but turn again to their Vomit and trample the Pearls of all Admonition under feet yea turn again and rend their Reprovers with scoffs and scorns making Jests and Songs on their Ale-bench Yet may some young ones be deterred and some Novices reclaimed some Parents and Magistrates awakened to prevent and suppress the spreading of this Gangrene And God have his work in such as belong to his Grace And what is impossible to the work of his Grace Go to then now ye Drunkards listen not what I or any ordinary Hedge-Priest as you style us but that most wise and experienced Royal Preacher hath to say unto you And because you are a dull and thick eared Generation he first deals with you by way of Question a figure of force and impression To whom is woe c You use to say Woe be to Hypocrites It 's true wo be to such and all other witting and willing Sinners but there are no kind of Offenders on whom Woe doth so palpably inevitably attend as to you Drunkards You promise your selves Mirth Pleasure and Jollity in your Cups but for one drop of your mad Mirth be sure of Gallons and Tons of Woe Gall Wormwood and bitterness here and hereafter Other Sinners shall taste of the Cup but you shall drink off the dregs of God's Wrath and Displeasure To whom is Strife You talk of good fellowship and friendship but Wine is a rager and tumultuous a mocker a make-bate and sets you a quarrelling and medling When wit 's out of the Head and strength out of the Body it thrusts even Cowards and Dastards unfenced and unarmed into needless Frayes and Combats And then to whom are Wounds broken Heads blew Eyes maimed Limbs You have a drunken by-word Drunkards take no harm but how many are the mishaps and untimely misfortunes that betide such which though they feel not in drink they carry as marks and brands unto their Grave You pretend you drink Healths and for Health but to whom are all kind of Diseases Infirmities Deformities pearled Faces Palsies Dropsies Head-aches if not to Drunkards All Interpreters agree that he means some most virulent Serpent whose Poyson is pleasant and deadly All the woes he hath mentioned before were but as the sting of some Emmet Wasp or Nettle in comparison of this Cockatrice which is even unto death death speedy death painful and woful death and that as naturally and inevitably as Opium procureth Sleep as Hellebore Purgeth or any Poyson killeth Three forked is the Sting and threefold is the Death it procureth to all that are stung therewith The first is the Death of Grace the second is of the Body the third is of Soul and Body eternal All sin is the Poyson wherewithall the old Serpent and red Dragon envenomes the Soul of Man but no sin except it be that which is unto Death so mortal as this which though not ever unpardonably yet for the most part is also irrecoverably and inevitably unto death Seest thou one bitten with any other Snake there is hope and help as the Father said of his Son when he had information of his Gaming of his Prodigality yea of his Whoring but when he heard that he was Poysoned with Drunkenness he gave him for dead his case for desperate and forlorn The Adulterer and Usurer desire to enjoy their Sin alone but the chiefest pastime of a Drunkard is to heat and overcome others with Wine that he may discover their nakedness and glory in their Foyl and folly In a word excess of Wine and the spirit of Grace are opposites the former expells the latter out of the Heart as Smoak doth Bees out of the Hive and makes the man a meer Slave and Prey to Satan and his snares when by this Poyson he hath put out his Eyes and spoyled him of his strength he useth him as the Philistines did Sampson leads him in a string whither he pleaseth like a very drudge scorn and make-sport to himself and his Imps makes him grind in the Mill of all kind of Sins and Vices And that I take to be the reason why Drunkenness is not specially prohibited in any one of the Ten Commandments because it is not the single breach of any one but in effect the violation of all and every one It is no one sin but all sins because it is the In let and Sluce to all other Sins The Devil having moistened and steeped him in his Liquor shapes him like soft Clay into what mould he pleaseth having shaken off his Rudder and Pilot dashes his Soul upon what Rocks Sands and Syrts he listeth and that with as much ease as a man may push down his Body with the least thrust of his Hand or Finger He that in his right Wits and sober mood seems Religious modest chast courteous secret in his drunken fits swears blasphemes rages strikes talks filthily blabs all secrets commits folly knows no difference of Persons or Sexes becomes wholly at Satans command as a dead Organ to be enacted at his will and pleasure Oh that God would be pleased to open the Eyes of some Drunkard to see what a Dunghill and Carrion his Soul is become and how loathsome effects follow upon thy spiritual death and sting of this Cockatrice which is the Fountain of the other two following temporal and eternal death How terrible a Theater of God's Judgments against Drunkards such as might make their Hearts to bleed and relent if not their Ears to tingle to hear of a taste of some few such noted and remarkable Examples of God's Justice as have come within the compass of mine own notice and certain knowledge I think I should offend to conceal them from the World whom they may happily keep from being the like to others themselves Here followeth above one Hundred and twenty various sad and fearful Examples of Gods Judgments on notorious Drunkards and Health-Drinkers in England and Foreign Countreys with the places they Lived in twelve of the chief are Graved on Copper Plates to deterr all others from the like Provoking Sins least the like Judgments do befall them 1. AN Alewife in Kesgrave near to Ipswich who would needs force three Serving-men that had been drinking in her House and were taking their leaves to stay and drink the three Ou ts first that is Wit out of the Head Money out of the Purse Ale out of the Pot as she was coming towards them with the Pot in her Hand was suddenly taken speechless and sick her Tongue swoln in her Mouth never recovered Speech the third day after died This Sir Antheny Felton the next Gentleman and Justice with divers other Eye-witnesses of her Sickness related to me whereupon I went to the House with two or three Witnesses and inquired the truth of it 2. Two Servants of a Brewer in Ipswich drinking for a Rump of a Turkey strugling in their drink for it fell into a scalding Cauldron backwards whereof the one died presently the other lingringly
concerning him O that that was the wicked Wretch that drew me away if it had not been for him I had not been in so lamentable a case upon my Death-bed 8. Bonosus a Britain and bred up in Spain usurped the Empire of Rome in the Reign of Probus of whom it is written That he would drink so much Wine as ten great drinkers could not drink so much and therewithall he had two wonderful properties The one was that how much soever he drank he was never drunk The other was that when it pleased him he could piss it out as fast as he poured it in without retaining any jot within his body Being overcome by Probus he hang'd himself The Emperour Aurelian was wont to say of him That Bonosus was not born to live but to drink Imperial Hist. page 211. 9. Tiberus Nero made Novellus Tricongius Pro-consul for that he could drink three Pottles of Wine together with one breath 10. He also preferred Lucius Piso to the Government of the City of Rome because he could sit drinking with him continually for two whole dayes and nights together Suetonius 11. To prevent drunkenness and the evil consequents of it the Carthaginians forbad their Magistrates all use of Wine 12. Solon punished Drunkenness in a Ruler with Death 13. Anno Christi 1578. February 10. in the Countrey of Sâ—aben about Eight persons that were Citizens and Citizens Sons whose names my Author setteth down met together at a Tavern whereof the Masters name was Anthony Huge on a Sabbath morning where they drank themselves drunk and then began to blaspheme God and to scoff at the Host who advised them to leave drinking and to go to Church to hear the Word preached at which they not only continued to mock but went on in their drinking when suddenly the Devil came in among them in the habit of a Cavalier who drinking to them set their mouths in such a fire that these Drunkards not only became amazed thereat but also after a miserable manner were all strangled to death Stephen Batemen Professor of Divinity 14. Anno Christi 1556. in the Town of St. Gallus in Switzerland there was one Peter Besler who was born at Rotmund but was now a Servant to a Citizen whose habitation was near unto St. Gallus This dissolute young man was much given to the beastly Sin of Drunkenness and upon Trinity-Sunday which was May the 21 st he together with some of his Companions went to the Town of Sangal there to be merry And when they had drunk freely this young man began to rail at and to quarrel with his Companions and using many Blasphemies against God he added this Execration also If I serve my Master any longer I give my Body and Soul to the Devil When he had staid there all night in the morning awaking he began to think what words he had uttered the night before yet having no other means of subsistence he resolved to return to his Masters Service but going out of the City when he was now not far from his Masters House a man met him clad in black and fearful to behold who said unto him Go to Good fellow I am now ready to take that which is my right and which thou gavest me yesterday Which when he had said taking the fellow by the hand who was amazed with horror and altogether astonished he threw him to the ground and so vanished Not long after this this miserable young man being found by some of the Neighbours had his hands and feet drawn together and being brought to a Lodging he had the use of all his Limbs taken from him and so continued till he dyed miserably Ibid. Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum It 's good to be warned by other mens harms Healths Drank one Drinks off a pottle pot of Sack and dyes within two hours after One Drownd in a Shallow brook of water being Drunk his horse standing by 5. or 6. Drank Healths in a Strange manner and dyed one after another in few weeks An exceeding Drunkard in Pembrock shire being Drunk broke himself all to pieces from an high Rock More Examples worthy of serious Consideration THere is a very remarkable Story published by Mr. Robert Abbot Minister some years since of Cranebrook in Kent concerning one William Rogers an Apothecary there that was exceeding much given to Drinking and Sabbath breaking He was in his general course as he relates of him a Young man of a sweet and pleasing temper It was reported that the Devil never abused a better Nature and he was observed never to Swear or Curse in all his Life except once but was often admonished and perswaded by Mr. Abbot to come to the Church on the Sabbath-dayes at last he was prevailed with to come though he had often promised and failed The Lords day before in the morning when as he said he was ready to come to Church he was taken sick and betook himself to his Bed it was but as a fit of an Ague which being over he was the next morning in his old course again but about the middle of the week after the messenger of Death came and Mr. Abbot forthwith addressed himself to him in his Chamber saying Oh how often have you deceived God your own Soul and me and what is now to be done I fear you will dye and then what will become of you His sickness so prevailed that it emptied him of any hopes of Life and filled him with thoughts of his present Guilt and future Judgment before the great God who is a consuming fire He apprehending his own misery made it known to him and others there was too great a fire within to be Smothered it burned in his own Soul and it Lightened from his Heart and Lips into the Ears and Hearts of those Friends that were about him One while he cryes out of his sins saying I have been a fearful Drunkard pouring in one draught after another till one draught could not keep down another I now would be glad if I could take the least of Gods Creatures which I have abused I have neglected my Patients which have put their Lives in my hands and how many Souls have I thus murthered I have wilfully neglected Gods House Service and Worship and though I purposed to go God strikes me thus before the day of my promise comes because I am unworthy to come among Gods people again Another while he falls to wishing Oh that I might burn a long time in that fire pointing to the fire before him so I might not burn in Hell Oh that God would grant me but one Year or a Month that the world might see with what an Heart I have promised to God my amendment Oh that God would try me a little but I am unworthy Another while he speaks to his Companions praying all to be warned by him to forsake their wicked wayes lest they go to Hell as he must do He forgot not
in this sense that when they were in affliction they besought the Lord God and humbled themselves greatly before the God of their Fathers For this great Offendor could often say He could never be humbled enough Upon the 13 of August when he was arraigned at the Sessions in the Old-Baily he pleaded Guilty to the Indictments with very much shame confusion of face and sorrow of heart And on Friday the 15 of August he demeaned himself very humbly before the Bench heartily submitting to the Sentence of death that then passed upon him saying He had destroyed the Image of the Eternal GOD alluding as I verily believe to those words in Gen. 6. 9. For in the Image of God c. After his Sentence he was conveyed back to prison penitently acknowledging that he had neglected the good Word of God and therefore was the longer kept off through ignorance of the Gospel from closing with Christ Jesus But after a few dayes discourse with several Ministers and others who opened the Scriptures to him he began to understand through the Grace of God the Word of Grace And though he had many good Books brought to him by divers visiting Friends yet he chiefly looked into the holy Scriptures themselves and found very much advantage light and peace by these following passages out of the Old Testament viz. 2 Sam. 12. 9. Where Nathan spake sharply to David for despising the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in the sight of the Lord in killing Uriah the Hittite with the Sword vers 13. David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David The Lord also hath put away thy sin From hence he understood the readiness of God to forgive confessing repenting sinners though they are guilty of innocent blood Job 33. 27 28 He the Lord looketh upon men Oh that men would look after the Lord and if AN T say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not he that is the Lord will deliver his Soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light Isa. 45. 18 19. I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will ABUNDANTLY pardon The word abundantly he used to pronounce with an emphasis for he saw his eyes being now anointed with spiritual Eye salve that he had multiplied sins exceedingly and that he stood in absolute need of the Lords abundant multiplied pardons whereof he had good hope through this good word of Isaiah Ezek. 18. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his wayes and live 30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions So iniquity shall not be your ruine 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die O house of Israel 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ezek. 33. 11. Say unto them As I live saith the Lord here the poor Prisoner would note to his comfort that a repenting sinner had not onely the Word and Promise of God for forgiveness but the Oath of God to give such a sinner the greater assurance of pardon I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his wayes and live Turn ye turn ye see the importunity of God with poor sinners for the good of their souls from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel Micah 7. 18. was a place pleasant to his Soul Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Vers. 19. He will turn again as one doth when his anger is gone he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast ALL their sins into the depth of the Sea Now I shall give you a short List of some New-Testament Texts whereby the Lord conveyed Counsel and Consolation to this doubting staggering poor Wretch Mat. 18. 11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost Joh. 3. 14 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life for God SO loved the WORLD that whosoever this word whosoever he spake with joy believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now saith Nathaniel Butler I am one to whom this word speaketh and therefore God gave the Lord Jesus Christ for my Soul I believe in him and therefore I trust to live eternally through him according to the gracious terms of the Gospel John 6. 37. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise here he would repeat and reiterate these words in NO WISE CAST OUT in NO WISE in NO WISE cast out 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time In hearing reading and conferring upon these and many more Scriptures he would often say to me and others These are good Scriptures brave Scriptures are they not brave Scriptures He would make very diligent and frequent search into his Soul concerning the sincerity of his Sorrow and would not easily believe that his Repentance was true or that he had right to the precious Promises of the Gospel But by much speaking to him by many good people that he would apply Christ and also by seeking unto God for a spirit of Faith for him he did begin to act a faith of recumbency and adherence being as he often said perswaded the Lord Jesus Christ was able to save to the uttermost and willing to save such as come unto God by him yet he could not come up to that full assurance of hope and confidence as he desired and we also desired heartily on his behalf Yet for some certain dayes before his suffering death it pleased the God of all Comfort to give him Joy and Consolation and sometimes strong consolation insomuch that he would at times express very great inward gladness which all that knew his former mournings were glad to see and glorified God for giving him the Joy of his Salvation for he was so satisfied concerning the favour and mercy of God towards him in Jesus Christ that he rather now desired Death then feared it as seeing death through Jesus Christ without
little sensible of what he had done Are you said he the person that committed the murther upon the maid at Ratcliff He said Yes O what think you of your condition What do you think will become of your precious Soul you have by this Sin not only brought your body to the Grave but your Soul to Hell without Gods Infinite mercy Were you not troubled for the Fact when you did it Not for the present Sir said he but soon after I was when I began to think with my self what I had done The next time he asked him whether he were sorry for the Fact He said wringing his hands and striking his breast with tears in his Eyes Yes Sir for it cuts me to the Heart to think that I should take away the Life of a poor innocent Creature and that is not all but for any thing I know I have sent her Soul to Hell O how can I think to appear before Gods Bar when she shall stand before me and say Lord this wretch took away my Life and gave me not the least space that I might turn to thee he gave me no warning at all Lord O then what will become of me Soon after the imprisonment of this Thomas Savage in Newgate upon the desire of one of his Friends Mr. R. F. and T. V. went to him in the Prison and had liberty with much readiness from the Keepers to discourse with him They asked him if he were the person that had murthered the Maid He answered that he was they did then open to him the hainous nature of that sin endeavouring to set it home upon his Conscience telling him of the express Law of God Thou shalt not Kill and the express threatnings That whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed They spake to him of the Law of the Land and the punishment of Death which would certainly be inflicted upon him that he had but a few Weeks more to live and then he would be Tryed and Condemned and Executed but they told him that the punishment of the temporal Death was but small in comparison with the punishment of Eternal Death in Hell which he had deserved and was exposed unto They told him that so soon as Death should make a separation between his Soul and body that his Soul must immediately appear before the dreadful Tribunal of the Sin-revenging God and there receive its final doom and be irreversibly sentenced to depart from the presence of the Lord into everlasting fire if he were found under the guilt of this or any other sin They asked him if he knew what Hell was telling him what a fearful thing it would be for him to fall into the hands of the living God how intolerable the immediate expressions of Gods Wrath would be upon his Soul what horrour and anguish he would there be filled withal and how he would be bound up in Chains of darkness until the Judgment of the great day and then told him of the glorious appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to Judgment that Soul and Body should be then joyned together and condemned together and punished together with such exquisite torments as never entred into the Heart of man to conceive declaring the Extremity and the Eternity of the Torments of Hell which were the just demerit of his sins Then they asked him whether he had any hopes of escaping this dreadful punishment of Hell He answered that he had they enquired the grounds of his hopes He told them that he repented of his fault and hoped God would have mercy on his Soul They asked him whether he thought his Repentance could procure for him a Pardon He knew no other way They told him that God was just and his Justice must be satisfied and there was no way for him to do it but by undergoing the Eternal torments of Hell and did he know no way of satisfying God's Justice besides and pacifying his anger that was kindled against him No he knew not any And yet did he hope to be saved He answered Yes They enquired whether ever he had experience of a gracious change wrought in him Herein he could give no account and yet hoped to be saved They told him his hopes were unsound having no good foundation and he would find himself disappointed that it was not his Repentance his Tears and Prayers though he ought to use them as means that would save him if he fixed the Anchor of his hope upon them That if he hoped to be saved in the condition which for the present he was in he would certainly be damned that he must cast away all those groundless hopes he had conceived and endeavour to despair in himself that being pricked and pained at heart through the apprehensions of the wrath of God ready to fall upon him and seeing no possibility of flying and escaping if he looked only to himself he might cry out What shall I do to be saved and enquire after a Saviour And then they spake to him of the Lord Jesus Christ and the way of Salvation by him which before he was sottishly ignorant of as if he had been brought up in a Countrey of Infidels and not of Christians The words spoken to him by these two Ministers seemed to take little impression upon him whilest they were present yet after they were gone the Lord did begin to work and he did acknowledge to Mr. B. that two had been with him he knew not their names whose words were like arrows shot into his heart and he did wish he had those words in writing especially one expression of T. V. That he would not be in his condition for ten thousand Worlds did affect and so affright him that he said it made his hair stand on end Mr. Vincent Mr. Francklin Mr. Doolittle Mr. Janeway discoursed with him and he suffered very penitently and chearfully at Ratcliff near his Masters House We do not read of any more of all the drunkards and debauched persons that were Converted but those two Nathaniel Butler and Thomas Savage whom God gave true Repentance unto A Common Drunkard is the fittest man to make a debauched Health-drinker of they are so near akin to one another that there is little difference you can hardly know one from another and it is seldom seen that a Health is begun for his Majesty or his Highness the Duke of York till the Feasters are well entred in there Glasses of Wine first This I can Witness That one Evening this Winter two or three Drunken Companions met another drunken man in the street and did ask him if he would drink the Dukes Health He answered presently Yea I 'le drink any mans Health Is not the King and Duke much beholden to such for their Love that can shew it in no better way We are commanded and it s our duty to Fear God and to Honour the King and he that truly doth so will pray heartily to God to bless and
other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction than impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observations of the one or the other There are three sorts of persons one cannot drink cold Beer the other cannot drink warm the third either You that cannot drink cold Beer to you it is hurtful cools the Stomach and checks it much therefore keep to warm drink as a wholsome custom you that cannot drink warm Beer that is find no refreshment nor thirst satisfied by it you may drink it cold nor is it injurious to you you that are indifferent and can drink either drink yours cold or warmed as the company does since your Stomach makes no choice That warm drink is no bad custom but agreeable to Nature in the generality First Because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the Body and similia similibus conservantur every thing is preserved by its like and destroyed by its contrary Secondly Though I do not hold it the principal Agent in digestion yet it does excite is auxiliary and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion ut signum causa Thirdly Omne frigus per se pro viribus destruit Cold in its own nature and according to the graduation of its power extinguisheth natural heat and is destructive but per accidens and as it is in gradu remisso it may contemperate allay and refresh where heat abounds and is exalted Therefore as there is variety of Palates and Stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of Meats and Drinks which to others are utterly disgustful disagreeing and injurious though good in themselves so is it in Drink warmed or cold what one finds a benefit in the other receives a prejudice at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idiosyncratical properties of several bodies one thing will not agree with all Therefore he that cannot drink warm let him take it cold and it is well to him but he that drinks it warm does better And this is to be understood in Winter when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the Spirits of the Liquor in a torpid inactivity which by a gentle warmth are unfettered volatile and brisk whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the Stomachs fermenting heat being so prepared than to be made so by it There are three sorts of Drinkers one drinks to satisfie Nature and to support his body without which he cannot well subsist and requires it as necessary to his Being Another drinks a degree beyond this man and takes a larger dose with this intention to exhilerate and chear his mind to banish cares and trouble and help him to sleep the better and these two are lawful Drinkers A third drinks neither for the good of the body or the mind but to stupifie and drown both by exceeding the former bounds and running into excess frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by Nature converting this support of Life and Health making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death Many such there are who drink not to satisfie Nature but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination and when there is a reluctancy against it as Drunkards that pour in Liquor not for love of the drink or that Nature requires it by thirst but onely to maintain the mad frolick and keep the Company from breaking up Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholesom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physician for it Whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of Health is fit to be examined It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The supports of Life may prove the procurers of Death if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective Meat and drink is no longer sustenance but a load and overcharge if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person and then they are not what they are properly in themselves and by the appointment of Nature the preservatives of Life and Health but the causes of sickness and consequently of Death Drink was not appointed man to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties but to supply nourish and strengthen them Drink exceeding its measure is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers It puts a man out of the state of Health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gone out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other than an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise than as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Disease denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatarctick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or Sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of Health for as Health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the Body and Mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally if we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangely perverted if we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the palate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates his legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and
prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and Judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great Disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other Diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is First From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the Primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joyning with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being overcharged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received than if the Morbisick matter were more ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparative is of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quicker and easier digestion So that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous than those peracute distempers arising from Liquors So likewise those bad symptoms in other Diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal than the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes and a spirituous matter that layes not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by the soporiferous vertue stupifies them for a time until they recover their agility again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by overcharging the Stomach vomiting is procured and so carries off something that was lodged there which might breed Diseases This is a bad excuse for good Fellows and a poor plea for drunkenness for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise you introduce twenty inconveniences by it I do not like the preventing of one Disease that may be by procuring of one at the present certainly and many hereafter most probably and if the Disease feared or may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tolerate and allow it but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards than by overcharging with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many the benefit hoped for but pretended or if any but very small and inconsiderable And although as I said before the drunken fit is not mortal and the danger perhaps not great for the present yet those drunken bouts being repeated the relicts do accumulate debilitate Nature and lay the foundation of many chronick Diseases Nor can it be expected otherwise but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceed from the internal impulses and disordered motions of the faculties which general disturbance and discomposure being frequent must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane Nature and consequently ruine the Fabrick of mans body The ill effects and more eminent products of Ebriety are first A changing of the natural tone of the Stomach and alienating the digestive faculty That instead of a good transmutation of food a degenerate Chyle is produced Common experience tells that after a drunken debauch the stomach loseth its appetite and acuteness of digestion as belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature and continue the custom of eating some food is received but we cannot expect from such a Stomach that a good digestion should follow and it is some dayes before the Stomach recover its eucrasy and perform its office well and if these miscarriages happen but seldom the injury is the less and sooner recompenced but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices the Stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity Secondly An unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow or a degenerate macilency and a decayed consumptive constitution Great Drinkers that continue it long few of them escape but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body for if the Stomach discharge not its office a right the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependance is there upon the Stomach that other parts cannot perform their duty if this leading principal Part be perverted and debauched nor can it be expected otherwise for from this Laboratory and prime office of digestion all the parts must receive their supply which being not suitable but depraved are drawn into debanchery also and a degenerate state the whole Body fed with vitious alimentary succus Now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery happens upon this score As there are different properties and conditions of bodies so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various one puffs up fills and grows hydropical another pines away and falls Consumptive from excess in drinking and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts for in some persons although the stomach be vitiated yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great from the integrity and vigor of those parts destinated to such offices that they act strenuously though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate und therefore do keep the body plump and full although the juyces be foul and of a depraved nature Others è contra whose parts are not so firm and vigorous that will not act upon any score but with their proper object does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter but receiving it with a nice reluctance transmits it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture or emunctory and from hence the body is frustrated of nuâ—â—ition and falls away So that the pouring in of much liquor although it be good in sua natura does not beget much aliment but washeth through the body and is not assimilated But here some may object and think That washing of the body through with good Liquor should cleanse the body and make it fit for nourishment and be like good Physick for a foul body But the effect proves the contrary and it is but reason it should be so for suppose the Liquor whether Wine or other be pure and good yet when the spirit is drawn off from it the remainder is but dead flat thick and a muddy flegm As we find in the distillation of Wine or other Liquors so it is in mans body the spirit is drawn off first and all the parts of mans body are ready Receivers and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener freely and readily but the remainder of greatest proportion that heavy dull phlegmy part and of a narcotick quality lies long fluctuating upon the digestions and passeth but slowly turns sowre and vitiates the Crases of the parts So that this great inundation and supposed washing of the body does but drown the Faculties stupifie or choak the Spirits and defile all the Parts not purifie and cleanse And although the more subtile and thinner portion passeth away in some persons pretty freely by Urine yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecillity of the Nerves which is procured from the disorderly motions of the Animal Spirits being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong Liquors which vibration being frequent begets a habit and causeth a trepidation of Members Transcribed verbatim out of Dr. Maynwaring's Treatise Of long Life FINIS Are to be Sold near the Exchange and in Popes-head-Alley Primum crater ad sitim pertinere secundum ad hilaritatem tertium ad voluptatem quartum ad insaniam dixit Apulius Omne nimium naturae est inimicum A Cacotrophy or Atrophy