guilty because the more wicked Darest thou to warrant it that God will take the less notice of the wrongs men do him because they are used and accustomed so to wrong and abuse him every hour in the day If your Reason can allow and warrant this I must say it is different yea and opposite to the common Reason of Mankind Say not I make my own Reason the Rule and Standard of yours or other mens For I argue here as I have done all along before upon the common Topicks and Maxims of Reason generally allowed all the World over by Mankind If a Practice be evil the oftner it is repeated the more still it is aggravated To be plain and faithful with you Gentlemen if it be your custom to blaspheme 't is God's custom to damn Blasphemers If you use to be drunk and unclean God uses to punish Drunkâ—rds and Adulterers if impenitent and unreformed with his everlasting wrath And when you are cited as shortly you must be before the awful Tribunal of the great the just and the terrible God ask but your selves whether such a Plea as this be like to excuse you in whole or in part and take off the heinousness of these horrid Impieties Will your prophane Oaths and direful Execrations and Imprecations be excused in the least degree by telling him Lord I was so accustomed to blaspheme thy Name Cursing Swearing and Damning were so familiar Language in my Lips from day to day that I had quite lost the sense of the Action as well as of the evil thereof and therefore Lord pity spare and have mercy on me O damn not my soul to thine everlasting wrath For though I have imprecated it upon my self yet frequent custom at length extinguished all my sense and conscience of the evil thereof till at length I could play with a direful imprecation as an harmless thing nay thought it an ornament and grace to my Speech a gallant Expression alamode the Times and Places I lived in Is not this as good a Plea and not a jot better than that of a Malefactor upon his Tryal for Life and Death when Theft or Robbery have been evidently and substantially proved upon him and the Judge demandeth what he hath to say for himself why Sentence of Death should not pass upon him Mercy my Lord Mercy cries he for I have been so used and accustomed to filching and thieving from my Youth up that for some years before I was apprehended every ones Goods and Cattel seemed to me to look like my own so that I scarce knew when I stole and when I did not And thus Gentlemen you have heard a fair Tryal of the Sin of prophane Swearing and Imprecations of Damnation and you have heard the verdict of your own Reason and Conscience upon the Case The Lord help you to break off and reform that sin for which there is not one word of Apology or excuse now left in your Mouths Let me close all I have to say upon this head with one plain Question Do you think you must die or live here for ever as you now do If you are convinced as all the Living are supposed to be that you must die do you desire an easie and comfortable or a painful and terrible Death I presume there is no man living that is convinced he must die but desires naturally and rationally an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as easy and comfortable a dissolution as may be If so I appeal to your Reason whether prophane swearing and blaspheming the Name of God be a proper rational way to obtain peace and comfort at death With what hope or encouragement can those tongues of yours cry at death Lord have mercy upon me which have prophaned that Name and imprecated Damnation from him till you came into your last extremities which convinced you you could live no longer 'T is a serious Question and well worth a cool and solemn debate in your own Reasons and Consciences Some of you are more immediately exposed to the dangers of death than others ready to be disbanded by a Bullet If you fall you must either fall considerately or inconsiderately If inconsiderately and without any sense or conscience of this horrid guilt you die impenitently and consequently desperately and miserably If considerately and with awakened Consciences I demand Whether such guilt as this will not roar louder than the Peals and Vollies of those great and small Guns do which breathe Destruction upon you and round about you I have done my Message plainly and faithfully to the very face of your Reason and Conscience and if for my faithfulness and zeal both for God's honour and yours I am rewarded with your Câ—rses yet if you would forbear to blaspheme and â—end in pieces the Name of God I shall not much regard the obloquy and reproach my Name shall undergo and suffer upon that account But I expect from you better fruit than this CHAP. IV. Wherein Reason and Conscience are again consulted about the Practice of Drunkenness and their righteous and impartial Censure given upon that Case SECT I. THough our Souls and Bodies be of vastly different Natures and Originals yet they do clasp and embrace each other with most dear and tender affection 'T is marvellous to behold such a Spiritual and Heavenly Creature as the Soul in all men fervently loving and in most men fondly doting upon a lump of Clay a clod of Earth It sympathizeth tenderly with it If the meanest Member of the Body be in pain the Soul is presently concerned for it and evidences it self to be so by commanding the eyes both to watch and weep the Tongue to complain and moan the Hands to bind up its Wounds with all imaginable tenderness and carefully defend it from the least injurious touchâ— But if the whole be in danger how do its nobler Faculties of Understanding Memory and Invention awaken and bestir themselves to the uttermost for its deliverance and safety Whilst the Soul lives in union with the Body 't is filled with assiduous and too often with exorbitant and distracting cares for its necessary support and comfort And when it must be separated from it by death what strong aversations to death doth it ordinarily discover The strong tyes and bonds betwixt it and the Body cannot be loosed without much conflict and strugling evidenced by these Emphatical groans it sends forth groans which other men understand not nor can be supposed to understand till they themselves come to feel the parting Pull The reason of all which lies in the intimate relation which is betwixt these different Natures which God hath married together in the Womb from which time they have been companions and partners in all the comforts and troubles of life The Body is the Soul's house in which iâ— dwells and still shall dwell till death dissolve it 'T is the Soul's Garment that clothes and covers it It hath worn this Garment of Flesh from the beginning and is
Step too for the Lord's sake Gentlemen that blessed Step beyond meer Civility to serious Godliness Oh that I knew what Words to chuse and what Arguments to urge that might possibly prevail with you My Witness is in Heaven I would do any thing within my power to procure your temporal and eternal Happiness I beg you in the bowels of Christ Jesus as if I were upon my bended knees before your feet turn not away your eye or ear from these Discourses Ponder and consider once and again what hath been rationally debated in the First Part about your Reformation and what hath and shall be offered in this Second Part. Oh my God! thou that hast counted me faithful and put me into the Ministry thou that hast inclined my heart to make this attempt and encouraged me with hope that it shall not be in vain to all them that read it if it must be so to some I beseech thee lay the hand of thy Spirit upon the heart and hand of thy Servant strengthen and guide him in drawing the Bow of the Gospel and directing the Arrows that they may strike the Mark he aims at even the Conviction and Conversion of lâ—uâ—d and dissolute sinners Command these Considerations to stay and settle in their hearts till they bring them fully over to thy self in Christ. I. Consideration And first O that you would consider how the whole of your Life past hath been cast away in vain as to the great end and business you came into the world for You have breathed many Years but not lived one Day to God Your Consciences could never yet prevail with you to get out of the noise and hurry of the World and go along with it into some private retiring-place to debate the state of your Souls and think close but for one hour to such awâ—ul Subjects as God Soul Christ and Eternity Heaven Hell Death and Judgment Do you think Gentlemen that you came into this world to do nothing else but to eat and drink sport and play sleep and die Ask your selves I beseech you whether the life you have hitherto lived have looked to your own eyes like an earnest â—light from Hell and a serious pursuit of Heaven and Salvation How much nearer are you got to Christ now than you were when in your Cradles The sweetest and â—ittest part of your life is past away in Vanity and there 's no calling one day or hour of it back again II. Consideration Consider Gentlemen for Christ Jesus sake you have yet an opportunity to be eternally happy if you will slight and neglect opportunities of Salvation no longer The Door of mercy is not yet finally shut up The Lord Jesus yet waits to be gracious to you Such is his astonishing grace and mercy he will pardon and pass by all that you have done against him if now after all you will but come unto him that you may have life Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die Your Swearing and Blaspheming your Drunkenness Uncleaâ—ness and Enmity at Godliness shall never be mentioned if you will yet repent and return Ezek. 18. 21 22. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him If you say these are hard and impossible terms to Nature 'T is true they are so and God's eâ—d in urging them here upon you is to convince you of your natural impotence and drive you to Christ that by union with him the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in you III. Consideration Let it be throughly considered 'T is no less than Salvation and your own Salvation too which depends upon your Conversion How diligent was Christ in purchasing Salvation How negligent and remiss are we in applying it Oh what compositions of sloth and stupidity are unconverted Sinners How do they sit with folded arms as if it were easy to perish Is this your running and striving to obtain the Palms and Crowns of Immortal Glory Work out saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 12 13. your own salvation with fear and trembling 'T is for Salvation and nothing less you are here pressed to strive And what care pains or soâ—licitude of ours can be equal and proportionate to so great a thing as salvation If every thought of the heart were rescued from all other concerns and the mind stand continuâ—lly â—ixed with utmost intention upon this Subject 〈◊〉 such a Subject deserves it all and much more But when you consider it is not an ther 's but your own Salvation you are striving for how powerfully should the Principle of Self-preservation awaken and invigorate your utmost endeavours after it The Law of Charity and Bowels of Mercy would compel us to do much to save the Body and much more the Soul of another and will they move us to do nothing for our own Salvation Say not if I should be careless and neglective yet God is good and gracious if this Season be neglected there be more to come Alas that 's more than you know 'T is possible your Eternal Happiness may depend upon the improvement of this present opportunity There 's much of time in a short opportunity IV. Consideration Do you think your hearts would be in such a dead careless and unconcerned â—rame alâ—o at this great and awful matter of your Conversion and Salvation if those things were now before your eyes which certainly and shortly must be before them How rational and necessary is it for you now to suppose those very things as present before you which you know to be near you and a few Days or Hours will make present Here let me make a few Suppositions so rational because certainly future and near that no wise man will or dare to slight them as Fictions or Chimaera's I. Supposition Suppose your selves now upon your Death-beds your heart and breath failing your eye and heart-strings breaking all Earthly Comforts failing and shrinking from you These things you know are unavoidable and must shortly befall you Eccles. 8. 8. Suppose also in these your last Extremities your Consciences should awake as probably they will there being now no more Charms of Pleasure and sinful Companions to divert of stupifie them what a case will you then find your selves in What a cold sweat will then lie upon your panting bosoms What a pale horror will appear in your countenances Will you not then wish Oh that the time I have spent in vanity had been spent in the Duties of serious Piety Oh that I had been as careful of my Soul as I was of my Body What are the pains of Mortification which I was so afraid of to the pains of Damnation which I begin to scent and apprehend I thought it hard to pray mourn and deny my self but I shall find it harder to
avoided and that there are degrees of Goodness found in Pleasures and Delights p. 22. Sect. V. The Wisdom and Goodness of God admired in leaving Principles of Reason and Notices of Conscience in men after the Fall p. 24. Sect. VI. The Wickedness of violating and abusing these Notices and Principles p. 26. Sect. VII How reasonable it is that men should consult their Reasons and Consciences p. 29. CAAP. III. Giving the true censure of Reason and Conscience upon Prophane Swearing in Nine Sections Sect. I. TWO Ends for which God bestowed the noble Faculty of Speech upon man p. 31. Sect. II. The Nature and Grounds of Lawful Oaths p. 33. Sect. III. The Contumely and Malignity of Prophane Oaths p. 34. Sect. IV. What a dreadful provocation to God and hazard to the Community contumelious Blasphemy is p. 37. Sect. V. Till Publick Justice lay hold on Offenders the force of Reason tried upon them p. 39. Sect. VI. The Swearer's first Plea from the Lepor and Ornament that Oaths give to his Language weighed and rejected by Reason p. 41. Sect. VII His second Plea from provocations by men bafled by Reason p. 43. Sect. VIII His Third Plea That Swearing is modish and a Badge of Gentility confuted and overthrown by Six Reasons p. 44. Sect. IX The Last Plea for Swearing from Custom cast over the Bar of Reason p. 53. CHAP. IV. Reason and Conscience again consulted about the Sin of Drunkenness in Five Sections Sect. I. THE intimate and admirable love of Souls to their Bodies p. 57. Sect. II. The Prudence of the Soul manifested in its government of the Body p. 59. Sect. III. The dethroning of Reason by Drunkenness the highest exaltation of folly p. 61. Sect. IV. The Moans and Laments of a Drunkard's Body to his Soul represented in a pathetical Prosopopaea p. 63. Sect. V. The Drunkards First Plea from his Natural Ability p. 65. His Second Excuse from the relief of his anxious Cares p. 70. His Third Excuse from his Delight and Pleasure in Wine c. p. 72. His Fourth Excuse from alluring Company and Business p. 75. His Fifth Excuse from pretended Loyalty to the King p. 77. His Sixth Excuse from his plentiful Estate p. 78. CHAP. V. Containing the Determination of Reason and Conscience about the Sin of Uncleanness in Eight Sections Sect. I. GOD hath made more abundant Provision for the delight of Rational than of Brutal Beings within the Pale of his Laws p. 81. Sect. II. Corrupt Nature hates God's Confinements p. 82. Sect. III. God's Choice better than our own in Five Respects p. 84. Sect. IV. What should induce men to break out of God's Inclosure p. 87. Sect. V. The First Inducement from the Examples of Great Ones bafled by Reason p. 88. Sect. VI. The Second Inducement from pretended Necessity cashier'd by Reason p. 89. Sect. VII The Third Inducement from the absence of lawful Remedies rejected by Reason p. 92. Sect. VIII The Fourth Inducement from the Commonness of it wholly shamm'd and bafled by Reason p. 93. CHAP. VI. The Last Debate with Reason and Conscience about the bitter enmity and spirit of Persecution among professed Protestants in Six Sections Sect. I. Man naturally a sociable Creature p. 96 Sect. II. The Interest of States and Churches to make every Individual as useful as may be to the whole p. 98 Sect. III. The folly and misery of the feuds and animosities in the same Civil and Religious Societies ibid. Sect. IV. These Feuds presages of National Misery p. 100 Sect. V. The true Rise and Cause of this fixed Hatred p. 101 Sect. VI. This true cause politickly suppressed and silenced Hypocrisy pretended and the Pretence hafled p. 102 The Second Pretence of their Sedition and Rebellion bafled by Reason five ways ‖ p. 106 The CONTENTS of the SECOND PART Of the Possibility Nature and Necessity of Conversion to God in Ten Sections Sect. I. Conviction supposed and Grace therein admired p. 121 Sect. II. The Conversion of the vilest sinner possible demonstrated three ways p. 125 Sect. III. The Conversion of prophane Persons more probable than others fixed on their own Righteousness p. 129 Sect. IV. True Conversion frequently and fatally mistken p. 132 Sect. V. The Nature of true Conversion to God opened p. 135 Sect. VI. Opening one great hazard attending Conversion p. 136 Sect. VII Demonstrating the absolute Necessisy of thorough Conversion p. 138 Sect. VIII Men may do more than they do towards their own Conversion And what these things are p. 140 Sect. IX Discouragements removed out of the way of Conversion and the Sinners way prepared to Christ p. 142 Sect. X. Powerful Motives perswading to Conversion p. 144 THE REASONABLENESS OF Personal Reformation CHAP. I. The Introduction and State of the Case SECT I. REason exalts Man above all earthly Beings 'T is his Dignity and Priviledge that God hath furnished him with Abilities of Mind to recollect animadvert compare infer ponder and judge his own Actions Hereby he becomes not only capable of Moral Government by Humane Laws which no Creature beside him is but also of Spiritual Government by Divine Laws and the blessed Frutions of God in Glory which no other Species of Creatures Angels only excepted have a subjective capacity for Right Reason by the Law of Nature as an â—ome-born Judge arbitrates and determines all things within its proper Province which Province is extended far and wide All Action Natural Moral and Civil are weighed at thiâ— Beam and Standard None are exempted but maâ—ters of supernatural Revelation and yet eveâ— these are not wholly and in every respect exempâ— from Right Reason For though there be somâ— Mysteries in Religion above the sphere and flighâ— of Reason yet nothing can be found in Religioâ— that is unreasonable And though these Mysteries be not of naturaâ— investigation but of supernatural Revelation yet Reason is convinced nothing can be morâ— reasonable than that it take its place at the feeâ—â— of Faith which is but to suffer it self to becomâ— Pupil to an Omniscient and Infallible Instructoâ—â— The resolution of our Reason into Faith anâ— of Faith into God's Veracity are Acts highly beâ—coming Reasonable Beings in such Cases aâ— these It may not pry too nicely into unrevealed Myâ—â—steries demand the Reasons or examine thâ—â— Causes of them as bold and daring Socinians doâ— but it feels it self obliged to receive all those thing both as possible and true which God hath revealed counting his Revelation alone to be Reason suffiâ—cient For the Veracity of God takes out of Reaâ—sons mouth all Objections against the truth 〈◊〉 them and his Almighty Power silences all its Scruâ—â—ples against the possibility of them But in all Matters properly under the jurisdiâ—ction of Reason every man is obliged to accounâ— with himself as well as others for the reasonaâ—bleness of his own Actions and that Act whicâ— will not endure the test of sound Reason iâ— judges not fit for the entertainment of a Man 〈◊〉 Reason
to wear it still till Sickness hath brought it to Rags and Death stript it from the Soul 'T is the Tool and Instrument by which it doth all its Works whilst it is in this state of composition and therefore the Soul cannot but love it fervently No man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it SECT II. The case so standing betwixt the Soul and Body the wisdom or folly of the Soul is plainly discovered in its way and manner of governing the Body as the love and prudence of an Husband is in the government of his Wife Or the Master in ordering the Affairs of his House or the neat breeding of a Man in the comely wearing of his Garments Or the skill and care of an Artificer in the brightness keenness and sharpness of his Tools Some Husbands give evidence to the world of their governing-prudence and ability in such an allowance of liberty to their Wives as the Laws of Conjugal Love require and their Estates and Incomes will conveniently bear and no more and in restraining their Extravagances as well as by encouraging their vertuous Courses in keeping back no due encouragement to Vertue nor giving the least encouragement unto Vice A well-bred man that carries with him a becoming-sense of his Quality and the Decorum he ought accordingly to observe will wear his Garments decently and becoming his Rank They shall be sure to be neat and clean and sit fit and comely upon his Body He abhors to wear a Garment tumbled in the Mire and go like a Beast without regard to his Reputation No prudent Owner and Governour of an House will let the Rain drop through the Roof nor choak up the Passage to his Door with a nasty Dung-hill His House within shall be neat and not nasty The Rooms clean and comely And yet abhors to suffer superfluous Ornaments and costly Vanities to swallow up his Estate that should maintain it and bring Bailiffs more odious than a Dunghill to his very Doors The curious Artificer neither grinds away the substance of his Instruments to make them bright and glittering and set an Edge too fine to hold one minutes use nor yet suffers them to be thrown aside in some neglected corner where Rust and Flaws shall render them utterly useless or make him blush at the botches such Instruments will cause in his Work The prudent Husbandman will neither break the heart of his Ground for want of rest and compost nor yet over-load it with dressing which brings forth nothing but rank and useless Weeds He will in a fit season turn in a stream of Water to his Meadows like a Cordial-draught to fainting spirits but will not drown it and rot the very roots of his Grass by letting in too much or by suffering it to lie under Water too long He will feed his Horse high enough to perform his Journey and carry him through the Mire but will not feed him to such an heighth that the Rider shall neither be able to sit nor command him In all these cases the common prudence of every man directs him to that just mediocrity wherein both his Honour and Profit do apparently lie And what we say in such common cases and concerns as these is as true and much more excellent in the Soul 's prudent government of its own Body unto which it was espoused in the Womb and is its dear and constant Partner both in present and future Good or Evil. 'T is the Garment it wears the Instrument it useth and the Field it cultivaâ—es It must neither deny the Body those necessary Supports and Comforts which God and Nature allow it nor yet surfeit and overcharge it with more than it is able to bear In either of these Extreams the extream folly of the Soul is discovered SECT III. Now the dethroning of Reason and frequent Oppressions of Nature by the practice of Drunkâ—nness is the highest Exaltation of Folly in the Soul of Man plainly manifesting its ignorance and inability to order and govern the Body to which it is married by a vital Union Here 's a foolish Soul by misgovernment dishonouring and destroying its vigorous and comely Body under a pretence of Love and Kindness to it We account it one of the greatest outward Infelicities in this World incident to a discreet and virtuous Woman to be headed and governed by a sottish Fool neither able to govern himself or her nor give a reason of his own Actions or Commands A Man whose folly shall make her blush in all sober Companies he comes into and forces her upon such a Course of Life as she perfectly abhors and will bring speedy Ruin upon her all Men pity such a Case as this And this is the very Case of many a comely vigorous Body Only such a Woman hath two reliefs under her Bondage which the Body of a Drunkard wants She can sometimes withdraw and retire from his Company and enjoy the relief of her Solitude which the wretched Body of a Drunkard cannot do till Death but is tied day and night to the Company of its foolish Soul which is frequently abusing it and imposing upon it Besides such a Woman may haply over-live her vicious abusive Husband and spend many a comfortable year in the World with a more discreet sober and religious Partner of her Life whose Sobriety Discretion Piety and Love shall make full Compensation for all those years of Misery and Slavery she endured before But the Case before us admits no such Relief For as long as ever the Body lives and breathes the Soul is and must be with it and in it And tho Death will for a time separate and divorce them yet the Bodies second Marriage at the Resurrection can be with no other but the same Soul which oppreâ—sed and ruined it in this World And this second Marriage will be far worse than the first For tho it were the sottish Souls slave and drudge in this World and suffered many â— sickness shame and loss by its Folly yet in the World to come it must be its Partner and Companion in Hell-torments for evermore in aâ— much as it was the Instrument the Soul used iâ— most of those Sins committed by it in this World And this is the case of all Bodies married to and governed by Souls that have neither Reason nor Religion enough prudently and soberly to order and govern their own Bodies SECT IV. Sad and doleful therefore are the Laments and Complaints of the Bodies of Drunkards against the Folly and Tyranny of their Souls and as just as sad Let me therefore here act the part of an Advocate for your Bodies which is a part of your selves and to which by the Law of Nature you owe Love Care and Honour or rather by a Prosopopaea let me bring in the Body sighing out its own Complaints in the Ears of its own Soul and thus bemoaning it self to it Oh my Soul I have cause to lament the day
that ever I was married to such a sottish Fool as thou art who art destitute both of Wisdom and Love to Rule and Govern me I may justly resume Iob's Lamentation upon thy account and say with him Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night wherein it was said there is a man-child conceived Why died I not from the Womb Why did I not givâ— up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly For now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept then I had been at rest I have been a perfect Slave and Drudge to thy unreasonable Lusts and Impositions I was once an active vigorous comely Body and hadst thou been Wise and Sober I had been happy But thou hast been a cruel Tyrant to me oppressing and loading me with more than I was able to stand under Thou hast plunged me many times into those puddles of Excess wherein thou hast drowned thy own Reason and my Health My well-mixed Beauty is now turned into the colour of flaming Fire my Hands and Legs shake my Tongue falters my natural Crasis and Temperament is destroyed Thou hast made me miserable in this World and intendest to make me more wretched in the World to come Sober Nature gave me my stint and measure I knew when it was enough and gave thee sufficient Items and Intimations amidst thy foolish Frolicks that I could neither with Honour or Safety bear one Glass more But thou wast deaf to all my moans and shewedst more Mercy to thy Horse than me Sick or well able or unable live or die I must take in the full number of Cups and Bottles thou enjoynedst me to take Like another Pharoah thou hast required of me the full tale whether I had strength to perform it or no. Yea like another Devil thou hast sometimes cast me into fiery Fevers and watry Dropsies and will next cast me if thou continue this course into Hell-fire it self Other Souls have set thee a better Pattern in their more sober and prudent Government of their Bodies They give their Bodies the true Pleasure of the Creature by keeping them to that happy Mediocrity in which it consists They devote their Bodies to the Service of God thou hast devoted me to the immediate Service of the Devil A Majestick Beauty sits upon their Faces Sottishness and Folly upon mine Their Knees are daily bowed in Prayer to God mine shake and tremble in the Service of the Devil They enjoy pure and sanctified Pleasures every day but I am denied the sober Pleasures of a Beast Their Bodies will be happy with their Souls in the World to come but I must suffer Eternally with thee and for thee Thou hast both consumed me and thy Estate given to support me and now I am like to suffer as much by want as I have done by excess and all this through thy misgovernment These Feet if thou hadst pleased to command them would as readily have carried thee to thy Closer or the Assemblies of God's People as to an Ale-house or Tavern These Fingers would have served to open and turn the blessed Pages which contain the Oracles of God as to Cog a Die or have Shuffled and Dealt a Pack of Cards This Tongue might have been melodiously employed in singing the Praises of God among his People as well as in Swearing Roaring and Singing among drunken Sots and Fools if thou hadst been endued with governing Wisdom Thou knowest I could do nothing without thee Thou hast a despotical Power over all my Members They are at thy beck and thou at the Devil 's Better had it been for me had I been the Body of a contemptible Worm or Fly than a Body animated and governed by such a sottish Soul as thou art And now my Soul what hast thou to say for thy self What tolerable account canst thou give to God or me of these thy vile Abuses of both SECT V. Now let us hear what the Soul of the Drunkard hath to plead in its own Excuse and Defence for all his wrongs against God mischiefs to it self ruin to his Health Name and Estate They have various Excuses tho not one sound or rational one among them all Such as they are let them be tried by the Rule of Reason if any Reason by yet left in them who daily dethrone it by this worse-than bruitish Practice That which they have to say for themselves is this 1. That their Bodies are strongly constituted more capacious to receive and able to bear greateâ— quantities of Wine and Strong-drink than otherâ— are and therefore why should they not drink down and glory over those that vye with them 2. Others say They would not take that Course they do but that when they are Sober and Solitary they are so press'd with the thoughts of their Debtâ— and Incumbrances in the World that they are upon a perfect Rack and they find nothing like good-fellowship in a Tavern or Ale-house so effectually relieving against the Cares and Anxieties of their Minds 3. Some will tell us they are drawn into it by the snare of Pleasure nothing being so grateful to their Palate as their full load of generous Wine or Strong-drink And seeing it is so pleasant and delightsome to them why should they deny and abridge themselves of their Pleasure 4. Others will profess they had never taken this Course which they find upon many accountâ— pernicious to them but that they are not able in Civility to deny their intimate Friends and Companions especially such with whom they have concerns in Trade and Business and they must drink as they do or suffer loss in their Trade and beside that be stigmatized for Phanaticks 5. They will also say they are obliged in point of Loyalty to pledg him that Consecrates as they Catechrestically call it the first Glass to the King or Persons of Quality and Honour 6. And lastly some will tell us They have plentiful Estates that will bear such Expences and since their Pockets are full why should not their Heads and Stomachs be for too Beside these six Apologies for Drunkenness nothing falls into my Imagination pleadable for this Sin We will weigh these that are pleaded in the common Ballance of the Reason of Mankind and try the validity of them one by one And for the Excuse I. And first to what you say of the Capacity of your Bodies Strength and Ability of your Constitutions to receive and bear greater Quantities of Wine and strong Drink than others can and therefore why should you not give a proof of it when challeng'd and get Reputation to your selves by drinking down and glorying over such as vye with you To this I reply three things which must be laid in the Counter-ballance and let the Ballance be held in the upright Hand of your own Reason 1. A strong and vigorous Constitution will be readily acknowledged to be so great an external Blessing and Mercy that no Man of sound Intellectuals
the Phanaticks as you call them have reason to thank you for the Honour and Justice you have done them in acknowledging them to be none of the Members of your hellish Society but Persons of a more sober and honourable Character And I appeal to your Reason whether it would not be more for your Honour to wear the unjust Title of a Phanatick than the just censure of a Drunken Sot Excuse 5. You say you are obliged in poinâ— of Loyalty to pledge him that consecrates the first Glass to the Health of the King or any Person of Eminency I leave it still to your Reason to be Judge 1. Whether the King have cause to account the manifest breach of the Laws by which he governs to be a signal expression of his Subjects Loyalty to him Is not his Royal Authority his Honour and Safety in his Laws And is he not finely honoured think you by such drunken Loyalty as this Gentlemen you have a King over you of sounder Intellectuals and more exemplary Temperance and Sobriety than to be thus imposed upon 2. Can you think he reckons his Health in the least degree advanced or secured by the ruin and subversion of his Subjects Health No no Did the genteelest Drunkards in England enquire they would quickly find it would more please him if they would consult their own Health better and pray for his more sincerely and fervently than they do Excuse VI. Your last Excuse is That you have plentiful Estates that will bear it and since your Pockets are full why should your Heads or Stomachs be empty Question The only Question I would here state and leave your own Reason to determine is this Whether you think the expence of the redundancy and over-plus of your Estates in Excess and Drunkeâ—ness be the very end and design God aimed at in bestowing those things with such a bountiful hand upon you and whether the expence of it in this way will please him as well as if you clothed the Naked and fed the Hungry with it and brought the Blessings of them that are ready to perish upon you and your Families Ah Gentlemen you must come to a day of reckoning Your Reasons and Consciences can never tell you you can make up as comfortable an account with God by setting down so many Hundred Pound in Wine and Strong Drink more than was necessary or beneficial Item so many Thousand Pounds lost in Play So much upon Whores as if yoâ— set down so much to feed and cloath the Naked and Hungry So that all your Excuses for this Sin are bafled by your own Reason and it was easy to conclude that such a Traytor to Reason as Drunkenness is which hath so often dâ—throned it could not possibly receive a more favourable Judgment and Sentence than this now given upon it Let all Drunkards henceforth consider what a voluntary madness the Sin of Drunkenness is how it unmans them and sets them below the very Brutes A Grace Father calls it rightly A Distemper of the Head a subversion of the Senses a tempest in the Tongue the Storm of the Body the shipwrack of Virtue the loss of Time a wilful madness a pleasant Devil a sugar'd Poyson a sweet Sin which he that hath hath not himself and he that commits it doth noâ— only commit Sin but himself is altogether Sin Turbatio capitâ—s subversio sensûs tempestas linguae procella corporis naufragium virtutis amissio temporis insania voluntaria blande Daemon dulce venenum suave pecatum quam qui habet seipsum non habet quam qui facit peccatum non tantùm facit sed ipse totus est peccatum 'T is a Sin at which the most sober Heathens blushed The Policy of the Spartanâ— was more commendable than their Piety in making Men drunk that their Children might gaze upon them as a Monster and be scared for ever from such an horrid Practice He that is mastered by Drunkenness can never be Master of his own Counsels Both Reason and Religion condemn this Course Make a Pause therefore where you are and rather throw that Wine or Beer upon the Ground which else will cast thy Body upon the Ground and thy Soul and Body into Hell CHAP. V. Containing the result and issue of the Third Consultation with Reason upon the Case of Vncleanness and the true Report of the Determination of every mans Reason with respect thereunto SECT I. THe Bountiful and Indulgent God hath made more abundant provision for the Pleasure and Delight of Rational than of Brutal Beings And his Wise and Righteous Laws order and limit their Pleasures to their great advantage his Allowances under those Restrictions being large and full enough Both Reason and Experience assure us that the truest Pleasures are most freely and honourably to be enjoyed within the Pale and Boundary of his Laws and that there are none fit for the enjoyment of a Man or Christian to be found without or beyond them That prudent Owner provides best for his Cattel who puts them into inclosed fragrant Fields where they have plenty of proper and pleasant Food Sweet and pure Springs of Water the pleasant Covert of shady Trees and all that is either necessary or convenient for them altho' those Fields be so inclosed within Pales or Walls that they cannot stray without those Boundaries iâ— to other mens Grounds to be by them impounded and brought back lank tired and dirty to their Owner or by straying into Wasts and Wildernesses fall a Prey as Straglers use to do to Wolves and Lyons God envies not any true rational and proper pleasure to Men or Women when he bounds them in by his Command within the allowance whereof sufficient provision is made for the benefit and delight of propagation And though it be all mens Duty to tremble at the awful Solemnity yet it would be any mans sin to repine and murmur at the strictness and severity of his Command delivered with Thunder and Lightning from Mount Sinai Thou shalt not commit Adultery Man's honourable Liberty and God's wise and just Restraint and Limitation thereof are both set together before our eyes in that one Scripture Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterors God will judge Here 's a liberal allowance granted and a severe Punishment threatned for the inordinancies and exorbitancies of boundless and ungovernable Lusts. God will judge with temporal Judgments in this world and upon impenitent persistents with eternal Judgments in the world to come SECT II. Such is the corruption of Man's Nature by the Fall that it hates Inclosures Restraints and Limitations These things which were intended to regulate serve only to sharpen and eâ—â—age their sensual Appetite No Fruit so sweet to corrupt Nature as forbidden Fruit. Nitimur in vetitâ—â—â— sempèr cupimusque negata The very restraint of Evil makes it look like a pleasant and desirable Good Sons of Belial can endure no yoke of restraint
presumed if your Profession be sincere to make at least as much Conscience of breaking any of them in your own Persons else neither Reason nor Conscience will ever admit this Plea of yours for sound and good Now the Laws sometimes appoint Punishments for Non-conformity to the Rites and Ceremonies affixed to the publick National Worship and so they do always for convicted Swearing Drunkenness and Adultery All these Laws have the very same Sanction by the Authority we live under They forbid and punish the one as well as the other And if there be any difference it lies in this that these latter are expresly forbidden and threatned by God antecedently to the Magistrate's Prohibition of them which hath no small weight in the matter under consideration Now if any Man shall pretend Zeal and Conscience against dissent in Judgment or Practice from the Church but makes no Conscience at all to Curse and Swear be Drunk or Unclean he will find it a difficult task to perswade his own or other mens Reasons or Consciences that this his Zeal for the Laws and Government is sincere and pure For were it so it could never allow him to live in the notorious Violation of the Laws himself which he is so fierce and bitter against others for Expectation II. Secondly If your Zeal be sincere it will contain it self within the Bounds and Limits of the Offence and not lay hold upon the Innocent as well as upon the Guilty and make you hate and persecute them that were never Turbulent and Seditious equally with the greatest Criminals If you will hug this Principle as things stand now Reason will tell you 't is as just at all other times as it is at this Would you not think it an unreasonable and most injurious thing to be plucked out of your Shops or Houses and hurried away to the Goal because two or three dissolute Fellows in the City or Town where you live have been Riotous or Seditious tho you possibly know not the Men nor can be so much as justly suspected of any Confederacy with them True Zeal for the Laws and Government is content to wait and suspend its Revenges till a fair Conviction have passed upon the Guilty And when it falls upon them 't is careful that it touch none besides them but suffers a Man to retain in the very height of it due Love and Honour for all that are Innocent If Christians be first denominated by general Titles and Terms of distinction which they cannot help and then the Crimes of any particular Person that the World pleases to denominate as one of the same Party must be charged and imputed to the whole what must the consequence of this be but that the whole Community become obnoxious to Punishment and the very Government it self thereupon be dissolved For I take it to be past denial or doubt that some of each Denomination have been are or may be guilty of seditious Practices Some Hypocrites will lurk among those vast Bodies of People under the most strict and watchful Government but God forbid their guilt should affect the whole Body under whose Name they shelter themselves God Reason and Conscience do all command the hottest Zeal to make its Pause and just Distinction here Let the Guilty be brought to Condign Punishment upon fair Tryal and Conviction This Discourse designs no Favour for such But let not those who abhor their Wickedness and are as pure from their Crimes as your selves suffer with them or for them For then your Reason will tell you your selves are as liable to sufferings as they and that your Zeal is not kindled by love to Justice but the hatred of a Party It is not in the Body Politick as in the Body Natural If the hand Steal the feet are justly laid in Irons and the Neck put into an Halter because all the Members of the Body Natural are animated and governed but by one Soul But in the Body Politick every Individual hath a distinct Soul of his own and therefore that Member only that offends ought to be punished and all the rest to enjoy their full Liberty and Honour as before Away therefore for ever with this Church and State-destroying Synecdoche Expectation III. Thirdly If there be a change made upon the Laws and they shall at any time tolerate and protect that Party and Practice which once they made Criminal then your Reason and every Mans else will expect from you if your Zeal for the Laws and Government be sincere and unfeigned that your Countenance and Carriage to that People be changed and altered according to the different aspect of the Laws and Government upon them That your Envy and Hatred cease with the offence and that you be as ready to assist and encourage them when they act according to Law as you formerly were to afflict and prosecute them for acting contrary to Law else pretend what you will 't is plain enough that it was not Zeal for the Laws and Government but somewhat else which every Body may guess at that inflamed your Rage against them For whensoever the Wisdom of the Government finds it necessary by Toleration to take away the Crime and Offence it must necessarily take away this very Plea for Hatred and Persecution with it Otherwise it would be all one to act for Law and against Law to punish them that are Offenders and them that offend no more than your selves to turn the Edg of your Rage and Fury against those that undermine the Government and those that are as Zealous as your selves to support and defend it by their Persons and Purses Expectation IV. Fourthly Your Reason will justly expect it from you that when or wheresoever you shall see eminent Piety meeting with punctual Conformity in one Man that Man shall be your very Darling and that both these Qualifications should recommend him to your dearest Affection The more strictly godly he is the more conformable he is to the Laws of God as well as by his punctual Compliance with enjoyned Rules and Rites of Worship to the Laws of Men. If he be a Man of Catholick Charity to all of every Perswasion whom he judges to fear God and be truly conscientious if he boldly and impartially reprove Sin where-ever he finds it tho it be in his own Patron or Men of his own Profession you will still love him the more for that For if Sincerity and Conformity as you pretend be the very things which you make such a Noise and Bussle for in the World here you have them both in conjunction This is the Man you seem to seek by these Pleas of yours for a Pattern and Standard to reduce other Men to And is it really so Gentlemen with you Do you heartily affect and prize a strict and serious Conformist that fears not to expose the odious Shamefulness and Wickedness of profane Swearing Cursing Drunkenness and Uncleanness without respect of Persons both in his Pulpit and private