them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 1 Pet. 4. 1-3 He partook with us of flesh and blood that he might through death destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. God had threatned that in the day man did eat of the forbidden fruit in dying he should dye And by our first Fathers disobedience we fell under the sentence of death And though we might have had a sensible being yet it had heen a miserable one we could have had no comfortable being in this world But now when Christ was interposed and God promised this Seed of the Woman Adam in belief of God's promise of his purpose and grace gives his Wife a new name and called her Eve or Chavah because she was the mother of all living who otherwise had been the mother of all dead Gen. 2. 17 with chap. 3. 15-20 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4. 9. Joh. 6. 51. Rom. 5. 12-18 And through his precious Blood and powerful Sacrifice God doth us good and fills our hearts with food and gladness We must otherwise have been alwayes and altogether accursed Cursed in basket and cursed in store cursed in our meat and drink cursed in all we had injoyed or partaken of But Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. And now because he descended into the lower parts of the earth and is ascended up on high and hath led captivity captive and received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also As the consequent and fruit hereof God daily loadeth us with his benefits and is a God of salvation to us And to God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal 68. 18-20 and 85. 10-12 Every creature of God is good for it is sanctified and made clean by the word of God and prayer or intercession as the word signifies that is by the word of God even by Jesus Christ his being made flesh and in that body of his flesh bearing our sins and dying our death in the virtue whereof he is raised again His name is the word of God Heb. 4. 12. Rev. 19. 13. and by his intercession for us 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. And hence we are instructed to give thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord Eph. 5. 20. To signify to us that all the mercies we are made partakers of we partake of them upon the account of the Sufferings Sacrifice and Mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ and all mixtures of mercy and compassion in afflictions and deliverance therefrom is because God hath found out a ransom Psal 75. 3-8 Job 33. 19-24 And the end of all his goodness extended and continued to us through our blessed Mediator is to lead us to repentance Rom. 2. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 15. And surely were this heartily minded and considered that our lives and our comfortable enjoyment of Gods mercies are the price of his Blood and Sacrifice and vouchsased to us that we might live not to the lusts of men but to the will of God it would be powerful to preserve us from consuming upon our lusts the good things we receive at so dear a rate Hence the Apostle when he exhorts the Believers to walk honestly not in rioting and drunkenness he to this end instructs them to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. 13 14 and counsels them to walk in the Spirit whose work it is to glorify Christ and receive of his things and shew unto us and saith he Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Amongst which are revellings and drunkenness Gal. 5. 16-18-21 And from the consideration hereof that the earth is the Lords even the Lord Jesus Christs and the fulness thereof and that by grace we are made partakers of a comfortable enjoyment of Gods mercies even by the grace of our Lord Jesus who so greatly humbled himself for our sakes And by the grace of God whereby Jesus Christ tasted death for every man The Apostle exhorteth the Believers that whether they eat or drink or whatsoever they did they should do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 21 26-28-31 And the not considering or taking notice of this is the reason and cause of mens abuse of the good creatures of God and of their consuming them upon their lusts or in the service of their Idols Hence the Lord saith the did not know or take notice that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl which they prepared for Baal Hos 2. 6-8 Did we indeed consider at what a dear rate we have all the mercies vouchsafed to us it would powerfully help us thus to say Seeing these are the price of the Blood of my blessed Redeemer shall I abuse and waste that which cost so dear Shall I tread under my feet the precious Blood of Christ God forbid How shall I do such wickedness and sin against the precious Blood and powerful mediation of my Lord who loved me and gave himself for me and affords me these conforts and refreshings that I might live to him that died for me and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Rom. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 4. 1-3 Yea indeed now the greatness and preciousness of the sufferings of Christ and the wonderfulness of the grace of God are more brightly manifested and clearly discovered to us than they were in former times and thereby greater obligation is laid upon us now than upon others under the more dark ministration of the Law to flee from the service of our Lusts and Idols Through the tender mercy of our God the day-spring from on high hath visited us To give light to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Luk. 1. 78 79. Jesus Christ is now evidently set forth before our eyes as one who hath been Crucified for us in which the vileness and odiousness of our sins and vanities is clearly discovered to us Gal. 3. 1 with Rom. 3. 8. The Gospel is preached according to the Revelation of the mystery and the grace of God hath been more clearly revealed than before Christs coming in the flesh yea than before he had poured down and shed forth the Holy Spirit upon his Apostles from Heaven after he ascended on high Therefore now especially it behoves us and we are more powerfully enabled and moved to flee from all Intemperance and the evil fruits thereof The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day-time not in rioting and drunkenness c. Now it is high time for us to
lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness All these evil things come from within and defile the man saith our Saviour to his Disciples Mark 7. 17-20 21-23 Therefore because of their great carnality and natural inclination and propensity to all evil they need to be admonished of and dehorted from all evil and particularly from Drunkenness 2. They have also enemies without them who are tempting them to what is evil and particularly to this iniquity here warned of even to this of intemperance Namely Satan the god of this world who is eminently and emphatically called The Tempter Matth. 4. 1-3 1 Thes 3. 5. And he is endeavouring by all means to tempt and entice them to all that is evil especially the Believers that he might turn them aside to crooked paths 1 Thes 3. 1-5 1 Joh. 3. 8. He is their great enemy and only adversary who are seeking after and serving the Lord and is therefore using all wayes and methods to entice them to evil and tempt them to do his Lusts Joh. 8. 44. And as at first he deceived and destroyed our first Parents by causing them to eat the forbidden Fruit Gen. 3 so still he endeavours to corrupt and destroy men by causing them to transgress in Eating and Drinking contrary to Gods Command Matth. 4. 4 5 He tempts men to Insobriety and Intemperance Hence the Apostle Peter saith Be Sober be vigilant Because the Devil your adversary as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the faith 1 Pet. 5. 8 9. And the men of the World who lye in wickedness and under the power of the Wicked-one 1 Joh. 5. 19 they are promoting and carrying an-end Satans design in the World and endeavouring to turn the Believers out of the right way Hence the Wisdom of God counselleth My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not Walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path Prov. 1. 10-15 They will both by their evil counsel in words and by their practice also entice the Believers to have fellowship with them in their unfruitful works of darkness Eph. 5. 11 and think it strange if they will not run with them to the same excess of Riot speaking evil of them And therefore also they need to be admonished of Intemperance and exhorted to be sober and watch unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4. 3 4-7 Yea and some and too many there are of the Leaders of the people who endeavour to cause others to err even to err through Wine such there are who walking in the Spirit the evil one and Falshood do lye Prophesying unto them of Wine and Strong Drink Micah 2. 11 Come ye say they I will fetch Wine they can debase themselves to Hell in the service of their Lusts and we will fill our selves with Strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Isa 56. 10-12 Therefore they need also to be admonished to take heed and beware of this Iniquity of Drunkenness because they have not only such a secret and homebred enemy within them but so many powerful vigilant enemies without them also who will deceive if possible even the very Elect. 3. They need also to be admonished hereof Because it is a very brutish and heinous Iniquity a very sinful and provoking Iniquity in the sight of God yea and of men also generally until they are given up to hardness and become past feeling It is a great and heinous Iniquity against God such as in which men more openly and manifestly do rebel against the light than in many other evils of which they are admonished And therefore in the service hereof they render themselves openly to be Children of Bilial Children of the Devil Lawless persons such as will do whatsoever is right in their own eyes in despight of and in direct and open opposition unto the Light in the Testimony and to that wisdom and understanding God indues men with whereby he teacheth them more than the Beasts of the Earth and makes them wiser than the Fowls of Heaven Job 35. 10 11. Hence when Hannah was wrongfully suspected to be guilty of this Iniquity she thus speaketh to clear her self My Lord I have drunk neither Wine nor Srong drink Count not thine Hand-maid for a Daughter of Belial Think me not to be reckon me not as a Drunkard for such are Children of Belial especially if of the Female Sex In which is intimated to us the abominableness of this Iniquity 1 Sam. 1. 14-16 And in committing this Iniquity men even work the will of the Heathen as the Apostle Peter signifieth in saying The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Heathen or Gentiles which know not God when we walked in lasciviousness excess of wine revellings banquetings c. 1 Pet. 4. 3 with 1 Thes 4. 4 5. And the Holy Ghost to set forth the abominableness of this Iniquity and that of the Lust of Uncleanness the consequent and concomitant of it as we shall shew makes use of the names of these sins to represent and describe abominable Idolatry by Read Rev. 17. 2 and 18. 3. See Jer. 51. 7. And it is a shameful Iniquity amongst men generally and therefore they do or however did in former times commit it in the night 1 Thes 5. 7. and such an one as they will abominate and lothe in others and testify their dislike of until they are become past feeling and displeasure against Thus under the Law the way to render ones Son vile to others was to say He was guilty of intemperance as it is written The Parents shall say unto the Elders of the City This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard And all the men of the City shall stone him with Stones c. Deut. 21. 18-21 Yea it is such an Iniquity as in which men sin against their own bodies also and oft-times bring diseases and death directly upon themselves by their Intemperance Hos 7. 5. 4. It is such an Iniquity as God doth and will judg for ever if they be not washed from it And therefore how oft doth he denounce Woes against them that are guilty hereof Wo to the Drunkards of Ephraim The drunkard of Ephraim shall be trodden under seet Isa 28. 1-3 Wo to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine enflame them Therefore my people are gone into Captivity because they have no knowledg Therefore Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth without measure to receive those Drunkards where the multitude of them shall be dried up with thirst Wo unto them that though they can carry Drink well-enough and others may not perceive them to be Drunk yet are mighty to drink Wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Therefore as the fire devoureth the
stubble and the flame consumes the Chaff so their root shall be rottenness c. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them c. And threatens to bring upon them Forreiners to wast and destroy them Isa 5. 11-14 22-25-30 Yea indeed he is many times so provoked to anger with men on this account as that especially if they continue in this iniquity he cuts them off even in their sin of Drunkenness as may be intimated unto us in what is said by the Prophet The Lord will make an utter end Affliction shall not rise up the second time For while they be drunken as Drunkards they shall be devoured c. Nahum 1. 9 10. And however persisting in this Iniquity they will hereafter be excluced and shut out of the Kingdom of God Nor drunkards nor revilers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. The works of the flesh are manifest which are adultery drunkenness revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God faith the Apostle Gal. 5. 19-21 All which considerations do shew unto us that the Believers need to be admonished and warned of this Iniquity that they be not Drunk with Wine c. And this Instruction as thus spoken unto may be of usefulness to us 1. To shew unto us That the believers themselves are not while in mortal bodies perfect as to attainment Phil. 3. 12. But they have still the Old-man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts thereof which though Crucified with Christ yet is not whosly destroyed Rom. 6. 6. Therefore are they instructed and incouraged through the Spirit to mortify continually the deeds of the Body that they may live Rom. 8. 13. There is a Generation indeed that are pure and sinless in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness There is a generation O how lofty are their eyes and their eye-lids are lifted up Prov. 30. 12 13. But it is not so with them that walk in the light as God is in the light they see by the light of Gods testimony and prove by experience that they have sin within them and many fleshly lusts that war against the Soul to abstain from daily ungodliness and worldly lusts to deny and renounce And the consideration hereof causeth them to cry out O wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7. 14-24 1 Pet. 2. 11. Tit. 2. 11 12. And this leads them to pity others Gal. 6. 1. 2. It shews unto us the mercy of God in giving gifts unto men and fitting them to go before others in the Word of the Lord and to warn them of every path of the Destroyer and such should not be despised but esteemed by us who are faithful in admonishing us of that which is evil and displeasing unto him who is of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity Thus when the Apostle had been warning the Thessalonians of Intemperance and instructing them to Sobriety he gives this exhortation to them And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you to wit among other things of Drunkenness and Insobriety as appears by the scope of the place And to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake 1 Thes 5. 6 7 8-12 13 for whosoever despiseth them in their faithful admonitions and dehortations despiseth not Man but God who also hath given unto them his Holy Spirit to accompany and assist them 1 Thes 4. 2-4-8 3. Seeing such need to be dehorted from this Iniquity of Drunkenness we may learn from hence That they are no friends to them nor is this love in any whatever pretensions and professions they have and make thereof who entice them to this great and provoking Iniquity They need not be provoked to Insobriety for we are all too forward thereto naturally but dehorted therefrom And therefore it is not loving-kindness but hating-kindness to urge any to eat or drink intemperately and such an Iniquity as wherewith God is provoked Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunken also that thou mayest look on their nakedness Thou art filled more with shame than with glory c. Habbak 2. 15 16. Though men may pretend this to be liberality and to tend to their glory yet it will appear in conclusion that such glory is their shame and that they call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness Isa 5. 20-22 And time will come when the vile person shall no more be called liberoel Isa 32. 5. Whatever appearance of love such may have to us yet indeed it is and is to be esteemed hatred by us for Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Let us then cast off these works of darkness and walk honestly not in rioting and drunkenness Rom. 13. 8-10-13 and rather esteem them to be our friends and reckon them to be lovers of us and kind to us whose work it is to endeavour to preserve us from this and all other crooked-paths whatsoever Prov. 27. 5 6. 4. The consideration hereof might hide Pride from them and help them Not to be high minded but fear Rom. 11. 20. Happy is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief Prov. 28. 14. Truly even the Believers have great cause to stand in awe and not to sin for they have sin in them and many enemies that seek the hurt of them and too readily and frequently they offend in many things and therefore it behoves them to fear the Commandment Prov. 13. 13 And suffer the word of Exhortation and not to think themselves to be so strong or wise as that they need no such admonitions But rather to be alwayes jealous of themselves and to seed themselves to eat and drink with fear Jude v. 12 The wise man feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident Prov. 14. 16. Yea indeed it especially behoves them to flee from Intemperance and avoid all occasions thereof Therefore is this Instruction and Counsel given by Wisdom to her Children Hear thou my Son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way be not amongst Wine-bibbers Prov. 23. 19 20. And this leads us to a second Instruction from these words viz. II. In that he saith Be not ye drunk with Wine so he signifieth to us That it doth especially behove them who have heard and believed the word of Truth the Gospel of our Salvation to flee from Drunkenness and if they do not so their Iniquity will be greater more provoking and inexcusable than others and their judgment more terrible and intolerable Hence to such and