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A54653
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A caveat against drunkenness, especially in evil times being a consideration of Eph. 5. 18. / by C.P.
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Phelpes, Charles.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing P1975; ESTC R20541
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88,768
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184
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from the consideration of their nighness to and mercy they have received from God he thus speaks This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that Ye walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind Eph. 4. 17-20 So the Apostle Peter saith Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul having your conversation honest c. 1 Pet. 2. 9-12 And this will appear if we consider 1. They are called out of darkness out of ignorance and blindness into Gods marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And therefore it more abundantly behoves them to put off and flee from this work of darkness Ye were sometimes darkness saith the Apostle to these believing Ephesians and then ye walked according to the course of this world c. but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Eph. 5. 8 with chap. 2. 1 2 and 4. 17 18. Indeed this is the condemnation as to men generally this is their condemning-sin and the cause of their condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3. 19 20. But now as to these not only light is come into the world but they are turned from Darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God as to their state they have believed in the light and are the children of it born of it and called into it indued with the light of the knowledg of God which shines in the face of Christ and therefore it behoves them especially to avoid and abstain from all evil and from this of Intemperance particularly or else they will more highly sin and rebel against the light than others Christ hath given them light let such see then that they walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Let them not be drunk with Wine Eph. 5. 15-18 Certainly men act as and render themselves to be fools at an high rate especially the Children of Light who are Drunk with Wine and such deeds are directly and openly opposite to the Light they have received and to that Wisdom they are indued with As on the other hand it is an high point of Wisdom and the way to be more wise still for those who are of the light to avoid Wine wherein is excess and such as are Bibbers thereof Hence the Holy Ghost saith My Son if thine heart be wise mine heart shall rejoyce even mine yea my reins shall rejoyce c. But how may the heart of such an one be wise Wherein consists and what is the way to Wisdom The Wisdom of God informs us of this as one thing contained in it and needful to it Hear thou my Son and be wise and guide thine heart in the Way Be not amongst wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of flesh Prov. 23. 15-21 This Argument the Apostle also propounds to the Thessalonians to move them to be and abide Sober Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day We are not of the night nor of darkness Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober For they that sleep sleep in the night and they that are drunken are drunken in the night But let us who are of the day be sober 1 Thes 5. 5-8 And if they be not so who are Children of light but become the servants of corruption as their sin is more sinful than others so their judgment will be much more severe and intollerable For such as these The blackness of darkness is reserved for ever Jude 12 13. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered to them 2 Pet. 2. 19-22 The Apostle gives us to understand that the Iniquity of Intemperance in those who are Children of Light is greater than that of other men and answerably their judgement and punishment will be heavier and more terrible if they be not seasonably washed therefrom in that he saith I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to keep company with fornicators yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous c. For then must ye needs go out of the world But now I have written unto you not to keep company If any that is called a Brother be a fornicator or a Drunkard with such an one no not to eat not familiarly to converse or not to eat at the Table of the Lord with such an one as this is 1 Cor. 5. 9-11 Because such sin so greatly against the Light and act so very uusutably unto those principles which they have received of God in walking according whereto they would certainly be preserved from such a brutish and beastly Iniquity as is this of Drunkenness and Intemperance 2. These are Saints by calling and profession washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God and so are brought nigh unto God They are no more strangers and forreiners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the household of God And in Christ they are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit And so are made nigh unto him by the Blood of Christ Eph. 2. 13-19-22 They are brought into and made of his House And holiness becometh thy house O Lord for ever Psal 93. 5. And therefore it doth behove these especially to escape and flee from the corruptions of the world and this also particularly of Insobriety or otherwise they will more abundantly provoke the eyes of his Glory unto whom they are made so nigh Be not unequally yoaked together with unbelievers For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial whose Children Drunkards are as we have seen Or what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel And what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them c. And if any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy For the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 2 Cor. 6. 14-16 with 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. The Lord will be sanctified in them that come nigh him Lev. 10. 3 though he hateth sin with a perfect and everlasting hatred in all God is of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity yet