back Remember Lots Wife so may I say to deterre you from Drunkenness Remember Elah who was kill'd whil'st he was drinking himself drunk And if God did not spare a King in Israel take heed lest he do not spare you Besides Elah's Example Amnon one of Davids Sons was killed whil'st his Heart was merry with Wine 2 Sam. 13. 28. When Belshazzar had been drinking Wine with a thousand of his Lords in the day time he was slain in the Night Dan. 5. 1 30. Besides these Examples we have known and heard of several others that have dyed dead drunk and never came to Life again others that have fallen off their Horses in their Drunkenness and broke their Necks others that have faln into the Water and been drowned and others cut off by other means Arg. 7. It unfits a man for the Service of God Drunkenness makes a man unfit for any good work unfit for the service of God and men unfit for Death and Judgment it makes a man unfit for Prayer and all other Religious duties 1 Pet. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer No men are fit for Prayer but sober men It is probable Nadab and Abihu had distempered themselves with Wine or strong drink when they presumed to offer up strange Fire and Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them for immediately after the Relation of their Sin and Punishment there is a strict charge given to Aaron and his Sons that they should not drink Wine or strong drink when they went into the Tabernacle of the Congregation on pain of Death Lev. 10. 8 9 10 11. It also unfits a man for the service of his Generation especially for a place of publick Trust many Armies have been ruined Towns and Kingdoms lost by the Drunkenness of Commanders A small Army of the Israelites not exceeding seven thousand setting upon the Syrians when Benhadad their King was drinking himself drunk with his Confederates put the Syrians to flight and slew them with a great Slaughter although besides his own great Army he had thirty two Kings that came to his assistance 1 Kings 16. 17 20. And as this sin renders us unfit for the service of God and men so also it makes us unfit for the day of Death and Judgment Luk. 21. 34. And take heed to your selves lest at any time your Hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and Drunkenness Arg. 8. It will Exclude a man out of Heaven Drunkenness is such an odious Sin that the Lord hath told us expresly that he will not admit any Drunkards into the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Drunkards shall inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the Works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornications Uncleanness and Lasciviousness Revellings and such like of which I tell you before as I have told you in times past that they which do such things shall not Inherit the Kingdom of God It was a Foolish Act in Esau and argued him to be a profane man to sell his Birth-right for a Morsel of Meat Heb. 12. 16. Lest there be any Fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one Morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right Drunkards are guilty of worse profaneness than Esau for they part with a better Blessing than a Birth-right namely the Kingdom of Heaven for a pot of Drink or cup of Wine which do them no good but much hurt Arg. 9. It is a damnable Sin Drunkenness is a damnable Sin a Sin for which men shall be condemned to the Torments of Hell for ever The Drunkard shall be cut asunder and have his portion with unbelievers Luk. 12. 45 46. There is scarce any Sin fills Hell like Drunkenness following Wine and strong drink send great multitudes to Hell the drunken Gentleman and drunken Prince notwithstanding all their bravery shall descend into Hell as well as the drunken Begger They that inflame themselves with Wine and strong drink shall be tormented in flames of fire for ever and then they that drunk Wine in boles and filled themselves with strong drink shall not with all their entreaties get so much as one drop of Water to cool their Tongues Arg. 10. It is a Bewitching Sin very hardly left by those that are addicted to it Drunkenness is an enticing bewitching Sin which is very hardly left by those that are addicted to it Neither the Word nor Rod of God prevaileth with men to leave this Sin but they go on sinning against Light sinning against the Counsels Reproofs and Tears of Friends against the checks of their own Consciences though the Lord afflict them in their Bodies Estates Good Names yet still they persevere in this sin though when upon sick beds they are under terrors of Conscience and feel as it were some flashes of Hell-fire and make great Vows and solemn Protestations that if God will spare their Lives and raise them up again they will leave off their Drunkenness yet when they are restored to Health they return to their old course again Prov. 23. 35. They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not when shall I awake I will seek it yet again Solomon speaks here of Drunkards who are not disheartened by all the difficulties and troubles and blowes that they meet with in following after strong drink but resolve to seek it yet again and to persist in their dissolute courses Drunkards are wont to encourage themselves and one another to persist in their drunken courses under all discouragements Isa. 56. 12. Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Instead of desisting they grow more resolved in their way and the reason why this sin is so hardly left and so few recovered from it may be partly from the strength this sinful habit gets in the Soul by the many repeated Acts of this Sin and also from the Pleasingnesse of this Sin to corrupt Nature for the more pleasing any sin is the more hardly it is left And chiefly from the Just and Righteous Judgment of God who giveth up men who go on sinning against Light unto their own Hearts Lusts saying to them He that is filthy let him be filthy still Drunkenness is called by some Vitium maximae adhaerentiae a Sin that sticks closer and faster to a man than any other Sin These ten Arguments against Drunkennss were taken out of the Sermons of Mr. Owen Stockton of Colchester lately deceased an able and worthy Divine in a Larger discourse again that Sin well I worth the Reading sold by Mr. Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside Preached upon the occasion of a sad and dreadful
comes Wo to the Imposers of Healths which commonly happens to be some ordinary Fellow in the Company that hath nothing but that single Ceremony to commend his Love or Loyalty to the World who also having a tumor of Pride in him hath no way to overtop and command his Superiours but upon the advantage of the Laws of Drunkenness Moreover it is a Custom of Sinning only proper for those that are upon the design of Mortgaging their Senses for there is no sence in it or reason for it How can any man drink anothers Health Or by what new kind of Transubstantiation can his Health be converted into a glass of Liquor or if so what 's the man the better to have his health drank into my Body and then piss'd out again against the walls And why not Eat his Health rather than Drink it and so bring up a new fashion of Eating of Healths to subserve the Intemperances of the sin of Gluttony Sometimes it is expressed by drinking a health to the Confusion of c. and here 's Nonsence upon the neck of Nonsence which is perfect Foolery as patch upon patch is plain Beggery A health to the Confusion If they mean a Confusion to the health as I think they do why is it exprest quite contrary to what they mean unless it be to give us to understand that men that will begin a health are enter'd upon speaking of Nonsence and may be lookt on as half drunk already But laying all this aside they say all these are Modes and Ceremonies in drinking and their meaning is no more but only to pray for the Health and Prosperity of such and such Which is the reason they are at it in a posture of Prayer standing up standing bare sometimes kneeling upon their knees as Supplicants do to God Almighty But will any rational man think these men at Prayers Are these praying postures Did God ever command or his People ever apply to the Throne in this manner of Address Have men lived to this age and cannot yet distinguish between drinking intemperately and praying fervently as if to Pray were to Drink and to Drink were to Pray Worse than Pagan Idolatry to offer at the Throne of the Great God with a glass of Wine in our hand It may be praying to Bacchus but not to God Heaven must needs be shut against these Prayings And to what purpose is any mans health prayed for by such kind of Prayers so circumstanced as we are very sure that God will throw them back as dung in the faces of those that thus disorderly put them up What hast thou to do to take his Name in thy Mouth when thou hatest to be reformed To see the Postures of Health-drinkers singing and roaring hollowing and carousing and Huzzaing after a new fashion sometimes quarrelling and challenging and duelling can any man that hath not his Wits in his Pocket think these men at Prayers Now because we find by Experience and from the Nature of the thing that these prodigious kind of Offenders we now speak of are under no likelihood to be perswaded out of their cursed way by Arguments drawn from the Love of Christ or Hope of Glory which are things they do n't trouble their heads about or fear of Hell let them alone till that day The Author of these Collections hath very well and to good purpose gather'd up together out of several Authors several Instances of the Judgments of God taking these Sinners in the very fact and tacking them up as dreadful Instances and Examples of his great Abomination of and declared Vengeance against this sort of Sinners more specially that reading these Histories we may prevent being made a History our selves And though they are but Collections I do n't know why a good dish may not be twice set upon the Table There are several late Instances of Gods Vengeance upon Drunkards thundred down upon the heads of many of them in our Age the publication of which is forborn out of a tender respect to their Relations yet surviving The next Generation will be able to set forth remarkable Stroaks from Heaven upon some and no mean ones neither But least I transgress the bounds of a Preface no more kind Reader but my love to thy Soul remembred with my earnest Prayer to God for the Health of Sion and all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Farewell A COLLECTION Of Some part of A SERMON Long since Preached by Mr. SAMUEL WARD of IPSWICH Entituled A Wo to Drunkards He lived in the dayes of Famous King JAMES and was like Righteous Lot whose Soul was vexed with the wicked Conversation of the Sodomites He published divers other good Sermons His Text was in PROV XXIII Vers. 29 32. To whom is Woe to whom is Sorrow to whom is Strife c In the end it will bite like a Serpent and sting like a Cockatrice He begins thus SEer art thou also blind Watchman art thou also drunk or asleep Or hath a Spirit of slumber put out thine Eyes Up to thy Watch-Tower what descriest thou Ah Lord what end or number is there of the Vanities which mine Eyes are weary of beholding But what seest thou I see men walking like the tops of trees shaken with the wind like Masts of Ships reeling on the tempestuous Seas Drunkenness I mean that hatefull Night-bird which was wont to wait for the Twilight to seek Nooks and Corners to avoid the howling and wonderment of Boyes and Girles Now as if it were some Eaglet to dare the Sun-light to fly abroad at high Noon in every Street in open Markets and Fairs without fear or shame without controul or punishment to the disgrace of the Nation the out-facing of Magistracy and Ministry the utter undoing without timely prevention of Health and Wealth Piety and Vertue Town and Countrey Church and Common-wealth And doest thou like a dumb Dog hold thy peace at these things dost thou with Solomon's Sluggard fold thine hands in thy Bosom and give thy self to ease and drowsiness while the envious man causeth the noisomest and basest of Weeds to over-run the choicest Eden of God Up and Arise lift up thy Voice spare not and cry aloud What shall I cry Cry Woe and Woe again unto the Crown of Pride the Drunkards of Ephraim Take up a Parable and tell them how it stingeth like the Cockatrice declare unto them the deadly poyson of this odious Sin Shew them also the Soveraign Antidote and Cure of it in the Cup that was drunk off by Him that was able to overcome it Cause them to behold the brazen Serpent and be healed And what though some of these deaf Adders will not be charmed nor cured yea though few or none of this swinish Herd of habitual Drunkards accustomed to wallow in their mire yea deeply and irrecoverably plunged by legions of Devils into the dead Sea of their filthiness what if not one of them will be washed and made clean
yet insensate with Wine void of Wit and Fear I know not what further to mind thee of but of that third and worst Sting of all the rest which will ever be gnawing and never dying which if thou wilt not fear here sure thou art to feel there when the Red Dragon hath gotten thee into his Den and shall fill thy Soul with the gall of Scorpions where thou shalt yell and howl for a drop of water to cool thy Tongue withall and shalt be denied so small a refreshing and have no other liquor to allay thy thirst but that which the lake of Brimstone shall afford thee And that worthily for that thou wouldest incurr the wrath of the Lamb for so base and sordid a sin as Drunkenness of which thou mayest think as venially and slightly as thou wilt But Paul that knew the danger of it gives thee fair warning and bids thee not deceive thy self expresly and by name mentioning it among the mortal sins excluding from the Kingdom of Heaven And the Prophet Esay tells thee That for it Hell hath enlarged it self opened its mouth wide and without measure and therefore shall the multitude and their pomp and the jollyest among them descend into it Consider this you that are strong to pour in drink that love to drink sorrow and care away And be you well assured that there you shall drink enough for all having for every drop of your former Bousings Vials yea whole Seas of God's Wrath never to be exhaust Now then I appeal from your selves in drink to your selves in your sober fits Reason a little the case and tell me calmly would you for your own or any mans pleasure to gratifie Friend or Companion if you knew there had been a Toad in the Wine-pot as twice I have known happened to the death of Drinkers or did you think that some Caesar Borgia or Brasutus had tempered the Cup or did you see but a Spider in the Glass would you or durst you carouse it off And are you so simple to fear the Poyson that can kill the Body and not that which killeth the Soul and Body ever yea for ever and ever and if it were possible for more than for ever for evermore Oh thou vain Fellow what tellest thou me of Friendship or good Fellowship wilt thou account him thy Friend or good Fellow that draws thee into his company that he may poyson thee and never thinks he hath given thee right entertainment or shewed thee kindness enough till he hath killed thy Soul with his kindness and with Beer made thy Body a Carkass fit for the Biere a laughing and Loathing-stock not to Boys and Girls alone but to Men and Angels Why rather sayest thou not to such What have I to do with you ye Sons of Belial ye poysonful Generation of Vipers that hunt for the precious life of a man Oh but there are few good Wits or great Spirits now a days but will Pot it a little for company What hear I Oh base and low-spirited times if that were true If we were fallen into such Lees of Time foretold of by Seneca in which all were so drowned in the dregs of Vices that it should be Vertue and Honour to bear most drink But thanks be to God who hath reserved many thousands of men and without all comparison more witty and valorous than such Pot-wits and Spirits of the Buttery who never bared their knees to drink health nor ever needed to whet their Wits with Wine or arm their Courage with Pot-harness And if it were so yet if no such Wits or Spirits shall ever enter into Heaven without Repentance let my Spirit never come and enter into their Paradise ever abhor to partake of their bruitish pleasures lest I partake of their endless woes If young Cyrus could refuse to drink Wine and tell Astyages He thought it to be Poyson for he saw it metamorphose men into Beasts and Carkases what would he have said if he had known that which we may know that the Wine of Drunkards is the Wine of Sodom and Gomorrah their Grapes the Grapes of gall their clusters the clusters of Bitterness the Juyce of Dragons and the venome of Asps. Scripture Examples of Drunkenness THe Sin of Drunkenness is a bewitching sin Hos. 4. 11. It steals away the heart from God and all goodness It is an old sin it began presently after the Flood It is a malignant sin it drowns the Brain wastes the Time consumes the Estate And fills the Body with as many diseases as hath an Horse It is an Epidemical sin that hath almost drowned the whole world with another deluge In these modern times it began in Germany whence grew that proverb Germani possunt cunctos tolerare Labores O Utinam possint tam bene ferre sitim The Germans can all Labours undergo Would they as well could bear their thirst also But since it hath infected all Europe It is grown into Fashion to Quaff Soul-sick healths till they make themselves like Swine and worse than beasts whence one gives us this excellent rule Una Salus sanis nullam potare Salutem Non est in pota vera Salute Salus Drinking no healths you drink your health they say And drinking healths you drink your health away Scriptural Examples The odiousness and danger of this sin may further appear to us by these following Scriptures and Examples Drunkenness dangerous Prov. 23. 29. c. Who hath wo who hath Sorrow who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes 31. 4. It is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink Wine nor for Princes strong drink Deut. 21. 20. And they shall say unto the elders of his city This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard Prov. 20. 1. Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not Wise. Hos. 4. 11. Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the Heart Nah. 1. 10. For while they be folden together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry 1 Cor. 11. 21. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken Threatened Isai. 5. 11 22. Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue untill night till Wine inflame them 22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink Wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Amos 6. 6. That drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but they are not grieved for affliction of Joseph Prov. 23. 21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall cloath a man with rags Isa. 28. 1. 3 Wo to the Crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower