A Christian Directory

IV. The Directions or Helps against it.

§. 37. Direct. 1. Mortify the flesh, according to the Directions Chap. 4. Part 7. Subdue its inclinations and desires: and learn to esteem and use it but as a servant. Think what a pitiful price a little gluttonous pleasure of the Throat is, for a man to sell his God and his salvation for: Learn to be indifferent whether your meat be pleasing to your appetite or not; and make no great matter of it: Remember still what an odious, swinish, damning sin it is, for a man's heart to be set upon his belly. All that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.

§. 38. Direct. 2. Live faithfully to God, and upon spiritual durable delights. And then you will fetch the measure of your eating and drinking from their tendency to that higher end. There is no using any inferior thing aright, till you have first well resolved of your end, and use it as a means thereto, and mark how far it is a means.

§. 39. Direct. 3. See all your food as provided and given you by God and beg it and the blessing of it at his hand, and then it will much restrain you from using it against him. He is a wretch indeed that will take his food as from his Fathers hand, and throw it in his face, though perhaps a petulant child would do so by a fellow-servant: He that thinketh he is most beholden to himself for his plenty, will say as the fool, Luke 12. 19, 20. Soul take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry, thou hast enough laid up for many years. But he that perceives it is the hand of God that reacheth it to him, will use it more reverently: It is a horrid aggravation of the Gluttony of this age, that they play the Hypocrites in it, and first (for custom) crave God's blessing on their meat, and then sit down and sin against him with it: Such are the prayers of Hypocritical sensualists. But a serious discerning of God as the Giver, would teach you whether you eat or drink to do all to his glory from whom it comes.

§. 40. Direct. 4. See by faith the blood of Christ as the purchasing cause of all you have: and then sure you will bear more reverence to his blood, than to cast the fruit of it into the sink of sensuality, and to do worse than throw it on the dunghill: What! Must Christ be a sacrifice to God, and die to recover you the mercies which you had forfeited, and now will you cast them to the Dogs? and please a sinful appetite with them? Did he die to purchase you provision for your lusts, and to serve the flesh with?

§. 41. Direct. 5. Forget not how the first sin came into the world, even by eating the forbidden fruit: And let the slain creatures whose lives are lost for you, remember you of that sin, which brought the burden on them for your sakes: And then every piece of flesh that you see, will appear to you as with this caution written upon it, [ O sin not as your first Parents sinned by pleasing of your appetite; for this our death, and your devouring the flesh of your fellow-creatures, is the fruit of that sin, and warneth you to be temperate. Revell not to excess in your fellow-creatures lives. ]

§. 42. Direct. 6. Keep an obedient tender Conscience, not scrupulously perplexing yourselves about every bit you eat (as melancholy persons do) but checking your appetite, and telling you of God's Commands, and teaching you to fear all sensual excess. It is a graceless disobedient senseless heart that maketh men so boldly obey their appetite: When the fear of God is not in their hearts, no wonder if they feed and feast themselves without fear, Jude 12. Either they make a small matter of sin in the general, or at least of this sin in particular: It is usually the same persons that fear not to spend their time in idleness, sports or vanity, and to live in worldliness or fleshly lusts, who live in Gluttony to feed all this. The belly is a Bruit, that sticks not much upon Reason: Where Conscience is asleep and scared, Reason and Scripture do little move a sensual belly-god: And anything will serve instead of Reason to prove it lawful, and to answer all thats said against it. There is no disputing the case with a man that is asleep; especially if his Guts and Appetite be awake: You may almost as well bring Reason and Scripture to keep a Swine from over-eating, or to persuade a hungry Dog from a Bone, as to take off a Glutton from the pleasing of his throat, if he be once grown blockish, and have mastered his conscience by unbelief, or stilled it with a stupefying opiate. His taste then serveth instead of Reason, and against Reason: Then he saith, I feel it do me good, (that is, he feeleth that it pleaseth his Appetite, as a Swine feeleth that his meat doth him good when he is ready to burst:) and this answereth all that can be said against it: Then he can sacrifice his time and treasure to his Belly, and make a jest of the Abstinence and Temperance of sober men, as if it were but a needless self-afflicting, or fit only for some weak and sickly persons. If the constant fear and obedience of God do not rule the soul, the Appetite will be unruled: And if a tender conscience be not Porter, the Throat will be common for anything that the Appetite requireth. One sight of Heaven or Hell, to awaken their Reason and sleepy Consciences, would be the best remedy to convince them of the odiousness and danger of this sin.

§. 43. Direct. 7. Understand well what is most conducible to your health; and let that be the ordinary measure of your diet for quantity, and quality, and time. Sure your Nature itself, if you are yet men, should have nothing to say against this measure, and consequently against all the rest of the Directions which suppose it: Nature hath given you Reason as well as Appetite, and Reason telleth you, that your health is more to be regarded than your appetite. I hope you will not say, that God is too strict with you, or would diet you too hardly as long as he alloweth you (ordinarily) to choose that (when you can have it lawfully) which is most for your own health, and forbiddeth you nothing but that which hurteth you. What Heathen or Infidel that is not either mad or swinish, will not allow this measure and choice, as well as Christians: Yea, if you believe not a life to come, methinks you should be loath to shorten this life which now you have. God would but keep you from hurting yourselves by your excess, as you would keep your Children or your Swine. Though he hath a farther end in it, and so must you, namely, that a healthful body may be serviceable to a holy soul, in your Masters work: yet it is the health of your bodies which is to be your nearest and immediate end and measure.

It is a very great oversight in the Education of youth, that they be not taught betimes some common and necessary Precepts about diet, acquainting them what tendeth to health and life, and what to sickness, pain and death: And it were no unprofitable or unnecessary thing, if Princes took a course that all their subjects might have some such common needful Precepts familiarly known (As if it were in the Books that Children first learn to read in, together with the Precepts of their moral duty): For it is certain, that men love not death or sickness, and that all men love their health and life: And therefore those that fear not God, would be much restrained from Excess by the fear of sickness and of death: And what an advantage this would be to the Common-wealth, you may easily perceive, when you consider what a mass of treasure it would save, besides the lives, and health▪ and strength of so many subjects. And it is certain, that most people have no considerable knowledge, what measure is best for them; but the common rule that they judge by, is their Appetite. They think they have eaten enough, when they have eaten as long as they have list; and not before. If they could eat more with an appetite, and be not sick after it, they never think they have been guilty of Gluttony or Excess.

§. 44. First, Therefore you must know, that Appetite is not to be your Rule or measure, either for quantity, quality, or time: For, 1. It is irrational, and Reason is your Ruling faculty, if you are men: 2. It dependeth on the temperature of the Body, and the humors, and diseases of it, and not merely on the natural need of meat. A man in a Dropsy is most Thirsty, that hath least cause to drink: Though frequently in a putrid or malignant Feavor, a draught of cold drink would probably be death, yet the Appetite desireth it never the less: Stomachs that have acide humors, have commonly a strong appetite, be the digestion never so weak; and most of them could eat with an appetite above twice as much as they ought to eat. And on the contrary, some others desire not so much as is necessary to their sustenance, and must be urged to eat against their Appetite. 3. Most healthful people in the world have an Appetite to much more than nature can well digest, and would kill themselves if they pleased their appetites: For God never gave man his Appetite to be the measure of his eating or drinking, but to make that grateful to him, which Reason biddeth him take. 4. Mans Appetite is not now so sound and regular as it was before the fall▪ but is grown more rebellious and unruly, and diseased as the body is: And therefore it is now much more unfit to be our measure, than it was before the fall. 5. You see it even in Swine, and many greedy Children, that would presently kill themselves, if they had not the Reason of others to rule them. 6. Poison itself may be as delightful to the Appetite as food: and dangerous meats as those that are most wholesome. So that it is most certain, that Appetite is not fit to be the measure of a man. Yet this is true withal, that when Reason hath nothing against it, then an Appetite showeth what nature taketh to be most agreeable to itself; and Reason therefore hath something for it (if it have nothing against it); because it showeth what the Stomach is like best to close with and digest; and it is some help to Reason to discern when it is prepared for food.

§. 45. Secondly, It is certain also, that the present feeling of ease or sickness, is no certain rule to judge of your digestion, or your measure by: For though some tender▪ relaxed, windy stomachs, are sick or troubled when they are overcharged, or exceed their measure, yet with the most it is not so: unless they exceed to very swinishness, they are not sick upon it, nor feel any hurt at present by less excesses, but only the imperfection of concoction doth vitiate the humors, and prepare for sicknesses by degrees (as is aforesaid): and one feeleth it a month after in some diseased evacuations; and another a twelve-month after; and another not of many years till it have turned to some uncurable disease: (For the diseases that are bred by so long preparations are ordinarily much more uncurable, than those that come but from sudden accidents and alterations, in a cleaner body.) Therefore to say, [ I feel it do me no harm, and therefore it is no excess ], is the saying of an idiot, that hath no foreseeing Reason, and resisteth not an enemy while he is Garrisoning, fortifying and arming himself, but only when it comes to blows: Or like him that would go into a Pesthouse, and say, I feel it do me no harm: But within a few days or weeks he will feel it. As if the beginning of a Consumption were no hurt to them, because they feel it not! Thus living like a Beast, will at last make men judge like Beasts; and brutify their brains as well as their bellies.

§. 46. Thirdly, It is certain also, that the common custom and opinion is no certain rule: nay, certainly it is an erring rule: For judging by appetite hath brought men ordinarily to take excess to be but temperance. All these then are false measures.

§. 47. It I should here presume to give you any Rules for judging of a right measure, Physicians would think I went beyond my Calling, and some of them might be offended at a design that tendeth so much to their impoverishing, and those that serve the greedy Worm would be more offended. Therefore I shall only give you these general intimations. 1. Nature is content with a little; but Appetite is never content till it have drowned Nature. 2. It is the perfection of concoction, and goodness of the nutriment that is more conducible to health, than the quantity: 3. Nature will easilier overcome twice the quantity of some light and passable nourishment, than half so much of gross and heavy meats (Therefore those that prescribe just twelve Ounces a day, without differencing meats that so much differ, do much mistake.) 4. A healthful strong body must have more than the weak and sickly. 5. Middle aged persons must have more than old folks or children. 6. Hard Laborers must have more, than easy Laborers; and these more than the idle, or Students, or any that stir but little. 7. A body of close Pores, that evacuateth little by sweat or transpiration, must have less, especially of moisture, than another. 8. So must a cold and flegmatick constitution. 9. So must a stomach that corrupteth its food, and casteth it forth by periodical bilious evacuations. 10. That which troubleth the stomach in the digestion is too much, or too bad, unless with very weak sickly persons. 11. So is that too much or bad which maketh you more dull for study, or more heavy and unfit for labor (unless some disease be the principal cause.) 12. A body that by excess is already filled with crudities, should take less than another, that nature may have time to digest and waste them. 13. Everyone should labor to know the temperature of their own bodies, and what diseases they are most inclined to, and so have the judgment of their Physician or some skillful person, to give them such directions as are suitable to their own particular temperature and diseases. 14. Hard Laborers err more in the quality than the quantity, partly through poverty, partly through ignorance, and partly through appetite, while they refuse that which is more wholesome (as mere Bread and Beer) if it be less pleasing to them. 15. If I may presume to conjecture, ordinarily very hard Laborers exceed in quantity about a fourth part: Shop-keepers and persons of easier Trades do ordinarily exceed about a third part: Voluptuous Gentlemen and their Servingmen, and other servants of theirs that have no hard labor, do usually exceed about half in half: (But still I except persons that are extraordinarily temperate through weakness, or through wisdom ): And the same Gentlemen usually exceed in Variety, Costliness, Curiosity and Time, much more than they do in quantity (so that they are Gluttons of the first magnitude). The Children of those that govern not their appetites, but let them eat and drink, as much and as often as they desire it, do usually exceed above half in half, and lay the foundation of the diseases and miseries of all their lives. All this is about the truth; though the Belly believe it not.

§. 48. When you are once grown wise enough to know what in measure, and time, and quality is fittest for your health, go not beyond that upon any importunity of Appetite, or of friends: For all that is beyond that, is Gluttony and sensuality, in its degree.

§. 49. Direct. 8. If you can lawfully avoid it, make not your Table a snare of Temptation to your selves or others. I know a greedy appetite will make any Table that hath but necessaries, a snare to i • self: But do not you unnecessarily become Devils, or tempters to yourselves or others. 1. For Quality, study not Deliciousness too much: unless for some weak distempered stomachs, the best meat is that which leaveth behind it in the mouth, neither a troublesome loathing, nor an eager appetite after more, for the tastes sake: But such as Bread is, that leaveth the Palate in an indifferent moderation. The curious inventions of new and dilicious dishes, merely to please the Appetite, is Gluttony inviting to greater Gluttony: Excess in Quality to invite to excess in Quantity.

§. 50. Object. But (you will say) I shall be thought niggardly or sordid, and reproached behind my back if my Table be so fitted to the temperate and abstinent.

Answ. This is the pleading of Pride for Gluttony: Rather than you will be talked against by bellygods, or ignorant fleshly people, you will sin against God, and prepare a Feast or Sacrifice for Bacchus or Venus: The ancient Christians were torn with Beasts, because they would not cast a little Frankincense into the fire on the Altar of an Idol: And will you feed so many Idol bellies so liberally to avoid their censure? Did not I tell you, that Gulosity is an irrational vice? Good and temperate persons will speak well of you for it: And do you more regard the judgment and esteem of belly-gods?

§. 51. Object. But it is not only riotous luxurious persons that I mean: I have no such at my Table: But it will be the matter of obloquy even to good people, and those that are sober.

Answ. I told you some measure of Gluttony is become a common sin: and many are tainted with it through custom, that otherwise are good and sober: But shall they therefore be left as uncurable? or shall they make all others as bad as they? And must we all commit that sin, which some sober people are grown to favor? You bear their censures about different opinions in Religion, and other matters of difference: and why not here? The deluded Quakers may be witnesses against you, that while they run into the contrary extreme, can bear the deepest censures of all the world about them. And cannot you for honest Temperance and Sobriety bear the censures of some distempered or guilty persons that are of another mind: Certainly in this they are no Temperate persons, when they plead for excess and the baits of sensuality and intemperance.

§. 52. 2. For variety also, make not your Table unnecessarily a snare: Have no greater variety, than the weakness of stomachs, or variety of Appetites doth require. Unnecessary variety and pleasantness of meats, are the Devils great instruments to draw men to Gluttony: (And I would wish no good people to be his Cooks or Caterers ): When the very brutish Appetite itself begins to say of one dish, I have enough, then comes another to tempt it unto more excess, and •• other after that to more: All this that I have said, I have the concurrent judgment of Physician 〈…〉 n, who condemn fullness and variety, as the great enemies of health, and nurseries of diseases. And is not the concurrent judgment of Physicians more valuable about matters of health, than your private opinions, or appetites? Yet when sickness requireth Variety, it is necessary.

§. 53. 3. Sit not too long at meat: for besides the sin of wasting time, it is but the way to tice down a little and a little more: And he that would be Temperate if you sat but a quarter of an hour (which is ordinarily enough) will exceed when he hath the temptation of half an hour (which is enough for the entertainment of strangers): much more when you must sit out an hour (which is too much of all conscience): Though greedy eating is not good, yet sober feeding may satisfy Nature in a little time.

§. 54. 4. See that your provisions be not more costly than is necessary: Though I know there must be a difference allowed for Persons and Times, yet see that no cost be bestowed unnecessarily: And let sober Reason and not Pride and Gluttony judge of the necessity: we commonly call him the Rich Glutton, Luke 16. that fared sumptuously every day: It is not said that he did eat anymore than other men, but that he fared sumptuously. You cannot answer it comfortably to God, to lay that out upon the belly which might do more good another way: Its a horrid sin to spend such store of wealth unnecessarily upon the belly, as is ordinarily done. The cheapest diet ( caeteris paribus ) must be preferred,

§. 55. Object. But the scandal of Covetousness must be avoided as well as Gluttony. Folks will say, that all this is done merely from a miserable worldly mind.

Answ. 1. It is easier to bear that censure than the displeasure of God. 2. No scandal must be avoided by sin: It is a scandal taken and not given. 3. With Temperate persons your excess is much more scandalous. 4. I will teach you a cure for this in the next Direction.

§. 56. Object. But what if I set variety and plenty on my Table? May not men choose whether they will eat too much? Do you think men are Swine, that know not when they have enough.

Answ. Yes we see by certain experience, that most men know not when they have enough, and do exceed when they think they do not. There is not one of many, but is much more prone to exceed, than to come short, and abundance sin in excess, for one that sinneth by defect: And is sin so small a matter with you, that you will lay snares before men, and then say, They may take heed? So men may choose whether they will go into a Whore-house, and yet the Pope doth scarce deal honestly to license them at Rome: much less is it well to prepare them, and invite men to them. Will you excuse the Devil for tempting Eve with the forbidden fruit, because she might choose whether she would meddle with it? What doth that on your Table, which is purposely cooked to the tempting of the appetite, and is fitted to draw men to Gulosity and Excess, and is no way needful? Woe to him that layeth a stumbling block before the blind. Let no man put a stumbling block in his brothers way: It is the wicked's curse, [ Let their Table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block. ] And it was Balaam's sin, that he taught Balaack to tempt Israel, or lay a stumbling block before them.

§. 57. Direct 9. Resolve to bestow the cost of such superfluities upon the poor, or some other charitable use; that so it become not a sacrifice to the belly. Let the greatest and needfullest uses be first served: It is no time for you to be glutting your appetites, and wallowing in excess, when any (yea, so many) about you do want even clothes and bread. If you do thus lay out all upon the poor which you spare from feeding your own and other men's excess, then none can say that your sparing is through covetous nigardize; and so that reproach is taken off. The price of one Feast, will buy bread for a great many poor people. Its small thanks to you to give to the poor some leavings, when your bellies are first glutted with as much as the appetite desired: This costeth you nothing: A Swine will leave that to another which he cannot eat. But if you will a little pinch your flesh, or deny yourselves, and live more sparingly and thriftily, that you may have the more to give to the poor, this is commendable indeed.

§. 58. Direct. 10. Do not over-persuade any to eat when there is no need, but rather help one another against running into excess: by seasonable discourses of the sinfulness of Gluttony, and of the excellency of abstinence, and by friendly watchings over and warning one another. Satan and the flesh and its unavoidable baits, are temptation strong enough: we need not by unhappy kindness to add more.

§. 59▪ Direct. 11. When you feel your appetites eager against reason and conscience, check them and resolve that they shall not be pleased. Unresolvedness keepeth up the temptation: If you would but Resolve once, you would be quiet: But when the Devil findeth you yielding, or wavering, or unresolved, he will never give you rest: Prov. 23. 1, 2, 3. When thou fittest to eat with a Ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite: Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. The words translated [ If thou be a man given to appetite (agreeable to the Septuagint and the Arabic ) are translated by Montanus, and in the Vulgar Latin, and the Chaldee Paraphrase [ If thou have the power of thy own soul, or be master of thy soul, Compos animae ] Shew that thou art master of thyself by thy abstinence. Instead of [ Put a knife to thy throat ] (that is, Threaten thyself into abstinence ), the Syriac and divers Expositors translate it [ Thou dost, or lest thou dost put a knife to thy throat ] that is, Thou art as bad as cutting thy throat, or destroying thyself, when thou art gluttonously feeding thyself. ] Keep up Resolution and the power of Reason.

§. 60. Direct. 12. Remember what thy Body is, and what it will shortly be, and how loathsome and vile it will be in the dust. And then think how far such a Body should be pampered and pleased; and at what rates. Pay not too dear for a feast for Worms: Look into the grave, and see what is the end of all your pleasant meats and drinks; of all your curious costly fare. You may see there the Sculls cast up, and the ugly hole of that mouth which devoured so many sweet delicious morsels: But there is none of the pleasure of it now left. O wonderful folly! that men can so easily, so eagerly, so obstinately, waste their estates, and neglect their souls, and displease their God; and in effect even sell their hopes of Heaven, for so small and sordid a delight, as the pleasing of such a piece of flesh, that must shortly have so vile an end! Was it worth so much care, and toil, and cost, and the casting away of your salvation, to pamper that body a little while that must shortly be such a loathsome carcass? Methinks one sight of a Skull or a Grave, should make you think Gluttony and Luxury madness. Eccles. 7. 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. David saith of the wicked, Let me not eat of their dainties; but, Let the righteous smite me and reprove me, Psal. 141. 4, 5. So dangerous a thing is Feasting even among friends, where of itself it is lawful, that Job thought it a season for his fears and sacrifice, Job 1. 4, 5. And his sons went and feasted in their houses everyone his day, and sent and called for their three Sisters to eat and to drink with them. But Job sacrificed for them saying, It may be my sons have sinned, and cursed (that is, thought provokingly, unreverently, unholily or contemptuously of ) God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. A Funeral is a safer place for you than a Feast.

§. 61. Direct. 13. Go into the houses of the poor sometimes, and see what provision they live upon, and what time they spend at meat: And then bethink you, whether their diet or yours do tend more to the mortification of fleshly lusts; and whether theirs will not be as sweet as yours at the last? And whether mere Riches should make so great a difference in eating and drinking between them and you? I know that where they want what is necessary to their health, it is law • ul for you to exceed them, and be thankful: But not so as to forget their wants, nor so as to turn your plenty to excess. The very sight now and then of a poor man's diet and manner of life would do you good: seeing affecteth more than hearsay.

§. 62. Direct. 14. Look upon the ancient Christians, the patterns of abstinence, and think whether their lives were like to yours. They were much in fastings and abstinence; and strangers to gluttony and excess: They were so prone to excess of abstinence, rather than excess of meat, that abundance of them lived in Wildernesses or Cells, upon roots, or upon bread and water: (From the imitation of whom in a formal hypocritical manner came the swarms of Friars that are now in the world): And will you commend their holiness, and abstinence, and yet be so far from any serious imitation of them, that you will in gluttony and excess, oppose yourselves directly against them?

§. 63. I have now detected the odiousness of this sin, and told you if you are willing how you may best avoid it: If all this will not serve, but there be any profane person among you like Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, Heb. 12. 16. who for the pleasing of his throat will sell his soul, let him know that God hath another kind of Cure for such: He may cast thee into poverty, where thou shalt be a Glutton only in desire, but not have to satisfy thy desire: He may shortly cast thee into those diseases, which shall make thee lotah thy pleasant fare, and wish thou hadst the poor man's fare and appetite; and make thee say of all the baits of thy sensuality, I have no pleasure in them, Eccles. 12. 1. The case will be altered with thee when all thy wealth, and friends, and greatness cannot keep thy pampered carcass from corruption, nor procure thy soul a comfort equal to a drop of water to cool thy tongue, tormented in the flames of God's displeasure: Then all the comfort thou canst procure from God or Conscience will be but this sad Memento, Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. Luke 16. 25. James 5. 1, 5. Go to now ye Rich men; weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you—Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter: ye have condemned and killed the just, &c.

§. 64. Yet after all this, I shall remember you that you run not into the contrary extreme: Place not more Religion in external abstinence and fastings than you ought: Know your own condition, and how far either fasting or eating is really a help or a hindrance to you in those greater things which are their ends, and so far use them. A decaying body must be carefully supported: An unruly body must be carefully subdued: The same medicines serve not for contrary tempers and diseases: To think, that abstaining from flesh, and glutting yourselves with fish, and other meats is acceptable to God; or that mere abstaining so many hours in a Week, and serving your appetite on the rest, is meritorious, or that abstinence from meat will prove you holy, without an abstinence from sin, all this is self-deluding error. Nor must you raise a great many of perplexing scruples about all that you eat or drink, to no Edification, but merely to your vexation: But in cheerful Temperance preserve your Health, and subdue Concupiscence.

Tit. 2. Directions against Drunkenness and all excess of Drink.

§. 1. I. THE most that I have said against Gluttony will serve against excess of Drink also: Therefore I need not repeat it. Drunkenness in the largest sense extendeth both to the affection, and to the effect: And so he is a Drunkard (that is, Reputatively, in the sight of God) who would drink too much if he had it, and is not restrained by his will, but by Necessity.

§. 2. Drunkenness in the Effect or Act, is sometime taken more largely, sometime more strictly: Largely taken, it signifieth all Drinking to excess to please the Appetite: Two things here make up the crime, 1. Love of the drink, or pleasing the Appetite which we call Gulosity: 2. Excess in drinking: which excess may be in quanty or quality.

§. 3. Drunkenness strictly taken, signifieth, Drinking till Reason have received some hurt: And of this there be many degrees. He that hath in the least degree disturbed his Reason and disabled or hindered it from its proper office, is Drunken in that degree: And he that hath overturned it or quite disabled it, is stark drunk; or drunk in a greater degree.

§. 4. All excess of Drink is sinful Gulosity or sensuality, of the same nature with Gluttony, and falls under all my last Reproofs and Directions: And in some persons that can s • t it out, and bear much drink without intoxication, the sin may be greater than in some others, that by a smaller quantity are drunk by a surprise, before they are aware: But yet, caeteris paribus, the overthrow of the understanding maketh the sin to be much the greater: For it hath all the evil that the other degrees have, with more: It is, A voluptuous excess in drink to the depravation of Reason. Gulosity is the general nature of it: Excess is the Matter: Depravation of Reason is its special form.

§. 5. It is Excess of drinking when you drink more than, according to the judgment of sound Reason, doth tend to fit your body mediately or immediately for its proper duty without a greater hurt. Sometime the immediate benefit is most to be regarded, (As if a man had some present duty of very great moment to perform:) The present benefit consisteth, 1. In the abatement of such a troublesome thirst or pain, as hindereth you from doing your duty: 2. In adding that refocillation and alacrity to the spirits, as maketh them fitter instruments for the operations of the mind and body. That measure which doth one or both of these without greater hurt is not too great: I say without greater hurt; because if any one should in a Dropsy or a Feaver prefer a little present ease and alacrity before his health and life, it were excess: Or if any man ordinarily drink more than nature will well digest, and which causeth the incoction of his meat, and consequently crudities, and consequently a dunghill of flegm and vicious humors, fit to engender many diseases, this is excess of drinking, though he feel it ease him and make him cheerful for the present time. And this is the common case of most Bibbers or Tiplers, that are not stark Drunkards: They feel a present ease from thirst, and perhaps a little alacrity of spirits, and therefore they think that measure is no excess, which yet tendeth to crudities and diseases, and the destruction of their health and life.

§. 6. Therefore (except in some great extraordinary case of necessity) it is not so much the present, as the future foreseen effects, which must direct you to know your measure. Reason can foresee, though Appetite cannot: Future effects are usually Great and long; when present effects may be small and short. He that will do that which tendeth to the hurt of his health, for the present easing or pleasing of his thirsty appetite, doth sin against Reason, and play the beast. You should be so well acquainted with your Bodies, and the means of your own health, as to know first whether the enduring of the thirst, or the drinking to quench it, is like to be the more hurtful to your health, and more a hindrance to your duty.

§. 7. And for the present Alacrity which strong drink bringeth to some, you must foresee that you purchase it not at too dear a rate, by a longer dullness or disablement afterwards: And take heed that you take not an alien counterfeit hilarity consisting in mere sensual delight, for that serenity and just alacrity of the spirits as doth fit you for your duty. For this also is a usual (and willful) selfdeceit of sensualists: They make themselves believe that a cup of sack or strong drink giveth them a true assistant alacrity, when it only causeth a sensual delight, which doth more hinder and corrupt the mind, than truly further it in its duty: and differeth from true alacrity as paint from beauty, or as a fever doth from our natural heat.

§. 8. You see then that Intemperance in drinking is of two sorts: 1. Bibbing or drinking too much. 2. Drunkenness (in various degrees) And these Intemperate Bibbers are of several sorts. 1. Those that when they have over-heated themselves, or are seaverish, or have any ordinary diseased thirst, will please their appetites, though it be to their hurt; and will venture their health rather than endure the thirst: Though in Fevers, Dropsies, Coughs, it should be the greatest enemy to them, yet they are such beastly servants to their appetites, that drink they must whatever come of it: Though Physicians forbid them, and friends dissuade them, they have so much of the brute and so little of the man, that Appetite is quite too hard for Reason with them. These are of two sorts: One sort keep the soundness of their Reason, though they have lost all the strength and power of it, for want of a Resolved will: And these confess that they should abstain but tell you, They cannot: They are not so much men. The other sort have given up their very Reason (such as it is) to the service of their Appetites; and these will not believe (till the Cough, or Gout, or Dropsy, &c. make them believe it) that their measure of drinking is too much, or that it will do them hurt; but say, that it would hurt them more to forbear it: Some through real ignorance, and some made willingly ignorant by their appetites.

§. 9. 2. Another sort of Bibbers their are much worse than those, who have no great diseased thirst to excuse their gulosity, but call it a Thirst when ever their Appetite would have drink; and use themselves ordinarily to satisfy such an Appetite, and drink almost as oft as the throat desireth it, and say, It is but to quench their thirst; and never charge themselves with Intemperance▪ for it. These may be known from the first sort of Bibbers by the quality of their drink: It is cold small beer that the first sort desire to quench a real thirst; when Reason bids them endure it, if other means will not quench it. But it is Wine or Strong-Drink, or some drink that hath a delicious gust, which the second sort of Bibbers use, to please the Appetite which they call their Thirst. And of these Luxurious Tiplers, next to stark Drunkards, there are also divers degrees, some being less guilty, and some more.

§. 10. 1. The Lowest degree are they that will never ordinarily drink but at meels: But they will then drink more than nature requireth, or than is profitable to their health.

§. 11. 2. The second degree are they that use to drink between meels when their appetite desireth it, to the hindering of concoction, and the increase of Crudities and Catarhs, and to the secret gradual vitiating of their humors, and generating of many diseases: and this without any true necessity, or the approbation of sound Reason, or any wise Physician: Yet they tipple but at home, where you may find the pot by them at unseasonable times.

§. 12. 3. The third degree are many poor men that have not drink at home, and when they come to a Gentleman's house or a feast, or perhaps an ALE-house, they will pour in for the present to excess, though not to Drunkenness, and think it is no harm, because it is but seldom, and they drink so small drink all the rest of the year, that they think such a fit as this sometimes is medicinal to them, and tendeth to their health.

§. 13. 4. Another rank of Bibbers are those that though they haunt not ALE-houses or Taverns, yet have a throat for every health or pledging Cup that reacheth not to drunkenness: and use ordinarily to drink many unnecessary cups in a day to pledge (as they call it) those that drink to them; And custom and complement are all their excuse.

§. 14. 5. Another degree of Bibbers are common ALE-house haunters, that love to be there, and to sit many hours perhaps in a day, with a pot by them, tippling, and drinking one to another. And if they have any bargain to make, or any friend to meet, the ALE-house or Tavern must be the place, where Tippling may be one part of their work.

6. The highest degree are they, that are not apt to be stark Drunk, and therefore think themselves less faulty, while they sit at it, and make others drunk, and are strong themselves to bear away more, than others can bear: They have the Drunkards appetite, and measure, and pleasure, though they have not his giddiness and loss of wit.

§ 15. 3. And of those that are truly Drunken also, there are many degrees and kinds. As some will be drunk with less and some with more; so some are only possessed with a little diseased Levity, and talkativeness more than they had before: Some also have distempered eyes, and stammering tongues: Some also proceed to unsteady reeling heads, and stumbling feet, and unfitness for their callings: Some go further to sick and vomiting stomachs, or else to sleepy heads: and some proceed to stark madness, quarrelling, railing, bawling, hooting, ranting, roaring, or talking non-sense, or doing mischief: the furious sort being like mad dogs that must be tied; and the sottish prating and spewing sort being commonly the derision of the boys in the streets.

§. 16. II. Having told you what Tipling and Drunkenness is, I shall briefly tell you their causes: But briefly because you may gather most of them from what is said of the Causes of Gluttony. 1. The first and grand causes are these three concurrent: A beastly raging appetite or gulosity: A weakness of Reason and Resolution to rule it: And a want of Faith to strengthen Reason, and of Holiness to strengthen Resolution. These are the very cause of all.

§. 17. 2. Another cause is, their not-knowing that their excess and tippling is really a hurt or danger to their health: And they are ignorant of this from many causes: One is, because they have been bred up among ignorant people, and never taught to know what is good or bad for their own bodies, but only by the common talk of the mistaken vulgar. Another is because their Appetite so may •• reth their very Reason, that they can choose to believe that which they would not have to be true: Another reason is because they are of heathful bodies, and therefore feel no hurt at present, and presume that they shall feel none hereafter, and see some abstemious persons weaker than they (who began not to be abstemious till some chronical disease had first invaded them) And thus they do by their Bodys, just as wicked men do by their souls: They judge all by present feeling, and have not wisdom enough to take things foreseen into their deliberation and accounts: That which will be a great while hence they take for nothing, or an uncertain something next to nothing: As Heaven and Hell move not ungodly men, because they seem a great way off, so while they feel themselves in health, they are not moved with the threatening of sickness: The cup is in their hands, and therefore they will not set it by, for fear of they know not what, that will befall them you know not when: As the thief that was told, he should answer it at the day of judgment, said, he would take the other Cow too, if he should stay unpunished till then; so these Belly-God's think, they will take the other cup, if they shall but stay till so long hence: And thus because this temporal punishment of their gulosity is not speedily exercised, the hearts of men are fully set in them to please their appetites.

§. 18. 3. Another cause of Tipling and Drunkenness is, a wicked Heart that loveth the company of wicked men, and the foolish talk, and cards and dice, by which they are entertained: One sin ticeth down another: It is a delight to prate over a pot, or rant and game, and drive away all thoughts that savor of sound Reason or the fear of God, or the care of their salvation: Many of them will say, It is not for love of the drink but of the company, that they use the ALE-house: An excuse that maketh their sin much worse, and showeth them to be exceeding wicked: To love the company of wicked men, and love to hear their lewd and idle foolish talk, and to game and sport out your time with them, besides your tippling, this showeth a wicked fleshly heart, much worse than if you loved the drink alone: Such company as you love best, such are your own dispositions: If you were no Tiplers or Drunkards, it is a certain sign of an ungodly person to love ungodly company better, than the company of wise and godly men, that may edify you in the fear of God.

§. 19. 4. Another cause of Tipling is Idleness, when they have not the constant employments of their callings to take them up: Some of them make it their chief excuse that they do it to pass away the time: Blind wretches! that are so near eternity, and can find no better uses for their Time: To these I spoke before Chap. 5. Part. 1.

§. 20. 5. Another cause is, the wicked neglect of their duties to their own families; making no conscience of loving their own relations, and teaching them the fear of God, nor following their business, and so they take no pleasure to be at home: The company of wife and children and servants is no delight to them, but they must go to an ALE-house or Tavern for more suitable company. Thus one sin bringeth on another.

§. 21. 6. Another cause is the ill management of matters at home with their own Consciences; when they have brought themselves into so terrible and sad a case, that they dare not be much alone, nor soberly think of their own condition, nor seriously look towards another world; but fly from themselves, and seek a place to hide them from their consciences, forgetting that sin will find them out: They run to an ALE-house, as Saul to his music, to drink away melancholy, and drown the noise of a guilty self-accusing mind: and to drive away all thoughts of God, and Heaven, and sin, and Hell, and death, and judgment, till it be too late. As if they were resolved to be damned, and therefore resolved not to think of their misery nor the remedy: But though they dare venture upon Hell itself, the sots dare not venture upon the serious thoughts of it! Eeither there is a Hell, or there is none: If there be none, why shouldst thou be afraid to think of it? If there be a Hell (as thou wilt find it if thou hold on but a little longer) will not the feeling be more intolerable than the thoughts of it? And is not the forethinking on it a necessary and cheap prevention of the feeling? O how much wiser a course were it to retire yourselves in secret, and there to look before you to eternity, and hear what conscience hath first to say to you concerning your life past, your sin and misery, and then what God hath to say to you of the remedy: You'll one day find, that this was a more necessary work, than any that you had at the ALE-house, and that you had greater business with God and Conscience, than with your idle companions.

§. 22. 7. Another cause is the custom of pledging those that drink to you, and of drinking healths, by which the Laws of the Devil and the ALE-house do impose upon them the measures of excess, and make it their duty to disregard their duty to God: So lamentable a thing it is, to be the tractable slaves of men, and intractable rebels against God! Plutarck mentions One that being invited to a feast, made a stop when he heard that they compelled men to drink after meat, and asked whether they compelled them to eat too? Apprehending that he went in danger of his belly: And it seems to be but custom that maketh it appear less ridiculous or odious to constrain men to drinking than to eating.

§. 23. 8. Another great cause of excess is the Devils way of drawing them on by degrees: He doth not tempt them directly to be drunk, but to drink one cup more, and then another and another, so that the worst that he seemeth to desire of them is, but to drink a little more: And thus as Solomon saith of the fornicator they yield to the flatterer and go on as the Ox to the slaughter, and as the Fool to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life: Prov. 7. 21, 22, 23.

§. 24. III. The Greatness of this sin appeareth in what is said before of Gluttony: More specially 1. Think how base a master thou dost serve, being thus a slave to thy throat: What a beastly thing it is, and worse than beastly: for few beasts but a swine will be forced to drink more than doth them good. How low and poor is that man's reason that is not able to command his throat?

§. 25. Think how thou consumest the creatures of God that are given for service and not for gulosity and luxury. The earth shall be a witness against thee, that it bore that fruit for better uses, which tion misspendest • on thy sin. Thy Servants and Cattle that labor for it shall be witnesses against thee: Thou 〈◊〉 the creatures of God as a sacrifice to the Devil▪ for Drunkenness and Tipling is his ser •••• . It were less folly to do as Diogenes did, who, when they gave him a large cup of wine, threw it under the table, that it might do him no harm: Thou makest thyself like Caterpillars, and Foxes, and wolves, and other destroying creatures that live to do mischief, and consume that which should 〈◊〉 man, and therefore are pursued as unfit to live! Thou art to the common-wealth as Mice in the G •• nary, or Weeds in the Corn. It is a great part of the work of faithful Magistrates to weed out such as thou.

§. 26. 3. Thou robbest the poor, consuming that on thy throat which should maintain them: If thou have anything to spare, it will comfort thee more at last, to have given it to the needy, than that a greedy thoat devoured it. The covetous is much better in this than the Drunkard and Luxurious: For he is a gatherer, and the other is a scatterer: The Common-wealth maintaineth a double or tr • ble charge in such as thou art: As the same pasture will keep many Sheep which will keep but one Horse; so the same country may keep many temperate persons which will keep but a few Gluttons and Drunkards. The worldling makes provision cheaper by getting and sparing: but the Drunkard and Glutton make it dearer by wasting: The covetous man that scrapeth together for himself, doth ofttimes gather for one that will pity the poor, when he is dead: Prov. 28. 8. But the Drunkard and Riotous devour it while they are alive. One is like a Hog that is good for something at l •••• , though his feeding yield no profit while he liveth: The other is like devouring vermin, that leave nothing to pay for what they did consume: The one is like the Pike among the fishes, who payeth when he is dead for that which he devoured alive: But the other is like the sink or channel that repayeth you with nothing but stink and dirt, for all that you cast into it.

§. 27. 4. Thou drawest poverty and ruin upon thyself: Besides the value which thou wastest, God usually joineth with the prodigal by his judgments, and scattereth as fast as he. Prov. 21. 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, Prov. 11. 24. But this is not the issue of thy scattering. Prov. 23. 19, 20, 21. Hear thou my son and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way: Be not amongst wine bibbers, amongst riotous eaters of flesh: For the Drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

§. 28. 5. Thou art an enemy to thy family: Thou grievest thy friends: Thou impoverishest thy children, and robbest those whom thou art bound to make provision for. Thou fillest thy house with discontents and brawlings, and banishest all quietness and fear of God: A discontented or a brawling wife, and ragged dissolute untaught Children, are often signs that a Drunkard or Riotous person is the m •••• er of the family.

§. 29. 6. Thou art a heinous consumer of thy precious Time: This is far worse than the wasting of thy estate: O that thou didst but know, as thou shalt know at last, what those hours are worth, which thou wastest over thy pots! and how much greater work thou hadst to lay it out upon? How many thousands in Hell are wishing now in vain, that they had those hours again to spend in prayer and repentance, which they spent in the ALE-house, and senselessly cast away with their companions in sin. Is the glass turned upon thee, and death posting towards thee, to put an end to all thy time, and • ay thee where thou must dwell forever; and yet canst thou sit tippling and prating away thy time, as if this were all that thou hadst to do with it? O what a wonder of sottishness and stupidity is a hardened sinner, that can live so much below his reason! The senses neglect of thy souls concernment, and greater matters, is the great part of thy sin, more than the drunkenness itself.

§. 30. 7. How base a Price dost thou set upon thy Savior and salvation, that wilt not forbear so much as a cup of drink for them. The smallness of the thing showeth the smallness of thy Love to God, and the smallness of thy regard to his word and to thy soul. Is that loving God as God, when thou lovest a cup of drink better! Art thou not ashamed of thy Hypocrisy, when thou sayest thou lovest God above all, when thou lovest him not so well as thy Wine and Ale! Surely he that loveth him not above Ale, loveth him not above all! Thy choice showeth what thou lovest best, more certainly than thy tongue doth. It is the dish that a man greedily eateth of that he loveth, and not that which he commendeth but will not meddle with. God trieth men's Love to Him, by their keeping his commandments: It was the aggravation of the first sin, that they would not deny so small a thing as the forbidden fruit, in obedience to God! And so it is of thine, that wilt not leave a forbidden cup for him! O miserable wretch! dost thou not know thou canst not be Christ Disciple, if thou forsake not all for him, and hate not even thy life in comparison of him, and wouldst not rather die than forsake him, Luk. 14. 26, 33. And art thou like to lay down thy life for him that wilt not leave a cup of drink for him? Canst thou burn at a stake for him, that canst not leave an ALE-house, or vain company, or excess for him! What a sentence of condemnation dost thou pass upon thyself; Wilt thou •• ll thy God and thy soul for so small a matter as a cup of drink? Never delude thyself, to say, I hope I do not so, when thou knowest that God hath told thee in his word, that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God: 1 Cor. 6. 10. Nay▪ God hath commanded those that will come to Heaven, to have no familiarity with thee upon earth, no not so much as to eat with thee! 1 Cor. 5. 11. Read what Christ himself saith, Matth. 24. 48, 49, 50, 51. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and to drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Read Deut. 29. 19, 20. If when thou hearest the words of God's curse, thou bless thyself in thy heart and say I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, the Lord will not spare that man, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against him, and all the curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven, and the Lord shall separate him to evil. Thou seest here how God will spice thy Cups.

§. 31. 8. Thou art the shame of human nature: Thou representest man in the likeness of a Beast, and worse: As if he were made but instead of a Barrel or a sink: Look on a drunkard filthing and spewing and reeling and bawling, and see if he be not uglyer than a brute? Thou art a shame to thy own Reason, when thou showest the world, that it cannot so much as shut thy mouth, nor prevail with thee in so small a thing. Wrong not Reason so much as to call thyself Rational; and wrong not mankind so much as to call thyself a man: Non homo sed ampbora, said one of Bon • sus the drunken Emperor when he was hanged: It is a barrel and not a man.

§. 32. 9. Thou destroyest that Reason which is the Glory of thy Nature, and the natural part of the Image of God upon thy mind: If thou shouldst deface the Kings Arms or Image in any public place, and set in the stead of it the image of a dog, would it not be a Traiterous contempt? How much worse is it to do thus by God? If thou didst mangle and deform thy body, it were less in this respect; for it is not thy body, but thy soul that is made after the Image of God: Hath God given thee Reason for such high and excellent ends and uses, and wilt thou dull it and drown it in obedience to thy throat? Thy Reason is of higher value than thy house or land or money, and yet thou wilt not cast them away so easily! Had God made thee an idiot, or mad and lunatic, thy case had been to be pitied: but to make thy self mad and despise thy man-hood, deserveth punishment. Its the saying of Basil; Involuntary madness deserveth compassion, but voluntary madness, the sharpest whips. Prov. 19. 29. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the fools back: especially for the voluntary fool: He that will make himself a beast or a mad-man, should be used by others like a beast or a mad-man, whether he will or not.

§. 33. 10. Thou makest thyself unfit for anything, that is good. O how unfit art thou to read or hear or meditate on the Word of God! how unfit to pray? how unfit to receive the Holy Sacrament? what a dreadful thing is it to think of a Drunken man speaking to God in Prayer? Thy best posture till thou art sober is to be asleep: for then thou dost least hurt, and thou art made uncapable of doing good; yea and of receiving any good from others? Thou art not so much as capable of reproof or counsel: He that should cast Pearls before such a Swine, and offer to speak to thee for the good of thy soul, would but dishonor the Name and Word of God. As it is said of a drunkard, that, when one rebuked him, saying, Art thou not ashamed to be thus drunken, replied, Art thou not ashamed to talk to a man that is drunken? It is a shame to the man that would cure thee by Reason, when thou hast thrown away thy Reason. And if thou have but a merry cup, and thinkest thyself the fitter for thy duty, yea if thou do it well as to the outward appearance, as the principle is false and base, so thou deservest blame for casting thy work upon so great a hazard. As Sophocles said of an Orator that wrote well when he was half drunken, Though he did it well, he did it ignorantly and in uncertainty: For thy levity weakeneth thy judgment, and thou dost the good thou dost but at a venture; as a Passionate man may speak well, but its unlikely and uncertain; and therefore no thanks to him that it fell not out to be worse.

§. 34. 11. Thou disposest thyself to almost every sin: Drunkenness breaketh everyone of the Commandments; by disposing men to break them all. It disableth them to the duties of the first Commandment above all, viz. to know God, and believe and trust and love him: It utterly unfitteth men for the holy worship, required in the second Commandment as I have shown: He that hateth the guilt of former sin, in his Worshippers, hateth present wickedness much more, Prov. 21. 27. The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind. Idolatry, and wantonness, and excess in eating and drinking usually dispose to one another. See 1 Cor. 10. 7. Sacrifices of mirth and jovialty and gluttony and drunkenness are fit for Idols and Devils, but unfit for God: And therefore commonly we find that it is the drunkards and riotous people in every Town that are the great enemies to the Preaching of the Gospel, and to all holy exercises, and to all that fear God, and will not be as mad as they: When there is a Sacrifice to be offered to Bacchus, and any merry meeting where potting and feasting and dancing and roaring is to be the game, there it is that the Ministers and the Servants of Christ are slandered and scorned and railed at. There it is that Hellish reproach of Godliness, like the Devils Canons, are let fly without control (Though through God's mercy they have more powder than bullet, and do little Execution). There it is that the Devil fitteth as President in his Council, plotting what to do against the people and ways of Christ. And though it be drunken sottish Council, it is the fitter for his business: for it is a brutish thunderbolt that he hath to cast; a senseless furious work that he hath to do; and no other instruments will serve his turn. He hath a plot to blow up the Reputation and honor of serious Godliness; but he that setteth fire to his train must withal blow up himself: And none is so fit for this work as a Drunkard or a sensual Sot: Few others will venture to cast their own souls into the fire of Hell, that they may procure a little stinking breath to be blown into the faces of the godly: Few others would set their own houses on fire, that they may trouble God's servants by the smoke. Their very work is to do as those in Dan. 3. to cast the servants of Christ into those flames, which must devour those that cast them in, and must searce touch a thread of the garments, or a hair of the head of those for whom it was prepared: And who would do this, that knew what he did, and were well in his wits: must he not be first made drunk that doth it? Also drunkenness disposeth you to swearing and blaspheaming and p • rjury and speaking contemptuously and unreverently of God, and to speak profanely and jeastingly of the Scripture: And thus fools make a mock of sin, Prov. 14. 9. You are good for none of the holy exercises of the Lord's day: That's the day that you must de •••• le with your filthy sin: The day in which God sendeth abroad his gracious invitations, and the Devil his wicked incitations: In which God giveth most of his Grace, and the Devil infecteth most with sin: In which God is best served by his sincere ones, and the Devil is most served by his impious ones. And you dispose yourselves to sin against your Governors: you have no old of tongue or action when you are drunken: How many in their Drunkenness have reproached and abused Father and Mother; and spoken Treason against their King, or reviled Magistrates and Superiors: and perhaps attempted and done mischief as well as spoken it? If you are superiors, how unfit are you to judge or govern? Is it not lawful for any to appeal from you as the Woman did from Philip drunk, to Philip sober? You will be apter to abuse your inferiors than well to govern them. Also Drunkenness destroyeth civility, justice and charity. It inflameth the mind with anger and rage: It teacheth the tongue to curse and rail and slander: It makes you unfaithful and uncapable of keeping any secret, and ready to betray your chiefest friend, as being master neither of your mind or tongue or actions. Drunkenness hath made men commit many thousand murders: It hath caused many to murder themselves, and their nearest relations: many have been drowned by falling into the water, or broke their ne • ks with falling from their Horses, or died suddenly by the suffocation of nature: It draweth men to idleness, and taketh them off their lawful calling: It maketh a multitude of thieves, by breeding necessity, and emboldening to Villany. It is a principal cause of lust and filthiness, and the great maintainer of whoredoms; and taketh away all shame and fear and wit, which should restrain men from this or any sin: What sin is it that a drunken man may not commit? no thanks to him that he forbeareth the greatest wickedness! Cities and Kingdoms have been betrayed by Drunkenness: Many a drunken Garrison hath let in the enemy. There is no confidence to be put in a drunken man: nor any mischief that he is secure from.

12. Lastly, Thou sinnest not alone, but temptest others with thee to perdition. It is the great crime of Jeroboam that he made Israel to sin: The judgment of God determineth those men to death, that not only do wickedness, but have pleasure in them that do it, Rom. 1. 32. And is not this thy case? Art thou not Satan's instrument to tempt others with thee, to waste their Time, and neglect their souls, and abuse God and his creatures? Yea some of you glory in your shame, that you have drunk down your companions, and carried it away (the honor of a sponge or a tub, which can drink up or hold liquor as well as you.) And what is that man worthy of, that would thus transform himself and others, into such Monsters of iniquity?

§. 55. IV. Next let us hear the drunkards excuses, (for even drunkenness will pretend to Reason, and men will not make themselves mad without an argument to justify it.) 1. Saith the Tipler, I take no m • re than doth me good: you allow a man to eat as much as doth him good, and why not to drink as much? No man is fi •• er to judge this than I, For I am sure I feel it do me good.

Answ. What good dost thou mean man! Doth it fit thee for holy thoughts or words or deeds? Doth it help thee to live well, or fit thee to die well? Art thou sure that it tendeth to the health of thy b • dy? Thou canst not so say without the imputation of folly or self-conceitedness, when all the wise Physicians in the world do hold the contrary. No, it doth as Glu • tony doth: It pleaseth thee in the drinking, but it filleth thy body with crudities, and phlegm, and prepareth for many Mortal sicknesses: It maketh thy body like grounds after a flood, that are covered with stinking slime: or like fenny Lands that are drowned in water, and bear no fruit: or like grounds that have too much rain, that are dissolved to dirt, but are unfit for use. It maketh thee like a leaking ship, that must be pumpt and emptied, or it will sink: If thou have not Vomits or Purges to empty thee, thou wilt quickly drown or suffocate thy life. As Basil saith, A drunkard is like a Ship in a Tempest, when all the goods are cast over-board to disburden it lest it • ink. Physicians must pump thee, or disburden thee or thou wilt be drowned: And all will not serve if thou hold on to fill it up again: For intemperance maketh most diseases uncurable. A Historian speaketh of two Physicians that differed in their Prognostics about a Patient; one forsook him as uncurable; the other undertook him as certainly curable; but when he came to his remedies, he prescribed him so strict abstinence as he would not undergo; and so they agreed in the issue; when one judged him uncurable because intemperate, and the other curable if he would be temperate. Thou that feelest the drink do thee good, dost little think how the Devil hath a design in it, not only to have thy soul, but to have it quickly; that the mud walls of thy body being washed down may not hold it long. And I must tell thee, that thou hast cause to value a good Physician for greater reasons than thy life, and art more beholden to him than many others; even that he may help to keep thy soul out of Hell a little longer, to see if God will give thee repentance, that thou mayest escape out of the snare of the Devil, who taketh thee captive at his will, 2 Tim. 2. 25, 26. As Aelian writeth of King Antigonus that having great respect for Zeno the Philosopher, he once met him when he was in drink, and embracing him, urged him to ask of him what he would, and bound himself with many Oaths to give it him: Zeno thanked him, and the request he made to him was that he would go home and Vomit. To tell him that he more needed to be disburdened of his drink, than • e himself did need his gifts. The truth is, the good that thou feelest the drink do thee is but the present pleasing of thy appetite, and tickling thy fantasie by the exhilerating vapors: And so the Glutton and the Whoremonger and every sensual wretch will say, that he feeleth it do him good: But God bless all sober men from such a good. So the Gamester feeleth the sport do him good; but perhaps he is quickly made a Beggar by it. It is Reason and faith, and not thy appetite or present feeling that must tell thee what and how much doth thee good.

§. 36. Obj. 2. But I have heard some Physicians say, that it is wholesome to be Drunk sometimes.

Answ. None but some Sot, that had first drunk away his own understanding; I have known Physicians that have been Drunkards themselves, and they have been apt to plead for their own vice: But they quickly killed themselves, and all their skill could not save their lives from the effects of their own Beastiality; even as the knowledge and doctrine of a wicked Preacher, will not save his soul, if he live contrary to his Profession. And what if the Vomiting of a Drunkard did him some good with all the harm! Are there not easier, safer, lawfuller means enough to do the same good without the harm? He is a Bruit himself and not a Physician that knoweth no better remedy than this. But thy Conscience telleth thee, this is but a false excuse.

§. 37. Obj. 3. But I wrong nobody in my drink: the hurt is my own.

Answ. No thanks to thee if thou wrong nobody: But read over the former aggravations, and then justify thyself in this if thou canst. It seems thou makest nothing of wronging God by disobedience. But suppose it be no ones hurt but thy own; dost thou hate thyself? Is thy own hurt nothing to thee? what dost make nothing of the damning of thy own soul? who wilt thou love, if thou hate thyself? It is the aggravation of this sin, as well as fornication, 1 Cor. 6. 18. that it is against your own bodies, and much more as against your own souls.

§. 38. Obj. 4. But I was but merry, I was not drunken.

Answ. It were well for you if God would stand to your names and definitions, and take none for a • inner that taketh not himself for one. There are several degrees of drunkenness short of the highest degree: And if your Reason was not disturbed, yet the excess of drink only, and tippling and gulosity will prove a greater • i • than you suppose.

§. 39. Obj. 5. But I drink but a little: but my head is weak and a little over-turneth it.

Answ. If you know that before hand, you are the more inexcusable, that will not avoid that measure which you know you cannot bear. If you knew that less poison would kill you than another, you would be the more fearful of it, and not the less.

§. 40. Obj. 6. But I have a thirst upon me, and I take no more than will quench it.

Answ. So the who • emonger saith, he hath a lust upon him, and he taketh no more than will quench it: And the malicious man that beateth you or undoes you may say that he hath a Passion upon him, and he taketh no more revenge on you than satisfieth it. But if you add drunkenness to thirst, read your do • m again, Deut. 29. 19. If it be a natural moderate thirst, moderation will satisfy it: If it be a diseased thirst, as in a Feaver or Dropsy, the Physician must direct you in the Cure: And small drink is •• tter for a thirst than strong: But if it be the thirst of a drunkards raging appetite that hath been used to be pleased, and therefore is loath to be d • nyed you are best quench it upon better and cheaper terms, than the displeasing God and damning your souls, lest you find it more troublesome in the flames of H • ll, to want a drop of water for your tongues, than it would have been to have bridled a beastly appetite: And lest you then cry out as Lysimachus when thirst forced him to yield to the Scythians, for a little drink, Quam brevis voluptatis grati • , quantum faelicitatis amis • ? For how sh • rt a pleasure did I l • se, so great felic •• y. Take heed of reasoning your souls into impenitence.

Quest. 1. Is it not lawful to drink when we are thirsty, and know of no harm that it is like to do us, seeing thirst telleth us what the stomach needeth.

Answ. A beast may do so, that hath no higher faculty to guide him. And a man may take in the consideration of his thirst to guide his Reason in judging of the due quantity and time; but not otherwise: A man must never drink to please his appetite either against Reason, or without it: And no man must so captivate his Reason to sense, as to think that his Appetite is his principal rule or guide herein; nor be so brutish as to know no otherwise what doth him good or hurt, but by his present feeling. Sometime true Reason may tell a man, that thirst is a sign that drink is needful to his health, and then he may take it. Sometime (and commonly with blookish people) pleasing a thirst may hurt their health, and they are so foolish that they do not know it; either because they are ignorant of such things, or because their appetite maketh them unwilling to believe it, till they feel it; and because they judge only by the present effects: so a man may kill himself with drinking cold drink in a heat, in some Feavours, in a Dropsy, a Cough, a Cachexie, &c. And excess doth insensibly vitiate the blood and heap up matter of many diseases, which are incurable before the sot will believe that drinking when he was thirsty did him any harm. If really it will do no harm, you may drink when you are thirsty (because it will do good). But if it will quench natural heat and hinder concoction, and breed diseases through unseasonableness, or ill quality, or excess, it is neither your Thirst nor your sottish ignorance of the hurt, that will excuse you from the sin, or prevent the Coughs, Stone, Gout, Colick, Swellings, Palsies, Agues, Fevers or Death, which it will bring.

Quest. 2. Is it not lawful to drink a health sometimes when it would be ill taken to refuse it, or to be uncovered while others drink it?

Answ. Distinguish between, 1. Drinking measurably as you need it, and immeasurably when you need it not. 2. Between the foreseen effects; and doing it ordinarily, or when it will do hurt, or extraordinarily when it will more prevent hurt. And so I conclude.

1. It is unlawful to drink more than is good for your health, by the provocation of other men.

2. It is unlawful to do that which tempteth and encourageth others to drink too much. And so doth the custom of pledging healths, especially when it is taken for a crime to deny it.

3. Therefore the ordinary pledging or drinking of such healths is unlawful, because it is the scandalous hardening of others in their sin unto their ruin.

4. But if we fall in among such furious Beasts as would stab a man if he did not drink a health, it is lawful to do it to save ones life, as it is to give a Thief my Purse: Because it is not a thing simply evil of itself to drink that Cup, but by accident, which a greater accident may preponderate.

5. Therefore any other Accident beside the saving of your life, which will really preponderate the Hurtful accident, may make it Lawful: As possibly in some cases and Companies the offense given by denying it may be such as will do more hurt far, than yielding would do. (As if a malignant company would lay ones Loyalty to the King upon it.) &c.

6. Christian prudence therefore (without carnal compliance) must be always the present decider of the case, by comparing the good and the evil effects.

7. To be bare when others lay the honor of the King or Superiors upon it, is a Ceremony that on the aforesaid reason may be complied with.

8. When to avoid a greater evil we are extrordinarily put on any such Ceremony, it is meet that we join such words (where we have liberty) as may prevent the scandal, or hardening any present in sin.

9. And it is a duty to avoid the company which will put us upon such inconveniences, as far as our Calling will allow us.

V. But because it is the Drunkards heart or will that needs persuasion, more than his understanding needs Direction, I shall before the Directions yet endeavor his fuller conviction, if he will but read and consider soberly, (if ever he be sober) these following Questions, and not leave them till he answer them to the satisfaction of his own Conscience.

§. 42. Quest. 1. Dost thou know that thou art a man? and what a man is? Dost thou know that Reason differenceth him from a beast that is ruled by Appetite and hath no Reason? If thou do, let thy Reason do its office, and do not drown it, or set the beast above it.

§. 43. Quest. 2. Dost thou believe that there is a God that is the Governor of the world, or not? If not, tell me how thou camest to be a man? And how came thy tongue and palate to taste thy drink or meat, anymore than thy finger. Look on thy finger and on thy tongue and thou canst see no reason why one should taste and not the other? If thou live in the midst of such a world, which he hath made and daily governeth, and yet believest not that there is a God, thou art so much worse already than drunk or mad, that it is no wonder if thou be a Drunkard. But if thou do believe indeed that there is a God, hear further thou stupid beast and tremble! Is he the Governor of Heaven and Earth, and is he not worthy to be the Governor of thee? Is all the World at his dispose? and is he not worthy to dispose of thy throat and appetite! Are Crowns and Kingdoms, Heaven and Hell at his dispose and will, and is he not worthy to be master of thy Cup and Company? wilt thou say to him by thy practice, Go rule Sun and Moon, and rule all the world, except my Appetite and my Cup?

§. 44. Quest. 3. Dost thou verily believe that God is present with thee, and seeth and heareth all that is done and said among you? If not, thou believest not that he is God! For he that is absent and ignorant, and is not Infinite, Omnipresent, and Omniscient is not God: And if God be not there, thou art not there thyself: For what can uphold thee and continue thy life and breath and being? But if thou believe that God is present, darest thou drink on, and darest thou before him waste thy time, in prating over a Pot with thy Companions?

§. 45. Quest. 4. Tell me, dost thou believe that the Holy Scripture is true? If thou do not, no wonder if thou be a drunkard. But if thou do, remember that then it is true, that drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6. 10. And then mark what the Scripture saith, Isa. 21. 1. Woe to the Crown of Pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, Hab. 2. 15. Woe to him that giveth his Neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunk also: Isa. 5. 11. woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink, that continue till night till wine inflame them: and the Harp, and the Viol and the Tabret and the Pipe and Wine are in their Feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands, v. 22. W • e unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Prov. 31. 4, 5, 6. It is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Princes strong drink; lest they drink and •• rget the Law, and p • rvert the judgment of any of the • fflicted: Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts. S • e Amos 6. 6. Luk. 21. 34. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts • e overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and • ares of this life, and so that day come upon you un • wares. Rom. 13, 13, 14. N • t in gluttony and drunkenness, not in chambering and want • n • ess, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the fl • sh to satisfy the l • sts thereof. Prov. 20. 1. Wine is a mecker; strong drink is raging; and wh • s • ever is deceived thereby is n • t wise. Prov. 23. 29, 30, 31, 32. who hath w • e? who hath s • rrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine: they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not th • u upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup: when it moveth itself aright: At last it • iteth li • e a Serpent, and s • ingeth like an Adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange Women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things: yea thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the Sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. Hos. 4. 11. wh • redom and wine and new wine take away the heart. Joel 1. 5. Awake ye drunkards, and weep and •• wle all ye drinkers of wine, &c. If thou do indeed believe the Word of God, why do not such passages make thee tremble?

§. 46. Quest. 5. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thyself when thou art drunk or joynest thyself with drunkards? What abundance of other sin thou art liable to? And in what peril thou art of some present judgment of God? Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee tremble. To think that even a Noah that was drunken but once, is recorded to his shame for a warning unto others: How horrid a crime even Lot fell into by the temptation of drunkenne • s? How Uriah was made drunk by a David to have hid his sin? How David's son Amnon, in God's just revenge, was murdered by his brother Absalom's command, when his heart was merry with wine. How Nabal was stricken dead by God after his drunkenness, 1 Sam. 25. 36, 37, 38. How King El • was murdered as he was drinking himself drunk, 1 Sam. 16. 9. And how the terrible hand appeared writing upon the Wall to King Belshazzar in his carousing, to signify the loss of his Kingdoms, and that very night he was also s • ain. Thou seest God spareth not Kings themselves, that one would think might be allowed more pleasure? and will he spare thee? Prov. 31. 4, 5. It is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Princes strong drink? and is it then for thee? mark the dreadful fruits of it, even to the greatest, Hos. 7. 3, 4, 5. They make the King glad with their wickedness, and the Princes with their lies: They are all Adulterers as an Oven heated—In the day of our King the Princes have made him sick with bottles of wine: he stretched out his hand with s •• r •• rs. Thou seest that be they great or small, both soul and body is cast by tippling and drunkenness into greater danger, than thou art in at Sea in a raging tempest. Thou puttest thyself in the way of the vengeance of God? and art not like to scape it long.

§. 47. Quest. 6. Didst thou ever measure thy sin by that strange kind of punishment commanded by God against i •••• rrigible gluttons and drunkards, Deut. 21. 18, 19, 20, 21. If a man have a stu •••• rn and rebellious Son, which will not obey the voice of his Father, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not hearken to them, Then shall his Father and his mother •• y •• ld on him, and bring him out unto the Elders of his City, and to the gate of his place: And they shall s • y unto the Elders of his City, This our S • n is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice, he is a Glutton and a Drunkard: And all the men of his City shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt th • u put away evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Surely Gluttony and Drunkenness are heinous crimes, when a man's own Father and Mother were bound to bring him to the Magistrate to be put to death, if he will not be reformed by their own correction? And you see here that youth is no excuse for it, though now its thought excusable in them.

§. 48. Quest. 7. Dost thou think thy drink is too good to leave at God's command? Or dost thou think that God d • th grudge thee the sweetness of it? or rather that he forbids it thee for thy good, that thou mayest s • ape the hurt. And tell me, Dost thou love God better than thy drink and pleasure, or dost thou not? If not, thy own Conscience must needs tell thee, (if thou have a Conscience not quite feared) that there is no hope of thy salvation in that state? But if thou say, thou dost, will God, or any wise man believe thee, that thou lovest him better, and wilt not be so far ruled by him, nor leave so small a matter for his sake? 1 Joh. 5. 3. For this is the Love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous, So 2 John. 6.

§. 49. Quest. 8. Dost thou remember that thy Cark • ss must lie rotting in the grave, and how loathsome a thing it must shortly be? And canst thou make so great a matter of the present satisfying of so vile a body, and dung the earth at so dear a rate?

§. 50. Quest. 9. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost? If so, what would become of thy estate? It would be a mad world if all were drunkards: wouldst thou have thy Wife a Drunkard? If she were, thou wouldst scarce be confident of her Chastity. Wouldst thou have thy Servants Drunkards? If they were, they might set thy house on fire? and they would do thee little work, or do it so as it were better be undone. Thy house would be a Bedlam if all were Drunkards; and much worse than Bedlam; for there are some wise men to govern and correct the mad ones. But if thou like it not in wife and Children and Servants, why dost thou continue it thyself? Art thou not nearest to thyself? Dost thou love any others better than thyself? H • dst thou rather thy own soul were damned than theirs? Or canst thou more easily endure it? I have wondered sometimes to observe some Drunkards very severe against the same sin in their Children, and very desirous to have them sober! But the reason is because the sobriety of their Children is no trouble to them, nor puts them not to deny the pleasure of their appetites, as their own sobriety must do.

§. 51. Quest. 10. Wouldst thou have thy Physician drunk when he should cure thee of thy sickness? or thy Lawyer drunk when he should plead thy cause? or the Judge when he should judge it? I • not, why wilt thou be drunken when thou shouldst serve thy God, and mind the business of thy soul? If thou wouldst not have thy servant be potting in an Alehouse when he should be about thy work; wilt thou sit potting and prating there, when thou hast a thousand fold greater work to do, for thy everlasting happiness?

§. 52. Quest. 11. If one do but lame or spoil thy Beast and make him unfit for thy service, wouldst thou be pleased with it? And wilt thou unfit thyself for the service of God, as if thy work were of less concernment than thy Beasts?

§. 53. Quest. 12. Would it please you if your servants poured all that drink in the Chanel? If not, I have before proved to thee that it should displease thee more to pour it into thy belly: for thou wilt find at last, that it will hurt thee more?

§. 54. Quest. 13. What relish hath thy pleasant liquor the next day? will it then be any sweeter than wholesome abstinence? All the delight is suddenly gone: there is nothing left but the slime in thy guts, and the Ulcer in thy Conscience, which cannot be cured by all thy Treasure, nor palliated long by all thy pleasure. And canst thou value much so short delights? As all thy sweet and merry cups, are now no sweeter than if they had been Wormwood; so all the rest will quickly come to the same end and relish! As Plato said of his slender supper compared to a Rich man's feast, Yours seemeth better to night, but mine will be better tomorrow: so thy Conscience telleth thee that Temperance and holy obedience will be better tomorrow, and better to Eternity, though gluttony and drunkenness seem better Now.

§. 55 Quest. 14. Dost thou consider how dear thou payest for hell? and buyest damnation a • a harder rate than salvation might be attained at. What shame doth i 〈…〉 thee? what sickness is it like to cost thee? what painful vomitings or worse dost thou undergo? How much dost thou suffer in thy estate? And is Hell worth all this ado?

§. 56. Quest. 15. Dost thou not think in thy heart, that sober temperate Godly men do live a more quiet and comfortable life than thou? (as well as an honester and safer life). If thou do think so, why wilt thou not imitate them? It is as free for thee to choose as them. If thou think they do not; Consider that as they have none of thy forbidden Cups, so they have none of thy thirst or desire after them? Abstinence is sweeter much to them. They have none of thy sour belchings or Vomitings, nor shame, nor danger, nor thy reckoning to pay: They have none of thy gripes of Conscience, and terrors under the guilt of such a sin! They live in the Love of God and the forethoughts of Heaven, while thou art in the Alehouse: And dost thou not think in thy Conscience, that to a heart that is suited and sanctified thereto, it is not a sweeter thing to live in the Love of God, than in the love of thy sensuality? Darest thou say (whatever thou thinkest) that God and Heaven and Holiness are not so lovely and fit to be delighted in, as a Cup of Wine or Ale? sure thou darest not say so! If it were for no more than the different Aspects of Death and Eternity to them and to thee, I account thy life in the midst of thy pleasures, incomparably more sad than theirs. They look at Death as at the time of hope, and the day of their deliverance, as the Assizes are to the innocent or pardoned man: But thou lookest on Death with terror as the end of all thy mirth, as the Guilty Malefactor thinketh on the Assizes: (or else with senselessness or presumption which is worse.) They look unto Eternity as their endless unspeakable felicity: And thou darest scarce seriously think of it, without the delusory ease of unbelief or of false hopes. Thou darest not seriously look beyond death, unless through the Devils cheating spectacles. I tell thee, a sober Godly man would not have thy merry life (as thou accountest it) one day, for all thy wealth, or for any worldly gain? He had rather lie in Jaile, or sit in the Stocks that while, than Drink and Swagger with thee? Keep thy merriment to thyself, for no wise man or good man will be thy partner. If thou were their enemy they would not wish thee so much misery as thou choosest. As the story goeth of a Confessor that hearing many confess the sin of Drunkenness, would needs try himself what pleasure was in it: And having Vomited and slept it out, the next Drunkard that came to him in Confession, he appointed him for Penance to be drunk again, and told him, he need no sharper penance.

§. 57. Quest. 16. How cometh it to pass that thy very Pride doth not cure thy drunkenness? Pride is so natural and deep rooted a sin, that I dare say thou hast not overcome it, if thou have not overcome thy sensuality: And is thy Credit no more worth with thee? wilt thou for a Cup of Drink be made the talk of the Country, the scorn of the Town, the sport and laughing game of Boys, and the pity of sober persons? If thou be a great man among them, and they dare not speak it to thy face, and thou hearest not what they say of thee, yet in private they make bold with thy name, to talk of thee as of a filthy Beast? Canst thou think that sober men do honor thee? what honor may accidentally be due to thee from thy place, is another matter; but thou takest a course to keep them from honoring thee for thy worth; and dost thy worst to bring thy rank and place into contempt. Its said that in Spain a Drunkard is not allowed for a witness against any man: And sure he is not a credible person. Regard thy reputation, if thou carest not for thy soul.

§. 58. Quest. 17. Dost thou not love the flesh itself which thou so much pamperest? If thou do, why wilt thou drown it, and choke it up with flegm and filth? Ask Physicians whether drunkenness be wholesome. Mark how many drunkards live to be old: Ennius p • dagri • us is a Proverb: The sickness is longer than the sweetness of thy cup. If thou fearest not Hell, fear the Consumption, Gout or Dropsy.

§. 59. Quest. 18. Why shouldst thou not take more pleasure in the company of thy family, and in the company of people fearing God, that worship him in truth of heart, and will do their best to help to save thee? Canst thou give any reason for it, why such company should not be more pleasant to thee, than thy pot-companions? and why it should not be pleasanter to talk of the way to Heaven, and the pardon of sin, and the love of Christ, and of eternal happiness, than to prate a deal of idle non-sense in an Ale-house? There is no Reason for it but thy filthy mind, that is suitable to vanity and sin, and unsuitable to all thats wise and holy.

§. 60. Quest. 19. What if thou shouldst die in a drunken fit? Wouldst thou not thyself take thy case to be desperate or dangerous? Why, it may be so for ought thou knowest: It hath been the case of many a one. But if it be not so, yet to die a drunkard is as certain damnation, as to die in drunkenness: If the guilt of the sin be on thee, it is all one when it was committed, whether lately or long ago? For unpardoned sin is most sure damnation: And it is certainly unpardoned, till it be truly Repented of: And it is not Repented of if it be not forsaken: And then bethink thee how thou wilt review these days, and what thoughts thou wilt have then of thy Cups and Company!

§. 61. Quest. 20. Art thou willing to part with thy sin, or art thou not? Speak man, Art thou willing? If thou be not willing, bear witness against thyself that thou dost not Repent of it, and that thou art not forgiven it, and therefore that thou art at present a slave of the Devil, and if thou die so, as sure to be damned as thou art alive. Bear witness, that thou wast not kept from grace, and consequently from Heaven, against thy will; but by thy willful Refusal of it; and that it was not because thou couldst not be saved that thou goest to Hell, but because thou wouldst not? Sure even now thou canst not have the face to deny any of this, if thou confess that thou art not willing to amend. Take thy will in sin, if God's will must be violated, which tendered thee mercy, and commanded thee to accept it; but be sure that God will have his will in punishing thee.

§. 62. But I suppose thou wilt say, that thou art willing to amend and leave thy sin, but thou canst not do it, because flesh is frail, and company is tempting, and God giveth thee not grace: Willing thou art, but yet unable: But stay a little! God will not so let thee carry it, and smooth over thy wickedness with a lie. Thy meaning, if thou speak out, is not that thou art willing, presently and heartily willing to forsake thy sin, but only that thou wouldst be willing, if the drink and the Devil did not tempt thee? And so thou wilt be willing to love God and be saved, when nothing shall tempt thee to the contrary! And wouldst thou thank thy Wife for such a willingness to forsake adultery when nobody will tempt her to it? or thy servant to do thy work when he hath nothing to tempt him to idleness or neglect? Judge by this what thanks thou deservest of God for such a willingness? But dally not with God, and mock not thy Conscience, but speak to the question, Art thou willing to give over thy company, and tippling from this day forward, or art thou not? Take heed what thou sayest: If thou say, No, God may say Nay to all thy cries for mercy in the day of thy misery and distress. But if still thou say, that thou art willing, but not able, I will convince thee of thy falsehood.

§. 63. Quest. 1. Tell me then, what force is used to make thee sin against thy will? Wast thou carried to the Ale-house, or didst thou go thyself? Wast thou gagg'd and drenched? Was it poured down thy throat by violence? or didst thou take the Cup and pour it down thyself? Who was the man that held opon thy mouth, and poured it in? Nay if it had been thus, it had not been thy sin; for no will, no sin. Or did they set a Sword or Pistol to thy breast, and so force thee to it? If they had, that had not proved thee unwilling, but only that they forced thee to be willing. And their force is no excuse. For God threatened Hell, and thou shouldst have feared that most.

§. 64. Quest. 2. Didst thou love the Drink, or loath it when thou wast drinking it? Didst thou Love it against thy will, when love and willingness are all one?

§. 65. Quest. 3. Wilt thou forbear the next time till thou art carried to it, and till it is forcibly poured down with a horn? If not, confess it is thy will.

§. 66. Quest. 4. Couldst thou not forbear, if the Judge or the King stood by? And canst thou not forbear when God stands by? If thou wilt, thou canst.

§. 67. Quest. 5. Couldst thou not forbear, if thou wert sure to be put to death for it? If the Law hanged all Drunkards, and the Hangman were at thy back? Surely thou couldst. And canst thou not then forbear if thou wilt, when God hath made it worse than hanging, and when Death is coming to fetch thee to execution?

§. 68. Quest. 6. Couldst thou not forbear it in sickness, if thy Physician required it, and told thee if thou drink it will be thy death? I doubt not but thou couldst: If not, thou art very unworthy to live, that canst not deny thyself a Cup of drink for the saving of thy life: And thou art as unworthy to be saved, if thou wilt not do that to save thy soul, which thou wouldst do to save thy present life.

§. 69. Quest. 7. Yea, couldst thou not forbear if it were but to save the life of thy Wife, or Child, or Friend, or Neighbor? If thou knewest that forbearing thy forbidden Cup would save the life of any one of them, couldst thou not? Nay, wouldst thou not do it? If not, thou tellest the world what a Husband, what a Father, what a Friend, and what a Neighbor thou art, that wouldst not forbear a Cup of Drink to save a Friend or Neighbors life: I should think thee an unworthy friend, if thou wouldst not do that much at thy friends request, though there were no such necessity lay upon it. It this be so, I will never take a Drunkard for my friend: for he would not forbear a Cup of Drink for my sake, no not if it were to save my life. If thou say, God forbid, I would do more than that: Why then didst thou say, Thou canst not forbear? Mark how thy tongue reproves thy falsehood? And canst thou not do that for thy own soul, which thou couldst do for the life, or at the request of a Friend or Neighbor?

§. 70. Quest. 8. Couldst thou not forbear if it were to get a Lordship or a Kingdom? yea, or to save thy own estate, if it were all in danger, and this would save it? I doubt not but thou couldst. Why then dost thou say, thou canst not do it?

§. 71. Quest. 9. If thou wert certain that thou werest to die tomorrow, wouldst thou be drunk to night? Or if thou wert sure to die within this Week or Month, wouldst thou be drunk ere then? I do not believe thou wouldst. Fear would so long shut thy mouth. Thou seest then that thou canst forbear if thou were but willing, and were but awakened out of thy stupidity and folly.

§. 72. Quest. 10. What if thou wert sure that there were an ounce of Arsenick or other such poison in the Cup? Couldst thou not then forbear it? Yes no doubt of it: It is plain therefore that thou speakest falsely, when thou sayest that thou canst not! And is not God's wrath and curse in thy Cup much worse than poison?

§. 73. Quest. 11. What if thou sawest the Devil standing by thee and offering thee the Cup, and persuading thee to drink it, couldst thou not then forbear? Yes, no doubt of it: And is he not as certainly there tempting thee, as if thou sawest him? Well, the matter is proved against thee to thy own conscience, that if thou wilt forbear, thou canst.

§. 74. Quest. 12. But if yet thou canst not, bethink thee, whether thou canst better bear the pains of Hell? For God is not in jest with thee in his threatening. If thy thirst be harder to bear than Hell, then choose that which is easiest to thee: But remember hereafter that thou hadst thy choice.

§. 75. Yet, art thou willing to let go thy sin? (for I am sure thou art able so far as thou art willing ) I will take thy case to be as it is; that is, that thou hast some half ineffectual willingness, or lazy wish which will not conquer a temptation, and that thou art sometimes in a little better mood than at other times, and that thou lovest thy sin, and therefore wouldst not leave it if thou couldst choose, but thou lovest not Hell, and therefore hast some thoughts of parting with thy Cups against thy will, for fear of punishment. These wishes and purposes will never save thee: It must be a renewed Nature, Loving God, and hating the sin, that must make thee capable of salvation. But yet in the mean time it is necessary that thou forbear thy sin, though it be but through fear; for thou canst not expect else that the Holy Ghost should renew thy Nature. Therefore I will give thee Directions how to forbear thy sin most surely and easily, if thou be but willing, and withal to promote thy willingness itself with the performance.

Practical Directions against Tipling and Drunkenness.

§. 76. Direct. 1. Write over thy bed and thy chamber door where thou mayest read it every morning before thou goest forth, some Text of holy Scripture thats fit to be thy Memorandum: As 1 Cor. 6. 10. Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God: and Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. And read it before thou goest out of thy doors.

§. 77. Direct. 2. Also fall down on thy knees to God, and earnestly beg of him to keep thee that day from temptations, and ill company, and from all thy fleshly desires and excess: and especially that he would renew thy nature, and give thee a hatred of the sin.

§ 78. Direct. 3. Keep thyself in the constant employments of thy Calling; and spend not one quarter of an hour in idleness, and allow not leisure to thy thoughts, so much as to think of thy drink and pleasure; much less to thy body to follow it. God hath commanded thee whoever thou art, to labor six days, and in the sweat of thy brows to eat thy bread; and hath forbidden idleness and negligence in thy calling: Avoid this and it will help thee much.

§. 79. Direct. 4. Reckon not upon long life, but think how quickly death will come, and that for ought thou knowest thou mayest die that day, and how dreadful a case it would prove to thee to be found among Tiplers, or to die before thou art truly converted. Think of this before thou goest out of thy doors! and think of it as thou art going to the ALE-house: Look on the Cup and the Grave together: The dust of those bones will be wholesome Spice to thee. Remember when thou seest the Wine or Ale, how unlike it is to that black and lothsom liquor which thy blood and humors will be turned into, when thou art dead. Remember that the hand that taketh the Cup must shortly be scattered bones and dust; and the mouth that drinketh it down, must shortly be an ugly hole: and the Pallate, and Stomach, and Brain that are delighted by it, must shortly be stinking puddle: and that the Graves of Drunkards are the Field or Garden of the Devil, where Corpse are sowed to • ise at the resurrection to be fuel for Hell.

§. 80. Direct. 5. When thou art tempted to the Ale-house, call up thy Reason, and remember that there is a God that seeth thee, and will judge thee, and that thou hast an endless life of joy or torment shortly to possess, and that thou hast sinned thus too long already, and that without sound Repentance thy case is desperate, and that thou art far from true Repentance while thou goest on in sin. Ask thyself, Have I not sinned long enough already? Have I not long enough abused mercy? Shall I make my case remediless, and cast away all hope? Doth not God stand by, and see and hear all? Am I not stepping by death into an endless world? Think of these things, and use thy Reason if thou be a man, and hast Reason to use.

§. 81. Direct. 6. Exercise thyself daily in Repenting for what is past: and that will preserve thee for the time to come. Confess thy former sin to God with sorrow, and beg forgiveness of it with tears and groans: If thou make light of all thats past, thou art prepared to commit more: Think as thou goest about thy work, how grievously thou hast sinned, against thy knowledge and conscience; in the sight of God; against all his mercies, and how obstinately thou hast gone on, and how unthankfully thou hast rejected mercy, and neglected Christ, and refused grace! Think what had become of thee if thou hadst died in this case? and how exceedingly thou art beholden to the patience of God, that he cut thee not off, and cast thee not into Hell; and that he hath provided and offered thee a Savior, and is yet willing to pardon and accept thee through his Son, if thou wilt but resolvedly return, and live in faith and holiness. These penitent thoughts and exercises will kill thy sin and cure thee. Fast and humble thyself for what thou hast done already: As the holy Apostle saith, 1 Pet. 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. For as much as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin: That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God: For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banqueting, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

§. 82. Direct. 7. Keep from the place and company: Ephes. 5. 7, 11. Be not partakers with them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Thou canst not deny but thou art able to do this if thou wilt. Canst thou not stay at home and come not near them? If thou be willing to escape, run not into the snare.

§. 83. Direct. 8. Stop at the first cup: be not drawn on by little and little: As the sluggard saith, Yet a little more sleep; so the drunkard saith, yet a little more drink: I will take but one cup more: Understand thy due measure that thou mayest know what is excess: To an ordinary healthful body, that doth not very much labor and sweat, a quart in a day is enough: To cold and flegmatick persons it is too much: The old Rule was, Prima ad sitim, secunda ad hilaritatem, tertia ad voluptatem, quarta ad insaniam. The first Cup is for thirst, the second for mirth, the third for sensual pleasure, the fourth for madness. Especially you that have drunk too much so long, should rather drink less than other men: Your soul requireth it for penitence and for prevention; Your bodies require it, to cure the crudities already heaped up.

§. 84. Direct. 9. Avoid the tempting ceremonies of drunkards, such as drinking healths, or urging others to pledge them, or drink more. Plutarch saith, that when Agesilaus was made the Master of a Feast, and was to prescribe the Laws for drinking, his Law was; If there be Wine enough, give everyone what he asketh for; if not enough, divide it equally: By which means none were tempted or urged to drink, and the intemperate were ashamed to ask for more than others. As among Witches, so among Drunkards, the Devil hath his Laws and Ceremonies, and its dangerous to practice them.

§. 85. Direct. 10. Go to thy sinful companions to their houses, and tell them plainly and seriously that thou repentest of what thou hast done already, and that thou art ashamed to remember it, and that now thou perceivest that there is a righteous God, and a day of judgment, and an endless punishment to be thought on; and that thou art resolved thou wilt be voluntarily mad no more: and that thou wilt not sell thy soul and Savior for a merry cup: And beseech them for the sake of Christ, and of their souls, to join with thee in repentance and reformation; but let them know, that if they will not, thou comest to take thy leave of them, and art resolved thou wilt no more be their companion in sin, lest thou be their companion in Hell. If thou art willing indeed to Repent and be saved, do this presently and plainly; and stick not at their displeasure or reproach: If thou wilt not, say thou wilt not, and say no more thou canst not; but say, I will keep my sin and be damned: For thats the English of it.

§. 86. Direct. 11. Suppose when the Cup of excess is offered thee, that thou sawest these words [ Sin and Hell ] written upon the Cup, and sawest the Devil offering it thee, and urging thee to drink, and sawest Christ bleeding on the Cross, and calling to thee, O drink not that which c • steth so dear a price as my blood. Strongly imprint this supposition on thy mind: And it is not unreasonable: For certainly sin is in thy Cup, and Hell is next to sin; and it is the Devil that puts thee on, and its Christ unseen that would dissuade thee.

§. 87. Direct. 12. Suppose that there were mortal poison in the Cup that is offered thee: Ask thy self, Would I drink it if there were poison in it? If not, why should I drink it when sin is in it, and Hell is near it? And the supposition is not vain. Its written of Cyrus, that when A • tiages observed that at a Feast he drank no Wine, and asked him the reason, he answered, because he thought there was poison in the cup; for he had observed some that drunk out of it, lost their speech or understanding, and some of them vomited, and therefore he feared it would poison him: However its poison to the soul.

§. 88▪ Direct. 13. Look soberly upon a drunken man, and think whether that be a desirable plight for a wise man to put himself into. See how ill-favouredly he looks, with heavy eyes, and a slabbering mouth, stinking with drink or vomit, staggering, falling, spewing, bawling, talking like a mad man, pitied by wise men, hooted at by Boys; and madly reeling on towards Hell. And •• thal look upon some wise and sober man, and see how composed and comely is his countenance and gesture, how wise his words, how regular his actions, how calm his mind; envied by the wicked, but reverenced by all that are impartial. And then bethink thee which of these it is better to be like. Saith Basil, Drunkenness makes men sleep like the dead, and wake like the sleeping. It turneth a man into a useless, noisome, filthy, hurtful, and devouring Beast.

§. 89. Direct. 14. If all this will not serve turn, if thou be but willing, I can teach thee a cheap restraint, and tell thee of a medicine that is good against Drunkenness and Excess. Resolve that after every Cup of excess thou wilt drink a Cup of the juice of Wormwood, or of Carduus, or Centaury, or Germand • r▪ at least, as soon as thou comest home and growest wiser, that this shall be thy penance: And hold on this course but a little while, and thy appetite will rather choose to be without the drink, than to bear the penance. Do not stick at it; if thy Reason be not strong enough for a manly • ure, drench thyself like a Beast, and use such a cure as thou art capable of: and in time it may bring thee to be capable of a better. And I can assure thee, a bitter draught is a very cheap remedy to prevent a sin.

§. 90, Direct. 15. If all this will not serve, I have yet another remedy if thou be but Willing: Confess thyself unfit to govern thyself, and give up thyself to the government of some other: thy Wife, thy Parents, or thy friend: And here these things are to be done. 1. Engage thy Wife, or Friend to watch over thee, and not to suffer thee to go to the Ale-house, nor to drink more than is profitable to thy health. 2. Deliver thy Purse to them, and keep no money thyself. 3. Drink no more at home but what they give thee, and leave it to them to judge what measure is best for thee. 4. When thou art tempted to go to the Ale-house, tell thy wife or friend that they may watch thee. Even as thou wouldst call for help if Thieves were robbing thee. 5. Give leave to thy Wife or friend to charge the Alesellers to give thee no drink: And go thyself when thou art in thy right mind, and charge them thyself to give thee none; and tell them that thou art not thyself, or in thy right wits when thou desirest it. If these means seem now too hard to thee, and thou wilt sin on, and venture upon the wrath and curse of God, and upon Hell, rather than thou wilt use them, remember hereafter that thou wast damned, because thou wouldst be damned, and that thou chosest the way to Hell to scape these troubles, and take that thou gettest by it: But do not say, thou couldst not help it, for I am sure thou canst do this if thou wilt. Thou wilt lock thy door against Thieves: Lock thy mouth also against a more dangerous Thief, that would rob thee of thy Reason and salvation. Saith Basil, If his Master do but box or beat his servant, he will run away from the strokes; And wilt thou not run away from the drink that would break thy brains and understanding?

§. 91. Direct. 16. But the saving remedy is this: Study the love of God in Christ, and the riches of Grace, and the eternal glory promised to holy souls, till thou be in Love with God, and Heaven, and Holiness, and hast found sweeter pleasure than thy excess, and then thou wilt need no more Directions.

PART V.