Prayer The Argument to press it is the same with one of the former The end of all things is at hand 't is the last Age of the world and how long soever that Age may be yet your end of all things cannot be far off be ye therefore Sober the Duties ye have to do and the preparation ye are to make will not be done at an Ale-house nor by a person that is not himself He must live a Sober man that would be sure to die so And the command in 1 Pet. 5.8 back't by an Argument that may fright us into Obedience Be Sober for your Adversary the Devil c. If those that have Reason and Grace have enough to do to preserve themselves from such an enemy how much in danger shall we be when we have neither The Apostles word of Command to Christians in their Engagements against the Devil is Stand And he commendeth to them the whole Armour of God that having done all they may stand Eph. 6.13.14 i. e. Persevere in their Christian course stand in a way of Faith and in a way of Duty in what posture shall we be for this when we cannot so much as stand upon our Leggs Instead of arming our selves against the Devil we arm the Devil against our selves if we lose our Sobriety See how 2. God forbids the contrary Sometimes 1. In most patheticall Expressions to allure us from it Not in rioting and drunkenness Rom. 13.13 by reading which Scripture St. Augustine is reported to have been converted Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess Eph. 5.18 Observe the Love and Sweetness that runs through these expressions Cast off the works of darkness amongst which this is a very dark one indeed you may instead of it Put on the Lord Jesus Christ Be not drunken with Wine but is there any thing instead of it wherewith we may be fitted at a better rate Yes Be ye filled with the Spirit And mark what the Love and Kindness of God would insinuate none but Sober persons can put on Christ neither will the Spirit of God fill any but Sober hearts Sometimes 2 In most terrifying Expressions to fright us out of it Such I hope you will judge all those Woes that are directed against it by the Lord in Scripture as Esa 5.11.22 and 28.1 Hab. 2.15 If you ask what these Woes have in the womb of them I cannot tell only this we may be sure of that Vae minantis a Woe of threatning when God doth pronounce it cannot bring forth less than Vae dolentis a woe of Lamentation wherever it lights So against God 2. Against our own Souls Drunkenness having a mischievous influence upon them both 1. Physically as they are rational 2. Morally as they are sanable 1 As they are Rational abating the Excellency and depriving us of the use of those noble faculties that the goodness of God hath bestowed upon us the Act of it turning men into very Beasts and a Habit of it into Fools How little of Wisdom Wit Judgment Memory Intention how much of Sottishness Nonsence Folly do we ordinarily find in those Brains that are steept in Ale In Hosea 4.11 Whoredom and Wine and new Wine take away the heart The Heart you know is usually put to signifie the whole inner man and all the Powers of it These drunkenness as to their use and excellency takes away and in many persons to such a degree that they have nothing left but their shapes to prove themselves men Much according to the Character that Demetrius gives of one of them Ecce quadratam Statuam habentem syrma ventrem pudenda et barbam We may safely add a little in the Englishing of it Behold a well made Statue having a Cloak if he have not drunk it away a mouth a throat a belly and a beard a head a skull but not a word of any thing within that is worth the naming We cannot well take a nearer way to soak out of our Souls whatever is ingenious or rational than to pickle them up in drink good parts perishing no other way at such a rate as they do by drowning 2. As they are sanable And this it doth as 1. It is Sin 2. It is a great Sin 3. Disposing us to other Sins 4. Indisposing us to Repentance 1. It is a sin a transgression of the Law in 1 Pet. 5.8 if there were no more Be sober It 's a work of the flesh Gal. 5.21 But other things are Sins too be it so yet the wages of every Sin is death Rom 6.23 i. e. Hell but this is 2. A great Sin So are not all I mean in comparison with others You may take the altitude of it in these particulars viz. 1. 'T is a Sin against the very Law of Nature as well as against the written Law of God being amongst those evils in which there is so much evil and deformity that if there were no external Law at all against it a rational nature must needs look upon it with abhorrency So the School-men making several ranks of natural Precepts place General Precepts in the first such as are per se nota as honestum est faciendum pravum vitandum Then Particular ones in the second and amongst those that videndum est Temperatè We must live Soberly And that instinct and impression of nature that hath in beasts some similitude with that Law of nature that is in man doth we see ingage them to sobriety Those many Laws made by Pagans a-against intemperancy must needs be by Direction from nature having not the Scripture to be guided by Now that sin which doth not only break through all the restraints which are set it by the Law of God but withall flies in the face of Nature and Reason and bespeaks a man less obedient to his Principles than beasts are to their's is a great Sin Some things are Mala quia prohibita This is prohibitum quia Malum 2. 'T is a Sin that defaceth the Image of God in us at a rate beyond all other sins For whereas we all lost in Adam the gracious qualities of our Souls by this sin we throw away the natural qualities of our Souls too The first sin took away our Holiness and Righteousness this as if that were not enough takes away our Reason and Understanding also But of this already 3. 'T is a Sin that is by name set down amongst those Sins that do exclude us from the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 3. It disposeth us to other Sins I shall 1. Set down some Sins by name 2. Shew our disposition to all Sins when we are not Sober 1. Some Sins are by name in Scripture set down as the ordinary effects of Drunkenness viz. ex gra 1. Babling Prov. 23.29 When a swoln Tongue shall be set a running by an intoxicated brain what loud loose impertinent lewd idle and ridiculous discourses will it not tumble into If a man had nothing else to do and
never been born A Sin it is lying so heavy upon the Spirits of Parents that the Law of God did heretofore in pity provide them a way to be rid of such Children See Deut. 21.19 20 21. An insupportable cross must it needs be that can prevail with parents to seek the death of their Children yet this it seems was supposed enough to do it it being better to see them once buried than so often drowned for when they are in their graves they know the worst of them 2. Wives who were very ill-advised if their purpose was not to be married to Men and not unto Beasts Doth not Drunkenness waste their goods as well as our own make their lives bitter expose them to Temptations render our Society at least not desirable Can we dwell with them according to knowledge when we have lost our understanding Pray for them and instruct them when we are not able to speak govern them when we cannot govern our selves give them honour as weaker vessels when we have degraded our selves into much weaker Not to mention those abuses that we are very apt to offer even unto our own flesh when we have lost our Sobriety 3. Against our Children whose food and raiment and education contributes to to make up every drunken reckoning that we have a share in besides that mighty abomination of Example that we set before them Children being extreamly apt to imitate their Parents How many have instead of laying up for their Children drunk up from them what the good Providence of God had bountifully provided employing all their husbandry in turning whatever they have into Ale and leaving their Posterity to seek their bread out of desolate places Sobriety is a Dvty we owe 4. To our Families and 5. Against our Estates He that loveth Wine shall not be rich Prov. 21-17 That perhaps is no great matter but the drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty and drowziness shall cloath a man with rags in Prov. 23.21 But it is clearly our Duty to be providently careful to get and keep those things that are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature and suitable to our condition See Pro. 27.23 ad finem Now is not daily sacrificing and the offering up of drink-offerings to an insatiable throat the way to any such thing 6. Against our Neighbours to whom in our drunken fits we are very ready to be injurious many wayes 1. To intice them to the same Sin Men that are of easie and Ductile natures upon whom there is any probability of prevailing can hardly follow their callings in quietness for solicitations of this nature A man going to be drunk is like a man ready to be drowned who will catch hold of any one that is next him that if it be possible they may sink together Drunkards and good Fellows would not so properly be two names of the same persons were it a Sin that is ordinarily committed by one alone And that handsomer notion of Company-keeping under which it is wont to pass would not be a language so easily understood 2. Whom are not our Tongues in such a case ready to fall upon in Lies Railing Slanders and what not I have read of a young man being invited to an entertainment spake very freely against the Bishop for which being afterwards questioned made only this reply That if he should be in the same condition again he thought he should fall about the ears of the twelve Apostles themselves in case they came in his way Theat P. 804. David speaks of some wicked men that their tongue goeth through the earth Psal 73.9 Our's are never fitted to travel at such a rate as when we are able to move them freely in our mouths when we are least able to go they are readiest to run and to run descant upon whomsoever they please One is a fool another a knave one covetous another proud every one is any thing that they please to style him One broacheth the censure another swears 't is true a third drinks upon it to confirm it This is the ordinary discipline of an Ale-House where being sate at Bench they take upon them to Judge the world 3. To the soberer sort of people our Debauchedness is a continual offence we fetch tears from their eyes and send grief to their hearts and if we come near them do even stink in their nostrils Sobriety is a Duty we owe 6. to our Neighbours 7. Against the Kingdom rendring us useless in our several stations for the publick good Drunkenness 1. Positively is the occasion of much evil 2. Negatively doth altogether unfit us for the doing of any good 1. Is the occasion of much evil I mean of suffering being it self so great an evil of Sin calling down the Judgments of God upon a whole Kingdom and in particular a scarcity of those Creatures which are abused in Esay 5.11 12. the Sin v. 13. the Judgment in Joel 1.5.10 11 12. So we devour the plenty and swallow down the necessary provisions of a whole Kingdom 2. It unfits us for the doing of any good for Counsel or Action in Peace or War in a private Capacity or a Publick to make Laws or to execute or to keep them Whether the mind or the body the head or the hand be to be employed we have not the use of either to any purpose If we be Rulers miserable is the condition of those that be under us as Eccles 10.16 17. Woe c. Prov. 31.4 5. If we be private persons no man that is wise and good will have any Society with us Cato the Elder being ask't why he rejected the Acquaintance of a Drunkard that did earnestly desire it Because saith he Vivere non possum cum eo qui melius et subtilius Palato quam Corde sentit I cannot live with one who hath more Sense in his Throat than in his Heart or his Head who is good at nothing but at Swallowing and is ever washing down his Brains into his Belly Sobriety is a Duty we owe. 8. Against the Church Drunkenness being a Scandal to the Gospel an Offence to such as desire to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World And the Person guilty so odious a member if he must needs pass for one that Christians are commanded not to eat with him 1 Cor. 5 11. But are enjoyned to put away from among themselves such a wicked person v. 13. You see I hope by this time that Sobriety is the Duty of Christians See now how little reason men have as to Conscience and Duty to put it to the Question whether they be Drunk To call for Proofs that they are and urge Arguments that they are not that they are able to give a man an answer if they lie in the High-way are able to hold up their hands if a Cart be like to be driven over them c. The question should be Whether we be Sober That is our Duty Whether
this is done by that Heathenish Custom of drinking Health to a dear Friend a great Person to the Prince himself which many Persons think they ought not to refuse upon pain of forfeiting their Allegiance a most reasonless and ridiculous Practice What influence hath my drinking upon another mans health May I not as soon eat or sleep or talk or dig or thresh or buy or sell his Health as drink it or is he a jot more concerned in the one than in the other yea if immoderate and needless bibbing be as it is a sin how much more unlawful is it to swear or curse or lie or steal a health to a friend than 't is to drink it I called it a Heathenish Practice and so it is and most of the rest but now mentioned The Pagans had their Arbitrum bibendi their Master of Misrule at their drunken meetings whose office it was to give orders how long and how much every one must drink they were wont to throw the Die and to drink according to their Casts to drink so many Healths as there were Letters in their Mistresses names Hakw Apol. 410. The Drunken Greeks Deos Amicos inter pocula salutant nominatimque appellant evacuato Poculo Drank whole ones as Healths to their Idols and to their Friends making mention of them by name and having drunk to any one took care to have a full Cup delivered him and would be sure to look to his Liquor The Lacedaemonians eundem Calicem circumagebant would have the same Cup go round Theat 800. You see whose Copy we write after not a word of any such Practice in Abraham Isaac or Jacob in Christ Peter or any Saint of God recorded in Scripture Declined indeed by all grave and prudent Persons who will pray for their Friends Health but drink only for their own Let us for a Conclusion study to be Sober By way of Motive let me have leave to press you with what we have said already Consider it then 1. As it is a Duty we owe unto God Doth that nothing prevail with us who is it that made us and preserveth us and giveth us Life and Breath and all things who spares us and keeps us out of Hell whose Patience and Bounty and goodness do we spend upon every day Is there no Grace no Gratitude no good Nature in us to comply with the God of all our mercies or if there be not is not he that denounceth so many Woes against the contrary Sin able to bring them all upon our heads Is he not a consuming fire a great God and a terrible And shall we no more regard the Power of his wrath or do we think to wet our selves at such a rate that the flames of Hell shall not take upon us Whatever it be if it be a Duty we owe to God we are bound to discharge it How many more Engagements to such a Duty as this is we ought to obey should God command us with Abraham to sacrifice an only Son shall we stick at the sacrifice of a stinking Lust or with the same Abraham to forsake our native Countrey shall we not forsake a nasty Ale-house In obedience unto God Daniel would pray though he were thrown in to the Lions in Rebellion against God shall we drink though we be thrown into Hell 2. As a Duty to our own Souls Let us every one consider what his Soul is worth that excellent Piece of God's Workmanship created after his own Image redeemable by nothing but the blood of his own Son is this a Soul to be drunk away To be sent swimming towards the Chambers of Death in a tub of Ale When the Harbour men ordinarily lie in an Ale house and their loading is nothing but Drink can the end of their Voiage be any thing but destruction This is a Sin and every Sin is damnable this is a great Sin against the very Law of nature defacing more of the Image of God in us than any other Sin that is committable and when our Trade is in great Sins our Returns must needs be in a great Damnation It disposeth us unto other Sins Now doth the Original Corruption of it self without any help at all put us the Lord knows sufficiently forward to any thing that is evil have we any need to improve it to dung it and water it ever and anon that it may bring forth more fruit unto death And what are the Sins we are apt to reel into when we are Drunk are they such Peccadillos such small and venial faults that we should not care how often we put our selves into the next capacity of committing them If it be babling of every idle word c. If it be contention the Apostle tells us it brings forth Confusion and every evil work James 3. If it be Whoredom and Adultery God will judge us for it yea though it be committed no where but in the heart If it be Contempt and scorn of the People of God It were better that a Mill-stone c. If it be Security 't will bring sudden Destruction upon us as Travail upon a woman with Child and we shall not escape 1 Thes 5.3 But Pauperis est numerare Pecus This Sin is too rich to bring the Revenues of it into any Catalogue What evil is it that Drunkenness doth not dispose us to shaking off all those restraints that should keep our original Corruption in any order and putting us into a posture of breaking every one of Gods Commandments And if he that shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.19 he that shall be made fit to break them all and shall make himself so must needs discover an Ambition to be one of the greatest in the Kingdom of Hell But Repentance will help all this True but where shall we have it Repentance is the gift of God and he gives it by means to the use of which this Sin doth mightily indispose us A belly-ful of Ale and a heart ful of penitent tears seldom meet together That God can turn us no body doubts And such were some of you but c. 1 Cor. 6.11 is a Gospel Instance that we should not doubt it but that he who in all his Life had never yet grace enough to civilize him should at last presume to have enough to save him is such a hazard that no man that knows the worth of a Soul would be perswaded to put it upon it for a thousand Worlds Besides is the use of our Senses our Understandings Reason Judgment Memory of no value that we should so often so easily be perswaded to deprive our selves of them Was that Candle of the Lord as Solomon calls the Intellectual powers of the Soul Pro. 20.27 that we should throw Drink upon it to put it out Are we weary of our Essences as men that we have a mind to wash