Beere good drinke But in the meane time how many thousands which are hard driven with poverty or by the exigents of warre might be relieved with that these men spend like beasts whiles that is throwne out of one swines nose and mouth and guts which would refresh a whole family O wofull calamity of mankind saith S. Augustine how many may we find that doe urge and compell those that be already satisfied to drinke more then becometh them and yet will deny even a cup of small drinke to the poore that beg it for Gods sake and for Christs sake they pinch the hungry to pamper the full withhold drinke from the thirsty to make others drunke with too great abundance § 44. BUt It is Gods unspeakable mercy that wee have not a fomine or that the land doth not spue out her inhabitants for this sin O how just a punishment were famine after such a satiety and pestilence after famine for such as turne the Sanctuary of life into the shambles of death O Lord it is thy unspeakeable mercy that our land which hath beene so long sicke of this drunken disease and so often surfitted of this sinne doth not spue us all out which are the inhabitants The Lord of most glorious Majesty and infinite purity sees all heares all knowes all and yet behold we live nay the Lord still causes Heaven Earth Sea Land all Creatures to waite upon us and bring us in all due provision nay he hath not long since abounded even in that blessing and graine which hath bene most abused to drunkennesse here is patience here is mercy here is bounty O that we could stay here and suffer our selves to lose our selves in the meditation and admiration of this wonderfullnesse But what 's the reason God will not punish the righteous with the wicked But Drun kards are reserved unto the great day Gen. 18.25 he knoweth how to deliver the godly and to reserve the wicked these brute beasts who walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse and count it pleasure to riot unto the great day to be punished 2 Peter 2.9.13 whose judgement is not farre off and whose damnation sleepeth not ver 3. For as surely as the word of God pronounceth many a woe unto them as woe to Drunkards saith Isaiah that are mighty to drinke wine and unto them that are strong to powre in stroâ—g drinke that continue drinking till the wine doth inflame them Woe saith Habakuk unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke till hee be drunken Woe saith Solomon to them that tarry long at the wine to them that goe and seeke mixt wine Woe to his body which is a temporall woe woe to his soule which is a spirituall woe woe to both body and soule which is an eternall woe howle ye Drunkards saith Ioel weepe yee saith St. Iames Isaiah 5.22 Habakuk 2.15 Ioel. 1.5 Iames 5.1.5 Yea which of Gods Servants hath not a woe in his mouth to throw at this sinne so every tittle of this word shall be accomplished God will one day hold the cup of vengance to their lips and bid them drinke their fills Yea The judgments of God spirituall temporall and eternall which in Scripture are threatned against Drunkards as Drunkards are Sathans eldest Sonnes so they shall have a double portion of vengance whereas riot in the forenoone hath beene merry in the afternoone drunke at night gone to bed starke mad in the morning of their resurrection it shall rise sober into everlasting sorrow they finde not the beginning and progresse so sweete as the farewell of it shall be bitter for as sure as God is in Heaven if they forsake not their swilling which they are no more able to doe then they are able to eate a rocke the Devill hath so besotted them they shall once pay deare for it even in a bed of unquenchable flames I speake not of the many temporall judgments which God brings upon them even in this life though to mention them alone were omni-sufficient if they thirsted not after their owne ruine as I could tell them from Levit. the 26. and Deut. the 28. that all curses threatned all temporall plagues and judgments which befall men in this life are inflicted upon them for sinne and disobedience But I speake of those torments which are both intollerable and interminable which can neither be indured nor avoided when once entred into If I say you persevere in this your brutish sensuallity and will needs Dives like drinke here without thirst you shall thirst hereafter without drinke yea though that fire be hot the thirst great and a drop of water be but a little yet in this hot fire and great thirst that little drop shall be denied you Luke 16. For know this that without repentance Paul will be found a true Prophet who saith that no Drunkard shall ever enter into the kingdome of Heaven 1 Cor. 6.9.10 And Isaiah no lesse who saith that Hell enlargeth it selfe for Drunkards and openeth her mouth without measure that all those may descend into it who follow drunkennesse and preferre the pleasing of their palats before the saving of their soules Isaiah 5.11.14 for as they shall be excluded and shut out of Heaven so they shall be for evermore damned body and soule in Hell Christ shall say unto them at the great day of accounts depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devill and his Angells Math. 25.41 As they make their belly their god and their shame their glory so damnation shall bee their end Phil. 3.19 yea their end is a damnation without end it is heauy and miserable that their end is damnation but it is worse and more miserable that their damnation is without end wickednesse hath but a time but the punishment of wickednesse is beyond all time Neither is the extremity of the paine inferiour to the perpetuity of it for the paines and sufferings of the damned are ten thousand times more then can be immagined by any heart as deepe as the Sea and can be rather indured then expressed it is a death never to be painted to the life no pen nor pencill nor art nor heart can comprehend it Yea if all the land were paper and all the water inke every plant a pen and every other creature a ready writer yet they could not set downe the least peece of the great paines of Hell fire For should we first burne off one hand then another after that each arme and so all the parts of the body it were intollerable yet it is nothing to the burning of body and soule in Hell should we indure ten thousand yeares torments in Hell it were much but nothing to eternity should we suffer one paine it were enough but if we come there our paines shall be even for number and kindes infinitely various as our pleasures have bene here every sense and member every power and faculty both of soule and body
many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice and judge of truth not by weight or value of voices but by the number But what sayes the Proverbe of bad customes bad opinions and bad servants They are better to hang then to keepe I confesse where the Law written doth faile we ought to observe what is approved by manners and custome but though in this case custome be of great authority yet it never brings prejudice to a manifest verity and there are other cases wherein singularity is not lawfull only but laudable when vice groweth into fashion singularity is a vertue when sanctity is counted singularity happy is he that goeth alone and resolves to be an Example to others and when either evill is to be done or good to be neglected how much better is it to goe the right way alone then to erre with company Yea most happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repaire the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse that can resolve with Ioshuah what ever the world doth yet I and my house will serve the Lord Iosh 24.15 It was Noah's happinesse in the old world that he followed not the worlds fashions he beleeved alone when all the world contested against him and he was saved alone when all the world perished without him It was Lot's happinesse that he followed not the fashions of Sodom It was Abraham's happinesse that he did not like the Chaldeans Daniel's happinesse that he did not like the Babylonians It was good for Iob that he was singular in the land of Vzz good for Tobias that he was singular in Ninive good for Annanias that he was singular in Damasco good for Nichodemus that he was singular among the Rulers as now they all finde to their great comfort and exceeding great reward Yea it was happy for Ruben that he was opposite to all his brethren happy for Caleb and Ioshua that they were opposite to the rest of the spyes happy for the Iewes that their customes were divers and contrary to all other people though Haman was pleased to make it their great and heynous crime Ester 3.8 happy for Luther that he was opposite to the rest of his country And no lesse happy shall wee bee if with the Deere we can feed against the winde of popular applause if with the Sturgion and Crab-fish we can swimme against the streame of custome and example if with Atticus we can cleave to the right though losing side or if we doe not we shall misse of the narrow way and consequently faile of entring in at the straite Gate for the greatest part shuts out God upon earth and is excluded from God elsewhere Math. 7.13 14. But the graciously prudent will in things not indifferent rather doe well alone then let it alone and thinke it no disparagement to be singular among the vicious yea they know if the cause be good the more stiffe and constant the mind is so much the better If Jesus Christ and his twelve Apostles be of their side they care not though Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the Rulers and the whole nation of the Iewes together with a world of the Roman faction be against them And indeed if thou wert not a foole thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of Christs little flocke which are to be saved then in the numerous heards of those Goates which are destinated to destruction And so your excuses are taken away and all proved vaine coverings even no better then Fig-leaves which though they may seeme to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe yet they will stand thee in no steede another day Wherfore drink not without thirst here that you may not thirst without drink herafter Lu. 16.24.25 Play not the foole as Lysimachus did who being in battell against the Scythians for the satisfying of his appetite onely and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst gave himselfe over into his enemies hands and when he had drunke his fill and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy began to acknowledge his folly in these words O said he for how little pleasure what great liberty what sweet felicity have I lost and forgone Yea turne your laughter into sorrow your feasting into fasting be revenged of your selves of your lusts and meete your God and make your peace while now we call and you heare yea the Lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne that so seeing their danger they may be brought to confesse and forsake it that so they may be saved Pro. 28.13 § 56. BUt what doe I admonishing That drunkards have no faith in the Scriptures or speaking sence to a drunkard this is to make him turne the deafe eare and a stone is as capable of good counsell as hee besides they have no faith in the Scriptures they will not beleeve what is written therefore they shall feele what is written Wherefore politicall physicke the fittest for them In the meane time it were very fit if it pleased Authority they were debarred both of the blood of the Grape and the spirit of Barley a just punishment for consuming the countries fat for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such Gormundizers except we had the water of Clitorius a Well in the midst of Arcadia which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after I doe not wish them stoned to death as God commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the Law Deut. 21.20.21 nor banished the land as the Romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons that the rest might not be endangered and Lycurgus all inventers of new fashions least these things should effeminate all their young men for then I thinke the land would be much unpeopled Indeed I could wish there were Pest-houses provided for them in all places as there are for infected persons or that they were put by themselves in some City if any were big enough to receive them all as Philip King of Macedon built a city of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and irregular persons of all his subjects and having so done called it Poneropolis that is the City of wicked persons And certainely if it were considered how many Brokers of villany which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes every populous place affords whose very acquaintance is destruction the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times Yea this were marvelously expedient considering the little good they doe being as so many loose teeth in the Mandible of the Common-wealth which were better out then in and the great hurt by their ill examples by devouring the good creatures of God which they never sweat for by disturbing the peace of the Church and Common-wealth by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land and
extention of it And herein thou dost out-strip almost all other sinners in the heynousnesse of thy offence for whereas other sinnes viz. swearing theft murther c. may be compared unto a single Bullet which kills but one at once namely the party offending one of thy sinnes viz. drunkennesse may be compared to chaine-shot which sends men by clusters to Hell the other I meane thy scandalizing the way of truth and turning good into evill is like that plot of the gunpowder Treason which if it had taken effect would have destroyed a multitude at one blow Yea thereby thou dost not onely thy utmost but even sufficient without Gods great mercy to murther and destroy all that heare of thy milicious slanders and bitter invectives make them ashamed of their holy profession and flye from Christs standard backe to the world Now injurics are so much the more intollerable as they are dilated unto more those offences which are of narrow extent may receive an easie satisfaction the amends are not possible where the wrong is universall as may be collected from the story of Queene Vashti Esther 1.16.17.18 And thou dost not inveigh against this or that particular person or congregation but against all the faithfull throughout the land wherein thou more then resemblest a mad Dog who spareth none but bites at all that come neere him for this thy ill report of the way of truth like poyson disperseth it selfe into every veine of the body politicke Now he is monstrously malicious and deserveth grievously to be punished that casts poyson into one cup with an intention to poyson one alone but he more which throweth it into the whole vessell whereof all the family drinkes with a purpose to speed every one in the house but he is desperatly and prodigiously wicked beyond expression who hurleth deadly poyson into the fountain whence the whole City is served as once the Iewes served this City and even such and no other is thy case it differs not a haires breadth only thou poysonest soules the other bodies and therein transcendest Now as this is an heinous offence above any I can think upon so great offences if ever they obtaine forgivenesse had need of answerable satisfactions notorious offenders may not thinke to sit downe with the taske of ordinary services the retributions of their obedience must bee proportionable to their crimes as was that of Paul's who as he had done more evill to the Saints then all the rest of the Apostles so he laboured more then they all in adding to the Church such as should be saved yea saith God to Ananias I will shew him how many things hee must suffer for my Names sake Act. 9.16 § 142. THus I have unfolded thy severall and superlative sinnes But the drunkard hath a shift to evade al this and what else â—an be spoken and laid before thee the punishment due unto them single I have also shown thee how they are greatned and aggravated by sundry circumstances which will also adde weight to thy torment and without repentance double thy doome All which me thinks being put together and duely considered should make thee loath and abhorre thy present condition and not onely awaken thy conscience but fetch blood from thy secure heart yea if thou wishest or carest to bee saved or ever hopest for entrance into Gods Kingdome thou wilt with Ephraim strike thy selfe upon the thigh Ier. 31.19 smite thy breast with the Publican Luk. 18.13 and with amazement and indignation say what have I done what shall I doe to be saved at least if it be possible But as there is no hole to bee found in all the Barke of Popery 1. He can apply Christs pussion and Gods mercy as a warrant for his licentiousnesse but some popish Proctor or other will finde a peg to stop it so though this Pot hath so wide a mouth that as one would thinke no Pot-lid could bee found big enough to cover it yet thou hast a shift for thy persevering or rather the enemy of mankind hath furnished thee with an evasion for that he may make smooth the way to perdition hee will tell the procrastinator that the Thiefe upon the Crosse was heard by our Saviour at the last howre and that God is mercifull therefore he may go on boldly and let the worst that can come repentance at the last howre and saying Lord have mercy upon me which the common people make their necke-verse will make all even otherwise God is not so good as his word who saith at what time soever a sinner repenteth c. for heâ— can take liberty to continue his sensuall lusts by a warrant of Scripture what is written for his consolation hee turnes to poyson making of his restorative Physicke a drinke to intoxicate him to desperatenesse yea he can apply Christ's Passion as a Warrant for his licentiousnesse not as a remedy and takes his Death as a Licence to sin his Crosse as a letters Patent to doe mischiefe so they not only sever those things which God hath joyned together sin and punishment and joyne together what God hath severed sinne and reward but even turn the grace of God into wantonnesse as if a man should head his Taber with his pardon Wherein the Divell deales with them as once with our Saviour Cast thy selfe downe headlong for the Angels shall beare thee up so plung your selves into this or that sinne the mercy of God shall helpe you out poyson thy selfe here is a counterpoyson break thy head here is a plaister surfeit here is a Physitian Upon which ground the most impudent and insolent sinners Drunkards Adulterers Swearers Mammonists c. presume that though they live like Swine all their life long yet a cry for mercy at last gasp shal transform them into Saints as Circe's charmes transformed Men into Swine We are all willing to believe what we wish The Divell makes large promises The hope of an hypocrite is easily blowne into him and as soone blown out of him and perswades his they shall have what they desire but ever disappoints them of their hopes as what a liberty what wisdome did hee promise our first Parents when indeed hee stole from them that liberty and wisdome they had even as Laban promised Iacob beautifull Rachel but in the dark gave him bleare-ey'd Leah or as Hamor promised the Sechamites that by their circumcision all the goods of the house of Israel should be theirs wheras in deed the goods of the Sechamites fell to the house of Israel Diabolus mentitur ut fallat vitam pollicetur ut perimat saith S. Cyprian The condition of an inconsiderate worldling is much like an Alchymists who projecting for the Philosophers stone distils away his estate in Limbecks not doubting to find that which shall do all the World good yea hee dares promise his friends before hand Gold in whole Scuttles but at last his glasse breaks and himselfe with it Thus when Agag was
thee But this makes nothing for such as love their sins better then their soules except thou repentest Indeed let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous his owne imaginations and returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive saith Esay Chap. 55.7 and that we should not doubt of this he redoubles the promise Ezekiel 18. and confirmes the same with an oath Chapter 33.11 Yea he is more ready to shew mercy upon our repentance then we are to beg it as appeares in that example of the Prodigal son Luk. 15 20. Do but repent and God will pardon thee bee thy sinnes never so many and innumerable for multitude never so heynous for quality and magnitude for repentance is alwayes blest with forgivnes yea sinnes upon repentance are so remitted as if they had never been committed I have put away thy transgressions as a cloud and thy sinnes as a mist Esay 44.22 and what by corruption hath beene done by repentance is undone as abundance of examples witnesse He pardoned David's adultery Salomon's idolatry Peter's apostacie Paul did not only deny Christ but persecuted him yet hee obtained mercy upon his repentance Yea amongst the worst of Gods enemies some are singled out for mercy witnesse Manasses Mary Magdalen the Thiefe c. many of the Iewes did not only deny Christ the Holy one and the Just but crucified him yet were they pricked in heart at Peter's Sermon gladly received the word and were baptized Ast. 2.41 And a very Gentile being circumcised was to be admitted to all priviledges and prerogatives concerning matters of faith and Gods worship as well as the children of Israel Gen. 17.13 But on the other side unlesse we repent and amend our lives we shall all perish as Christ himselfe affirmes Luk. 13.3.5 § 145. FOr though mercy rejoyceth against justice Iames 2.13 His mercy rejoyceth against justice but destroyeth not his justice yet it destroyeth not Gods justice though hee is a boundlesse Ocean flowing with mercy yet he doth not overflow he is just as well as mercifull yea saith Bernard Mercy and Truth are the two feet of God by which he walketh in all his wayes his mercy is a just mercy and his justice is a mercifull justice he is infinite in both hee is just even to those humble soules that shall be saved and he will be merciful while presumptuous sinners go to hell and therefore in his word hee hath equally promised all blessings unto those which keepe his Commandements and threatned all manner of judgments to those which break them with their severall extreames according to the measure and degree of every sin Deut. 28 Neither is salvation more promised to the godly then eternall death and destruction is threatned to the wicked His mercy is a just mercy and as Christ is a Saviour so Moses is an accuser Iohn 5.45 Alasse though to all repentant sinners he is a most mercifull God And therefore hath equally promised all blessings to those which keepe his commande ments and threatned all manner of judgements to those that break them yet to wilfull and impenitent sinners hee is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Deut. 4.24 doth not the Apostle say that neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor buggerers nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners to which number S. Iohn Revelation 21.8 addeth the fearefull and unbeliveing and murtherers and sorcerers and all lyers shall not inherit the Kingdome of God 1 Corinth 6.9.10 Galathians 5.21 but shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death And doth he not likewise affirme that all they shall be damned which believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnes 2 Thes 2 12. doth not the Lord say Ier. 16.13 that he will have no mercy for such as are desperately wicked And again Deut. 29.19.20 that if any man blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace although I walke according to the stubbornnesse of mine owne heart that he mill not be mercifull to him c. Doth not our Saviour himself say that the gate of heaven is so strait that few find it Mat. 7.13.14 and will hee not at his comming to judgement as well say unto the disobedient Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels as to the obedient Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome c. yes they are his owne words Matth. 25.34.41 and S. Iames saith that he shal have judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy Iames. 2.13 In fine he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life but he that obeyeth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Ioh. 3.36 For as mercy in the second Commandement is entailed only to believers and to those which love God and keepe his Commandements so God at the last day will reward every man according to his righteousnesse 1 Sam. 26.23 as hee did David 2 Sam. 22.21 though not for his righteousnesse Deut. 9.4.5.6 which is as a menstruous cloth Esay 64.6 Yea hee hath sufficiently manifested his justice and severity already in punishing sinne and powring vengeance upon others that have provoked him as 1. upon the Angels 2. upon our first Parents and all the race of mankind 3. upon the old World 4. upon whole Monarchs and Empires 5. upon whole Nations 6. upon whole Cities 7. upon whole Families 8. upon divers particular persons and 9. upon his owne Sonne that no sinne might goe unpunished which may make all impenitent persons tremble for As the Locrians might once argue if our King is so just to his owne onely son in punishing adultery that he caused one of his eyes to be pul'd out and another of his owne how can wee his subjects expect to be dispensed withall so may I argue if God was so just and severe to his own Son that nothing would appease him but his death on the crosse how can the wicked his enemies looke to be spared If he spared not a good and gracious Sonne saith S. Bernard will he spare thee a wicked and ungracious servant one that never did him a peece of good service all thy daies If he punished David's adultery and murther so sharply a man after his own heart yea and that after his sinne was remitted what will hee doe to his enemies but send them to that devouring fire that everlasting burning Isa 33.14 If Gods own children who are as deare and neer to him as the aple of his eye or Signet on his right hand suffer so many and grievous afflictions here what shall his adversaries suffer in Hell if Sampson be thus punished shall the Philistims escape Yea if judgement begin at the house of God where shall the ungodly and wicked appeare If many shall seeke to enter in at the strait gate
another but never overtake each other In youth men resolve to afford themselves the time of age to serve God in age they shuffell it off to sicknesse when sicknesse comes care to dispose their goods lothnesse to dye hope to escape c. martyres that good thought and their resolution still keepes before them Or else it fares with them as with many an unthrifty Trades-man who is loth to turne over his books and cast up his debts least it should put him into sad dumps and fill him with melancholly cares When Christ went about to cast out divels they said he tormented them before the time Matthew 8.29 so whensoever thou goest about to dismisse thy sinnes and pleasures though thou stay till thou be an old man yet they will still say thou dismissest them before the time but then is the time when the divell saith the time is not yet for the divell is a lyer Alasse how many men post off their conversion and at twenty send Religion before them to thirty then put it off to forty and yet not pleased to overtake it they promise it entertainment at three score at last death comes and will not allow thâ—â— one hâ—â—re and perchance when their souâ—e 〈…〉 lips ready to take her slight 〈…〉 for the Minister 〈…〉 them how to die well But as in such extremity the Apothecary gives but 〈…〉 Physick so the Minister can give 〈…〉 Divinity a cordiall that may benum them no solid comfort to secure them her is no time to ransack for sins to search the depth of the ulcer a little balme to supple but the core is left within for though true repentance is never too late yet late repentance is seldome true But here is great hope thou wilt say as it is the Divinity of diverse let men live as they list in ignorance and all abominable filthinesse so they call at last and but say Lord have mercy upon me we must infallibly conclude their estate as good as the best as though the Lord had not said you shall cry and not bee heard Prov. 1 I know the mercy of God may come inter pontem fontem inter gladium jugulum betwixt the bridg and the brook betwixt the knife and the throate and repentance may bee suggested to the heart in a moment in that very instant but this only may bee there is no promise for it many threatnings against it little likelihood of it it were madnesse for thee to break thy necke to try the skil of a Bone-setter But how many on the other side dye in Spira's case who being willed in his sicknesse to say the Lords prayer answered I cannot find in my heart to call him father whereas not one of many leave a certaine testimony or sure evidence behind them that their repentance is true and sound And indeed how is it likely they should dispatch that in half an howre which should be the busines of our whole life For as hee which never went to Schole will hardly when he is put to it reade his neck-verse so hee that never learn'd the doctrine of repentance in his life will find it very hard if not impossible at his death Let men therefore repent while they live if they would rejoyce when they dye let them with Noah in the dayes of their health build the Arke of a good conscience against the floods of sicknesse yea if they have spent a great part of their time in the service of sinne as Paul did let them for the refidue of their life make the world amends by their double yea treble endeavour to redeeme that time by a holy life and godly conversation for else we may justly suspect the truth and soundnesse of their repentance and conversion We seldome 〈…〉 that were long barren either in soule 〈…〉 but they had the happiest issue afterwards witnesse Sarah Manoah's Wife Hannah Elizabeth Saul Mary Magdalen c. As for the purposes of repentance which men frame to themselves at the last houre they are but false conceptions that for the most part never come to bearing and indeed millions are now in hell which thought they would repent hereafter not being wise enough to consider that it is with sinne in the heart as with a Tree planted in the ground the longer it groweth the harder it is to be pluck'd up it is too late to transplant Trees after two seaven yeares or a Nayle in a Post which is made faster by every stroke or a Ship that leaketh which is more easily emptied at the begining then afterwards Or a ruinous house which the longer it is let runne the more charge and labour will it require in the repairing Yea sinne out of long possession will plead prescription custome of any evill makes it like the lawes of the Medes and Persians which may not be altered or removed an old vice is within a degree of impossible to be amended which maketh the Lord say by his Prophet Can the Black-more change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to de evill Ier. 13.23 All other men have but three enemies to encounter with the Divel the World and the Flesh but he that hath long continued in the practise of any evill hath a fourth which is worse then the worst of them even custome which is a second or new nature § 153. BUt suppose after many yeares spent in the service of sinne 3 Or suppose thou offer thy best devotions to God wil be accept of thy dry bones wheÌ„ Sathan hath suk'd out all the marrow and Sathan thou art willing to relinquish thy lusts and offer thy seruice and best devotions at the last gasp to God will he accept them no in al probability he will not for heare what himself saith Pro. 1. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out mine hand and ye would not regard but despised all my counsell and would none of my correction I wil also laugh at your destruction and mocke when your feare commeth when your feare commeth like suddaine desolation and your destruction like a whirlewind When affliction and anguish shall come upon you then shall you call upon me but I will not answer you shall seeke me early but you shall not find me because you hated knowledge and did not choose the feare of the Lord. You would none of my counsell but despised all my corrections therefore you shall eat the fruit of your owne way and bee filled with your owne devises ver 24. to 32. And this is but justice if God be not found of those that were content to loose him if he heare not them that would not heare him if he regard not them that disregarded him if he shut his eare against their prayer crying to him for pardon that stopt their eares against his voyce calling upon them for repentance as Salvian speakes Alasse no child would bee whipt if he might scape for crying
but hee onely findes helpe in adversity that sought it in prosperity and ther can be no great hope of repentance at the houre of death where there was no regard of honesty in the time of life God useth not to give his heavenly and spirituall graces at the houre of death to those who have contemned them all their life yea it is sensles to think that God should accept of our dry bones when Sathan hath suckt out all the marrow that he should accept of the lees when we have given to his enemy all the good Wine But heare what himselfe saith by the Prophet Malachy c. 1.8 and S. Ierome upon the place it is a most base and unworthy thing to present God with that which man would disdaine and think scorne to accept of Wherefore Admonition not to deferre repentance as you tender your owne soule even to day heare his voyce set upon the work presently he that begins to day hath the lesse work for to morrow And proroge not your good purposes least ye saying unto God in this life with those wicked ones in Iob depart thou from mee for a time God say unto you in the life to come depart from me ye cursed and that for ever Hee hath spared thee long and given thee already a large time of repentance but he will not alwayes wait for denyals his patience at length wil turn into wrath Time was when hee stayed for the old world an hundred and twenty yeares he stayed for a rebellious Nation forty yeares he stayed for a dissolute City forty dayes but when that would not serve his patience was turned into fury and so many as repented not were cast into hell If in any reasonable time wee pray hee heares us if we repent he pardons us if we amend our lives he faves us but after the houre prefixt in his secret purpose there is no time for petition no place for Conversion no meanes for pacification The Lord hath made a promise to repentance not of repentance if thou convertest to morrow thou art sure of grace but thou art not sure of to morrowes conversion so that a fit and timely consideration is the onely thing in every thing for for want of this Dives prayed but was not heard Esau wept but was not pitied the foolish Virgins knockt but were denied and how many at the houre of death have offered their prayers supplications and services unto God as Iudas offered his money to the Priests and could not have acceptance but they died as they lived and went from despaire unto destruction § 154. BUt thou wilt say unto me Objection that must men are of a contrary judgement and practice if this be so that all the promises are conditionall that mercy is entayled onely to such as love God and keepe his Commandements that none are reall Christians but such as imitate Christ and square their lives according to the rule of Gods word that of necessity we must leave sinne before sinne leaves us and that God will not heare us another day when we call to him for mercy if we will not heare him now when he calls to us for repentance how is it that so few are reformed that most men minde nothing but their profits and pleasures yea count them fooles that doe otherwise I answer VVhereof a double reason there be two maine reasons of it though one be the cause of the other 1 Ignorance 2 Vnbeleife First First few men beleeve the whole written word few men beleive what is written of God in the Scripture especially touching his justice and severity in punishing sinne with eternall destruction of body and soule for did they really and indeed beleeve God when he saith that his curse shall never depart from the house of the swearer Zack 5. they durst not sweare as they doe Did they beleive that neither Fornicâ—tors nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Theeves nor Murtherers nor Drunkards nor Swearers nor Raylers nor Lyers nor Covetous persons nor Extortioners nor Vnbeleivers nor no Vnrighteous men shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven but shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Rev. 21.8 they durst not continue in the practise of these sinnes without feare or remorse or care of amendment Did they beleive that except their righteousnesse doe exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5.20 and that without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 with many the like it were impossible they should live as they doe Yea if they did in good earnest believe that there is either God or Devill Heaven or Hell or that they have immortall soules which shall everlastingly live in blisse or woe and receive according to that they have done in their bodies whether it be good or evill 2 Cor. 5.10 they could not but live thereafter and make it their principall care how to be saved But alas they are so farre from beleiving what God threateneth in his Word against their sinnes that they blesse themselves in their heart saying we shall have peace we shall speede as well as the best although we walke according to the stubbornnesse of our owne wills so adding drunkennesse to thirst Deut. 29.19 yea they preferre their condition before other mens who are so abstemious and make conscience of their wayes even thinking that their God deceiveth them with needlesse feares and scruples as once Rabshekah would have perswaded the Iewes touching their trust and confidence 2 King 18.22.25.30.32.33.35 They beleive what they see and feele and know they beleeve the lawes of the Land that there be places and kinds of punishment here below and that they have bodies to suffer temporall smart if they transgresse and this makes them abstaine from Murther Fellony and the like but they beleeve not things invisible and to come for if they did they would as well yea much more feare him that hath power to cast both body and soule into Hell as they doe the temporall Magistrate that hath onely power to kill the body they would thinke it a very hard bargaine to winne the whole world and lose their owne soules Luk. 9.25 but enough of this having proved the Drunkard an Atheist Sect. the 146. § 155. SEcondly 2 Ignorance is the cause of all sinne another maine reason is ignorance yea ignorance if we rightly consider it is the cause of all sinne sinne indeed at first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sinne Swearing and lying and killing and stealeing and whoring I may well adde drunkennesse abound saith the Prophet because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hosea 4.1.2 It is a people that doe erre in their hearts saith God why because they have not knowne my wayes Psal 95.10 yee are deceived saith our Saviour because ye know not the
this way makes a Devill and admit man hath some advantage above beasts it is a miserable advantage that onely makes us apt to evill yea the worst of evills and capable of an hell small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts that they make us worse then the worst of beasts But of their acting the Devills part and their severall slights in seducing and enforcing others to sinne in drawing others to perdition expect more Section the 75. c. Onely this for the present let the Drunkard know that except he doe repent and amend there is not the most lothsome and despicable creature that crawles upon the earth which he shall not once enuy and wish to have beene rather then what he is which should have been my next theame but of this when I come to the punishment of Drunkards Swearers and Seducers Section 30. to 34. and 44. and 119. to 143. And so much of the person in generall and a part now take a generall view of the sinne before I come to particulars and see how the Learned in all ages both Christians and Heathens have censured this vice and judged of this sinne though indeed the odiousnesse of it is beyond all expression neither have I dehortation answerable to my detestation of it onely what cannot be spoken your meditation supplying the defect of my speech may be implyed as under a curtaine which was the Painters shift in deliniating the picture of Venus and the wont of Timanthes who in each picture hee drew occasioned more to be understood then was painted § 11. THe Learned of all ages have concluded What the learned say of this sin yea drunkennesse it selfe if it could speake as it can take away speech would confesse that it is a flattering Devill a sweet poyson a voluntary madnesse an invited enemy the author of outrages quarrells debates murthers the nurse of fury the mistris of pride the fountaine of all vice the originall of all diseases and bane of the soule that it is a fire whose flame is lust whose sparkes are oathes and evill words whose smoake is pride and infamy whose ashes are diseases and poverty and whose end is hell That it is a sinne which cracks mens credits consumes their estates distempers their constitutions dulls their spirits infatuates their senses intoxicateth their braines stupefies and besots their understandings perverteth their wills troubleth reason overthroweth the judgment infeebleth the memory corrupteth all the affections excludeth counsell and without Gods infinite mercy and their sound repentance damnes the soule That it is a bewitching sweete in the mouth which turnes to deadly poyson in the heart the revealer of secrets the shipwrack of chastity the shame of honesty the ruine of good manners the thiefe of time the disgrace of mankind a sinne which makes man an abomination to the Lord odious to the Angells scorned of men abandoned of all good society and above all makes men subjects and vassalls to Sathan a sinne of all others the most spreading most infectious most incurable most inexcusable a sinne which makes no difference of times places persons c. A sinne which is against the lawes of God of grace of nature and of all nations against sense and reason a sinne which brings wrath and judgment upon the whole land a sinne which is a griefe to friends a ruine to families which separates from the society and company of Gods Saints on earth excludes and shuts them out of the Kingdome of Heaven as Plutarch Solon Pittacus Boetius St. Austin St. Ierom St. Chrysostome and others stile and define it That it is of sinnes the queene as the goute is of diseases even the most prodigall wastfull unthrifty unprofitable unnaturall unseemely insatiable unreasonable sinne the most base brutish beastly foule filthy odious execrable detestable horrible abominable state disturbing heathenish infernall prodigious damnable gracelesse and shamefull sinne of all others as some of our Moderne writers render it In fine it is a sinne odious and lothsome in any but in us who have so much light so many lawes of God and man against it most unsufferable but as it was once observed that Philosophy was taught in Athens but practised in Sparta so now temperance and sobriety is taught in England but practised in Spaine and Turky § 12. ANd as it is a most grievous and matchlesse sinne in it selfe Drunkennesse both a matchlesse sin in it selfe and the cause of all other sine so it is the cause of all other sinnes a monster with many heads the roote of all evill the incendiary of all vice the Magazine of all misery the mother and metropolis of all mischiefe As tell mee was there ever any sinne committed which wine hath not beene an occasion of for notwithstanding wine doth first serve and obey the drinker yet by little and little mixing it selfe with the blood in the veynes it doth rule over him and like Saules evill and controlling spirit makes him it 's vassall whereby like the Centurions servant he no sooner heares the word from Sathan doe this but instantly hee doth it whether it be to the committing of adultery with Holofernes incest with Lot murther with Alexander Cambyses and Philopater one of which in his drinke slew his deare and faithfull friend Clytus who was his chiefe Captaine in all his exployts though it so troubled him being sober that he would have made away himselfe the second his onely Sonne the third his deare father and mother or treason with him that confest to King Pyrrhus upon his arraignment all this wee did and spake against thee and much more should have done had not the wine failed us or blasphemy with Belshazzar and his Princes Dan. 5.23 and what not for even to rehearse the severall examples which history affords and experience hath made knowne were endlesse Some examples I have given you and he is a very young man and unobservant that cannot adde forty out of his owne experience And doe not our reverend Judges in their severall circuits finde by experience that few brawles murthers manslaughters rapes c. are committed which arise not from this roote of drunkennesse And indeed as in Justice all vertues are couched together summarily as Aristottle affirmes so in drunkennesse all vices are lapt up together as it were in a bundle for it is a confluence or collection of all the rest and as he said of old prove a man to be ingratefull and you prove him naught all over so prove one to bee a Drunkard and you prove him guilty of every thing that is evill reprobate to all that is good for what sinne is it which a drunken man will sticke to commit when wee reade that Cyrillus his Sonne being drunke slew his Father and his Mother great with child hurt his two Sisters and defloured one of them as St. Austin affirmes when another being tempted by the Devill as Philip Lonicer witnesseth to commit
Secondly will a thiefe or murtherer at the Barre alledge for his excuse and defence that it hath beene his use and custome of a long time or if hee doe will not the judge so much the rather send him to the Gallowes Secondly because it is a sin to which of all other sinnes wee have the fewest temptations for whereas other sins have commonly some sensible profit to midwife them into the world as the Usurer finds an increase of wealth who desires to live with lesse faith and more security or pleasure as the Adulterer finds his stoln bread of Sathans seasoning and providing far sweeter then what God hath given him of his owne or credit as the Hypocrite findes who like that Romane Woolfe talkes of Religion when hee meanes policy and playes the foule devill under the shape of an Angel of light and may be resembled to an ugly Toade in an Ivory box or a painted pot full of deadly poyson These and many other sinners which I could name have some inducement to provoke them some reasons to alledge indeed they are all taken out of the Divels Lectures but the swearer hath nothing to provoke him nor nothing to say but that he loves this sin because it is a sin and because God forbids it which is most fearefull and damnable and as a man would thinke should make it unpardonable I am sure this makes it inexcusable For what hast thou to say for thy selfe this sinne is neither pleasing nor profitable nor laudable but hath a more pure corruption and venome in it then any of his fellowes and must needs issue from meere malice and contempt of God for all thou canst expect by it is the suspition of a common lyer by being a common swearer Yea thou canst but procure this fruit by thy swearing that thou shalt vex others and they shall hate thee which thews that thou delightest in evill meerely because it is evill as sinne is more stirred up and irritated by the Law yea inhibition inciteth and restraint inviteth a desperate wicked wretch and his nature most desireth what is forbidden As it fared with Eve and that Gentleman in Venice who while it was left to his owne free choyce in ninety yeares together never went forth of the Citie but being hereupon confined and that upon paine of death was observed a while after to ride much abroad Sinne saith the Apostle tooke occasion by the commandement Romans 7.11 as if mans nature delighted in this or that evill so much the more because the Law forbids them Yea most finde it here in as in matters of bookes which being once called in and forbidden become more saleable and publike The Dictates of the law being to sinfull lusts in mans heart as water to quicke lime a meanes to inkindle them and make them boyle the more fiercely But know this thou swearer that he is bottomlesly ill who loves vice because it is vice he is a desperate prodigious damnable wretch and full of the venome of the serpent that will rather then not dye anger God of set purpose and without profit procure his owne destruction which is thy case if thou usest his Name to make up idle places of a hollow or unfilled sentence or to vent and utter with some more grace and force thy choller and malice Yea this proves thee worse then an Oxe led to the slaughter for hereby thou becommest thine owne executioner Alasse thou art not of thy selfe worthy to serve or to name him how then darest thou to make him and his Name to serve thee thy prophane discourse and thy rash and untempered anger § 33. AGain That of all other the swearer shal be sure of plagues supopse the Minister tels them that Swearing and Cursing is the language only of hell and no where frequent but amongst the damned spirits which shewes them to be the Divels best schollers upon earth and of his highest form with whom the language of Hell is so familiar that blasphemy is become their mother tongue and that they speake not a word of our country language the language of Canaan that they are so hardened in evill that they are past grace and past feeling that the swearer and blasphemer is like a mad dog which flieth in his masters face that keepes him That as roaring and drinking is the horse way to Hell whoreing and cheating the footway so swearing and blaspheming followes Corah Dathan and Abyram That it is a sure rule and an undoubted signe if any man doe sweare and curse ordinarily that he never truly feared God as it cannot be that the true feare of God and ordinary swearing should dwell together in one man yea dead are they while they live if they live in this sinne That Sathan stands ever at the swearers elbow to take notice reckon up and set on his score every oath he sweareth and keepes them upon record against the great day of reckoning at which time he will set them all in order before him and lay them to his charge and that then every oath shall prove as a daggers point stabbing his soule to the heart and as so many weights pressng him downe to Hell And shall further tell them that swearing is cloathed with death Ecclus 23.12 and that the swearer wounds his owne soule worse then the Baalites wounded their owne bodies that he which useth much swearing shall be filled with wickednesse and that the plague shall never goe from his house yea his house shall be full of plagues Ecclus 23.11 that the curse of God shall enter into the house of the swearer and shall remaine in the midst of it and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof untill the owner be destroyed Zach. 5.2.3.4 that God himselfe will be a swift witnesse against swearers Mall 3.5 That the Almighty hath spoken it and that in thunder and lightning how hee will not hold them guiltlesse which take his name in vaine and that such mighty sinners as they bee shall be mightily punished And goe on in this manner to shew them the heynousnesse of their sinne and grievousnesse of their punishment it is to no purpose for they will answer all yea confute what ever hee can say with this short sentence God is mercifull yea though the swearer hath made his soule Hell fire hot with oathes and blasphemies yet hee presumes that one short prayer for mercy at the last gaspe shall coole him they will not believe that are ordained to perish Yea the Divell and sinne so infatuates and besots them that they thinke to be saved by the same Wounds and Blood which they sweare by and so often sweare away that Heaven will meete them at their last hower when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten roade toward Hell not considering that the Devill being alwayes a lyer labours to perswade the Godly that their estate is damnable and the wicked to believe without once questioning that they
I can witnes that one of no meane parts being invited to a buriall puld out his key in the Church being halfe a sleepe halfe awake and knockt on the pew crying Drawer what is to pay By all which it appeares that drunkennesse deprives men both of wit and memory and yet madly wee persue this vice as the kindler of them but no wonder when the forbidden Tree which promised our first parents knowledge took their knowledge from them the same divell having a hand in both I might proceed to his knowledge in the best things and shew you As drunkards are purblind to worldly wisdome so they are stark blind to heavenly that whereas some are like the Moone at full have all their light towards earth none towards heaven other like the Moone at wane or change have all their light to heaven-wards none to the earth drunkards are like the Moon in Eclips having no light in it selfe nether towards earth nor towards heaven Though they are apt to thinke themselves Giants for wit and Eagles for light and judgement even in Divinity also which makes them so put themselves forward as how often have I seene a case of leather stuft with wind as he in Marcellus Donatus thought himself a very beefe-brain'd fellow that hath had onely impudence enough to shew himselfe a foole thrust into discourses of religion thinking to get esteeme when all that he hath purchased thereby hath beene onely the hisse of the wise and a just derision from the abler judgements not unlike that Germane Clown who undertooke to be very ready in the ten Commandements but being ask'd by the Minister which was the first he answered thou shalt not eat If you doubt of it doe but aske the drunkard a reason of his faith and you shall see hee can no more tell you then the winde can tell which last blew off my hat Or onely heare him relate what the Minister spake for seldome but hee stumbles at and mistakes his words for as when S. Augustine justified free will against the Manichees the ignorant would take him for a Pelagian and when he denied free-will to the Pelagians they would take him for a Manichee when he was neither but disputed against both the extreames the one utterly denying it the other too highly extolling it so when the Minister teacheth that it is impossible for a man to bee justified by his workes bee they never so glorious and exact performaÌ„ces these brutish drunkards wil cry out he condemneth good works if he shew them the necessity of living well they 'll thinke hee excludeth faith from justifying let him prove it a dead faith which is without good workes and those good workes but shining sins which are without faith and shew that both faith and workes are equally necessary to salvation and they will understand hee meanes them both as meritorious causes whereas he acknowledgeth neither but faith as an instrument good workes as a necessary concomitant God alone the efficient and Christ alone the meritorious cause of salvation for know this that good workes cannot justifie us before the severe Tribunall of Almighty God our workes deserve nothing it is onely in Christ that they are accepted and onely for Christ that they are rewarded Neither is it faith which properly saves us but the righteousnesse of Christ whereon it is grounded by grace yee are saved through faith Ephesians 2.8 It is the God of truth that speakes it and woe unto him that shall make God a lyer by grace effectually through faith instrumentally we are not justified for the onely act and quality of believing it is the justice of Jesus that justifies us which faith apprehends it was the brazen Serpent that healed not the eye that looked on it yet without a looking eye there was no helpe to the wounded party by the promised vertue It is true our Adversaries oppose this doctrine both with Pens and Tongues violently in the Schooles invectively in the Pulpets but come they once to their death-beds to argue it betweene God and their owne soules then grace and grace alone mercy and onely mercy Iesus and none but Iesus this their great Belweather is driven to confesse yea saith another give us this faith and then let our enemies doe their worst the Devill tempt the world afflict sinne menace death afright yet faith will vanquish all through the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ Againe let a Minister speak against affectation of learning in Sermons they will say he condemnes learning let him tell such as live and allow themselves in drunkennesse adultery swearing deceiving c. that they are in a damnable condition and in a reprobate sense they will say he calls them reprobates and judgeth them damned in all which they resemble the Saddâ—ces who tooke occasion to deny the Resurrection from that wholsome doctrine taught that we should neither serve God for reward nor feare of punishment but meerely out of obedience and love or the Iewes who when Christ speake of the Temple of his body understood him to meane the materiall Temple and thereupon tooke great exceptions Yea we have a world of such amongst us who seeme Malchus like to have their right eares cut off they heare so sinisterly And rather then not carpe if the Minister but use a similitude for ornament and illustration sake borrowed from nature or history they will say he affirmes the matter thereof possitively to be true like as that simple fellow thought Pontius Pilate must needs be a Saint because his name was put in the Creede And so much to prove that the Drunkard hath neither wit nor memory § 42. HAve we yet done no An unpardonable crime not to drinke as they doe I would we had I would we were well rid of these filthes but let us proceed in speaking as they doe in drinking By that time these gutmongers have gulped downe so many quarts as either of their names hath letters in it they have drawne in some fresh man who perhaps after the third health refuseth to drinke any more being of Diogenes his humor who being urg'd at a banquet to drinke more then he was willing emptied his glasse upon the ground saying if I drinke it I not onely spill it but it spills me so this mans unacustomed rudenesse and monstrous inhumanity begins a quarrell For it is an unexcusable sault or as I may say an unpardonable crime to refuse an health or not to drinke equall with the rest or to depart while they are able to speake sense and this they can almost prove for was not Pentheus son to Echion and Agave by his owne Mother and Sister torne in peeces for contemning of Bacchus his feasts hereupon many have lost their lives because they would not drinke but happily by Gods blessing and the parties patience in bearing their fowle language he hath delivered himselfe of their company at which they are so vexed that they gnaw their owne tongues for spight and
shall have their severall objects of wretchednesse and that without intermission or end or ease or patience to indure it § 45. NEither let drunkards ever hope to escape this punishment Yet if they can repent and leave their sin God is very ready to forgive except in due time they forsake this sinne for if every transgression without repentance deserves the wages of death eternall as a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 Rom. 6.23 how much more this accursed and damnable sinne of drunkennesse which both causeth and is attended upon by almost all other sinnes as hath beene shewed And yet if thou canst after all this but truly repent and lay hold upon Christ by a lively faith which ever manifesteth it selfe by the fruits of a godly life and conversation know withall that though thy sinnes have beene never so many for multitude never so great for magnitude God is very ready to forgive them and this I can assure thee of yea I can shew thee thy pardon from the great King of Heaven for all that is past the tenour whereof is Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his owne imaginations and let him returne to the Lord and hee will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isâ—â— 55.7 and againe Ezec. 18. â—f the wicked will turne from all his sinnes which he hath committed and keepe all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right he shall surely live and not die all his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not bee once mentioned unto him but in his righteousnesse that he hath done hee shall live because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall save his soule alive ver 21.22.23.27.28 other the like places you have Ioel 2.12.13.14 Yea I can shew thee this very case in a president 1 Cor. 6.10.11 where we reade of certaine Corinthians that had bin given to this sinne of drunkennesse who upon their repentance were both washed sanctified and justified And St. Ambrose tells of one that being a spectacle of drunkennesse proved after his conversion a patterne of sobriety Yea know this that Gods mercy is greater than thy sin what ever it be thou canst not be so infinite in sinning as hee is infinite in pardoning if thou repent let us change our sins God will change his sentence God is more mercifull saith Nazianzen then man can be sinfull if hee bee sorrowfull none can bee so bad as God is good the Seed of the woman is able to bruse this Serpents head wherefore if you preferre not hell to heaven abandon this vice But withall know that if it shall come to passe that the drunkard when he heareth the words of this curse namely these threatnings before rehearsed shall Pharaoh like harden his heart and blesse himself in his wickednesse saying I shall have peace although I walk according to the stubbornnesse of mine owne heart thus adding drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not be mercifull to that man but then his wrath and jealousie shall smoak against him and every curse that is written in his Law shall light upon him and the Lord shall put out his name from under heaven as himselfe speakes Deutero 29.19 20. which chapter together with the former I wish thee to read if thou wilt know thy selfe and foreknow thy judgement § 46 I But will some Titormus say being it may be 4. Excuses which drunkards usually make taken away stronger to drink and taler to tipple then Milo himself was to eat who devoured a whole Oxe at a meale I was never so gone yet but I knew the way home I could tell what I did what I said c. for if a drunkard can but put his finger just into the flame of the candle without playing hit I misse I which is their tryall of the victory If they can bare their drink they are no drunkards though hee spue whole fish-ponds he is held a sober man Yea no man ever saw mee so much as wheele in the streets I am therefore no drunkard neither doe these threatnings appertaine to me as desperate is the cause which admits no colour of defence but what answers the Prophet woe unto them that are mighty to drinke wine men of strength to mingle strong drinke Isa 5.22 and Salomon that divine Orator answers whose answer is also ours they that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine they are the parties to whom this woe belongs they are to bee ranked with drunkards Yea the abuse may bee committed many wayes as vice is manifold vertue vniforme drink then is not only abused when it turnes up a mans heeles and makes the house runne round but when it steales away the affections so far that a man cannot make too much hast to it take too much paines for it spend too much time at it and money in it Believe it if a man drink too much for his purse too much for his calling and occasions too much for his health and quiet of body and mind Salomon cals him a drunkard A man hath no more reason nor warrant to drown his time his estate his liver his stomack c. then his wits and braines and in cases of this nature things are rather measured by the intention and affection of the doer then by the issue and event Why should not a man be deemed a drunkard for his inordinate affection to drinke as well as an adulterer for the like affection to his neighbours wife Sinne as sinne in it's owne colours and nature is neither desired nor desirable but onely as it is disguised and offers it selfe to the understanding and will in the likenesse and habit of goodnesse Alasse if none be drunke but such as have lost their leggs tongues senses that by tumbling in their owne vomit and sleeping in a guzell what should Salomon speake of quarrells bablings c. such bee as dead asso many withered plants and doe what you will to them they lye like Iupiters logg and neither answer nor stirre again it is your mannerly sober methodicall drunkard that drinkes by the hower and can tell the clock that drinkes by measure and by rule first so much Ale then such a quantity of Beere then of Sack then of Rhenish then back again from Wine to Ale to Beere till the reynes bee cleansed the liver cooled the stomack set upright and heat and moysture brought to a just and an even temper wherefore though it be somewhat to keep a mans senses yet it is not sufficient a man may not be drunk and yet not bee sober § 47. AGaine secondly for the drunkard doth nothing amisse 2. Their alleadging the examples of some holy men though the Divell himself would scarse wish him to do worse some will excuse themselves yea beare and bolster out themselves in their drunkennesse or at least lessen their sin by pleading
you yet seven times more for your sins Lev. 26.18 to 40. So that an impenitent mans preservation out of one judgment is but a further reservation of him to seven judgments What did it availe Cham that he escaped drowning with the multitude he had better have perished in the waters then have lived unto his Fathers curse What did it availe Lot's wife to escape turning into ashes in Sodom when suddenly after she was turned into a pillar of salt in the plaine Or what did it availe Pharaoh that himselfe was not smitten with many of those judgements wherein others perished it was farre from being a mercy yea it was a reservation to the greatest temporall judgment of all here and to that eternall judgment also in the burning lake from which there is no redemption So that it is not simply our deliverance but our thankfulnesse for it and obedience after it that gives sufficient argument to our consciences that God delivered us in mercy and favour Yea to prosper in ill designes and ungracious courses to goe on in sinne uncontrolled is the greatest unhappinesse the heaviest curse for he that useth to doe evill and speeds well never rests till he come to that evill from which there is no redemption Ioab kills Abner and scapes againe he embrues his hands in the blood of Amasa and is not indited for it now David is old and Adoniah towardly he furthers him in the usurpation and big with prefidence of his owne command he thinkes to carry it but this carryed him to his grave Faire Absalom was proud and ambitious yet he flourisheth hee kills his owne Brother yet escapes he insinuates himselfe into the affections of the people and bold of their fidelity to him he swels even against his owne royall Father and becomes a disloyall Traytor God owes that man a grievous paiment whom he suffers to runne on so long unquestioned and his punishment shall be the greater when he comes to reckon with him for all his faults together Yea though prosperous wickednesse is one of the Devills strongest chaines yet the currant passage of ill enterprises is so farre from giving cause of encouragement that it should justly fright a man to looke backe to the Author and to consider that he therefore goes fast because the Devill drives him § 60. THere be three things which usually succeede one another in the Church The Plague hath wrought little or no reformation great blessings great sinnes great punishments yea a fourth was wont to follow in former ages namely great sorrow of heart great lamentation and woe and upon the necke of that great favour and mercy As in the booke of Iudges and elsewhere what a continued circle doe we finde of Peace Sinnes Iudgements Repentance Deliverances the conversation of Gods people with the wicked tainted them with sinne their sinnes drew on judgments the smart of the judgment moved them to repentance upon their repentance followed speedy deliverance and upon their peace and deliverance they sinned againe thus it was ever and in every age of the world but in this her decrepit and doting age in which Religion is become contemptible and wherein it is a shame to be strict and holy in the service of God But now let God send never so many and great Iudgments one upon the neck of another as Sword Famine Pestilence yea one pestilence after another yet no repentance no reformation Witnesse these two yeares sicknesse together and the yeere 1625. for of so many millions of notorious sinners as were in this land how many or where are any who from thence hitherto have left off their drinking swearing whoreing prophaning of the Lord's day cheating c. can you name tenne yea or two of a thousand which you partly know No certainely for hee that was a drunkard before is a drunkard still hee that was a swearer before is a swearer still hee that was filthy before is filthy still c. though such a Judgement in a different age would have caused an universall repentance and reformation as the like onely threatned not executed did in the Ninivites Ionas 3. But what doe I speake of their repentance and reformation Yea many are the worse when they will scoffe at jeere and persecute any that shal but refuse to run with them to the same excesse of ryot What doe I speake of their being the better when they are much the worse for this judgement for they are not onely the same they were drunk every day and scoffe at those who will not nor only sweare and blaspheme as frequently as speake nor only whore quarrell and the like when thousands dye in a weeke as formerly they have done but much more abundant if they have where withall for as some have noted the Tavernes and Ale-shops of which too many are the Thrones of Sathan were never so thwackt as in those times when the streets were almost empty especially those houses which had newly or lately beene visited and which was worth the observing each house if not each company had musick aurium tenùs up to the eares so the Fidlers fasted not what ever the poore did yea many poore snakes that at other times never dranke better than Whey could now swim in Wine I have my selfe seene The Tavernes fullest when he â—â—reets are emptiest when the Bills were at the highest even Bearers who had little respite from carrying dead Corpses to their graves and many other of the like ranke go reeling in the streets Neither were men ever so impudent and audacious in roaring and declaring their sinnes in the open streets as then Thus they declared their sinnes as Sodome Neither hath this lingring visitation either found or made them better it is no rare thing to see men newly recovered of the Plague at least when the sword of the destroying Angell hath newly swept away the greatest part of their families and they have but newly taken breath from those noysome roomes where they have been a long time pent up grow more vicious and insolent more abominably licentious and wicked then they were before so little are they moved with this grievous judgement § 61. BUt see the difference betweene Gods people and those sonnes of Belial The difference betweene their practifâ— and the godlies Hee which truly feares God wil in such times of calamity Vriah-like refraine from many lawfull and allowed recreations well knowing that actions of an indifferent nature are not alwayes seasonable not ever warrantable and indeed neither the time nor place of mourning is for mirth which made our Saviour Christ soone turne the Minstrels out of doores when the Rulers daughter was dead Mat. 9.23 Yea it is the Lords complaint against Ierusalem when he threatned her destruction by Nebuchadnezzar I called to weeping and mourning and to baldnesse and girding with sackcloth but behold joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheepe eating flesh and drinking wine Isaiah 22.12 13. for
the circumstances that shall go to the same place of torment how every sinne receiveth weight and increase in regard of circumstances and how thou after thine hardnes and heart which cannot repent heapest unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and of the declaration of the just judgment of God who will reward every man according to his workes Rom. 2.5 6. The particulars which greaten aggravate and adde weight to thy sinnes and make them above measure sinfull are so diverse and sundry that I may not insist upon all yet some are of such import that I dare not omit them First the civill justitiary who omitteth the performance of those good duties which the Law requireth First the civily righteous have heâ— for their portion but drunkards are notoriously wicked is in a damnable condition but thou in a farre worse who wilfully runnest on in the commission of those sinnes which the Law flatly forbids It was the not slaying of Agag 1 Sam. 15. that lost Saul his Kingdome and the favour of God The not circumcising of Moses his first borne Exodus 4. had like to have cost him his life The not relieving of poore Lazarus Luk. 16. was the rich mans ruine It was not the evill servants spending his Masters money which cast him into prison but the not gaining with it he did not evill with his Talent no it was enough to condemne him that he did nothing with it Now if barrennesse bee sent into the fire how can rapine looke to escape if omission of good works be whipped with Rodds surely commission of impieties shall be scourged with Scorpions The old world did but eat and drink build and plant marry and bee merry and were swept away with the Beesom of an universall deluge which things were in themselves lawfull what then shall become of Lyers Swearers Drunkards Adulterers malicious monsters scandalous sinners whose workes are in themselves simply unlawfull If the civily righteous shall not bee saved in that great and terrible day where then shall all ungodly drunkards and deboyshed swilbowles appeare Heaven is our Goale we all runne loe the Scribes and Pharisies are before thee what safty can it bee to come short of those that come short of heaven Except your righteousnes exceed c. Meroz was cursed by the Angell because they came not to helpe the Lord in the day of battell Iudges 5.23 they fought not against God yet because they did not fight for him they are cursed And if they that stand in a luke-warm neutrality shall be spewed up sure the palpable and notorious offender who takes up armes against God and opposes all goodnesse shall bee trodden under foot of a provoked justice O consider this and lay it to heart you that commit sinnes of all sorts and sizes you that can tear heaven with your blasphemies and bandy the dreadfull name of God in your impure mouthes by your bloody oaths and execrations yee that dare exercise your saucy wits in prophane scoffes at Religion yee that can neigh afterstrange flesh c. § 122. SEcondly 2. His sine are against knowledge and conscience the sinnes which thou committest are against knowledge and conscience and so farre greater then the same sinnes if another should doe them ignorantly The servant that knowes his masters will and if he doe it not is a greater sinner and shall indure a greater punishment then hee which neglects the same not knowing it Luk. 12.47.48 to know and not obey doth but teach God how to condemne us the greater light wee have the more shame it is for us to stumble Anaxagoras that saw the Sunne and yet denyed it is condemned not of ignorance but of impiety The infidell disputes against the faith the impious lives against it both deny it the one in termes the other in deeds both are enemies to the Gospell but of the two it is worst to kick against the thorns wee see then to stumble in the darke at a block which we see not it shall go ill with sinnefull Pagans but worse with wicked Christians for the Thistell in the Forrest shall not fare so ill as the barren Figgtree in the Vineyard the Vine fruitlesse is of all Trees most uselesse the daughter of Sion would never have beene so notorious an Harlot had shee not first beene so rare a Virgin Iulian and Lucifer had been lesse damned if the one had not beene a Christian and the other an Angell of light Reade wee not that the sinnes of the Iewes were greater then the sinnes of the Gentiles because in Iury God was known and his name great in Israel it was not so saith the Holy Ghost with other Nations neither have the Heathen knowledge of his wayes so the sinnes of us Christians other circumstances being matches are greater then the sinnes of the Iewes because our knowledge is more or may be more they had but an aspersion line to line here a little and there a little we have an effusion Asts 2.17 I will powre out my spirit upon all flesh For if simple ignorance find no mercy what Cloak is long enough to cover wilfull and affected ignorance certainly if nescience be beaten with stripes willfull impiety shall be burned with fire sinne even in ignorance is a Talent of leade but sinne after knowledge is a milstone to sinke a man to the lowest If flaming fire be their portion that know not God and could not how terrible shall their vengeance be that might know him and would not howsoever men live or dye without the pale of the Church a wicked Christian who either doth or may know the whole revealed will of God shall bee sure of plagues O how many at that dreadfull day when God's revenges have found them out shall unwish themselves Christians or wish that the Gospell and they had never beene acquainted yea how will they in hell curse their knowledge and unprofitably wish that they had beene Ideots or infidels and never had so much as heard of Christ when they shall find this glorious light a meanes to promote them to a higher place in the kingdome of darknesse and procure to them a greater revenew of torment then others have who know lesse for he who is ignorant of or neglects his owne salvation all his knowledge tendeth to his greater condemnation to know good and doe evill makes a mans owne mittimus to Hell If with Baalam and Iudas we have knowledge in the head without holinesse in the heart we shall with Vriah and Bellerophon but carry letters to cut our owne throates or with that servant in the comedy carry Sathan a speciall warrant to bind us hand and foot and cast us into everlasting fire § 123. THirdly 3. He sins not of infirmity but presumtuously and of set purpâ—se as in sin there is sundry steps and degrees whereby one and the same sinne may be lessened or increased so thou doest mightily increase the guilt of thy sinne this way As
for example It is a fearefull thing to omit good more fearefull to commit evill as I have shewed but worse to delight in sinne worse then that to defend it but worse then worst to boast of it which is an usuall thing with thee Or thus hee doth bad enough that sins through infirmity being led captive against his will to doe foule crimes but thou doest incomparably worse who sinnest presumtuously and of set purpose yea of obstinate and resolved malice against God and his image as I shall in due place prove sining not only without all shame but not without malice insomuch that it is thy least ill to doe evill for behold thou speakest for it joyest in it boastest of it enforcest to it mockest them that dislike it as if thou wouldest send challenges into heaven and make love to destruction Fourthly 4. His sias are so open and scandalous that the Gospel is dishonoured and God blasphemed thy sinnes exceed and weigh downe other mens that shall goe to the same place of torment because they are so open and scandalous for he that sinnes publickely to the dishonour of God and religion is a greater offender then if hee did the same at home and in private Sinne that is done abroad ceaseth to be single for it is many sinnes in one and that in a double respect it stumbles others it infects others First it stumbles others and this doth much to increase it It did wonderfully aggravate David's sin that it caused the enemies of God to blaspheme and made the sinne of Elie's sons whose scandalous lives made men abhorre the offerings of the Lord so heynous that God even swore unto Ely that the wickednesse of his house should not bee purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 O the difference between thy practise and what it ought to be Christians ought to be blameles pure and without rebuke yea to shine as lights to other men in the middest of a naughty and crooked nation Phil. 2.15 whereas thou by thy deboyshed life and abominable licenciousnes doest scandalize the Gospell and true religion yea make it odious to Turkes and Infidels according to that of the Apostle Rom. 2.24 Secondly it infects others in which regard saith Isiodore It is a greater offence to sinne openly then secretly for he is doubly faulty who both doeth and teacheth the same To sinne before the face of God is to dishonour him but withall to sinne before the face of men whereby others are taught and incouraged to doe the like is doubly to dishonour him An exemplary offender is like a malicious man sicke of the plague that runs into the throng to disperse his infection whose mischiefe outweighes all penalty Many an Israelite committed fornication and yet upon repentance got pardon but Zimry that would doe it impudently in the face of God and man was sure to perish § 124. FIftly 5 He commits many sins one in the â—â—ck of another and multiplies the same sins often this aggravates thy guilt exceedingly in that thou addest sinne to sinn as first thou committest drunkennesse and then in the necke of that thou blasphemest God slanderest thy neighbour seducest thy friend committest adultery murther c. as thou best knowest the wickednesse whereunto thy heart is privie when for a lesse matter then one of these that worldling forfeited his soule Luk. 12.20 Againe thou aggravatest thy guilt by multiplying of sinne that is by falling often into the same wickednesse and hereby Sathan makes sure worke for though the Devill be the father lust the mother consent the midwife sinne the child and death the portion yet all is like to miscarry if custome become not an indulgent nurse to breede up the same till it come to an habit Sathan first twines certaine small threads together of seeming profit pleasure c. and so makes a little cord of vanity therewith to draw us unto him and afterwards composeth of such lesser cords twisted together that cart-rope or cable custome of iniquity and therewith he seekes to bind men fast unto him for starting for when sinne by custome and long practice is growne to an habit this is sinne in perfection or the perfection of sinne because custome in sinne brings hardnesse of heart hardnesse of heart impenitency and impenitency damnation Yet this by the way is to be noted and remembred that men of yeares liveing in the Church are not simply condemned for their particular sinnes but for their continuance and residence in them sinnes committed make men worthy of damnation but liveing and abiding in them without repentance is that which brings damnation upon them such as live within the precincts of the Church shall be condemned for the very want of true faith and repentance § 125. SIxthly 6 He sins against mercy the abuadance of meanes and the many warnings which others never bad thy judgment shall not onely be increased according to thy sinnes but God will therefore adjudge thee to so much the sorer and severer condemnation by how much thy meanes of repentance hath beene greater If I had not come and spoken unto them saith our Saviour they should not have had sinne but now have they no cloake for their sinne Iohn 15.22 Ordinary disobedience in the time of grace and wilfull neglect of Gods call in the abundance of meanes is a great deale more damnable then the commission of sinne in the dayes of ignorance and blindnesse when the like meanes are wanting Those Gentiles the Ninivites were more righteous then the Iewes in that they repented at the voice of one Prophet yea and that with one Sermon whereas the Iewes refused and resisted all the Prophets which God sent among them but the Iewes who resisted our Saviour Christ's doctrine and put him to death were more righteous then such as amongst us are scoffers at Religion and Antipodes to the power of grace they were never convinced that he was the Messias sent from God to redeeme the world as all or almost all are that call themselves Christians because they professe themselves members of Christ and Protestants in token that they are ready to protest against and resist all such as are professed enemies to and opposers of Christs Gospell As for the Heathen Philosophers who knew not God in Christ they are more righteous then wicked Christians beyond compare for they beleeved as Pagans but lived as Christians wheras such beleeve as Christians but live like Pagans yea many of them would have beene ashamed to speake that which many of these are not ashamed to doe and though we are unworthy to be called Christians if we professe him in name and be not like him in workes yet the most part of men amongst us proclaime to the world that they have never thought whether they are going to Heaven or Hell There be many professed Christians but few imitaters of Christ we have so much science and so little conscience so much knowledge
and so little practise that to thinke of it would move wonder to astonishment had not our Lord told us that even amongst those that heare the Gospell three parts of the good seede falls upon bad ground The common Protestant is of Baalam's Religion that would dye the death of the righteous but no more Ioshua's resolution I and my house will serve the Lord is growne quite out of credit with the world and there are more banquerupts in Religion then of all other professions but let men take heede least by their disobedience they lose their second Paradise as our originall Parents did their first If we are commanded to exceede Scribes and Pharisees in our righteousnesse then those that come short of the Ethnick Pagans what torments shall they suffer Ierusalem is said to justifie Sodom yet were the Sodomites in Hell now if we justifie Hierusalem sure we shall lye lower in Hell then either the Sodomites or the Iewes for we are so much the worse by how much we might have beene better § 126. BUt see how many wayes God hath called thee The severall wayes whereby God calls to repentance how many meanes he hath used that he might winne thee to repentance First the holy Scriptures are as it were an Epistle sent unto thee from Heaven and written by God himselfe to invite and call thee to repentance and therein Christ himselfe no lesse saith unto thee from Heaven when thou art drinking swearing mocking scoffing deriding enuying hateing opposing and persecuting any that beleeve in him then once he did to Saul why persecutest thou me I am Iesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kicke against the prickes for whatsoever the Spirit speaketh generally or specially in the Word is the voice of the whole Trinity and intended particularly to thee and to me and to every man single his case being the same What dost thou looke for Caine or Iudas to come out of Hell to warne thee it is sufficient their sinne and punishment is written for thy learning But this is not all for though he calls chiefely by his Word yet he doth not call onely by it for never any thing happened unto thee in thy whole life whether thou receivest benefits or punishments hearedst threatnings exhortations or promises from any his Embassadors of the Ministery but all whether faire meanes or foule have beene sent from God to invite and call thee to faith and repentance He even therefore threatens Hell saith St. Chrysostome that he may not punish thee by the same All Gods blessings are like so many suters woing thee to repentance yea they put on even the formes of Clyents and petition thee for repentance his afflictions are Embassadors sent to treat with thee about a league which cannot be had without repentance all the creatures of God ordained for thy use are so many silent Sermons so many trumpets that summon thee to repentance in briefe wherefore doth the Spirit of grace knock at the dore of thine heart with such infinite checks and holy motions but that he would come in and he will not come in till repentance hath swept the house Why wast thou not with thy harlot like Zimry in the armes of Cozby smitten in the act of thy Adultery Why was not thy soule and hers sent coupled to the fire of torment as your bodies were undevided in the flame of uncleannesse While thy mouth is opened to sweare and blaspheme why is it not instantly fild with fire and brimstone When thou art dead drunke why art thou suffered to wake againe alive but this God waites as in the Parable of the Fig tree Luk. 13. another and another yeare to try whether thou wilt bring forth the fruit of repentance and new obedience yet presume not for as when men give long day they expect larger payment so does God or for default thereof conferres a heavier doome the first fellony may scape in hope of amendment but the second much more the seventh meetes with as well it deserves a halter Yea of this be sure if Gods long suffering workes no reformation this silent Judge will at last speake home The Elephant suffers many injuries from the inferiour beasts but warre being too farre provoked his revenge is more extreame then his patience was reinisse and the higher the Axe is lifted up the deeper it cuts But what doe I nominating particulars when thou hast had more warnings and invitations then thou hast haires on thy head Gods benefits offered thee in Christ and they all solicit thee to repent are without number though thy sinnes strive with them which shall be more If thou couldest count the numberlesse number of creatures they would not be answerable to the number of his gifts though the number of thine offences which thou returnest in liew of them are not much inferiour Not to enter into particulars which were endlesse but to give you the summe or epitomy of them for I had rather presse you with weight then oppresse you with number of Arguments The Lord Christ hath not onely ransomed thee from infinite evills here and everlasting torments hereafter but also purchased every good thing thou dost enjoy whether for soule or body even to the very bread thou eatest and that with the price of his owne precious blood and as if all this were too little he reserveth for thee such pleasures at his right hand as never entred into the heart of man to conceive and to the end onely that thou shouldest serve and set forth the praise of his Name who hath done all this As he descended into Hell that we might never come thither so he ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for us which we have no right unto What should I say If we looke inward we finde our Creator's mercies if we looke upward his mercy reacheth unto the Heavens if downeward the earth is full of his goodnesse and so is the broad Sea if we looke about us what is it that he hath not given us Ayre to breath in Fire to warme us Water to coole and cleanse us Cloathes to cover us Foode to nourish us Fruits to refresh us yea Delicates to please us Beasts to servous Angells to attend us Heaven to receive us and which is above all his owne Sonne to redeeme us whithersoever we turne our eyes we cannot looke besides his bounty O consider of these his mercies you that forget God and then though there were no Hell no punishment for sinne yet you would not transgresse Hast thou any braines or heart to conceive what it is he hath bestowed what thou hast received what thou hast deserved No surely for if thou hadst braines and wert a wise man it would make thee mad as Salomon speakes in another sense Eccl. 7.7 or if thou hadst a heart not like a stone or an Adamant the consideration of Gods love and thy odious unthankefulnesse would make it split and breake in peeces But heare it againe
First thou wert created by him a man and not a beast in England not in Aethiopia in this cleare and bright time of the Gospell not in the darkenesse of Paganisme or Popery Secondly thou wert redeemed out of Hell by his precious blood he spared not himselfe that his Father might spare thee Oh thinke what flames the damned endure which thou mayst escape if thou wilt thy selfe me thinkes this should melt a heart of Adamant Thirdly he hath preserved thee here from manyfold dangers of body and soule Fourthly he hath all thy life long plentifully and graciously blessed thee with many and manifold good things And lastly promised thee not onely felicity on earth but in Heaven if thou wilt serve him § 127. BEsides The same further amplified as these mercies are great in themselves so our unworthinesse doth greaten them more being shewed to us who are no lesse rebellious to him then he is beneficiall to us And is all this nothing to move thee dost thou thus requite him art thou so farre from loveing and fearing him that thou hatest others which doe O monstrous ingratitude oh foolish man to looke for other then great then double damnation O that such soveraigne favours as these should not onely not profit thee but turne to thy destruction through thy wilfull blind and perverse nature He is thy Lord by a manifold right his tenure of us is diversly held and thou his servant by all manner of obligations indeed our tenure of him is but single he is ours onely by faith in Christ Gal. 3.26 First he is thy Lord by the right of creation thou being his workmanship made by him Secondly by the right of redemption being his purchase bought by him Thirdly of preservation being kept upheld and maintained by him Fourthly thou art his by vocation even of his family having admitted thee a member of his visible Church Fifthly his also if it be not thine owne fault by sanctification whereby he possesseth thee Sixtly and lastly he would have thee of his court by glorification that he might crowne thee every way his Yea he hath removed so many evills and conferred so many good things upon thee that they are beyond thought or imagination for if the whole Heaven were turned to a booke and all the Angells deputed writers they could not set downe all the good which Christ hath done us Now favours bestowed and deliverances from danger binds to gratitude and the more bonds of duty the more plagues for neglect Hath God contrived so many wayes to save us and shall not we take all occasions to glorifie him Hath he done so much for us and shall we deny him any thing that he requires though it were our lives yea our soules much more our lusts we have hard hearts if the blood of the Lambe cannot soften them stony bowells if so many mercies cannot melt us Was he crucified for our sinnes and shall we by our sinnes crucifie him againe Doe we take his wages and doe his enemy service Is this the fruit of his benificence of our thankfulnesse Is this the recompence of his love to doe that which he hates and hate those whom he loves O for shame thinke upon it and at his instance be perswaded by whose blood you were redeemed from all these evills and interrested in all these good things The Apostle could not finde out a more heart-breaking argument to enforce a sacrificing of our selves to God then to conjure us by the mercies of God in Christ Rom. 12.1 and indeed we could not be unthankefull if we thought upon what the Lord gives and what he forgives but if the thought of these things will not move thee Lord have mercy upon thee For as it is a fearefull marke of a reprobate alwayes to abuse Gods mercy and patience to the hardening of our selves in our evill courses so good turnes aggravate unkindnesses and our offences are increased with our obligations yea there is not one of these favours of those warnings which I have mentioned or which thou hast received that shall not once be a witnesse against thee as appeares by 1 Sam. 2. where God saith unto Ely by the Prophet Did not I doe such and such things for thee and thy fathers house wherefore then hast thou done thus and thus And likewise by Chap. 15. where the Lord reproving Saul for his disobedience exceedingly aggravates his sinne by what he had formerly done for him yea how doth the Lord by the Prophet Nathan aggravate Davids fact by repeating the many and severall favours and deliverances which formerly he had extended to him 2 Sa. 12.7 to 13. § 128 YEa Even this booke will be a witnesse against them when their consciences are awakened even this very Booke shall be a witnesse and rise up in judgement against thee as Plutarch told Trajane the Emperour touching his letter of advise and those very eyes that read it and that understanding and will which hath conceived and consented unto the equity and truth of it shall be cited as witnesses against thee And in the meane time thou shalt never hereafter drinke sweare whore seduce hate persecute or reproach any for well doing but thy conscience as a sergeant shall arrest thee upon it yea this Booke shall gnaw thee at the heart with a Memorandum of Hell that thou shalt wish O that I could abandon my sinnes or else that I had never had such a warning And then perhaps the gate of mercy will be shut But then perhaps the gate of mercy will bee shut and though thou wouldest gladly repent yet it will be too late then shalt thou begin to say O what a warning had I such a time what an opportunity did I then let slip woe is me that ever I was borne and woe is me that ever I had such a warning which cannot choose but double my damnation hereafter as now it doubles my feare and horror Even thus and no otherwise will it fare with thee when once thine eyes are opened and opened they shall be for though Sathan and thy corrupt conscience doe sleep and suffer thee to sleep for a while yet at least upon thy death bed or in hell when there shall bee no more hope or meanes of recovery they will both wake against thee and awaken thee up to everlasting anguish and unquietnesse yea God shall once enliven and make quick the sense of thy benummed conscience and make thee know his power which wouldest never take notice of his goodnesse he will then teach thee with a vengeance as Gideon taught the men of Succoth vvith briers and thorns Those carelesse guests made light of their calling to come unto the marriage of the Kings sonne but they found at last vvhen they vvere shut out that there vvas no jesting and the rich man lift up his eyes in hell Luke 16.23 those scorching flames opened them to purpose they vvere never opened before § 129. THis is the difference
to Mephibosheth so if thou bearest any good will to God whom it is not in thy power to pleasure thou wilt shew thy thankefulnesse to him in his children who are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Is our Ionathan gone Yet we have many Mephibosheths and he that loves God for his owne sake will love his Brother for Gods sake especially when he hath loved us as it were on this condition that we should love one another whereas thou hatest the children of God even for their very graces and vertues for thou couldest love their persons well enough if they were not conscionable And so much of the eighth aggravation § 135. NInthly 9 VVhom they wrong are their best friends to whom they owe their very lives againe touching the party wronged thy sinne is incomparably greater in as much as thou makest that the subject of thy derision which is the onely meanes of thy preservation Knowest thou not or mayst thou not know how the wicked owe their lives unto those few good whom they hate and persecute It were bad enough to wrong enemies but to wrong such by whom thou art preserved alive is abominable but see it proved for this may seeme incredible to thee The religious whom thou persecutest keepe off judgements from thee and the whole land 1 By their innocency 2 By their Prayers First 1 By their innocency by their innocency The Innocent saith Eliphas shall deliver the Iland and it shall be preserved The religious keepe off judgements from them by the purenesse of his hands Iob. 22.30 Runne to and fro by the streets of Hierusalem saith God to Ieremiah and behold now and know and enquire in the open places thereof if ye can find a man or if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will spare it Ier. 5.1 to which testimonies I could add a world of examples even all Noah's family were preserved from drowning in the generall Deluge for Noah's sake In the destruction of Sodom if ten righteous persons could have beene found the whole City had beene spared ten had saved ten thousand Gen. 18.29.32 yea when there was no remedy but destroyed it must be the Angels promised Lot whomsoever he brought forth should escape for his sake Againe God saved Zoar a City belonging to Sodom for Lot's sake Gen. 19.21 Now Zoar might happily be as bad as Sodom but here was the difference Zoar had a Lot within it Sodome had none Potiphar was a Heathen yet his house shall be blessed because Ioseph is in it a whole family yea a whole Kingdome shall fare the better for one despised traduced imprisoned Ioseph though he were sold for a slave Laban was cruell churlish wicked yet he shall be blessed for Iacob's sake Gen. 30.27 Among two hundred three score and sixteene soules there was but one Paul yet behold saith the Angell God hath given thee all that saile with thee Acts 27.24.44 Zacheus alone beleeved yet this brought salvation to his whole house Luk. 19. O the large bounty of God which reacheth not to us onely but to ours § 136. SEcondly 2 By their prayers good men by their prayers keepe off judgements from them The Saints are like Sampsons haire the strength of the Land and the very pillars of a State even such pillars that ten of them would have supported Sodom from falling and their prayers would have cried lowder in Gods eares for mercy then the sinnes of those thousands did for vengeance the prayer of a righteous man availeth much saith St. Iames if it be fervent Chap. 5.16 I need not tell you what prayer hath done as that it hath shut up the Heavens from rayning and opened them againe made the Sunne stand still in the firmament one while goe backe another devided the Sea and made it stand as a wall fetch fire and hailestones from Heaven throwne downe the wales of Ierico subdued Kingdomes stopt the mouthes of Lyons quenched the violence of fire raised the dead let out of prison c. onely see what it hath done in this very case Was not Abraham's prayer so powerfull that God never left granting one request after another touching Sodome untill he left asking Gen. 18.32 Was not Moses prayer for the people when they had made the golden calfe and imputed their deliverance to it so powerfull that God was faine to say unto him Let me alone Moses that my wrath may wax hot against them and consume them and yet Moses would not let him alone but pleads his promise what the Aegyptians would say c. untill he had obtained their pardon though God promised to make of him a mighty people Exod. 32.10 to 15. was not Lot's prayer touching Zoar so powerfull that God saith unto him I have received thy request concerning this thing that I will not overthrow this City for the which thou hast spoken adding this moreover that he could doe nothing to Sodome untill he was entred into Zoar Gen. 19.20.21.22 Thus the prayer of Abraham removed that judgement from Abimelecke his wife and women servants when the Lord had shut every wombe Gen. 20.17.18 Thus Moses prayer removed the leprosie from Mirriam Num. 12.13.14.15 and kept off sundry judgements from the Israelites as when they murmured against him at the Red Sea Exod. 14.11.15 Againe at the waters of Marah Chap. 15.25 then at the Desart of Zim Chap. 16. then at Repidim Chap. 17.4 then when they fought with Amalecke ver 11. after when the Lord would utterly have consumed them Chapter 32.10 to 35. then he removed from them that judgement of fire which burnt among them Num. 11.1.2 againe when they murmured for flesh vers 4.10.31 after that he saved them from being consumed by the Pestilence Num. 14.12 to 21. then from another plague Chap. 16.45 to 49. and lastly he tooke away the Serpents by his prayer Num. 20.6.7.8 Againe how many severall plagues did he remove from Pharaoh and all Aegypt by his prayer As first the judgment of Frogs Exod. 8.8 then the judgement of Flyes ver 30.31 then the Thunder Hayle and Fire Chap. 9.33 then the Grashoppers Chap. 10.18.19 c. Thus by the prayer of Iehoahas all Israel was delivered from the oppression of the King of Syria 2 King 13.4.5 And by Samuel's prayer the Israelites were delivered out of the hand of the Philistines 1 Sam. 7.8.9 And by the prayer of Esay and Hezekiah the Israelites were delivered from that great Host of Senacharib under the conduct of Rabshekah and that miraculously for the Angell of the Lord in one night smote in the campe of the Assyrians an hundred foure score and five thousand 2 King 19.4.20 Many the like examples I could give you § 137. ANd are not the like faithfull prayers of godly men amongst us Jn their distresse they will sue to the godly and desire them a loue to pray for them alike prevalent with God both for the averting and
sent for before Samuel he went pleasantly saying the bitternesse of death is past but his welcome was immediately to be hewen in peeces 1 Sam. 15.33 The rich man resolves when he hath filled his Barnes then soule rest but God answers no then soule come to judgement to everlasting unrest Luk. 12.19.20 The hope of an hypocrite is easily blown into him and as soone blowne out of him because his hope is not of the right kind yea it is presumption not confidence viz. hope frighted out of it's wits an high house upon weak pillars which upon every little change threatens ruine to the inhabitant for a little winde blowes down the Spiders-web of his hope wherby like the foolish builder he comes short of his reckoning That heart which Wine had even now made as light as a feather dyes ere long as heavie as a stone 1 Sam. 25.36 37. § 143 IT is Sathans method VVicked men are altogether in extreames either God is so mercifull that they may live hâ—w they list or so just that he wil not pardon them upon their repentance first to make men so senselesse as not to feele their sins at all and then so desperate that they feele them too much In the first fit men live as if there were no Hell in the last they dye as if there were no Heaven While their consciences are asleepe they never trouble them but being stirred by Sathan who when he sees his time unfolds his Ephemerides and leaves not the least of all their sinfull actions unanatomized but quoats them like a cunning Register with every particular circumstance both of time and place they are fierce as a mastive Dog and ready to pul out their throatâ— This Serpent may bee benummed for a time through extreamity of cold but when once revived it will sting to death The Divell is like Dalilah who said to Sampson the Philistims be upon thee when it was too late and she had taken away his strength Iudges 16. Wicked men are altogether in extreams at first they make question whether this or that be a sin at last they apprehend it such a sin that they make question whether it can bee forgiven either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that hee will not pardon them upon their repentance no meane with them betweene the Rocke of presumption and the Gulfe of despaire now presumption encourageth it selfe by one of a thousand and despaire will not take a thousand for one If a thousand men be assured to passe over a Foord safe and but one to miscarry desperation sayes I am that one and if a thousand Vessels must needs miscarry in a Gulfe and but one escapes presumption sayes I shall be that one as we read of but one sinner that was converted at the last howre of millions that had lesse iniquity yet have found lesse mercy But see further the strength of their argument Objection of the thief upon the crosse answered The Thiefe was saved at the last howre and therefore I shall Thou maist as well conclude the Sunne stood still in the dayes of Ioshua therfore it shall doe so in my dayes for it was a miracle with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour the ignominy of his Crosse and wee may almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as such a second Thiefes conversion at the last howre Hee were a wise man that should spurre his Beast till hee speake because Baalams Beast did once speake yet even so wise and no wiser is hee that makes an ordinary rule of an extraordinary example Againe the Thiefe was saved at the very instant of time when our Saviour triumphed on the Crosse tooke his leave of the world and entered into his glory Now it is usuall with Princes to save some heinous malefactors at their Coronation when they enter upon their Kingdomes in triumph which they are never knowne to doe afterwards Besides the Scripture speaks of another even his fellow in that very place and at that very instant which was damned There was one saith S. Augustine that none might despaire there was but one that none should presume That suddaine conversion of one at the last howre was never intended in Gods purpose for a temptation neither will any that have grace make mercy a Cloak or warrant to sinne but rather a spurre to incite them to godlinesse well knowing that to wait for Gods performance in doing nothing is to abuse that Divine providence which will so worke that it will not allow us idle and yet by Sathans policie working upon wicked mens depraved judgements and corrupt hearts in wresting this Scripture it hath proved by accident the losse of many thousand soules The flesh prophesies prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder traitors but death and damnation which Gods Spirit threatens will prove the crop they will reape for God is true and all flesh is a lyer § 144. BUt God sets forth himselfe to bee incomparably gracious Object God in mercyis in finitly transcenâ—ent mercifull long-suffering abundant in goodnes c. Ezâ— 34.6 and is acknowledged to bee so by David Psalm 86.5 by Ioel Chap. 2.13 by Ionah Chap. 4.22 by Micha Chap. 7 18. and in many other places It is very true Answ for it is a part of his title Exodus 34.6 hee is mercy in the abstract 1 Iohn 4.16 2 Cor. 1.3 1 Tim. 4.10 rich and abundant in mercy Ephesians 2.4 1 Pet. 1.3.19 his love is without height or depth or length or breath or any dimensions even passing knowledge Ephes 3.18 yea the Scripture advanceth God's mercy above his justice Psa 36.5 to 12. not in it's essence for God in all his Attributes is infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in it's expressions and manifestations It is said of mercy that it pleaseth him Micha 7.18 whereas justice is called his strange worke Esay 28.21 Lamentation 3.33 that he is slow to anger but abundant in goodnesse Exodus 34.6 hee bestowes mercyes every day inflicts judgements but now and then sparingly and after a long time of forbearance when there is no remedy 2 Chron. 36.15 Esay 65.2 that he visiteth the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation onely whereas hee shewes mercy to thousands Exodus 20.5.6 so that by how much three or foure come short of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it Againe that his love to his people outstrips a Father's love to his sonne Matth. 7.11 and a Mothers too Esay 49.15 for he is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 as being himself most mercifull and the author of mercy and compassion in others In fine he is so mercifull that the Kingly Prophet repeates it over six and twenty times together in one Psalm that his mercy endures for ever Psal 136. But what makes this for
and office Briefly so many as are puft up with their knowledge or doe not part with their sinnes shew that they never sought it for Gods glory but for their own honour and glory and certainly if we seeke not Gods glory in doing his worke hee will give us no wages at the latter end But to apply what hath beene spoken The application of wha◠hath beene spoken If it be so that God reveales himselfe savingly to none but his children the godly and that none are soule wise but such as digest their knowledge into practise and imploy their wisdome to his glory that gave it and the good of themselves and others then your objection of what the world thinks like a childs bubble blowne into the aire is fallen to the ground and dissolved to nothing Alasse the world is no more fit to judge of cases of conscience then a blind man is fit to judge of colours Wherefore as the Orator would admit none but Rhetoricians to judge of his Orations so henceforward admit none but spirituall men to sway thee in spiritual matters and follow our Saviours counsell seeke to justifie thy judgement and practise to the children of wisdome of whom wisdome is justified and not to fooles by whom shee is daily crucified Only condole these blind mens disasters and drop some teares in pity and compassion for their great and greivous misery And so much for the objection § 167. NOw that I may sasten againe the thread of my discourse Admonition not to make mercy a bolster for continuing in sin where I brake it and fall in where I left off let your thoughts return with me to the Law I meane to the Law of Christ and to the testimony alleadged and explained from § 142. to § 154. and you will easily confesse that Sathan hath hitherto gulled you and all in your case that he holds a paire of false spectacles before the eyes of wicked men and thereby perswades their deceitfull hearts that the bridge of Gods mercy is farre larger then it is and they give such credit therunto that while they thinke they are upon the bridge they go besides and so are sure in the end to fall and be drowned in the waters of eternall destruction Wherefore if thou meanest to fare better make not Christ a bolster for sinne least the plaister prove worse then the sore nor Gods mercy a warrant for thy continuing in an evill course for this is to sin with an high hand or with a witnesse as we use to say which if thou doest thou shalt also perish with a witnesse Deuteronomy 29.19 20 21. I have heard of a woman that presumed so much upon her husbands love that if he should find her in the bed of incontinency he would not harme her but it proved farre otherwise to her shame and ruine and so it will fare with thee in the end for hee that deliberately resolves to sinne doth what he can to make himselfe uncapeable of forgivenesse yea how should the crosse of Christ be a friend to them that are enemies to his crosse Philip. 3.19 and trample upon him with their feet because hitherto hee hath borne the contumelies of their tongues and excesses of their lives O what a blasphemous imagination is this against Jesus Christ to think that he came into the world to bee a patron of sinne or a bolster whereupon we may more securely sleep in sensuallity and not to destroy the workes of the divell 1 Iohn 3.3.8.9.10 Oh that Christians should so live as if the practise of the Gospell were quite contrary to the rule of the Law but such men shew what they are for none but hase minds and perverse dispositions saith Saint Bernard will therefore be evill because God is good and those that belong to Gods election wil never make that liberty which Christ hath purchased for them with his precious blood a cloak to cover their wickednesse but rather a spur to incite them to godlinesse they for whom Christ dyed will not presumptuously lavish on his score not caring what they spend because he is able to pay for all no they will live as though there were no Gospell dye as though there were no Law and nothing so soone leades an ingenuous mind to repentance as when hee considers Gods bountifulnesse and long suffering towards him Rom. 2.4 there is mercy with thee saith David what that thou mightest be despised blasphemed c. no if you take him so you mistake him but that thou mightest be feared Psalm 130.4 and the love of Christ constrained Paul to duty 2 Cor. 5.14 § 168. WHereas nothing will do good upon thee for albeit What small hope of the drunkards yeelding I have informed thee how dangerous thine estate is that thou mightest plainly see it truly feare it and timely prevent it yet I have not the least or at most very little hope of thy yeelding For first these lines to thee are but as so many characters written in the water which leaves no impression behind them thou being like one that beholdeth his natural face in a glasse who when he hath considered himselfe goeth his way and forgotteth immediately what manner of one he was Iames 1.23.24 or like some silly flie which being beat from the candle an hundred times and often singed there in yet will returne to it againe untill shee bee consumed If thou wilt behold thy case in another person look 2 King 8.12 to 16. Proverbs 23.35 All those Beasts which went into the Arke uncleane came likewise out uncleane Secondly though these sparks of grace may kindle piety in others yet not in thee for what is light to him that will shut his eyes against it And men of thy condition do on purpose stop their eares and wink with their eyes least they should see with their eyes and heare with their cares and understand with their hearts and so should bee converted as our Saviour shewes Matth. 13.15 and Saint Paul Acts 28.27 O if these Adders had not stopt their eares how long since had they beene charmed And indeed it were an unreasonable motion in me if I should request minds preposessed with prejudice to heare reason there is no disputing with him that denies Principles if they believe not Mases and the Prophets they would never be perswaded although one should bee sent unto them from the dead to testifie what a place of torment they are going unto Luk 16.31 A brute beast is as capeable of good counsell as a drunkard once became a scorner for like Salomons foole braying in a mortar will not alter him yea a very stone to which Ezekiel compares a hard heart Chapter 11.19 is not more insensible then such a sinner for he will neither be softned with benefits nor broken with punishments neither God's severity can terrifie him nor his kindnesse mollifie him yea the more these anvills are beaten upon the harder they are the change of meanes whether the
wedge but proportionable to the timber or as I rather feare my expressions have too little heate in them to unwarpe these crooked boards The harder and more knotty our hearts are the harder and stronger must be the blowes that shall cleave them That vvood vvhich a single Iron vvill not rive must have a double wedge to split it Nothing but a Diamond vvill cut a Diamond and nothing but Gunpovvder vvill blovv out some kinde of flame Cold diseases must have hot remedies Wounds more dangerous require more dolorous plaisters Neither is my ayme so much to stroake the care as to stricke the conscience Besides here is honey as vvel as a sting and those invectives vvhich are most keene and sharpe doe but resemble Ionathan's Arrovves vvhich vvere not shot to hurt but to give vvarning vvhereas their scoffes and slanders may fitly be resembled to Saul's Speare vvhich vvas darted on purpose not to hurt only but to murther and destroy More I might have said lesse I could not Indeed it is a sinne more vvorthy the sword of justice It is more worthy the sword of justice then the pen of an adversary then the pen of an adversary vvhich had almost persvvaded mee as one did Luther vvhen he began to preach against the Popes usurpation and Tyranny to desist so soone as I began for mine ovvne Reason suggested unto me as Luther's carnall friend to him you had as good hold your peace this vice is so incurable this disease so epidemicall that you will never prevaile against it get you to your study and say Lord have mercy upon us and procure your selfe no ill will But I considered that all hearts are so in the hand of God that Saul may become an Apostle and that there is no sinne but some have beene reclaimed from it which gave me some hope And when I had got into it with much adoe like a man into a croud I could as hardly get out againe matter representing it selfe like those waters in Ezekiel Chap. 47. which at the first were but ancle deepe and then knee deepe and then up to the loynes which afterwards did so lise and flow that they were as a River which could not be passed over yea it fared with me herein as once it did with Elias his Servant who at the first and for a great while saw nothing at the length a little cloud as big as a mans hand but by and by the Heavens were blacke with clouds and wind after which followed an exceeding great raine 1 Kings 18. For as St. Augustin said of the two Mites a little money but a great deale of charity so may I of the title oâ— my booke viz. the Drunkards Charâ—cter the words are few but the matter contained in them is infinite in which respect I may liken them to Gold which is so ductile that an ounce of it will be made to cover an Aker of land § 171. NOw why have I unmasked their faces Written rather to keepe men from drunkennesse then in hope to reclaime any from it is it in hope to humble them no for I have acknowledged yea proved that all the water in the Sea will not wash one of these Black-mores white and therefore to expect this were to make my selfe ridiculous like him that carried his saddle to shame his horse Alasse the flesh unto them that shall perish will be stronger then all my reasons But I have done it for their sakes who are not yet infected with this drunken good-fellowship and that the others purpose may be infatuated for vices true picture makes us vice detest I have done my best to increase your detestation of evill company that you may the rather love and make choice of good company the end why I declame against drunkennesse is but as the Orator once said to keepe men sober And what though some will mocke a these threatnings with those Sodomites Gen. 19.9.14 haply some one Lot or other will follow my counsell A reproofe saith Solomon enters more into him that hath understanding then an hundred stripes into a foole Pre. 17.10 And what though every plant that is watered proveth not fruitfull yet if God who it may be hath bidden me speake but accompany his word to the hearts of some if but a few if but one even thy selfe be perswaded insteed of loving this vice to hate it the labour is not in vaine the gaine of one soule is greater then the Indies Yea it shall comfort me that I have done my best to plucke up this infectious deadly weed that I have hopefully and administred unto hem whom I cannot cure and that I have brought water enough to wash these Ethiopians white if it were in the power of water to doe it Physicians say if the disease be once knowne the cure is halfe done so if we could see corruption in the true forme we would loath it But as the conjured Devill appeares not to the Necromancer in hidious and frightfull shapes but in some familiar representation so vice ever shrouds and shewes it selfe in formes most delectable to flesh and blood whereas here you have drunkennesse in part disapparelled of her robes at least her face is unvailed to the end the sight of it may cause a loathing and that loathing a forsaking that thou maist know abhorre and beware their allurements strive againe the sinne shun all occasions of it bewaile their cases that are led captive to it c. And nothing as Anacharsis holds will sooner reclaime a man from drunkennesse then the seeing and remembring of a drunkards odious condition and beastly behaviour which made the Spartans ever bring their Slaves when drunk before their children that by beholding them they might learne to detest the vice Yea the Persians and Parthians to this end kept one the picture of an Epicure the other the picture of a Strumpet alwayes in their houses and found by experience that nothing was so opperative against ebriety and whoredome as the continuall seeing of those ugly and deformed descriptions which yet were amiable to this monster in the judgement of an understanding clarified Quest But thou wilt aske He the soberest and honestest man which resembles this drunkard least how thou shalt use and apply this so soveraigne a remedy for thy best advantage Answ Vpon every occasion examine what the drunkard here set forth does and doe thou the contrary as Domitian was answered demanding how he might rule to be no lesse loved of the people then his Predecessors in the Empire were hated for he is the most sober and honest man that resembles this Drunkard least as Demaratus replied to an ill liver that demanded of him who was the honestest man in Sparta he that is most unlike thee Doe but conne this lesson t' is enough Neverthelesse least I should imitate those who kindle a fire under greene wood and leave it so soone as it but begins to flame turne over the leafe you have
out in thy good purposes 5 Shame not to confesse thy dislike of it in thy selfe and others and meanest to bring thy thoughts to the birth thou must not be ashamed to confesse with that honest theife upon the crosse even before thy companions and fellow drunkards that thou art not now the same man thou wast both thy mind and judgement is changed and so shall thy practise God assisting thee nay thou wilt not only forsake thy sin but their company too except they will forsake their old customes of drinking and scoffing and jeering at sobriety and goodnesse And so doing thou mayst perchance winne thy Brother even as that penitent wanton in St. Ambrosse did his old love who when she courted him according to her accustomed manner and wondred at his overmuch strangnesse saying why doe you not know who I am answered yes I know you are still the same woman but I am become another man I am not I now neither would You be You any longer if yee knew so much as I doe 4 But if yet they persist 6 Fly evill company and seeme incorrigible flye their company for feare of infection least it happen with thee as once it did with a chast person among Penelopes suters who went so often with his friend till in the end he was caught himselfe for if thou keepest them company there is no possibility of thy holding out to the end though thou shouldest for a time as a man may make some progresse in a good way and yet returne before he is halfe at his journeys end as Saul kept himselfe well for two yeares Iudas for three yeares and as it is storied Nero for five yeares yet all fell into damnable wickednesse scarce three worse in the world But of this more in it's proper place Besides how hard a thing is it for thee a coward to shew thy dislike of this sin in some companies where thou shalt be scoff't at thy selfe if thou dislike their drinking and scoffing at others Fiftly 7 Take heede of delayes another thing which I had need to advise thee of is to take heede of delayes for to leave sinne when sin leaves us will never passe for true repentance besides if the evill spirit can but perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter he knowes it is all one as if thou hadst never purposed to leave thy sinne at all as you have it largely proved Sections 151.152.153 Sixtly 8 Omit not to pray for divine assistance omit not to pray for the assistance of God's spirit to strengthen thee in thy resolution of leaving this sinne St. Ambrosse calls prayer the key of Heaven yet prayer without answerable endeavour is but as if a wounded man did desire helpe yet refuseth to have the sword puld out of his wound Sevently be diligent in hearing God's Word which is the sword of the Spirit 9 Be diligent in hearing that killeth our corruptions and that unresistable cannon-shot which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne Eighthly 10 frequent in the use of the Lords-Supper be frequent in the use of the Lord's Supper wherein we dayly renew our covenant with God that we will forsake the Devill and all his workes of darkenesse Ninthly 11 Meditaâ—e what God hoth done for thee ponder and med tate on Gods inestimable love towards us who hath not spared to give his Sonne to death for us and the innumerable benefits which together with him he hath plentifully bestowed upon us both in temporall and spirituall things say unto the Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits but love my Creator and become a new creature Tenthly meditate on that union 12 Meditate on that union we have with Christ c which is betweene Christ and us whereby wee become members of his glorious body and so shall we stand upon our spirituall reputation and be ashamed to dishonour our Head by drawing him as much as in us lyeth into the communication of this swinish sinne consider that our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost the which we shall exceedingly dishonour if by drinking and swilling we make them to become like wine vessells Eleventhly 13 Consider that the Lord beholdeth thee whersoever thou art consider that the Lord beholdeth thee in all places and in every thing thou doest as the eyes of a well drawne picture are fastned on thee which way soever thou turnest much more while in a brutish manner thou liest wallowing in this sinne and consider him as a just judge who will not let such grosse vices goe unpunished Twelftly be ever or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of Iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning 14 Often thinke of the day of judgment not only for this sinne but for all other our sinnes which this shall occasion to our very words and thoughts And lastly if thou receivest any power against this great evill forget not to be thankfull and when God hath the fruite of his mercies he will not spare to sow much where he reapes much § 176. MOre especially 15 Morcespecially consider the heinousnesse of thiâ— sin and the evills which accompany it that thou maist master and subdue this abominable sin doe but set before thee in a generall view the heinousnesse thereof and the manifold evills and mischiefes which doe accompany it of which I have already spoken as that it is a vice condemned by God and men Christians and infidells that thereby we grievoussy offend God by making our bellies our god by unfiting and disabling our selves for his service by abusing his good creatures which with a plentifull hand he hath bestowed upon us the necessary use whereof many better then we want that thereby we sinne in a high degree against our neighbours generally and particularly against the whole Church and common wealth strangers and familiar acquaintance and most of all against our owne family that hereby we most grievously sinne against our selves by making us unfit for our callings and for the performance of all good duties by disgracing our profession and bringing our selves into contempt by making our selves the voluntary slaves of this vice by impoverishing our estate and bringing upon us want and beggery by infatuating our understandings and corrupting our wills and affections by deforming disabling weakning and destroying our bodies and bringing our selves to untimely death by excluding our selves out of the number of Christs members by quenching the gifts of the Spirit and strengthening the flesh and lusts thereof by causing our soules to be possessed with finall impenitency which is inseparably accompanied with eternall damnation Also remember that as in it selfe it is most sinfull so it is also the cause of almost all other sinnes as of the manifold and horrible abuses of the tongue of many wicked and outragious actions and particularly of those fearefull sinnes of murther and adultery Also call to
and they that hang their faith on such mens lips doe but like Ixion embrace a cloud instead of Iuno and well may he claime a Boat-swanes place in Barkley's Ship of fooles that will sell his soule for a few good words from wicked mens tongues What is it to mee how others thinke me when I know my intent is good and my wayes warrantable a good conscience cares for no witnesses that is alone as a thousand § 190. BEsides Of necessity we must be evil spokeâ— of by â—â—me of necessity wee must bee evill spoken of by some A man shall be sure to be backt and have abbettors either in good or evill and by some shouldered in both there was never any to whom some Belialists tooke not exceptions it is not possible to please or displease all seeing some are as deeply in love with vice as others are with vertue and the applause of ignorant and evill men hath ever beene vilipended by the wise and vertuous Phecion had not suspected his speech had not the common people applauded it Antisthenes mistrusted some ill in himselfe for the vulgar commendations Much more reason have we that are Christians when wee find that spirituall things are mostly represented unto vicious men false and cleane contrary to what they are indeed as corporall things in a glasse wherein those that are on the right hand seeme to be on the left and those againe which are on the left hand seeme to be on the right as it fared with Saint Paul who speaking of his unregenerate estate saith I also thought verily in my selfe that I ought to do many contrary things against the Name of Iesus Act. 26.9 And wicked men judge by contraries That vicious drunkards and indeed all naturall men judge by contraries think and call good evill and evill good white black and black white commend what God in his word condemns and condemne what he commends I might prove by an hundred testimonies and examples out of Scripture but these may serve First touching things 1 Of things as if they wore their braines in their bellies and their guts in their heads they highly esteeme what is abomination in the sight of God Luk. 16.15 and what God highly esteemes is abomination to them Pro. 13.19 Secondly that which is called wisdome in Gods booke they account foolishnesse 1 Cor. 1.18.20.23 and 2.14 and 4.10 Luk. 6.27 to 36. or madnesse Acts 26.24 Wisd 5.4 and contrarily that which God calls foolishnesse and madnesse they terme wisdome Gen. 41.8 Iob. 5.13 Pro. 28.11 Ier. 4.22 1 Cor. 3.19 Exodus 1.10 Iosh 9.4 Titus 3.9 Pro. 10.18 3 They thinke there is no God Psal 14.1 or that he is carelesse and mindeth them not Psal 10.11 and 94.7 or that he is not so just as to reward every one according to his workes Psal 10.13 4 They thinke the service of God which is the greatest freedome Iohn 8.34.36 Rom. 6.16.18.22 the only bondage Psal 2.3 4. and to serve their owne lusts and therein the Devill whose captives they are 2 Tim. 2.26 the only freedome Psal 12.4 5 They censure true faith in the Godly to be presumption 2 Chron. 32.11.14 Rom. 8.38.39 and yet thinke their owne presumpâ—tion to be true faith 6 They not only thinke profession arbitrary but blame worthy when as our Saviour commands it upon paine of being denied before God and his holy Angells at the later day Matth. 10.32.33 Mark 8.38 7 They censure yea condemne us to the pit of Hell about vanities of their own devising Luk. 7.33.34 Mark 7.5 and justifie heynous crimes in themselves verse 11.12.13 8 They thinke if they have the worlds friendship and good opinion that they are in a passing good and happy estate when nothing more truely proves them in a cursed condition Luke 6.26 Iames 4.4 § 191. SEcondly touching persons 2 Of pâ—â—sons First they account the sincere Christian which walkes according to the rule of Gods word an Hypocrite Iob. 4.6 and the greatest Hypocrite who is a Christian in name only they acqâ—it of Hypocrisie Isay 66.3 2 They thinke such enemies to the state who are greatest friends yea props of the State and those friends who are the greatest enemies 1 King 18.17.18 Gen. 39.5.20 Iob. 22.30 Isay 6.13 3 They account themselves the most valiant and couragious because they are apt to fight upon every idle quarrell be it but the lye which is the greatest pusillanimity or at most but stupid and desperate madnesse and shewes that their lives are but little worth seeing they will sell them so good cheape when they are the basest cowards and vilest white-livers in a countrey not daring to suffer for Christ or in a good cause so much as a poore Nick-name how much lesse would they burne at a stake for him as the Martyrs did even weake women which is the only true valour and yet contrarily account the righteous who are as bold as a Lyon so their cause be good Pro. 28.1 the most hen-hearted and fearefullest 4 They account Gods people the most dumpish and melancholy of all others when indeed they are or have cause to be the only joyfull people alive Psal 4.7 Heb. 10.34 Iob. 20.5 Eccles 9.7 Matth. 13.44 Luke 1.44.47 and 2.10 Iohn 16.22 Acts 13.52 Rom. 14.17 and 15.13 2 Cor. 7.4 Gal. 5.22 Iames 1.2 1 Iohn 1.4 c. 5 They take themselves to be wise because they are wise to doe evill and thinke the Godly simple because they are wise only to that which is good Rom. 16.19 not considering that wisdome is as the waters of which some descend from above and some spring from beneath Iames 3.15.17 6 Such as by faith and true repentance are purged from their filthinesse in the blood of Christ and walke in newnesse of life they thinke pure in their owne eyes though indeed they esteeme their very righteousnesse but as a menstruous cloth Isay 64.6 when it is themselves that are pure in their owne conceits as wanting the light of Gods Spirit and the eye of faith 3 Their judgement practise is quite contrary to Gods word Thirdly touching their judgement and practise joyntly First they glory in their shame Phil. 3.19 I meane their wickednesse Gen. 19.34 and are ashamed of that which should be their only glory and crowne of rejoycing viz. holinesse 2 Whereas the mercy of God is the chiefe motive to make his children feare him Psal 130.4 they make it the only motive for them to continue in sinne Iude 4. 3 Whereas the Godly render them good for evill they againe render them the greatest evill for the greatest good Psal 35.12 to 16. Acts 7.52 to 60. persecute them to the death for shewing them the way to eternall life Acts 5.30 to 34. Ier. 18.20 4 Even their very mercy and kindnesse is cruelty Pro. 12.10 witnesse the drunkards love to his friend the adulterers to her whom he defiles the pitifull man who gives or obtaines a pardon for the murtherer
and practise cleane contrary to Gods Word ibid. how the Divel deludes the fancy and judgement of a naturall man 721. Iudgements of God what use drunkards make thereof 111. the religious keep off judgements 516. first by their innocency 516. secondly by their prayers 517. K KIll drunkards and wicked men would kil the godly if they would not yeeld 392. of which their savage disposition five reasons 402. first they must do the workes of their father the Divell 402. secondly that their deeds of darknesse might not come to light 404. thirdly they cannot follow their sinnes so freely so quietly ibid. fourthly what they could not make good with reason they would with iron ibid. fifthly their glory and credit is eclipsed by the godly 405. but they cannot do as they would though their punishment shall bee all one 399. King Sathan their King and they must seek his wealth and honour and inlarge his Kingdome by winning all they can from Christ 431. Knowledge he that hath saving knowledge hath every other grace 597. six helpes to saving knowledge 646. L LAw and precept our-only rule 210. Looke Drunkards look to us not to themselves 356. Love wicked men think they love God but they doe hate him 512. Drunkards love their sinnes better then their soules 551. a Drunkard can never love thee being sober and religious 834. a wicked mans love mercenary and inconstant 835. nothing rivits hearts so close as religion 845. Lust provoked by drunkennesse 54. discard all filthy lusts and corrupt affections 646. M MEanes must be used 664. to sinne against mercy the abundance of meanes and many warnings mightily aggravates sinne 475. Melancholly Drunkards drink to drive it away 259. but this increaseth it 260. Memory Drunkards have shallow memories 132 Mercy God in mercy infinitely transcendent 550. but it makes nothing for such as will not part with their sins 551. his mercy is a just mercy 554. mercy rejoyceth against justice but destroyeth not Gods justice 553. if we forsake our sinnes God will for give them how many and how great soever 152. wicked men apply Christs passion and Gods mercy as a warrant for their licentiousnesse 542. they are altogether in extreames either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that he will not pardon them upon their repentance 546. Mocking some will better abide a stake then others a mock 504. Mourne in all ages the godly alone have mourned for the abominations of their time 255. Modesty in some a vice 842. Most obejection that most men are of another judgement answered 589. Multitude how Sathan guls the rude multitude 293. the multitude will do what they see others do 371. of which many examples 372. Murther caused by drunkennesse 50. N NAmes we should taint our names by keeping evill company 808. to defend our neighbours good name if we can a duty 828. Naturall men called beasts in Scripture 3. O OBedience God hath equally promised all blessings to the obedient and threatned all manner of judgements to the disobedient 554. Offences Objection against offences answered 742. P PAssions and affections make partiall 352. they must be discarded 646 Peace our case would be far worse if wee had the worlds peace 390. not strange that wicked men should agree so well 414. agreement of wicked men not worthy the name of peace 832. Persecute wicked men persecute not the evil but the good 499. Petitions God may grant them in anger 659 Plague be it never so hot drunkards are the same 137. it hath wrought little or no reformation 245. many the worse for it 247. Taverns fullest when the streets emptiest 248. Pledge the originall of the word 327. Practise how the godly and wicked differ in their practise 249. wee know no more then wee practise 595. Pray Gods people count it a sinne not to pray for their greatest enemies 523. pray not for knowledge without putting difference 658. when we cannot pray what 663. Presumptuously do drunkards sin 471. Prejudice makes many resolve against yeelding 724. Pride and reputation of good-fellowship a cause of drunkennesse 277 pride of wit 280. Promises entailed to believers and limited with the condition of faith and repentance 560. Profession of religion 382.532 look Scoffs Punishment wicked men complaine of their punishment but of their sin they speake not 539. R REason as it is clouded with the mistes of original corruption a blind guid 202. once debauched is worse then brutishnesse 693. Reckoning worldlings never think of the reckoning they are to give 621. Regeneration what and how we may know our selves to be regenerate 565. Repentance what and how we may know whether we have repented 570. not to deferre it 588. sicknesse no fit time for it 79. God wil not accept our dry bones when Sathan hath suck't out all the marrow 586. the several wayes whereby God cals to repentance 478. in a judgement so many as repent are singled out for mercy 257 if any would repent of and relinquish this sin of drunkennesse let them first lay to heart the things delivered 695. secondly refraine the causes ibid. thirdly believe their state dangerous and that there is no way to helpe but by a chang to the contrary 696. fourthly be peremptory in their resolution ibid. fifthâ—y shame not to confesse their dislike of it in themselves and others 700. sixthly fly evill company 701. seventhly take heed of delayes 702. eightly omit not to pray for divine assistance ibid ninthly be diligent in hearing 703. tenthly frequent in the use of the Lords Supper ibid. eleventhly meditate what God hath done for them ibid. twelfthly think on the union we have with Christ ibid. thirteenthly confider that God ever beholdsthem 704. 14ly often think of the day of judgement ibid. fifteenthly consider the bainousnesse of this sin and the cvills which accompany it 705. sixteenthly abstaine from drunken company 709. for all depends upon this seventeenthly abstaine from drinking-places 710. Report of necessity we must be evill spoken of by some 756 the evill report of evill men an honour 763 Reputation hee of most reputation that can drinke most 139. Reward of drunkards 146. and swearers 104. they shall have a double portion of vengeance to other men 464 Righteous the civilly righteous have hell for their portion 465. S SAthan hath all worldlings under his command 21.402.432 and they must do what he will have them 379. by degrees be works men to the heighth of impiety 423. Saints falls should make us beware not presume 157. Scoffes beate off many from their profession 532. the scoffer commonly worse then the scoffed 367. none but fooles will be scoffed out of their religion 754. yet few that will not offend God and their conscience rather then be scoft at 749. Scripture he must be studious therein and follow that rule who will know Christ savingly 664. Security the certaine usher of destruction 242. Separate Drunkards and swearers deserve like dirt