righteousnesse but rather like bogs and marishes are fit to breed nothing but vermine frogs and serpents that is all manner of abominable sinnes and lothsome wickednesse More particularly it keepes them from repenting Esa. 22. 12. 13. and all saving knowledge Esa. 28. 7. debarreth them from regeneration Christs righteousnesse and that heavenly inheritance Rom. 13. 13. 14. Gal. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 6. 10. by it the spirit is quenched Eph. 5. 18. and the body of sinne with all it's lusts strengthened 1 Pet. 2. 11. yea the soule by it is made like a City broken downe and without walls Pro. 25. 28. besides it keepes them in finall impenitencie Esay 5. 11. 12. Pro. 23. 35. Neither can that soyle which brings forth this vice like ground sown with salt bring forth any other thing which is good I meane so long as a man is such as snow can never be made hot so long as it is snow yea where drunkennesse reignes or carries the raynes there cannot dwell the least good that heart is empty of all grace and indeed how should such a worthy princesse as grace is endure such rogues for her bed-fellowes so many filthy lusts as are in the Drunkards heart to lodge with her yea as smoake drives Bees from their hive so drunkennesse drives all the graces from such an heart And how should the Holy-Ghost which delights to dwell in the heart of an holy man but scorne to be an inmate where drunkennesse is an inhabitant noysome lusts and evill cogitations drive him away if the Divell comes in the Holy-Ghost will goe out And therefore the Scripture tells us that the spirit went from Saul when he sinned 1 Sam. 16. 14. and so on the contrary when the Holy Spirit enters into the heart of a man all sinnes in some measure are abandoned as when the King comes into the Tower all the prisoners goe out The Drunkards heart is like Mare mortuum for as no fish will live there so no grace will thrive here it is the roote of all evill the rot of all good Much traveling makes bad way if one goe but now and then over a Meadow the grasse will neverthelesse grow but when it is made a common through-fare and beaten roade for all passengers this maketh the path bare so the frequent custome of sinne in any heart when there is a perpetuall concourse of all filthinesse hinders yea kills every good motion as fast as it springs up and this is a sinne which turnes a man wholly into sinne The Drunkard resembles Vejovis that Heathen god who could doe no good but hurt at will and is like Ahab who sold himselfe to worke wickednesse yea worse if worse can be for the Drunkard wholely dedicates resignes surrenders and gives himselfe up to serve sinne and Sathan his whole imployment is onely to drinke drab quarrell sweare scoffe slaunder and seduce as if to sinne were his trade and he could doe nothing else like the Devill who was a sinner from the beginning a sinner to the end To say that sinne were in him would be improper for hee is nothing else but sinne in the abstract as St. Austin speakes even a very Chaos of sinne bunged up for as when a man is overcome with anger we say hee is in heate and when wee say such a man is in drinke we imply more then that drinke is in him yea when we call a man a Drunkard we imply more then that he is drunke or hath beene drunke for it argues frequency and lastly as when Simon Peter told Simon Magus thou art in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity hee implyed that not onely these were in him but hee in them so both more is implyed and it is more proper to say of a sotted and sordid Drunkard hee is sinne then a sinner yea that man of sinne is not fuller of sin then such an one so that as Solomon saith speaking of the vertuous woman many daughters have done vertuously but thou surpassest them all so may I say of a Drunkard many sinners have done wickedly but thou surpassest them all § 14. BUt to roave no longer in generalls having given you a superficiall view of this Monster and the summe of that which he makes his onely Summum bonum in a lumpe or as it were wrapt up I come now to strip him naked and turne his inside outward by acquainting you with such speciall and particular observations as best deserve our discovery and the worlds notice In handling whereof it is not to be expected that I should observe a distinct propriety in referring all particulars to their generall heads for as much as many of them are coincident one with another Neither will I undertake to observe an exact order in his description seeing hee keepes none at all in his life my principall care being to paint him really and historically not poetically every way as he is his words as he speakes them his deeds as he acts them even to the very life and present him upon the Stage such as the Spectators may verily thinke they either see him or the Devill in his likenesse as Sr. Tho. More concluded touching Erasmus when he but heard him speake having never before seene the man § 15. The first thing I 'le fall upon shall be His body touching which I will lay open 1 his outward deformities 2 HIs inward infirmities 1 His outward bodily deformities are many and those odious as if you observe it The Drunkard commonly hath Vertumnus like a brasill Nose a swolne and inflamed Face beset with goodly Chowles and Rubies as if it were both rost and sod swimming running glaring gogle Eyes bleared rowling and red a Mouth nasty with offensive fumes alwayes foaming or driveling a fevorish Body a Sicke and giddy Braine a Mind d spearst a boyâ—ing stomacke rotten Teeth a stinking Breath a drumming Eare a palsied Hand gouty staggering Legs that â—aine would goe but cannot a drawling stammering temulentive Tongue clambd to the roofe and gumms in fine not to speake of his odious gestures lothsome nastinesse or beastly behaviour his belching hickups vomittings his ridiculous postures and how easily he is knockt downe whose hamstrings Bacchus hath already cut in two nor of the unmeasurable grosenesse of such whose onely element is Ale especially your Ale-wives who like the Germane Froas are all cheekes to the belly and all belly to the knees whose dugs and chins meete without any forceing of either because you may dayly see such fustilugs walking in the streets like so many Tunnes each moving upon two pottle pots his essentiall parts are so obscured his Sense so dulled his Eyes so dazeled his Face so distorted his Countenance so deformed his Ioynts so infeebled and his whole body and minde so transformed that hee is become the child of folly and derision of the world a laughing stock to fooles a lothing stock to the Godly ridiculous to all Yea
questionlesse had they a glasse presented them they could hardly be brought againe to love their owne faces much more should they reade a true character of their conditions would they runne besides their wits if they had any to lose or goe and dispatch themselves as Bupalus did at the sight of Hipponax his letter or as Hocâ—tratus did upon view of a booke which Reuchlin writ against him oras Brotheus did who being mocked for his deformity threw himselfe into the fire and there died for Thersites like many are their bodily deformities but far more and worse are those of their soules Whence it was that the Laced monians used to shew their slaves in the time of their drunkennesse unto their children thinking that their ugly deformity both in body and minde would be an effectuall argument to make them loath this vice which even at the first view seemed so horrid And indeed how should the Drunkard be other then ugly and deformed when experience shewes that intemperance is a great decayer of beauty and that wine burnes up the radicall moysture and hastens old age exceedingly § 16 2 NEither are his diseases and infirmities fewer then his deformities for â—ee but his body opened and it will appeare like a stinking and rotten sepulcher for excessive and intemperate drinking hath brought upon him a woâ—ld of diseases and infirmities because this sinne by little and little quencheth the naturall heate and drownes the vitall spirits whereby above all it impaires the health debilitateth all the members turning strength into weakenesse health into irrecoverable sicknesse it being the seminary of incurable diseases which shorten the life the procurer of all infirmities and acceleration of death which is the reason that men are ordinarily now so short lived in respect of that they have beene heretofore Neither can there be any other cause alleaged why men in this our age are so weake diseased and short lived but our excessive drunkennesse and intemperance It is true indeed that the world now waxing old and as it were hoareheaded cannot generate children of such strength and vigour as it did in time of youth and full strength and therefore wee must needs decline as the world declineth it is true also that the mother earth is infeebled with much bearing and hath her strength much abated with so innumerable childbirths and being now come to her cold melancholy age cannot bring forth her fruits so full of vertue and strength and so fit for the nourishment of our bodies as shee did in former times but that there should be such a change so suddaine and extraordinary in the great difference of our health strength and long life betwixt this our age and that which went next before it can be imputed unto nothing more then that now drunkennesse and intemperance is after an extraordinary manner increased whereby the naturall and vitall heate of men is drowned and extinguished before it be neare spent like a candle cast into the water before it be halfe burned Indeed drunkards pretend they drinke healthes and for health Yea doubtlesse they thinke wine another kinde of Panace which is good for all diseases or some Moly good against all sorcery and mischiefe But to whom saith Salomon are all kinde of diseases infirmities deformities if not to Drunkards Who can recount the hurts that by this meanes come to the whole body especially the head stomack liver and the more noble parts Who can recite the Crudities Rhumes Gowts Dropsies Aches Imposthums Apoplexes Inflammations Pluresies Consumptions for though he devours much yet hee is the leaner every way with the Falling-sicknesse and innumerable other distempers hence ensuing which Drunkards know better by experience then I how to reckon up To whom are pearle faces Palsies Headakes if not to Drunkards What so soone brings suddaine old age What so much as swilling blowes up the cheekes with wind fills the nose and eyes with fier loads the hands and legs with water and in short plagueth the whole man with diseases of a Horse the belly of a Cowe the head of an Asse c. almost turning him into a very walking dunghill Believe a man in his owne Art The distempered body the more it is filled the more it is spilled saith Hippocrates and to this the Prophet sets his seale Hosea 7. 5. And indeed but for the throats indulgence Paracelsus for all his Mercury had dyed a begger which made Callisthenes tell Alexander that hee had rather feede upon graines with Diogenes in his dish then carrouse the juyce of grapes with him in this standing cup for of all the gods said hee I love not Aesculapius In a word though wine being moderately taken is physicall yet if it be taken immoderately there is nothing more banefull saith St. Austin for by it the body is weakened strength decayed the members dissolved the whole body distempered and out of order so that the Drunkard drawes death out of that which preserves other mens lives That many have perished by this meanes we read Eccl. 37. 30. 31 if many then surely many millions now for in former ages it was as rare as now it is common For wee read that the Locrians would not permit their Magistrates to drinke wine whereas now with us the meanest by their good wills will drinke nothing els We read also that the ancient Romans would not suffer their women to drinke wine whereas many of ours are like Cleio who was so practised in drinking that shee durst challeng all men whatsoever to trye masteries who could drinke most and overcome all And lastly wee reade that they would never drinke wine before they were twenty yeares of age whereas many of our children are halfe killed before they are borne with distempered drinkes at least when they are borne no day no meale must they be without sipping downe wine their over indulgent parents who like Apes many times kill their young with making much of them will have it so whereupon not a few become Drunkards and company keepers very betime and before any would imagine as St. Hierome telleth of one that swore by her love she was lewd or naught so early that no one so much as dreamed of it In a word wine and strong drink hath drowned more men then the sea hath devoured and more dye of surfeits then by the sword Yea as drunkennesse hath drowned more soules then all the sinnes of Sodome so it hath drowned more bodies then were drowned in the generall deluge of Noahs flood § 17. VVHy but saith the Tipler Wine if not received to surfeite refresheth the spirits and cheares the heart as is well knowne I finde it I feele it I perceive it doth me good and I will believe mine own eyes and tast before Hippocrates or ten Salomons Salomon answers in effect thus much Prov. 23. 29. to 35. Bee not deceived with shewes and shadowes a man may be drunke though his eyes be not out and may be
Yea Wine so inflames the Drunkard with Lust that were his power equall to his desire were his dreames and wishes all true hee would not leave a Virgin in the world might but his acts answer the number of his desires nature could scarce supply him with severall objects or could his wishes take effect Popery might have many Nuns it should have no maids Now what decayes health and strength and consequently shortens a mans dayes more then whoredome when so many dye of the Pox a disease which slayes thousands though they will not be known of it for because of the whorith woman a man is brought to a morsell of bread Pro. 6. 26. yea shee causeth many to fall downe wounded and all the strong men are slaine by her her house is the way unto the grave which leadeth downe to the chamber of death Pro. 7. 26. 27. And so much of the drunkards body § 21. SEcondly if wee dive deeper into him and Search into his soule what one sinne more mangles and defaces Gods Image and mans beauty then this how doth it damme up the head and spirits with mud how doth it infatuate the understanding blind the judgement pervert the will and corrupt all the affections how doth it intrap the desires surprise the thoughts and bring all the powers and faculties of the soule out of order which occasioneth one to say where drunkennesse raignes as King there reason is banished as an exile the understanding is dulled counsell wandereth and judgment is overthrowne And with this accordeth Seneca who defines drunkennesse to be a voluntary madnesse or a temporary forfeiture of the wits yea the Holy Ghost affirmes that the excesse of wine makes men mad foolish and outragious Pro. 20. 1. for being worse then the sting of an Aspe it poysoneth the very soule and reason of man Yea wee finde this and a great deale more by experience for many a man drinkes himselfe out of his wits and out of his wealth and out of his credit and out of all grace and favour both with God and good men Neither is the Scripture lesse expresse for Salomon calls wine a mocker and tells us that strong drinke is raging And Hosea affirmes that wine takes away the heart Chap. 4. 11. And wee reade elsewhere that wine makes men forget God and his lawes Pro. 31. 5. Yea utterly to fall away from God and to be incapable of returning for it is commonlie accompanied with hardnesse of heart and final impenitence Esa. 5. 11. 12. and 56. 12. Pro. 23. 35. For admonish such as are bewitched and besotted with the love of wine you speak to men senseles past shame and past grace Tell them of some better imployment they will say as once Florus an idle fellow was wont I would not be Caesar alwayes marching in armor to whom Casear replyed and I would not be Florus alwayes drinking in a Taverne Yea being wrapt in wine and warme cloathes they so like their condition that they would not change upon any termes no not to be glorified Saints in Heaven as those swine and other brutish creatures which Circe transformed would by no meanes be perswaded to become men againe though they were put to their choice by the said goddesse or forceresse rather upon the earnest request of Vlysses You shall never perswade a Drunkard that the water of life is the best wine In a word by long custome they turne delight into necessity and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst that they will as willinglie leave to live as leave their excessive drinking in regard whereof St. Austin compares drunkennesse to the pit of Hell into which when a man is once fallen there is no redemption Yea this vice doth not onely rob men of reason but also of common sense so as they can neither prevent future danger nor feele present smart But of this enough having already proved them as much worse then beasts as beasts are better then Devills Besides I shall occasionallie treate more of the soules Character in sundry particulars which follow § 22. 5 FIfthly as hee deformes his body impaires his health shortens his life beastiates his soule c. so he consumes his estate and brings himselfe to poverty and want as to whom is poverty as Salomon speakes but to Drunkards who thinke no cost too much that is bestowed on their bellies who consume their wealth at the wine even while they have swallowed downe their whole estates As let the Drunkard have but a groate it burnes in his purse till it be drowned in drinke if hee have gold he will change it if plate hee will pawne it and rather then not satisfie his gut away goes all to the coate on his backe yea rather then hee will scant as they say his belly had hee a jewell as rich as tenne Lordships or as Cleopatra's was that womanlike swaggerer his throate shall have it O that either wealth or any other blessing should be cast away thus basely Or suppose he bee a labouring man and must earne it before he have it he will drinke as much in a day saith St. Ambrose as hee can get in a weeke spend twelve pence sooner then earne two pence And hence it commeth to passe that the company keeper goes commonly in a ragged coate as it is seldome seene that they offend the Statute against excesse in apparell for rather then so they will goe naked and count that too a voluntarie penance Thus the Drunkard having spent all in superfluities in the end hee wants necessaries and because in youth hee will drinke nothing but wine in his old age he is constrained to drinke water yea hee throwes his house so long out at windowes that at last his house throwes him out at doores And when all is gone glad would he be to be a Swineheard like the Prodigallson but knowing himself unworthy of any mans entertainment hee growes weary of his life and is ready to make himselfe away like Peter the Cardinall base son to Sixtus the fourth that monstrous Epicure the shame of the latter times or like Apicius the shame of the ancient age wherein he lived All which the Scriptures make good where it is said that the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and the sleeper shall be cloathed with raggs Pro. 2◠21. And againe peremptorily he that loveth wine and oyle shall not bee rich Prov. 21. 17. Now that this is so every officer of a Parish knowes to his great trouble and the inhabitants cost yea were I enjoyned to take up a ragged regiment I should thinke it no hard taske to muster up a thousand men admit but drunkards to be men out of the very suburbs that in sheere drinke spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs yea that drinke the very bloods of their wives and children for hee brings not this misery upon himselfe alone but his whole family wife children servants all are impoverisht yea nere
goodnesse And so doing thou mayst perchance winne thy Brother even as that penitent wanton in St. Ambrosse did his old love who when she courted him according to her accustomed manner and wondred at his overmuch strangnesse saying why doe you not know who I am answered yes I know you are still the same woman but I am become another man I am not I now neither would You be You any longer if yee knew so much as I doe 4 But if yet they persist and seeme incorrigible flye their company for feare of infection least it happen with thee as once it did with a chast person among Penelopes suters who went so often with his friend till in the end he was caught himselfe for if thou keepest them company there is no possibility of thy holding out to the end though thou shouldest for a time as a man may make some progresse in a good way and yet returne before he is halfe at his journeys end as Saul kept himselfe well for two yeares Iudas for three yeares and as it is storied Nero for five yeares yet all fell into damnable wickednesse scarce three worse in the world But of this more in it's proper place Besides how hard a thing is it for thee a coward to shew thy dislike of this sin in some companies where thou shalt be scoff't at thy selfe if thou dislike their drinking and scoffing at others Fiftly another thing which I had need to advise thee of is to take heede of delayes for to leave sinne when sin leaves us will never passe for true repentance besides if the evill spirit can but perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter he knowes it is all one as if thou hadst never purposed to leave thy sinne at all as you have it largely proved Sections 151. 152. 153. Sixtly omit not to pray for the assistance of God's spirit to strengthen thee in thy resolution of leaving this sinne St. Ambrosse calls prayer the key of Heaven yet prayer without answerable endeavour is but as if a wounded man did desire helpe yet refuseth to have the sword puld out of his wound Seventhly be diligent in hearing God's Word which is the sword of the Spirit that killeth our corruptions and that unresistable cannon-shot which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne Eighthly be frequent in the use of the Lord's Supper wherein we dayly renew our covenant with God that we will forsake the Devill and all his workes of darkenesse Ninthly ponder and meditate on Gods inestimable love towards us who hath not spared to give his Sonne to death for us and the innumerable benefits which together with him he hath plentifully bestowed upon us both in temporall and spirituall things say unto the Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits but love my Creator and become a new creature Tenthly meditate on that union which is betweene Christ and us whereby wee become members of his glorious body and so shall we stand upon our spirituall reputation and be ashamed to dishonour our Head by drawing him as much as in us lyeth into the communication of this swinish sinne consider that our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost the which we shall exceedingly dishonour if by drinking and swilling we make them to become like wine vessells Eleventhly consider that the Lord beholdeth thee in all places and in every thing thou doest as the eyes of a well drawne picture are fastned on thee which way soever thou turnest much more while in a brutish manner thou liest wallowing in this sinne and consider him as a just judge who will not let such grosse vices goe unpunished Twelftly beever or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of Iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning not only for this sinne but for all other our sinnes which this shall occasion to our very words and thoughts And lastly if thou receivest any power against this great evill forget not to be thankfull and when God hath the fruite of his mercies he will not spare to sow much where he reapes much § 176. More especially that thou maist master and subdue this abominabâ—e sin does but set before thee in a generall view the heinousnesse thereof and the manifold evills and mischiefes which doe accompany it of which I have already spoken as that it is a vice condemned by God and men Christians and infidells that thereby we grievously offend God by making our bellies our god by unfiting and disabling our selves for his service by abusing his good creatures which with a pleantifull hand he hath bestowed upon us the necessary use whereof many better then we want that thereby we sinne in a high degree against our neighbours generally and particularly against the whole Church and common wealth strangers and familiar acquaintance and most of all against our owne family that hereby we most grievously sinne against our selves by making us unfit for our calings and for the performance of all good duties by disgracing our profession and bringing our selves into contempt by making our selves the voluntary slaves of this vice by impovershing our estate and bringing upon us want and beggery by infatuating our understandings and corrupting our wills and affections by deforming disabling weakning and destroying our bodies and bringing our selves to untimely death by excluding our selves out of the number of Christs members by quenching the gifts of the Spirit and strengthening the flesh and lusts thereof by causing our soules to be possessed with finall impenitency which is inseparably accompanied with eternall damnation Also remember that as in it selfe it is most sinfull so it is also the cause of almost all other sinnes as of the manifold and horrible abuses of the tongue of many wicked and outragious actions and particularly of those fearefull sinnes of murther and adultery Also call to mind that as it is the cause of sinne so also of many heauy and grievous punishments as making a man lyable to a fearefull woe and Gods heauy curse subjecting his name to infamy his state to beggery his body to diseases infirmities deformities and immature death his soule to senselesse sottishnesse and deprivâ—ng the whole man of the joyes of Heaven entereth him into the possession of eternall hellish torments and this will be a good meanes to make thee moderate thy greedy desires mortifie thy carnall affections and curbe thy unruly appetite by putting a knife to thy throâ—â—e as Salomon adviseth saying I could but I will not take more then is good or fit Yea the consideration of these things and of the wofull condition that drunkards are in will provoke thee to hate their opinions to strive against their practice to pity their misguiding to neglect their censures to labour their recovery and to pray for their salvation For O how ugly doth this monster appeare to the eye of that soule which hath forsaken
against them And indeed if thou wert not a foole thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of Christs little flocke which are to be saved then in the numerous heards of those Goates which are destinated to destruction And so your excuses are taken away and all proved vaine coverings even no better then Fig-leaves which though they may seems to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe yet they will stand thee in no steede another day Wherfore drink not without thirst here that you may not thirst without drink herafter Lu. 16. 24. 25. Play not the foole as Lysimachus did who being in battell against the Scythians for the satisfying of his appetite onely and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst gave himselfe over into his enemies hands and when he had drunke his fill and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy began to acknowledge his folly in these words O said he for how little pleasure what great liberty what sweet felicity have I lost and forgone Yea turne your laughter into sorrow your feasting into fasting be revenged of your selves of your lusts and meete your God and make your peace while now we call and you heare yea the Lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne that so seeing their danger they may be brought to confesse and forsake it that so they may be saved Pro. 28. 13. § 56. BUt what doe I admonishing or speaking sence to a drunkard this is to make him turne the deafe eare and a stone is as capable of good counsell as hee besides they have no faith in the Scriptures they will not beleeve what is written therefore they shall feele what is written In the meane time it were very fit if it pleased Authority they were debarred both of the blood of the Grape and the spirit of Barley a just punishment for consuming the countries fat for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such Gormundizers except we had the water of Clâ—torius a Well in the midst of Arcadia which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after I doe not wish them stoned to death as God commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the Law Deut. 21. 20. 21. nor banished the land as the Romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons that the rest might not be endangered and Lycurgus all inventers of new fashions least these things should effeminate all their young men for then I thinke the land would be much unpeopled Indeed I could wish there were Pest-houses provided for them in all places as there are for infected persons or that they were put by themselves in some City if any were big enough to receive them all as Philip King of Macedon built a city of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and irregular persons of all his subjects and having so done called it Poneropolis that is the City of wicked persons And certainely if it were considered how many Brokers of villany which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes every populous place affords whose very acquaintance is destruction the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times Yea this were marvelously expedient considering the little good they doe being as so many loose teeth in the Mandible of the Common-wealth which were better out then in and the great hurt by their ill examples by devouring the good creatures of God which they never sweat for by disturbing the peace of the Church and Common-wealth by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land and considering how small hope there is of their amendment if any at all § 57. IT may be you have not noted it but it is a very difficult and hard thing to name one habituated infatuated incorrigible cauterised Drunkard that ever was reclamed with age What said an experienced Gentleman being informed that his Sonne was given to gaming whores prodigality c There is yet hope age experience and want of meanes will cure all these but when in the last place it was added that he was poysoned with drunkennesse then hee absolutely gave him for lost and dead his case for desperately forlorne and so disinherited him because this sinne hee knew increased with age and would not part till death A Gamester will hold out so long as his purse lasts an Adulterer so long as his loynes last but a drunkard so long as his lungs and life lasts What is noted by Philosophers of every motion namely that it is swiftest toward the Center may fitly bee applyed to every drunkard and covetous wretch for as good men grow better and better so these grow worse and worse Ier. 9. 3. 2 Tâ—m 3. 13. they grow in sinne as worldlings grow in riches and honours O that we could grow so fast in grace Yea suppose the drunkard hath every day purposes to forsake his sinne as I have knowne some purpose and strive against this sinne yea so detest and bewaile it in himselfe and whomsoever that it hath been an Hazael in his eyes and thereupon indent with himselfe and his friends for the relinquishing of it and yet if he meete with a companion that holds but up his finger he followes him as a foole to the stockes and as an Oxe to the slaughter-house having no power to withstand the temptation but in hee goes with him to the tipling house and there hee continues as one bewitched or conjured with a spell out of which he returnes not till he hath emptied his purse of money his head of reason and his heart of al his former seeming grace so that in purposing he doth but imitate S. George who is alwayes on horseback but never rides or the Ostrich that hath winges but cannot fly he may make a shew of turning as the doore upon the hinges but never moves a foot from the post of his olds custom and evill society unto which hee is fast revited and so mends as sower Ale doth in Summer or like a dead hedge which the longer it stands is the rottener O this is a difficult divel to be cast out for when a man is once possest with this evill spirit a drunken divell it is a miracle if ever hee become his owne man after This sinne is like a desperate plague that knows no cure it may be called the Kings evill of the soule as Chrysostome calls the envie of wicked men against the godly for it cannot bee cured with the Balme of Gilead nor by any Phisitian there untill God himselfe sayes to the heart awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead for by a long and desperate custome they turne delight and infirmity into necessity and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst that they will as willingly leave to live as leave their excessive drinking As it fares with some sicke Patients touching their bodies
wallowing in their beastlinesse like a brutish Swine this is the most sad and woefull spectacle that can be to a rectified understanding And whereas they brag of the conquest when with the weapons of full charged cups they have overcome the rest it is both the basest office and lamentablest overthrow to themselves that can possibly be imagined For what a barbarous gracelesse and unchristian practise is this to take pleasure in making others drunke as if it were their glory and pastime and they tooke delight to see God dishonoured his Spirit grieved his name blasphemed his creatures abused themselves and their friends soules damned surely such men clime the highest step of the ladder of wickednesse thinking their owne sins will not presse them deepe enough into Hell except they also lode themselves with other mens And how sottish is their opinion of victory when even in conquering they are most overcome for whilst they triumph in a drunken victory or conquest over their friends Sathan gets the victory over them in excessive drinking they have overcome all their companions this they see and boast of but they see not how they are overcome shamefully foyled and utterly overthrown by the dâ—vell their chief enemy under whose lash they are like to be everlastingly But let him that delights to make another drunk reade his doome Habakâ—k 2. 15 16. where he shall finde not onely shame and spewing appointed for his glory but also that a cup of vengeance even the cup of the Lords right hand is preparing for him And lastly what office so base as this for men to resemble Crowes which live upon carrion or those winglesse Flies which sucke a living out of the corrupt blood of uncleannesse is bad enough but to bee a tempter to weare the Livery of Sathan to bee the Pentioner of hell at the command of that malignant and degenerous Spirit this is the most ignominious and dishonourable name and shame that can be to be the Hang-mans servant is an honour to it for to erre is the part of a man but to seduce is the part of a divell It is ill to play the wanton worse to play the beast worst of all to play the divill But thou wilt say This is true onely of the ruder sort and more debauched and so pertaines not to thee Yes it doth For though thou doest not force men to pledge thy healths yet thou wilt intreat and perswade them to it by all the Art and oratory thou canst use and in case they still refuse thou wilt think the worse of them censure them in thy thoughts and beare them an inward grudg and splene in thine heart if not slander and revile them with thy tongue Nay doest thou not like the Graecian drunkards use some such phrase as this let him drinke or else be packing let him carrouse or carry him out of the house whereby a further wrong from others is occasioned so imitating the Ephesians who as Cicero reports having banished their Prince Hermodorus made proclamation that none should excell another or if he did so that hee should no longer there dwell but else where inhabit How ever it likes thee well enough that others of thy company shall by violence enforce them and this alone makes thee as guilty as if thou didst it thy selfe so that to come fairely off even from thy company and neither drink nor quarrell is impossible or at least a wonder § 83. ANd thus you see that drunkards not only traffick to enrich hel with their owne soâ—les but others also yea that they are so pernicious that to damne their owne soâ—les is the least part of their mischiefe for they commonly draw vengeance upon thousands by seducing some and giving ill example to others O the multitude of drunkards that one true drunkard makes especially if he be well accomplished with ingenuity and gifts of nature as when Achitophel's head stands upon Simon Magus his shoulders there is a world of mischiefe towards A will bent to doe harme and a wit able to prosecute it like Cannon shot makes a lane where it goes For tryall let such an one tell me if he can how many hee hath drawne into the same sinne with him were he willing I feare his memory would faile him though his conscience hereafter will not faile to evidence the same against him with the severall aggravations of each circumstance As Ovid said of himselfe I am second to none in trifles so the drunkard may truly say I am second to none in tempting yea tell me who are such pandors to sinne such factors for hell as these men who doe the Divell such service who deserve so great pay from him as drunkards A true drunkard is like the Bramble Iudg. 9. 15. which first set it's selfe on fire and then fired all the Wood or like one sick of the Plague who as they say is carried with an itching desire to infect others that are cleare or like a house on fire in the midst of a City which if the winde blowes vehemently stayeth not in the burning of an house or two but sets on fire al adjoyning one on this side another on that a third behind it a fourth over against it neither doth the fire cease there but every one which it hath set on fire kindles as many more and so one another till it may be half or all the whole City bee consumed for this is the drunkards case directly who is the bane of many poore soules besides his owne It is S. Basil's observation that one whore makes many fornicators but experience shewes that one drunkard makes ten times as many drunkards Yea the more they can seduce the more they glory as when Theudas had got foure hundred followers he thought himselfe a jolly fellow Acts 5. 36. But this is no other then the setting a mans owne house on fire it burnes many of his nighbours and hee shall answer for all the ruines And surely he who gives a man wine to deceive him is first drunke in soule before he can procure the others bodily distemper and to glory in giving weake braines a drench to see them wallow in their filthinesse is but to brag how far they are become the Devils children § 84. TOuching their manner of seducing A drunkard as if his braines were fired with all the plots projects and cunning Stratagems that Hell can yeeld is as rarely gifted in drawing to sinne as the Devill himselfe and is become the child of Hell by as proper a right so that if Sathan would change his office or were to surrender his place to any man alive it should be to some good fellow or other for as the Chamaeleon can change himselfe into any colour that it sits upon but white and red or as the Polypus can change colour at the sight of every object but blew onely so a drunkard can be any thing save good he hath learned to handle a
tryed in vaine all faire meanes they can use violence as it is the use and manner of all those that are agents for vice factors for the divell first to use gentle perswasion but if that will not serve compulsion They handle us as once that Praetor did a Souldier who to make him renounce Christ first as Ierome notes imprisoned him in his owne house allowes him a chamber vvell furnished soft lodging dainty cheare vvine musick all delights vvhen this vvould not do yet Lord how many are thus prevailed vvithall to leave their Saviour then hee casts him into a darke dungeon loades him vvith irons starves him vvith the hungry allowance of husks and puddle vvater vvhen nothing would do he burnes him or as Bonner handled the Martyres whose custome was first to allure them vvith faire promises of honours favours preferments c. if that vvould not do send them to Smithfield for as bloody as he was hee had sometimes in his mouth butter and oyle as vvell as fire and faggot § 182. AGaine secondly as Sathans instruments have great advantage of Gods servants in getting so no lesse in keeping such as they have got both in regard of pleasure peace freedome and many the like priviledges which the worldling hath above Gods people 1. In regard of pleasure first whereas others that turne to God barre themselves of such delights and pleasures as here they might enjoy these may satisfie themselves and their lusts to the full live at ease and pleasuâ—e and give their affections the full swing yea and be so applauded for it as if with the people of China they of all others saw with two eyes both which makes them like their condition so vvell that they would not change upon any tearmes and hence it was that many Schollers of every Sect become Epicures but none of the Epicures became of other Sects as one objected to Archelaus True it is the godly even here have more true joy and pleasure then the most happy worldling alive but none can know the spirituall joy and comfort of a Christian but he that lives the life of a Christian Iohn 7. 17. as none could learne the virgins song but they that sang it Revel 14. 3. no man can knovv the peace of a good conscience but hee that keepes a good conscience no man knovves vvhat that hid Mannah and vvhite stone vvith a nevv name vvritten in it is but they that receive the same Rev. 12. 17. The World can see a Christians outside but the raptures of his soule the ravishing delights of the invvard man and joy of his spirit for the remission of his sinnes and the effusion of grace with such like spirituall priviledges more glorious then the states of Kingdomes are as a covered messe to the vvorldling and so abates nothing of the advantage vvhich Sathan and his instruments have above Gods servants in winning soules and Keeping such as they have vvon Secondly in regard of freedome they have a free scope and liberty to doe or say what they please whereas Gods people are restrained even in their very thoughts Yea many times in things of an indifferent nature as even actions of indifferency when once they are felt to trench upon the conscience lay deepe obligations upon the soule even whiles they are most slighted by carelesse hearts there being no lesse difference in consciences then stomackes of which some will digest the hardest meates and turne over substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest foode and complaine even of dainties Everygracious hear is in some measure scrupulous and finds more safety in feare then in presumption O what a poore slave doe they hold the man of a tender conscience they dare sweare and blaspheme why their tongues are their owne whereas we feare an oath They dare spend their time in dalliance and after make it their glory we dare not make the members of Christ the limms of an Harlot fearing least Heaven should be shut against us for the sinne and Hell swallow us for boasting of the sin They dare deny any fact and wager lyes with that Grandfather of lyes and lyers we dare not tell an untruth though it were to save our selves to relieve the poore to honour God They dare drinke themselves into beasts we dare not least we should never be recovered againe unto Men. They dare oppresse the poore revenge all wrongs done them c. we dare not so reproach our Maker nor wring Gods weapon out of his hand They dare sinne God in the face and presume upon his patience we feare him as a consuming fire In fine they dare hazard the breaking of their necks we would not willingly breake our shins § 183. THirdly in regard of peace 1 with Sathan 2 with the world 3 with themselves First they have farre more peace with Sathan then Gods people for he fights not with his owne subjects or souldiers as hath largely beene proved yea well may these have more peace then others seeing the barques of their soules are rowed with farre lesse labour having the wind of Sathans temptations and the tyde of their owne affections to drive them then the other who rowe against both 2 In regard of their peace with the World the World loves her owne but hates all that Christ hath chosen out of it Ioh. 15. 19. and this is a strong tye to flesh and blood though our Saviour calls this a cursed condition Luk. 6. 26. Yea how doth the indifferent worldling applaud himselfe therein together with his owne discretion and mediocrity for seeing this man vexed for his zeale that other hated for his knowledge a third persecuted for the profession of his saith c. he saith within himselfe welfare a quiet ignorance so his body is but like a lumpe of scarce moving earth and his soule a standing puddle in the midst of it 3 They have farre more peace if it may be called peace with their owne hearts then the Godly for their consciences being either brawned with the custome of sinne or cast into a dead sleepe by Sathan they feele not those perilous wounds which sinne impaires them withall yea being past feeling they can with more ease digest the hardest and foulest offence then the stomacke of an Estridge can digest Iron whereby they esteeme of their sinnes as Paul speakes of an Idoll that it is nothing in the world as for oathes yea the sinne of blasphemy it is a very mite a moate a nothing in a word how sick soever their soules be I meane how wicked and detestable soever their lives yet they have healthfull consciences which never complaine or once paine them no they heare not a Syllable of ill language from them they never check them doe they what they will neither did they ever doubt in all their lives or were once troubled in mind or conscience as many scrupulous fooles are and hereupon they thinke
for our convenience or necessity which need not yea must not be forborne as wherefore serves discretion but that as a glasse window it may let in the light and keepe out the winde Neither can wicked men in this case be avoided but so long as wee are in this World we must converse with men of the World and we know it is lawful enough in tearms of civility to deale with infidels yea even thesavage Cannibals may receiue an answer of outward courtesie If a very dog fawne upon us we stroke him on the head and clap him on the backe much lesse is the common bond of humanity untyed by grace disparity in spirituall professions is no warrant for ingratitude yet a little friendship with such is enough the lesse communion with any of Gods enem es the more safety and sure I am that those who affect a familiar entirenesse with such bewray either too much boldnesse or too little conscience Yea we may not only converse with evill men but communiâ—ate with them also without harme so it be not in evill things as in the Sacrament the unworthy receiver eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe sibi non tibi to himselfe not to thee But as touching a familiar enâ—irenesse and leagues of amity that they are unfit unwarrantable dangerous is easie to prove As what saith the Holy Ghost by S. Paul Wee command you brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that malketh inordinately and not after the instruction which 〈◊〉 received of us 2 Thes. 3. 6. And againe speaking unto the converted Ephesians touching others among them who were whoremongers uncleane persons covetous men and idolaters hee saith be not companions with them Ephesians 5. 5. 7. And lastly in that case of the incestuous Corinthian hee doth not only excommunicate him but makes a rule upon it that if any one which professeth himself a Christian shall live in any scandalous course that they shall not afford him so much as civill and familiar converse I Corinth 5. 11. If any man that is called a brother saith he be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a raiter or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one eate not Marke this all ye swinish drunkards and beastly livers that God dischargeth us your society But to proceed Why was that Law â—nacted for the strict avoiding of Leprous persons it was not the body only that was herein respected by the God of spirits those that are spiritually contagious must be still and ever avoided they must be separated from us we from them they from us by just censures or if not wefrom them by a voluntary declination of their familiar conversation or if they can joyne our heart to theirs they will disjoyne it from God to let passe Saint Pauls charge 2 Corinthians 6. 17. come out from among them and separate your selves And that of the Angell Revelation 18. 4. come out of her my people which especially have relation to Idolaters see what hath beene the practise of Gods people since Noah Lot Abraham and Israel which have beene alledged already Doth not David say I have not sate with vaine persons neither kept company with the dissemblers I have hated the assembly of evill doers and will not company with the wicked Psal. 26. 4. 5. And was not Ioseph whom the Holy Ghost stileth a just man fully minded before the Angell forbad him to put away Mary after he was betrothed unto her when hee but supposed her to bee dishonest Matthew 1. 19. And was not all this to shew us what we should doe in the like cases Wherefore let us tread in their steps and say with a worthy Divine though I may have many bad acquaintance yet I will have no bad companions for even the tame beasts will not keepe with the wild nor the cleane dwell with the leprous But above all let us keepe no drunkards nor swearers in our houses Psalme 101. 4 5 6 7 8. no nor scoffers Ismael must be turned out of doores when hee once fals a jeering of Isaac and indeed if we doe it is a shrewd suspition we are not sincere our selves for grace as it is resembled to heate so like heat it gathereth together things of one kind separateth things of a contrary nature as drosse from Gold In fine if they have forsaken all honesty and good conscience it is time for us to forsake them if they depart from us in the foundation of faith and good workes let us as justly wee may depart from them in the building of brotherly fellowship they build on the sand let us build on the rock yea if they forsake the right way wee must forsake them or Christ will forsake us § 196. BUt least this should not suffice see some reasons to enforce thee thereunto which all Gods people propound to themselves when they bid adue to their old associates in the broad way and purpose to pledge them no more in their wicked customes The reasons are principally 5. and they are weighty 1. That they may come to the sight of their errors 2. That we may not be Infected by them nor partake of their sinnes 3. That we may not be infeoffed in their punishments 4. That So farre as is possible we may be at peace with all men 5. Because their company would bereave us of comfort which otherwise we should enjoy being alone First that thereby they may come to the sight of their errors and consequently be reclaimed S. Paul when hee commands the Corinthians to shut the incestuous person out of their society and fellowship gives this reason that his Spirit might bee saved in the day of the Lord 1 Corinth 5. 5. Againe when he writ to Timothy that he had done the same touching Hymeneus and Alexander he yeeldeth this to be the reason that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tuâ—othy 1. 20. And in another place If any man obey not our saying note him by a letter and have no company with him that hee may bee ashamed 2 Thes. 3. 14. It was the practise of the primitive Church in her first love that shee might shine in beauty and fairenes above alother Synagogues not to admit any scandalous person or open offender into the Communion of Saints untill their foule spots were carefully washt off and taken away by the teares of repentance The bread of the children was not given unto dogs neither by an equall bounty to the godly and the wicked was there an equall encouragement to godlinesse and iniquity but a separation was made betweene the sick and the whole and this separation had no other intent but edification even an edification of the spirit by the destruction of the flesh so that men could find no fault with the dispensers of this power having nothing to complaine of but that their lives thereby were sought to be amended and their soules to be saved I
laught at for my labour as he was I only offer it to your censure and dispose that it might therather creeâ— forth under the safe conduct of your goodnesse unto the hands and use of others and even therin feare also that I have coveted too high and intruded too much on your Lordships more weighty affaires Indeed to alter a little of what is yours would interdict mee all Apologie since that were to use the pensile upon a picture finished by Apelles or to write the destruction of Troy after Homer which with ease may be marred but cannot be mended Suppose with Epicurus you loath to repeate any thing againe be it never so pleasing or profitable as it appeares by your compositions you do yet far be it from you to barre others that benefit when the same God by whose Spirit your Pen was guided gave command that his children should lay up his words in their hearts and souls bind them upon their hands and between their eyes teach them their children repeat them sitting and walking lying down and rising up yea write them upon the posts and gates of their houses Besides experience shewes that the oftner these Nayles are hammered the deeper they pierce and pierce too deep they cannot for five words remembred are better then a thousand forgotten and every help to our devotion deserves to be precious It was an envious humour not befitting your Lordships worth whose ayme is God's glory not your owne which caused Alexander to bee angry with Aristotle for making his Bookes common and a peevish condition which made Aspendius that cunning Musitian to play always so softly on his Harpe that none conld heare but himselfe Vertue is destributive and had rather accommodate many with selfe-injury then bury benefits that might pleasure a multitude and that which is good of it selfe is so much the better by how much the more it is communicated yea to conceale goodnesse is a vice I need not tel your Lordship that gray advisements in a fine filed phrase are like 〈◊〉 Fire Water the more breathed the clearer the more extended the warmer the more drawne the sweeter or the bright Sun whose beames are not the worse for shining in every corner but the places the better If then I detract not from their worth who may not benefit by their use in which my care and desire was with the Bee to 〈◊〉 my selfe and others without prejuaice to any one flower Put case I have faâ—otted and piled one thing upon another independantly and without forme or order precious stones willshine though set in Lead and linkes of Gold have their true value and lustre though a bungler make the chaine Indeed if in borrowing the matter I impaire the forme as many times it commeth to passe that sentences translated or repeated doe like silke twise dyed loose their glosse if I adulterate or sophisticate any one peece let the Author reward me as Archelaus and Philoxenus did some which sang their â—eeters illfavâ—uredly and undecently who either kickt them on the shinns or broke their potts using these words you breake mine I breake yours or as learned Musurus Candiot served Marsilius Ficinus in correcting his translation of Plato all over with a Sponge finding it to imitate the copy originall no more then Cicero the younger did his Father which was only in name or take the same course with my Book which Philoxenus did with a Tragedy that Dionysius sent him to correct who finding it not worthy to bee published tooke a knife and rased it in peeces For praise I seeke none as I have deserved none and I am so farre from expecting thanks as that I humbly crave pardon yea a conditionall acceptance is all I aske Wherefore vouchsafe it your favourable aspect and let this meane but faithfull testimony of my humble thankfulnesse be shrowded under the wings of your learned Patrociny as was Persius under the wings of Pallas and Teucer under the Shield of Ajax And your deserved greatnesse shall make it more acceptable and by consequence the more profitable yea your name to which it is consecrate shall add life to it as the Sunne to a withered Plant and your protection will no lesse support it then bones do the flesh of a mans body or walls the building of an house True Alexander at first disdained the Corinthian Embassadors who offered him the freedome and Burgueship of their City but when they told him that Bacchus and Hercules were likewise in their Registers he kindly thanked them and accepted their offer If there be any thing herein worthy let it induce your acceptance if not it may please you to imitate Caesar who never rejâ—yced more then to heare how they talked of his valiant exploits in simple Cottages Divers doe dedicate their heavenly labours according to earthly respects and I have often seene an heavenly Pearle presentted to the hand of an earthly and sensuall Patron but such incongruous and untuneable de dications have ever beene harsh to my judgement wherefore that I might avoid the like incongruity I was bold in nuncupating my Booke to fixe upon your Lordship in whom to the outwaâ—d gifts of nature and fortune are conjâ—yned the inward endowments of grace as piety humility affability temperance justice wisdome with maturity of judgement and the like which by a rare and happy combination have met together as Diamonds set in a border of Gold or Sapphirs placed in a Cabinet of Ivory touching which your vertues for I will not use many words of your selfe to your selfe I shall rather praise God and pray for the continuance and increase of them in the secret closet of mine own heart than make any publike proclamation of the same in the eares of others knowing that your selfe affects no other the ater for your worth then your owne conscience And in regard of others it were as needlesse as to lend Spectâ—cles to Lynceus an Eye to Argus or to wast gilding on pure Gold for who hath heard of your name that is not driven to admiration and veneration of your singular sufficiencies Againe Alexander's victories and vertues to which I may fitly resemble them were not to be drawne in the compasse of a signet neither did it become any to paint them but Apelles to grave them but Pyrgoteles to carve them but Lysippus Wherefore I will passe over with a dry Pen that which neither befits the person to write in regard of his meannesse nor the place of an Epistle to containe in regard of it's expected briefnesse though It is detraction to conceale due praise When good related might more goodnes raise True glasses both our deformities and favours tell and precepts never shine so much as when they are set in examples nor examples as when they are set in curious persons nor is it easie to finde so fit a person so meet a patterne for imitation for incitation The which benefit that we may long enjoy as a set Copy in the
and Heathens have censured this vice and judged of this sinne though indeed the odiousnesse of it is beyond all expression neither have I dehortation answerable to my detestation of it onely what cannot be spoken your meditation supplying the defect of my speech may be implyed as under a curtaine which was the Painters shift in deliniating the picture of Venus and the wont of Timanthes who in each picture hee drew occasioned more to be understood then was painted § 11. THe Learned of all ages have concluded yea drunkennesse it selfe if it could speake as it can take away speech would confesse that it is a flattering Devill a sweet poyson a voluntary madnesse an invited enemy the author of outrages quarrells debates murthers the nurse of fury the mistris of pride the fountaine of all vice the originall of all diseases and bane of the soule that it is a fire whose flame is lust whose sparkes are oathes and evill words whose smoake is pride and infamy whose ashes are diseases and poverty and whose end is hell That it is a sinne which cracks mens credits consumes their estates distempers their constitutions dulls their spirits infatuates their senses intoxicateth their braines stupefies and besots their understandings perverteth their wills troubleth reason overthroweth the judgment infeebleth the memory corrupteth all the affections excludeth counsell and without Gods infinite mercy and their sound repentance damnes the soule That it is a bewitching sweete in the mouth which turnes to deadly poyson in the heart the revealer of secrets the ship wrack of chastity the shame of honesty the ruine of good manners the thiefe of time the disgrace of mankind a sinne which makes man an abomination to the Lord odious to the Angells scorned of men abandoned of all good society and above all makes men subjects and vassalls to Sathan a sinne of all others the most spreading most infectious most incurable most inexcusable a sinne which makes no difference of times places persons c. A sinne which is against the lawes of God of grace of nature and of all nations against sense and reason a sinne which brings wrath and judgment upon the whole land a sinne which is a griefe to friends a ruine to families which separates from the society and company of Gods Saints on earth excludes and shuts them out of the Kingdome of Heaven as Plutarch Solon Pittacus Boetius St. Austin St. Ierom St. Chrysoftome and others stile and define it That it is of sinnes the queene as the goute is of diseases even the most prodigall wastfull unthrifty unprofitable unnaturall unseemely insatiable unreasonable sinne the most base brutish beastly foule filthy odious execrable detestable horrible abominable state disturbing heathenish infernall prodigious damnable gracelesse and shamefull sinne of all others as some of our Moderne writers render it In fine it is a sinne odious and lothsome in any but in us who have so much light so many lawes of God and man against it most unsufferable but as it was once observed that Philosophy was taught in Athens but practised in Sparta so now temperance and sobriety is taught in England but practised in Spaine and Turky § 12. ANd as it is a most grievous and matchlesse sinne in it selfe so it is the cause of all other sinnes a monster with many heads the roote of all evill the incendiary of all vice the Magazine of all misery the mother and metropolis of all mischiefe As tell mee was there ever any sinne committed which wine hath not beene an occasion of for notwithstanding wine doth first serve and obey the drinker yet by little and little mixing it selfe with the blood in the veynes it doth rule over him and like Saules evill and controlling spirit makes him it 's vassall whereby like the Centurions servant he no sooner heares the word from Sathan doe this but instantly hee doth it whether it be to the committing of adultery with Holofernes inces◠with Lot murther with Alexander Cambyses and Philopater one of which in his drinke slew his deare and faithfull friend Clytus who was his chiefe Captaine in all his exployts though it so troubled him being sober that he would have made away himselfe the second his onely Sonne the third his deare father and mother or treason with him that confest to King Pyrrhus upon his arraignment all this wee did and spake against thee and much more should have done had not the wine failed us or blasphemy with Belshazzar and his Princes Dan. 5. 23. and what not for even to rehearse the severall examples which history affords and experience hath made knowne were endlesse Some examples I have given you and he is a very young man and unobservant that cannot adde forty out of his owne experience And doe not our reverend Judges in their severall circuits finde by experience that few brawles murthers manslaughters rapes c. are committed which arise not from this roote of drunkennesse And indeed as in Justice all vertues are couched together summarily as Aristottle affirmes so in drunkennesse all vices are lapt up together as it were in a bundle for it is a confluence or collection of all the rest and as he said of old prove a man to be ingratefull and you prove him naught all over so prove one to bee a Drunkard and you prove him guilty of every thing that is evill reprobate to all that is good for what sinne is it which a drunken man will sticke to commit when wee reade that Cyrillus his Sonne being drunke slew his Father and his Mother great with child hurt his two Sisters and defloured one of them as St. Austin affirmes when another being tempted by the Devill as Philip Lonicer witnesseth to commit some crime or other putting him to his choice either of Drunkennesse Adultery or Murther he chosing the first in his drunkennesse he abused the wife of him in whose house he was and her husband comming in the whilst he slew him and so in chosing that one he committed all three which being rightly considered me thinkes a man had neede to be drunke before hand that shall admit of more wine then enough that shall for one houres mad mirth hazard a whole age of griefe and shame together with his displeasure that is able to destroy both body and soule in Hell § 13. BUt you have not heard all for as others observe it is a queller of all good notions motions actions a sinne which decayes all a mans good parts and morall vertues which disables men from all good imployments either in Church or Common-wealth making them unprofitable which otherwise might be serviceable and indisposeth them to grace and godlinesse yea to all the meanes thereof For as by too much raine saith St. Austin the earth is resolved into dirt and made unfit for tillage so Drunkards by excessive swilling are altogether so unfitted for the spirituall tyllage that they can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and
the divell and drunkards consider in the first place that out of the premises ariseth this conclusion how we live in so corrupt an aire that wee need many Antidâ—tes to keepe us from being infected for lay altogether and the summe is that Sathan and his instruments are ever and every way practising to lift us out of vertues seate that we are compassed round with temptations even as the Sea compasseth the earth watching where it may conveniently get in here kissing the banks with flattering waves there swelling against it with roring billowes for if the divel can not winne men to hell as hee seemes an Angell of light hee will strive to accomplish it as he is a spirit of terror and what he cannot do by himselfe hee will by his instruments wicked men More particularly Consider that every man hath two great and importunate suters for his soule vertue and vice whose agents are good and evill men those that are agents for vertue leigers for Christ are chiefly his faithfull Ministers their commission is the Word the weapons of their warfare their tongues the only meanes they use is to intreat and beseech men by the mercies of Christ that they will be reconciled unto God the only motive to induce men hereunto is that if they will part with the sinfull pleasures of this life they shall have a glorious kingdome prepared for them in heaven which few have faith to believe and of them which doe fewer will undergo those grievous temptations and persecutions which usuaully accompany the profession of the Gospell For though the Gospell brings remission of sinne and remission of sinne occasions all true joy and peace internall and eternall peace with God and peace of conscience yet our warre with Sathan the World and the Flesh is wonderously increased thereby which makes divers that seeme to be of Christs band forsake him for with many like mutinous Souldiers no longer pay no longer fight as that desperate mercenary said he came not to fight for his country he came to fight for his money like the Law-logick and the Switzers they are for his service that gives them the best ready wages here Sathan takes his hint to usurpe upon the children of perdition religion briâ—gs crosses Ecclesia est haeres crucis they find their devotion answered with tribulation and cannot be quiet because they seeme to bee good Now steps in the Divell why should you buy misery with want when as you may want misery why will you embrace certaine cares in hope of uncertaine comforts why doe you take paines to bee poore when you may be rich with case Here they that have not the grace nor the face to give the divell the lye throw the plow into the hedge and will not waite till harvest but lay hold on these new offers of the world and for a messe of pottage sell their patrimony Whereas on the other side those that are agents for vice factors for the divell have diverse and sundry ways to prevaile whether of policy to allure and perswade or of strength to compell and enforce us to yeeld Sathan as you have heard hath many strings to his bow that if some breake the rest may hold many traines of powder some likely to take fire yea he is like some cunning Enginere that can invent new instruments according to the present occasion and inventeth all he can and puts in practice al that he inventeth and when old tricks of cheating can doe no good Sathan and his instruments will find out new O the many advantages that Sathans instruments have above Gods servants both in wooing and winning to sinne by faire meanes and in keeping such as they have wonne and likewise in compelling and enforcing by foule you have seene sundry of them in the former Treatise I will shew you yet more § 179. AS for winning by faire meanes first how ready at hand is an evill suggestion good counsel is like unto Well-water that must be drawne up with a Pump or Bucket ill counsell is like to conduit-water which if the cock be but turned runs out alone Secondly how easie a Rhetorick drawes us to the worse yea it is hard not to doe evill uninvited even Virgil a heathen could say that it was an easie thing in sinne to go on amaine and with much facility to descend into hell which is below as a man that goeth downe a hill cannot choose but run or at least one man hath more power to pull him downe then halfe a dozen the contrary but to goe forward in goodnesse and vertue to ascend so steepy a hill as heaven which is above is hard and difficult yea we had need be drawn by many strong helpes for in this case we resemble the Spider which can descend with a ladder of her owne making be the place never so low but cannot ascend one inch without some prop or rather a very stone which descends naturally is not raised but by violence facilis descensus Sed revocare gradum down streame the Boat goes fast enough to stop it is all the cunning before it strike on a Shelfe Those things which the ground naturally produceth of it selfe she soone and easily brings forth and that in abundance you shall find your furrowes full of Cockle and Darnell though you never sowe them but what is sowen not without much labour and that sparingly because she is to those a mother to these a step-dame And commonly it fares with counsels as it doth with meates those which are least wholesome are most requested and the faction of evill is so much stronger in our nature then that of good that every least motion prevailes for the one scarce any sute for the other and seldome shall wee see truth so successefull as falshood Whence it was that Theodota and Calisto two beautiful harlots could each of them boast that they excelled Sâ—crates for that they when they pleased could draw away by their allurements his disciples and auditors from him whereas he could not with all his great wisdome and learning draw from them any of their lovers whose answer was No marvaile for I draw with an unpleasing hooke to vertue whose way is difficult and hard whereas you draw with a pleasing With of down to vice which is easie and men are naturally of themselves prone to it § 180. THirdly the world like Iael beginns with milke and ends with an hammer whereas Christ keepes backe the good wine untill afterward and makes his servants break their fast with the rod. Yea he that offered our Saviour all the kingdomes of the world and the glory thereof is ready to yeeld a man more then hee shall require as the same Iael did Sisera for as when he ask'd her water she gave him milk when he only desired shelter shee made him a bed and when he beg'd but the protection of her Tent she covered him with a mantle giving him more then he asked but
workes and the Ships were broken that they were not able to goe to Tâ—rshish 2 Chro. â—0 37. But admit they can not infeâ—ffe us either in their sinne or punishment yet their society will be a shrewd vexation to us As let a religious man fall into their company as an honest man may fall into the hands of theeves they will conspire how to afflâ—ct his eyes with unchast visions his eares with fearefull oathes his unwilling appetite with drunken healths which even a civilized Pagan would abhor We read that Clitomachus the wrestler though a great company-keeper yet if he had heard but one filthy word would presently depart How was just Lot vexed with the uncleanly conversation of his wicked neighbours Sodom was worse then a Jaile to his righteous soule and report lyes if our Jailes be not much like to Sodom the very dens of mischiefe the Scholes of wickednesse a Malefactor learnes more vilany there then ever he knew before drunkennesse and blasphemy usurpe the place of mortification and humility Or lastly if their society be not a vexation to our minds at least it will be a great disparagement to our names every one will conclude almost infallibly such as our company is such is our disposition The common Proverb is like will to like And Birds of a feather will flock together When Iepthah was himselfe in banishment there gathered to him idle fellows such as himselfe Iudges 11. 3. When David was in trouble and vexed in minde himselfe their flockt unto him all those that were in trouble vexed in mind or that were in debt even foure hundred of them to the Cave of Adullam 1 Sa. 22. 2. Yea our Saviour meetes no lesse then ten Lepers in one knot Fellowship is that we all naturally affect though it be in Leprosie even Lepers will flock to their fellows where shâ—ll wee finde one spirituall leper alone drunkards prophane persons hereticks will be sure to consort with their matches And hereupon the Lacedâ—m onians when they would certainly bee informed what the disposition and behaviour of any one was would wisely inquire with what persons they were linked in fellowship And indeed he that makes himselfe a companion of all sells his reputation very cheape it being as great an indecorum for a holy Christian to be in the company of gracelesse persons as it is for a reverend Divine to sit upon the Stage in a publike Theater or an old man to dance with little children in the streetes Base company saith one kills both our fame and our soules it gives us wounds which will never admit of healing How many have irrecoverably lost their good names by keeping company with suspected persons and whether the report bee true or false it is no easiething to disprove a slaunder for like an unruly spirit once raised 't is hard to conjure downe againe A mans good name is much easier kept then recovered And thus you see that evill company endangers our soules or could our soules be free yet our persons are in danger or could our soules and persons both bee safe yet our estates are in jeopardy or could our soules bodies and estates be secure yet our fame would suffer and our good name lye at the stake Wherefore c. § 200. BUt admit we could keepe them company without harme yet this inconvenience would ensue their company would bereave us of much good which otherwise we should enjoy being alone it fareing with the godly wise as with Saint Ambrose who was wont to say I am never lesse alone then when I am all alone for then I can enjoy the presence of my God without interruption They are able to say as Duâ—artus and before him Scipio I have never better company then when I have no company for then can I freely entertaine my owne thoughts and converse with all the learned which have beene in former ages Antisthenes being asked what fruit he had reaped of all his study made answer I have learned by it both to live and walke with my selfe And Alphonsus King of Arragon being demanded what company he liked best replyed Bookes for these saith he without feare or flâ—ttery or any reward tell me faithfully all that I desire to know Cicero was and I am of his minde and though I bee no Hermit to sit away my daies in a dull Cell yet will I choose rather to have no companion then a bad one When Cato Vtican in vacation times and at his best leasure went to recreate himselfe in the country hee used to cary with him the best Philosophers and choisest bookes Algerius an Italian Martyre said Hee had rather be in prison with Cato then with Caesar in the Senate house so was it more comfortable to bee with Philpot in his Cole-house then with Bonner in the Palace Boner's conscience made his Palace a Cole-house and a dungeon whiles Philpot's made the Cole-house a Palace The state of grace is heaven upon earth and he that knowes the sweetnesse of Gods presence wil deeme it more tollerable to bee ever alone then never able to be so When I read of Hiero the Tyrant of Syracusa and other such that gave over their Kingdomes to live a solitary life I somewhat wonder I should not to heare of a religious and Christian King that did so It is impossible for the naturall man to be so merry in company as the believer alone yea saith S. Augustine the teares of those that pray are sweeter then the joyes of the Theater Indeed a witty jest may make a man laugh more and lowder but he who hath an inheritance fallen to him feeles a more solid joy within so hee that enjoyes his Saviour and hath the assurance of heaven is truly merry at the heart and keepes Hilary Tearme all his life And indeed nothing in the world is worth envie besides the condition of a true Christian. But to what end doe I tell a blind man how glorious and bright a creature the Sunne is or a poore man what summes of money are in the Kings Exchequers To so many as are unrenewed I speake in Parables Revel 2. 17. Yea this seemes to them a Paradox that the people of God should be a merry people for contrariwise they dreame of nothing but solitarinesse and melancholly as the common people thought Tully to bee most idle when he studied most or as the Husbandman in Aesope objected idlenesse to the Poet but as he replyed I am never so idle as in thy company so may the religious we are never so solitary never so melancholly as when in society with you that are vicious This was David's case which maketh him cry out Wâ—e is me that I must remaine in Mâ—seck and dwell in the Tents of Kedar he found it a heavie yoke to bee yoked with irreligious companions And a double reason may be given of it though we feare not to suffer either in our persons goods or good names as before you have it For
our case would be far worse if wee had the worlds peace 390. not strange that wicked men should agree so well 414. agreement of wicked men not worthy the name of peace 832. Persecute wicked men persecute not the evil but the good 499. Petitions God may grant them in anger 659. Plague be it never so hot drunkards are the same 137. it hath wrought little or no reformation 245. many the worse for it 247. Taverns fullest when the streets emptiest 248. Pledge the originall of the word 327. Practise how the godly and wicked differ in their practise 249. wee know no more then wee practise 595. Pray Gods people count it a sinne not to pray for their greatest enemies 523. pray not for knowledge without putting difference 658. when we cannot pray what 663. Presumptuously do drunkards sin 471. Prejudice makes many resolve against yeelding 724. Pride and reputation of good-fellowship a cause of drunkennesse 277. pride of wit 280. Promises entailed to believers and limited with the condition of faith and repentance 560. Profession of religion 382. 532. look Scoffs Punishment wicked men complaine of their punishment but of their sin they speake not 539. R REason as it is clouded with the mistes of original corruption a blind guid 202. once debauched is worse then brutishnesse 693. Reckoning worldlings never think of the reckoning they are to give 621. Regeneration what and how we may know our selves to be regenerate 565. Repentance what and how we may know whether we have repented 570. not to deferre it 588. sicknesse no fit time for it 79. God wil not accept our dry bones when Sathan hath suck't out all the marrow 586. the several wayes whereby God cals to repentance 478. in a judgement so many as repent are singled out for mercy 257 if any would repent of and relinquish this sin of drunkennesse let them first lay to heart the things delivered 695. secondly refraine the causes ibid. thirdly believe their state dangerous and that there is no way to helpe but by a chang to the contrary 696. fourthly be peremptory in their resolution ibid. fifthly shame not to confesse their dislike of it in themselves and others 700. sixthly fly evill company 701. seventhly take heed of delayes 702. eightly omit not to pray for divine assistance ibid ninthly be diligent in hearing 703. tenthly frequent in the use of the Lords Supper ibid. eleventhly meditate what God hath done for them ibid. twelfthly think on the union we have with Christ ibid. thirteenthly consider that God ever beholds them 704. 14ly often think of the day of judgement ibid. fifteenthly consider the hainousnesse of this sin and the â—vills which accompany it 705. sixteenthly abstaine from drunken company 709. for all depends upon this seventeenthly abstaine from drinking-places 710. Report of necessity we must be evill spoken of by some 756 the evill report of evill men an honour 763 Reputation hee of most reputation that can drinke most 139. Reward of drunkards 146. and swearers 104. they shall have a double portion of vengeance to other men 464 Righteous the civilly righteous have hell for their portion 465. S SAthan hath all worldlings under his command 21. 402. 432. and they must do what he will have them 379. by degrees he works men to the heighth of impiety 423. Saints falls should make us beware not presume 157. Scoffes beate off many from their profession 532. the scoffer commonly worse then the scoffed 367. none but fooles will be scoffed out of their religion 754. yet few that will not offend God and their conscience rather then be scoft at 749. Scripture he must be studious therein and follow that rule who will know Christ savingly 664. Security the certaine usher of destruction 242. Separate Drunkards and swearers deserve like dirt in the house of God to be throwne out 93. of which five reasons 94. happy if they were kept by themselves 230. Shame Drunkards would mitigate their owne shame by discrediting the good 374. Singularity a vertue when vice is in fashion 225. Sinnes against knowledge and conscience 467. open and scandalous sinnes how evill 472. to multiply the same sinnes often 473 to commit one sin on the neck of another 473. how one mans sin may extend it selfe to millions yea after ages 539. Drunkards not only sin but make others sin too 493. the Divell shewes the sweet of sin but hides the bitter of punishment untill afterward 734. custome of sinne takes away the sense of sinne 427. Slander Drunkards raise slanders of the godly 358. of which seaven reasons 366. how apt men are to believe slanders of the godly and to spread them 360. what delight wicked men take in hearing evill of the good 361. a slander once raised will scarce ever dye 377. how they mitigate their owne shame by slandering others 368. and often prevaile against the good hereby 370. the condition of a slanderer set out 363. his sinne and punishment 378. Smiting God will not leave smiting untill we smite that which smites at his honour 253. Soule Drunkards guilty of Soule murther 443. 530. nothing but our Soules will satisfie the Serpent and his seed 436. covetous man cares more for his outward estate then for body or soule 626. Spirit saving knowledge not attain'd without the Spirits help 655. Straite what a straite the godly are in 383. Striking 392. Subtilty and wisdome two different things 641. Successe custom of it makes men confident 241 Suffer our Saviour suffered two and twenty wayes of hisâ— enemies 397. Suggestion evill moreready at hand then a good 717 Superlative some men strive to bee superlative in sinne 415. severall examples of superlative sinners 416. Suspition ignorance the cause of it 351. Swearing the most in excusable sin 100. of which 2 reasons 101. that of all others the swearer shall bee sure of plagues 104. three wayes to make men leave their swearing 112. T TAle-bearing the receiver as bad as the tale-bearer 380. Tempting Sathan the Tempter wicked men his Apprentises or Factors under him 298. the many wayes that Sathan hath to set upon us 297. aswell reckon up the motes in the Sunne as all sorts of Seducers 304. all wicked men resemble the Divell in Tempting 286. how politick they are in Tempting 288. Drunkards Sathans principle agents in this businesse 306. the Drunkards chiefe delight is to infect others 286. Temptations on the right hand the most dangerous 746. A wise man will suspect the smooth streame for deepnesse 747. they never wound so deadly as when they stroke us with a silken hand 745. to bee a Tempter the â—asest office 330. their seduceing of others will adde to the pile of their torments 450. how greedy most men are of temptation 295. Sathan needs but say the word 295. or suggest the thought 296. the minde of man not capeable of a violation either from man or Sathan 303. it will bee a poore plea an other day to pretend that such and
from passion and affection touching either party and as our eyes could not aright judge of colours except they were void of all colours nor our tongues discerne of tastes unlesse freed from tasts so no man can jndge aright of passions except his mind be altogether free from passions Wherefore bee not so much led by lust passion or affection as by reason Wee know appetite in a burning Feavor will call for cold drink even to the overthrow of our lives if reason gainsay it not But as they that would see more sharply and certainly shut one eye so doe thou let the eyes or windowes of thy affections bee shut to the allurements of the world and the flesh least they draw thee from the right line of obedience yea shut to humane reason also least it make thee mistake and swerve from faiths injunctions And then if thou canst but bring thy flesh with it's lusts a little asleep while thy soule is waking thou hast entred â—hrough the gate into the porch of this heavenly Palace But he that will doe this must shunne all dispute with Sathan of which else where Secondly he must get an humble conceit of his owne wisdome The first step to knowledge is to know our owne ignorance we must become fooles in our owne judgements before we can be truly wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. And indeed the opinion of our knowing enough is one of the greatest causes of our knowing so little for what we presume to have attained we seeke not after Humble eyes are most capable of high mysteries he will teach the humble his way saith David Psal. 25. 9. yea the first lesson of a Christian is humility Matth. 11. 29. Pro. 1. 7. and he that hath not learnt the first lesson is not fit to take out a new One would thinke that a worldly wise man might most easily also make a wise Christian but St. Paul saith no except first he becomes a foole that is acknowledge his cleare light and wisdome which he hath so magnified for clearenesse to be blindnesse and ignorance he cannot be wise in this case 1 Cor. 3. 18. Yea saith St. Cyprian it is as much lost labour to preach unto a man the things of God before he be humbled with the sight of hiâ— wants as to offer light to a blind man to speake to a deafe man or to labour to make a brute beast wise Pride is a great let to true wisdome for God resisteth the proâ—d aâ—d onely gives grace to the humble Iames 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. hence it comes to passe that few proud wits are reformed I am come unto judgement into this world saith our Saviour to the Pharisees that they which see not might see and that they which â—ee meaning in their owne opinion might be made blind Ioh. 9. 39. which was the reason he propounded his woes to the Pharisees and his Doctrines to the people An heart full of Pride is like a vessell full of aire this selfe-opinion must be blowne out of us before saving knowledge will be powred into us Humility is the knees of the soule and to that posture only the Lamb will open the booke Christ will know none but the humble and none but humble soules truly know Christ. Now this grace of humility is obtained by taking a serious view of our wants the Peacock's pride is abated when she peâ—ceives the blacknesse of her legs and feete Now suppose we know never so much yet that which we doe knovv is farre lesse then â—hat which we are ignorant of and the more we know the more we knovv vve vvant at all both vvise and holy â—en have felt and confest yea this vvas the judgement of the vvisest even amongst the Heathen 〈◊〉 being demanded vvhy the Oracle of Delphoâ— should pronounce him the vvisest man of Greece made ansvver I know nothing but this that I knoâ— nothing neither can there be any thing in me to â—â—rifie the Oracle eâ—cept this that I am not wise and know it whereas others are not wise and know it not and to be ignorant and knovv it not is by farre the greater ignorance So the renovvned Orator Cicero even bevvayled his own emptinesse I would quoth he I could light on the truth as easily as I can 〈◊〉 fasehood a negative knovvledge vvas the greatest knovvledge he vvould acknovvledge in himselfe He is wise that can truly see and acknowledge his ignorance he is ignorant that thinkes himselfe wise I 'le cleare it by a similitude being here below we thinke one Iland great but the whole earth unmeasurably if we were above in the firmament with these eyes the whole earth were it equally enlightned would seeme as little to us as now the least Starre in the firmament seemes to us upon earth and indeed how few Stars are so little as it even such is the naturall mans mistake in judging of and comparing what he hath with what he wants naturall wisdome with spirituall and Heavenly Wherefore if thou perceivest not more strength and wisdome to be in the weaknesse and foolishnesse of Gods truth 1 Cor. 1. 25. which therefore only seemes weaknesse and foolishnesse because the strength and wisdome of it is not perceived by the fleshly eye then in the strength and wisdome of the profoundest Naturian and if thou beleivest not the godly to be most wise doe not blame them for foolishnesse but thy selfe for blindnesse and desire the Lord as Elisha did for his servant to open thine eyes Thus as by mortification and dying unto sinne we come to vivification and living unto grace or as by dying the death of nature we obtaine the life of glory so by becomming a foole a man may attaine to wisdome Wherefore get humility and thou hast mounted another step toward wisdome entred a second roome of this Palace § 164. THirdly let him get faith For as without faith no man can please God so without faith no man can know God Faith doth clearely behold those things which are hid both from the eye of sense and the eye of reason I am come into the world saith our Saviour that whosoever beleeveth in me should not sit in darknesse Iohn 12. 46. Reason and faith are the two eyes of the soule Reason discernes naturall objects faith spirituall and supernaturall We may fee farre with our bodily eye sense farther with the minds eye reason but farther with the soules eye Faith then with both Yea the rationall doth not so farre exceede the sensuall as the spirituall exceeds the rationall and though reason and humane learning is as oyle to the Lampe of our understandings which makes them burne clearer yea so doubles the sight of our minds as Menander speakes that there is as much difference betweene the learned and unlearned as there is betweene man and beast yet Faith and illumination of the spirit adds to the sight of our minds as a Prospective glasse adds to the corporall sight Matth. 16. 17. Christ is
the Sunne of the soule Reason and Faith the two Eyes I am the light of the world saith our Saviour he that followeth me meaning by a lively Faith shall not walke in darknesse but shall have the light of life Iohn 8. 12. and more see two eyes then one Yea the day with one eye doth for more things descry then night can doe with more then Argus eyes Vnregenerate men who want faith are like blind Sampson without his guide So that we must have minds lifted above nature to see and love things above nature heavenly wisdome to see heavenly truth or else that truth which is saving will be to us a mystery yea seeme foolishnesse 1 Cor. 2. 7 8 14. wheras the spirit reveales all things to the beleiver even the deepe things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10 12 15 16. giving him a mouth and wisdome where agâ—inst all his adversaries shall not be able to speake or resist Luke 21. 15. Wherefore get faith and thou hast mounted another step to wisdome entred a third roome of this Palace Fourthly he must be frequent and fervent in prayer to God for the direction of his holy Spirit for First humble and faithfull prayer ushered in by meditation is the cure of all obscurity especially being accompanied with fervor and fervency If any lacke wisdome saith St. Iames let him aske of God which giveth to all men liberally and reproacheth no man and it shall be given him Iam. 1. 5. marke the words it is said if any wherefore let no man deny his soule this comfort againe aske and have it cannot come upon eaâ—ier termes yea God seemes to like this sute so well in Solomon as if he were beholding to his Creature for wishing good to it â—elfe yea more whatsoever we aske in prayer if we beleeve we shall have it Math. 21. 22. And in vaine doe we expect that Almes of Grace for which we doe not so much as beg Secondly as Sampsons companions could never have found out his Riddle if they had not plowed with his heyfer so no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. And as none can behold the light of the Sunne but by the benefit of the Sunne so none can know God who is called the Father of lights in the plurall number because of the degrees and diversities of his gifts nor the things of God but by the revelation of God 1 Cor. 12. 8. Math. 16. 17. with the Spirits helpe the meanes can never be too weake without never strong enough One excellent and necessary prerogative of the spirituall man is this he hath God for his teacher he learnes the counsells of God of that spirit which only knoweth God's counsells Luke 21. 15. For though his outward man receives the elements and rudiments of Religion by breeding and education yet his inward man receiveth them by heavenly infpiration For as spirituall wisdome is not the fruite of time and study as the naturall is so it hath a higher fountaine then nature to feede it even the Spirit of God which is no small priviledge for the Scholler learnes quickly when the Holy Ghost is his teacher the eye sees distinctly when the Holy Ghost doth enlighten it When Christ taught in the Temple they askt how knoweth this man the Scriptures seeing he never learned them so it is a wonder what learning some men have that have no learning like Priscilla and Aquila poore Tent-makers which were able to schole Apollos that great Clarke a man renowned for his learning What can we say to it for no other reason can be given for it but as Christ said Father so it pleaseth thee For as Iacob came so soone with his Venison that his father askt him how he came by it so suddenly and Iacob answered because the Lord thy God brought it suddenly to my hands so holy and righteous men can give no other reason why they understand the words of God so easily and the wicked doe conceive them so hardly but that God brings the meaning suddenly to their hearts as we reade Luk. 24. that Christ standing in the midst of his Apostles after he was risen from the dead opened their understandings that they might understand clearely the Scriptures and what vvas vvritten of him in the lavv of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes vers 44. 45. Loe hovv suddenly their knovvledge came unto them But see vvhat a generall promise God in the person of vvisdome hath made to all that serve him Pro 1. 23. Wherefore importune God the Father for the dirâ—ction of his holy Spirit and thou shalt at the least have light enough on earth to bring thee to the light of Heaven But in praying for wisdome observe one caution doe not pray for it without putting difference There is a speculative knowledge in the braine common to hypocrites with Gods children Heb. 6. 4. and there is an experimentall and saving knowledge in the heart peculiar to the godly alone Eph. 4. 8. and 5. 8. pray especially for the last of these let thine hearts desire be to know God in Christ Christ in faith faith in good workes to know Gods will that thou mayst doe it and before the knowledge of all other things desire to know thy selfe and in thy selfe not so much thy strength as thy weakenesse pray that thine heart may be insteed of a Commentary to helpe thee understand such points of religion as are most needfull and necessary and that thy life may be an exposition of thy inward man that there may be a sweete harmony betwixt Gods truth thy judgement and whole conversation that what the naturall man knowes by thinking thou mayst double by feeling the same in thine heart and affections as indeed experimentall and saving knowledge is no lesse felt then knowne and I cannot tell how comes rather out of the abundance of the heart then by extreame study or rather is sent by God unto good men like the Ramme that was brought to Abraham when he would have sacrificed his Sonne Isaac But if thou shalt pray unto God for knowledge without making a difference and shalt stand more upon the quantity then the quality so resembling the curre in the fable which preferred the shadow to the meate or those parents among the Heathen which sacrificed to the gods for children but not for good children or Nero's Mother who being told that her Sonne should be Emperour but to her griefe and sorrow answered so my Sonne have the Empire let my sorrow and griefe be what it will or Eudoxus whose wish and prayer to the gods was that hee might once view the Sunne neere at hand to comprehend his forme greatnesse and beauty on condition he were immediately burnt and consumed by it God will either crosse thee in thy desire as he did those anticke builders Gen. 11. 3. to 10. who purposed a Tower the top whereof should reach unto Heaven