For Plato saith Drunkennesse is a monster with many heads As first filthy talke Secondly Fornication Thirdly Wrath Fourthly Murther Fiftly Swearing Sixtly Cursing If these be the chiefe heads that procede from the polluted body of this vgly Monster Filthy talke the first bead of Drunkennes let vs trie them by the touchstone of the holy Scripture and see how they are allowed of thereby And first concerning filthy talke is is said to the Counthians that filthy speakers and raylers shall not inherite the Kingdome of God and the fourth to the Ephesians Saint Paul forbids vs to haue any corrupt communication to proceed forth of our mouthes Eph. 4.29.30 but that which is good to the vse of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers And also we must put away all bitternesse and euill speaking And further the fift to the Ephesians S. Paul wisheth that no filthinesse nor foolish talking Eph. 5.4 no not so much as iesting should either bee vsed or named among Christians But from the mouthes of Drunkards what idle talke filthy speech blasphemous oathes and prophane words are vsed no Christian eares can with patience endure but with griefe of minde vexation of spirit yea with both horrour and terrour to the soule of man The greatest curse that euer fell on mankinde since the floud came by Drunkennesse as appeareth in Genesis by Noah the godliest man then liuing auoiding all other sinnes Gen 9.25 yet was vnawares taken with this vice of Ebrietie and cursed his own sonne with the bitter and perpetuall curse of seruitude Saying Cursed be Canaan a seruant of seruants shall he be to all his brethren Which thing of seruitude was neuer either heard or spoken off although the world had then beene the space of 1656. yeres to the which curse God saying Amen added also nakednes to the posterity of Cham as appeareth this day by the Virginians and Indians being by the best Authors of Antiquitie noted to come from that Cham Nakednes and seruitude are hereditary curse to all drunkardes their posterity and surely by the slauerie and beggerie that happeneth generally to all that vseth this vice I can thinke no other of it but that it is a curse hereditarie to all Drunkards themselues or at least to their posteritie Now concerning the Description of the second head of this Monster Drunkennesse Fornication second head which is Fornieation The Apostle in the sixt chapter to the Corinthians saith Be not deceiued neither Fornicators nor Adulterers nor Wantons nor Buggerers 1 Cor. 6.9.15 18.19.20 shall inherite the Kingdome of heauen And in the 15. verse he saith Know yee not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot Flye fornication euery sinne that a man doth is without the body but hee that committeth Fornication sinneth against his owne body Know yee not that the body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you whom ye haue of God And yee are not your owne for ye are bought for a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit for they are Gods Which being thus what glory can that partie shew vnto God in his spirit that hath neither vse of body nor sence for as Socrates saith Reason departeth when drinke possesseth the braine Thrise worthy is this saying of the Philosopher and fit to be noted with golden letters Cum tibi siue Deus siue mater rerum omnium Natura dederit animum quo nihil est prestantius sic teipsum O homo ab abiicies at que prosternes vt nihil inter te quadrupedem aliquem potes interesse Wheu as God hath giuen thee a liuing soule which excelleth all things O man wilt thou so much abase and disgrace thy selfe that thou wilt make no difference betwixt thy selfe and a bruit beast for Drunkennesse doth not onely disgrace but euen slayeth the soule of man according to Zeno his saying It is not Death that destroyeth the soule but a bad life But to returne to the vice of Fornication S. Paul to the Thessalonians saith 1 Thes 4.3 For this is the will led a man he should be slaine for it and further to set out the greatnesse of this sinne and fearing they might bee tempted through briberie to spare the murtherer he saith moreouer yee shall take no recompence for the life of the murderer Num. 25.16.19.20.31.32 which is worthy to die but he shall be put to death The land where the murther is done is so much pollnted that there is no way to cleanse it but by the bloud of him that shed it And surely it is seldome or neuer knowne that a Murtherer went in peace to his graue as may appeare by Abimelech who after hee had killed his seuenty brethren although God suffered him for a time to liue and to rule all Israel yet at length hee died miserably and was slaine by the hands of a woman Zimri murdered Elah but afterward by Gods iust iudgement was forced to burne himselfe 1 Kin. 19 18 But this vnnaturall sinne this monstrous deede this abhorred fact of Murther is by no accident or occasion so often committed as through Drunkennesse not onely by Drunkards vpon others but also many times through Gods heauy wrath vpon Drunkards themselues as by too many examples I am able to make proofe as well of the one as of the other And first to begin with that high and mighty Monarch of the world Alexander the Great Murders in Drunkenes who in the beginning of his Raigne was so temperate that he refused the Cookes and Pasterers of the Queene of Caria saying he had better then they were viz. for his dinner early rising and for his supper a moderate dinner notwithstanding through the vitious manners and lewd customes of the Persians he was so much giuen at last vnto the excesse of drinking that he propounded sixe hundred crownes for a reward to him that drunke most called a cup of siluer being of a great bignesse after his owne name which cup when he offered vnto Calisthenes one of his fauorites he refused saying that he which dranke with Alexander had neede of Asculapius at which words the King feeling himselfe touched and being in his drinke was so incensed against him that hee caused him immediately to be put in a cage with dogges where hee poysoned himselfe afterwards being perswaded by a common Strumpet named Thais he burnt Percipolis the chiefe Citie in Persia and which was worst in his intemperancie killed his deere friend Clytus for which bloudy deede after he came to himselfe he wept and fasted three dayes and would had he been permitted haue slaine himselfe In this deede of Alexander Seneca Epist 59 the saying of Seneca is verified Ebrietas vnius horae hilaram Insaniam longi temporis tedio pensat Drunkennesse requireth one houres merry madnes with a
breaking his oath As I liue Ezech. 17 15.16.19 I will surely bring mine oath that he hath despised and my couenant that he hath broken vpon his owne head 2 King 25.2 and so it came to passe Nabuchadnezar by an armie ouercame him slew his sonnes before his face put out both his eyes and carried him to Babel But in these later times and in this our land I may shew very many examples as of Earle Godwin who wishing at the Kings table that the bread hee eate might choke him if he were guilty of Alphreds death whom hee had before slaine was presently choked and fell downe dead Fox actes and monu Wee may reade in the Acts and Monuments of one Iohn Peter a horrible swearer with whom it was vsuall to say if it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I dye To which God said A men and so he rotted away indeed and died miserably Lastly witnesse the example of a Seruingman in Lincolne-shire who for euery trifle had an vse to sweare no lesse oath then Gods precious bloud he would not bee warned by his friends to leaue it at last he was visited with grieuous sicknes in the time whereof he could not be perswaded to repent of it but hearing the Bell to Toll in the very anguish of death hee started vp in his bed and swore by his former oath that Bell tolled for him Wherevpon immediately the bloud aboundantly from all the ioynts of his body as it were in streams did issue out most fearefully from mouth nose wrists knees heeles and toes with all other ioynts not one left free and so dyed These and such like examples and fearefull warnings from heauen are sufficient to terrifie the hearts of all Drunkards whose tongues being set on fire of hell Iam. ◠6 7.8 9. speake nothing without an oath and Drunkards vsually fall into the sinnes of the tongue against which S. Iames speaketh so bitterly Psal 141.3 and Dauid saith Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keepe the doore of my lips With whose saying in the 50. Psalme I will conclude and wish all Drunkards and Swearers to ponder his words Psal 50.21 Consider of these things yee that forget God lest he teare you in pieces and there be none to deliuer you But to speake of the sixt and last Head Sixtly Cursing which is Cursing Dauid noting the vilenesse of this sinne Reputeth those persons that vse this vice to thinke there is no God to yeeld them vengeance for their wickednes noteth them in the 14. Psalme which beginneth Psal 14.6 The foole hath said in his heart there is no God and so going forward to the 6. verse saith Their mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse And in the hundreth and ninth Psalme hee sheweth that God will neuer blesse them that curse Psal 109.17.18 But that he shall be cursed of all people As hee loued Cursing so shall it come vnto him and as it loued not Blessing so shall it be farre from him as he clothed himselfe with cursing like a rayment so shall it come into his bones Let it be vnto him as a garment to couer him and for a girdle wherewith he shall be alwaies girded Dauid did rightly terme Cursing the girdle of the Drunkard For hee is compassed about both at home and abroad with cursings At home he is cursed of his Wife for wasting of her portion and bringing her in contempt penury and misery Of his Family because hee defraudeth their bellies through his wasting and superflous excesse abroad The good Wise is forced to pinch her houshould at home Yea of his owne children if not in his life time by his daughters for that they are not through his vnthristinesse and base manner of liuing preferred in marriage Yet by his sonnes after his death for spending their patrimonie by succession due to them and not giuing them education How many men haue I heard say I am bound to curse the time that euer my Father was a company keeper which had he not been I might haue proued a Scholler or I should haue had such lands or such liuings which my father spent in his solly Yea the very nourishers of his vices themselues when his money is spent doe curse him the Host and Hostesse curse him because he troubleth their house being pierce penilesse and not giue place to other guests that are full fraught The Tapsters curse him because hee cals for Beere and runnes in score the Chamberlaines they curse him for tumbling the beds polluting the roome and he curseth them as fast for deceiuing him of his money are not Drunkards accordding to Dauids saying girded about with curses Which girdle the Diuell claspeth about him so fast it is to be feared without repentance and the great mercy of God it will neuer be vnloosed vntill hee hath him in hell where with the damned soules he will be forced to cry O dolor ô Rabies ô stridor dentium Ingence Luctus Inferni meluendus carceris horror With griefe with rage with gnashing teeth and howling great In this infernall lake and horride place my soule is fret Saint Paul the third to the Colosians bids vs to put away all malicious cursed speaking forth of our mouthes Col. 3.8 and to the Romans hee saith Blesse but curse not And surely the Diuell and destruction waites at the doore when wee fall into this humour of cursing Marke 14.17 as appeareth by Peter before hee denied his Master Our blessed Sauiour First hee began to curse and then he swore saying I know not this man of whom ye speake Goliah before he was killed of Dauid 1 Sam. 17.43 fell a cursing and so died in this wickednes Dauid held this fault so great in Shemi for cursing him that euen vpon his death-bed he tooke order with Salomon his sonne to put Shemei to death for the same 2 Sam. 16.5.13 Shemei cursing 1 King 2.8.9.46 His death Behold with thee is Shemei which cursed me with a horrible curse therefore thou shalt cause his hoare head to goe downe to the graue in bloud If the heads that spring from this polluted Monster are so detestable dangerous and damnable as by the fore-recited places of Scripture is declared it is requifite that the noysome and infectious poison to mankinde which doth proceede from the nature and condition of this Monster should plainly be made manifest and described to the world Drunkenes defined And therefore to define it Drunkennesse is a vice which stirreth vp lust griefe anger and madnesse extinguisheth the memory opinion and vnderstanding maketh a man the picture of a beast and twise a childe because hee can neither stand nor speake Saint Augustine saith Ad sacram Ebrietas est flagitiorum omnium mater culparumque materia c. Drunkennesse is the mother of outrages the matter of faults the roote of crimes the fountaine of vice the intoxicate
himselfe he findes his body is sicke his time is lost his money spent his credits crackt he hath abused his God wronged his wife grieued his friends and shamed himselfe here is an inch of pleasure bought with an ell of paine in like manner if thy parents or friends crosse thee and thou range from house to house from Ale to Beere from Beere to Wine and so fill thy skin and head with liquor to expell thy griefe it will be no otherwise with the then it was with King Saul who while Dauid played with his Harpe was neuer vexed with the wickea spirit 1 Sam. 16.23 18 Chap. 10. but when he ceased his play the Diuell tormented him afresh So while the sence is lost and memory decayed thy discontents are cleane forgot but when thy drink hath played his part and force thereof is quite expelled thy soules insnared thy mindes perplexed thy griefes and discontents as bad or worse then ere they were I may fitly compare these ranging drunkards to Virgils Hart Quam procul incautam nemora inter cressia fixit Pastor agens telis Illa fuga Siluas saltusque peragrat dicteos haeret lateri lethalis arundo Who ranging through the chace some hunter shooting far by chance All vnawares hath smit and in her side hath left his launce She fast to wildernesse and woods doth draw and there complaines But vnderneath her ribs the deadly dart remaines Wherefore he doth most vnwisely that hath any cause of griefe or discontent and thinketh to put it away by drinking or going to their merry companies or that good fellow for let him flye whether he will he carries his discontent in his heart Take Saint Pauls aduice the second to the Corinthians indure it with patience For our light affliction which is but for a moment â— Cor. 1.34 4.17 causeth vnto vs a farre more excellent and an eternall weight of glory If thou art troubled with a scoulding wife whose tongue I must needs say stingeth like a scorpion and hee that can abide a curst wife needes not to feare what company he liueth in the bitter tempest of whose tongue I must confesse as forcibly driues a man out of his doores into euill company as a violent storm doth birds forth of the field into bushes enter into the Etemologie of her name she is called in Latine Mulier quasi mugire vix In English a woman quasi woe vnto man She is as Salomon saith Eccl. 9.9 The portion of thy sorrow which God hath allotted thee thy tormentor vpon earth to bring thy soule to heauen For which malady this is the best medicine The remedy for a scolde Vsibus edocto si quicquam credis amico Eyther to stop thine eares and not here her or else to be silent laugh at her and not regard her and not to seeke reuenge like the base sonne of a noble man in Rome who being taken in a robberie and brought before a Iudge to bee arraigned hee asked him whose sonne he was hee answered hee would not tell him but said hee was the sonne of him that if he were hanged would surely be reuenged for his death and so was contented to be hanged that he might afterwards bee reuenged of the Iudge and no otherwise doth hee that leaues his home runnes besseling to an Ale-house Mad men that goe to be drunke for woemens wordes damnes his soule hurts his body spends his time wasts his goods grieues his friends beggers himselfe vndoeth his children and all to be reuenged of a woman for her tongue in which there is no gouernment wherefore that is to be borne with patience which cannot be redressed with carefulnesse Others protest the delight they take in this vice is not for the drinke but by reason of the company To which I answere Company the great cause of drunkennes that is a bad fellowship which brings vs into a league with vice and makes vs to set vertue at vtter defiance that is a wicked knot of friendship which tyes vs to our damnation and mad dotage that rather then wee will part with wicked companions we will in foolish kindnes accompany them into hell If thereforee our companions delight in sinne let not vs delight in them but flye their societie Exod. 23.2 as being the Diuels aduocates to solicite vs into wickednesse and let vs take heede whilest we labor to maintaine friendship with men we doe not proclaime omnitie against God It is said in Exodus Eph. 57.11 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe euill And Paul to the Ephesians bids vs to haue no fellowship nor company with thâ—se instruments of Sathan but rather reproue them 2 Cor. 5.11 And to the Corinthians Company not with a Drunkard not so much as to eate with him much lesse to drinke Salomon saith Bee not of the number of them which are bibbers of Wine for the drinker and the feaster shall be come poore Pro. 23. c. The Poet rightly said Commencia turpia sanctos Corrumpunt mores multi hoc periere veneno labimur in vitium facile ad peiora mouâ—mur Euill company doth corrupt good manners and many haue perished by this mischiefe wee quickly slide into vice and are easily perswaded to become worse and worse The greatest benefit thou shalt receiue by these swaggering and deboyst companions A drunkard either cannot or will not doe any man good is faire words but faint deeds for the most part what they promise when they are drunke they forget when they are sober or else in their vaine-glorious humour they promise higher matters then their low estate consumed with prodigalitie can performe for Prodigalitas est vas magnum sine fundo ingens arca Sine sera omnia profundit reponit nihil Prodigalitie is a huge vessel without a bottome a great chest without a locke it drawes forth all things it layes vp nothing Your pot friendship is no friendship For as long as thou hast good clothes on thy backe and money in thy purse thou shalt haue friends plenty and good fellowes flocke about thee to giue thee drinke when thou hast too much before and truely I thinke herevpon comes the name of goodfellow quasi goad fellow because hee forceth and goads his fellowes forward to be drunke with his perswasiue termes as I dranke to you I pray pledge me you dishonour me you disgrace mee and with such like words doth vrge his consorts forward to be drunke as oxen being prickt with goads are compeld and forced to draw the Waine But to returne to their friendship if thou art in want misery these companions will not know thee and if by chance thou come in house where as they are to shun thy company they strait call Chamberlaine giues a priuate roome And he that before would spend a crowne vpon thee to make thee drunke will not now in thy penury lend thee sixe pence to make thee eate although for
lacke of foode thou staruest in the street But I will councell you with Nash All you that will not haue your braines twice sodden The fruits of drunkenesse your flesh rotten with the Dropsie that loue not to goe in greasie dublets stockings out at heeles and weare Alehouse daggers at your backes leaue this company keeping this slabbering brauerie that will make you haue stinking breathes and your faces blowed like bladders deckt with pimples your bodies smell like Brewers aprons It will bring you in your old age to bee companions with none but Porters Oastlers and Carmen to talke out of a Cage rayling as Drunkards are wont a hundred boyes wondring about them It is a most bewitching sinne and being once entred into hard to forgoe Saint Austen compares it to the pit of hell into which when one is once falling there is no redemption Therefore you that are free from it reioyce and desire God so to keep you and you that are entring into it forgoe it in time as S. Iames saith Iam. 4.7.8 Resist the Diuell and hee will flie from you draw neere to God and he will draw neere to you Take heede lest you take a habite in it and so it grow to a custome and then like the grand Drunkards of this age of whom I know too many you account it no sinne For consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati the custome of sinning taketh away the feeling of sinne But with these Drunkards I haue not to doe for no admonishment but banishment will make them leaue it For I feare the Lord hath done by them as by Ieremiah Iere. 51.39 he threatneth the Babylonians he hath giuen them ouer to a perpetuall drunkennes Others excuse themselues and thinke they are free from this vice because through the strength of their braines and bodies they can carry more then others and boast although they dranke as much as any in the company and that their consorts were drunke Yet they were fresh enough it is a small conquest they haue got when in excessiue drinking they haue ouercome all their companions seeing in conquering they are ouercome and are shamefully foyled and ouerthrowne by Sathan their chiefe enemy whilest they triumph in a drunken victory ouer their friends these men for want of vertue in them bragge of their vice but Habakuk saith Haba 2.15.16 woe vnto him that giueth his neighbour drinke thou ioynest thine heate and makest him drunken that thou maist see his priuities Isa 28.3 The Lords right hand shall be turned vnto thee and shameful spuing shall be for thy glory And Isaiah saith Prouer. 11. The crowne and the pride of the Drunkard shall be troden vnder feete And in the fift chapter hee pronounceth a woe vnto them which rise vp early to follow Drunkennes and to them that continue vntill night c. The Philosopher saith Nulla capitalior pestis hominibus à natura data est quam Ebrietas nam ex hac fonte prodit quicquid est in hominum vite scelerum calamitatum Nature neuer sent amongst men a more deadlier plague then Drunkennes for it is the well-spring from whence floweth all manner of mischiefe and calamitie that happens to men Wine hath as much force as fire for as soone as it hath ouertaken any it dispatcheth him For it discloseth the secrets of the soule and troubleth the whole minde A drunken gouernour and ruler of any thing whatsoeuer bringeth all to ruine and ouerthrow whether it be a Ship or a Wagon or Armie or any other thing committed to his charge The consideration whereof made the Philosopher say when the Wine is in a man hee is as a running Coach without a Coachman Therefore they that delight not onely to see but also to force their neighbors to sinne in this vice by vrging them to drinke more then they would onely to pledge them doe no otherwise then if they made it their glory and pastime to see God dishonoured his name blaspheamed his creatures abused and their friends and companions damned To reioyce to see a man drunk is no otherwise then to be glad to see a the vngodly and sinner appeare These men are imitators of Tiberius and Vitellius most beastly and luxurious Emperours of Rome who were drunke and rioted all night and sleepe and rested all day The first for his beastly conditions of Tiberius was called biberius Suetonius of Claudius caâ—dius of Nero Mero in his drunkennesse be caused Rome to be fired yet before he died as a iust plague vnto him he was forced to drink puddle water and commended the same for an admirable drinke â—aâ—llius Reguat but eight-monthes and for feare of the Citizens punishment was forced to stab himselfe the other was drawne through the streets with a halter about his necke and shamefully put to death a right reward and good example for drunken Magistrates and gouernours But I could wish that ryotous persons would note and take example by the gouernment of Antonius Pius T. Anto. P. was the 16. Emper. of Rome 23. yeeres in whose time when hee perceiued the people of Rome giuen to drinke without measure he made a law that none should sell Wine but the Apothecaries in their shops and onely for the sicke and diseased Or behold the gouernment of Alexander Seuerus Alex. 26. Empe. Rom. 13. yeeres who quite purged Rome from all the filthy vices and fowle enormities bred in the time of his predecessor Helyogabalus and reduced it to the ancient and ciuill gouernment that Cicero writeth of in his Booke of lawes wherein he affirmeth that no Roman durst goe in the streetes If that he bare not a shew in his hand whereon hee did liue In consideration thereof the Consull did beâ—re a Battle Axe before him the Praetors a Hat in the maner of a Coyfe the Tribunes a Mace the Cutler 's a Sword the Taylors a payre of Sheares the Smithes a Hammer the Orators a Booke not permitting that those that were Masters of Sciences should bee schollars of vices in such sort that Marcus Aurelius in making mention of the ancient diligence of the Romans writeth that they did also employ with such a zeale their labours and trauely that in Rome could not be found an idle person to carry a letter two or three dayes iourney But if this law of the Romans were in force with vs how many thousands if they made shew of the trade and arte they professed would be forced to goe vp and down with quart pots in their hands our Nation is so polluted with this vice of Drunkennesse that the great drinkings of forraine Countries compared to ours are but sippings We haue them that drinke more in a yeere Maximillion the Emp. is sayd to deuour forry pound of flesh drink a hogshead of wine in one day then Maximillion the Emperour And others that drink more at a draught then any Hackney horse The historie that