherer at the Barre alledge for his excuse and defence that it hath beene his use and custome of a long time or if hee doe will not the judge so much the rather send him to the Gallowes Secondly because it is a sin to which of all other sinnes wee have the fewest temptations for whereas other sins have commonly some sensible profit to midwife them into the world as the Usurer finds an increase of wealth who desires to live with lesse faith and more security or pleasure as the Adulterer finds his stoln bread of Sathans seasoning and providing far sweeter then what God hath given him of his owne or credit as the Hypocrite findes who like that Romane Woolfe talkes of Religion when hee meanes policy and playes the foule devill under the shape of an Angel of light and may be resembled to an ugly Toade in an Ivory box or a painted pot full of deadly poyson These and many other sinners which I could name have some inducement to provoke them some reasons to alledge indeed they are all taken out of the Divels Lectures but the swearer hath nothing to provoke him nor nothing to say but that he loves this sin because it is a sin and because God forbids it which is most fearefull and damnable and as a man would thinke should make it unpardonable I am sure this makes it inexcusable For what hast thou to say for thy selfe this sinne is neither pleasing nor profitable nor laudable but hath a more pure corruption and venome in it then any of his fellowes and must needs issue from meere malice and contempt of God for all thou canst expect by it is the suspition of a common lyer by being a common swearer Yea thou canst but procure this fruit by thy swearing that thou shalt vex others and they shall hate thee which thews that thou delightest in evill meerely because it is evill as sinne is more stirred up and irritated by the Law yea inhibition inciteth and restraint inviteth a desperate wicked wretch and his nature most desireth what is forbidden As it fared with Eve and that Gentleman in Venice who while it was left to his owne free choyce in ninety yeares together never went forth of the Citie but being hereupon confined and that upon paine of death was observed a while after to ride much abroad Sinne saith the Apostle tooke occasion by the commandement Romans 7.11 as if mans nature delighted in this or that evill so much the more because the Law forbids them Yea most finde it here in as in matters of bookes which being once called in and forbidden become more saleable and publike The Dictates of the law being to sinfull lusts in mans heart as water to quicke lime a meanes to inkindle them and make them boyle the more fiercely But know this thou swearer that he is bottomlesly ill who loves vice because it is vice he is a desperate prodigious damnable wretch and full of the venome of the serpent that will rather then not dye anger God of set purpose and without profit procure his owne destruction which is thy case if thou usest his Name to make up idle places of a hollow or unfilled sentence or to vent and utter with some more grace and force thy choller and malice Yea this proves thee worse then an Oxe led to the slaughter for hereby thou becommest thine owne executioner Alasse thou art not of thy selfe worthy to serve or to name him how then darest thou to make him and his Name to serve thee thy prophane discourse and thy rash and untempered anger § 33. AGain That of all other the swearer shal be sure of plagues supopse the Minister tels them that Swearing and Cursing is the language only of hell and no where frequent but amongst the damned spirits which shewes them to be the Divels best schollers upon earth and of his highest form with whom the language of Hell is so familiar that blasphemy is become their mother tongue and that they speake not a word of our country language the language of Canaan that they are so hardened in evill that they are past grace and past feeling that the swearer and blasphemer is like a mad dog which flieth in his masters face that keepes him That as roaring and drinking is the horse way to Hell whoreing and cheating the footway so swearing and blaspheming followes Corah Dathan and Abyram That it is a sure rule and an undoubted signe if any man doe sweare and curse ordinarily that he never truly feared God as it cannot be that the true feare of God and ordinary swearing should dwell together in one man yea dead are they while they live if they live in this sinne That Sathan stands ever at the swearers elbow to take notice reckon up and set on his score every oath he sweareth and keepes them upon record against the great day of reckoning at which time he will set them all in order before him and lay them to his charge and that then every oath shall prove as a daggers point stabbing his soule to the heart and as so many weights pressng him downe to Hell And shall further tell them that swearing is cloathed with death Ecclus 23.12 and that the swearer wounds his owne soule worse then the Baalites wounded their owne bodies that he which useth much swearing shall be filled with wickednesse and that the plague shall never goe from his house yea his house shall be full of plagues Ecclus 23.11 that the curse of God shall enter into the house of the swearer and shall remaine in the midst of it and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof untill the owner be destroyed Zach. 5.2.3.4 that God himselfe will be a swift witnesse against swearers Mall 3.5 That the Almighty hath spoken it and that in thunder and lightning how hee will not hold them guiltlesse which take his name in vaine and that such mighty sinners as they bee shall be mightily punished And goe on in this manner to shew them the heynousnesse of their sinne and grievousnesse of their punishment it is to no purpose for they will answer all yea confute what ever hee can say with this short sentence God is mercifull yea though the swearer hath made his soule Hell fire hot with oathes and blasphemies yet hee presumes that one short prayer for mercy at the last gaspe shall coole him they will not believe that are ordained to perish Yea the Divell and sinne so infatuates and besots them that they thinke to be saved by the same Wounds and Blood which they sweare by and so often sweare away that Heaven will meete them at their last hower when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten roade toward Hell not considering that the Devill being alwayes a lyer labours to perswade the Godly that their estate is damnable and the wicked to believe without once questioning that they
are in favour with God so they spend their dayes in mirth saith Iob and suddenly they goe downe into Hell Iob. 21.13 § 34. NEither is it strange that they should be so jocund confident and secure Drunkards insensible of their sia and daâ—ger because ignorant that they should neither be sensible of their present condition nor afraid of future Iudgments for for what the eye seeth not the heart rueth not security makes worldlings merry and therefore are they secure because they are ignorant A dunse wee know seldome makes doubts yea a foole saith Salomon boasteth and is confident Pro. 14.16 and by a foole in all his Proverbs hee meanes the naturall man As the Spyder which kills men cures Apes so ignorance doth wonderfully profit nature which is the greatest bane to grace that can bee it is a vaile or curtaine to hide away their sinnes our knowledge saith one of the learned doth but shew us our ignorance and wisdome saith another is but one of mans greatest miseries unlesse it be as well able to conquer as to decerne the next to being free from miseries is not to be sensible of them Erasmus could spie out a great priviledge in a blockish condition Fooles saith hee being free from ambition enuy shame and feare are neither troubled in conscience nor masserated with cares and beasts we see are not ashamed of their deeds Where is no reason at all there is no sinne where no use of reason no apprehension of sinne and where is no apprehension of sinne there can be no shame Blind men never blush neither are these men ashamed or afraid of any thing because for want of bringing their lives to the rule of Gods word they perceive not when they doe well when ill the timber not brought to the Rule may easily appeare straight when yet it is not nay because they see not their owne soules they are ignorant that they have any and as little care for them as they know them they beare that rich treasure in their bodies as a Toade doth a pretious stone in her head and know it not What 's the reason a worldling can strut it under an unsupportable masse of oathes blasphemies thefts murthers Why they are so jocund and confident drunkennesse whoredomes and other such like sinnes yea can easily swallow these spiders with Mithridates and digest them too their stomackes being accustomed unto them when one that is regenerate shrinkes under the burthen of wandering thoughts and want of proficiency It is this the one is in his element the state of nature the other taken forth now a fish in the river is not afraid of drowning Yea let a man dive under whole tunnes of water in the Sea he feeles not any weight it hath because the water is in it's proper place and no element doth weigh downe in it's owne place but take the same man forth and lay but one vessell upon his shoulders he feeles it a great burthen and very weighty so every small sinne to a holy man who is in the state of Regeneration hath a tender conscience and weigheth his sinne by the ballance of the Sanctuary is of great weight but to a naturall man who hath a brawny conscience is plunged over head and eares in sensuallity and weighteth his sinne by the ballance of his owne carnall reason it is a light thing not worth the regarding yea so long as they remaine in this estate they are dead in sin Eph. 2.1 Rev. 3.1 Now lay a mountaine upon a dead man hee feeles not once the weight Well then may these doe much evill to others but small hope is there that others should doe good upon them or reforme them from this sinne of swearing no it is an evill which for insolencie and grouth scornes to be slaine either by tongue or pen but like the Princes of Middian it calls for Gideon himselfe even the power of the magistrate to fall thereon § 35 INdeed a course might be taken by the State to make them leave it Three wayes to make them leave their swearing though nothing shall ever be able to make them feare an oath should they see never so many stroke dead while they are jesting with these edged tooles as diverse have beene I will onely instance three examples A Serving man in Lincolneshire for every trifle used to sweare Gods pretious blood and would not be warned by his friends to leave it at last he was visited with a grievous sicknesse in which time he could not be perswaded to repent of it but hearing the bell towle in the very anguish of death he started up in his bed and swore by the former oath that bell towled for him whereupon immediatly the blood in abundance from all the joynts of his body as it were in streames did issue out most fearefully from mouth nosthrils knees heeles and toes withall other joynts not one left free and so died Earle Godwine wishing at the Kings table that the bread hee eate might choake him if he were guilty of Alphred's death whom he had before slaine was presently choaked and fell downe dead It was usuall with Iohn Peter mentioned in the booke of Martyrs to say it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I dye and God saying Amen to it he rotted away indeede For what 's the use they would make of Gods judgments in the like cases Even the same that the Philistins of Ashdod made of their fellowes destruction when God so fearefully plagued them for keeping and prophaning of his Arke which was this peradventure it is Gods hand that smot them for so they reasoned and so these would halfe believe yet it may be it is but a chance that hath happened unto them 1 Sam. 6.9 when yet they saw that all which were guilty suffered in the judgement and onely they so these would but halfe believe if they should see the like judgements executed upon their fellowes The onely way to make them leave their swearing is let them have it upon their carkases and then though the belly hath no eares yet the back would feele Or let them for every oath bee injoyned and enforced to a months silence as Tiberius the Emperor condemned a great railer to a whole yeares yea as he among the Indians take it on Aelian's credit that told a lye thrice was condemned to perpetuall silence so I am sure it were happy for the Church if these swearers were so silenced except they would forbeare their swearing Or let their purses pay for it and this would touch them to the quicke this is a tryed remedy the land hath had experience of it when there was an act made by King Henry the fifth and his Parliament that if any Duke swore an oath hee should pay forty shillings a Barron twenty shillings a Knight or an Esquire ten shillings a Yeoman three shillings foure pence a Servant whipt and the same as well executed as inacted no man was once
a grave and worthy States-man of this Kingdome I will pray for the Kings health but drinke for mine owne And surely none but sots will bring themselves into grievous diseases by drinking healthes to other men and such is the case of health drinkers What said Callisthenes to one that urg'd him to drinke at Alexanders Feast as others did I will not for who so drinketh to Alexander had need of Aesculapius meaning a Physitian Examples of some that have drunke other menâ— healthes and their owâ—e deaths Nay it 's well if they prevent not the Physitian and drinke not themselves past all hope of recovery for not seldome doe they save the Physitian a labour and drinke at once anothers health their owne death as I could instance in sundry examples I 'le onely give you two but they are as good as twenty At one supper which Alexander prepared for his Favourites and Captaines there was no lesse then one and forty which kild themselves in that goodly conflict of carousing healthes Where Promachus having swallowed downe foure Gallons of wine got the prize and victory And at another drinking feast or combat which he appointed for the Indians himselfe dranke his death and ruine in quaffing off a whole carouse or health out of Hercules cup and to beare him company there was five and thirty more at the same time dranke themselves dead in the place and never revived more with carousing healthes and rounds There is another example recorded which is so remarkable that I am loth to passe it though the circumstances vary It is recorded of Popelus the second King of Poland that having incurred the displeasure of his Nobility through his ill government for which they intended to depose him he feigned himselfe to be very sicke by his Queenes advice and thereupon sent for twenty of the chiefe Princes of Pomerania who had the principall voice in the election of the Polonian Kings to come and visit him in this his sicknesse which they did accordingly the King upon their comming requested them to elect his sonne to the Kingdome after his decease which thing they answered they would willingly doe if the rest of the Nobility would consent the Queene in the meane time provides a cup of sudden poyson of purpose to dispatch them and presents it to them all to drinke the King her husbands health they to testifie their love and alleagiance to the King dranke off the cup as their manner was unto his health but to their owne instant confusion and immediate death and to the subversion of all the stocke and race of the Polonian Princes a sudden and fearefull yet a just judgement of God upon these Princes who were much addicted to the drinking of healthes formerly But loe the infinite justice of God on both hands for out of the dead and poysoned Carkases of these Princes there issued such infinite troopes and swarmes of Rats and Mice as chased Popelus his wife and all his children from place to place both by Sea and land till at last they were forced to flye to the strong castle of Oraccovia where they were drowned and eaten up of these Rats and Mice in despite of Guard and Garisons and all those Arts and policies of fire and water-workes that were used to secure them as the Polonian Histories doe at large declare But not to travell so farre for examples how many health-sokers and drunkards may we see or heare of every yeare within the verge and compasse of our land who doe suddenly consume perish and come to a fearfull end being cut downe by strange and unexpected deathes in the very act of their sinnes before they had any time or space to repent whose deathes even charity it selfe must needs judge most miserable seeing they dye in their sinnes and are taken away in Gods just wrath even whilst they are sacrificeing their soules to Sathan And doth not the very Eccho of these drunken and excessive healthes dayly cry in the eares of God for vengeance on all that use them if not upon the whole Land for their sakes yea undoubtedly § 82. THen let no drunkard force thee Original of the word pledge either against thy stomack or thy inability to pledge his healths yea let quaffers quarrell rage and scoffe threaten curse and loade thee with a thousand censures yet hold thou thine owne still It is true they will be strangely importunate what then a shamelesse begger must have a strong denyall Indeed if the word pledge were used seriously properly opportunely and not altogether mistaken and used in a wrong sense I should grant it a duty when any shall bee called thereunto But sotted drunkards understand not what they speake when they use the phrase for the word pledge implies no intention of drinking as looke we but to the originall and first institution thereof and we shall find that when in the borders of Wales twelve Welchmen had treacherously stabb'd 12. Englishmen as they were holding the cups to their mouths it grew to that that none would drinke at any publike meeting except they had some friend present who would undertake to be their pledge and carefully see that none should hurt them the while but hee who useth the word now makes himselfe ridiculous the occasion being taken away for God bee thanked we have no such cause of feare having the Lawes of God to guide the vertuous and the Lawes of the Land to restraine the wicked Yet their mistake is no more in this their challenge then it is in the combate it selfe and the victory they get by it for whereas they make a sport of drunkennesse counting him a malefactor in the highest degree that departs without staggering and fit to be carried before a Magistrate to render an account of his contumacie and delight to make men drink till they vomit up their shame againe like a filthy Dog or lye wallowing in their beastlinesse like a brutish Swine this is the most sad and woefull spectacle that can be to a rectified understanding And whereas they brag of the conquest when with the weapons of full charged cups they have overcome the rest it is both the basest office and lamentablest overthrow to themselves that can possibly be imagined For what a barbarous gracelesse and unchristian practise is this to take pleasure in making others drunke as if it were their glory and pastime and they tooke delight to see God dishonoured his Spirit grieved his name blasphemed his creatures abused themselves and their friends soules damned surely such men clime the highest step of the ladder of wickednesse thinking their owne sins will not presse them deepe enough into Hell except they also lode themselves with other mens And how sottish is their opinion of victory In conquering they are most overcome when even in conquering they are most overcome for whilst they triumph in a drunken victory or conquest over their friends Sathan gets the victory over them in excessive
if it be a digression either pardon it or passe on to Section 113 they being the Divels children must imitate him in all things yea partaking of his cursed nature they can doe no other as the children of God partaking of the Divine nature can not but resemble God and in nothing more then in being holy as he is holy and in striving after perfection of holinesse Abundance of men giving the raines to their wicked nature and wanting both the Bit of Reason and the Curb of Religion more then imitate Iehu for as Iehu said in dissimulation Ahab served Baal a little but Iehu shal serve him much more so these in the uprightnesse of their hearts seeme to say such and such a wicked wretch serves the divel a little but I wil serve him much more Yea knowing the divel is like that King which Montaigne speaks of with whom that Souldier only which in one or diverse combates hath presented him with seven enemies heades is made noble many of them count it the greatest honour to commit the greatest sinnes and are sorry they cannot commit a sinne unpardonable and without or beyond a president imitating Aristides of Locris who dying of the biting of a Weasell was grieved that he had not beene bitten by a Lion I have heard a cauterised Gallant boast of his lying with women of all conditions save Witches and protest that should be his next attempt but what doe I mentioning such a novice or speaking of that which was only heard by a few I would faine know Many examples of mon sters and superlative sinners I say how men in this and other ages before us could wholly imploy their time and strength and meanes how they could take such paines and be at such cost to commit robberies rapes cruell murthers treasons blow up whole States depopulate whole Towns Cities Countries seduce millions of soules as Mahomet and the Pope have done make open war against the Church of God as Herod Antiochus and others did persecute the known truth as Iulian the Apostate did invent all the new vices they can and destroy the memory of all ancient vertues as Heliogabalus did make it their trade to sweare and for-sweare if any will hire them as our post-Knights do not unlike those Turkish Priests called Seitie and Cagi who for a Ducket will make a thousand false oathes before the Magistrate and take it to be no sinne but a worke deserving praise by lies swearing and forswearing to damnifie Christians what they can did they not strive tooth and naile as wee use to say to imitate their father the Divel O that our Land had not such monsters who upon an howers warning can lend Iezabel an oath to rob poore Naboth of his life and Vineyard that we had not such Vultures irreligious harpies that have consciences like a Barne-doore and seldoâ—e wake but to doe mischiefe some men and women that will bee bauds to their owne wives and daughters O that the Sunne should shine upon her that will sell for gaine unto hell that body which she brought forth with such pains to this earth certainly there was never woman more deserved to bee called the Divells damme then shee some that dare the day to witnesse their ungodlines and doe their villanies as the Pharisies gave their almes and said their prayers to be seene of men who Zimry-like dare bring whores to their Tents openly yea like Absâ—lom dares spread a Tent on the top of the house and goe in to their Concubines in the sight of all men yea Gallants that in a bravery will assemble themselves to their Minions by companies I must not say they are harlots houses and there commit their adulteries in the presence of each other not much unlike Diogenes the Cynick an impudent fellow who would openly commit filthinesse even in the streets And when their bodies have beene the Organs of unrighteousnesse their mouths shall after be the Trumpets to proclaime it much like those savage womenwhich as Montaigne relates for a badg of honour weare as many fringed tossells fastned to the skirt of their garment as they have lyen with severall men you shall often heare old men glory in their fore passed whoredomes boast their homicides c. yea perhaps if it be possible make themselves worse then ever they were yea rather then men will want matter of ostentation they will boast of the fowlest vices as Agesilaus bragd of his stumpt foote Sertorius of his one eye and Rathrond of his scabs for their excrements they account ornaments and make a scarf of their halter but this is a cursed commemoration Againe men there are who like them of Gibeah Iugd. 19. and the Sodomites Gen. 19. are not content with the common way of sinning but are mad with a prodigious and preposterous lust bring forth the men that wee may know them verse 5. And hath not this age some who equall Lycaon that was turned into a Woolfe by Iupiter for his cruelty who seeme to have beene suckled with the milke of Woolfes as it is reported of the first founder of Rome who through custome have made sinne so familiar unto them that the horror of it is turned into a pleasure who being inured to blood make killing of men but a sport as it fared with Abner who called it playing when every one thrust his sword into his fellowes side 2 Sam. 2.14.16 some you shall haver hazard land life soule yea more if more could bee on the fortune of a Rapiers point when but aske whence the cause of that contention ariseth they cannot tell you without blushing so vaine and so frivolous is the occasion many men had rather see a combate fought wherein one man kills another then heare a Sermon or partake of a rich banquet being of Hannibal's humour who seeing a ditch swim with mans blood profest never to have seene a sight which more delighted him or of Herods who thinking hee could not shed blood and bee cruell enough while hee lived and to make the Iewes sorry for his death whether they would or no commanded and made sure that they should slay all the Noble-mens children in Iury as the breath went out of his body some resemble Cajus Caligula who amongst other tyrannies caused at his meales ordinarily one to cut off before him the heads of poore prisoners wherein hee tooke great pleasure or Nero and Domitian who studied strange deaths to afflict the Saints and to suppresse the Gospell or Iustinian who being restored againe to his Empire as oft as hee moved his hand to wipe the filth from his nose which was cut off he commanded one of his enemies or some of their allies to be put to death or lastly the Numantines who being besiedged by the Romanes and brought to great misery made a vow no day to eate meat unlesse the first dish might bee of a Romans flesh nor drinke any drinke unlesse their first draught were Romans blood Againe are there
Sathan and Christ and their regiments the wicked and the godly a perpetual war enmity and strife according to the Lords prediction or proclamation for there is scarce a Page in the Bible which doth not either expresse or imply somewhat touching this warre yea as if the Scriptures contained nothing else the Holy-Ghost significantly calls them the booke of the battells of the Lord Numb 21.14 as Rupertus well observes But because it would take up much roome and none except they are blind will question the same I will wave that Saran is not a Captaine of forties nor of fifties nor of sixties nor of hundreds but he is Generall over all which fight not under Christ's Banner which is but a little flocke It 's true every Christian in his Baptisme hath taken presse-money of Christ to be his Souldier and to serve him in the Field of this world against his and our enemies yea I confesse amongst us Christians Christ is the subject of all tongues O that he were the object of all hearts but whereas the Schoole disputes of him the Pulpit preaches of him Hypocrites talke of him time-servers make use of him Politicians pretend him prophane men sweare by him millions professe him few love him few serve him few care to honour him godly men even amongst us Christians are like timber trees in a wood here one and there one Yea it is to be feared that as once in Israel a thousand followed Baâ—l for one that followed God so now many serve the world and the flesh and the Devill for one that truely serves God in sincerity truth and holinesse Now as when Abimeleck raigned downe went Gideon's children so where wicked men beare sway and sin raignes downe goes Christ's friends and the fruits of faith And when hath the visible Church kept her owne so well but it might truely be said not as the women of Saul and David Saul hath slaine his thousand and David his tenne thousand but Sathan by himselfe and his Host hath slaine more then his hundred thousand Yea of these drunkards who have taken the Devills oath of allegiance he is a very meane souldier that hath not won some from Christs Standard as amongst the Hungarians he is not held worthy to weare a weapon nor reputed a brave gentleman who hath not kil'd a Turke Yea some there are that have wonne more men from him then they have beene weekes at their owne dispose as Cato Censorius boasted he had taken more townes in Spaine then he had beene dayes in the country Nay hath not the Devill made as good use of some famous drunkard as Sampson did of that Jaw-bone of an Asse Iudg. 15. wherewith he slew a thousand men § 113. NOw wherein doe they overcome They would have our company in torments and what is it these spirituall Kings and their Regiments chiefely fight for for having made cleare way I come now at length to prove the second part of my former proposition namely that their utmost aime and end whether they seeke to intise or enforce us to sinne with them is that they may have our company hereafter in the burning lake but to win soules each from other and what thinke you doe drunkards the seede of the Serpent and children of the Devill more delight in then the murther of soules and why doe they so subtilly perswade and so violently enforce us to sinne with them but that they may pluck us out of Christs fould and bring us into the same place of torment whether they are going This is the very end and purpose of all their warring against the seede of the woman No thing but â—â—our soul ewill Isatisfi the berpent and is seede For as nothing but the dishonour and rape of Tamer could please Amnon and nothing but the blood of Amnon could satisfie Absalom and nothing but the heart of Absalom could content Ioab and nothing but the death of Ioab could pacifie Salomon so nothing but our soules will satisfie the Serpent and his seede This is the very Pricke White and Butt whereat they shoote all their Arrowes and lay their levell If any shall say this word is too big for my mouth I wish them first heare and then determine The Devill by these as through so many Bowes shootes a deadly Arrowe at thy soule as Lycian Pandorus did at Menelaus the Grecian but God like Pallas turneth by the Shaft and makes it hit upon thy body goods or good name as that upon the buckler of his girdle Why thinke you are all their frownes and frumps and censures and scoffes Why so many slanders and stigmaticall nick-names raised and cast upon the Religious why are they the alone object of their scorne and derision but that they may flout them out of their faith dampe or quench the spirit where they perceive it is kendled but that they may baffle them out and make them ashamed of their holy profession and religious course and consequently pull them back to the world Why did the Heathen Emperours so violently oppose and so cruelly persecute the Christians but to make them become Heathens too Why did Bonner and Gardiner with the rest of that crew in the time of Queene Mary burne at the stake all that truely profest the purity of Religion but to winne them from Christ Why did St. Paul before his conversion breath out threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples why did he persecute them even to strang cities shut up in Prison and punish them throughout all the Synagogues but that he might make them renounce Christ and his religion and compell them to blaspheme as himselfe confesseth Acts 26.10.11 Why did the high Priests so consult and contrive about putting Lazarus to death after he was raised and Christ also that raised him but because for his sake many of the Iewes went away and beleeved in Iesus as the Holy-Ghost affirmes Iohn 12.10.11 see also Chap. 11.48 Lastly if there were not many men so cursedly wretched as to delight in the murther of sonles what should holy David so much and in so many places use these and the like expressions They have laid waite for my soule Psa 59.2.3 They rewarded me evill for good to have spoyled my soule Psal 35.12 Mine enemies the wicked compasse me round about for my soule Psa 17.9 They gather themselves together and lay waite for my soule Psalme 56.6 and many the like which was not more his case then it is ours for all their ayme when they either tempt or afflict us is that they may make us square our lives according to their rule as that Gyant did proportion the bodies of all his guests to the bed of his Harlot either by stretching out if they wanted in length or cutting off if they did exceed and consequently draw us to perdition They rather wish all damned with themselves then any to bee freed from their owne Prison and as in the blessed there is perfect charity so in the damned
ruine of our first Parents and their off-spring and how could they doe so if they did not partake of the divells nature yea if they were not quite changed from men into divels § 116. BUt see other two reasons Other reasons why they would have our company in the burning lake 1 Being out of hope themselves the yare loth others should fare better then they why they desire community in the burning lake and why they make no bones of soule-murther the first is this they know themselves irrecoverably lost and therefore they are desperate because they cannot rise themselves they would ruine all they know they have so grievously offended God and so despited the Spirit of grace so sinned against knowledg and conscience and so often reiterated theirabominations that they are become so incurable and past hope of remedy that no medicine can helpe them as God speaks touching the sorrowes of the Iewes by Ieremiah Chap. 30.12.13.15 as sometimes it fares with a sicke patient who while he hath hope of cure is willing to abstaine from such meats as are dangerous and hurtfull for him but knowing his disease incurable forbeareth nothing that he likes and likes onely those things which are most forbidden him so the Proverb is verified in them Over Shoes over Bootes yea which is desperate over shoulders As a man sinking into the deeepe water catcheth hold of him that is next him so men diving into the bottome of iniquity pull downe their adherents and how can they more lively prove themselves the Divells children whose ayme it hath ever beene seeing hee must of necessity bee wretched not to bee wretched alone It is little content to them to bee reprobates except they have company Wherefore as falling Lucifer drew numerous Angells with him so all his agents and adherents as firebrands in burning themselves burne others the Divell out of malice misleades them and they others what wretched companions then are these men the Lord grant wee may know no more of them then by hearesay § 117 SEcondly 2 They thinke it will be some ease and comfâ—rt in misery to have companions there is another winning reason why they strive so after community for you must know the Devill propounds to them and they to themselves some appearance of good in every thing they doe They thinke it some ease and comfort in misery to have companions yea the more the merrier thinke they as sorrowes devided among many are borne more easily it is some kinde of ease to sorrow to have partners as a burthen is lightned by many shoulders divers backs will carry a greater burthen with lesse paine or as clouds scattered into many drops easily vent their moysture into ayre many small brookes meeting and concurring in one channell will carry great vessells yea our griefes are lessened our joyes enlarged our cares lightned by one friendly associate In all heates of anguish good assistance and society breathes some coole ayre of comfort when Paul must answer before Nero he complaines that no man stood with him but all men forsooke him 2 Tim. 4.16 And certainely it was a plague upon a plague to the Leper that he was condemned to live alone it cannot but aggravate their sicknesse which are now pent up by reason of this visitation and compelled to be sicke without any visitant either to ease or pity them The comfort of fugitives is that there be many fugitives we know nothing seemes to fall where every thing falls a generall disease is a particular health whereupon the Curt taild Fox in the Fable endeavoured to have all Foxes cuttaild They have a whimsie in their braines much like that of Amurath who at the taking of Isthmus sacrificed six hundred young Grecians to his Fathers soule to the end their blood might serve as a propitiation to expiate the sinnes of the deceased Wherein they imitate the Dragon which is very desirous of the Elephants blood for the coldnesse of it wherewith she desires to be cooled or the great Cham who whensoever he dyeth takes order that ten or twelve thousand Tartars be slaine to accompany his death But alasse poore soules they are much mistaken But this will ad to the pile of their torments in thinking it will either comfort or ease them to have fellowship in torment for though by the multitude of participants the joyes of Heaven are enlarged yet hereby the sorrowes of Hell are much increased for know this thou Tempter that thou dost not more increase other mens wickednesse on earth whether by perswasion or provocation or example then their wickednesse shall increase thy damnation in Hell as is plainely seene in the case of Dives for what made that damned churle move for his brethren seeing there is no charity in Hell but that he felt every step they followed of his leading to increase the pile of his torments Luk. 16. Non fratres dilexit sed seipsum respexit he desired not their salvation but his owne lesse damnation Againe this is made good Gen. 3. where the Serpent is cursed for makeing Eve transgresse and Eve for makeing her husband sinne Yet such is the implacable enmity and unchangeable malice of the Serpent and his seede of the Prince of darkenesse and these his adherents against the children of light that they will enhance their owne damnations to procure other mens rather make their owne fire hotter then not labour to bring others to the participation of their owne torments yea though their consciences tell them that such a bitter roote shall answer for it selfe and for all the corrupt branches yet they will endure more grievous misery to have a more numerous society And so much of the warre which God proclaimed betweene Sathan and Christ and their Reigiments the wicked and the Godly If you would know the originall and meritorious cause of this proclamation it was Adam's sinne in eating the forbidden fruit and Sathan's malice in moving and seduceing him thereunto the Originall of this discord is from originall sinne § 118. The Devil beholding to whores but farre more to drunkards for none helpe to people his infernall kingdome like them VVEe have got through the greatest part and are past by the principall stages of the drunkards progresse there is but one mile further of about eight short furlongs to goe and we have overcome it yea to speake truth I am now at the top of the hill and shall after a short pause goe downe faster then I went up But let us make a stand here and looke backe upon what we have past since Section the 75. from which stage hitherto I have shown how drunkards imitate that old Serpent the Devill In Tempting Enforceing to sinne and in drawing to perdition After a review taken let any stander-by for being no wayes a party I referre it to him say whether Sathan be so much beholding to any men alive as to them whether he hath any servants that doe him such faithfull
between a godly wise man and a deluded worldling Want of consideration the cause of all impiety neglect of obedience that which the one doth now judge to be vaine the other shall hereafter finde to be so when it is too late O the want of consideration what is spoken and who speaks is the cause of all impiety and neglect of obedience The reason why Samuel returned to his sleepe one time after another when God called him was he ignorantly thought it was only mans voyce and for the same reason thou wilt not listen to what justice and truth speakes in this behalfe otherwise thou wouldest search the Scriptures and try whether my doctrine and allegations be of God or no Acts 17.11 and being of God and agreeing with the pensell of the Holy Ghost for otherwise thou art free entertaine these lines as if they were an Epistle sent unto thee from heaven and writ by God himselfe to invite and call thee to repentance and though thou canst not imitate Zacheas who was called but once and came quickly to Christ yet thou wouldest imitate Peter and at this last crowing of the Cocke remember the words of Iesus which saith take heed to your selves least at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting and drunkennesse and cares of this life least that day come on you at unawares Luke 21.34 and againe whatsoever ye doe unto the least of mine ye do it unto me and weighing them with thy selfe goe out of thy sinnes by repentance as he went out of the high Priests Hall And so doing it should bee unto thee as Ionathans three Arrowes were to David which occasioned his escape from Saul's fury or as David's Harpe was to Saul which frighted away the evill spirit from him 1 Samuel 16.23 yea as the Angels was to Peter that opened the Iron gates loosed his bands brought him out of Prison and delivered him from the thraldome of his enemies yea if thou beest thine owne friend it shall serve thee as a Buoy to keep thy the ship of soule from splitting upon the Shelf of presumption which is my prayer and hope and should bee my joy to see it these things have I said that ye might be saved You know the good counsell of Sauls servant ledd him in a doubt to the man of God but his owne curiosity ledd him to the Witch of Endor 1 Sam. 9.6 And that little which Craesus King of Lydia learn'd of Solon saved his life and if Pilate would have taken that faire warning which his wife gave him as hee sate to judge Christ it might have saved his soule Matth. 27.19 and so may this thine if thou wilt be warned by it But if this nor no other warning wil serve thee if neither present blessings nor hope of eternall reward will doe any good if neither the Preachers of God in exhorting nor the goodnesse of God in calling nor the will of God in commanding nor the Spirit of God in moving can prevaile with thee tremble to think what a fearefull doome will follow for they shall tremble at the voyce of his condemnation that have shut their eares at the voyce of his exhortation Prov. 1.24 to 33. And so much of the sixth aggravation § 130. SEventhly 7. He not onely commits foule crimes but drawes others into the same sinnes this will above measure aggravate thy doome and adde to thy torment that thou seducest yea enforcest others to sinne and drawest them to perdition with thee for the infection of sinne is much worse than the act and misleades into evill sinne more and shall suffer more then the actors and although to commit such things as thou doest single and alone were enough yea too much to condemn thee yet because thou drawest others with thee to the same sins thy damnation shall be farre greater For they whom thou hast taught to doe ill increase thy sinne as fast as they increase their owne Now if their reward in heaven be so great that save one soule from death Dan. 12.3 how great shall their torment bee in Hell that pervert many soules to destrustion Matth. 5.19 they shall bee maximi in inferno greatest in the kingdome of hell he that can damn many soules besides his owne supererogates of Sathan and hee shall give him a double fee a double portion of hell fire for his paines Who then without a shower of teares can think on thy deplorable state or without mourning meditate thy fad condition Yea if Ely was punished with such fearefull temporall judgements onely for not admonishing and not correcting others which sinned what mayest thou expect that doest intise others yea enforce them though to intise others were wicked enough Let me say to the horror of their consciences that make merchandize of soules that it is a question when such an one comes to hel whether Iudas himself would change torments with him How fearefully think you do the seducer and seduced greet one another in hell me thinks I heare the Dialogue between them wher the best speaks first and saith Thou hast beene the occasion of my sinne and the other thou art the occasion of my more grievous torment c. Evill men delights to make others so one sinner maketh another as Eve did Adam but little doe they thinke how they advance their owne damnations when the blood of so many soules as they have seduced will be required at their hands and little doe sinners know their wickednesse when their evill deeds infect by their example and their evill words infect by their perwasion and their looks infect by their allure ments when they breath nothing but infection much lesse do they know their wretchednesse till they receive the wages of their unrighteousnesse which shall not be paid till their work be done and that will not be done in many yeares after their death For let them dye they sinne still For as if we sowe good works succession shal reape them and we shall be happy in making them so so on the contrary wicked men leave their inventions and evill practises to posterity and though dead are still tempting unto sinne and still they sin in that temptation they sinne as long as they cause sinne This was Ieroboam's case in making Israel to sinne for let him bee dead yet so long as any worship his Calves Ieroboam sinned neither was his sinne soone forgotten Nadab his sonne and Basha his successor Zimry and Omry and Ahab and Ahaziah and Iehoram all these walked in the wayes of Ieroboam which made Israel to sinne and not they alone but the people with them It is easie for a mans sinne to live when himselfe is dead and to leade that exemplary way to hell which by the number of his followers shall continually aggravate his torments The imitaters of evill deserve punishment the abetters more but there is no hell deepe enough for the leaders of publike wickednesse he that invents a new way of serving the
sent for before Samuel he went pleasantly saying the bitternesse of death is past but his welcome was immediately to be hewen in peeces 1 Sam. 15.33 The rich man resolves when he hath filled his Barnes then soule rest but God answers no then soule come to judgement to everlasting unrest Luk. 12.19.20 The hope of an hypocrite is easily blown into him and as soone blowne out of him because his hope is not of the right kind yea it is presumption not confidence viz. hope frighted out of it's wits an high house upon weak pillars which upon every little change threatens ruine to the inhabitant for a little winde blowes down the Spiders-web of his hope wherby like the foolish builder he comes short of his reckoning That heart which Wine had even now made as light as a feather dyes ere long as heavie as a stone 1 Sam. 25.36 37. § 143 IT is Sathans method VVicked men are altogether in extreames either God is so mercifull that they may live hâ—w they list or so just that he wil not pardon them upon their repentance first to make men so senselesse as not to feele their sins at all and then so desperate that they feele them too much In the first fit men live as if there were no Hell in the last they dye as if there were no Heaven While their consciences are asleepe they never trouble them but being stirred by Sathan who when he sees his time unfolds his Ephemerides and leaves not the least of all their sinfull actions unanatomized but quoats them like a cunning Register with every particular circumstance both of time and place they are fierce as a mastive Dog and ready to pul out their throatâ— This Serpent may bee benummed for a time through extreamity of cold but when once revived it will sting to death The Divell is like Dalilah who said to Sampson the Philistims be upon thee when it was too late and she had taken away his strength Iudges 16. Wicked men are altogether in extreams at first they make question whether this or that be a sin at last they apprehend it such a sin that they make question whether it can bee forgiven either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that hee will not pardon them upon their repentance no meane with them betweene the Rocke of presumption and the Gulfe of despaire now presumption encourageth it selfe by one of a thousand and despaire will not take a thousand for one If a thousand men be assured to passe over a Foord safe and but one to miscarry desperation sayes I am that one and if a thousand Vessels must needs miscarry in a Gulfe and but one escapes presumption sayes I shall be that one as we read of but one sinner that was converted at the last howre of millions that had lesse iniquity yet have found lesse mercy But see further the strength of their argument Objection of the thief upon the crosse answered The Thiefe was saved at the last howre and therefore I shall Thou maist as well conclude the Sunne stood still in the dayes of Ioshua therfore it shall doe so in my dayes for it was a miracle with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour the ignominy of his Crosse and wee may almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as such a second Thiefes conversion at the last howre Hee were a wise man that should spurre his Beast till hee speake because Baalams Beast did once speake yet even so wise and no wiser is hee that makes an ordinary rule of an extraordinary example Againe the Thiefe was saved at the very instant of time when our Saviour triumphed on the Crosse tooke his leave of the world and entered into his glory Now it is usuall with Princes to save some heinous malefactors at their Coronation when they enter upon their Kingdomes in triumph which they are never knowne to doe afterwards Besides the Scripture speaks of another even his fellow in that very place and at that very instant which was damned There was one saith S. Augustine that none might despaire there was but one that none should presume That suddaine conversion of one at the last howre was never intended in Gods purpose for a temptation neither will any that have grace make mercy a Cloak or warrant to sinne but rather a spurre to incite them to godlinesse well knowing that to wait for Gods performance in doing nothing is to abuse that Divine providence which will so worke that it will not allow us idle and yet by Sathans policie working upon wicked mens depraved judgements and corrupt hearts in wresting this Scripture it hath proved by accident the losse of many thousand soules The flesh prophesies prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder traitors but death and damnation which Gods Spirit threatens will prove the crop they will reape for God is true and all flesh is a lyer § 144. BUt God sets forth himselfe to bee incomparably gracious Object God in mercyis in finitly transcenâ—ent mercifull long-suffering abundant in goodnes c. Ezâ— 34.6 and is acknowledged to bee so by David Psalm 86.5 by Ioel Chap. 2.13 by Ionah Chap. 4.22 by Micha Chap. 7 18. and in many other places It is very true Answ for it is a part of his title Exodus 34.6 hee is mercy in the abstract 1 Iohn 4.16 2 Cor. 1.3 1 Tim. 4.10 rich and abundant in mercy Ephesians 2.4 1 Pet. 1.3.19 his love is without height or depth or length or breath or any dimensions even passing knowledge Ephes 3.18 yea the Scripture advanceth God's mercy above his justice Psa 36.5 to 12. not in it's essence for God in all his Attributes is infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in it's expressions and manifestations It is said of mercy that it pleaseth him Micha 7.18 whereas justice is called his strange worke Esay 28.21 Lamentation 3.33 that he is slow to anger but abundant in goodnesse Exodus 34.6 hee bestowes mercyes every day inflicts judgements but now and then sparingly and after a long time of forbearance when there is no remedy 2 Chron. 36.15 Esay 65.2 that he visiteth the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation onely whereas hee shewes mercy to thousands Exodus 20.5.6 so that by how much three or foure come short of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it Againe that his love to his people outstrips a Father's love to his sonne Matth. 7.11 and a Mothers too Esay 49.15 for he is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 as being himself most mercifull and the author of mercy and compassion in others In fine he is so mercifull that the Kingly Prophet repeates it over six and twenty times together in one Psalm that his mercy endures for ever Psal 136. But what makes this for