thievish sinne that steals away mens time wealth wits that robs the poore of their due this slanderous sin that loades the world with tales and slanders against the Host of the living God this Atheisticall sinne that believes no more the threates and promises of God then if some Imposter had spoken them this hellish sinne which hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings this unnaturall sinne that puts off al thoughts of ones familie ones selfe and sends him on grazing with Nebuc hadnezzar this sinne this vile sinne thus transcendent let him first dwell upon and lay to heart the things formerly delivered that by this tast hee may learne to detest the drunkards qualities let him remove and take heed of all the forenamed causes especially of affecting popular applause and reputation of good fellowship that so the causes being removed and taken away the effect may cease to unlearn evill is the best kind of learning Next observe these Rules which I shall but touch whereof some are generall some more proper and peculiar The generall meanes are § 174. FIrst believe thine estate dangerous and that there is but one way to helpe thee viz. to repent what thou hast done and never more to doe what thou hast repented not fostering one knowne sin in thy soule for the only way to become good is first to believe that thou art evill and by accusing our selves we prevent Sathan by judging our selves we prevent God And lastly one hole in a Ship may sinke her one Bullet may kill a man aswel as twenty neither is repentance without amendment any more then to pump and never stop the leake 2. Secondly if thou beest convinced and resolvest upon a new course let thy resolution bee peremptory and constant If with these premonitions the Spirit vouchsafes to stirre in thy heart by good motions and holy purposes to obey God in lâ—tting thy sinnes go as once the Angel in the Poole of Bethesda take hold of opportunity and having eares to heare harken what the Spirit faith and take heed you harden not againe as Pharaoh and the Philistins did Thou knowest Pharaoh had many purposes to obey God in letting the children of Israel goe but still hardens againe as often as he purposed untill God had almost destroyed the whole Land yea after hee had stood out nine plagues when death entred within his Palaces he dismissed the people but presently after in all hast makes after them to fetch them back againe yea he could seeme religious when the fit tooke him every great plague put him into a Feaver and then he was godly of a sudden O pray for me now but when the fit was over Pharaâ—h was Pharâ—â—h againe as prophane as ever nine times hee began to relent and nine times againe hee hardened his heart but he was never good egg nor bird his beginning was naught his proceeding worse and who could looke for better at his later end and the Philistins being five times punished five times repented themselves and at last returned to their old by as againe in which they remained constant 1 Samuel 5. and 6. Chapters Againe Pilate had strong purposes and desires to let Christ goe yet at lenght condemned him to content the people Luke 23. 22. to 25. The young man in the Gospel resolved verily to follow Christ but turned backe and went away sorrowfull when hee heard the condition propounded of giving that he had to the poore Mat. 19. 22. Iudas was grieved for murthering Christ yet no change ensued hee after murthered himselfe all these conceptions dyed before they came to the birth therfore take heed least it should fare so with thee How many thousand good motions of the Holy Ghost prove still-borne and abortive through our negligence or be over-laid with our vanities we use them as Iulius Caesar did the Paper that concerned his owne life all the other petitions he read only that he put in his pocket and never look'd on it Men commonly regard the songs of Sion as they doe musicke which they heare at night in the streets whiles they are in bed perhaps they will step to the window and listen to it awhile as if they lik'd it but presently to bed againe O doe not like the Israelites who are said to heare God and in the same Chapter to worship the Calfe quench not the Spirit 1 Thes. 5. 19. If thou be upon the mountaine looke not backe againe upon Sodome as Lot's wife did If thou be within the Arke fly not out againe into the world as Nâ—ah's Crow did If thou bee well washed returne not againe to the mire as the Hog doth If thou beest clean purged turne not againe to thy filthy vomit as the Dog doth If thou be going towards the land of Canaan think not of the flesh-pots of Egypt If thou have set thy hand to the plow looke not behind thee for better not begin then leave off having begun better remaine cold then first bee hot then luke-warme and after key-cold againe For as in naturall things as water that which hath beene a little warmed becommeth more cold then if it had never had any heat in it so in spirituall the evill spirit having once forsaken a man if he returnes to that house after it is empty swept and garnished he bringeth with him seven more spirits worse then himselfe and the latter end of that man is worse then his beginning Matth. 12. 43. 45. Thus it fared with Iulian the apostate and Iudas the traitor who suffering the divell to enter into him when he had newly received the Sacrament he could never afterward be driven out againe so if the divell enter intothee after thouhastreceived this warning had these good purposes and made these holy resolutions he will possesse thee like Iudas stronger then he did before Oh it is a fearefull thing to receive the grace of God in vaine and a desperate thing being warned of a Rock wilfully to cast our selves upon it Wherefore resemble not the Chelidony stone which retaineth his vertue no longer then it is rub'd with gold nor the Iron which is no longer soft then it is in the fire Be not like those which are Sea-sicke who are much troubled while they are on ship-board but presently well againe when they come to shore for that good saith Gregory will doe us no good which is not made good by perseverance § 175 3 NOw if thou intendest to hold out in thy good purposes and meanest to bring thy thoughts to the birth thou must not be ashamed to confesse with that honest theife upon the crosse even before thy companions and fellow drunkards that thou art not now the same man thou wast both thy mind and judgement is châ—nged and so shall thy practise God assisting thee nay thou wiâ—â— not only forsake thy sin but their company too except they will forsake their old customes of drinking and scoffing and jeering at sobriety and
powder some likely to take fire yea he is like some cunning Enginere that can invent new instruments according to the present occasion and he inventeth all he can and puts in practise all that he inventâ—th Yea if men have so many slights to compasse their matters how can the compasser himselfe hold his fingers If the Serpents seed bee so subtile what doe you thinke of this old Serpent Yea so many snares and engines are laid by the professed enemy of man to intrap our soules that wee may with reverence and love wonder at the mercy of God in our delivery for wee fall O God we fall to the lowest hell if thou prevent us not if thou sustaine us not all our weaknesse is in our selves all our strength is in thee Neverthelesse wee can thanke none but our selves if wee yeeld for though that old Saba blowes many an intiseing blast to carry us away from our true alleagiance to Christ Iesus our King yet the minde of man is not capeable of a violation either from man or Sathan and who then can I tax for mine owne yeelding but my selfe § 74. NOw to speake of or nominate all sorts of seducers much more to shew the several slights which wicked men use that they may make us associate them in their lewdnesse is impossible yea I may as well weigh the fire or measure the winde as well reckon up the moates in the Sun paint Eccho to the life make the Moone a new coate and assoone finde out the motion of a bird in the aire the way of a Serpent upon a stone and the way of a Ship in the midst of the Sea which are all too wonderfull for me Prov. 30. 18. 19. yea had I the gift of prophecy and knew all secrets touching the same I should need two hundred tongues and six hundred pens and a mouth of steele with an Iron voyce if I should declare their severall diversities For the foure and twenty letters in the Alphabet make not more variety of words in divers languages then the Serpents subtilty produceth diversity of stratagems in severall persons and I could easilier tell you what good they omit then what evill they doe O the many waies that Sathan through mens help hath to seduce us and the many tempâ—â—rs he hath in every corner to set upon us where shall a man come and not find a seducer and a drunkard of all other tempters as he never ceaseth to seduce so hee seldome misses of prevailing But though the Springs and Wards of temptation are so infinite that it is impossible to decypher them all yet according to the measure of the line whereof God hath distributed unto me I will discover how the drunkard seduceth and so goe a middle way betweene saying all and nothing and by looking upon him you may more then guesse at the rest Neither will I undertake to tell all for that the time would bee too short or this Treatise too long if I should stand upon every severall slight which drunkards have to seduce yea talking Fabiâ—s would be tyred before hee can relate halfe of what were requisite to be â—poken of them it would require whole volumes for not a fewlines nor leaves would containe the same Besides notions when they exceede are wont as nayles to drive out one another and these which I have purposely selected out are the principall most behovefull and best deserving our discovery and the worlds notice § 75. THat none are either affected or addicted to seduce like drunkards let their deeds which come now to bee discovered manifest The drunkards chiefe delight is to infect others the Serpents speciall venome as I said before wherewith these his elfes bee intoxicated is to make others more beasts then themselves yea drunkards being the divels deputies to turne others into beasts will make themselves divels wherein they have a notable dexterity making the Ale-house or Tavern their studie their circle the pot themselves the conjurers mens soules the hire reputation of good fellowship the char me the characters healths the goblin raised is the spirit of the buttery and to drink God out of their hearts health out of their bodies wit out of their heads strength out of their joynts all the money out of their purses all the drink out of the Brewers barrels wife and children out of doores the land out of quiet plenty out of the Kingdome is all their businesse These agents for the Divell drunkards practise nothing but the art of debauching men for they will take no pains unlesse the Divel set them on work though in this case being set like beasts to draw in the divels teame they will leade captive unstable soules to sinne with câ—rds of vanity and as it were with a cartrope Isaiah 5. 18. for to sinne these pernicious sedusers divels in the shape of men are no niggards of their paines Oh how much is hell beholding to them yea seldome ever doe wee finde goodnesse so industrious the children of light are not alwaies the forwardest in their generation Besides they have many obstacles 1 Thes. 2. 18. we would have come unto you once and again saith Paul to his converts but Sathan hindred us Our way is like Câ—shie's full of rubs but they like Ahimaaz take the plaine and beaten path mischiefe is nimble and he that intends evill will breake his sleepe to do it Iudas and that bench of gray-headed Priests and Elders will be awake when Peter and his fellow Disciples notwithstanding Christ charged them to watch with him but one houre are fast asleepe Matth. 26. 40. to 51. the 〈◊〉 sower is in the field when the husbandman is in his bed Mat. 13. 25 yea they that worship â—he beast and his Image never rest day nor night Revel 14. 11. But never did opportunity meet with any that made more use of it then doe these seducers they will husband it to proofe and like some cunning Antagonist loose not an inch of their advantage their diligâ—nce is admirable the Pharisâ—es would take great paines compassâ— sea and land to make one like themselâ—â—s Matth. 23. 15. and Seminary Priests will come from Rome to draw one from the true religion so what will not some drunkards do or spend to make a sober man a drunkard or to drinke another drunkard under the Table which may cast a blush upon our cheekes who are nothing so industrious to winne soules to God § 76. NOw for the effecting of this though these Milo's be they never so strong oftentimes meet with some Titorâ—us or other â—â—â—onger thâ—â— they who throwes them undâ—â— thâ— Table what comparable to drinking of healths which Aâ—tistbenes cals the only occasion and meaneâ— of surfeiting and dâ—sordâ—r another very fâ—â—ly thepulley or â—â—ooingâ—horn to al drunkennes and excessâ— â—or thâ—ir drinking and beginning of healths is purposely and serves to no other end but to draw meâ— on to drinke more liberally then elsâ—
Ambrose Ierom c. testifie besides our own experience And many men thinke they cannot doe their absent friends a greater honour yea their friends also take it for an high honour But O the stupidity both of the one and the other for can this be any honour or credit unto any to be thus dishonoured of every infamous and beastly drunkard of every pot-companion Tunne or Hogshead to be the dayly phrase the Theame the Rhetoricke of every ebrious and luxurious sot the occasion cause and patronage of drunkennesse and excesse yea what Christian would not scorne to have their healthes their names their place and persons made a common Prologue or praeludium an ordinary bawd or pandor an usuall in-let way or passage to drunkennesse and excesse a common shoe-horne baite or engine to force or draw men on to drinke beyond all measure a dayly patronage plea or sanctuary to justifie and beare out or else a frequent but unjust apology or excuse to extenuate salve or mitigate the excesse of sinne and infamous wicked base and swinish men It was a noble answer of a great Prince Doe not drinke my health but pray for it and a wise reply of a grave and worthy States-man of this Kingdome I will pray for the Kings health but drinke for mine owne And surely none but sots will bring themselves into grievous diseases by drinking healthes to other men and such is the case of health drinkers What said Callisthenes to one that urg'd him to drinke at Alexanders Feast as others did I will not for who so drinketh to Alexander had need of Aesculapius meaning a Physitian Nay it 's well if they prevent not the Physitian and drinke not themselves past all hope of recovery for not seldome doe they save the Physitian a labour and drinke at once anothers health their owne death as I could instance in sundry examples I 'le onely give you two but they are as good as twenty At one supper which Alexander prepared for his Favourites and Captaines there was no lesse then one and forty which kild themselves in that goodly conflict of carousing healthes Where Promachus having swallowed downe foure Gallons of wine got the prize and victory And at another drinking feast or combat which he appointed for the Indians himselfe dranke his death and ruine in quaffing off a whole carouse or health out of Hercâ—â—es cup and to beare him company there was five and thirty more at the same time dranke themselves dead in the place and never revived more with carousing healthes and rounds There is another example recorded which is so remarkable that I am loth to passe it though the circumstances vary It is recorded of Popelus the second King of Poland that having incurred the displeasure of his Nobility through his ill government for which they intended to depose him he feigned himselfe to be very sicke by his Queenes advice and thereupon sent for twenty of the chiefe Princes of Pomerania who had the principall voice in the election of the Polâ—nian Kings to come and visit him in this his sicknesse which they did accordingly the King upon their comming requested them to elect his sonne to the Kingdome after his decease which thing they answered they would willingly doe if the rest of the Nobility would consent the Queene in the meane time provides a cup of sudden poyson of purpose to dispatch them and presents it to them all to drinke the King her husbands health they to testifie their love and alleagiance to the King dranke off the cup as their manner was unto his health but to their owne instant confusion and immediate death and to the subversion of all the stocke and race of the Polonian Princes a sudden and fearefull yet a just jâ—dgement of God upon these Princes who were much addicted to the drinking of healthes formerly But loe the infinite justice of God on both hands for out of the dead and poysoned Carkases of these Princes there issued such infinite troopes and swarmes of Rats and Mice as chased Popelus his wife and all his children from place to place both by Sea and land till at last they were forced to flye to the strong castle of Oraccovia where they were drowned and eaten up of these Rats and Mice in despite of Guard and Garisons and all those Arts and policies of fire and water-workes that were used to secure them as the Polonian Histories doe at large declare But not to travell so farre for examples how many health-sokers and drunkards may we see or heare of every yeare within the verge and compasse of our land who doe suddenly consume perish and come to a fearfull end being cut downe by strange and unexpected deathes in the very act of their sinnes before they had any time or space to repent whose deathes even charity it selfe must needs judge most miserable seeing they dye in their sinnes and are taken away in Gods just wrath even whilst they are sacrificeing their soules to Sathan And doth not the very Eccho of these drunken and excessive healthes dayly cry in the eares of God for vengeance on all that use them if not upon the whole Land for their sakes yea undoubtedly § 82. THen let no drunkard force thee either against thy stomack or thy inability to pledge his healths yea let quaffers quarrell rage and scoffe threaten curse and loade thee with a thousand censures yet hold thou thine owne still It is true they will be strangely importunate what then a shamelesse begger must have a strong denyall Indeed if the word pledge were used seriously properly opportunely and not altogether mistaken and used in a wrong sense I should grant it a duty when any shall bee called thereunto But sotted drunkards understand not what they speake when they use the phrase for the word pledge implies no intention of drinking as looke we but to the originall and first institution thereof and we shall find that when in the borders of Wales twelve Welchmen had treacherously stabb'd 12. Englishmen as they were holding the cups to their mouths it grew to that that none would drinke at any publike meeting except they had some friend present who would undertake to be their pledge and carefully see that none should hurt them the while but hee who useth the word now makes himselfe ridiculous the occasion being taken away for God bee thanked we have no such cause of feare having the Lawes of God to guide the vertuous and the Lawes of the Land to restraine the wicked Yet their mistake is no more in this their challenge then it is in the combate it selfe and the victory they get by it for whereas they make a sport of drunkennesse counting him a malefactor in the highest degree that departs without staggering and fit to be carried before a Magistrate to render an account of his contumacie and delight to make men drink till they vomit up their shame againe like a filthy Dog or lye