three more in Germany for the like offence were all found dead the next morning In Almain in the year 1580 one drinking a Health to God stretching his hand towards Heaven with a cup of Wine was dead in that posture neither by strength could be removed the other by the people was hanged on Gibbets before the door I have heard also of some struck suddenly dead in the very act some drowned some scalded to death some choaked with the Drink some broke their necks some lying in the way were slain by Carts some in their Drink murthered their Parents many that have caught surfets and died upon them he that would read more examples of this nature may find them in Beard 's Theatre of Gods Judgments and in Mr. Clearks Treatise upon the same subject but the experience of our own times may spare us that labour for who is so great a stranger in the neighbourhood he lives in but may add examples of this nature how oft do we hear and see men struck dead in the very act or suddenly after with Surfeits or otherwise were it but convenient the time the place the persons names might be produced and no man of discretion that takes any notice of Gods dealings in the world but may add some experience which shews Gods hatred of this detestable Vice for I think he hath not more eminently appeared against any Sin except it be against Atheism Blasphemy Adultery or Persecution of the power of Godliness than against this If therefore you would not be guilty of your own death and become the object of Gods infinite hatred and dreadful Judgments If you would not run violently upon your own destruction and force God to cut you off as an unprofitable unuseful member beware of this Sin for doubtless 't is the ready way to temporal and eternal death and if death arrest you by such a Sergeant as this your case is lamentable Consid 10. But the greatest danger is yet behind and that is the loss of the Soul which is ten thousand times greater than the loss of life Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life yet the Soul is in more danger than it and where this Sin is predominant 't is a sad sign of an ungracious heart and that the wrath of God hangs over their heads God pronounceth wo to such and who then can speak peace Wo to the Crown of Pride the Drunkards of Ephraim Wo to those that rise early to drink strong drink and continue till night till Wine enflame them Wo to those that are mighty to drink Wine and men of strength to mingle strong Drink Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink and putteth the Bottle to him and maketh him drunk Doth God speak in earnest or in jest or can he or will he make good his threatnings If so what a woful condition are Drunkards in 't is for this Sin that Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth without measure Isa 5. 14. These are the men Whose end is destruction whose God is their Belly whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. They Sacrifice to nothing else but the Creature Thus saith the Lord to such drink and be drunken and spew and fall and never rise again this is spoken to those that make it their business to drink and make others drunk also Jer. 25. 27. These are plying the Devils work and he is preparing them their wages which he will pay them at the day Those that now so profusely spend and wast Gods good Creatures given by him for an higher end the time is coming and will not be long if Repentance prevent not they will not be able to purchase one drop of water to cool their tongues Remember this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces when there is none to deliver Without Repentance Hell will be your portion and the place of your habitation and endless easeless and remediless Torments are the wages which the Devil pays to his miserable Servants for their most faithful service see the doom of your elder Brother Matth. 24. 49. c. that neglecting the duty God required at his hands to give his fellow-servants meat in due season and doing the work the Devil enjoyned him in beating them and eating and drinking with the Drunkards He was cut in sunder and his portion appointed him with Hypocrites and that unfaithful unprofitable Servant that hid his Talent in the earth was cast out into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 25. 30. and if only those shall have the sentence of absolution at the last day that have fed the hungry clothed the naked relieved the stranger c. Mat. 25. 34 c. What will become of you that spend the poor's part yea and pluck the very meat from the mouths of your Wives and Children and make many others want meat by your extravagancies you know not but some may this day be in Hell tormented in those flames for those very Sins which you occasioned them to commit and no doubt many more will be which may be a sad reflexion upon your own heart If God should give you repentance this may be a Corasive to you you help to destroy men but cannot give repentance but if you repent not the blood of their souls will be required at your hand and did you know the price of this blood you would beware The time is coming a separation will be made between the precious and the vile and though the Wheat and the Tares grow together ere long they shall be separated the wheat shall be gathered into barns but the tares shall be bundled up Swearers with Swearers and Drunkards with Drunkards and burnt with unquenchable fire Drunkenness is compared by some to Chain-shot it sends men to Hell by clusters some other sins to single Bullets that kills but one at once There are many that have knowledge enough in other things and yet know not the way to Heaven they can search Natures Garden from end to end but cannot search their own hearts they are well skill'd abroad strangers at home They are like the Lamiae a sort of Witches that were blind at home quick-sighted abroad They are skilled in all Courts but the Court of Conscience but let them have never so much knowledge they are really fools to sell their souls to Satan for so low a value as a belly-full of Ale They are worse than Esau that sold his birth-right for a Mess of Pottage or a King I have read of that lost his Kingdom for a Draught of Water Can we imagine those are Christians that cannot deny themselves in a Cup of Drink when they have enough before The first Lesson in Christs School is Self-denial and if we deny not forsake not Father Mother Wife and Children yea hate all and our own lives we cannot be his Disciple Can those men lay down
their lives for Christ that cannot deny their sensual Appetite Was it ever known that a Debaucht Drunkard ever suffered for him As Drink increaseth their Thirst and the more they drink the more they may so Drunkenness increaseth Hell-fire like Oyl which will never be quenched The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. 23. Nay God tells us as plain as he can speak that a Drunkard shall not go to Heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 10. 19 20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Sedition Heresie Envying Murther Drunkenness Revilings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And I fear that most Drunkards are guilty of many of these What now can you say for your selves why this is not your portion Do you think God is not just will he speak one thing and do another or is he not able to do as he saith and that you shall go to Heaven notwithstanding See what God saith to such Deut. 29. 19 c. He that heareth the words of this Curse and blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the stubborness of my heart adding Drunkenness to Thirst the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lite upon him and God shall blot out his name from under heaven However great Offenders in this life may escape temporal judgments yet spiritual judgments which are far more dangerous seize upon them blindness of mind hardness of heart searedness of conscience a reprobate sense strong delusions c. and eternal judgments dog them at the heels the Devil that now sets them on work takes notice of their work that he may not be behind with them with their wages but what this wages is the tongue of men nor angels cannot fully describe for though the torments themselves are exquisite yet the duration is an aggravation though the pain of loss be inexpressible and the pain of sense be insupportable yet Eternity is unimaginable and though the pain of sense be ten thousand times beyond our conceiving yet the perpetuity of it will be the greatest torment and the word Never will be a Hell in the midst of Hell If the Drunkard were to suffer but a thousand years in Hell for every Cup of Drink he hath drunk above measure and this would be dear-bought pleasure yet were there hopes an end would come Ah! but what is this to Eternity Oh Eternity Eternity how shall we conceive of thee how shall we number thee If this be the Drunkards portion we may well say as the Holy Ghost doth Woe to them Job 10. 50. If I be wicked woe to me If the aking of the head saith one came before the Drinking of the Wine which usually follows it there would be few Drunkards But I think we may well say If but one hour the pains of Hell were felt by them it would make them sober all their life If now you would not lose the use of Reason and be transformed into a Beast if you would not bring upon your Body Deformities without and Infirmities within if you would not bring reproaches upon your self and bury your good name in obloquy if you would not debauch your soul and incline it to all manner of wickedness if you would be preserved from that filthy sin of Adultery to which this inclines you if you would not waste your Estate ruin your Family undo your Wife and Children and bring them to beggery if you would not unfit your self for any calling and Employment or any Duty to God or Man if you would not by intemperance hasten your own death and set a period to your life if you would not bring the horrible judgments of God upon you and force him to cut you off in the midst of your days and if you would not lose your Soul and suffer the vengeance of Eternal Fire take heed of this filthy beastly sin of Drunkenness which carries all those evils and many more in the belly of it Thus you see what Charge I have drawn up against this sin of Drunkenness and much more may be said for 't is a fearful Mother and most sins are bred in the Womb of it or fed or fostered by it for in sin almost nothing can be named but Drunkenness doth patronize it and excites men to the practice of it I do not hereby intend or mean that all that are addicted to it are guilty of all other villany some perhaps never blasphemed or murthered yet this in others is the cause of blasphemy and murther neither do I mean that all that ever were overtaken with Drink that they are thus to be tearmed A Godly Man may have his slips though this is rare but there is a difference between a Sheep and a Swine as I said the one falls into the Mire unwillingly the other wallows in it so here some are surprized unawares as 't is conceived Noah was These by repentance wash away their spot and others seek occasions and are not well till they find them And now though I have done with Drunkenness in the general yet have I not done with you in particular for I conceive your sin admits of many aggravations which some other mens sins do not and that is worse in you then in them some of those I shall draw up against you that if possible I may shame you out of it for though this sin by some is compared to Hell few fall into it that recover and by some to the Gout incurable yet I having known some have recovered I am not out of hope The aggravations are these Aggra 1. Consider your Education which was Civil nay not only Civil but Religious you are extracted from those that were Ancicient professors trained up in Family Duties Prayer and Praise the Word of God was read in the Family and many a prayer put up with you and for you you were dedicated to God in your Baptismal Vow which since you owned and were listed into his company and shall all this be lost upon you it had been better then for you that you had had Turks or Pagans for your Parents Many an Exhortation and loving Admonition you have had the danger of sinful courses you have been told you have had examples and presidents of a Holy Life before you and some of the contrary and you have seen the
their Swords in each others Bowels as we read Alexander in his Drink killed his dear friend Clit us only for disallowing his profuse Healths and had he been suffered would afterwards have killed himself and it was not long before he and thirty five more of his consorts killed themselves by immoderate Drinking at one time and forty of his Companions at another But we need not look far for Examples our own Age our own Nation our own Neighbourhood yields us too many how many of our Gallants and youthful Gentlemen within a few years and a few miles have caught their death by their excessive Drinking and died of Surfeits almost every Parish Town and Hamlet may afford examples of some that have come to an untimely end this way either in their Drink killing one another and so come to the Gallows or breaking their necks drowning burning scalding and some such accident or by Surfets Feavors Gouts Dropsies or some dangerous uncurable Disease gotten this way which puts a period to their Lives and Drinking or that by this means run into Misery Danger Debt Poverty and dye on a Dunghil in a Barn c. for want of sustenance or end their days in Prison these and such like are the fruits and effects of this filthy Sin this Sin is as one calls it A flattering Devil a sweet Poison the bane of virtue the Mother of vice voluntary madness the Author of quarrels contentions strife and debate The Drunkard's heart is a fit receptacle for all Vice for as Frogs live and thrive in a filthy lake a stinking ditch where no Fish can abide so Vices are nourished here but no Virtue can live but is poisoned When the old World could not overcome Noah this filthy Sin did this sets it self against the Law of God of Grace of Nature and of Nations 't is the grief of Friends the scorn of Enemies the ruin of Families it opens Hell and shuts Heaven Gates against us The Soul where this filthy Pestiferous weed grows is like that which was sowed with Salt it became baren to every thing that was good The Graces of the Spirit of God cannot abide to dwell in such a nasty House or to lodg with such a filthy Bedfellow for as Smoke drives away Bees so Drunkenness drives away the Spirit of God all holy desires and good resolutions and quencheth all holy motions and is as water to the Fire extinguishing all hopeful beginnings 't is like the Mare mortuum wherein no good Fish can live and therefore if you would not be accessary to your own death both of Body and Soul if you will not run the hazard of a sudden or violent or untimely death or fil your bodies with Surfets Feavors Gouts Dropsies c. by intemperance take heed in time of this filthy Sin for these are the natural Products of it and God doth usually witness against it by such judgments as these Consid 9. Consider the horrible Judgments which God the righteous Judg hath brought upon offenders in this kind In the time of the Law as we may see Deut. 21. 18 19 20. God commanded If a Father had a Son that was a Glutton or a Drunkard and upon reproof and correction would not amend the Father of that Son should bring him out to the Elders of the City and they should stone him Now if Magistrates are negligent of their Duty and will not punish this Sin according to its demerits and if the Ecclesiastical Courts take little notice of it then God is forced to take the Sword in his own hand and cut off the putrified member and though he be slow yet many times he strikes home nay he doth not spare his own people yet he lets them blood as a Physician not as an Executioner As for the other though he reserves many till the general Assizes to have their doom yet some he hangs up in Chains that others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly Noah though a good man and escaping the pollutions of the old World was after tainted with this Sin God suffered him to uncover his nakedness and to be a laughingstock to his own Son who by this means entailed the curse to him and his Posterity and the generation then to come had cause to bewail the act Righteous Lot whose righteous Soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked Sodomites fell through this Sin to that of Incest for this seldom goes alone and became the Father of the Moabites and Ammonites two cursed generations haters of God and his People which had he lived to see would have been a further trouble to him My intention is not in reciting these examples to rank them amongst Drunkards or confer that odious name upon them for 't is not our bare simple act deserves or can fasten such an imputation upon them A godly man by the subtilty of Satan's temptations and the prevalency of corruptions or inadvertency not knowing the nature of Wine as it may be imagined of Noah if not of the other may fall in the Sin but there is difference between a Sheep falling in a foul way which riseth again shakes himself and takes better heed and a Swine that wittingly willingly and delightfully wallows in the mire A Godly man through imprudence or want of heed may have a fall and lose some degrees of innocency which is great cause of shame and Sorrow but those that make it their Trade and daily practice best deserve the name But Gods dealing with others is more severe Elah the King of Israel drinking himself Drunk in his Steward's House was killed by Zimri his own Servant a sad death especially at such a time when he was most unfit to dye the like had befallen Nabal in his Drunkenness had not wise Abigail prevented it and when he heard the danger he was in his heart became as a stone within him and he died 1 Sam. 25. 36 c. Amnon one of holy Davids ungracious Sons who before had ravished his Sister Tamar and when his heart was merry with Wine was slain by the Command of his Brother Absalon 2 Sam. 13. 28. Benhadad and the thirty two Kings that were with him being all Drunk a sad example to their Servants had his mighty Army defeated by a handful of Ahabs men and hardly escaped with his life Belshazzer carousing Wine with his Wives and Concubines in the Vessels of the Temple had the Hand-writing sent by God upon the Wall which foretold his ruin and destruction which suddenly fell out accordingly Holofernes in his Drink was killed by Judeth and should we examine the Records of all ages you may find God's terrible hand stretched out against men of this profession some have grown so audacious as to drink Healths to the Devil himself such a beast or rather Monster was Pope John the twelfth or as some reckon the thirteenth A Lincolnshire man drinking a Health to the Devil fell down dead in the place