are in favour with God so they spend their dayes in mirth saith Iob and suddenly they goe downe into Hell Iob. 21.13 § 34. NEither is it strange that they should be so jocund confident and secure Drunkards insensible of their sia and daâ—ger because ignorant that they should neither be sensible of their present condition nor afraid of future Iudgments for for what the eye seeth not the heart rueth not security makes worldlings merry and therefore are they secure because they are ignorant A dunse wee know seldome makes doubts yea a foole saith Salomon boasteth and is confident Pro. 14.16 and by a foole in all his Proverbs hee meanes the naturall man As the Spyder which kills men cures Apes so ignorance doth wonderfully profit nature which is the greatest bane to grace that can bee it is a vaile or curtaine to hide away their sinnes our knowledge saith one of the learned doth but shew us our ignorance and wisdome saith another is but one of mans greatest miseries unlesse it be as well able to conquer as to decerne the next to being free from miseries is not to be sensible of them Erasmus could spie out a great priviledge in a blockish condition Fooles saith hee being free from ambition enuy shame and feare are neither troubled in conscience nor masserated with cares and beasts we see are not ashamed of their deeds Where is no reason at all there is no sinne where no use of reason no apprehension of sinne and where is no apprehension of sinne there can be no shame Blind men never blush neither are these men ashamed or afraid of any thing because for want of bringing their lives to the rule of Gods word they perceive not when they doe well when ill the timber not brought to the Rule may easily appeare straight when yet it is not nay because they see not their owne soules they are ignorant that they have any and as little care for them as they know them they beare that rich treasure in their bodies as a Toade doth a pretious stone in her head and know it not What 's the reason a worldling can strut it under an unsupportable masse of oathes blasphemies thefts murthers Why they are so jocund and confident drunkennesse whoredomes and other such like sinnes yea can easily swallow these spiders with Mithridates and digest them too their stomackes being accustomed unto them when one that is regenerate shrinkes under the burthen of wandering thoughts and want of proficiency It is this the one is in his element the state of nature the other taken forth now a fish in the river is not afraid of drowning Yea let a man dive under whole tunnes of water in the Sea he feeles not any weight it hath because the water is in it's proper place and no element doth weigh downe in it's owne place but take the same man forth and lay but one vessell upon his shoulders he feeles it a great burthen and very weighty so every small sinne to a holy man who is in the state of Regeneration hath a tender conscience and weigheth his sinne by the ballance of the Sanctuary is of great weight but to a naturall man who hath a brawny conscience is plunged over head and eares in sensuallity and weighteth his sinne by the ballance of his owne carnall reason it is a light thing not worth the regarding yea so long as they remaine in this estate they are dead in sin Eph. 2.1 Rev. 3.1 Now lay a mountaine upon a dead man hee feeles not once the weight Well then may these doe much evill to others but small hope is there that others should doe good upon them or reforme them from this sinne of swearing no it is an evill which for insolencie and grouth scornes to be slaine either by tongue or pen but like the Princes of Middian it calls for Gideon himselfe even the power of the magistrate to fall thereon § 35 INdeed a course might be taken by the State to make them leave it Three wayes to make them leave their swearing though nothing shall ever be able to make them feare an oath should they see never so many stroke dead while they are jesting with these edged tooles as diverse have beene I will onely instance three examples A Serving man in Lincolneshire for every trifle used to sweare Gods pretious blood and would not be warned by his friends to leave it at last he was visited with a grievous sicknesse in which time he could not be perswaded to repent of it but hearing the bell towle in the very anguish of death he started up in his bed and swore by the former oath that bell towled for him whereupon immediatly the blood in abundance from all the joynts of his body as it were in streames did issue out most fearefully from mouth nosthrils knees heeles and toes withall other joynts not one left free and so died Earle Godwine wishing at the Kings table that the bread hee eate might choake him if he were guilty of Alphred's death whom he had before slaine was presently choaked and fell downe dead It was usuall with Iohn Peter mentioned in the booke of Martyrs to say it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I dye and God saying Amen to it he rotted away indeede For what 's the use they would make of Gods judgments in the like cases Even the same that the Philistins of Ashdod made of their fellowes destruction when God so fearefully plagued them for keeping and prophaning of his Arke which was this peradventure it is Gods hand that smot them for so they reasoned and so these would halfe believe yet it may be it is but a chance that hath happened unto them 1 Sam. 6.9 when yet they saw that all which were guilty suffered in the judgement and onely they so these would but halfe believe if they should see the like judgements executed upon their fellowes The onely way to make them leave their swearing is let them have it upon their carkases and then though the belly hath no eares yet the back would feele Or let them for every oath bee injoyned and enforced to a months silence as Tiberius the Emperor condemned a great railer to a whole yeares yea as he among the Indians take it on Aelian's credit that told a lye thrice was condemned to perpetuall silence so I am sure it were happy for the Church if these swearers were so silenced except they would forbeare their swearing Or let their purses pay for it and this would touch them to the quicke this is a tryed remedy the land hath had experience of it when there was an act made by King Henry the fifth and his Parliament that if any Duke swore an oath hee should pay forty shillings a Barron twenty shillings a Knight or an Esquire ten shillings a Yeoman three shillings foure pence a Servant whipt and the same as well executed as inacted no man was once
all And lastly wee reade that they would never drinke wine before they were twenty yeares of age whereas many of our children are halfe killed before they are borne with distempered drinkes at least when they are borne no day no meale must they be without sipping downe wine their over indulgent parents who like Apes many times kill their young with making much of them will have it so whereupon not a few become Drunkards and company keepers very betime and before any would imagine as St. Hierome telleth of one that swore by her Iove she was lewd or naught so early that no one so much as dreamed of it In a word wine and strong drink hath drowned more men then the sea hath devoured and more dye of surfeits then by the sword Yea as drunkennesse hath drowned more soules then all the sinnes of Sodome so it hath drowned more bodies then were drowned in the generall deluge of Noahs flood § 17. VVHy but saith the Tipler Wine An objection answered if not received to surfeite refresheth the spirits and cheares the heart as is well knowne I finde it I feele it I perceive it doth me good and I will believe mine own eyes and tast before Hippocâ—ates or ten Salomons Salomon answers in effect thus much Prov. 23.29 to 35. Bee not deceived with shewes and shadowes a man may be drunke though his eyes be not out and may be deceived though his eyes be in too All is not gold that glisters all is not paid that is promised wine promiseth much for the present but it will deceive thee in the end it promiseth health but it payes sicknesse it promiseth comfort but thou shalt find sorrow it promiseth helpe but thou shalt receive hurt it is a poysoned potion a flattering but cruell Hyaena much like that double headed serpent Amphisbaena or one of those Locusts Apoc. 9.10 that carries a sting in the taile though the face bee smiling and flattering Not that wine in it selfe which is a good creature of God is any way evill or the use of it unlawfull Lycurgus was out when he destroyed all the Vines to prevent drunkennesse he had done farre better if he had made more Wells that so the heat of the wine might have beene alayed with the coldnesse of the water For though God will not allow us to be drunk with wine yet he doth not forbid us to drinke wine use a little wine for thy stomacks sake and thine often infirmites sayes Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 5. And give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to them that have griefe of heart are the words of the Holy Ghost Prov. 31.6 But a little proofe will serve the turne to perswade men that wine is lawfull all the matter is how to have them use it lawfully Aud thus the drunkard is injurious to his body First by deforming it Secondly by weakning and disabling it whereby his life is lingringly and by little and little consumed But this is not all for § 18. THirdly The Drunkard his own executioner as if he scorned to goe to his grave in peace he strives to doe execution upon himselfe either by drinking untill his skinne and guts crack againe as how many have drunk themselves dead how many have even burst themselves with drinking and so dyed as it were with the weapon in their belly being taken away in Gods just wrath c. Or secondly by a frequent exposing himselfe to divers miserable accidents yea fearefull and lamentable mishaps for as if the proverbe A drunken man never takes harme were good Scripture hee careth not what way he goeth in the darke what falls he taketh how he knocks breakes and maymes himselfe whereby he often batters his face bruiseth his body breaks his armes leggs and many times his neck what bridges hee passeth over whereby sometimes he falleth into the water and is drowned what hedges he lyes under where even Snakes have beene known to creepe down drunkards throats into their bellies as they have layen asleepe in the fields all which the Philosopher considering he compared one drunk to a running Coach without a Coachman to guide it Or thirdly A coward pot-valiant will kil and flay by running into quarrels when hee is drunke as what else but the pot breeds so many brawles quarrels debates duels stabbs murthers with such like dangerous and bitter fruits for while the wine workes they resemble those fishes which love to be in violent streams and flood-gates but doe dye in still waters which the Egyptians observing made them abhorre all wine for as Plutarch reports they did never use any untill the time of Psammeticus so much as in their sacrifices or drinke offerings upon conceit that it was the blood of those Gyants which they had heard did once make warre against God And S. Augustine affirmes that the Manichees could not abide it as being the gall as they foolishly thought of the prince of darknesse Yea who will sooner kill and slay then cowards when once they are pot valiant I have knowne ere now a very Dametas guilty of no little courage and suspected of true valour as who will not thinke him both a valiant and excellent Pilot that dares brave a whole fleet out of a simple Cockboate I deny not but such an ones discourse may sometimes sound big and yet meane nothing cowards being most forward both in giving charge with the tongue and recoyling backe with the foot yea you shall see a man looke like the foure windes in painting as if hee would blow away the enemy and yet at the very first onset suffer feare and trembling to dresse themselves in his face apparently and commonly where is least heart there is most tongue swelling words being like the report of a great Ordnance which doth only blaze and cracke and smoake and stinke and vanish And lightly if wee note such an one hee seldome unbuttons his tumored breast but when hee findes none to oppose the bignesse of his lookes and tongue but this holds not alwaies for sure I am many do that in a Tavern which they repent at Tyborne and nothing more common then for drunkards to kisse when they meet and kill when they part § 19. OF which there is a double reason Drunkennesse the cause of murther First as they are fiery of face so are they as cholerick of condition and how should they choose when they feed only upon fire their bread and flesh their first and second course being drinke and salt meates which turneth all their nourishment into choller the froth of blood yea little else then drinke doe they swallow for that they are no trencher-men is all their boast and all they have to bee proud of yea they drinke downe their throats belch out of their mouthes and breath out of their nostrells nothing but meere flames yea that which they vent forwards is the same for it comes out as sheere wine as it
But alasse even at this present when many lawfull and indifferent actions are unexpedient these warped wicked wretched men neither feare nor cease to roare drinke drab sweare c. so difficult is the work like Iairus Minstrels they cannot forbeare to play and revell even in the time and place of mourning Dives-like they must have exquisite musick merry company dainty fare c. every day so little are they mooved with Gods displeasure and this grievous judgement Yea notwithstanding it is for their sakes that judgements are upon us and that their crying sinnes have pierced the heavens and brought downe the Plague upon thousands as when Achan sinned Israel was beaten neither did the wickednesse of Peor stretch so far as the Plague yea the Adultery of those few Gibeonites to the Levites wife was the occasion of six and twenty thousand mens deaths besides all their wives and children together with forty thousand and odd of the Israelites Iudg. 20. when the death of those few malefactors would have saved all theirs and put away evill from Israel vers 13. yea if the Campe of Israel suffered so much for one Achan's fault what may wee expect that have such a multitude of Achans amongst us Notwithstanding I say it is for their sakes that judgements are upon us yet they of al men are least sensible of them as it fared with Ionas who for all that grievous tempest was for his sake yet Ionas alone was fast asleep and the Disciples in another case as wherefore was that unspeakable agony of Christ but for the sinnes of his Disciples and chosen and yet even then the Disciples were asleepe But why doe I make the comparison when betweene them there is no comparison for the fire of Gods wrath being kindled amongst us for their sakes they doe but warme themselves at the flame sining so much the more freely and merrily even drinking in iniquity as the fish drinketh in water and living as if they were neither beholding to God nor affraid of him both out of his debt and danger yea as if the Plague were not only welcome unto them but they would fall to courting of their owne destruction as if with Calanus they hated to dye a naturall death The pleasure of the world is like that Colchian hony whereof Zenophon's Souldiers no sooner tasted then they were miserably distempered those that tooke little were drunk those that took more were mad those that tooke most were dead so most men are either intoxicated or infatuated or killed out right with this deceitfull world that they are not sensible of their feares or dangers It is like a kind of melancholy called Chorus Sancti Viti which who so hath it can doe nothing but laugh and dance untill they be dead or cured as it made Argos in the Poet and another mentioned by Aristotle sit all day laughing and clapping their hands as if they had beene upon a stage at a Theater Wickednesse makes guilty men feare where is no cause these have cause enough but no grace to feare they are so besotted with a stupid security that they are not affected with any danger yea they account it the chiefest vertue to be bold fearelesse and carelesse according to that Ier. 5. where the Prophet complaines unto God thou hast smitten them but they have no tsorrowed thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a stone and have refused to returne verse 3. which was Pharaoh's case who though his backe were all blew and sore with stripes yet he must still persist and presume yea because his time was not come to perish God lets him alone in pursuing his children even to the Sea and halfe way over faire way he had and smoothly he ran on till he came to the midst not so much as one wave to wet the foote of his Horse but when he is too farre to escape then God begins to strike neither he could nor these can be quiet without their full vengeance as filching leaves not the Pilferer with raw sides but brings him to a broaken necke they have such festred and putrified hearts that ordinary stripes will not reach to the quicke their long tugging at Sathans Oares and wearing his Shackels hath so brawned their flesh that they are not sensible of an ordinary lash And this likewise is the Saylers case who although the Philosopher would not permit them to be numbred amongst the living as not amongst the dead yet for all their many and eminent dangers no men are more regardlesse of their soules § 59. CUstome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes VVere they not meere strangers to themselves they could be no other then confounded in themselves and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity But as the Heathen Menander could say in the like case if they were not meere strangers to themselves they could be no other then confounded in themselves their case being like that of Damocles whom Dionysius caused to sit in his chayre of State abounding with all kind of delicates when over his head hung a naked sword held up onely by a small haire yea farre worse for while they are dancing the trap-dore falls under them and they in Hell before they are aware their hope makes them jocund till the ladder turnes and then it is too late to care or crave Security is the certaine usher of Destruction Security the certaine usher of destruction neither is destruction ever neerer then when security hath chased away feare 1 Thes 5.3 as the Philistines were neerest their destruction when they were in their greatest height of jollity Iudg. 16.25 to 31. Little doe sinners know how neere their jollity is to perdition how nere was Nabal to a mischiefe and perceived it not David was comming at the foote of the hill to out his throate while he was feasting in his house without feare or wit and drinking drunke with his sheepeshearers Many a time judgment is at the threshold whilst drunkennesse and surfeit are at the board Yea this hardness of heart and impenitency is alwayes the harbinger to some searefull plague Isay 6.10.11 When God will give over men to his judgements he first gives them over to this judgement of an hand and impenitent heart and what doth impenitency but turne all deliverances into further curses and judgements so that such a mans deliverance is a worse judgment then the judgment from which he is delivered for it argues either Gods utter forsaking of them as desperate Patients are given over by the Physitian why should yee be smitton any more for yee fall away more and more saith God to the stiffe-necked Iewes Isaiah 1.5 or else it argues a reservation of them for some more fearefull plague if by these former judgments yee will not be reformed by me saith God but walke stubbornely against me then I will walke stubbornely against you and smite
why they slander us why drunkards and vicious followers of their owne lusts like Miners are ever working to blow up our untainted names as doing it either with the Lapwing to divert by their false cryes the traveling stranger from finding the nest of their filthinesse or with the curtayled Fox in the Fable to endeavour to have all Foxes cut tayld or with the Fish Sepia to darken with the pitchy inke of aspersions all the water that so themselves may escape the net of censure justly cast to catch them or they speake evill of us because they cannot doe evill unto us or they doe it to incite and stir up others to doe the like or because God hath put an enmity betweene the men of the world and his children or they doe it because Sathan will have them doe it or else to have themselves thought as good as any other they will not have any thought good that dwells neere them c. But the chiefe reason and end why they doe the same is that they may discourage us in the way to Heaven floute us out of our faith and draw us backe to the world that so they may have our company here in sinne and hereafter in torment as I shall prove anon But first see the former reasons explained Ever such as scoffeat and traduce others have greater faults themselves onely let me premise this and it may serve as an hand in the Margent that as Cham was worse then Noah whom he derided and Ishmael worse then Isaac whom he mocked and Saul worse then David whom he persecuted and Iezabel worse then Naboth whom she defamed and murthered so you shall ever see that they which are wont to scoffe and jeere at traduce and persecute others have greater faults themselves and cause to be jeered and flouted at traduced and evill intreated which they cannot tell how to cover but by disgraceing of others First reason of their raising slanders to divert mens thoughts from minding their villany Whereas by this meanes while the people laugh at us by reason of their odious aspersions they never mind them as when a great man objected to the Player his saucinesse in that he durst personally tax men on the Stage his answer was be content for while the people laugh at our foolery they never mind your villany As is it not usuall for them being conscious of their owne defects to be ever defaming good men that by this meanes they may draw away the thoughts and consideration of the beholders from climing up into their faults while they are fixed and busied upon a new object One colour we know being laid upon another doth away the former and remaines it selfe A cut-purse in a throng when he hath committed the fact will cry out My masters take heede of your purses and he that is pursued will cry Stop Theife that by this meanes he may escape unattached and so in every like case there is none apter to cry Treason Treason then Ahaliah who hath slaine all the Kings seede Yea so it is that the smallest spot in a sober mans face shall excuse all the sores and ulcers of their bodies § 95. SEcondly 2. By depraving the godly themselves passe for indifferent honest men seeing the drunkards wicked and sinfull life is reproved by the others Godly conversation as how is a vicious person discredited and made contemptible by the vertuous life of a holy man seeing straight lines helpe to shew the crooked as doubtlesse Pharaoh's fat kine could not choose but make the leane ones more ill favoured for the whiter the Swanne is the more blacke is the Crow that 's by her hence a swarthy and hard featured visage loves not the company of cleare beauties Whereas on the otherside were all the world ugly deformity would be no monster among the Myconians baldnesse is no unseemely thing because they are all so borne yea a base person may come to preferment if none be thought better then himselfe he which hath but one eye may be King amongst the blinde even Heliogabalus that beastly monster thought to make himselfe the sole god and be onely worshipped by banishing all other Religions out of the world At least as the splendor of the others vertues doth obscure the meanesse of his credit as the Sunnes brightnesse obscures the light of a candle so by depraving him and all his fellowes himselfe shall be judged vertuous very cheape accounted a man of honesty and honour though a drunkard or an Homicide And indeed how should Naboth be cleanly put to death or Ioseph fairely clapt in Irons if first the one be not accused of blasphemy and the other of treacherous incontinency Whereas by using these meanes those ends were easily atchieved you know if a man would have his Dog kild 3 Drunkards censure and slander the godly to incite and stirre up others to doe the like he needs but give it out that he is mad which leades me to a third reason for § 96. 3 THirdly drunkards censure and slander such as are sober and conscionable to incite and stirre up others to doe the like as those ancient enemies of the Gospell clad the Martyrs in the skinnes of wild beasts to animate the Dogs to teare them which is an old and cunning practice of theirs We reade that Maximinus set certaine vile persons on worke to accuse the Christians of heinous crimes that so he might persecute them with more shew of Reason and what any one of them does is a law to the rest For as one Dog sets many Dogs on barking or as one Beacon set on fire occasions many to be kindled so one tongue set on fire from Hell as St. Iames speakes sets many others on fire The ignorant multitude as if And the multitude like a flack of sheepe if they see but one take a wrong way all the rest will follow which the Zigantes they fed onely upon Apes flesh are just like so many Apes which will imitate any thing they see others doe though it be to the cutting off a lim they are like a Kennell of hounds for if they but heare a good man censured slandered or but nicke-named Puritane they runne away with the Crye and barke out the terme against every honest man they meete to the disgraceing even of vertue and true Religion The force of Example prevaileth strongly to produce the likenesse of manners in any much more with that ignorant fry the multitude who can scarcely discerne betweene their right hand and their left as it fared with those six score thousand Ninivites Iona 4.11 And whose judgments are so light that like Philetas Chous Of which many examples who was faine to tye lead to his heeles or the bird Cepphus every least wind that blowes is enough to carry them away for like a flocke of sheepe which if they see but one take a wrong way all the rest will follow and it 's easier to drive a
gaines God himselfe and so his blessing upon all outward meanes Hagg. 1.6 c. O that thou hadst the wit to know how when all is done to be saved and to have thy children saved is the best plot to know that the Proverbe which saith Happy that child whose father is gone to the Devill is farre from being Canonicall Sixtly and lastly 6. He prefers bables and trifles before things of greatest worth he estemes not of things according to their true value but preferreth bables and trifles before things of greatest worth which is the most remarkable property of a naturall foole that is As Iudas preferred thirty peeces of silver before Him that was the price of the world and ransome of mankinde so the Politician preferres earth yea Hell to Heaven time even a moment of time to eternity his body before his soule which if a man have once lost he hath nothing else to loose yea his outward estate before either soule or body Whereas the godly care for the soule as for the cheife jewell and only treasure and for the body for the soules sake and for this world for the bodies sake and settle their inheritance in no land but the land of promise their end being to possesse a kingdome without end They are not like Shebna who built his Sepulcher in one countrey and was buried in another but like our English Merchants that traffique in Turkie and get wealth in Turkie yet plant not in Turkie but transport for England Gods people are not like the first Indians that hang'd Bugles at their eares while they left their gold on the dunghills It cannot be said of them as it may of the most that they worship the golden Calfe because they consider that pecunia the world 's Queene I meane that world whereof the Devill is King extends her regiments but to the brim of the grave and is not currant one step farther Yea they are so farre from being of these mens minds who are of Alexander's mind who as the Philosopher said yesterday the whole world did not content him â—ow ten cubâ—ts containe him that they thinke him none of the wisest who being askt whether he would rather be Socrates or Croesus the one an industrious and pâ—infull Philosopher the other a man flowing in all abundance was so discreete as to answer that for this life he would be Croesus but for the life to come Socrates But to returne to the worlds wiseman let him be offered his choice as oftimes he is whether he will forgoe himselfe I meane his faith which is the summe of all or such a booty he will forgoe his faith and consequently his soule himselfe and all that is truely his like the foolish Marine that seeing a fish in the Sea leaps into the water to catch that which together with his life he looseth or like Narcassus who to embrace his shadow drowned himselfe yea set life and death before him as Moses did before the Israelites Dâ—ut 30.15.19.20 and withall shew him from Matth. 25.46 that this life offered is eternall felicity that death threatned everlasting woe and misery which words are of such extent that as a worthy Writer hath it though all the men that ever have or shall be created were Briareus-like hundred handed and should at once take pens in their hundred hands and should do nothing else for ten hundred thousand millions of yeares but summe up in figures as many hundred thousand millions as they could yet never could they reduce to a totall or confine within number this trisillable word e-ter-nall or that word of foure sillables e-ver-last-ing and then bid him choose which of the two hee likes best his heart which is harder than an Adamant will make answer take Heaven Paradise that eternal felicity and future happines who will it is good for me to be rich and happy while I live much like Cardinall Burbonius who said hee would not leave his part in Paris for his part is Paradise or Themistocles who was not ashamed of this damnable speech in his mouth If a man should shew me two severall wayes the one leading to Heaven the other to Hell of the twaine I would choose the latter wherin he is more sottish then the Indians and more heathenish then the infidels of Florida Virginia New-England and Kanida who for a Copper Kettle and a few toyes as Beades and Hatchets will depart from the purest Gold and sell you a whole country even the houses and ground which they dwell upon for the whole world is not worth one soule But worldly hearts are penny wise and pound foolish Worldly men are penny wise and pound foolish they know how to set high prises upon the worthlesse trash of this world but for heavenly things or the God that owes them this they shamfully under-value like Iudas who valued Mary's oyntment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred peeces of silver and sold his Master on whom that odor was spent at thirty And this is one reason As the affection which an adulterer beareth to a strumpet doth exceedingly diminish the love which he should beare to his lawfull wife so the love that wicked men beare to these vain and transitory things wondrously diminish that zeale and affection which they should bear towards Christ and heavenly things But it is otherwise with the godly But it is farre otherwise with the godly for as they that are after the flesh saveur the things of the flesh so they that are after the Spirit savour the things of the Spirit and our opinion onely endeareth and increaseth the price of things When one boasted how faire a shee-slave hee had bought for a pound another made reply that she was to deare of a groat Commodities are but as they are commonly valued Now because transitory things in the next life beare no value at all and because there is nothing firme under the firmament they hold it very good coveting what they may have and cannot leave behind them And though others most love what they must leave and think that money will buy any thing like foolish Magus who thought the Holy Ghost himselfe might be had for money or the Divell who presumed that this bait would even catch the Son of God yet the wise and religious can conceive no reason why it should bee so doted upon as it is especially since riches can no more put off the Gout or asswage griefe or thrust out cares or purchase grace or suspend death or prevent hell or bribe the divell then a Satten sleeve can heale a broken Arme. They think it the best purchase that ever was in the world to buy him who bought them in comparison of whom all things are drosse and dung as S. Paul speaks Philip. 3.8 for if we once have him wee have all things If saith Paul God hath given us his own Sonne how shall he not with him give us all things also Rom.
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
medicine saith St. Austin yea admit thou wert put to this extremity that thou must either drinke excessively against thy stomacke and conscience or else thou must die for it as sometimes it falls out either drinke or I 'le stab thee it is farre better saith the same Augustine that thy sober and temperate flesh should bee slaine by a sword then that thy soule should be evercome by this sinne of drunkennesse And indeed the magnanimous Christian will lose his life rather then the peace of a good conscience like Iohn Baptist he will hold his integrity though he lose his head for it And indeed Death in a good cause shall pleasure not hurt us let a man but keepe a good corespondence with God and his owne conscience and then he may answer all as he did when the Tyrant threatned him I will take away thy house yet thou canst not take away my peace I will breake up thy schoole yet shall I keepe whole my peace I will confiscate all thy goods yet there is no Premunire against my peace I will banish thee thy countrey yet I shall carry my peace with mee so mayst thou say take away my riches yet I have Christ take away friends liberty wife and children life and all yet I have Christ that is to me both in life and death advantage Suppose thou beest kild for obeying God rather then man what greater honor can be done thee Queene Anne Bolane the Mother of blessed Queene Elizabeth when she was to be beheaded in the Tower thus remembred her thankes to the King Of a private Gentlewoman said she he made me a Marquesse of a Marquesse a Queene and now having left no higher degree of earthly honour for mee he hath made me a Martyr And what said Iustine Martyr to his murtherers in behalfe of himselfe and his fellow Martyrs you may kill us but you can never hurt us And Francisco Soyit to his adversaries you deprive me of this life and promote me to a better which is as if you should rob me of counters and furnish me with gold The sooner I die quoth another the sooner I shall be happy and even in the very act of suffering God gives courage with the one hand and holds out a crowne with the other 2 Cor. 1.5 and 12.10 When Pyrrhus tempted Fabricius VVhich hath made many preferre it before the greatest pleasure profit or honour the first day with an Elephant so huge and monstrous a beast as before he had not seene the next day with money and promises of honour he answered I feare not thy force and I am too wise for thy fraud He will never feare to be killed who by killing is sure to be crowned His resolution is like that of Consalvo who protested to his souldiers shewing them Naples that he had rather die one foote forwards then to have his life secured for long by one foote of retrait And good reason for doth not our Saviour say whosoever shall seeke to save his life in this case shall lose it I more he shall lose both body and soule eternally for so the words imply but whosoeuer shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospells he shall save it Mat. 10.39 Luke 17.11.33 This priviledge hath God given to those that feare him that they need not to feare any thing else Yea though every paine they suffer were a death and every crosse an Hell they know they have amends enough when they heare the Holy Ghost say Apoc. 2.10 be thou faithfull unto the death and I will give thee the crown of life And indeed this promise which is added should me thinkes be a notable spurre to our perseverance should exceedingly sharpen the commandement and drive it more deepely into our minds making us to say with Pompey being to cary corne to Rome in time of dearth and the Sea tempestuous it is necessary that I goe on not that I live Many have thought health worthy to be purchased with the price of Cauthers and Incisions how painefull soever but alasse eternall life is a precious pearle which a wise Merchant will purchase though it cost him his life yea had he a thousand lives and all that he hath Mat. 13. The women told Naomy that Ruth was better unto her then seven Sonnes Ruth 4. but Christ is better then seventy times seven lives for what is life together with a perpetuated fame from Adam till doomes day in respect of salvation for eternity or what are they that can only kill the body to Him that after he hath kild the body can cast both body and soule into Hell But as warme cloathes to a dead man But others preferre the worlds favour before Gods so are the motions of valour to a fearefull heart say what can be said cleare mens judgements cure their prejudice many will yet feare the worlds opinion more then Gods displeasure which is to runne into the fire to avoid the smoake and more dread the mockes and flouts of men on earth then they doe the grinning mockes of the Devills in Hell which makes them cease to be good Christians that they may be thought good companions wherein they put downe Aesop's foolish fishes that leapt out of the warme water into the burning fire for ease or Timocrates who as Thucydides relates kil'd himself for feare least he should be drowned Wherefore seeing all men cannot receive this gift of fortitude save they to whom it is given I will yet shew you if not a more excellent yet a more safe way to avoid this danger and all other their allurements § 194. IF thou wouldest neither bee intised nor enforced to pledge them VVe must refraine their company and not dispute with them o◠we shall not hold out in any of their wicked customes divorce thy selfe from all acquaintance and society with the vicious yea entertaine no parly with them There are some vices of that nature that they cannot be vanquished but by avoiding such is fornication fly fornication saith the Apostle 1 Corinth 6.18 that is flee the company of fornicators for to be in a lewd womans company saith Salomon and depart innocent and to take fire in a mans bosome and not singe his cloaths or go upon live coles and his feet not be burnt are equally possible Prov. 6.27 28. such is the frailty of mans nature that if the eye but see or the eare heare or the hand but touch a whorish woman the heart will goe nigh to catch and take fire verse 29. And thus is fares with this sinne bid a man consort a while with drunkards and depart from them innocent you may as well put a match to dry powder and forbid it to take fire except he be very well stayed and of better governd affections then ordinary It is not safe to commit a little Wherry to the Seas violence A sticke that hath once been in the fire much more a Torch newly extinguisht being forth with
father Luk. 9.60 It vvas not any aversenesse to civill much lesse filiall respect and duty to Parents yea he preferred mercy before sacrifice but he vvell knevv that vvhen hee once met vvith his carnall friends at the funerall they vvould pervert him againe and quickly flout him out of his nevv Masters service and that the Gospell should soone loose a Preacher of him The reason why the Raven returned not into Noahs Arke as the Dove did is given by some because it met vvith a dead carkase by the vvay A vvise man vvill bee vvarie not only to shunne sinne in the action but in the very occasion Hovv many that meant not to sinne are vvonn only by the opportunity for occasion and our nature are like tvvo inordinate lovers they seldome meet but they sinne together and every act of sin tyes a nevv knot if vve keepe them asunder the harme is prevented and it is easier to deny a guest at first then to turn him out having stayed a while it is easier to keepe fire from flax then to quench it after it is on fire a man may spit out a spark but when once kindled there is hardly any quenching of it Why do we pray deliver us from evill but that we imply besides all other mischiefes that there is an infectious power in it to make us evill Let us therefore do what we pray and pray that we may doe it yea O Lord free us both from speech and sight of these bauds and panders of vice so farre as is possible if not at least from joyning in league or dwelling in house with or having dependency on such Oh how many are there that like the Pine-tree with their very shadow hinder all other plants from growing under them or like the great mountaine Radish which if it bee planted neere the Vine causeth it to starve and wither away Alasse it is nothing to bee godly in Abraham's house but for a man to dwell in the tents of Kedar or to live in the Court of Sardanapalus and yet to keepe himselfe upright is a matter of great difficulty especially for him that is not well rooted by time and experience A fore new skind will fret off again with the least rubbing yea the very sight of evill is dangerous to such an one lusting for the most part followes looking as wee see in Eve Gen. 3.6 and David 2 Sam. 11.2 3. which makes Salomon speaking of a strange woman advise us to keepe farre from her and not once come neere the doore of her house Prov. 5.8 It is a hard matter for that soule not to fall into those vices unto which the eyes and the eares are enured not out of love but custome we fall into some offences We read that Persina that Ethiopian Queene in Heliodorus by seeing a faire picture of Perseus and Andromeda was brought to bed of a faire white child whereas Pope Nicholas the third's Concubine by seeing of a Beare was brought to bed of a Monster I am sure this is true in the morall of it which should make us equally love good company and hate evill I know there be in every place whole troops of evill persons and where there are many pots boyling there cannot but be much scumme so that a man shall finde it either impossible or hard never to be amongst them or shift off their solicitations Wherefore if at any time as no flie is more importunate they thrust themselves into thy conversation doe as those which must necessarily passe by a carrion in the way hold thy breath be alone in a multitude abhorre to participate with them in their vices and hasten to be out of their aire as Peter did out of the high Priests hall so soone as Christ looked upon him and if they yet follow thee turne back to them with the Angels farewell increpet te Dominus And lastly if by chance with Peter thou hast taken the least soyle or infection from these poysoned and pitchy Links be sure to scrape or brush it off thy soule againe by prayer examination and humiliation as they that come out of infected houses aire or wash their garments for the more safety Thus did Peter not without cause not without benefit and commodity § 198. IT is true Object Many objections answered they will perswade us that instead of being infected we may gaine by their company and tell us that true Crystall may touch the Toade vvithout being poysoned that the Diamond vvill lye in the fire vvithout being consumed that fish may live in salt vvaters and yet retaine a fresh tast that though rust will fret into the hardest steele yet it doth not eate into the Emerald that though the Load-stone draweth Iron after it yet it cannot-stirre Gold nor the Jet steele though it doth straw that though the Sunne hardens clay yet it softens wax that if a Ship hath a sure Anchor it may ly safe any where neither is it absolutely unlawfull for us to keepe them company seeing Christ kept company with Publicans and sinners of all sorts Answ Here are good words but no security which therefore an experienced man gives the hearing of but stands the while upon his owne guard No charity binds us to a trust of those whom we have found faithlesse Credulity upon weake grounds after palpable disappointments is the daughter of folly He that hath once broken his faith will not easily be trusted I know Physitians may converse with Leprous persons uninfected but then they must have stronger Antidotes then their natures give them or else themselves shall stand in the same need and of Physitians become Patients and need Physicke so that may be lawfull in a sage and stayed person which is unfit for an ungoverned eye once to looke upon We read Gen. 19.17 that Lot and his wife were forbidden to looke back at the destruction of Sodom when to Abraham it was left at large and without restraint he being a man of better ruled affections Againe I know the Devill cannot hurt me so long as God is with me as the best Load-stone cannot draw Iron unto it if the Diamond be by yea the very feare of God and thought that he looketh on as one spake of grave Cato will keepe a man from yeilding to their temptations as it did Ioseph touching his Mistrisses allurements and that faith as it is no coward so it is ever victorious what then though faith be confident yet it is not impudent it knowes a guard of Angells will keepe us in all our wayes but not in our wandrings though it may be lawfull to come among them yet wisdome forbeares some lawfull things because they may be occasions of things unlawfull He that abstaines from nothing that is lawfull will soone be brought to doe that which is unlawfull The note which comes too neere in the Margent will skip into the Text at the next impression He that will goe as neere the ditch as he can will at some