fatal friendship, or, the drunkards misery being a satyr against hard drinking / by the author of the search after claret. ames, richard, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) fatal friendship, or, the drunkards misery being a satyr against hard drinking / by the author of the search after claret. ames, richard, d. . [ ], p. printed for, and sold by randal taylor ..., london : . attributed to richard ames. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng drinking of alcoholic beverages -- england -- early works to . alcoholism -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion fatal friendship ; or , the drunkards misery : being a satyr against hard drinking . — cum vini vis penetravit , consequitur gravitas membrorum , praepediuntur crura vacillanti , tardescit lingua , madet mens , nant oculi , clamor , singultus , jurgia glascant . lucret. lib. . by the author of the search after claret . imprimatur , octob. th . . edmund bohun . london , printed for , and sold by randal taylor , near stationers-hall , . to all gentlemen , and others ; more particularly , to the sworn friends of the bottle . gentlemen , &c. i am very sensible , that my company will be as acceptable to you , as good advice to a young heir , borrowing money upon his estate before he comes to age ; or a drawer's impertinence , who ( unsent for ) tells you , 't is past three in the morning ; whereas you scorn to wait upon time ; no , let the bald-pated gentleman wait upon you . however , a satyr is a kind of a rugged fellow , and stands not much upon preface , or ceremony ; who makes bold to present you with some of your pictures , drawn as near the life , as a rough pencil could make them ; tho' , you will say , 't was 〈◊〉 what sawcy , to do your pictures , without your consert 〈◊〉 perhaps , 't was a little presumptions ; but what dares 〈◊〉 a satyr do ? 't is a very strange thing , that a man should do that over-night , which he must ask pardon of his constitution for next morning . how penitent , and crop-sick , have i seen a spark , after a debauch ? his body feaverish , his head out of order ; then small-beer , and coffee , are his beloved liquors , and he abhors wine for some time , equal with a mussel-man ; till nature throws it off , and then the bottle must be ply'd pretty warmly , to redeem the time lost in sobriety . but , as for those hard-drinkers , whose bodies and consciences are equally case-hardned , whom no wine can ever intoxicate , and who boast of their knocking down ( as 't is call'd ) so many of an evening ; taking a pride to murder their dearest friends , under the disguise of a civil entertainment ( for a stab in the mouth is oftentimes more dangerous , than a thrust through the body : ) as for these men , my satyr has nothing to say to them , since neither st. paul , nor aristotle , can ever convince them , that drinking to excess is a sin , or , to use their own modish phrase , a vice : no , my satyr would only instruct the young practitioners in drinking , who are not gone so far , as to dare to venture upon the second or third bottle ; i wish , they may stop , before the feaver , gout , or consumption , convinces them of their folly , and their experience be not bought so dear , that they will never make their money of it again ; for , till i can find , what good either to soul , body , reputation or estate , hard drinking ever did to any man , the satyr will stand good in law ; and when he is convinced to the contrary , he will readily cry , peccavi . an errata . page . line ult . for masters , read master , p. . l. . f. just , r. curst . ibid , l. . f. so well , r. to sell , p. . l. . f. tells , r. tell , p. . l. . f. rut , r. but , ibid , l. . f. paint , r. pain p. . l. . f. year , r. years , p. . l. . f. jilt , r. jill . p. . l. . f. of his , r. which this , p . l. . f. he , r. they . with several other faults , which the reader is desired to correct . the fatal friendship , &c. i. enough , enough ; urge me no more my friend , ( for so you are , or so at least pretend ; ) i 've drank enough to quench my thirst ; nay , more , i 've took a glass , or two , on pleasures score ; and sure , you cannot think it fit , i drink beyond my quantum sufficit ? why will you tempt me thus ? — and with a glass , fit by the race of gyants , to be quaft : think you a pint can be a friendly draught ? for double aqua fortis has as many charms as in that bumper are ; therefore , my dearest friend , forbear , and show the fatal glass no more ; which not to drink , i to my self have swore . ii. but yet i would not have you think , 't is humour makes me thus forbear to drink ; or that some sullen maggot of the brain , makes me large brimmers thus refrain . i ever lov'd my friend , and scorn to be the spoiler of good company ; yet i was ne're so complaisant , to pour down drink to that degree , till i could neither speak , nor stand , nor go , because my company were so ; i hope , that piece of breeding i shall ever want . some irksom things one would for friendship do , yet a man's health must be regarded too . iii. i see your friends are all uneasie grown ; and you your self must wish me gone , since now i can no longer be , what by mistake is call'd good company : pardon my rudeness , and believe , 't is with regret i take my leave ; for i am very proud to be the masters of my health and liberty ; yet , i confess , i shall one pleasure lose , which is , the benefit of your discourse ; instead of which , i 'll walk the groves and fields , and crop the sweets , the lovely garden yields ; since various men do various pleasures choose , if you 'll not envy mine , i ne're will envy yours . iv. thus at a pleasant seat of country-knight , adorn'd with every thing that can delight , one day a mighty company were met , i , 'mongst the rest , to share a noble treat . our dinner done , appears another scene , bottles , like locusts , to the room swarm in , of several sorts of wine ; nor must they need , that shoeing-horn , to drink the indian weed : bottles and pipes the challenge give , which every one does there receive ; healths are begun , of which 'bout three or four i drank , and then resolv'd to drink no more ; but took my leave , since i could plainly find , hard-drinking was by all design'd ; i know , that — squeamish fool , and sober sot , were names , which in my absence were my lot ; but that no trouble was to me , since now in air my thoughts were free : in a thick grove of beech i walkt alone , and thinking where i lately was , and what was certain to be done , when the concluding punch-bowl was in play ; reflecting ( as i , 'mongst the trees , did pass ) upon the vice of drinking , there was brought a thousand notions to my lab'ring thought , which , cloath'd in words , thus to my self did say . v. how in the name of wonder hapned first that vice , above all other vices curst , call'd , drunkenness , such vast esteem to find , amongst the race of human kind . the patriarchs , who liv'd before the flood , no drink , but that of water understood ; till noah planted an unlucky vine , and was the first example of the force of wine ; but too too soon the vice familiar grew , and when the cups went briskly round , the little world , call'd man , again was drown'd , they laught at all the sober few , who would refuse to wash their souls with wine , or not with them in lewd excesses joyn ; this truth , old pious lot too plainly knew , when from the drunken sodomitish crew , with 's wife and daughters he withdrew , but in a cave the girls contriv'd a plot , by pushing on the well-fill'd bowl , to warm their father's aged soul : and when the now no longer pious lot , his dose had plentifully got , his wife of salt , and sodom's flames , were both forgot : the heat of wine , the heat of lust inspires , and the old man now burns with youthful fires ; incest he thinks no crime , and now no more rememb'ring what his neighbours suff'red for ; forgetting what is lawful , good and just , adds sin to sin , and his two daughters must by turns inflame , by turns allay his lust. vi. parent of vices , drinking , sure thou art , under thy wing they all ptotection find ; for he that is to drunkenness inclin'd , will in no sin refuse to bear a part , must there a house be fir'd , or tender maid be to the arms of ravishers betray'd ; a person to be robb'd , nay , murdered too , all this a drunkard is prepared to do ; his reason , in a sea of liquor , drown'd , to guide his thoughts , no pilot can be found , but to and fro his passions fluctuate , ready for villany at any rate : but oft a sad repentance is his lot , and the lewd frolicks of a drunken sot , end with a halter , and a psalm , if drunk you kill , you must be hang'd when calm ; but newgate's annals , tyburn's chronicle , of this sad truth can various stories tell . vii . oft to a tavern have i known go in , a knot of friends to drink a glass of wine , in love and unity they all sit down , now doubly welcome to each other grown ; to each man's health the glass goes briskly round , and nought but mirth and jollity is found ; but when one bottle ushers in another , and this half flask brings in his younger brother : a scene quite different appears , for now with wine inflam'd each petty jar , will 'mongst these friends create a civil war ; wine spilt by accident , an health forgot , or a glass fill'd too full upon the spot , can set 'em altogether by the ears ; rascal , and rogue , are words they use by turns , and each with wine and fury doubly burns ; which , if too high wound up , perhaps proceeds , to throwing bottles at each others heads ; then swords from scabbards are lugg'd out . and now begins the dismal rout. all friendship is forgot , and each one wou'd be glad to bathe his sword in t'other's blood. thus in the fury of this brutal wrath , murder ensues on one , or both ; and they , who were such friends before , by wines most powerful operation , cancel the friendship which they bore ; and he who does in such a quarrel fall , with highest justice we may call , a sacrifice to vvine , and sudden passion . viii . late from the tavern , reeling drunk , a gentleman ( well bred , and nobly born , who sober , would such actions scorn ) perhaps shall seize upon a stroling punk ; she likes her prize , for well those vermin know , what with a drunken man to do : but while , as by her side he walks , and of his love in broken english talks , a man more drunk he meets , who has resolv'd to scour the streets ; he asks no leave , but boldly on does fall , and quarrels with him both for punk and wall : this he a great affront does think , ( for men are valiant in their drink ) both draw , and aukard pushes make ; and though they both may know the art , they thrust not now in teirce or cart ; but blindly fighting in the dark , by a chance pass falls one , or t'other spark , unless the watch , or some by-standers may be near , to part the sudden fray. thus quarrels too too oft arise , and precious life is laid at stake , for the good favours of a taudry crack , and doubly curst is he that wins the prize . ix . but without any hindrance , now suppose , he with his phillis to some tavern goes ; for taverns now , 't is known , are doubly just , first , they inflame , and then they wink at lust ; here from warm touches , and such wanton toys , which she permits as fine decoys , to draw him on , to taste her further joys , he ventures , and by money thrown in lap , gives solid earnest for a swinging clap. for now the jilts , so well their flesh are known , as butchers do their meat by pound or stone : but though the whore with open hand receives , what he for fatal pleasures gives , not satisfied , she to his pocket dives . from whence , by slight of hand , with fingers steady , by nimble art , she picks out all his ready ; and if tobacco-box , or watch be nigh , they shall not fail to keep it company : then she troops of , and leaves him with the curse of a burnt tail , and quite exhausted purse ; homeward 't is time , that now he reels , insensible as yet , but who can tell 's the pangs his serious thoughts next morning feels , when he considers what th' effects may be of his last nights vain , sinful jolity . x. blessed effects of drinking to excess ; but this does antient proverb cross , that drunken men ne're come to harm or loss ; no , heaven o're them has a peculiar care , not minding how the sober fare ; from horse they never fall , nor by mistake , ride into ponds , a liquid exit make ; all stairs to them , like terra firma , seem , from whence , by falling , none e're broke a limb ; they never meet with quarrel , blow , nor wound , nor dead i' th' street , o'recome with liquor found . no , no , — this truth they joyntly all confess , or day , or night , when they from drinking come , tho' they want legs and eyes , they get securely home . xi . like wretched losing gamesters thus , rather than they the game will loose , heav'n shall be call'd , the sinking cause t'efpouse : but can we be so impious , as to think , that providence o're men in drink , with greater care looks down , than on those who are always sober known . this were to set up vice , and put fair vertue down . " but you will tell us , that the sober may " be kill'd , or wounded in a fray , " may break their necks , be drown'd , or lye " wrackt with the gout , or in a feaver dye ; " how then with justice can you e're pretend , that heav'n is theirs , more than the drunkards friend . 't is true , these mischiefs on the good may fall , but yet to them they are no ills at all ; the forest of them providence ne're sent in anger , as a punishment : th' appearance , ev'n of ill they all eschew , not seek the causes as the drunkards do : no wonder then , so oft they dangers meet , when they will court 'em in the road or street ; leaving their arguments , as vain and false , since now another way my fancy calls : of melancholory scenes now take a view , and tell me then if drink can mischief do . xii . see here a moving tun of drink , whos 's paunch in state before him walks , while his two gouty leggs come limping after , a sight , will move our pitty , and our laughter , with pace uncertain , how he stalks ; salt's rheums in 's eyes , with face as scarlet red , tho' parcht his lips , as ne're with moisture fed . this sea of liquor yet will never shrink , but freely takes his brimmers off , and with the latest stoutly quaff : nay , for his drinking he has this pretence , sobriety would be the death , 't is claret : that preserves his breath ; so drink he must , ev'n in his own defence : rut whether do these courses tend , nature at last beneath the load must bend ; excessive heats put out her kinder fires , and so wrapt up in drink , the wretch expires . xiii . another with the gout such paint does feel , as almost equals those upon the wheel ; oyls , oyntments , plaisters still are us'd in vain , nor can the velvet cusheon ease the pain ; either like strickt carthusian now he lives , and meanest foods , and smallest drink receives ; ( a dismal penance for a past life , spent in frolicks , and high drinking , merriment ) or else he huggs the cause of all his pains , and wine alone his palate entertains ; and when in toe the wracking twitch comes on , to ease the pain , he throws a brimmer down : all doctors slops he hates , and cannot think there can be any opiate like drink ; and that good claret , or some other wine , sooner and better does to rest incline , then laudanum , or other anodyne : thus , thus , he lives — and tedious year spins out , ( for death is seldom hastned by the gout ; ) and frequent in his mouth this maxims known , drink wine , and have the gout ; and when that 's done , your gout will pain you , tho'you should drink none . xiv . now a consumptive walking ghost appears , stooping to earth before th' appointed years ; who , when of phlegm , he would his stomach ease , does of himself each time spit up a piece : a hectick feaver does his strength consume , and he 's a perfect skeleton become ; so pale and wan , that every one almost would swear he did not seem , but was a ghost . yet to the tavern , for a sober jilt , or a half pint at most , he ventures still ; so willing is the wretch to live , altho' he cannot one of life's contentments know : he sees the men of health the bottles troul , and drink large bumpers from the deep mouth'd bowl ; while he , with little knipperkin , by 's side , observes the ebbs and flows of th' bottles tide , with such delight , as old men when they view , what am'rous thyrsis and dorinda do , when on a rosie bank , at dawn of day , they sit and kiss , and play the time away : yet the pin'd creature , drinking now forbid , ( not able to perform what once he did ) yet pleads , that little wine he sipt up now , to 's wasted lungs , does as a cordial go ; and who would that assistance disallow ? xv. these are some few of that most mighty train , of his hard drinking , brings on wretched man ; yet in the case it is but plain and clear , the body is the smallest sufferer : too often the estate the damage feels , and a house totters while its master reels ; hang lousie mannours , what are musty farms , in ballance put with wines diviner charms : thus timon-like , our spark treats on , and drinks , but how 's estate declines , he never thinks , till duns on ev'ry side attack him so , he must for safety to alsatia go ; where , while his money lasts he shall not want , companions who will with him drink and rant ; but that once gon , his person they refuse , as rats by instinkt leave a falling house ; pensive he walks , and knows not what to do , since poverty has made the world his foe ; and he who once esteem'd no wines too dear , now wets his throat with penitent small beer ; though 't is a change , few men can ere endure , to be a stoick from an epicure ; no character does such a man deserve , ( by his excesses almost doom'd to starve ) but this , — a good estate to 's lot did fall , which folilshly he pist against the wall. xvi . but , what does most of all our wonder raise , and with astonishment our reason strike , is , that this vice they will as vertue praise , and that no friendship ever can be like to that , which o're a bottle can be made : so strong a cement's wine , it will engage , men shall continue friends an age. tho the acquaintance first they had , at a lewd drinking match , where each one vow'd , that he would spend his dearest blood ; go for his friend , through water , fire , all the dangers can on mankind fall ; tho of all this a word 's not understood , yet they will hug and flabber one another ; the old they father call , the young their brother . their friendship , thus by wine begun , must by the same be carried on ; and if by accident , one meets his brother red-nose in the streets ; they , with dry lips , no more can part , than can a parent from his son in cart , refrain from tears . — old customs they 'll not break , each in a glass must dip his beak ; with modest pints , they first begin , and that the tall-boy ushers in ; then , in large brimmers , all their cares they drown , and useless reason tumbles down : yet they are friends , most mighty friends , indeed , and for each other , both their purses bleed ; so long , till one does a consumption find , and when that 's gone , — where will you find the friend ? xvii . but , which is worst of all , our gentry now , make drinking — friendship , and their glory , too ; and him the bravest man they reckon , who can his large bumpers stifly quaff , and carry half a score of bottles off ; and him unfit for conversation think , who boggles with the glass , and will not drink : if i , quite weary of the nauseous town , to see an honest country friend , go down ; i am received with all the kind address , that un-disguised friendship can express ; with wonder , i behold his plenteous board , with what ev'n luxury could wish-for stor'd ; and when , with choicest foods , i have giv'n nature the refreshment she did crave ; taking my glass , in order , as it came , gently to stir the vital flame , i thought , that then some respite was allow'd , to sit a while , and talk , or chew the cudd. but , ah ! no sooner was the voider gone , but bottles came in clusters on . now i 've a doubtful task to chuse , either to drink , or else refuse : if i through easiness comply , ( and men sometimes want power for to deny ) i must resolve with reason to shake hands , and represent the brute , in shape of man , while pretious health , in doubtful posture , stands ; for who can tell , how much i may oppress the vital heat , by such a grand excess ; and the firm strength , which now i 'm sure is mine ; this ( friendly kind ) debauch may undermine , and shorten life t'an inch , which nature made a span ? if i refuse , and no perswasions can tempt me to stay , and drink like them , me , as an ill bred fool , they then condemn ; but heav'n be praised , these scandals wound not deep ; let them rail on , while life's chief blessing , health i keep . xviii . and this , d' ye friendship call , as well you may , call an italian friend , who can convey a secret poyson to your heart , prepar'd with so much curious art , which shall most certainly , or soon , or late , close up your eyes , and seal your fate : but our bold sons of bacchus , here , do in their practice openly appear ; who , on you , when they force the glass , or cup , pale poyson , in disguise of wine you sup ; yet think not poyson from the grape they press ; no , wine 's a cordial , till by lewd excess , it does its kind refreshing nature lose , and death lies lurking in the noble juyce : and can that man be then my friend , who , because , mithridates-like , he poysons can digest ( for wine 's no less , when swallow'd to a vast excess ) will unto me the fatal draught commend . nay , force it too : — if this be friendship then , its sail let sence and breeding strike to savages , and indians , who european vices never knew , for , if not christians , yet 't is own'd they 're men. xix . alas ! what pleasure can there be in an half fluster'd - company : one while , like dover-court , 't appears , all men have tongues , but none have ears ; another time they will be sitting , as mute , as quaker's silent meeting ; till one more , witty than the rest , tells 'em a sad insipid jest ; and then they laugh at such a rate , yet scarcely one can tell for what : here one , with secret , hard in labour , delivers it in ear of neighbour ; which , from his breast , had never broke , had not wine slily pickt the lock . another tells , what punks of late , and sort of oaths are out of date ; and what new faces daily meet , at famous house of chacolett : one , in the story of 's mishaps , forgets not to relate his claps ; at which , his neighbour laughs , and tells him , such ills far oftner have befel him , one to the chimney-corner creeps , and there , in quiet , fairly sleeps ; another does , by 's spewing , tell us , something in 's stomach's grown rebellious : one sings ; at which another bawls , and vows he only catterwawls : thus , in a scene of noise and strife , they waste the pretious hours of life ; till death shall let the curtain drop , and then their game of folly's up . xx. though heaven ordain'd , that man should be a creature , sitted for society ; yet he must be apollo , that can find what benefit to body , or to mind , can e're accrue from a wild friendship , where no other entertainments found , but still to see the bottle keeps its round ; all sober-thinking they abhor , and learned talking is kickt out of doors : but if of dogs and horses — xxi . — and here the chain of thought in meditation , to an end was brought : occasion'd by a mighty noise , which came . from the same house , from whence i lately went , the penance of hard-drinking to prevent ; thither i hastned , and was struck to see their pleasant scence of mirth and jollity , now turned to blood , and wounds , and tragedy . the foolish fray was hardly over , when in the room i did my self discover ; for a full bottle brusht against my arm , then flew through th' window , without further harm ; ( yet , in that number , there were only two , who me again distinctly knew ; ) the noble knight , strove by all means he cou'd , to hinder spilling christian blood ; for wine , and passion , put 'em in a flame , not quickly to be quencht , — but yet , at last , each quietly sat down , as no such thing had past . xxii . then of the sob'rest in the room , ( tho' ev'ry man was purely overcome , ) i askt th' occasion , how this quarrel rose ? who told me , that a spark would needs impose a health on 's friend , which he point blank refus'd ; at which , in 's face , a glass of wine he threw ; and after that , his tilter drew , and swore , that he that would not pledge that health , were sons of whores , and lov'd a common-wealth : at which , the company divided stood , and swords were ready drawn for blood ; but after some few angry passes made , one prickt i' th arm , and to then cut on the head. slight wounds : — but , after much perswasions us'd , as fresh they to their drinking fall , as if they had not drank at all ; to see the up-shot on 't , i would not stay , but thus reflected in my homeward way ; that though to chuse our fortunes , heav'n will not allow ; yet were this double choice my lot , i 'd rather be an hermit , than a sot. finis poor robins character of an honest drunken curr with a relation of the frollicks of his life and conversation and his epitaph. poor robin. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) poor robins character of an honest drunken curr with a relation of the frollicks of his life and conversation and his epitaph. poor robin. winstanley, william, ?- . p. printed by e.c. for c. huffey, london : . "with permission" william winstanley is usually credited with authorship of the poor robin pamphlets--nuc pre-l imprints. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng alcoholism -- anecdotes - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion poor robins character , of an honest drunken curr : with a relation of the frollicks of his life , and conversation and his epitaph . with permission . london , printed by e. c. for c. hussey , at the bible in iewen street . . poor robins character , of an honest drunken curr . he 's a pickel'd youth to be sure , for he always lyes steep'd in his own liquor ; of which like a whale , he carries so much about him , that when ever he disgorges , he may swim away in his own flood . clap but a good sucker into his belly , and he makes an excellent parish pump : and if you add but a pipe to his muzle , he may pass for a water engine , and do good service in time of fire ; you need not fear drawing him dry , so long as all the ale-houses , and taverns in town , like little rivulets , supply the decrease ; he contains about as much as those in churches ; but is so uncooth a trough , he 's twice as hard to be gauged : yet by frequent experience , he can guess his measure to a pint , specially if you except leakage : his veins are so thronged , and his blood so tainted with scurvey , gout , and dropsie , ( and a smatch of the french-man to boot , which he got when he was drunk , and does not know who to lay it too . ) that he defies the intrusion of any other distemper : wherefore he stalks in as much state through a pestilence ; as a well arm'd souldier through a shower of bullets , for his forementioned diseases have taken such large possession of his body , that there 's no room left for infection . he has drunk himself into a jelly , and is so moist , that if you squeese him , he drops like an orange . his body a perfect still , which he fuells with brandy , instead of char-coal ; being throughly heated , you may discern the sweaty distilation tricle from his face , as from the lid of a limbick , and if any chance to drop on his nose , you may hear it hiz as if it fell upon heated bricks . in fine though he always lives joakingly and merry , he hates nothing more then a dry jest . thus having acquainted you with his constitution , i shall only consider him in his conversation , and friendship , and so leave him to sleep out his nap . and first for his conversation , to take him in the morning ( for who can find him all the day after ) he prevents his pray'rs with a pipe of tobacco , and smoaks at such a rate as if he pr●fer'd sacrifice to devotion . a tinder-box is as necessary to him , as a green bagg to an atturney's clark , with which he seems as ravish'd as alexander with the odisses , for he cannot sleep unless it lye under his pillow . in that little night he makes , he cannot so properly said to sleep , as to chew the cudd 〈…〉 often disturbs the repose of a family , with muttering a repetition of his oaths , and healths when he awakes , he stares about with such wild curiosity , as one would fancy adam did immediately after his creation ; for he generally makes himself so drunk over night , drowning his past actions in liquor and oblivion , that he scarcely knows the morning from the resurrection , and is hardly perswaded that ever he lived before . but after he is convine'd of the affirmative spends about a quarter of an hour in examining the bed-posts and windows , before he discovers whether he be in his own lodging : and afterward remains as doubtful how he got thither . then bed-staves , and slip-shoo's go to wrack , for clattering on the bed-stead , like boys at the bear-garden ; he calls up the people as country wenches do swine , by knocking ; and after a petition for a cup of settle-brain , begs them to resolve his quaerie : whereupon they tell him the truth , which indeed is that either he came the old porterly way , crutch'd with a brace of watch-men ; or else the modern and more genteel way , viz. on pick-pack , instead of a sadan . now although my honest drunken curr be guilty of many vices , which like younger brothers hang on this great one which has got possession : yet ( give the devil his aue ) i think the world has sully'd his reputation with divers scandals of which he is no wise guilty : wherefore because i only intend his convertion not his consumption ; like an honest historian ( since i write his life ) i ought not to see him wrong'd , but rather to rescue him from those c 〈…〉 on him 〈…〉 the first imputation therefore that they impose on him is that he is proud , and why forsooth ? but because when he has a d 〈…〉 op in his eye , he brags and vapours as if he were a better man than his neighbours . a stout reason indeed ? as if any man might not do as much that were either light-headed , or in a fevour ; nay , a passion alone makes the wisest of us bethlehems . but let us do as we would be done by , and take him when he is himself , ( that is in a morning , ) and then i am sure he is as free from pride , as a quaker from good minners or ribbons : for would custome admit , i am confident he would never go to the ale-house naked , than undergo the hard pennance of sobriety the while he dresses himself . secondly , they call him an idle fellow ; a good fellow all the world knows he is , but as for idleness , let me dye if i know any one more free from it than he ; what would they know of him trow ? he rises early , sits up late ; and i dare swear he grudges himself his very sleep , because it keeps him from his businesse : when he is at it , no man more expeditious than he , for as if his minutes , like his estate , ran away too fast , you shall frequently see him with an ale-glass in one hand , and a looking-glass in the other , which betokens both speed and frugality . the third and most fallacious accusation is that they say , he 's prodigal , and pisses his estate against the wall. but i am confident he enriches nor perfumes the walls no more than others ; onely this i know he does , that whereas usurers use to hide their riches in earth pots , he puts his estate in a pewter one ( which one would think were the safer cabinet ) so that it is not the honest drunken cur , but the impudent rogues , drawers , and tapsters , that imbezle and make it away . much more might be said of him both in his vindication , and in commendation also : for he is one of the quietest subjects his majesty has , and most submissive to monarchyal government : he would not be without a king , if it were for no other reason than meerly drinking his health . he hates coffee as mahomatizm , and thinks it a lesser sin to go to bed drunk , than to drink it to make him sober . he hates a studious man as caeser did a lean one , and for the same reason , for he is so confident he 's hatching of treason , that he could find in his heart to impeach him at adventure . as for his friends he never troubles his head to pick and cull them , but takes them as superannuated maids do husbands , or fish-women do mackerel , as they come next to hand : for fixing himself in the next ale-house or tavern he comes at ; at first he sits as sullenly as a degraded courtier , or an insurer upon advice of a loss ▪ and no less than a quart of purle-royal , or two kicks in the guts can remove his morosity . after he has digested either of them , perchance he 'l vouchsafe to bless you with a smile , especially if you will purchase it at the expence of a bawdy song ; to which you shall see him turn head , and listen as heedfully as a lynnet to a flaijolet , but infinitely more easie to be taught . when you have done , t is twenty to one but he comes and hugs you ; swearing you are the most accomplisht gentleman that ever he met in his life ; and tho he never saw you before , from that time you may date his friendship : he makes friends faster than children do babies ; and like them too , he often forgets where he has left them . his reason like a bad shop-keeper is seldom at home , or rather like a country gentleman , has left the manour of his own body ; and is gone to dwell in strange lodgings : so that 't is no wonder , he 's hobgoblin'd by his fiery nose to any debauchery , or that men call him beast ; since by giving rains to his i sensuality , he makes so perfect a swine of himself , that he drinks till he can hardly grunt . however , since the church allows him christian burial , i 'le hopkins and sternhold him with an epitaph . here lyes drunken tom , vvhom heav'n in mercy save , he stumbel'd o're his death , and reel'd into his grave . finis . the blemish of government, the shame of religion, the disgrace of mankind, or, a charge drawn up against drunkards and presented to his highness the lord protector, in the name of all the sober party in the three nations, humbly craving that they may be kept alone by themselves from infecting others ... / by r. younge of roxwell in essex. younge, richard. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing y ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing y estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the blemish of government, the shame of religion, the disgrace of mankind, or, a charge drawn up against drunkards and presented to his highness the lord protector, in the name of all the sober party in the three nations, humbly craving that they may be kept alone by themselves from infecting others ... / by r. younge of roxwell in essex. younge, richard. p. printed by a.m. and are to be sold by henry crips ... and james crump ..., [london] : . caption title. imprint from colophon. running title: the disgrace of mankind. "offer of help to drowning-men" -- p. - . reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. eng drinking of alcoholic beverages. alcoholism -- religious aspects. alcoholics. a r (wing y ). civilwar no the blemish of government, the shame of religion, the disgrace of mankind, or, a charge drawn up against drunkards and presented to his high younge, richard d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the blemish of government , the shame of religion , the disgrace of mankind ; or , a charge drawn up against drunkards , and presented to his highness the lord protector , in the name of all the sober party in the three nations . humbly craving , that they may be kept alone by themselves from infecting others ; compelled to work and earn what they consume : and that none may be suffered to sell drink , who shall either swear , or be drunk themselves , or suffer others within their wals. by r. younge of roxwell in essex . . branch of the charge . that as the basilisk is chief of serpents : so of sinners the drunkard is chief . that drunkenness is of sins the queen : as the gout is of diseases : even the root of all evil , the rot of all good . a sin which turns a man wholly into sin . that all sins , all beast-like , all serpentine qualities meet in a drunkard , as rivers in the sea : and that it were far better be a toad , or a serpent , than a drunkard . that the drunkard is like ahab , who sold himself to work wickedness . that he wholly dedicates , resigns , surrenders , and gives himself up to serve sin and satan . that his only imploiment is to drink , drab , quarrel , swear , curse , scoff , slander and seduce : as if to sin were his trade , and he could do nothing else ; like the devil , who was a sinner from the beginning , a sinner to the end . that these sons of belial , are all for the belly : for to drink god out of their hearts , health out of their bodies , wit out of their heads , strength out of their joynts , all the money out of their purses , all the drink out of the brewers barrels , wife and children out of doors , the house out at windows , the land out of quiet , plenty out of the nation , is all their business . in which their swinish swilling , they resemble so many frogs in a puddle , or water-snakes in a pond : for their whole exercise , yea , religion , is to drink ; they even drown themselves on the dry land . that they drink more spirits in one night , then their flesh and brains be worth . that more is thrown out of one swines nose , and mouth , and guts , than would maintain five sufficient families . . br. that it is not to be imagined , what all the drunkards in one shire , or county do devour , and worse than throw away in one year : when it hath been known ( if we may give credit to authours , and the oaths of others ) that two and thirty in one cluster have made themselves drunk ; that six and thirty have dranke themselves dead in the place , with carowsing of healths ; that at one supper , one and fourty have killed themselves , with striving for the conquest : that two have drank each of them a peck at a draught : that four men have drank four gallons of wine at a sitting : that one man hath drank two gallons of wine ; and two more , three gallons of wine a piece at a time : that one drunkard in a few hours , drank four gallons of wine : that four ancient men drank as many cups of wine at one sitting , as they had lived years , which was in all , three hundred cups of wine amongst four men : and lastly , that three women came into a tavern in fleetstreet ( when i was a boy , take it upon claptons oath and credit , who drew the wine ) and drank fourty nine quarts of sack ; two of them sixteen a piece , and the third to get the victory , seventeen quarts of sack . which being so , what may the many millions of these ding-thrifty dearth-makers consume in a year in all the three nations ? nor need it seem incredible , that common drunkards should drink thus : for they can disgorge themselves at pleasure , by only putting their finger to their throat . and they will vomit , as if they were so many live whales spuing up the ocean ; which done , they can drink afresh . or if not so , yet custom hath made it pass thorow them , as thorow a tunnel , or strainer ; whereby it comes out again as sheer wine as it went in , as hath been observed . nor hath the richest sherry or old canary any more operation with them , then a cup of six hath with me . and no marvell for if physick be taken too oft , it wil not work like physick : but nature entertains it as a friend , not as a physitian : yea poison by a familiar use becomes natural food . as aristotle ( in an example of a maid , who used to pick spiders off the wals and eat them ) makes plain . . br. that as drunkards have lost the prerogative of their creation , and are changed ( with nebuchadnezzar , dan. . . ) from men into beasts , so they turn the sanctuary of life into the shambles of death : yea thousands ( when they have made up the measure of their wickedness ) are taken away in god's just wrath in their drink ; ( as it were with the weapon in their bellies ) it faring with them as it did with that pope , whom the devil is said to have slain in the very instant of his adultery , and carry him quick to hell ; being suddenly struck with death , as if the execution were no lesse intended to the soul , than to the body . that by the law of god in both testaments ; he that will not labour , should not eat , gen. . . prov. . . thes. . . because he robs the common-wealth of that which is altogether as profitable as land , or treasure . but drunkards are not only lazy get-nothings , but they are also riotous spend-als ; and yet these drunken drones , these gut-mongers , these quagmirists , like vagrants and vermine , do nothing all their life-long that may tend to any good , as is storied of margites , and yet devour more of the fat of the land , than would plentifully maintain those millions of poor in the nation , that are ready to famish . a thing not fit to be suffered in any christian common-wealth , yea far fitter they were stoned to death , as by the law of god they ought , deut. . , . since this might bring them to repentance ; whereas now they spend their dayes in mirth : and suddenly they go down into hell , job . . drunkards being those swine , whom the legion carries headlong into the sea , or pit of perdition . . br. that every hour seems a day , and every day a month to a drunkard , that is not spent in a tap-house ; yea , they seem to have nailed their ears to the door of some tavern or tap-house , and to have agreed with satan , master , it is good being here ! that where ever the drunkards house is , his dwelling is at the ale-house , except all his mony be spent , and then if his wife will fetch him home with a lanth●rn , and his men with a barrow , he comes with as 〈◊〉 sense as 〈◊〉 image had . that the pot is no sooner from their lips , but they are melancholy , and their hearts as heavy , as if a milstone lay upon it . or rather they are vexed like saul with an evil spirit , which nothing will drive away but drink and tobacco . they so wound their consciences with all kind of prodigious wickedness , and so exceedingly provoke god , that they are rackt in conscience , and tortured with the very flashes of hell-fire . that they drink to the end only , that they may forget god , his threats and judgments ; that they may drown conscience , and put of all thoughts of death , and hell ; and to hearten and harden themselves against all the messages of god , and threats of the law : which is no other in mitigating the pangs of conscience , than as a saddle of gold to a galled horse , or a draught of poison to quench a mans thirst . that if they might have their wils , none should refuse to be drunk unpunished , or be drunk unrewarded at the common charge . as how will they boast what they drank , and how many they conquer'd at such a meeting , making it their only glory ? that the utmost of a drunkards honesty is good-fellowship ; that temperance and sobriety with them , is nothing but humour and singularity ; and that they drink not for strength or need , but for lust and pride ; to shew how full of satan they are , and how near to swine . that though these swinish swill-bouls make their gullet their god , and sacrifice more to their god-belly , than those babylonians did to their god bell , bell & drag . ver. . yet they will say , yea swear , that they drink not for love of drink , though they love it above health , wealth , credit , child , wife , life , heaven , salvation , all . they no more care for wine , than esau did for his pottage for which he sold his birth-right , isa. . . br. that drunkards are the devils captives , at his command , and ready to do his will ; and that he rules over , and works in them his pleasure , tim. . . eph. . . that he enters into them , and puts it into their hearts , what he will have them to do , joh. . . act. . . chro. . . opens their mouths , speaks in , and by them , gen. . , to . stretcheth out their hands , and they act as he will have them , act. . , . rev. . . he being their father , gen. . . joh. . . their king , joh. . . & . . and their god , cor. . . eph. . . and which is worst of all , that drunkenness not only duls and dams up the head and spirits with mud , but it beastiates the heart , & ( being worse than the sting of an asp ) poisoneth the very soul and reason of a man , whereby the faculties and organs of repentance and resolution are so corrupted and captivated , that it makes men utterly uncapable of returning , unlesse god should work a greater miracle upon them , then was the creating of the whole world . whence austin compares it to the very pit of hell , out of which ( when a man is once fallen into ) there is no hope of redemption . that drunkenness is like some desp●rate plague , which knows no cure . as what sayes basil , shall we speak to drunkards ? we had as good speak to liveless-stones , or sensless-plants , or witless beasts , as to them ; for they no more believe the threats of gods word , than if some impostor had spoken them . they will fear nothing , till they be in hell-fire ; resembling the sodomites , who would take no warning , though they were all struck blind ; but persisted in their course , untill they felt fire and brimstone about their ears , gen. . . that there is no washing these blackmoors white , no charming of these deaf adders ; blind men never blush ; fools are never troubled in conscience ; neither are beasts ever ashamed of their deeds . that a man shall never hear of an habituated , infatuated , incorrigible , cauterized drunkard , that is reclaimed with age . . br. that as at first , and before custom in sin hath hardened these drunkards , they suffer themselves to be transformed from men into swine ; as elpenor was transformed by circes into a hog ; so by degrees they are of swine transformed again into devils , as cadmus and his wife were into serpents , as palpably appears by their tempting to sin , and drawing to perdition . that these agents for the devil , drunkards , practise nothing but the art of debauching men ; that to turn others into beasts , they will make themselves devils , wherin they have a notable dexterity , as it is admirable how they will wind men in , and draw men on , by drinking first a health to such a man , then to such a woman my mistress , then to every ones mistress ; then to some lord or lady ; their master , their magistrate , their captain , commaader , &c. and never cease , until their brains , their wits , their tongues , their eyes , their feet , their senses , and all their members sail them : that they will drink until they vomit up their shame again , like a filthy dog , or lie wallowing in their beastliness , like a bruitish swine . that they think nothing too much either to do or spend , that they may make a sober man a drunkard , or to drink another drunkard under the table ; which is to brag how far they are become the devils children : that in case they can make a sober and religious man exceed his bounds , they will sing and rejoyce , as in the division of a spoil ; and boast that they have drenched sobriety ▪ and blinded the light ; and ever after be a snuffing of this taper , psal. . . but what a barbarous , graceless , and unchristian-like practice is this , to make it their glory , pastime , and delight , to see god dishonoured , his spirit grieved , his name blasphemed , his creatures abused , themselves and their friends souls damned . doubtless such men have climbed the highest step of the ladder of wickedness ; as thinking their own sins will not press them deep enough into hell , except they load themselves with other mens ; which is devil-like indeed ! whose aim it hath ever been , seeing he must of necessity be wretched , not to be wretched alone . that as they make these healths serve as a pulley , or shoing-horn to draw men on to drink more , then else they would or should do : so a health being once begun , they will be sure that every one present shall pledge the same , in the same manner and measure , be they thirsty or not thirsty , willing , or not willing , able , or unable : be it against their stomacks , healths , natures , judgments , hearts and consciences , which do utterly abhor , and secretly condemn ▪ the same . that in case a man will not for company grievously sin against god , wrong his own body , destroy his soul , and wilfully leap into hell fire with them ; they will hate him worse than the hangman ; and will sooner adventure their bloud in the field , upon refusing , or crossing their healths , than in the cause and quarrel of their country . . br. how they are so pernicious , that to damn their own souls , is the least part of their mischief ; and that they draw vengeance upon thousands , by seducing s●●e , and giving ill example to others . that one drunkard makes a multitude ; being like the bramble , judg. . . which first set it self on fire , and then fired all the wood . or like a malicious man sick of the plague , that runs into the throng to disperse his infection ; whose mischief out-weighs all penalty . and this shews , that they not only partake of the devils nature , but that they are very devils in the likeness of men : and that the very wickedness of one that feareth god , is far better than the good intreaty of a drunkard . that with sweet words they will tole men on to destruction , as we tole beasts with fodder to the slaughter-house ; and that to take away all suspition , they will so mollifie the stiffness of a mans prejudice , so temper and fit him to their own mould ; that once to suspect them , requires the spirit of discerning . and that withall , they so confirm the profes●ion of their love with oaths , protestations and promises , that you would think , jonathans love to david nothing to it . that these pernicious seducers , devils in the shape of men , have learned to handle a man so sweetly , that one would think it a pleasure to be seduced . but little do they think , how they advance their own damnations , when the blood of so many souls , as they have drawn away , will be required at their hands ! for know this thou tempter , that thou dost not more increase other mens wickedness on earth , ( whether by perswasion , or provocation , or example ) than their wickedness shall increase thy damnation in hell , luk. . , . non fratres dilexit , sed seipsum respexit . and this let me say to the horror of their consciences , that make merchandize of souls ; that it is a question when such an one comes to hell , whether judas himself would change torments with him . . br. that the drunkard is so pleasing a murtherer , that he tickles a man to death , and makes him ( like solomons fool ) die laughing . whence it is , that many who hate their other enemies ( yea , and their friends too ) imbrace this enemy , because he kisseth when he betrayeth . and indeed what fence ? for a pistol charged with the bullet of friendship . hence it is also , that thousands have confest at the gallows , i had never come to this , but for such , and such a drunkard . for commonly the drunkards progress is , from luxury to beggery , from beggery to thievery , from the tavern to tyborne , from the ale-house to the gallows . briefly , that these bauds and panders of vice breathe nothing but infection , and study nothing but their own , and other mens destruction . that the drunkard is like julian , who never did a man a good turn , but it was to damn his soul . that his proffers are like the fowlers shrape , when he casts meat to birds , which is not out of pity to relieve , but out of treachery to insnare them . or like traps we set for vermine , seeming charitable , when they intend to kill , jer. . . and thou maist answer these cursed tempters , who delight in the murther of souls , as the woman of endor did saul , sam. . wherefore seekst thou to take me in a snare , to cause me to die , vers. . that he is another absolom , who made a feast for amnon , whom he meant to kill . and there is no subtilty like that which deceives a man , and hath thanks for the labour . for as our saviour saith , blessed is the man that is not offended at their scoffs , mat. . . so blessed is the man that is not taken with their wiles . for herein alone consists the difference , he whom the lord loves , shall be delivered from their meretricious allurements , eccl. . . and he whom the lord abhors , shall fall into their snares , pro. . . . br. that taverns and tap-houses are the drinking schools , where they learn this their skill , and are trained up in this trade of tempting . for satan does not work them to this heighth of impiety all at once , but by degrees : when custom of sin hath deaded all remorse for sin ; as it is admirable how the soul that takes delight in leudness , is gained upon by custom . they grow up in sin , as worldlings grow in wealth and honour , they wax worse and worse , sayes the apostle , tim. . . they go first over-shoo's , then over-boots , then over-shoulders ; and at length over-head and ears in sin , as some do in debt . now these tap-houses are their meeting-places ; where they hear the devils lectures read ; the shops and markets , where satan drives his trade ; the schools , where they take their degrees ; these are the guild-hals where all sorts of sinners gather together , as the humors do into the stomack before an ague-fit , and where is projected all the wickedness that breaks forth in the nation , as our reverend judges do find in their several circuits . that these taverns and ale-houses ( or rather hell-houses ) are the fountains and well-heads from whence spring all our miseries and mischiefs : these are the nurseries of all riot , excess and idleness , making our land another sodom , and furnishing yearly our jails and gallowses . here they sit all day in troops , doing that in earnest , which we have seen boyes do in sport ; stand on their heads , and shake their heels against heaven ; where , even to hear how the name of the lord jesus is pierced , and gods name blasphemed , would make a dumb man speak , a dead man almost to quake . . br. that it were endless to repeat their vain-babling , scurrilous jesting , wicked talking , impious swearing and cursing : that when the drink hath once bit them , and set their tongues at liberty , their hearts come up as easily as some of their drink ; yea , their limitless tongues do then clatter like so many windows loose in the wind , and you may assoon perswade a stone to speak , as them to be silent ; it faring with their clappers , as with a sick mans pulse , which alwaies beats , but ever out of order . that one drunkard hath tongue enough for twenty men ; for let but three of them be in a room , they will make a noise , as if all the thirty bels in antwerp steeple were rung at once : or do but pass by the door , you would think your self in the land of parrats . that it is the property of a druukard to disgorge his bosom with his stomack , to empty his mind with his maw : his tongue resembles bacchus his liber pater , and goes like the sayl of a wind-mill : for as a grea●gale of wind whirleth the sayls about , so abundance of drink whirleth his tongue about , and keeps it in continual motion . now he rayls , now he scoffs , now he lies , now he slanders , now he seduces , talks baudy , swears , bans , foams , and cannot be quiet , till his tongue be wormed . so that from the beginning to the end , he belcheth forth nothing , but what is as far from truth , piety , reason , modesty ▪ as that the moon came down from heaven to visit mahomet : as oh ! the beastliness which burns in their unchaste and impure minds , that smokes out at their polluted mouths ! a man would think , that even the devil himself should blush , to hear his child so talk . how doth his mouth run over with falshoods against both magistrates , ministers and christians : what speaks he less than whoredoms , adulteries , incests at every word ? yea , hear two or three of them talk , you would change the lycaonians language , and say , devils are come up in the likeness of men . ▪ br. that at these places men learn to contemn authority , as boyes grown tall and stubborn , contemn the rod : here it is that they utter swelling and proud words against such as are in dignity , as st peter and st jude have it . they set their mouths against heaven , and their tongues walk through the earth , psal. . . so that many a good minister and christian may say with holy david , i became a song of the drunkards , psal. . . and in case any of them have wit , here they will shew it in scoffing at religion , and flouting at holiness . from whence it is , that we have so many atheists , and so few christians amongst us ( notwithstanding our so much means of grace ) and that the magistracy and ministry are so wofully contemned by all sorts of people . that these tippling tap-houses are the common quagmires of all filthiness , where too many drawing their patrimonies through their throats , exhaust and lavish out their substance , and lay plots and devices how to get more . for hence they fall either to open courses of violence , or secret mischief , till at last the jail prepares them for the gibbet ; for lightly they sing through a red lattise , before they cry through a grate . . br. i speak not of all , i know the calling to be good , and that there are good of that calling , ( and these will thank me , because what i have said , makes for their honour and profit too ) but sure i am , too many of these drinking-houses are the very dens and shops , yea the thrones of satan , very sinks of sin , which like so many common-shores , refuse not to welcome and incourage any , in the most loathsom pollutions they are able to invent , and put in practice . as did you but hear , and see , and smell , and know what is done in these taverns and ale-houses , you would wonder that the earth could bear the houses , or the sun indure to look upon them . that lest they should not in all this do homage enough to satan , they not seldom drink their healths upon their knees , as the heathen witches and sorcerers ( of whom these have learned it ) used to do , when they offered drink-offerings to beelzebub the prince of devils , and other their devil-gods . that these godless ale-drapers , and other sellers of drink , in entertaining into their houses , and complying with those traiters against god , and in suffering so much impiety to rest within their wals , do make themselves guilty of all , by suffering the same ; and that a fearfull curse hangs over their heads , so long as they remain such ▪ for if one sin of theft , or perjury is enough ▪ to rot the rafters , to grind the stones , to level the wals and roof of any house with the ground ; as it is zec. . . what are the oaths , the lies , the thefts , the whoredoms , the murthers , the damnable drunkenness , the numberless , and nameless abominations that are committed there . for these ale-house-keepers are accessory to the drunkards sin , and have a fearfull account to give for their tollerating such , since they might , and ought to redress it : so that their gain is most unjust , and all they have is by the the sins of the people ; as diogenes said of the strumpet phryne . . br. that of all seducing drunkards , these drink-sellers are the chief ; their whole life being nought else but a vicissitude of devouring and venting , and their whole study , how to tole in customers , and then egg them on to drink ; for as if drinking and tempting were their trade : they are alwayes guzling within doors , or else tempting at the door , where they spend their vacant hours , watching for a companion , as a spider would watch for a poor flie ; or as the whorish woman in the proverbs laid wait for the young novice , untill with her great craft , and flattering lips , she had caused him to yeeld , prov. . , to . though when he sees a drunkard , if he but hold up his finger , the other follows him into his burrough , just like a fool to the stocks , and as an ox to the slaughter-house , having no power to withstand the temptation . so in he goes , and there continues as one bewitch'd , or conjur'd with a spell ; out of which he returns not , untill he hath emptied his purse of money , and his head of reason : while in the mean time his poor wife , children and servants want bread . that did sellers of drink aim at the glory of god , and good of others , as they ought , cor. . . there would not be an hundreth part of the drunkards , beggars , brawls , and famished-families there are : whereas now thousands do in sheer drink , spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs . as be they poor labouring men , that must dearly earn it before they have it , these ale-house keepers , these vice-breeders , these soul-murtherers will make them drink away as much in a day , as they can get in a week ; spend twelve pence , sooner than earn two-pence , as st ambrose observes . that thousands of these labouring-men may be found in the very suburbs of this city , that drink the very blood of their wives and children , who are near famished , to satisfie the drunkards throat , or gut , wherein they are worse than infidels , or cannibals , tim. . . who again are justly met withall : for as if god would pay them in their own coyn , how often shall you see vermine sucking the drunkards blood , as fast as he the others . . br. that these drunkards and ale-drapers are always laying their heads together , plotting and consulting how to charm and tame their poor wives ( for the drunkard and his wife agree like the harp and the harrow ) which if maids did but hear , they would rather make choice of an ape-carrier , or a jakes-farmers servant , than of one who will be drawn to the ale-house . for let them take this for a rule , he that is a tame devil abroad , will be a roaring devil at home ; and he that hath begun to be a drunkard , will ever be a drunkard . true , they will promise a maid fair , and bind themselves by an hundred oaths and protestations ; and she ( when love hath blinded and besotted her ) will believe them ; yea , promise her self the victory , not doubting but she shall reclaim him from his evil company ; but not one of a thousand , scarce one of ten thousand that ever finds it so , but the contrary . for let drunkards promise , yea and purpose what they will ; experience shews , that they mend as sowr ale does in summer ; or as a dead hedge , which the longer it stands is the rottener . and how should it be other , when they cannot go the length of a street , but they must pass by , perhaps an hundred ale-houses , where they shall be called in . and all the while they are in the drinking-school , they are bound by their law of good fellowship to be pouring in at their mouths , or whiffing out at their noses : one serving as a shoing-horn to the other ; which makes them like ratsban'd rats , drink and vent , vent and drink , sellengers round , and the same again . oh that a maids fore-wit were but so good as her after-wit ! then the drunkard should never have wife more to make a slave of , nor wives such cause to curse ale-house keepers , as now they have . and indeed , if i may speak my thoughts , or what reason propounds to me , drunkards are such children and fools ( to what governours of families ought to be ) that a rod is fitter for them than a wife . but of this by the way only , that maids may not so miserably cast away themselves ; for they had better be buried alive , than so married , as most poor mens wives can inform them . . br. that to speak to these demetriuses , that get their wealth by drinking ; yea , by helping to consume their drink , and that live only by sin , and the sins of the people , were to speed as paul did at ephesus , after some one of them had told the rest of their occupation . yea to expect amendment from such , in a manner were to expect amendment from a witch , who hath already given her soul to the devil . that to what hath been spoken of drunkards and drink-sellers in the particular cases of drinking and tempting , might be added seventy times seven more of the like abominations . for the drunkard is like some putrid grave , the deeper you dig , the fuller you shall find him both of stench and horrour : or like hercules's monster , wherein were fresh heads still arising one after the cutting off of another . but there needs no more than this taste , to make any wise man ( or any that love their own souls ) to detest and beware these bawds and pandors of vice , that breathe nothing but infection , and study nothing but their own , and other mens destruction . these brokers of villany , whose very acquaintance is destruction : as how can they be other than dangerously infectious , and desperately wicked , whose very mercies are cruelty ? . br. that i have unmasked their faces , is to infatuate their purpose : that i have inveighed and declaimed against drunkenness , is to keep men sober ; for vices true picture , makes us vice detest . o that i had dehortation answerable to my detestation of it ! only here is a discovery how drunkards tempt ; if you will see directions how to avoid their temptations , read my sovereign antidote against the contagion of evil company ▪ only take notice for the present , that the best way to avoid evil , is to shun the occasions : do not only shun drunkenness , but the means to come to it : and to avoid hurt , keep thy self out of shot ; come not in drunken company , nor to drinking places : as for their love and friendship , consider but whose facters they are , and thou wilt surely hate them . consider what i say , and the lord give you understanding in all things . postscript . considering the premisses , if there were any love of god , any hatred of sin , any zeal , any courage , any conscience of an oath in most of our justices of the peace , they would rather put down and purge out of their parishes and liberties , this viperous brood of vice-breeders , and soul-murtherers ( i mean ale-house keepers ) then increase them as they do , when any common drunkard , cheat , or witch may procure a licence to sell drink , if they will but bribe some one of their clerks . but if it be left to them ( if his highness himself do not by some other way redress it , as blessed be god he hath already begun the work in some counties ) look never to see it mended , untill christ comes in the clouds . only it is much to be feared , that as we turn the sanctuary of life into the shambles of death : so god may send a famine after such a satiety , and pestilence after famine . or rather that our land , which hath been so long sick of this disease , and so often surfeited of this sin , should spue us all out , who are the inhabitants . or in case god be pleased to dispense with the nation , the wickedness that is done by these drunkards and drink-sellers , shall be reckoned , unto those that are the permitters , for their own . for governors make themselves guilty of those sins they may redress , and will not . but i know to whom i speak , and my hopes are depending . in the mean time , it is sad to consider , how many drunkards will hear this charge , for one that will apply it to himself . for confident i am , that fifteen of twenty , all this city over , are drunkards , yea , seducing drunkards , in the dialect of scripture , & by the law of god , which extends even to the heart and affections , mat. . , , . perhaps by the laws of the land , a man is not taken for drunk , except his eyes stare , his tongue stutter , and his legs stagger ; but by gods law , he is one that goes often to the drink , or that tarrieth long at it , prov. . , . he that will be drawn to the tavern or ale-house by every idle soliciter , and there be deteined to drink , when he hath neither need of it , or mind to it ; to the spending of his money , wasting of his precious time , neglect of his calling , abusing of the creatures ( which thousands want ) discredit of the gespel , the stumbling of weak ones , the incouraging of indifferent ones , the hardning of his associates , and all the truths enemies that know or hear of it . briefly , he that drinks more for lust , or pride , or covetousness , or fear , or good fellowship , or to drive away time , or to still conscience , than for thirst , is a drunkard in solomon's esteem , prov. . , . perhaps thou dost not think so ; but can you produce that holy man of god , that will not deem him a drunkard , who can neither buy , nor sell , nor meet any friend , or customer , but he must go to the tavern , or ale-house , perhaps six times in a day ; and who constantly clubs it , first for his mornings draught , secondly at exchange-time , thirdly at night , when shops are shut in ; as is the common , but base custom of most tradesmen ; yea , and the devil so blinds them , that they will plead a necessity of it ; and that it is for their profit ? nor can it be denied , but in cases of this nature , things are rather measured by the intention and affection of the doer , than of the issue , and event . and why should not a man be deemed a drunkard for his immoderate and inordinate affection to drink , or drunken company ? as well as another , an adulterer , for the like affecton to his neighbours wife , matth. . , , . yet these men are in their own , and other mens esteem , not only good and civil men , but good christians forsooth . certainly , the more light we have , the more blind men are , or else this could not be ; for i would gladly ask such , are you christians ? in what part of the word find you a warrant for it ? where find you , that this custom was ever used by any one of the saints in former ages ? well may you ( with agrippa ) be almost christians , but sure enough , you are not with st paul , altogether such : and then what will become of you ? for almost a son is a bastard , almost sweet is unsavoury , almost hot is lukewarm ; and those that are lukewarm will god spue out of his mouth , rev. . , . a christian almost , is like a woman that dieth in travel , almost she brought forth a son ; but that almost killed the mother , and the son too if thou believ'st almost , thou shalt be saved almost ; as we say of a thief that hath a pardon brought him whiles he is upon the gallows , he was almost saved , but he was hanged , and his pardon did him no good . to be almost a christian , is to be like the foolish virgins , that had lamps , but without oyl in them ; for which they were shut out of heaven , though they came to the very door , mat. . , , . can the door which is but almost shut , keep out the thief ? can the ship that is but almost tite , keep out the water ? the souldier that does but almost fight is a coward ? and therefore if thou lovest thy self , look to it , and that in time , lest hereafter you most dolefully rue it : for know this , that you shall once give an account for every idle peny and hour you spend , and for every cup of drink you shall spoil , or waste ; and for every one that is encouraged to do the like by your example . for which see mat. . . luke . . rom. . . pet. . . rev. . . & . . that ( by the blessing of god ) our children , and childrens children may loath drunkenness , and love sobriety ; let this be fixed to some place convenient in every house , for all to read . the persians , parthians , spartans , and lacedemonians did the like , and found it exceeding efficacious : and anacharsis holds it the most effectual means to that end . imprimatur edmund calamie . finis . offer of help to drowning-men . imprimatur tho ▪ gataker . seeing , and fore-seeing the sad effects of mens crying down books , learning , the ministry , sanctification , &c. if this their deep and devilish design do meet with no stop : and seeing we should specially prepare for defence , where satan specially prepares for offence . considering also the numberless number of those that by professing themselves protestants , discredit the protestant religion : who because they have been christened , as simon magus was , received the sacrament of the lords supper , like judas ; and for company go to church also as dogs do , are called christians , as we call the heathen images gods : yea , and ( being blinded by the prince of darkness , cor. . . ) think to be saved by christ , though they take up arms against him : and are no more like christians , than michols image of goats hair was like david : who make the world only their god , & pleasure or profit alone their religion : who are so graceless , that god is not in all their thoughts ; except to blaspheme him , and to spend his dayes in the devils service : who being christians in name , will scoff at a christian indeed : who honour the dead saints in a cold profession , while they worry the living saints in a cruel persecution : who so hate holiness , that they will hate a man for it ; and say of good living , ( as festus of great learning ) it makes a man mad : whose hearts will rise at the sight of a good man , as some stomacks will rise at the sight of sweet meats : whose religion is to oppose the power of religion ; and whose knowledge of the truth , to know how to argue against the truth : who justifie the wicked , and condemn the just : who call zeal , madness ; and religion , foolishness : who love their sins so much above their souls , that they will not only mock their admonisher , scoff at the means to be saved , and make themselves merry with their own damnations ; but even hate one to the death , for shewing them the way to eternal life : who will condemn all for round-heads , that have more religion than an heathen , or knowledg of heavenly things , than a child in the womb hath of the things of this life ; or conscience than an atheist , or care of his soul , than a beast , and are mockers of all that march not under the pay of the devil : who with adam , will become satans bondslaves for an apple ; and like esau , sell their birth-right of grace here , and their blessing of glory hereafter for a mess of pottage : who prefer the pleasing of their palates before the saving of their souls : who have not only cast off religion , that should make them good men ; but reason also , that should make them men : who waste virtues faster than riches , and riches faster than any virtues can get them : who do nothing else but sin , and make others sin too : who spend their time and patrimonies in riot ; and upon dice , drabs , drunkenness ; who place all their felicity in a tavern or brothel-house , where harlots and sycophants rifle their estates , and then send them to rob : who will borrow of every one , but never intend to satisfie any one : who glory in their shame , and are ashamed of that which should and would be their glory : who desire not the reputation of honesty , but of good fellowship : who in stead of quenching their thirst , drown their senses ; and had rather leave their wits , than the wine behind them : who place their paradise in their throats , heaven in their guts : and make their belly their god : who pour their patrimonies down their throats , and throw the house so long out at windows , that at length their house throws them out of doors : who think every one exorbitant that walks not after their rule : who will traduce all whom they cannot seduce ; even condemning with their tongues , what they commend in their consciences : who , as they have no reason , so they will hear none : who are not more blind to their own faults , than quick-sighted in other mens : who being displeased with others , will flie in their makers face , and tear their saviours name in pieces with oaths and execrations , as being worse than any mad dog that flies in his masters face that keeps him : who swear and curse even out of custom , as currs bark ; yea , they have so sworn away all grace , that they count it a grace to swear ; and being reproved for swearing , they will swear that they swore not . or perhaps they are covetous cormorants , greedy gripers , miserly muck-worms ; all whose reaches are at riches : who make gold their god , and commodity the stern of their consciences : who hold every thing lawfull , if it be gainfull : who prefer a little base pelf before god , and their own salvations ; and who being fatted with gods blessings , do spurn at his precepts : who like men sleeping in a boat , are carried down the stream of this world , untill they arrive at their gravesend [ death ] without once waking to bethink themselves whether they are a going [ to heaven or hell . ] or ignorant and formal hypocrites : who do as they see others do , without either conscience of sin , or guidance of reason : who do what is morally good , more for fear of the law , then for love of the gospel : who fear the magistrate more , than they fear god or the devil ; regard more the blasts of mens breath , than the fire of gods wrath ; will tremble more at the thought of a bailiff , or a prison , than of satan , or hell , and everlasting perdition : who will say , they love god and christ , yet hate all that any way resemble him ; are flint unto god , wax to satan ; have their ears alwayes open to the tempter , shut to their maker and redeemer ; will chuse rather to disobey god , than displease great ones ; fear more the worlds scorns , than his anger ; and rather than abridge themselves of their pleasure , will incur the displeasure of god : who will do what god forbids , yet confidently hope to escape what he threatens : who will do the devils works only , and yet look for christs wages ; expect that heaven will meet them at their last hour , when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten road towards hell : who expect to have christ their redeemer and advocate ; when their consciences tell them , that they seldom remember him , but to blaspheme him ; and more often name him in their oaths and curses , than in their prayers : who will persecute honest and orthodox christians ; and say , they mean base and dissembling hypocrites : who think they do god service in killing his servants , joh. . . who will boast of a strong faith , and yet fall short of the devils in believing , jam. . . who turn the grace of god into wantonness ; as if a condemned person should head his drum of rebellion with his pardon ; resolving to be evil , because god is good : who will not believe what is written , till they feel what is written ; and whom nothing will confute , but fire and brimstone : who think their villany is unseen , because it is unpunished ; and therefore live like beasts , because they think they shall die like beasts . considering the swarms , legions , millions of these , i say , and many the like , which i cannot stand to repeat . as also in reference to lev. . . isa. . . and out of compassion to their precious souls ; there are above twenty several books purposely composed , wherein are proper remedies ( of the same alloy ) for each soul seduced or afflicted ; to be had without any expence : which books ( like glasses ) will shew them ( from gods word ) the very faces of their hearts : and ( like peter to cornelius , act. . ) tell them words whereby ( with blessing from above ) both they , and their associates ( by their means ) may be saved , ver. . and that they might the better recompence the readers pains ; whether he propound to himself pleasure or profit : they are ( as many reverend divines deem ) a brief collection of the most winning and convincing arguments out of the choisest authors ; very pithily , orderly , and elegantly conveyed , and embellished with much both variety of graceful and delightful illustration . yea , if such as they concern , shall be pleased to make use of them ; they may ( with gods blessing ) not only have their vices lessened , their knowledge increased , and their minds cheered and comforted : but probably they shall find in them the flower , cream , or quintessence , of what would otherwise cost them twenty years reading to extract . it remains only , that the patients , for whom this physick is proper , be prevailed withall to take it . for although here is all necessary provision made , and the guests lovingly invited , yet ( of themselves ) they will refuse to come , as in that parable of the lords supper , luk. . . to . because , as good meats are unwelcome to sick persons ; so is good counsel to obstinate sinners . here is light , but they love darkness rather than light ; lest their deeds which are evil , should be reproved . only they that do well , and love truth , will come to the light , that their deeds may be made manifest , joh . , , . also many young novices in sin , will entertain them , as lot did those angels , that came to fetch him out of sodom , gen. . and probably some parents and masters will desire them , to prevent the spreading of these gangrenes in their children and servants . but as for the parties principally concerned and invited , and that stand in the greatest need , and are most to be pitied ; they will even storm at this very offer of help , and hiss like serpents , because it troubles their nests . being like him , luk. . , . who having bin possest with devils a long time , was at length very loath to part with his guests . indeed , if some , whose hearts god hath already changed , would put them into their hands , and use their best art to make them relished : ( for like babes , meat must not only be given them , but prepared too , and put into their mouths , ) some return of good might happily come thereof . as weak means shall serve the turn , where god intends success . even a word seasonably spoken ( god blessing it ) like a rudder , sometimes steers a man quite into another course . antiochus by hearing from a poor man , all the faults which he and his favourites had committed , carried himself most virtuously ever after ▪ antoninus amended his future life and manners , by only hearing what the people spake of him . the very crowing of a cock occasioned peters repentance . augustine , that famous doctor , was converted , by only reading that text , rom. . . let us walk honestly , as in the day-time , &c. learned junius , with reading the first chapter of st johns gospel , was won to the faith of christ . and melancthon much after the same manner . i have read of two famous strumpets , , that were suddenly converted by this only argument , that god seeth all things , even in the dark ; when the doors are shut , and the curtains drawn . and mountaign tels of a libidinous gentleman , that sporting with a courtizan in a house of sin , happened to ask her name , which she said was mary ; whereat he was so stricken with reverence and remorse ; that he instantly both cast off the harlot , and amended his whole future life . bilney's confe●sion converted latimer : yea , adrianus was not only converted , but became a martyr too , by only hearing a martyr at the stake alledge that text , eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , &c. cor. . . yea , it was an observation of mr john lindsay , that the very smoke of mr hamilton converted as many as it blew upon . yea , even those jews that crucified the son of god , were converted by hearing those few words of peter , act. . and it pleased god , when , my self , was in as hopeless a condition , as any of those sensualists before mentioned ; ( i mean , as much fore-stalled with prejudice against religion , and the religious ) that a poor mans perswading me to leave reading of poetry , and fall upon the bible , was a means of changing my heart , before i had read out genesis , being but twenty years of age : whom ● more bless god for , than for my parents from whom i received life . and this ( because i know no better way to express my thankfulness to him , who hath freed me from frying in hel-flames for ever and ever , than by endeavoring to win others from satans standard to christs ) makes me do the like to others . for i seldom hear any one swear , or scoff , or see any drunk , or the like , but i present them with one of these fore-mentioned messages , from that god , whom they so daringly and audaciously provoke . nor do i alwayes miss the mark at which i aim . and i tel it you , because many discreet ones are apt to wonder , that i so make my ●f a scorn and gazing stock to fools : though i shall never think it a shame to me , ●hich was the only glory of him , that was a man after gods own heart , as you ●ay very often hear him profess , as in psal. . . & . , , , . & . . ● . . & . . & . . and many the like ; see luk. . , . i also mention it , that i may ( if possible in this covetous , cold and dull age ) ●ovoke others to do the same ; or at least somthing for the saving of these poor , ●●norant , and impotent wretches ; that are neither able nor willing to help them●●lves , though as one would think ( for i speak to enlightned souls ) they should ●ot need spurring , nor prompting to this duty : for what heart would it not ●ake to bleed , that hath any christian blood in his veins , to see what multitudes ●ere are that go blind-fold to destruction ; and no man offer to stop or check ●●em before they arrive there , from whence there is no redemption . mat. . ● , . joh. . . rev. . . & . . isa. . . rom. . . tim. . . cor. 〈◊〉 . eph. . , to , phil. . . joh . . & . . ● yea , how should it not make all , that are themselves got out of satans clutches , ●●ot , study , & contrive all they can ; to draw others of their brethren after them . we read that andrew was no sooner converted , and become christs disciple , ●ut instantly he drew others after him to the same faith , joh. . . & the like of philip , ver. . and of the woman of samaria , joh. . , to . and of peter , luke ● . . act. . . & chap . & . . and so of all the apostles . yea , moses so thrist●d after the salvation of israel , that rather than he would be saved without ●hem , he desired the lord to blot him out of the book of life , exo. . . and paul 〈◊〉 this purpose saith , i could wish my self to he separated from christ , for my brethren , ●●at are my kinsmen according to the flesh : meaning the jews , rom. . . and indeed ●ll heavenly hearts are charitable . neither are we of the communion of saints , if ●e desire not the blessedness of others : it being an inseparable adjunct , or rela●●ve to grace ; for none but a cain will say , am i my brothers keeper ? yea , where the ●eart is thankful , and inflamed with the love of god , and our neighbour , this will be ●●e principal aim : as by my sins , and bad example , i have drawn others from god , 〈◊〉 now i will , all i can , draw others with my self to god . saul converted , will build 〈◊〉 , as fast as ever he plucked down , & preach as zealously as ever he persecuted . and ●e are no whit thankful for our own salvation , if we do not look with charity and ●●ty upon the gross mis-opinions & misprisions of our brethren . and what though ●e cannot do what we would ? yet we must labour to do what we can , to win o●●ers ; not to merit by it , but to express our thanks . besides , it were very disho●orable to christ not to do so . did you ever know that wicked men , thievs , drun●ards , adulterers , persecutors , false prophets , or the like , would be damned alone ? no ●●ey mis-leade all they can , as desiring to have companions . yea , the pharisees ●ould take great pains , compass sea and land , to make others two-fold more the chil●ren of hell then themselves , as our saviour expresly saith , mat. . . which ●ay cast a blush upon our cheeks , who are nothing so industrious to win souls 〈◊〉 god . and what a shame is it , that our god should not have as faithfull ●●rvants , as he hath unfaithfull enemies ? that wicked men should be at more ●●st and pains to please an ill master , than we can afford to please so good a ●od , so gracious , and so loving a father ? shall they labour so hard , for that ●hich will but inhance their damnation ? and shall we think any pains too much for that , which will add to the weight of our eternal glory and salvation . and what though their case be not only desperate , but almost hopeless ? ( as i● reason , that sin is past cure , which strives against the cure : nor would these drowning men refuse help , were they not wilful murtherers of their own souls ) yet ther● is a mercy due even to them : and it is our duty to use the means ; leaving the i●sue to him , who is able to quicken the dead , and to make even of stones children to abraham ; witness manasses in the old testament , and paul in the new ▪ yea , i suppose , that this their sad condition , cals for our more ▪ than ordinary compassio● since they have precious souls , that must everlastingly live , in bliss , or wo . an● hence it is , that the angels are said to rejoyce more at the conversion of such a sinne● then for the building up of ninety and nine , that are already converted , luk. . . because he to whom god hath given a new heart , and spiritual life , will be sure 〈◊〉 seek out for , and use the means of growing in grace , and in the knowledg of our lo●● and saviour jesus christ . whereas the former are not only dead in sin ; but so b●ried in the grave of long custom , that they cannot stir the least joint ; no , not 〈◊〉 much as feel their deadness , nor desire life ; but resist all means tending thereunt● insomuch , that the conversion of such an one is , held by divines a greater worl● or miracle , than the creating of the whole world : for in every new creature are 〈◊〉 number of miracles ; a blind man is restored to sight : a deaf man to hearing , a m●● possest with many devils , dispossest ; yea , a dead man raised from the dead ; an● in every one a stone turned into flesh : in all which god meets with nothing 〈◊〉 opposition , which in the creation he met not with . wherefore you , that ( by calling to mind your own former blindness , and bo●dage ) are able to know how it fares with them ; and accordingly to pity the●● you that fear god , or have any bowels of compassion towards their precious soul●● use your utmost indeavour to reduce them ; earnestly admonish them ; draw them●● hear some boanerges , that preaches with power and authority , and not as the scribe● perswade them also to read books that are convincing , &c. so shall you dischar●● your duty to god , shew your love to them , your thankfulness to your redeemer ; an● not a little pleasure your selves . for if you do gain them , you shall shine as the sta●● in heaven , for ever and ever , dan. . . or in case you cannot reclaim them , 〈◊〉 he who requires it at your hands , will return the same into your own bosoms , i●● . , . prov. . . & . . but i were as good knock at a deaf mans door , as press or perswade the most to the duty , though thus necessary : for those two idols , discretion and cursed covetousn●●bear a greater sway with the common professors of this age , than either their ma●●or redeemer : though confident i am , others will do more than i●say , philem. ● melancthon having found the word , most easily to prevail with him , doubt●● not but his preaching should do wonders upon others : but having tried , he fou●● and confest , that old adam , was too strong for young melancthon . many lepers were in israel , in the time of elizeus the prophet , but none of the was cleansed , saving naaman the syrian , luk. . . to . many are called , but few are chosen , mat. . . finis . printed by a. m. and are to be sold by henry crips in popes-head-alley , and ja●● crump , in little-bartholmews well-yard , who will also shew the other books , and tell the place where any one may borrow them gratis , . a warning-piece to all drunkards and health-drinkers faithfully collected from the works of english and foreign learned authors of good esteem, mr. samuel ward and mr. samuel clark, and others ... approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a warning-piece to all drunkards and health-drinkers faithfully collected from the works of english and foreign learned authors of good esteem, mr. samuel ward and mr. samuel clark, and others ... ward, samuel, - . clarke, samuel, - . [ ], p. printed for the author : and are to be sold by langley curtis ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng alcoholism -- great britain -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a warning-piece to all drunkards and health-drinkers : faithfully collected from the works of english and foreign learned authors of good esteem , mr. samuel ward and mr. samuel clark , and others . with above one hundred and twenty sad and dreadful examples of gods severe judgements upon notorious drunkards : twelve of the chiefest are graved in copper-plates , to deterr others from the like provoking sins , and healths with a huzza . to which is added his majesties proclamation against vicious , debauched , prophane persons , and drinkers of his health . also some cautions of a learned doctor of physick , declaring how intemperate drinking destroyes our bodily health and strength . felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum . london , printed for the author , and are to be sold by langley curtis at the sign of sir edmundbury godfrey near fleet-bridge , . the preface . it was once the distressed case of those mariners in jonah , that by no means could save themselves from shipwrack , they rowed and they prayed , and they did what men could doe , and yet the sea wrought , and the angry waves beat upon them , till that sleepy jonah , for whose sake it was this evil came upon them , was thrown over-board into the sea. it were worth the while to sit down and think in this perilous season of delusion and division , whereby men are all in a tempest , the great god influencing the storms in his just indignation ; and though there are those that rowe hard and pray hard , no abatement of the danger , but the heavens are darker and darker over our heads : i say it were worth the while to enquire into the provocation , what the cause is of these swellings of jordan , and innundations of such seas that we never saw worse , nor more dangerous to destroy us all : like that tempest upon the adriatick sea , of which the apostle gave his opinion , that this voyage would be with hurt and much damage , not only of the lading and ship , but also of their lives , act. . it is readily confest of all hands amongst those that pretend to the least degree of wisdom , that sin in general is the cause of all this . they must assemble themselves amongst those that sit in the seat of scorners , and declare themselves to have taken the highest degree in atheism and defiance of a god , that will not yield us this point : they must arest the reins of providential government out of gods hands , and put them into the hands of blind chance and fortune , and then the world is like to be well governed ; and those of this belief may chance to get to heaven , if blind fortune do but know the way . but now the question will rise , for whose sins ? and for what sins ? for the first of these , it must necessarily be granted , that the sins of great men have more of the spirit of provocation in them , than the sins of men of low degree : and the sins of the priests are more full of bloody circumstances than the sins of the laity , and the epidemicalness of sin cryes for extirpation with a louder voice , than the sins of some few diseased persons that through incogitancy have made themselves out of frame . and further , the more mercies and deliverances men sin against , and the greater gospel-light , and the more sacred vows and resolutions they sin against , the more is their sin like to bring down such kind of judgments as shall not be prayed away : and these reflections will justifie god in the equality of his proceedings , if we all perish from off this good land. but if you ask me for what particular sin , or way of sinning it is that the lord is angry with us ; i would as soon lay the blame upon the drunkenness of the nation , as upon any one branch of that prophaneness that is gone abroad . and the reasons are these . . the bewitching , besotting nature of drunkenness : it doth not turn men into beasts , as some think , for a beast scorns it : i do n't know that ever i saw a beast drunk ( unless it were a swine ) in my life . but it turns them into fools and sots , dehominates them , turns them out of their own essences for the time , and so disfigures them , that god saith , non est haec imago mea , this is not my image ; and so cares not what judgments he le ts fall upon their heads : and this insatuation is more eminently seen in the poorer sort , that earn their money hardest , and pay most for their drink : for when others pay their money , these pay their time also , which is more than their money , besides the loss of trade and other possible advantages : that others drink sack cheaper than ▪ they pay for their beer and ale , all things considered ; and their poor wives and children by this means are in want of bread for their mouths ▪ and will not god be avenged upon such a sin as this ? their money burns in their pockets , but it will burn worse in their conscieces , if ever god shew them mercy . . drunkenness is the general rendezvouze of all sin , the common parent of the greatest provocations . even the worst of men when they are drunk , do that which if they were sober they would blush to be found guilty of . men naturally quiet , good humor'd , moderate in sinning , as one may say , when they are themselves ; are by drunkenness metamorphos'd into such extravagancies , you would not think them to be the same men : thus having their natural tempers well soaked in strong liquors , they are framable into any shape . satan calls for : would he have a swearer ? give him a provocation , and there he is : an adulterer ? bring him a temptation , and there he is : a persecutor , he swears by all that 's sacred , he will root all the professors out of the countrey . satan can mould him into any shape , and raise a devil out of a samuel by this artifice . and how can the sea but boyl , when all the foul spirits are blowing up a flame underneath ? nations must needs reel , when the inhabitants can't stand upon their feet ; and god must needs strike , when he hath an advantage given him to cut off all sorts of sins at one blow . . and as to health-drinking , it is an engine invented by the devil , to carry on the sin of drunkenness with the greater ease and infallibility , by which men must either be suspected of their loyalty to their sovereign , or respect to their friends ( neither of which any sober man can be defective in ) if they refuse it , though upon conscientious principles : and so it becomes a great snare to those that would be temperte : every man at all times hath not consideration enough to give him a convincing evidence , that loyalty and respect to others , is not proper to be shewn in so absurd a method ; and so this poysoned health goeth down ( right or wrong ) the throats of those that do n't think what they do . here the sin lies chiefly , though not only , upon the imposer ; as our saviour said , wo to the world because of offences , but wo be to him by whom the offence comes : wo to the imposers of healths , which commonly happens to be some ordinary fellow in the company , that hath nothing but that single ceremony to commend his love or loyalty to the world , who also having a tumor of pride in him , hath no way to overtop and command his superiours , but upon the advantage of the laws of drunkenness . moreover , it is a custom of sinning only proper for those that are upon the design of mortgaging their senses : for there is no sence in it or reason for it ? how can any man drink anothers health ? or by what new kind of transubstantiation can his health be converted into a glass of liquor ? or if so ! what 's the man the better , to have his health drank into my body , and then piss'd out again against the walls ? and why not eat his health , rather than drink it ? and so bring up a new fashion of eating of healths , to subserve the intemperances of the sin of gluttony . sometimes it is expressed by drinking a health to the confusion of , &c. and here 's nonsence upon the neck of nonsence , which is perfect foolery , as patch upon patch is plain beggery : a health to the confusion — if they mean a confusion to the health , as i think they do , why is it exprest quite contrary to what they mean ? unless it be to give us to understand , that men that will begin a health are enter'd upon speaking of nonsence , and may be lookt on as half drunk already . but laying all this aside , they say all these are modes and ceremonies in drinking ; and their meaning is no more , but only to pray for the health and prosperity of such and such ▪ which is the reason they are at it in a posture of prayer , standing up , standing bare , sometimes kneeling upon their knees , as supplicants do to god almighty : but will any rational man think these men at prayers ? are these praying postures ? did god ever command , or his people ever apply to the throne in this manner of address ? have men lived to this age , and cannot yet distinguish between drinking intemperately and praying fervently ? as if to pray were to drink , and to drink were to pray ! worse than pagan idolatry , to offer at the throne of the great god , with a glass of wine in our hand ! it may be praying to bacchus , but not to god. heaven must needs be shut against these prayings : and to what purpose is any mans health prayed for , by such kind of prayers , so circumstanced , as we are very sure that god will throw them back as dung in the faces of those that thus disorderly put them up ? what hast thou to do to take his name in thy mouth , when thou hatest to be reformed ? to see the postures of health-drinkers , singing , and roaring , hollowing and carousing , and huzzaing after a new fashion , sometimes quarrelling , and challenging , and duelling ; can any man that hath not his wits in his pocket , think these men at prayers ? now because we find by experience ; and from the nature of the thing , that these prodigious kind of offenders we now speak of , are under no likelihood to be perswaded out of their cursed way by arguments drawn from the love of christ , or hope of glory , which are things they do n't trouble their heads about ; or fear of hell , ( let them alone till that day ; ) the author of these collections hath very well and to good purpose gather'd up together out of several authors , several instances of the judgments of god taking these sinners in the very fact , and tacking them up as dreadful instances and examples of his great abomination of , and declared vengeance against this sort of sinners more specially ; that reading these histories we may prevent being made a history our selves : and though they are but collections , i do n't know why a good dish may not be twice set upon the table . there are several late instances of gods vengeance upon drunkards , thundred down upon the heads of many of them in our age ; the publication of which is forborn , out of a tender respect to their relations yet surviving : the next generation will be able to set forth remarkable stroaks from heaven upon some , ( and no mean ones neither . ) but least i transgress the bounds of a preface , no more , kind reader , but my love to thy soul remembred , with my earnest prayer to god for the health of sion , and all that love the lord jesus christ in sincerity . farewell . a collection of some part of a sermon long since preached by mr. samuel ward of ipswich , entituled , a wo to drunkards : he lived in the dayes of famous king james , and was like righteous lot , whose soul was vexed with the wicked conversation of the sodomites : he published divers other good sermons . his text was in prov . xxiii . vers. , . to whom is woe ? to whom is sorrow ? to whom is strife , & c ? in the end it will bite like a serpent , and sting like a cockatrice he begins thus : seer , art thou also blind ? watchman , art thou also drunk , or asleep ? or hath a spirit of slumber put out thine eyes ? up to thy watch-tower , what descriest thou ? ah lord ! what end or number is there of the vanities which mine eyes are weary of beholding ? but what seest thou ? i see men walking like the tops of trees shaken with the wind , like masts of ships reeling on the tempestuous seas : drunkenness i mean , that hatefull night-bird ; which was wont to wait for the twilight , to seek nooks and corners , to avoid the howling and wonderment of boyes and girles ; now as if it were some eaglet , to dare the sun-light , to fly abroad at high noon in every street , in open markets and fairs , without fear or shame , without controul or punishment , to the disgrace of the nation , the out-facing of magistracy and ministry , the utter undoing ( without timely prevention ) of health and wealth , piety and vertue , town and countrey , church and common-wealth . and doest thou like a dumb dog hold thy peace at these things ? dost thou with solomon's sluggard fold thine hands in thy bosom , and give thy self to ease and drowsiness , while the envious man causeth the noisomest and basest of weeds to over-run the choicest eden of god ? up and arise , lift up thy voice , spare not , and cry aloud ? what shall i cry ? cry , woe and woe again unto the crown of pride , the drunkards of ephraim . take up a parable , and tell them how it stingeth like the cockatrice ; declare unto them the deadly poyson of this odious sin. shew them also the soveraign antidote and cure of it , in the cup that was drunk off by him that was able to overcome it : cause them to behold the brazen serpent , and be healed . and what though some of these deaf adders will not be charmed nor cured ; yea though few or none of this swinish herd of habitual drunkards , accustomed to wallow in their mire ; yea , deeply and irrecoverably plunged by legions of devils into the dead sea of their filthiness ? what if not one of them will be washed and made clean , but turn again to their vomit , and trample the pearls of all admonition under feet ; yea , turn again and rend their reprovers with scoffs and scorns , making jests and songs on their ale-bench ? yet may some young ones be deterred , and some novices reclaimed , some parents and magistrates awakened to prevent and suppress the spreading of this gangrene : and god have his work in such as belong to his grace . and what is impossible to the work of his grace ? go to then now ye drunkards , listen , not what i or any ordinary hedge-priest ( as you style us ) but that most wise and experienced royal preacher hath to say unto you . and because you are a dull and thick eared generation , he first deals with you by way of question , a figure of force and impression : to whom is woe , & c ? you use to say , woe be to hypocrites ; it 's true , wo be to such and all other witting and willing sinners ; but there are no kind of offenders on whom woe doth so palpably , inevitably attend , as to you drunkards . you promise your selves mirth , pleasure , and jollity in your cups ; but for one drop of your mad mirth , be sure of gallons and tons of woe , gall , wormwood , and bitterness here and hereafter . other sinners shall taste of the cup , but you shall drink off the dregs of god's wrath and displeasure . to whom is strife ? you talk of good fellowship and friendship , but wine is a rager and tumultuous , a mocker , a make-bate , and sets you a quarrelling , and medling . when wit 's out of the head , and strength out of the body , it thrusts even cowards and dastards , unfenced and unarmed , into needless frayes and combats : and then to whom are wounds , broken heads , blew eyes , maimed limbs ? you have a drunken by-word , drunkards take no harm ; but how many are the mishaps and untimely misfortunes that betide such , which though they feel not in drink , they carry as marks and brands unto their grave . you pretend you drink healths , and for health ; but to whom are all kind of diseases , infirmities , deformities , pearled faces , palsies , dropsies , head-aches , if not to drunkards ? all interpreters agree , that he means some most virulent serpent , whose poyson is pleasant and deadly . all the woes he hath mentioned before , were but as the sting of some emmet , wasp or nettle , in comparison of this cockatrice , which is even unto death ; death speedy , death painful , and woful death , and that as naturally and inevitably as opium procureth sleep , as hellebore purgeth , or any poyson killeth . three forked is the sting , and threefold is the death it procureth to all that are stung therewith . the first is , the death of grace ; the second is , of the body ; the third is , of soul and body eternal . all sin is the poyson wherewithall the old serpent and red dragon envenomes the soul of man , but no sin ( except it be that which is unto death ) so mortal as this , which though not ever unpardonably , yet for the most part is also irrecoverably and inevitably unto death . seest thou one bitten with any other snake , there is hope and help ; as the father said of his son , when he had information of his gaming , of his prodigality , yea , of his whoring ; but when he heard that he was poysoned with drunkenness , he gave him for dead , his case for desperate and forlorn . the adulterer and usurer desire to enjoy their sin alone , but the chiefest pastime of a drunkard is to heat and overcome others with wine , that he may discover their nakedness , and glory in their foyl and folly . in a word , excess of wine , and the spirit of grace are opposites ; the former expells the latter out of the heart , as smoak doth bees out of the hive ; and makes the man a meer slave and prey to satan and his snares ; when , by this poyson he hath put out his eyes , and spoyled him of his strength , he useth him as the philistines did sampson , leads him in a string whither he pleaseth , like a very drudge , scorn and make-sport to himself and his imps ; makes him grind in the mill of all kind of sins and vices . and that i take to be the reason why drunkenness is not specially prohibited in any one of the ten commandments , because it is not the single breach of any one , but in effect the violation of all and every one : it is no one sin , but all sins , because it is the in let and sluce to all other sins . the devil having moistened and steeped him in his liquor , shapes him like soft clay , into what mould he pleaseth ; having shaken off his rudder and pilot , dashes his soul upon what rocks , sands , and syrts he listeth , and that with as much ease as a man may push down his body with the least thrust of his hand or finger . he that in his right wits and sober mood seems religious , modest , chast , courteous , secret ; in his drunken fits , swears , blasphemes , rages , strikes , talks filthily , blabs all secrets , commits folly , knows no difference of persons or sexes , becomes wholly at satans command , as a dead organ , to be enacted at his will and pleasure . oh that god would be pleased to open the eyes of some drunkard , to see what a dunghill and carrion his soul is become , and how loathsome effects follow upon thy spiritual death , and sting of this cockatrice , which is the fountain of the other two following , temporal and eternal death . how terrible a theater of god's judgments against drunkards , such as might make their hearts to bleed and relent , if not their ears to tingle ; to hear of a taste of some few such noted and remarkable examples of god's justice , as have come within the compass of mine own notice , and certain knowledge ; i think i should offend to conceal them from the world , whom they may happily keep from being the like to others themselves . here followeth above one hundred and twenty various , sad , and fearful examples of gods judgments on notorious drunkards and health-drinkers in england and foreign countreys , with the places they lived in ; twelve of the chief are graved on copper plates , to deterr all others from the like provoking sins , least the like judgments do befall them . . an alewife in kesgrave near to ipswich , who would needs force three serving-men ( that had been drinking in her house , and were taking their leaves ) to stay and drink the three ou ts first ; that is , wit out of the head , money out of the purse , ale out of the pot ; as she was coming towards them with the pot in her hand , was suddenly taken speechless and sick , her tongue swoln in her mouth , never recovered speech , the third day after died . this sir antheny felton , the next gentleman and justice , with divers other eye-witnesses of her sickness , related to me ; whereupon i went to the house with two or three witnesses , and inquired the truth of it . . two servants of a brewer in ipswich , drinking for a rump of a turkey , strugling in their drink for it , fell into a scalding cauldron backwards ; whereof the one died presently , the other lingringly and painfully , since my coming to ipswich . . anno . a miller in bromeswell coming home drunk from woodbridge , ( as he often did ) would needs go and swim in the mill-pond ; his wife and servants knowing he could not swim , disswaded him ; once by intreaty got him out of the water , but in he would needs go again , and there was drowned ; i was at the house to inquire of this , and found it to be true . . in barnwell near to cambridge , one at the sign of the plough , a lusty young man , with two of his neighbours and one woman in their company , agreed to drink a barrel of strong beer , they drank up the vessel ; three of them died within twenty four hours , the fourth hardly escaped after great sickness . this i have under a justice of peace his hand near dwelling , besides the common fame . . a butcher in hastingfield hearing the minister inveigh against drunkenness , being at his cups in the ale-house , fell a jesting and scoffing at the minister and his sermons ; and as he was drinking , the drink , or something in the cup quackled him , stuck so in his throat , that he could get it neither up nor down , but strangled him presently . . at tillingham in dengy hundred in essex , three young men meeting to drink strong-waters , fell by degrees to half pints : one fell dead in the room , and the other prevented by company coming in , escaped not without much sickness . . at bungey in norfolk , three coming out of an ale-house in a very dark evening , swore , they thought it was not darker in hell it self : one of them fell off the bridge into the water , and was drowned : the second fell off his horse , the third sleeping on the ground by the rivers-side , was frozen to death : this have i often heard , but have no certain ground for the truth of it . . a bayliff of hadly , upon the lords-day , being drunk at melford , would needs get upon his mare , to ride through the street , affirming ( as the report goes ) that his mare would carry him to the devil ; his mare casts him off , and broke his neck instantly . reported by sundry sufficient witnesses . . company drinking in an ale-house at harwich in the night , over against one master russels , and by him out of his window once or twice willed to depart ; at length he came down , and took one of them , and made as if he would carry him to prison , who drawing his knife , fled from him , and was three dayes after taken out of the sea with the knife in his hand . related to me by master russel himself , maior of the town . . at tenby in pembrokeshire , a drunkard being exceeding drunk , broke himself all to pieces off an high and steep rock , in a most fearful manner ; and yet the occasion and circumstances of his fall were so ridiculous , as i think not fit to relate , lest , in so serious a judgment , i should move laughter to the reader . . a glasier in chancery-lane in london , noted formerly for profession , fell to a common course of drinking , whereof being oft by his wife and many christian friends admonished , yet presuming much of gods mercy to himself , continued therein ; till upon a time , having surcharged his stomach with drink , he fell a vomiting , broke a vein , lay two dayes in extream pain of body , and distress of mind , till in the end recovering a little comfort , he died : both these examples related to me by a gentleman of worth upon his own knowledge . . four sundry instances of drunkards wallowing and tumbling in their drink , slain by carts ; i forbear to mention , because such examples are so common and ordinary . . a yeoman's son in northampton-shire , who being drunk at wellingborough on a market-day , would needs ride his horse in a bravery over the plowed-lands , fell from his horse , and brake his neck : reported to me by a kinsman of his own . . a knight notoriously given to drunkenness , carrying sometime payls of drink into the open field , to make people drunk withall ; being upon a time drinking with company , a woman comes in , delivering him a ring with this posie , drink and die ; saying to him , this is for you , which he took and wore , and within a week after came to his end by drinking : reported by sundry , and justified by a minister dwelling within a mile of the place . . two examples have i known of children that murthered their own mothers in drink ; and one notorious drunkard that attempted to kill his father ; of which being hindred , he fired his barn , and was afterward executed : one of these formerly in print . one drunk vomiting broke a vein after days great pain dyed . . being drunk were slain by carts . one drunk rideing over plowed - lands fell and broke his neck . a child that murthered his mother he being drunk . . in dengy hundred near mauldon , about the beginning of his majesties reign , there fell out an extraordinary judgment upon five or six that plotted a solemn drinking at one of their houses , laid in beer for the once , drunk healths in a strange manner , and died thereof within a few weeks , some sooner , and some later : witnessed to me by one that was with one of them on his death-bed , to demand a debt , and often spoken of by mr. heydon , late preacher of mauldon , in the hearing of many : the particular circumstances were exceeding remarkable , but having not sufficient proof for the particulars , i will not report them . . one of aylesham in norfolk , a notorious drunkard , was drowned in a shallow brook of water , with his horse by him . . whilest this was at the press , a man eighty five years old , or thereabout , in suffolk , overtaken with wine , ( though never in all his life before , as he himself said a little before his fall , seeming to bewail his present condition , and others that knew him , so say of him ) yet going down a pair of stairs ( against the perswasion of a woman sitting by him in his chamber ) fell , and was so dangerously hurt , as he died soon after , not being able to speak from the time of his fall to his death . the names of the parties thus punished , i forbear for the kindreds sake yet living . if conscionable ministers of all places of the land would give notice of such judgments , as come within the compass of their certain knowledge , it might be a great means to suppress this sin , which reigns every where to the scandal of our nation , and high displeasure of almighty god. these may suffice for a taste of gods judgments : easie were it to abound in sundry particular casualties , and fearful examples of this nature . drunkard , that which hath befallen any one of these , may befall thee , if thou wilt dally with this cockatrice ; whatever leagues thou makest with death , and dispensations thou givest thy self from the like . some of these were young , some were rich , some thought themselves as wise as thou ; none of them ever looked for such ignominious ends , more than thou , whoever thou art : if thou hatest such ends , god give thee grace to decline such courses . if thou beest yet insensate with wine , void of wit and fear , i know not what further to mind thee of , but of that third and worst sting of all the rest , which will ever be gnawing , and never dying : which if thou wilt not fear here , sure thou art to feel there , when the red dragon hath gotten thee into his den , and shall fill thy soul with the gall of scorpions , where thou shalt yell and howl for a drop of water to cool thy tongue withall , and shalt be denied so small a refreshing , and have no other liquor to allay thy thirst but that which the lake of brimstone shall afford thee : and that worthily , for that thou wouldest incurr the wrath of the lamb for so base and sordid a sin as drunkenness , of which thou mayest think as venially and slightly as thou wilt . but paul that knew the danger of it , gives thee fair warning , and bids thee not deceive thy self , expresly and by name mentioning it among the mortal sins , excluding from the kingdom of heaven . and the prophet esay tells thee , that for it hell hath enlarged it self , opened its mouth wide , and without measure ; and therefore shall the multitude and their pomp , and the jollyest among them descend into it . consider this , you that are strong to pour in drink , that love to drink sorrow and care away : and be you well assured , that there you shall drink enough for all , having for every drop of your former bousings , vials , yea , whole seas of god's wrath , never to be exhaust . now then i appeal from your selves in drink , to your selves in your sober fits . reason a little the case , and tell me calmly , would you for your own , or any mans pleasure , to gratifie friend or companion , if you knew there had been a toad in the wine-pot ( as twice i have known happened to the death of drinkers ? ) or did you think that some caesar borgia , or brasutus had tempered the cup ? or did you see but a spider in the glass , would you , or durst you carouse it off ? and are you so simple to fear the poyson that can kill the body , and not that which killeth the soul and body ever ; yea , for ever and ever , and if it were possible for more than for ever , for evermore ? oh thou vain fellow , what tellest thou me of friendship , or good fellowship ! wilt thou account him thy friend , or good fellow , that draws thee into his company , that he may poyson thee ? and never thinks he hath given thee right entertainment , or shewed thee kindness enough , till he hath killed thy soul with his kindness ; and with beer made thy body a carkass fit for the biere , a laughing and loathing-stock , not to boys and girls alone , but to men and angels ? why rather sayest thou not to such , what have i to do with you , ye sons of belial , ye poysonful generation of vipers , that hunt for the precious life of a man ? oh but there are few good wits , or great spirits now a days , but will pot it a little for company , what hear i ? oh base and low-spirited times , if that were true ! if we were fallen into such lees of time foretold of by seneca , in which all were so drowned in the dregs of vices , that it should be vertue and honour to bear most drink . but thanks be to god , who hath reserved many thousands of men ▪ and without all comparison more witty and valorous than such pot-wits , and spirits of the buttery , who never bared their knees to drink health , nor ever needed to whet their wits with wine ; or arm their courage with pot-harness . and if it were so , yet if no such wits or spirits shall ever enter into heaven without repentance , let my spirit never come and enter into their paradise ; ever abhor to partake of their bruitish pleasures , lest i partake of their endless woes . if young cyrus could refuse to drink wine , and tell astyages , he thought it to be poyson , for he saw it metamorphose men into beasts and carkases ; what would he have said , if he had known that which we may know , that the wine of drunkards is the wine of sodom and gomorrah ; their grapes , the grapes of gall ; their clusters , the clusters of bitterness , the juyce of dragons , and the venome of asps. scripture examples of drunkenness . the sin of drunkenness is a bewitching sin , hos. . . it steals away the heart from god and all goodness : it is an old sin , it began presently after the flood . it is a malignant sin , it drowns the brain , wastes the time , consumes the estate . and fills the body with as many diseases as hath an horse ; it is an epidemical sin , that hath almost drowned the whole world with another deluge : in these modern times it began in germany , whence grew that proverb , germani possunt cunctos tolerare labores : o utinam possint tam bene ferre sitim ! the germans can all labours undergo , would they as well could bear their thirst also . but since it hath infected all europe : it is grown into fashion , to quaff soul-sick healths till they make themselves like swine , and worse than beasts : whence one gives us this excellent rule : una salus sanis , nullam potare salutem : non est in pota vera salute salus . drinking no healths you drink your health they say : and drinking healths you drink your health away . scriptural examples . the odiousness and danger of this sin may further appear to us by these following scriptures and examples . drunkenness dangerous , prov. . . &c. who hath wo ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath babling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? & . . it is not for kings , o lemuel , it is not for kings to drink wine : nor for princes , strong drink : deut. . . and they shall say unto the elders of his city , this our son is stubborn and rebellious , he will not obey our voice : he is a glutton , and a drunkard ; prov. . . wine is a mocker , strong drink is raging : and whosoever is deceived thereby , is not wise. hos. . . whoredom , and wine , and new wine take away the heart . nah. . . for while they be folden together as thorns , and while they are drunken as drunkards , they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry . cor. . . for in eating every one taketh before other , his own supper : and one is hungry , and another is drunken . threatened , isai. . , . wo unto them that rise up early in the morning , that they may follow strong drink , that continue untill night till wine inflame them . . woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine , and men of strength to mingle strong drink . amos . . that drink wine in bowls , and anoint themselves with the chief ointments : but they are not grieved for affliction of joseph . prov. . for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty : and drowsiness shall cloath a man with rags . isa. . . ▪ wo to the crown of pride , to the drunkards of ephraim : whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower , which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine . v. . the crown of pride , the drunkards of ephraim shall be troden under feet . joel . . awake ye drunkards , and weep and howl all ye drinkers of wine , because of the new wine , for it is cut off from your mouth . cor. . . nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards , nor revilers , nor extortioners , shall inherit the kingdom of god. forbidden , cor. . . but now i have written unto you , not to keep company , if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator , or covetous , or an idolater , or a railer , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such an one , no not to eat . luke . . and he said , i tell thee , peter , the cock shall not crow this day , before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me . eph. . . and be not drunk with wine , wherein is excess : but be ye filled with the spirit : hab. . . wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink : that puttest thy bottle to him ▪ and makest him drunken also , that thou mayest look on their nakedness . mat. . . and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants , and to eat and drink with the drunken : luke . . but and if that servant say in his heart , my lord delayeth his coming , and shall begin to beat the men-servants , and maidens , and to eat , and drink , and to be drunken , &c. rom. . . let us walk honestly as in the day , not in rioting and drunkenness , not in chambering and wantonness , not in strife and envying . staggering is a sign of a drunkard , job . . . they grope in the dark without light , and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. psal. . . they reel to and fro , and stagger like a drunken man ; and are at their wits end . isa. . . the lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof : and they have caused egypt to erre in every work thereof , as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit . lot , gen. . . come , let us make our father drink wine , and we will lie with him , that we may preserve seed of our father . noah , gen. . . and he drank of the wine , and was drunken , and he was uncovered within his tent . amalekites , sam. . . and when he had brought him down , behold they were spread abroad upon all the earth , eating , and drinking , and dancing , because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the philistines , and out of the land of judah . amnon , sam. . . now absolom had commanded his servants , saying , mark ye now when amnons heart is merry with wine , and when i say unto you , smite amnon , then kill him , fear not , have not i commanded you ? be couragious , and be valiant . benhadad , kings . . and it came to pass when benhadad heard this message , ( as he was drinking , he , and the kings in the pavilions ) that he said unto his servants , set your selves in aray . and they set themselves in aray against the city . david made uriah drunk , sam. . and when david had called him , he did eat and drink before him , and he made him drunk : and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord , but went not down to his house . belshazzar , dan. . . belshazzar whilest he tasted the wine , commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels , which his father nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in jerusalem , that the king and his princes , his wives and his concubines might drink therein . nabal , sam. . . and abigal came to nabal , and behold , he held a feast in his house like the feast of a king , and nabals heart was merry within him , for he was very drunken , wherefore she told him nothing , less or more , untill the morning light . more scriptural examples of drunkenness , and how that great sin hath been punished . the amalekites being drunk were destroyed , sam. . , v. to the . and when he had brought him down , behold , they were spread abroad upon all the earth , eating , and drinking , and dancing , because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the philistines , and out of the land of judah . and david smote them from the twilight , even unto the evening of the next day : and there escaped not a man of them save four hundred young men which rode upon camels and fled . and david recovered all that the amalekites had carried away : and david rescued his two wives . and there was nothing lacking to them , neither small nor great , neither sons nor daughters , neither spoil , nor any thing that they had taken to them : david recovered all . and david took all the flocks , and the herds , which they drave before those other cattel , and said , this is davids spoil . david recovered all the spoil he had taken at ziglag and his two wives : benhadad king of assiria being drunk , with thirty two kings more , is defeated ; kings . . to the . v. and they went out at noon : but benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions , he , and the kings , the thirty and two kings that helped him . . and the young men of the princes of the provinces , went out first , and benhadad sent out , and they told him , saying , there are men come out of samaria . . and he said , whether they be come out for peace , take them alive : or whether they be come out for war , take them alive . . so these young men of the princes of the provinces , came out of the city , and the army which followed them . . and they slew every one his man : and the syrians fled , and israel pursued them : and benhadad the king of syria escaped on an horse , with the horsemen . . and the king of israel went out , and smote the horses and chariots , and slew the syrians with a great slaughter . elah king of israel , being drunk , he is slain by zimri , kings . . to the . in the twentieth and sixth year of asa king of judah , began elah the son of baasha to reign over israel in tirzah two years . and his servant zimri ( captain of half his chariots ) conspired against him , as he was in tirzah , drinking himself drunk in the house of arza steward of his house in tirzah . and zimri went in , and smote him , and killed him , in the twenty and seventh year of asa king of judah , and reigned in his stead . belshazzar being drunk , was slain by god ; he praised the gods of gold , &c. and in the same hour came out the hand writing against him , dan. . mene , mene , tekel , upharsin . king herod being drunk , caused john baptist to be beheaded , mat. . . to the . but when herods birth-day was kept , the daughter of herodias danced before them , and pleased herod . whereupon he promised with an oath , to give her whatsoever she would ask . and she being before instructed of her mother , said , give me here john baptists head in a charger . and the king was sorry : nevertheless for the oaths sake , and them which sat with him at meat , he commanded it to be given her : and he sent and beheaded john in the prison : and his head was brought in a charger , and given to the damsel , and she brought it to her mother . titus . . teaching us that denying all ungodliness and wordly lusts , we should live soberly , righteously and godly in this present world. pet. . . . for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles , when we walked in lasciviousness , lusts , excess of wine , revellings , banquetings , and abominable idolatries . wherein they think it strange , that you run not with them to the same excess of riot , speaking evil of you . other examples forreign and domestick . . whilest the gaul's besieged the roman capitol , they sent out a great party to sack the countrey thereabouts , who being loaden with spoil were returning towards rome : and at night being full of wine , they laid them down to sleep , not fearing any enemy : at which time camillus with his men came upon them , all his souldiers giving a mighty shout , yet could the gauls hardly be awakened , they were so deadly drunk , so that they were easily all of them slain either upon the place , or by the horsemen in the pursuit : plutarch . . the tuscans besieging sturium , ( a city that was confederate with rome ) camillus marched privately with his army against them , and coming upon them found the tuscans secure , eating and drinking themselves drunken ; by which means he slew most of them without resistance : and thereby freed the city from danger . plutarch . . many dutch-men in joppa drinking themselves drunk upon st. martins-day ( their arch-saint , ) the turks came in suddenly upon them , and cut every ones throat , to the number of . and indeed they were quickly stabbed with the sword , who were cup-shot before . fullers holy war. . edgar king of england perceiving that his people had learned of the danes ( many of which were in this land at that time ) to drink excessively , whereupon ensued much drunkenness , together with many other vices : he ordained certain wooden cups with pins , or nails set in them , commonly used , making also a law , that whosoever drank past that mark at one draught , should forfeit a summe of money , one part to the informer , and the other to the judge or chief officer . sp. chron. . eschines commending philip king of macedon for a jovial man , that would drink freely ; demosthenes answered , that this was a good quality in a spunge , but not in a king. plut. in vit . demost. . alexander the great having taken persepolis , wherein was a stately pallace of the kings of persia , in a drunken fit , by the perswasion of lais the harlot , burned it down to the ground . diod. . a turk having in one of their great feasts drunk wine too freely ( which is a thing forbidden in their law ) being apprehended and carryed before the gand visier , and there found guilty , was adjudged to have boiling lead poured into his mouth and ears , which was accordingly executed . turk . hist. p. . . phocas a drunken , bloody and adulterous tyrant , was worthily slaughtered by heraclius , who cut off his hands and feet , and then his privy parts by piece-meal . . not long since a souldier in salisbury , in the midst of his health-drinking and carousing in a tavern , drank a health to the devil , saying , that if the devil would not come and pledge him , he would not believe that there was either god or devil . whereupon his companions strucken with horror , hastened out of the room ; and presently after hearing a hideous noise , and smelling a stinking favour , the vintner ran up into the chamber , and coming in he missed his guest ; and found the window broken , the iron bar in it bowed , and all bloody ; but the man was never heard of afterwards . . a young gentleman being drunk , as he rode homewards was thrown by his horse , and had his brains dashed out by the pomel of his sword. . anno christi . there was one t. w. a notorious blasphemer and drunkard , upon a small occasion being angry with his wife , not daring to proffer violence to her , drew his knife and stabbed himself . . the same year one j. b. of ely a gentlemans coachman , being exceedingly given to swearing and drunkenness , drinking himself drunk on a sabbath-day at sermon-time , fell from his coach-box , and was killed by his horses . . anno christi , . one r. b. of ely , who used to travel on the sabbath-dayes , seldom or never coming to church ; as he went to the market at st. ives being drunk , gods judgment overtook him ; for going up the river in his boat , he fell over into the water and was drowned . . anno christi . one t. a. of godmanchester , being a common drunkard , was intreated by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay : and being at that time drunk , the pitchfork slipt out of his hand , which he stooping to take up again , fell from the cart with his head downward ; and the fork standing with the tines upward , he fell directly upon them , which striking to his heart killed him immediately . . anno christi . j. v. of godmanchester , a known drunkard and scoffer at religion , fell from the top of a pear ▪ tree and brake his neck . all these are attested by sundry godly ministers . . anno christi . in bohemia five drunkards were quaffing , and blaspheming the name of god : and the picture of the devil being painted upon the wall , they drank healths to him , who the night after paid them their wages ; for they were found dead with their necks broken and quashed to pieces , as if a wheel had gone over them the blood running out of their mouths , nostrils , and ears in a lamentable manner . fincelius . . a vintner that accustomed himself to swearing and drunkenness , as he was upon the lords day standing in his door with a pot in his hand to invite guests , there came suddenly such a violent whirlewind as carryed him up into the air , after which he was never more seen . . armitus and cinanippus , two syracusians , being drunk , committed incest with their two daughters . plut. the like did lot , gen. . , &c. . cleomenes king of laceaemonia , drinking himself drunken fell distracted , never recovering his wits again . . anacreon the poet , a notable drunkard , was choaked with the husk of a grape . . zeno the emperour was such a drunkard , that he would often lye as one dead for many hours , so that he grew odious to all , and to his own wife , who once sinding him in that case , caused him to be laid in a tomb , with a great stone on the top of it , where he was miserably pined to death : platina . . but a few years since in gloucester-shire , an horrid patricide was committed by another ungracious son , being drunken , upon his father , whom he desperately slew . . the like unnatural villany was committed by one purchas , an essex monster , upon the body of his mother , whom he slew for the same cause . . john maginus reports , that fliolmus king of the goths , was by his drunken servants thrown headlong into a great vessel of ale , and therein drowned . . plato , who elsewhere holds that men should be sober , and forbids drunkenness as an unseemly thing ; yet in the feasts celebrated to bacchus , he lets loose the reins to intemperancy , and thinks it then no fault at all to be drunk . . in the parish of castleterra in the county of cavan in ireland , a gentleman when he met with jovial comrades , used to drink healths , and to fling the glasses against the walls : he delighted also to contradict what ministers delivered in their sermons , and having heard one preach of the benefits and tryal of a justifying faith , after sermon he demanded of the preacher , whether he could remove mountains ? if i could see you do that , then ( said he ) i would believe you had faith , otherwise not ; for doth not the gospel say , if a man have faith but as a grain of mustard-seed , he shall say to mountains , be removed hence , and it shall be done ? but at length this gentleman was strucken with the small-pox , which got into his throat in such manner , that he could not swallow , nor let down a little beer to cool his excessive internal heat , wherewith being tormented he broke out into these expressions , to an honest man that stood by : o thomas , would i could now receive one of those glass-fulls of drink which formerly i have thrown against the walls in a frolick : and afterwards when he saw there was no remedy but die he must , he said again , o! that now i had faith like a grain of mustard-seed ! and a little after he deceased , in the fifty seventh year of his age . . we read of a drunkard who in the midst of his cups sold his soul to the devil for a tankard of wine : and the devil forthwith had his bargain . theat . hist. . the like of a woman , who at a whitson-ale fell a cursing god , having nothing but the devil in her mouth ; so long , till at last the devil came , and hoisting her up into the air , threw her down again in a place not for remote , where she was found dead . . acosta and benzo write of the west-indians , that they are exceedingly given to drunkenness , the people there for the most part delighting themselves beyond measure in intoxicating their brains in strong liquors ; in which mad and distempered fits they many times commit many salvage outrages , and unruly pranks one against another , and account it a matter of praise so to do : i saw ( saith acosta ) two men coming drunk out of a tavern , for a very trifle kill one another with the same sword. . alexander the great , when he was drunk , would hack , and hew , kill , and slay he cared not whom , and oft-times his very friends ; as he did clytus his dear friend , who had formerly saved his life , whom in a drunken mood he commanded presently to be slain : neither would he hearken to ptolomy and perdiccas , two of his great captains , who upon their knees would have begged one dayes respite for him : though the same alexander when he was sober , would have slain himself for having caused clytus to be slain . q. curt. . tenthio king of the illyrians , in his drunkenness slew his own brother pleuratus . polybius . . of bonosus the emperor it was said , that he was born , non ut vivat , sed ut bibat : not to live , but to drink : and when ( being overcome by probus ) he hanged himself ; it was said in scorn that a tankard hanged there , not a man. . what a beast was marcus antonius , that he wrote a book in commendation of his great strength to bear strong drink ? . philip king of macedon in his drunkenness once passing an unrighteous sentence , the woman concerned therein appealed from philip now drunk , to phiilp when he should be sober again . . the carthagenians made a law that no magistrate of theirs should drink wine . . the persians permitted their kings to be drunk but one day in a year . . solon made a law at athens , that drunkenness in a prince should be punished with death , prov. . , . . domitius the father of nero , slew liberius an honest roman because he refused to take off his cups as he commanded him . . amos . . that drink wine in bowls : not in cups , pots , or chalices , but in vessels of price , and largest receipt , that they may be accounted , and called ( as young cicero was ) tricongii , such as can drink whole ones , and no small ones neither . . diotimus of athens , for his excessive drinking was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tundish . . aeneas silvius tells us of one henry earl of goricia , who having two sons , drunkards both , was wont oft-times in the night to call upon them , and ask whether they were a thirsty ? and when they gave him no answer , he would himself carry wine unto them , pressing them to drink , and if by reason of sleepiness or late excess , they refused , he would return in a rage to his wife , and call her whore , saying they were bastards , and not his sons , who could sleep all night without being athirst . . vortigern king of the brittains , being well warmed with wine , was ensnared by the daughter of hengist the saxon , which proved the undoing of the brittish nation . pol. virg. hist. ang. . venter mero aestuante cito despumat in libidines : a belly or stomach boiling with wine , doth suddenly foam up into a scum of sinful lusts and foul affections : hierom. . bonzo relates of the indians of peru , that when they have drunk away that little reason wherewith they are endowed , they use to fall to immodest embracings , without respect had to mothers , daughters , brothers , sisters , or any other relations whatsoever . . saint jerom could not be perswaded that a drunkard could be a chast man. . a certain young man that had devoted himself to a pious and retired course of life , was much assaulted by the devil , by sundry temptations , and pressed to make choice of one of these three sins : once to be drunk , or to lye with his neighbours wife , or to kill his neighbour ; and the temptation so far prevailed , that at the last he chose the first ; ( viz. ) once to be drunk , as deeming it the least sin : but when the devil had drawn him to that , at the same time both the other sins were committed by him . . ad universa , vel crudelitatis , vel turpitudinis facinora perpetranda facilis invenitur via , cui nulla sobriae mentis ratio , sed ebrietas dominatur . a drunken man is easily drawn to commit any villany : bern. . pausanias makes mention of a company of young men in greece , who upon a time contrary to the command of their captain aristomenes , being drunk , offered violence to the chastity of certain young virgins ; and so violent they were therein , till the sword and death put an end to the same . . the cruel tyrant lucius being drunk , became like a mad horse ; and when he could not prevail to satisfie his lust upon the daughter of philodemus , he barbarously slew her flying for shelter into her fathers arms. plut. . what a beast was darius king of persia , who commanded this inscription to be set on his tomb : i was able to hunt lustily , to drink wine soundly , and to bear it bravely . strabo . . saint augustine in his confessions , tells us a story of his mother , who by sipping a little wine at first when she filled the cup , came by degrees to be a tippling gossip , and at last to drink off her whole cups . sin that is modest at first , afterwards growes shameless . . in lacedemon , crete and carthage , the name of a drunkard was so hateful and contemptible , that such as were found guilty of this sin were disabled to bear any publick office , and thrust out of the senate ( if they were magistrates ) with shame and ignominy . alex. ab alex. . levinus lemnius writes of the dutchmen , the high-germans especially , and that part of the low countries that borders upon them , that they never account that man worth whistling for , that will not strenuum se potatorem praebere ; upon all occasions prove himself strong to drink strong drink . . suetonius relates , that novellius torquatus was highly honoured amongst the romans , for that he could drink three gallons of wine at a draught without taking his breath : for that he fairly drank off his liquor and left no snuff behind ; and after he had drunk so much , he neither stammered in his speech , nor unburthened his stomach by vomiting ; for which he was preferred to be proconsul of syria . pliny . . also firmus who assumed the title of emperour in the absence of aurelian , when he had drunk off two buckets of wine , went forthwith to a banquet , and seemed as sober as if he had drunk none at all . vopiscus in vita firm. . flaccus and piso had dignities bestowed upon them , the one being made a proconsul , the other governour of the city of rome , for that they were strong to pour in strong drink : suet. . one hulderick a bohemian , told frederick the emperour , that he trained up his sons to drink great quantities of wine without disturbance : thou art wise , said the emperour , the same thing did mithidrates ; but if it happen that i have a son , if that son shall not hate excess of wine , i shall hate him . aeneas sil. . anno christi . london and york , donwick and doncaster , with many other places in this land were consumed with fire , ( saith the historian : ) if any one ask the cause , we can render none more probable than this , that it was a judgement of god upon them , for their gluttony and drunkenness . antiq. brit. p. . . anno christi . tir-owen the irish rebel , was such a drunkard , that when his body was immoderately inflamed with drinking strong drink and usque-bagh , he used many times to be set in the earth up to the chin to cool himself . camb. eliz. . luxury is ordinarily the companion of idolatry , as ex. . . cor. . . rev. . , . o monachi , vestri stomachi , &c. at paris and lovane , the best wine is called vinum theologicum , the divinity wine : it 's also called vinum cos : coloris , odoris , saporis optimi . . drunkenness is a detestable vice in any , but especially in men of place and power , prov. . . woe be to those drunken vice-gods ( as in the worst sence they may be best called : ) wo to the very crown of their pride in drinking down many , isa. . . as marcus antonius wrote , or rather spued out a book concerning his own abilities to bear strong drink ; darius also boasted of the same faculty in his very epitaph , as we saw before . . drunkenness in a king is a capital sin , and makes the land reel : witness belshazzar , carousing in the bowls of the sanctuary to the honour of shar his drunken god . . alexander the great drunk himself to death , and killed forty one more by excessive drinking , to get the crown of one hundred eighty pounds weight , which he had provided for him that drank most . plut. . tiberius the emperour , for his tipling was called biberius . . erasmus for the same cause called eccius , jeccius : for , as he lived a shameful drunkard , so being nonplust at ratisbon by melancton , he drank more than was fit that night , at the bishop of mundina's lodgings ( who had store of the best italian wines ; ) and so fell into a feaver , whereof he dyed : jo. man. l. com. . drunkenness is a flattering evil , a sweet poyson , a cunning circe that besots the soul , destroyes the body , dolores gignit in capite , in stomacho , in toto corpore acerrimos : breeds grievous diseases in the head , in the stomach , and in the whole man : at last it bites like a serpent , and stings like an adder , prov. . . the drunkard saith as the vine in jothams parable , non possum relinquere vinum meum . take away my liquor , you take away my life : but at last it proves like the wine mentioned by moses , deut. . . the poyson of dragons , and the cruel venom of asps. trap. . austin brings in the drunkard saying , malle se vitam quam vinum eripi : and ambrose tells us of one theotinus , who being told by his physicians , that much quaffing would make him blind ; vale lumen amicum , said he ; farewell sweet eyes , if ye will bear no wine , ye are not eyes for me : he had rather lose his sight than his sin ; his soul than his lust , pet. . . psal. . . woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink , that continue untill night till wine enflame them : isa. . . more forreign examples of drunkenness and drunkards . . john manlius , in his common-places , p. . tells us of three abominable drunkards , who drank so long till one of them fell down stark dead ; and yet the other two nothing terrified with such a dreadful example of divine vengeance , went on to drink , and poured the dead mans part into him as he lay by them . . darius boasted of the same faculty in his very epitaph . . the greeks , when they met at feasts or banquets , drink small draughts at first , which by degrees they increased till they came to the heighth of intemperancy . hence graecari , and as merry as a greek . . minos king of crete , ordered that his subjects should not drink one to another , unto drunkenness . . seneca calls drunkenness a voluntary madness ; another calls it a noon-day-devil . . cato that was a most severe censurer of other mens manners , had this objected against him ; quod nocturnis potationibus indulgeret : that by night he would drink soundly . . i was once with a drunkard ( saith mine author , a godly minister ) that lay a dying , and after i had prayed with him , in came one of his old companions in sin , and asked him , how he did ; at which he was ready to gnash his teeth ; and made to me this dreadful reflection concerning him : o that , that was the wicked wretch that drew me away ; if it had not been for him , i had not been in so lamentable a case upon my death-bed . . bonosus a britain , and bred up in spain , usurped the empire of rome in the reign of probus ; of whom it is written ▪ that he would drink so much wine , as ten great drinkers could not drink so much : and therewithall , he had two wonderful properties : the one was that how much soever he drank , he was never drunk : the other was , that when it pleased him , he could piss it out as fast as he poured it in , without retaining any jot within his body . being overcome by probus , he hang'd himself . the emperour aurelian was wont to say of him , that bonosus was not born to live , but to drink . imperial hist. page . . tiberus nero made novellus tricongius pro-consul , for that he could drink three pottles of wine together with one breath . . he also preferred lucius piso to the government of the city of rome , because he could sit drinking with him continually for two whole dayes and nights together . suetonius . . to prevent drunkenness , and the evil consequents of it , the carthaginians forbad their magistrates all use of wine . . solon punished drunkenness in a ruler with death . . anno christi . february . in the countrey of s●aben , about eight persons that were citizens and citizens sons ( whose names my author setteth down ) met together at a tavern , whereof the masters name was anthony huge , on a sabbath morning , where they drank themselves drunk , and then began to blaspheme god , and to scoff at the host ; who advised them to leave drinking , and to go to church to hear the word preached ; at which they not only continued to mock , but went on in their drinking ; when suddenly the devil came in among them in the habit of a cavalier , who drinking to them , set their mouths in such a fire , that these drunkards not only became amazed thereat , but also after a miserable manner were all strangled to death . stephen batemen , professor of divinity . . anno christi . in the town of st. gallus , in switzerland , there was one peter besler , who was born at rotmund , but was now a servant to a citizen , whose habitation was near unto st. gallus : this dissolute young man was much given to the beastly sin of drunkenness ; and upon trinity-sunday , which was may the st , he together with some of his companions went to the town of sangal , there to be merry : and when they had drunk freely , this young man began to rail at , and to quarrel with his companions ; and using many blasphemies against god , he added this execration also : if i serve my master any longer , i give my body and soul to the devil . when he had staid there all night , in the morning awaking , he began to think what words he had uttered the night before ; yet having no other means of subsistence , he resolved to return to his masters service ; but going out of the city , when he was now not far from his masters house , a man met him clad in black , and fearful to behold ; who said unto him , go to ( good fellow , ) i am now ready to take that which is my right , and which thou gavest me yesterday : which when he had said , taking the fellow by the hand , ( who was amazed with horror , and altogether astonished ) he threw him to the ground , and so vanished . not long after this , this miserable young man being found by some of the neighbours , had his hands and feet drawn together ; and being brought to a lodging , he had the use of all his limbs taken from him , and so continued till he dyed miserably . ibid. felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum . it 's good to be warned by other mens harms . healths drank one drinks off a pottle pot of sack and - dyes within two hours after . one drownd in a shallow brook of water being drunk , his horse standing by . . or . drank healths in a strange manner and dyed one after another in few weeks . an exceeding drunkard in pembrock shire being drunk , broke himself all to pieces from an high rock . more examples worthy of serious consideration . there is a very remarkable story published by mr. robert abbot minister some years since of cranebrook in kent , concerning one william rogers an apothecary there , that was exceeding much given to drinking , and sabbath breaking : he was in his general course , as he relates of him , a young man of a sweet and pleasing temper : it was reported , that the devil never abused a better nature ; and he was observed never to swear or curse in all his life , except once ; but was often admonished and perswaded by mr. abbot to come to the church on the sabbath-dayes ; at last he was prevailed with to come , though he had often promised , and failed : the lords day before in the morning , when as he said he was ready to come to church , he was taken sick , and betook himself to his bed ; it was but as a fit of an ague , which being over , he was the next morning in his old course again ; but about the middle of the week after , the messenger of death came , and mr. abbot forthwith addressed himself to him in his chamber , saying , oh how often have you deceived god , your own soul , and me ! and what is now to be done ? i fear you will dye , and then what will become of you ? his sickness so prevailed , that it emptied him of any hopes of life , and filled him with thoughts of his present guilt , and future judgment before the great god , who is a consuming fire : he apprehending his own misery , made it known to him and others ; there was too great a fire within to be smothered , it burned in his own soul , and it lightened from his heart and lips , into the ears and hearts of those friends that were about him . one while he cryes out of his sins , saying , i have been a fearful drunkard , pouring in one draught after another , till one draught could not keep down another ; i now would be glad if i could take the least of gods creatures which i have abused : i have neglected my patients , which have put their lives in my hands , and how many souls have i thus murthered ! i have wilfully neglected gods house , service and worship , and though i purposed to go , god strikes me thus before the day of my promise comes , because i am unworthy to come among gods people again . another while he falls to wishing , oh , that i might burn a long time in that fire , ( pointing to the fire before him ) so i might not burn in hell ! oh that god would grant me but one year or a month , that the world might see with what an heart i have promised to god my amendment ! oh that god would try me a little ! but i am unworthy . another while he speaks to his companions , praying all to be warned by him to forsake their wicked wayes , lest they go to hell , as he must do . he forgot not his servant that was young , calls him to him , and tells him , that he had been a wicked master to him ; but be warned by me , said he ; you have a friend that hath an iron furnace , which burns hot a long time , but if you give your self to my sins , you shall be burned in the furnace of hell , an hotter furnace , millions of millions of ages : therefore look to your self , and be warned by my example , who must be burned in hell for ever ; i must to the furnace of hell , millions of millions of ages . the minister offered to him the comforts of the gospel ▪ promises of the largest size , shewed him that god was delighted to save souls , and not to destroy them : but he cryed , it was too late , i must be burned in hell : he pressed him with tears not to cast away that soul for which christ died ; and told him , christ rejected none that did not reject him : he answered , he had cast off christ , and therefore he must go to hell. he often complained , that former counsels and prayers might have done him good , but now it was too late ; he was no swearer , whoremonger , thief , no scoffer at religion , no perjured wretch , nor wilful lier ; yet when conscience was awakened , and sate as judge on him , he confessed his being given to drunkenness , and neglect of mens bodies , and neglect of prayer and other dutyes , hearing the word , and keeping the sabbath-day : which caused him to pass this heavy doom on himself , and at last in idleness of thoughts and talk he ended his miserable life : and whatsoever god hath done with his soul , we are bound to hope the best ; this sad example is a warning-piece from heaven , to warn all young men to leave off their evil courses , lest a worse thing befall them . he desired others might be warned by his example . the relation of him the said william rogers was published by mr. abbot , called , the young mans warning piece . i shall here give you a short relation how nathaniel butler , who murthered his friend john knight in milk-street , london , august . ann. . behaved himself . nathaniel butler , declared that before this murther committed , he was addicted to divers sins , as drunkenness , &c. which he himself freely confessed . for instance : . he was a great company-keeper , and given to gameing very much ; whereby he gain'd money and several watches of young men , one whereof he restor'd to the owner after his conscience was awakened in prison . . he enticed some servants to purloin from their masters , and sell the goods ; then would he and they go together , and spend the money among themselves . . he lived in fornication , frequenting the company and the houses of harlots ; insomuch that ( as he himself under his own hand informed me ) he judged this very sin of whoredom did draw him on to that of shedding blood . concerning which fact i shall now speak , as also concerning his carriage in prison , and at his execution , being an eye and ear witness thereof . . this nathaniel butler , came from alten in hampshire , where he was born ; and at the time of his apprehension , was an apprentice with one mr. goodday , a drawer of cloth in carter-lane , london ; during which time he became acquainted with one john knight , and apprentice also in the same city . these two were much together , but especially when mr. worth ( john knight's master ) was gone to bristol-fair ; then did these two young men lye together several nights at mr. worth's house , at the rose in milk-street ; where in the shop , on wednesday morning being the sixth of august . nathaniel butler seeing some bags of money , he was thereupon tempted to take away the life of his friend and bed-fellow , that he might securely convey away the money which he had now seen in the till of the shop . after they had been abroad that day , at night they lay again together , the bloody design running still in the mind of bulter : he intending about the dead of the night ( for so he expressed himself to me ) to destroy the young man by cutting his throat : accordingly he took his knife in his hand , but his heart would not suffer him to do it ; then he laid down the knife again ; yea , he took up and laid down his knife several times ( so he told me ) before he acted his cruelty : but in the morning very early , he did indeed fall very violently and inhumanely on the youth , who lay harmlesly asleep upon the bed . the first wound not being mortal , awakened him , whereupon he struggled and made a noise ( not considerable enough ) which was heard into another room of the same house . then butler chopt his fist into the mouth of the young man , and so they two lay striving and tumbling very near half an hour , before the fatal blow was given ; but at length , he did most barbarously murder the young-man , giving him a very ghastly deadly wound cross the throat : and then he went down , taking away out of the shop a summ of money in two bags , being about one hundred and ten pounds : and so with his double guilt of robbery and murder , leaving his bloody shirt behind him , and a lock of his own hair in the hand of the dead young-man , which hair was pulled off in their striving together , one to commit , the other to prevent the fact ; after he had so done , he went to his masters house in carter-lane , where he privately laid the money in a new trunk that he bought with part of the money . this murderer abode for certain dayes , that is from ▪ thursday to saturday , at his masters house unsuspected , following his business at home , as formerly . . many thoughts and jealousies were working in men , who should be the murderer : and in a few dayes , one in milk-street ( the street where the murder was done ) knowing that butler used sometimes to be with the young man who was now murder'd , went to butlers masters house in carter-lane , and spake with him , by whose words and carriage , he supposed he might be guilty , and so caused him to be apprehended : but yet for some small time , the said butler denied the fact ; but at length confessed , that he , and he only did it . after his apprehension , he was brought before the lord mayor of london , to whom he declared the murder , and the circumstances of it , crying out for a little time for his soul , and much lamenting his sin. that night he was committed to newgate , and there lay exceedingly startled about the state of his soul , saying often , what will become of my poor soul ! what shall i do to be saved ! beginning now to see the sinfulness of sin . whom i may compare to manasses in three respects . . as to matter of fact ; for manasses shed much innocent blood , kings . . so did he shed ( too much ) innocent blood . . he something resembled manasses in his imprisonment , mentioned chr. . . as manasses was taken and bound with fetters , so was he clapt in the hole or dungeon of newgate , with heavy irons about his legs . . manasses and he were one and the same in this sense , that when they were in affliction , they besought the lord god , and humbled themselves greatly before the god of their fathers . for this great offendor could often say , he could never be humbled enough . upon the of august , when he was arraigned at the sessions in the old-baily , he pleaded guilty to the indictments , with very much shame , confusion of face and sorrow of heart : and on friday the of august , he demeaned himself very humbly before the bench , heartily submitting to the sentence of death that then passed upon him , saying , he had destroyed the image of the eternal god ; alluding ( as i verily believe ) to those words in gen. . . — for in the image of god , &c. after his sentence , he was conveyed back to prison ; penitently acknowledging , that he had neglected the good word of god , and therefore was the longer kept off ( through ignorance of the gospel ) from closing with christ jesus . but after a few dayes discourse with several ministers and others , who opened the scriptures to him , he began to understand ( through the grace of god ) the word of grace . and though he had many good books brought to him by divers visiting friends , yet he chiefly looked into the holy scriptures themselves , and found very much advantage , light and peace , by these following passages out of the old testament , viz. sam. . . where nathan spake sharply to david , for despising the commandment of the lord , to do evil in the sight of the lord , in killing uriah the hittite with the sword , vers . . david said to nathan , i have sinned against the lord ; and nathan said to david , the lord also hath put away thy sin . from hence he understood the readiness of god to forgive confessing , repenting sinners , though they are guilty of innocent blood . job . , , he ( the lord ) looketh upon men ( oh that men would look after the lord ! ) and if an t say , i have sinned and perverted that which was right , and it profited me not ; he ( that is the lord ) will deliver his soul from going into the pit , and his life shall see the light . isa. . , . — i said not unto the seed of jacob , seek ye me in vain ? isa. . . let the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return to the lord , and he will abundantly pardon ; the word abundantly he used to pronounce with an emphasis ; for he saw ( his eyes being now anointed with spiritual eye salve ) that he had multiplied sins exceedingly , and that he stood in absolute need of the lords abundant multiplied pardons : whereof he had good hope through this good word of isaiah . ezek. . . have i any pleasure at all that the wicked should die , saith the lord god , and not that he should return from his wayes and live ? . — repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruine . . cast away from you all your transgressions , whereby ye have transgressed , and make you a new heart , and a new spirit ; for why will you die , o house of israel ? . for i have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth , wherefore turn your selves , and live ye . ezek. . . say unto them , as i live , saith the lord , ( here the poor prisoner would note to his comfort , that a repenting sinner had not onely the word and promise of god for forgiveness , but the oath of god , to give such a sinner the greater assurance of pardon , ) i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his wayes and live : turn ye , turn ye , ( see the importunity of god with poor sinners for the good of their souls ) from your evil wayes ; for why will ye die , o house of israel ? micah . . was a place pleasant to his soul. who is a god like unto thee , that pardoneth iniquity , and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? he retaineth not his anger for ever , because he delighteth in mercy , vers. . he will turn again , ( as one doth when his anger is gone ) he will have compassion upon us , he will subdue our iniquities , and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea. now i shall give you a short list of some new-testament texts , whereby the lord conveyed counsel and consolation to this doubting , staggering , poor wretch . mat. . . — for the son of man is come to save that which was lost . joh. . , , . and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness , even so must the son of man be lifted up , that whosoever believeth in him , should not perish , but have eternal life ; for god so loved the world , that whosoever ( this word [ whosoever ] he spake with joy ) believeth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life : now ( saith nathaniel butler ) i am one to whom this word speaketh ; and therefore god gave the lord jesus christ for my soul ; i believe in him , and therefore i trust to live eternally through him , according to the gracious terms of the gospel . john . . — and him that cometh to me i will in no wise ( here he would repeat and reiterate these words in no wise cast out , in no wise , in no wise ) cast out . tim. . . this is a faithful saying , and worthy of all acceptation , that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners , of whom i am chief . tim. . , . for there is one god , and one mediator between god and men , the man christ jesus , who gave himself a ransom for all , to be testified in due time . in hearing , reading , and conferring upon these ( and many more ) scriptures , he would often say to me and others , these are good scriptures , brave scriptures ; are they not brave scriptures ? he would make very diligent and frequent search into his soul , concerning the sincerity of his sorrow , and would not easily believe that his repentance was true , or that he had right to the precious promises of the gospel . but by much speaking to him by many good people , that he would apply christ , and also by seeking unto god for a spirit of faith for him , he did begin to act a faith of recumbency and adherence , being ( as he often said ) perswaded the lord jesus christ was able to save to the uttermost , and willing to save such as come unto god by him ; yet he could not come up to that full assurance of hope and confidence , as he desired ; and we also desired heartily on his behalf . yet for some certain dayes before his suffering death , it pleased the god of all comfort , to give him joy and consolation , and sometimes strong consolation , insomuch that he would at times express very great inward gladness , which all that knew his former mournings , were glad to see , and glorified god for giving him the joy of his salvation ; for he was so satisfied concerning the favour and mercy of god towards him in jesus christ , that he rather now desired death then feared it ; as seeing death through jesus christ without a sting . he was executed in cheapside against milk-street end , and died penitently : see more at large in the books of nathaniel butler and william rogers . here followeth a true relation of the wicked life , and shameful-happy death of thomas savage ; imprisoned , justly condemned , and twice executed at ratcliff , for his bloody fact in killing his fellow-servant , on wednesday , octob. . . thomas savage , born in the parish of giles in the fields , he was put out apprentice to mr. collins , vintner , at the ship-tavern in ratcliff , where he lived about the space of one year and three quarters : in which time he manifested himself to all that knew him , to be a meer monster in sin : in all that time he never once knew what it was to hear one whole sermon ; but used to go in at one door , and out at the other ; and accounted them fools that could spare so much time from sin , as two or three hours on a lords day , to spend in the lords service . he spent the sabbath commonly at the ale-house , or rather at a base house , with that vile strumpet hannah blay , which was the cause of his ruine ; he was by a young man ( now gone to sea ) first enticed to go drink there , and after that he went alone , and now and then used to bring her a bottle or two of wine , which satisfied not her wicked desires ; but she told him , if he would frequent her house , he must bring money with him : he told her often , he could bring none but his masters , and he never wronged his master of two-pence in his life : still she enticed him to take it privately : he replyed , he could not do it , because the maid was alwayes at home with him : hang her jade , saith this impudent slut , knock her brains out , and i will receive the money ; this she many times said ; and that day that he committed the murther , he was with her in the morning , and she made him drunk with burnt brandy , and he wanted one groat to pay of his reckoning : she then again perswaded him to knock the maid on the head , and she would receive the money : he going home between twelve and one of the clock ; his master standing at the street-door , did not dare to go in that way , but climbed over a back door , and cometh into the room where his fellow-servants were at dinner : o saith the maid to him , sirrah , you have been now at this bawdy-house , you will never leave till you are undone by them : he was much vexed at her ; and while he was at dinner , the devil entred so strong into him , that nothing would satisfie him but he must kill her ; and no other way , but with the hammer ; to which end , when his master was gone with all the rest of his family to church , leaving only the maid and this boy at home ; he goeth into the bar , fetcheth the hammer , and taketh the bellows in his hand , and sitteth down by the fire , and there knocketh the bellows with the hammer : the maid saith to him ; sure the boy is mad , sirrah , what do you make this noise for ? he said nothing , but went from the chair , and lay along in the kitchin window , and knocked with the hammer there ; and on a sudden threw the hammer with such force at the maid , that hitting her on the head she fell down presently , screeching out : then he taketh up the hammer three times , and did not dare to strike her any more , at last the devil was so great with him , that he taketh the hammer and striketh her many blows with all the force he could , and even rejoyced that he had got the victory over her : which done , he immediately taketh the hammer , and with it strikes at the cupboard-door in his masters chamber , which being but slit deal presently flew open , and thence he taketh out a bag of money , and putting it upon his arm , under his cloak , he went out at a back-door straightway to this base house again : when he came thither , the slut would fain have seen what he had under his cloak , and knowing what he had done , would very fain have had the money ; he gave her half a crown , and away he went without any remorse for what he had done . going over a stile , he sat down to rest himself , and then began to think with himself ; lord what have i done ! and he would have given ten thousand worlds he could have recalled the blow . after this , he was in so much horrour , that he went not one step but he thought every one he met came to take him . he got that night to greenwich , and lay there ; telling the people of the house that he was to go down to gravesend : that night he rose and walked about , and knew not what to do , conscience so flew in his face : the mistress of the house perceiving the lad to have money , and not sealed up , said , i wish this lad came by this money honestly . the next morning he going away towards woolliedge , the mistriss of the house could not be satisfied , but sent for him back , and told him , sweet heart , i fear you came not by this money honestly . yes , indeed mistris , saith he , i did ; for i am carrying of it down to gravesend to my master , a wine-cooper . we live upon london-bridge , and if you please to send any one to my mistris , i will leave my money with you . so there were some people going to london , and he writ a note to send to his mistris , and he left the money with the woman of the house , and went his way , wandring toward woolliedge , and there was in the ship-yard ; about which time news came to greenwich of the murther that was committed at ratcliff by a youth , upon his fellow-servant , and that a bag of money was taken away : the mistris of the house forthwith concluded that sure it was the same youth that was at her house , and that was the money : whereupon she sent men out presently to seek him : who found him in an ale-house , where he had called for one pot of beer , and was laid down with his head on the table and faln asleep : one of the men calling him by his name , tom , saith he , did you not live at ratcliff ? he said , yes : and did you not murther your fellow-servant ? he confessed it : and you took so much money from your master , he acknowledged all : then said they , you must go along with us : he said , yes , with all my heart . so they went forthwith to greenwich , to the house where he lay that night : where when he came , he met his master with some friends , and when his master spake to him of it , he was not much affected at first , but after a little while burst out into many tears : thence he was conveyed to the justice at ratcliff , where he fully confessed the fact again , and by him was committed close prisoner in the goal of newgate , where mr. h. b. ( who after some acquaintance with him , had this preceeding narrative from his own mouth ) came to see and speak with him : and he seemed but little sensible of what he had done . are you ( said he ) the person that committed the murther upon the maid at ratcliff ? he said , yes : o what think you of your condition ? what do you think will become of your precious soul ? you have by this sin not only brought your body to the grave , but your soul to hell , without gods infinite mercy : were you not troubled for the fact when you did it ? not for the present , sir , said he ; but soon after i was , when i began to think with my self what i had done . the next time he asked him , whether he were sorry for the fact ? he said , wringing his hands , and striking his breast , with tears in his eyes , yes , sir , for it cuts me to the heart to think that i should take away the life of a poor innocent creature ; and that is not all , but for any thing i know , i have sent her soul to hell : o how can i think to appear before gods bar , when she shall stand before me , and say , lord , this wretch took away my life , and gave me not the least space that i might turn to thee : he gave me no warning at all , lord : o then what will become of me ? soon after the imprisonment of this thomas savage , in newgate ; upon the desire of one of his friends , mr. r. f. and t. v. went to him in the prison , and had liberty , with much readiness from the keepers to discourse with him : they asked him , if he were the person that had murthered the maid ? he answered , that he was ; they did then open to him the hainous nature of that sin , endeavouring to set it home upon his conscience , telling him of the express law of god , thou shalt not kill , and the express threatnings , that whosoever sheddeth mans blood , by man shall his blood be shed . they spake to him of the law of the land , and the punishment of death which would certainly be inflicted upon him ; that he had but a few weeks more to live , and then he would be tryed , and condemned , and executed : but they told him , that the punishment of the temporal death was but small in comparison with the punishment of eternal death in hell , which he had deserved , and was exposed unto . they told him , that so soon as death should make a separation between his soul and body , that his soul must immediately appear before the dreadful tribunal of the sin-revenging god , and there receive its final doom , and be irreversibly sentenced to depart from the presence of the lord , into everlasting fire , if he were found under the guilt of this , or any other sin . they asked him if he knew what hell was ? telling him what a fearful thing it would be for him to fall into the hands of the living god ; how intolerable the immediate expressions of gods wrath would be upon his soul , what horrour and anguish he would there be filled withal , and how he would be bound up in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day ; and then told him of the glorious appearance of the lord jesus christ to judgment : that soul and body should be then joyned together , and condemned together , and punished together with such exquisite torments as never entred into the heart of man to conceive ; declaring the extremity and the eternity of the torments of hell , which were the just demerit of his sins . then they asked him , whether he had any hopes of escaping this dreadful punishment of hell ? he answered , that he had : they enquired the grounds of his hopes ? he told them , that he repented of his fault , and hoped god would have mercy on his soul. they asked him , whether he thought his repentance could procure for him a pardon ? he knew no other way . they told him that god was just , and his justice must be satisfied : and there was no way for him to do it , but by undergoing the eternal torments of hell : and did he know no way of satisfying god's justice besides ? and pacifying his anger that was kindled against him ? no , he knew not any : and yet did he hope to be saved ? he answered , yes . they enquired whether ever he had experience of a gracious change wrought in him . herein he could give no account , and yet hoped to be saved . they told him his hopes were unsound , having no good foundation : and he would find himself disappointed : that it was not his repentance , his tears , and prayers ( though he ought to use them as means ) that would save him , if he fixed the anchor of his hope upon them . that if he hoped to be saved in the condition which for the present he was in , he would certainly be damned : that he must cast away all those groundless hopes he had conceived , and endeavour to despair in himself , that being pricked and pained at heart , through the apprehensions of the wrath of god ready to fall upon him , and seeing no possibility of flying and escaping , if he looked only to himself , he might cry out , what shall i do to be saved ? and enquire after a saviour . and then they spake to him of the lord jesus christ , and the way of salvation by him , which before he was sottishly ignorant of , as if he had been brought up in a countrey of infidels , and not of christians . the words spoken to him by these two ministers , seemed to take little impression upon him whilest they were present , yet after they were gone , the lord did begin to work , and he did acknowledge to mr. b. that two had been ▪ with him ( he knew not their names ) whose words were like arrows shot into his heart , and he did wish he had those words in writing , especially one expression of t. v. that he would not be in his condition for ten thousand worlds , did affect and so affright him , that he said it made his hair stand on end . mr. vincent , mr. francklin , mr. doolittle , mr. janeway , discoursed with him , and he suffered very penitently and chearfully at ratcliff near his masters house . we do not read of any more of all the drunkards and debauched persons , that were converted , but those two , nathaniel butler and thomas savage , whom god gave true repentance unto . a common drunkard , is the fittest man to make a debauched . health-drinker of , they are so near akin to one another , that there is little difference : you can hardly know one from another , and it is seldom seen , that a health is begun for his majesty , or his highness the duke of york , till the feasters are well entred in there glasses of wine first . this i can witness , that one evening this winter , two or three drunken companions met another drunken man in the street , and did ask him if he would drink the dukes health : he answered presently , yea , i 'le drink any mans health : is not the king and duke much beholden to such for their love , that can shew it in no better way ? we are commanded , and it s our duty , to fear god and to honour the king ; and he that truly doth so , will pray heartily to god to bless and preserve his majesty from the danger of all popish and sham-plots : and this way is better to shew their true love to the king , than in a sinful custom of healths , which provokes the king of kings to send judgments on the kingdom . read dr. stillingfleets text , of his fast-sermon before the house of commons , novem. . sam. . , . some audacious abominable health-drinkers were so wicked as to drink a health to the great prince of darkness , their father the devil ; and it is credibly . reported , he came boldly amongst them and carryed away some of them , as bold as he was . one being told , that unless he left off his drunkenness and whoring he would loose his sight : he answered thus , tum valeat lumen amicum , — then farewell sweet light. one was put to his choice , which of these sins he would choose to commit , either to be drunk , or to kill his father , or to lie with his mother : he refused the two last , and was drunk , and then committed the other two . at one great feast in the city since his majesties happy restoration , i heard they were so mad , in their frolick cups of wine and healths , as to drink down small live fishes , and make fish-ponds in there bellyes : it 's a wonderful mercy it proved not their last drinking . so to abuse themselves and gods creatures , by drunkenness and gluttony , it is the way to provoke god to send a famine on the land ; for such wanton excessive doings . remember the plague time . there died , in that one year of the plague , anno , . . in london and liberties . and let us not forget the lamentable fire time , the d septem . . as it was computed , there was consumed to ashes , thirteen thousand and two hundred houses , with a vast deal of goods and rich commodities , to the undoing of many thousands , besides the ghastly walls of eighty nine parish churches and stately houses and halls , with the royal exchange , which cost almost an hundred thousand pounds the new building it again . you can expect but a brief touch of things in this paper , but it may serve for a memento , and a caveat to take heed of sin , that is the plague ( or cause ) of all plagues and judgments in the world ; and it caused god to drown the old world , and to rain down fire and brimstone on sodom , five cities together ; and he is able to do the like again to any nation that provoke him . we may fear this immoderate rain and flood in the countrey ; and beyond the seas a while since , how many have been drowned , persons and estates by it ! it speaks aloud to england . god threatens to punish a people four seven times more , lev. . , , , . v. except they repent . and we ought to fear that great god , that is able easily to kill both body and soul , and cast them into hell-fire . drunkards are named amongst the greatest sinners that shall be shut out of heaven . ten several arguments to prove that drunkenness is a great , a dangerous and a woful sin. arg. . that drunkenness is expresly against the command of god. ( . ) drunkenness is plainly and expresly forbidden in gods word , eph. . . be not drunk with wine . luke . . take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting , and drunkenness . rom. . . let us walk honestly as in the day , not in rioting and drunkenness . the drunkard cannot plead ignorance , that he did not know drunkenness to be a sin ; he cannot plead for himself as peter did for the jews that put christ to death , act. . . i wot that through ignorance ye did it , as did also your rulers . cor. . . for had they known it , they would not have crucified the lord of glory . drunkards sin against light ; both against the light of nature , for nature teacheth us that it is a shameful thing for a man to be drunk : and against the light of gods word , and that is a great aggravation of sin , to sin against the light of gods word : sins of ignorance are as it were no sins , compared with sins against knowledge . joh. . . if i had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin , but now they have no cloak for their sin. drunkards cast gods word behind their backs , and trample his commandments under their feet : god saith , be not drunk with wine : take heed left your hearts be overcharged with drunkenness : but they say in effect , though not in words , we will not regard these commandments of god ; let god say and do what he will , we will take our fill of wine and strong drink : drunkards and other sinners that know gods will , and will not do it , contemn and dispise god. psal. . . wherefore doth the wicked contemn god ? drunkards are guilty of rebellion against god , who is king of kings and lord of lords : for sinning against the light of gods word , is accounted rebellion ; job . . they are of those that rebell against the light : and that is a hainous sin , to be stubborn and rebellious against the god of heaven . sam. . . rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry . arg. . it is a beastly sin. drunkennss is a beastly sin , in depriving a man of his reason , and makes him carry himself like a beast : it is a vile thing for a man to degrade , and make himself like a beast . job . . wherefore are we counted as beasts , and reputed as vile in your sight . bildàd thought himself and his friends wonderfully disparaged , when he thought they were counted as beasts ; but how do they vilifie and disparage themselves , who do in reality make themselves no better than bruit beasts by their drunkenness : yea this sin makes a man worse than a beast ; the ass is a silly beast , yet the ass will not drink to excess , they drink no more than will quench their thirst , psal. . . the wild asses quench their thirst : and therefore , as solomon sends the sluggard to the ant , prov . . go to the ant thou sluggard , consider her wayes and be wise ; so may i send the drunkard to the wild asses : go to the wild asses thou drunkard , and consider their wayes and be wise ; who having no guide , overseer or ruler , never drink any more than will quench their thirst , though they meet with the best and pleasantest springs , and purest fountains under heaven ; and wilt thou who hast had many instructors , that have taught thee the odiousness of this sin of drunkenness , be inticed by the pureness of the wine , or the pleasantness of this drink , to drink to excess ? toads and serpents which are hateful creatures , will not drink more than is suitable and convenient to their natures : and shall man who was made after the image of god , make himself worse than a toad or a serdent by drinking to excess ? arg. . it is a mischievous sin both to body , soul , and estate . drunkenness is a most mischievous sin , and brings a world of mischief along with it , both to soul and body , estate and good name . . it doth great mischief to the soul : for ( ) it besots and stupifies the soul , and estranges a mans heart from god , who is his chiefest good : hos. . . whoredom and wine , and new wine take away the heart : we may take heart here for the understanding ; as rom. . . their foolish heart was darkened : and so it is true , that wine takes away the heart ; that is , it stupisieth the mind , it blinds and darkens the understanding , and maketh men sottish ; as jeremiah complains of the jews , who were much addicted to drunkenness . jer. . . my people is foolish , they have not known me , they are sottish children , and have no understanding , they are wise to do evil , but to do good they have no knowledge : or we may take heart for the affections ; and so it is true , that wine takes away the heart , for drunkenness takes off the heart from god and all things that are good : drunkards have no love to god , no delight in god ; no desire of enjoying god , no fear of god , no heart to that which is good . drunkenness is a fleshly lust ; and fleshly lusts war against , and tend to the ruine of our precious souls . pet . . dearly beloved , i beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts , which war against the soul. . it brings great mischief to the body , by the painful diseases that it breeds in the body , and by the wounds and bruises men get by falls , when they have drunk so much they are not able to go , or to guide the horses they ride on ; and also by the wounds they get in quarrels and contentions with their companions when they are in their cups . prov. . , . who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath bablings ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? they that tarry long at the wine : not only the eyes are made red , but the whole body is inflamed and greatly distempered by excessive drinking . isa. . . woe to them that follow strong drink , that continue till night , till wine enflame them . our bodies should be the temples of the holy ghost ; cor. . . what , know you not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you ? and it is dangerous defiling the temple of god with excess of wine or strong drink : cor. . . if any man defile the temple of god , him shall god destroy . . it brings ruine on a mans estate ; prov. . . the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty . many persons by their drunken and sottish courses waste fair estates , that were left them by their parents : others that have been brought up to callings , spend all they gain by their callings in excessive drinking , whereby it comes to pass that they make no provision for their families , but their wives and children are brought into great wants and straits ; such as these are as bad , yea worse than infidels ; tim. . . but if any provide not for his own , and especially for those of his own house , he hath denyed the faith , and is worse than an infidel . . it blasts a mans reputation ; it is a shame for a man to have the brand of a drunkard set upon him : even children will hout and deride a drunken ma● when they see him reel and stagger as he goeth in the street . arg. . drunkenness is the cause of many other sins . the greatness of the sin of drunkenness will appear from hence , that it disposeth a man to many other great and crying sins : as for instance , . drunkenness disposeth men to commit uncleanness ; prov. . , . look not upon the wine when it is red : — thine eyes shall behold strange women . when men are overcome with wine , they are easily drawn to commit the worst of uncleanness : lot though a righteous man , being overtaken with drunkenness , commited incest twice . eph. . . be not drunk with wine , wherein is excess . as beza observes , omnis profusio eaque summâ cum turpitudine conjuncta ; all excess of riot , even that which is joyned with the greatest filthiness : no filthiness comes amiss to a drunken man , who is shameless whilest he is overcome with strong drink . the jews , who were much addicted to drunkenness , were greatly addicted to whoredom also . hos. . , . whoredom and wine take away the heart : their drink is sowre , they have committed whoredom continually . their drink is sowre , some interpret of the sowre belches drunkards have after their cups : and another effect of immoderate drinking wine , besides the sowring of it in the stomach , is , that it provokes men to whoredom . hierom hath a smart passage to this effect , nunquam ego ebrium castum putabo ; i shall never think a drunkard can be a chaste man. . drunkards are easily perswaded to be idolaters ; for they making ▪ their belly their god , phil. . . will easily be perswaded to bow down their bodies to an idol , and comply with any religion which will suit best with their interest : hos. . . the children of israel who look to other gods , and love flagons of wine . dan. . . they drank wine , and praised the gods of gold , and of silver , and of brass , of iron , of wood , and of stone . . drunkenness is accompanied with abundance of vain bablings , and foolish and idle talk , which men have together when they are in their cups . prov. . , . who hath bablings ? they that tarry long at the wine . and if any think there is no great hurt in those bablings , and foolish talking that drunkards have when they sit together at inns or alehouses , let such consider , ( . ) that vain bablings hardens the heart , and dispose a man to ungodly practices . tim. . . but shun profane and vain bablings , for they will increase to more ungodliness . ( . ) though foolish talking and jesting is made light of , and accounted by many a matter of mirth , yet it is a sin brings down gods wrath . eph. . , . neither filthiness , nor foolish talking , nor jesting , which are not convenient : let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience . ( . ) men must give an account for every idle word at the day of judgment , and without repentance they shall be condemned for their idle words , as well as their other sins : mat. . , . but i say unto you , that every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment : for by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned . ( . ) there are few drunkards , but they will mock and scost and rail at the ministers and servants of christ , and sing songs of them , especially when they are in their cups : prov. . . wine is a mocker ; that is , it makes men mockers . mercer's note upon that text is , vini potor derisor dei hominumque esse solet : a drunkard is wont to be a derider of god and men. it hath been usual with drunkards in former , as well as these dayes , to sing songs of the people of god : psal. . . i am the song of drunkards . now this mocking the ministers and people of god is a grievous sin , it brings down wrath without remedy ; chron. . . they mocked the messengers of god , and despised his words , and misused his prophets , untill the wrath of the lord arose against his people , till there was no remedy . mockers bring upon themselves mighty and unavoidable judgments . isa. . . now therefore be ye not mockers , lest your bands be made stronger . forty two little children were torn in pieces by two she-bears , for mocking a prophet , and calling him bald-head , kin. . , . and if god was so offended with little children for this sin of mocking a prophet , that he sent two bears which tore in pieces forty two children , how offensive is it to the lord , to hear those that are come to mans estate , knowing and understanding men , mock and scoff at his servants ? though no judgment come upon them in this world for their sin , yet without repentance a worse thing will come unto them ; they shall be rent and torn , that is , they shall be tormented in the other world for ever by the devil , who is a roaring lyon , a far more dreadful enemy than the bears that tore the little children in pieces . ( . ) drunkards are usually swearers , and some of them will swear dreadful oaths , such as would make a man tremble to hear them : and swearing , profane swearing is an abominable sin , and brings a man in danger of hell fire : jam. . ● . but above all things , my brethren , swear not , neither by heaven , neither by the earth , neither by any other oath ; but let your yea be yea , and your nay be nay , lest you fall into condemnation . ( . ) drunkards are oftentimes persecutors , and smiters of their fellow servants : mat. . , . if that evil servant shall say in his heart , my lord delayeth his coming , and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants , and to eat and drink with the drunken . they are such which eat and drink with the drunken , that smite their fellow-servants ; and smiting and persecuting the servants of christ is a hainous sin : he takes it as ill when his servants are persecuted , as if he himself was persecuted : act. . . saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? saul did not persecute christ in his own person , for he was in heaven , sitting at his fathers right hand : but he persecuted christs servants , and christ was as much offended at the persecuting of his members , as if he himself had been persecuted . ( . ) drunkenness casts men into a deep sleep , and maketh them dreadfully secure under those judgments that hang over their heads . prov. . . yea , thou shalt be as one that lyeth down in the midst of the sea , or as he that lyeth on the top of the mast. solomon speaking of such that tarry long at the wine , sets out their danger by one that lyeth on the top of the mast in the midst of the sea , who is in danger every moment of falling into the sea and to be drowned , yet fears nothing whilest he is asleep : such is the case of drunkards , they are in danger of falling into hell every day , and yet they fear nothing , till god awakens their consciences , and shews them their sin and misery . when the prophet calls , awake ye drunkards , joel . . it implies , they are in a deep sleep , and that it is no easie matter to awake them . ( . ) sometimes drunkards commit murder in their drunkenness , and quarrel with and kill their best friends . it is reported of alexander , that when he was drunk he killed his beloved friend clytus : yea , there is no sin so horrid , but a drunken man may ▪ fall into it , if he hath an occasion and temptation to commit it . arg. . drunkenness is such an abominable sin , that it brings down national judgments : whole nations are punished for this sin of drunkenness ; the earth is weary of bearing drunkards , and often spueth out its inhabitants : we read of the canaanites , that their land spued them out for their defiling it ; and the israelites are warned not to defile their land , lest they also be spued out ; lev. . . that the land spue not you out also when ye defile it , as it spued out the nations that were before you : and when the israelites did defile their land by drunkenness and others sins , they were a burthen to the land ; it was weary with bearing them , it spued them out , and they were carryed captive into a strange land : isa. . , . woe to them that rise up early to follow strong drink , and continue until night , till wine enslame them : therefore my people are gone into captivity . the lord threatned to send mighty adversaries against ephraim , for their pride , and drunkenness , which should come upon them as furiously as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm , and as a mighty flood of water , that should overflow all places , and bear down all before it . isa. . , . woe to the crown of pride , the drunkards of ephraim : so that drunkards are the plague of a nation , that bring down gods judgements on themselves , and the place where they live : and when an overflowing scourge comes on a nation , usually drunkards have the speediest and deepest share in the judgments of god. amos . , , , . wo to them that are at ease in zion : that put far away the evil day : that drink in bowls : therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive . when the king of assyria invaded the land of israel , the drunkards were trod under feet like mire in the streets ; isa. . , . behold the lord hath a mighty and strong one : the crown of pride , the drunkards of ephraim shall be trod under feet . arg. . drunkards oft-times dye in the act of sin. drunkenness appears to be a great sin , because oft-times it is punished with sudden death ; and sometimes drunkards are cut off in the very act of sin ; they are very frequently cut off suddenly and unexpectedly . nah. . . while they are drunken as drunkards , they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry : stubble that is fully dry , is devoured in a moment . luk. . , . if that servant shall begin to eat and to drink , and to be drunken , the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him , and at an hour when he is not aware , and will cut him asunder , and appoint him his portion with unbelievers : we see here the woful condition of drunkards , both in their death and after their death ; their death is oftentimes sudden and unexpected , they have not a day , not an hours warning , rev. . . elah a king in israel was cut off in the very act of sin , while he was drinking himself drunk in his stewards house , kings . , . as christ said to deterr us from looking back , remember lots wife ; so may i say , to deterre you from drunkenness , remember elah , who was kill'd whil'st he was drinking himself drunk : and if god did not spare a king in israel , take heed lest he do not spare you . besides elah's example , amnon one of davids sons , was killed whil'st his heart was merry with wine , sam. . . when belshazzar had been drinking wine with a thousand of his lords in the day time , he was slain in the night , dan. . , . besides these examples , we have known and heard of several others that have dyed dead drunk , and never came to life again ; others that have fallen off their horses in their drunkenness , and broke their necks ; others that have faln into the water and been drowned , and others cut off by other means . arg. . it unfits a man for the service of god. drunkenness makes a man unfit for any good work , unfit for the service of god and men , unfit for death and judgment : it makes a man unfit for prayer , and all other religious duties . pet. . . the end of all things is at hand , be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer : no men are fit for prayer , but sober men . it is probable nadab and abihu had distempered themselves with wine or strong drink , when they presumed to offer up strange fire , and fire went out from the lord and devoured them : for immediately after the relation of their sin and punishment , there is a strict charge given to aaron and his sons , that they should not drink wine or strong drink , when they went into the tabernacle of the congregation , on pain of death , lev. . , , , . it also unfits a man for the service of his generation , especially for a place of publick trust ; many armies have been ruined , towns and kingdoms lost by the drunkenness of commanders . a small army of the israelites , not exceeding seven thousand , setting upon the syrians , when benhadad their king was drinking himself drunk with his confederates , put the syrians to flight , and slew them with a great slaughter ; although besides his own great army he had thirty two kings that came to his assistance ; kings . , . and as this sin renders us unfit for the service of god and men , so also it makes us unfit for the day of death and judgment : luk. . . and take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness . arg. . it will exclude a man out of heaven . drunkenness is such an odious sin , that the lord hath told us expresly , that he will not admit any drunkards into the kingdom of heaven . cor. . , . know ye not , that the unrighteous shall not enter into the kingdom of god : be not deceived , neither fornicators , nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of god. gal. . , , . now the works of the flesh are manifest , which are these , adultery , fornications , uncleanness and lasciviousness , revellings and such like : of which i tell you before , as i have told you in times past , that they which do such things , shall not inherit the kingdom of god. it was a foolish act in esau , and argued him to be a profane man , to sell his birth-right for a morsel of meat . heb. . . lest there be any fornicator , or profane person , as esau , who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right . drunkards are guilty of worse profaneness than esau , for they part with a better blessing than a birth-right , namely , the kingdom of heaven , for a pot of drink or cup of wine , which do them no good , but much hurt . arg. . it is a damnable sin. drunkenness is a damnable sin ; a sin for which men shall be condemned to the torments of hell for ever . the drunkard shall be cut asunder , and have his portion with unbelievers , luk. . , . there is scarce any sin fills hell like drunkenness ; following wine and strong drink send great multitudes to hell : the drunken gentleman and drunken prince , notwithstanding all their bravery shall descend into hell , as well as the drunken begger . they that inflame themselves with wine and strong drink , shall be tormented in flames of fire for ever ; and then they that drunk wine in boles , and filled themselves with strong drink , shall not with all their entreaties get so much as one drop of water to cool their tongues . arg. . it is a bewitching sin , very hardly left by those that are addicted to it . drunkenness is an enticing , bewitching sin , which is very hardly left by those that are addicted to it : neither the word nor rod of god prevaileth with men to leave this sin , but they go on sinning against light , sinning against the counsels , reproofs and tears of friends , against the checks of their own consciences ; though the lord afflict them in their bodies , estates , good names , yet still they persevere in this sin : though when upon sick beds they are under terrors of conscience , and feel as it were some flashes of hell-fire , and make great vows and solemn protestations , that if god will spare their lives , and raise them up again , they will leave off their drunkenness ; yet when they are restored to health ▪ they return to their old course again : prov. . . they have stricken me , shalt thou say , and i was not sick : they have beaten me , and i felt it not : when shall i awake ? i will seek it yet again : solomon speaks here of drunkards , who are not disheartened by all the difficulties , and troubles ▪ and blowes that they meet with in following after strong drink ; but resolve to seek it yet again , and to persist in their dissolute courses . drunkards are wont to encourage themselves , and one another , to persist in their drunken courses under all discouragements . isa. . . come ye , say they , i will fetch wine , and we will fill our selves with strong drink , and to morrow shall be as this day , and much more abundant . instead of desisting they grow more resolved in their way : and the reason why this sin is so hardly left , and so few recovered from it , may be partly from the strength this sinful habit gets in the soul by the many repeated acts of this sin , and also from the pleasingnesse of this sin to corrupt nature ; for the more pleasing any sin is , the more hardly it is left : and chiefly from the just and righteous judgment of god , who giveth up men who go on sinning against light , unto their own hearts lusts , saying to them , he that is filthy , let him be filthy still . drunkenness is called by some , vitium maximae adhaerentiae ; a sin that sticks closer and faster to a man than any other sin. these ten arguments against drunkennss were taken out of the sermons of mr. owen stockton of colchester , lately deceased , an able and worthy divine , in a larger discourse again that sin , well i worth the reading , sold by mr. thomas parkhurst at the bible and three crowns in cheapside : preached upon the occasion of a sad and dreadful providence , which lately befell a young man , who for some years was very hopefull for religion , a diligent attender upon god's ordinances , and well esteemed of among the people of god ; but afterwards being led away by temptation , he was sometime overtaken with the sin of drunkenness , and it seemed good to the holy and righteous god to cut him off in the act of sin , when he was ( as is generally reported ) so far overcome with strong drink , that he was not able to go , but was led , and laid upon a bed , and dyed in a few hours , without coming to himself again . his majesties proclamation against vicious , debauch'd , and prophane persons , and against drinking his health . charles , r. since it hath pleased the divine providence in so wonderful a manner , and by wayes and means no less miraculous , than those by which he did , heretofore , preserve and restore his own chosen people , to restore us , and our good subjects to each other , and to shew us a very hopeful prospect , if not to put us already into possession of that peace , happiness and security , with which this our kingdom hath been heretofore blessed ; it will become us all , in our several stations , to acknowledge this transcendent goodness of almighty god in so seasonable a conjuncture , with such a circumspection , integrity , and reformation in our lives , that we may not drive away that mercy which so near approacheth us , by making our selves ( wholly ) unworthy of it . and in order hereunto , we think it high time to shew our dislike of those ( against whom we have been ever enough offended , though we could not , in this manner declare it , ) who under pretence of affection to us and our service , assume to themselves the liberty of reviling , threatning and reproaching others ; and as much as in them lies , endeavour to stifle and divert their good inclinations to our service , and so to prevent that reconciliation and union of hearts and affections , which can only , with gods blessing , make us rejoyce in each other , and keep our enemies from rejoycing . there are likewise another sort of men , of whom we have heard much , and are sufficiently ashamed ; who spend their time in taverns , tipling-houses and debauches , giving no other evidence of their affection to us , but in drinking our health , and inveighing against all others , who are not of their own dissolute temper ; and who , in truth , have more discredited our cause , by the licence of their manners and lives , than they could ever advance it by their affection or courage . we hope that this extraordinary way of delivering us all , from all we feared , and almost bringing us to all we can reasonably hope for , hath and will work upon the hearts , even of these men to that degree , that they will cordially renounce all that licentiousness , prophaneness , and impiety , with which they have been corrupted , and endeavoured to corrupt others , and that they will hereafter , become examples of sobriety and uertue , and make it appear , that what is past , was rather the uice of the time , than of the persons , and the fitter to be forgotten together . and , because the fear of punishment , or apprehension of our displeasure , may have influence upon many , who will not be restrained by the conscience of their duty , we do declare , that we will not exercise just severity against any malefactors sooner , than against men of dissolute , debauch'd , and profane lives , with what parts soever they may be otherwise qualified and endowed ; and we hope , that all persons of honour , or in place and authority , will so far assist us , in discountenancing such men , that their discretion and shame will perswade them to reform what their conscience would not , and that the displeasure of good men towards them , may supply what the laws have not ; and , it may be , cannot well provide against , there being by the licence and corruption of the times , and the depraved nature of men , many enormities , scandals , and impieties , in practice and manners , which laws cannot well describe , and consequently not enough provide against , which may by the example and severity of uertuous men , be easily discountenanced , and by degrees suppressed . however , for the more effectual reforming these men , who are a discredit to the nation , and unto any cause they pretend to favour , and to wish well to ; we require all maiors , sheriffs , and justices of peace , to be very vigilant and strict in the discovery and prosecution of all dissolute and prophane persons , and such as blaspheme the name of god , by prophane swearing and cursing , or revile or disturb ministers , and despise the publick worship of god ; that being first bound to the good behaviour , they may be further proceeded against , and exposed to shame , in such a manner , as the laws of the land , and the just and necessary rules of government shall direct or permit . dated the twelfth year of our reign . see the dialogue between tory and timothy in the weekly pacquet of aug. . . this passage : tory. there are a thousand of my companions that are not capable to express their loyalty any way in the world , if they should be barr'd from drinking of healths , and huzzaing , as if bedlam were broken loose . tim. loyalty is the indispensable duty of every good subject , and signifies no more than an obedience and hearty serving of the king according to law ; and i am sure our most gracious soveraign will not be serv'd any otherwise . nor can i understand how a common drunkard , swearer , whoremonger , &c. ought to be accounted either loyal , or a son of the church of england , since thereby he violates daily the laws of god , nature , and the land , and for the same ought to stand excommunicated by the church . such as will not refrain from intemperate drinking , and be reclamed by scripture , arguments , and examples , let the regard of their bodily health move them : from these weighty reasons of doctor maynwaring's , shewing how it impairs their health many wayes . preservaton of health in the choice of drinks , and regular drinking . drink for necessity , not for bad fellowship ; especially soon after meat , which hinders due fermentation of the stomach , and washeth down before digestion be finished : but after the first concoction , if you have a hot stomach , a dry or costive body , you may drink more freely than others : or if thirst importunes you at any time , to satisfie ▪ with a moderate draught is better than to forbear . accustom youth and strong stomachs to small drink ; but stronger drink , and wine , to the infirm and aged : it chears the spirits , quickens the appetite , and helps digestion , moderately taken : but being used in excess , disturbs the course of nature , and procures many diseases : for corpulent gross and fat bodies , thin , hungry , abstersive , penetrating wines are best , as white-wine , rhenish , and such like . for lean thin bodies ; black , red and yellow wines , sweet , full bodied and fragrant , are more fit and agreeable ; as malaga , muscadel , tent , alicant and such like . for drink , whether it be wholsomer warmed than cold , is ▪ much controverted ; some stifly contending for the one , and some for the other : i shall rather chuse the middle way , with limitation and distinction , than impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health , the observations of the one or the other . there are three sorts of persons , one cannot drink cold beer , the other cannot drink warm , the third , either : you that cannot drink cold beer , to you it is hurtful , cools the stomach , and checks it much : therefore keep to warm drink as a wholsome custom : you that cannot drink warm beer , that is , find no refreshment , nor thirst satisfied by it , you may drink it cold , nor is it injurious to you : you that are indifferent and can drink either , drink yours cold , or warmed , as the company does , since your stomach makes no choice . that warm drink is no bad custom , but agreeable to nature in the generality ; first , because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the body , and similia similibus conservantur , every thing is preserved by its like , and destroyed by its contrary . secondly , though i do not hold it the principal agent in digestion , yet it does excite , is auxiliary , and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion , ut signum & causa . thirdly , omne frigus per se , & pro viribus destruit ; cold in its own nature , and according to the graduation of its power , extinguisheth natural heat , and is destructive ; but per accidens , and as it is in gradu remisso , it may contemperate , allay , and refresh , where heat abounds , and is exalted . therefore as there is variety of palates , and stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of meats and drinks , which to others are utterly disgustful , disagreeing and injurious , though good in themselves : so is it in drink warmed or cold ; what one finds a benefit in , the other receives a prejudice ; at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment , under such a qualification ; because of the various natures , particular appetitions , and idiosyncratical properties of several bodies , one thing will not agree with all : therefore he that cannot drink warm , let him take it cold , and it is well to him ; but he that drinks it warm , does better . and this is to be understood in winter , when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the spirits of the liquor in a torpid inactivity ; which by a gentle warmth are unfettered , volatile and brisk ; whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the stomachs fermenting heat , being so prepared , than to be made so by it . there are three sorts of drinkers : one drinks to satisfie nature , and to support his body ; without which he cannot well subsist , and requires it as necessary to his being . another drinks a degree beyond this man , and takes a larger dose , with this intention , to exhilerate and chear his mind , to banish cares and trouble , and help him to sleep the better ; and these two are lawful drinkers . a third drinks neither for the good of the body , or the mind , but to stupifie and drown both ; by exceeding the former bounds , and running into excess , frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by nature ; converting this support of life and health , making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death . many such there are , who drink not to satisfie nature , but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination ; and when there is a reluctancy against it : as drunkards that pour in liquor , not for love of the drink , or that nature requires it by thirst , but onely to maintain the mad frolick , and keep the company from breaking up . some to excuse this intemperance , hold it as good physick to be drunk once a month , and plead for that liberty as a wholesom custom , and quote the authority of a famous physician for it . whether this opinion be allowable , and to be admitted in the due regiment for preservation of health , is fit to be examined . it is a canon established upon good reason ; that every thing exceeding its just bounds , and golden mediocrity , is hurtful to nature . the best of things are not excepted in this general rule ; but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion . the supports of life may prove the procurers of death , if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective . meat and drink is no longer sustenance , but a load and overcharge , if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person ; and then they are not , what they are properly in themselves , and by the appointment of nature , the preservatives of life and health ; but the causes of sickness , and consequently of death . drink was not appointed man , to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties , but to supply , nourish , and strengthen them . drink exceeding its measure , is no longer a refreshment , to irrigate and water the thirsty body , but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers . it puts a man out of the state of health , and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind , that we may look upon the man , as going out of the world , because he is already gone out of himself , and strangely metamorphosed from what he was . i never knew sickness or a disease , to be good preventing physick ; and to be drunk , is no other than an unsound state , and the whole body out of frame by this great change . what difference is there between sickness and drunkenness ? truly i cannot distinguish them otherwise than as genus and species : drunkenness being a raging disease , denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses , by its procatarctick or procuring cause , drink . that drunkenness is a disease or sickness , will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a disease , and is far distant from a state of health : for as health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind ; and sickness , when the functions are not performed , or weakly and depravedly : then ebriety may properly be said to be a disease or sickness , because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great disease : for , during the time of drunkenness , and some time after , few of the faculties perform rightly , but very depravedly and preternaturally : if we examine the intellectual faculties , we shall find the reason gone , the memory lost or much abated , and the will strangely perverted : if we look into the sensitive faculties , they are disordered , and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently : the eyes do not see well , nor the ears hear well , nor the palate rellish , &c. the speech faulters and is imperfect ; the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates ; his legs fail : indeed if we look through the whole man , we shall see all the faculties depraved , and their functions either not executed , or very disorderly , and with much deficiency . now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses , we judge a man not likely to live long ; and that it is very hard he should recover ; the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness , and prognosticate a bad event : here is nothing appears salutary ; but from head to foot , the disease is prevalent in every part ; which being collated , the syndrom is lethal , and judgment to be given so . surely then drunkenness is a very great disease for the time ; but because it is not usually mortal , nor lasts long ; therefore it is slighted , and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self . but now the question may be asked , why is not drunkenness usually mortal ; since the same signs in other diseases are accounted mortal , and the event proves it so ? to which i answer ; all the hopes we have that a man drunk should live , is ; first , from common experience that it is not deadly : secondly , from the nature of the primitive or procuring cause , strong drink or wine ; which although it rage , and strangely discompose the man for a time , yet it lasts not long , nor is mortal . the inebriating spirits of the liquor , flowing in so fast , and joyning with the spirits of mans body , make so high a tide , that overflows all the banks and bounds of order : for , the spirits of mans body , those agents in each faculty , act smoothly , regularly and constantly , with a moderate supply ; but being overcharged , and forced out of their natural course , and exercise of their duty , by the large addition of furious spirits ; spurs the functions into strange disorders , as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution : but yet it proves not mortal . and this , first , because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature , and therefore not so deadly injurious , as that which is not so familiar or noxious . secondly , because they are very volatile , light and active ; nature therefore does much sooner recover her self , transpires and sends forth the overplus received ; than if the morbisick matter were more ponderous and fixed ; the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing : as an over-charge of meat , bread , fruit , or such like substances not spirituous ; but dull and heavy ( comparative ) is of more difficult digestion , and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties , having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist nature , nor of so liquid a fine substance , of quicker and easier digestion : so that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous , than those peracute distempers arising from liquors . so likewise those bad symptoms in other diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal ( than the like arising from drunkenness ) because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes ; or such as by time are radicated in the body ; or from the defection of some principal part : but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness , as it is suddenly raised , so commonly it soon falls , depending upon benign causes , and a spirituous matter , that layes not so great an oppression ; but inebriates the spirits , that they act very disorderly and unwontedly ; or by the soporiferous vertue , stupifies them for a time , until they recover their agility again . but all this while , i do not see , that to be drunk once a month should prove good physick : all i think that can be said in this behalf , is ; that by overcharging the stomach , vomiting is procured ; and so carries off something that was lodged there , which might breed diseases . this is a bad excuse for good fellows , and a poor plea for drunkenness : for the gaining of one supposed benefit ( which might be obtained otherwise ) you introduce twenty inconveniences by it . i do not like the preventing of one disease that may be , by procuring of one at the present certainly , and many hereafter most probably : and if the disease feared , or may be , could be prevented no otherwise , but by this drunken means ; then that might tolerate and allow it : but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards , than by overcharging with strong drink , and making the man to unman himself ; the evil consequents of which are many , the benefit hoped for , but pretended ; or if any , but very small and inconsiderable . and although , as i said before , the drunken fit is not mortal , and the danger perhaps not great for the present ; yet those drunken bouts being repeated ; the relicts do accumulate , debilitate nature , and lay the foundation of many chronick diseases . nor can it be expected otherwise ; but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally , that the functions within also , and their motions are strangely disordered : for , the outward madness and unwonted actions , proceed from the internal impulses , and disordered motions of the faculties : which general disturbance and discomposure ( being frequent ) must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane nature ; and consequently ruine the fabrick of mans body . the ill effects , and more eminent products of ebriety , are ; first , a changing of the natural tone of the stomach , and alienating the digestive faculty ; that instead of a good transmutation of food , a degenerate chyle is produced . common experience tells , that after a drunken debauch , the stomach loseth its appetite , and acuteness of digestion ; as belching , thirst , disrelish , nauseating , do certainly testifie : yet to support nature , and continue the custom of eating , some food is received ; but we cannot expect from such a stomach that a good digestion should follow : and it is some dayes before the stomach recover its eucrasy , and perform its office well : and if these miscarriages happen but seldom , the injury is the less , and sooner recompenced ; but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices , the stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity . secondly , an unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow : or a degenerate macilency , and a decayed consumptive constitution . great drinkers that continue it long , few of them escape , but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body : for , if the stomach discharge not its office a right , the subsequent digestions will also be defective . so great a consent and dependance is there upon the stomach ; that other parts cannot perform their duty , if this leading principal part be perverted and debauched : nor can it be expected otherwise ; for , from this laboratory and prime office of digestion , all the parts must receive their supply ; which being not suitable , but depraved , are drawn into debanchery also , and a degenerate state ; & the whole body fed with vitious alimentary succus . now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery , happens upon this score . as there are different properties and conditions of bodies ; so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various : one puffs up , fills , and grows hydropical ; another pines away , and falls consumptive , from excess in drinking ; and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts : for , in some persons , although the stomach be vitiated , yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great , from the integrity and vigor of those parts destinated to such offices ; that they act strenuously , though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate : und therefore do keep the body plump and full , although the juyces be foul , and of a depraved nature . others è contra , whose parts are not so firm and vigorous ; that will not act upon any score , but with their proper object ; does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter , but receiving it with a nice reluctance , transmits it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture , or emunctory : and from hence the body is frustrated of nu●●ition , and falls away : so that the pouring in of much liquor ( although it be good in sua natura ) does not beget much aliment , but washeth through the body , and is not assimilated . but here some may object and think ; that washing of the body through with good liquor , should cleanse the body , and make it fit for nourishment , and be like good physick for a foul body . but the effect proves the contrary ; and it is but reason it should be so : for , suppose the liquor ( whether wine , or other ) be pure and good ; yet when the spirit is drawn off from it , the remainder is but dead , flat , thick , and a muddy flegm . as we find in the distillation of wine , or other liquors ; so it is in mans body : the spirit is drawn off first , and all the parts of mans body are ready receivers , and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener , freely and readily : but the remainder , of greatest proportion ; that heavy , dull , phlegmy part , and of a narcotick quality ; lies long fluctuating upon the digestions , and passeth but slowly ; turns sowre , and vitiates the crases of the parts : so that this great inundation , and supposed washing of the body , does but drown the faculties , stupifie or choak the spirits , and defile all the parts ; not purifie and cleanse . and although the more subtile and thinner portion , passeth away in some persons pretty freely by urine ; yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind , and clogs in the percolation . a third injury , and common , manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking , is ; an imbecillity of the nerves ; which is procured from the disorderly motions of the animal spirits ; being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong liquors : which vibration being frequent , begets a habit , and causeth a trepidation of members . transcribed verbatim out of dr. maynwaring's treatise of long life . finis . are to be sold near the exchange and in popes-head-alley . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e primum crater ad sitim pertinere , secundum ad hilaritatem , tertium ad voluptatem , quartum ad insaniam dixit . apulius . omne nimium naturae est inimicum . a cacotrophy , or atrophy . a vvarning to drunkards by the sad and suddain death of john woolman, of sarret, in the county of hartford. with a letter of exhortation written to the people on that sorrowful occasion. by william jole, minister of sarret. jole, william, d. ca. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing j estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a vvarning to drunkards by the sad and suddain death of john woolman, of sarret, in the county of hartford. with a letter of exhortation written to the people on that sorrowful occasion. by william jole, minister of sarret. jole, william, d. ca. . p. printed for n.p. and sold by rich. janua, in queens-head court, in pater-noster row, london : . reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng woolman, john, -- of sanet -- early works to . alcoholism -- england -- early works to . temperance -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a uuarning to drunkards by the sad and suddain death of john woolman , of sarret , in the county of hartford . with a letter of exhortation written to the people on that sorrowful occasion . by william jole , minister of sarret . london , printed for n. p. and sold by rich. ianua , in queens-head court , in pater-noster row , . a short narrative of the manner of his death . john woolman son of iohn woolman of sarret , was by trade a taylor , a young man of a very intemperate life , as some know that have kept his company ( oh that all such may be allarmed by his fatal end to amend their lives ) monday october the eleventh , he was at a house near sarret , called michlefield-green , where being too eager of strong-drink , what he had before he came thither , and what he added to his load there , grew too much for his brain ; it seems he told them , he would go upon the barley-mow to sleep , and being by some disswaded ( in regard it was a high mow ) possibly this might make his whimsical brain the more resolute to climb up , for when the brain is turned with drink impossible things seem easie to such a man , and a drunken man will venture on that which a sober man is afraid to look at . up he did climb , and is supposed to sleep there all night , but the next morning was found stone dead upon the flower , his hat remained on the top of the barley-mow ; how he fell down is unknown , because no body was in the barn when he fell : it was a clay flower , where his head pitched on a peble-stone , which brake a hole in his skul , and let out much blood and water . the letter to the people . loving neighbours , solomon saith , that a word fitly spoken , is like apples of gold in pictures of silver , prov. . . that is to say , it hath all that may invite our attention . surely then it is a fit time to speak to the ear , when god , by any dreadful iudgement doth speak to the eye . although my mouth is stopped at present , and i am denied to speak unto you in the pulpit , yet no law can hinder me from writing unto you ; and the end of my writing at this time is to exhort you to hear god , now loudly speaking unto every one of us by the dismal iudgment upon john woolman , calling on every one of us to repent and turn from our sinful courses , and more particularly calling upon every drunkard to forsake his drunkenness , beholding the woful effects of that sin in this sad example . it will not become a minister to aggravate the faults of the dead , my desire is to press upon the living to lay his woful end to heart . would you not have the iudgments of god to cut you off in your sins , and to stop your breath , before you have time to ask pardon ? then be exhorted and perswaded to repent , to day while it is called to day , and do not harden your hearts any longer against such warnings as this . we say , it is best striking while the iron 's hot , therefore admit this word of exhortation while there is some warmth remaining upon your souls , by that which you have seen or heard of the sudden death of this poor wretch ; happy and wise are those who take warning by other mens harms . let me desire you to read frequently those words , proverbs . . he that being often reproved , hardeneth his neck , shall suddenly be destroyed , and that without remedy . mayer , on those words saith , for all sins there is forgiveness , but for hardness of heart and neck , there is none ; and therefore , such cannot escape destruction . and then a man is judged to be thus hardned , when being often reproved , he relenteth not , but goeth on obstinately still in his sins . hear this , all ye swearers , and drunkards of sarret ; and though it is not a seemly thing to name persons , and say , you john , or you thomas , or you richard ; yet , i beseech the lord , to set it home on every soul particularly , both mine and yours , throughout the parish , and let those drunkards , who are so busy to erect a new alehouse in the town , take notice , how god threatneth such doings , and let them desist from their enterprize , lest god mark them out to be the next examples of his wrath. they sufficiently tell the world , what they are that thrust out their minister , and endeavour to set up another alehouse . god has set me as your watchman , ezek. . , , . turn to it , and read it your selves . therefore , that i may free my own soul , and that the blood of impenitent sinners may not be required at my hands , have i written this letter , to be read in your hearing . doth not god say to the wicked drunkard , thou shalt surely die , when he shews him a drunkard struck dead suddenly ? i beseech you therefore all my christian neighbours , take these following considerations home to your hearts , to make you hate drunkenness . first , consider what a brutish , beastly kind of sin drunkenness is ; and there is no beast , that i ever read of , that will drink to be drunk , but the swine , to which a drunkard is most like ; a drunkard makes his belly like a hogshead , to be filled with strong-drink , his throat is the tunnel to let it down ; until , by overbriming his vessel , he force it to run out at his mouth again ; if once the strong liquor begin to work in his guts , it flies up to his brain , and quickly drowns the reason , and robs him of all that should bespeak him a man , and layes a swine in his room , you cannot say , that now he utters , but mutters his words , his tongue greatly labouring to speak , but lying drowned ●nder water , is not able to bring forth any sensible words , you may discover an ape in every posture of him , and he goes , like what ? no comparison can be vile enough , unless you will say , that he goes like himself , or like another drunkard . secondly , consider what heinous aggravations this sin admitts of ; as , first , the mispending that precious time in bad company , and tippling-houses , which he ought to redeem , to work out his salvation ; a saint may be distinguished from a sinner by this character , as well as others . the saint is desirous to redeem time , the sinners great study is , how to drive away time ; the saint spends his time in duty and lawfull busyness , the sinner mispends his time in drinking and unlawful sports ; so that a drunkard wilfully throws away his precious time , as if it were a burthen to him , and seeks for damnation in that time which is allotted him to seek for salvation ; and how inexcusable is that sinner that will not be saved . secondly , consider how one drunkard makes many more partakers of his sin. drunkenness is a sociable vice , and the drunkard calls himself a good fellow . it is very rare , that a man should drink himself drunk alone ; love of the company makes many drunk , who say they do not love drink . and the devil hath found a rare expedient to help forward this sin , by drinking of healths . if any one begin a health , it is now reckoned a great piece of rudeness , not to stay to pledge it ; yes , and not to drink all that is filled unto you ; the healths forsooth , must go round by any means . if the devills in hell be capable of laughing , surely this might make them laugh , to see how eagerly drunkards are working out their own damnation , and by this stratagem , drinking away the health of soul and body both , and pulling many others into hell with them by this diabolical stratagem . thirdly , consider what a wasting sin drunkenness is ? the drunkard consumes , that money on his vice , which should maintain his family , and how many good estates have been wasted by this sin ? how many have drunk ale so long , until they have been forced to sell ale for a livelyhood ? the drunkard poures it in by whole flagons , while his wife and children would be glad of a draught of small beer ●o quench their thirst , so he feeds his sin , by that which should relieve his family . fourthly , consider that this sin of drunkenness exposeth to every sin , i have formerly told you a remarkeable story , which i read in a book called ( tragica ) page . in latine , he begins thus : quidam cum pietate sedulo studeret , assiduis diaboli tentationibus infestabatur , suadentis ut ex tribu● peccatis unum quod perpetraret sibi eligeret , &c. which i thus english , a certain man very studious of piety , was dayly infested by the temptations of the devil , to choose which of these three sins he would commit , either to be once drunk , or to defile his neighbours wife once , or to commit murther ( victus tandem consensit in primum peccatum says my author ) at last being overcome , he yielded to be drunk , because he judged that to be the lest sin of the three , but in his drink he defiled his neighbours wife , who coming in , and seeking to revenge the injury , him he murthered , and so was by his drunkenness guilty of all the three sins . fi●thly , consider drunkenness is a heathenish sin ; bacchus was a heathen god ; what doth the drunkard , but sacrifice his estate and time to bacchus ? sixthly , consider how drunkenness incapacitates a man for all duties , and for all cevil actions ; brawling , and quarrelling , and fighting , and often murder , have been the woful fruits of drunkenness . lastly , consider how often the lord doth punish some drunkards with sudden death , to warn others ; how many have fallen into the water , and have been drowned ? some have tumbled down stairs ( as i knew one in london came in drunk , and instead of going up stairs , fell down into his cellar , and never spake more . others falling from their horses , have broke their necks ; and how this poor sinner perished , you all know better perhaps chan i can tell you . let me close up this exhortation with these words , psal. . . now consider this , ye that forget god , lest i tear you in pieces , and there be none to deliver . i hope you will take this kindly from your poor seque●tred minister , who still lookes on you as his charge , and earne●●●y desireth your salvation ; if the lord be pleased to set home this sad dispensation upon your consciences , it may do you more good than many sermons ; and how happy shall i be if his grace make use of my poor endeavours by this letter to make such an impression upon you , that may stick and abide , and not wear out again . amen , good lord , so let it be , on me and all my flock . amen , amen . from my study , october the th . . finis . an extempore sermon, preached upon malt, by a way of caution to good fellows; at the request of two schollars, / by a lover of ale, out of a hallow [sic] tree. lover of ale. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing d e estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an extempore sermon, preached upon malt, by a way of caution to good fellows; at the request of two schollars, / by a lover of ale, out of a hallow [sic] tree. lover of ale. dod, john, ?- . sheet ([ ] p.) [s.n.], printed at london ; and reprinted at edinburgh : . attributed to john dod by wing ( nd ed.). caption title. reproduction of original in: national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng temperance -- great britain -- early works to . alcoholism -- great britain -- early works to . broadsides -- england -- th century. broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an extempore sermon , preached upon malt , by way of caution to good fellows ; at the request of two schollars , by a lover of ale , out of a hallow tree . why should the drunkard strive his acts to smother . drink runs but from one hog shead to another , beloved . let me crave your reverent attention , for i am a little man , come at a short warning , to preach a short sermon , upon a small subject , to a thin congregation ; in an unworthy pulpit . beloved . my text 't is malt. now i cannot divide it into sentences because 't is none , nor into words , it being but one ; not into syllables , because ( upon the whole matter ) ' ris but a monosyllable : therefore i must ( and necessity inforces me ) divide it into letters ; which i find in my text four , m , a , l , t , m , ( my beloved ) is moral . a , is allegorical ; l , is literal , and t , is theologwal . the moral is well set forth , to teach you drunkards good manners , wherefor m , my masters , a , all of you , l , listen , t , to my text. the allegorical , is , when one thing is spoken of , and another thing is meant ; the thing spoken of , is malt ; the thing meant is the oyl of malt ; strong beere ; which you rusticks make m , meat , a , apparel , l , liberty and t , treasure . the literal , is according to the letter , m , much , a , ale , l , little , t , thrift , much ale , little thrift . the theological , is according to the effects that it works which i find in my text , to be of two kinds ; first in this world , secondly , in the world to come . in this world the effects which it works , are in some m , murder ; in others , a , adultery ; in some , l , looseness of life ; in others , t , treason the effects which it worketh in the world to come are , m , misery ; a , anguish ; l , lamentation ; and t , torment . wherefore my first use shall be , a use of exhortation , m , masters a , all of you ; l , leave ; t , tipling ; or else by way of commination ; m , my masters ; a , all of you ; l , look for ; t , torment . and so much shall suffice for this tyme and text. only ( by way of caution ) take this . that a drunkard is the annoyance of modesty , the trouble of civility , the spoil of wealth , the destruction of reason , the brewers agent , the ale houses benefactor , the beggars companion , the constables trouble , his wifes woe , his childrens sorrow , his neighbours scoff , his own shame , a walking swill-tub , a picture of a beast , and a monster of a man. say well , and do well , end both with a letter , say well is good ; but do well is better . printed at london , and reprinted at edinburgh , . england's bane, or, the deadly danger of drunkenness described in a letter to a friend wherein are many convincing arguments against it and many aggravations of it in professors of religion, and many other things tending to a reformation of that beastly sin / by edward bury. bury, edward, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) england's bane, or, the deadly danger of drunkenness described in a letter to a friend wherein are many convincing arguments against it and many aggravations of it in professors of religion, and many other things tending to a reformation of that beastly sin / by edward bury. bury, edward, - . [ ], p. printed for tho. parkhurst, london : . running title: a disswasive from drunkenness. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng alcoholism. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion england's bane , or the deadly danger of drunkennels described in a letter to a friend : wherein are many convincing arguments against it , and many aggravations of it , in professors of religion ; and many other things tending to a reformation of that beastly sin. by edward bvry , late minister of great-bolas in shropshire . isa . xxviii . . wo to the crown of pride to the drunkards of ephraaim , &c. hab. ii. . wo to him that gives his neighbour drink , that puttest thy bottle to him , and makest him drunk also , &c. london , printed for tho. parkhurst at the bible and three growns in cheapside near mercers-chappel . . licenced and entred according to order . to the reader . courteous reader , though these following lines were at first designed for a private person , and so adapted to his condition , yet seeing there are many , oh too many sick of the same disease ! and drunkenness is become a publick distemper in poor and rich ; i thought it not amiss to make my receipt publick also . this disease is become epidemical , and all the physicians in england know not how to set a stop to it , 't is like a mighty torrent that bears down all before it , so that drunkenness and adultery seem to strive for the preheminence . now though i cannot imagine that my little dam can set a stop to this fierce flood , which doubtless will soon mount over it , and bear it down , yet being made in some small stream it may possibly do some good , or however , when i have done my duty , and witnessed for my god against this debauchery , my reward will be with my god , and though israel be not gathered my labour will not be in vain , isa . . &c. and i shall stand up at last in my lot to witness against those that now shut their eyes against the light : if these lines meet with any that are not guilty , let them bless god that hath made them to differ , and let them be preventing physick against future temptations , and let him that standeth take heed least he fall . but reader , if thou art guilty , consider well the strength of reason , and the sorce of scripture arguments here brought , for thy conviction , and shut not thine eyes against either , for the time will come god will open them , and if thou canst not speak as much reason and scripture for drunkenness , as bere thou findest against it , take heed of resisting god , and the message he hath sent thee , for i am sure thou canst not resist his judgments , which he hath threatned against such wilful offenders , and 't is hard to kick against the pricks . i know this discourse runs cross to the humours of the time , and the sinful inclination of corrupt nature , yet though the physick seem sharp 't is safe , old diseases are not usually cured with cordial syrups , nor old feastered sores with lenitive plasters , a gentle reproof will not work upon an incorrigible person , or gray headed sinner ; some happly may quarrel the language , as well as the matter , because the pills are not sugared , but when there is fire in the town , men stand not to make an eloquent oration , but cry fire , fire , i write to those that many times can neither speak sence nor understand reason , to those who had rather be accounted good-fellows , than either good livers or good christians ; and my design is to make them better livers , rather than better rhetoricians , and seeing they sin in english why should they be reproved in latine , they had need have one speak loud enough , lest they are asleep , or amidst the crowd of their drunken companions ; for then 't is hard to make them hear or regard . all the plagues of egypt could not awaken pharaoh till the red sea convinced him ; neither could all the miracles of christ convince the jews till titus vespatian swept them away : the sodomites when struck with blindness , yet were not cured of their madness , till fire , and brimstone convinc'd them of their folly , and 't is to be feared , that nothing but fire and brimstone will awake many of our drowsy drunkards ; this will make them see god spake in earnest what they took in jeast . if any pretend they make no profession of religion , and therefore are not concerned with part of the book , it being adapted only to such , this will prove but a bad excuse , they never pretended to serve god , and therefore may the more freely break his laws , but i conceive all those that own that there is a god , make some profession to serve him , but let their profession be what it will , without holiness they shall never enjoy happiness , and truly till a man break off from wicked company there is little hopes of a resormation . when peter was in caiphas's hall , he soon learnt to deny his master , when joseph was in egypt he learnt to swear by the life of pharaoh ; if solomon will have pharaoh's daughter to wife , he shall have her idols also . the fuller in the fable , would not dwell with the collier for fear of a smut , and whoever would avoid drunkenness must avoid drunken companions : he that would avoid infection must beware of infected persons , and infected places ; a man that would be chast must not live in a brothel-house , and he that would be sober must not haunt alehouses and taverns . i shall add no more at present , but wish that what i have written may be beneficial to that end for which it is written . i now rest , thy unfeigned welwisher edward bury . eaton , jan. . . a disswasive from drunkenness . dear friend , the love i bear to you , and your relations , puts me on this unpleasing , and perhaps ungrateful work of reprehension , your extravagancies of late years are too manifest to be concealed , and the course you take in spending your time , wasting your estate , imparing your credit , and indangering your soul in frequenting alchouses and taverns is so bad , that it calls for a speedy remedy or you are like to be undone : and after so many admonitions , so many reproofs , so many promises and protestations , and resolutions of reformation , yet nothing is done ; this hath been no small grief to me . in this distemper therefore give me leave also among other physicians to prescribe you some pills , which though they may seem untoothsom , may prove wholsom , and may be the better swallowed being sugared with love ; a feastered sore is seldom cured with gentle lenitives , a desperat disease must have a desperate cure , what the event of it may be as to you i know not , or what effect it will work upon you , however my reward will be with god , and my judgment with the most high : you may read my commission , lev. . . thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart , thou shalt in any wise rebuke him , and not suffer sin to lie upon him . he is no friend to your soul that is a friend to your sin ; 't is true solomon adviseth , not to reprove a scorner lest he hate thee , but rebuke a wise man and he will love thee , prov. . . and by your reception of this , you will discover your wisdom or folly , david bid , let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindness , let him reprove me , it shall be an excellent oyle , which shall not break my head , for my prayer also shall be in their calamities , psal . . . and we find he loved nathan never the worse for a sharp reproof ; 't is a christians duty , much more a ministers , which we owe to all that offend , much more to our relations , rebuke them sharply ( saith the apostle ) that they may be sound in the faith , tit. . . and though it should not be scalding hot , yet it should have some heat , though railing and reviling should be laid aside , yet zeal and fervency are necessary ingredients ; 't is true christ bids us , not give holy things to dogs , neither to cast pearls before swine , lest they turn again and rent us , matth. . . yet like i not their judgment , who to save themselves a labour of reproving make all offenders to be dogs and swine , and never make a trial of them : should you prove thus , i should hereafter take christs advice , 't is a sign of a gall'd back that cannot endure rubbing , and of a gall'd conscience to kick against reproofs : 't is a good observation of one , that admonition and reprehension whether it be true or false , whether it come from a friend , or a foe , never doth a wise man harm , if true , he knows what to amend , if false , of what to beware . to judge the wound incurable , be-before it be searched , or before we have made an experiment , is but uncharitable dealing , i choose rather with the compassionate samaritan to pour in oyl and wine . the usual mode of flattery to skin over the sore , is not safest , 't is better if we search it to the bottom , though it make it smart , but to leave apologizing i shall address my self to you in these ten following considerations , and desire in the words of a minister , of a friend , and of a relation , and as you will answer the contrary before the great god , the scearcher of all hearts , at your peril lay them to heart examin their weight , and the evidence of truth , that comes along with them , and if you cannot give a satisfactory answer to them , leave off those courses you follow , shake off the company you keep , apply your self to the duty of religion , and remember from whence you are fallen , and do your first works . consid . . consider drunkenness is such a sin , as takes away the use of reason and turns a man into a beast , yea makes him worse than a beast , he that in the creation was made little lower than the angels , is now become lower than the beast , and the time is coming if repentance prevent not , that the drunkard will wish he had been made a beast ; what is it that differenceth a man from a beast but the use of reason , but if reason be drowned , as it is in the drunkard where lies the difference , thus whoredom , wine , and new wine take away the heart , hos . . . by circes charms vlisses's men were turned into beasts , strong drink is as powerful , for this turns them into swine , nebuchadnezzar had his understanding taken from him , and a beasts heart given him , and so have these , 't is true they retain the shape of men , and that is all , for they much resemble swine in this also , in their nasty behaviour , wallowing in their vomit , and moiling themselves in their dung , and dirt , but they are very brutes in their understanding , but many sorts of beasts are more capacious of instruction than they are in their drunken fits ; you may better instruct a horse , and mule , and a spaniel dog , than you can them , if you speak reason they understand it not , neither can they speak sence : oh the horrible nature of fin , that so transforms so glorious a creature : the wicked in scriptures are oft-times compared to , yea called by the names of beasts for their beastlike qualities , as the lion , the bear , the leopard , the bull , the serpent , the fox , the cocatrice , the asp , and many other , but the drunkard is fitly compared to a swine for nastiness , for i know not any other creature that will drink till he burst ; and doth delight so much in swill , and wallowing in the mire : the very sight of a drunkard is enough to overset a mans stomack , his nasty belches , vomits and other more filthy demeanours . he may also very fitly be compared to an aerffe , a beast bred in the north of suetia , who when he hath caught his prey , glutteth himself as long as his skin will hold , and when he can eat no more , straineth himself between two trees , till he hath vented backwards what he hath taken , and then filleth again , and spends his time in filling and emptying , and is not this the very practice of a drunkard ? doth he not continue from morning till night , filling and emptying his belly , by vomiting or otherwise , as the daughters of danaus are feigned to do their bottomless tubs , which run out as fast as they pour in ? do not many of them drink all the wit out of their heads , and all the money out of their purses , and yet with the horse-leech still cry give , give , are not many as covetous of drink as others are of gold , and and can never say 't is enough , they have a dry dropsy , the more they drink the more they may , and thus they spend the time from morning till night , yea some from one weeks end to another , filling and emptying as a brewer doth his barrels , and live the very lives of swine , drinking in their swill , and wallowing in the mire , sleep and snort , and up again and at it ; nay they are worse than beasts who do but their kind , and answer the end of their creation , they retain what god gave them in the creation , but these do not , they lose not only gods image , but the use of reason also , nay sence it self , and their locomotive faculty , which beasts keep : some of them go upon all four , some are dead-drunk and cannot stand , the beast is serviceable in his kind , the drunkard good for nothing but to spend and consume : oh that such a noble creature should unman himself , and yeild to so poor a temptation as a cup of drink , and sell his reason at so low a rate , if therefore you would not thus beastify your self and make your condition worse than the beast that perisheth , if you would not make your self an unprofitable burthen to the commonwealth , and the object of gods infinit hatred , take heed of this detestable vice . consid . . consider also how much this beastly sin of drunkenness doth debauch , defile , deform the body of man which should be the temple of the holy ghost , holy and honourable : yea how it weakens it , fills it with diseases , distempers , and disorders , which often prove mortal , and set a period to life it self : the body of man is in it self a famous fabrick , a beautiful pile , a sumptuous structure , and bespeaks god for it's author , and of all the visible creation seems to be gods masterpiece ; if we take it in pieces and consider it in its parts , you will find it an excellent piece of work , every piece being so useful and exact , nothing wanting , nothing redundant ; the heart , the liver , the brain , the brain , the muscles , sinews , nerves , arteries , veins , and ligaments , and the several members of the body , yea the whole is a beautiful piece dropt out of the hands of a choice workman , but this filthy vice doth so deform , deface , and defile it , that it looks not like that which god created it to be , how doth it deform the face ? the nose , the eyes , the cheeks are red and pimpled , the face swoln like a bladder , the countenance disturbed , writhen , and deformed . how many beautiful comly faces , both of men and women are thus spoiled ? set on fire , and bedecked with pearls and rubies , pimples , pushes , and rough and rugged skin ? to whom ( saith solomon ) is redness of eyes ? &c. to them that tarry long at the wine , to them that seek mixt wine . what meazil faces , what swoln bellies , legs and thighs , and other parts usually have they , and commonly their diseases and distempers within are not fewer than their deformities without : for this filthy vice quenches the natural heat , and drowns the vital spirits , impairs the health , weakens the body , and is the seminary of many diseases , gouts , dropsies , feavers , and what not , and disposes it for a dissolution , and in a few years , even in young men , we may evidently see a wonderful change , a strange metamorphosis in those addicted to drunkenness , they become lothsom to others , and burthensom to themselves , that their legs are not able to do their office to carry them , as they would do nothing , so now they can do nothing that is good , they are unfit to live being good for nothing , and most unfit to dye ; and as they are like hogs , always desiring their swill , so they are fit for no other society ; they are swine , and like vlisses's men desire no other happiness , they think there is no heaven but in their filthy swinish pleasure , no good-fellowship but amidst their pots , no such delight on earth as to make each other drunk , and no love like to this ; and thus they live undesired , and die unlamented , except by those of their own fraternity , who if their means be spent , matter not to see each other hanged out of the way when they once come to be troublsome ; if therefore you would not be troubled with those deformities of body , and not only race out the image of god , but also the image of a man , if you would not be pointed out in the street for a drunkard , and known by the buttry door , buttons upon your nose and face , if you would not be filled with diseases , and infirmities incident to this vice , such as you are never like to be freed from while you live , if you would not make your self loathsom to god and man , and unfit your self for any calling , occupation , or business whatsoever , if you would not disable your self to do any duty to god or man , take heed of this filthy vice ; for this by the just judgment of god , oft-times follows upon these lewd courses : t is not in vain the holy ghost pronounceth wo to him that riseth early in the morning that he may follow strong drink and continue till night , till wine enflame him . some part of their wo is in this life , but the greatest part is reserved for hereafter , yet most men are insensible of it , we may say of the sword and drunkenness , as the women did of saul and david , the sword hath slain thousands , but intemperance ten thousands . consid . . this filthy swinish sin of drunkenness , for i know not how to give it a fitter epithet , doth not only take away the beauty of the body , and fill it full with diseases as before i proved ; but 't is also the grave to bury the good name , where it will for ever rot , and stink in the nostrils of god and good men , and makes it go out in a stinking snuff : a good name ( saith solomon ) is rather to be chosen than great riches , prov. . . and indeed cannot be purchased with gold , many men that have purchased great estates could not purchase a good name . now the drunkard , a right prodigal , sells his name as cheap as esau did his birth-right , for a little drink , as lycimacus did his kingdom for a draught of water , yea , and that when he hath enough before , and brings an odium upon himself which he can never blot out ; for as a good name may continue when riches are gone , so this blot lies upon him when his drink is gone , a good name is better than precious ointment , eccl. . . it comforts the heart , with the smell it holds up the head , and chears the heart , and leaves a good savour behind it ; 't is durable and preserves from putrifaction , when the name of the wicked shall rot , it smells sweet when the other goes out in a snuff ; the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance , but the other are either buried in oblivion or remembred to their shame , this filthy vice rots the name that 't is never remembred but with obloquie ; when mention is made of heliogabalus , sardanapalus , and such beastly belly-gods , with what contempt do we speak of them ? tiberius was in scorn called biberius for his excessive drinking ; this one bad one drowns all other good parts in a man ; is it not the constant language of men when they see a drunkard , yonder goes a toss-pot , a swill-bowl , a drunken swine , a belly-god , do you see how he reels ? how he vomits ? it would turn a mans stomach to see him , here lies the cloak , there the hat , there the swine lies sleeping , snorting , wallowing in his vomit more fit for the dunghil than the house , for the company of swine than men ; and when he is dead this may be his epitaph , here lies one that made his gut his god , and drinking healths was his greatest devotion , he was his own executor , he lived undesired , and died unlamented : and indeed , no wise man will willingly be seen in his company , for as 't is a blemish to keep company with a whore , so 't is with a drunkard ; he that keepeth company with a riotous person shameth his father , prov. . . yea , they shame themselves , and many get a blot not easily removed ; these men are like the locusts , all belly from head to tail , and make little use of the rest of their body . in the fable where the hands and the feet and other parts that complained of the belly for devouring all , and doing nothing , denyed it food , whereupon the whole body faints , &c. this shews their ignorance , for there the belly contributes to each part for their sustentation , but if ever there be reason , it is certainly the other parts has reason , has here cause to complain of the belly ; for it robs the back and other parts , and devours all , and fills the body with loathsom diseases : 't is fabled the giant briareus had an hundred hands , and fifty bellies , but some men have one belly would devour as much as an hundred hands can get , and commonly the greatest bouzers are the greatest buzzards and are fit for nothing but to drink : these not only shame , but undo their families , friends , children , and relations , and are a shame to the place they are bred , to the church and nation where they live ; they are ( as one saith ) the devils eldest sons , and therefore when they come to their inheritance in hell , they will be sure of a double portion : they bring much grist to his mill , and have done their father much service , and may expect good wages ; some of them have been well educated , received many talents , have learning , parts , gifts , and endowments , which they have not only lost , but obliterated reason it self , and god hath deprived them of those talents , and bestowed them on others , and will condemn them to utter darkness , mat. . , &c. and whenever they die , they shall leave a stink behind them , for did you ever find a sweet savour proceed from a putrified member . if therefore you would preserve a good name , and merit a good report among the wisest , soberest , most serious persons , take heed of this odious sin which certainly will brand you with infamy , and load you with obloquy and disgrace . consid . . as this sin doth deform the body , and blemish the name , so it also debauches the soul , and inclines it to all manner of wickedness , for what sin is so odious , that a drunkard in his cups will refuse to do , when the drink is in , the wit is out , and when he is heated in his drink , he is pot-valiant , and will prove the devils champion , and undertake any enterprize : we have known , or heard it at at least , when in drink some have killed their fathers and mothers , ravished their sisters , murdered their best friends , and nearest relations , and do we not daily see , though not perhaps every individual drunkard , they are commonly great swearers , blasphemers , flying out in their cups at the very face of god , are they not usually great liars , ribald filthy obscene speakers , quarrellers fighters reproachers , and what not ? what service soever the devil hath for them to do , they are prest to do it , though he sets them about the most dangerous unreasonable work in the world , and the basest drudgery ; the taverns and alehouses are the devils schools , where his language of hell is taught , and his shop , where men are trained up in his work , and commonly out of hell you shall scarce hear any speak his language more naturally , then there : for here commonly are some old artists provided to instruct the rest in this devilish art of hellish rhetorick , and to discourse here of religion , holiness , and the power of godliness , seems as unsutable and unsafe as to discourse of the protestant principles before the spanish inquisitors , or the conclave of cardinals , yea some are ready to quarrel that man that names god except in an oath , or vain speech , as one that comes to torment them before the time , and comes on purpose to spoil their sport . now what pleasure can a man take in such company ? solomon adviseth , prov. . , . make no friendship with an angry man , and with a furious man thou shalt not go , lest thou learn his ways , and get a snare to thy soul : and the like reason holds here among debauched sinners , where never good can be learned , many temes evil , he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled , and he that meddles with a wicked man gets himself a blot , he that danceth among the devils lime-twigs is commonly snared in them . the drunkards are leperous persons , no clean person should associate himself with them , they have a plague-sore upon them , and we may well fear the infection . man is an imitable creature , and like the camelion apt to change with the company , and like drink apt to smell of the cask , and this sin is as infectious as the plague it self , and more dangerous ; that only kils the the body , this soul and body , their acts usually increase the habits , and at last bring it to a custom , and custom is a second nature , and after a while that sin which at first men stumble at , at last 't is as easy as water to run down the chanel , 't is a sure signe of an ungracious heart to delight in wicked company , noscitur ex comite qui non dignoscitur ex se . what solomon speaks by way of caution concerning the whorish woman , may be applied here , prov. . . remove thy way far from her , come not nigh to the door of her house ; this would be safe in this case , he that would not be burnt must dread the fire , he that would not hear the bell must not meddle with the roap , to venture upon the temptation , and then to pray lead us not into temptation , is like him that puts his fnger into the fire and prayes that it may not be burnt , or leaps into the sea wilfully , and prays against drowning ; custom in sin boldens a man , hardens his heart , and sears his conscience : at first a man deals by sin , as the fox in the fable with the lion , at first he is terrified , the next time a little bolder , afterward approaches nearer and discourses him , the application is easy , he that walks in the council of the vngodly , will e're long stand in the way of sinners , yea and sit in the seat of the scornful , psal . . . in those societies you can hardly choose but hear some mock , or scorn blurted against the power of godliness , which methinks should savour ill-with a gracious heart , yea with an ingracious man , and spoil all his mirth ; strict holiness must needs be censured , at least for needless scrupulosity ; or how can persons satisfy themselves in their debauched practices ; at first it may be , such discourse may trouble them , having drunk in other principles , but in time this will wear off , and down well enough , and at last become natural , and the throat of your conscience wide enough to swallow these gudgeons without straining , and in process of time a camel will not choak you , i have read of some and heard of one in our times that by little and little inured themselves to eat poison , and at last spiders , toads , and such like would serve them for food : some men at first feared an oath , but by little and little learnt to swear little oaths , or something like oaths at first , and afterwards the greatest would down without chewing , till they come to this , they scarce knew when they swore , it was so usual as in some distempers the excrements pass from them without their knowledg . joseph in pharaoh's court learnt to swear by the life of pharaoh : probably he would have scrupled it when under his fathers tuition . and is it any wonder if men learn worse words in a worse school ? many men amongst us have taken such a cursed habit of swearing and cursing , that if the law were duly executed , all their estates would not pay their mulcts ; they deal with christ as a kennel of hounds do with an hare , pluck him to pieces , wound and tear him , what in them lies , limb meal , neither his blood , nor his wounds , nor his head , nor his heart , nor any other part shall escape , and they even dare vengeance it self , to punish them ; like mad-dogs they bite and snatch at all , and would make all as mad as themselves , and is this company to be desired by a civil man , and in their quarrelling also and contentions , which is not unusual upon the ale-bench , they are like fire-brands ready to kindle one another , not only swearing and railing but also fighting , quarreling and murder it self is the effect of drunkenness , but perhaps you will say you are not guilty of swearing , cursing , quarrelling , and such like , but 't is almost impossible you should be otherwise ; how can you discourse them but in their own language , and i fear i have some grounds for my fear that you have lost some degrees of innocency , and cannot wash your hands from these transgressions : but suppose you are not actually guilty , are you not accessary to the oaths and curses which you do not reprove ? and that you do not reprove them is evident , by their delight in your company . can you hear the name of god blaspemed , his children abused , strict holiness which is gods image derided , and hold your peace ? and testify not your dislike , doubtless you make their sins your own by connivance ; were there true love to god , to his word , his ways , his image , his people , you would have something to say in their behalf , or break off society with gods deadly enemies , their sin will be laid at your door : can you hear your pot-valiant companions blaspheme god , and have nothing to say in his cause ? can an ingenious child here his father abused and hold his peace ? many in their cups are like the thracians when it thunders and lightens , they shoot up their arrows towards heaven , that by this means they may bring god to a more reasonable composition ; many when they cannot speak sense can speak bsasphemy , and when they cannot speak reason can speak treason , and can you wipe your mouth and say you have not offended ? and all this is nothing to you when it is daily done in your company , and are not you guilty of the many acts of drunkenness ? if not of your self , of others , when you drink and pledg their healths which is the devils shooinghorn , to draw on drunkards , yea perhaps force others to take a greater proportion of drink than they can bear , do you really think god gave his creatures to be thus abused ? read hab. . , &c. wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink , and putteth the bottle to him , and maketh him drunk that he may look upon his nakedness , &c. if you do the work you are like to have the wages , many an health drunk on earth that will be pledged in hell , if you would not debauch your soul , and be guilty of these and other sins which are the usual fruits of this filthy vice , beware of it betimes . consid . . this sin of drunkenness among other flagitious crimes is a great promoter of that filthy sin of adultery , which lays a man open to the righteous judgments of the great god , whoremongers ond adulterers god will judg , heb. . . it was the judgment of some of the ancient fathers , and that not without reason , that a drunkard could not be chast , for he that breaks the hedg of gods law , what can hold him ? if a divine precept cannot restrain him , but for the love of a cup of drink he will be a transgressor ; who can think but if the devil mend his wages , he will mend his work ; or when a man or woman hath no more reason than a beast , why should they not act as beasts ? without distinctions of persons , here commonly are neither temptations , provocations , opportunities , nor importunities wanting , and if the fear of god be absent , and how can that he present where the wilful breach of his laws are daily acted , what can restrain them ? venter non habet aures . he that will break one command knowingly , what should restrain him from the breach of another , which nature doth every way as much incline men to ? that man or woman that is not abstinent , i cannot see any great grounds to believe they are continent ; lot in sodom though he doubtless had many provocations , and temptations to lust , and many examples of this nature , yet could withstand them , and his righteous soul was vexed with the unclean conversations of the wicked sodomites , pet. . , . but too much wine lost the reins of reason , and he became a brute , and committed incest with both his own daughters : had not david believed that wine was a provoker of lust , he never had tempted vriah with it to provoke him to go home to his wife to cover his adultery , rioting and drunkenness precedes chambering and wantonness , rom. . . the first evil ( saith ambrose ) of drunkenness is the hazzard of chastity , and truly those that will be perswaded to be drunk , i think 't is no great business to perswade them to adultery also , for as a filthy lake is full of froggs though no fish can live in it , so the drunkards heart is full of lust though no grace can thrive there . bacchus is the pander to venus , and wine is the fuel to heat the oven ; when the belly is full of wine the heart is full of lust : they are ( saith the prophet ) hot as an oven , hos . . . sine cerere & baccho friget venus . when the fuel is withdrawn the fire ceaseth . 't is solomon's council , prov. . , &c. look not upon the wine when it is red , when it giveth its colour in the cup , when it moveth it self aright . ( and why so ? ) at the last it biteth like a serpent , and stingeth like an adder . ( why what is the event ? ) thine eyes shall behold strange women , and thy lips shall utter perverse things : this is the danger , this is the sting , venter aestuans ( saith jerome ) spumat in libidinem . drunkenness is the gallery that leads to letchery , vina parant animos venere , saith another . when men are heated with strong drink they are like to hot iron , the devil which is the smith with his hammer of temptation , may forge them into any shape ; they are then like wax softened , they will take any impression , they are then like paper , you may write what you will upon it , or make what blot you please , and the devil is apt to write his own name upon them , and to draw a conveyance to pass over their souls to him , jer. . , , . when i had fed them to the full they then committed adultery , and assembled themselves by heaps into harlots houses . they were as fed horses in the morning , every one neighing after his neighbours wife . shall not i visit for these things , saith the lord , and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this . that heat which is got in the tavern is oft cool'd in the brothel-house ; the blood heated by bacchus is cool'd by venus : chastity seldom sleeps in a drunkards bed , neither doth virtue lodg with so foul a swine . venus as 't is fabled was ingendred of the froth of the sea , and venery is produced by the fumes of strong drink . the devils office is not to quench fire but kindle it , he kindles the fire of lust by the fire of drunkenness , and the fire of hell with both ; experience proves this point , for since drunkenness came so much in fashion , adultery is not ashamed to shew its head ; when the one was driven into corners , the other was ashamed to be seen , but now men hang out rotten fruit in the sight of the sun , and declare their sin as sodom and hide it not ; men are not ashamed to be seen reeling in the street , vomiting in the market-place , or place of judicature , and with zimri to bring their whores to the tent door before the people , or with absolom spread a tent on the top of the house that all may take notice of it , but what will they do in the end thereof ? now they assemble themselves by troops in the harlots houses , but it will be bitter in the latter end . wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived : those that heretofore were ashamed to be seen in an alehouse , much more in a whore-house , now make it their glory ; they glory in their shame , and are ashamed of their glory ; that river of wickedness which at at first was fordable now overfloweth the banks , and knows no bottom . jer. . . were they ashamed when they had committed abomination , nay they were not at all ashamed , neither could they blush , therefore they shall fall among them that fall , &c. when sin creeps into corners there is some hopes it will not be charged upon the nation , but when it becomes brazen-faced , and braves authority it self , and sends chalenges to heaven 't is ripe for judgment : a beautiful harlot is one of the devils lime-twigs to catch fools , which he layes with great success , which brings much grist to his mill , and much advantage to his trade ; she like the cackatrice kills with her looks , but those that are deluded by her , shall one day wish they had been blind before they had seen her ; i cannot accuse all drunkards of whoredom , but of all men and women i should the most suspect them , for those that have thrown off the reins of reason , i know not what should rule them , those that break the cords of gods law i know not with what they should be tied , those that are false to god i know not what should make them true to a yoakfellow , those that fear not to blaspheme his name , abuse his creatures , undo their families , their wives and children , venture upon the wrath of god , the loss of the soul , the loss of heaven , and the pains of hell , and all for a little swinish pleasure in drink what should hinder them from adultery ? if they imagin it will bring them as much or more pleasure than it , what should keep them in awe ? not the law of god , not conscience of sin , not fear of hell , or hopes of heaven , for all these could not hold them before . solomon tells us , wine is a mocker , strong drink is raging , and he that is overtaken with it is not wise . prov. . . whordom , wine , and new wine take away the heart , hos . . . for a whore is a deep ditch , and a strange woman is a narrow pit : she also lieth in wait as for a prey , and increaseth the transgressors among men , prov. . , . but there are some that affect the name of roaring boys , which without gods mercy will retain the name for ever . if god hath preserved you from this filthy vice , this soul-damning sin of adultery , bless god for it leads to the chambers of death , prov. . . the harlots house is the way to hell , going down to the chambers of death , cor. . , . and if you would be preserved from this sin , which will lead you as an ox to the slaughter , and as a fool to the correction of the stocks , prov , . , take heed of this sin of drunkenness , which is the readiest road to it , fly from it as from the face of a serpent . consid . . this filthy nasty sin of drunkenness destroys the estate , ruins the family , beggars the posterity , and exposes them to want and poverty , and should you invent a way to ruin your self , and family , you can scarcely pitch upon any surer and more certain way than this is : scripture reason and daily experience prove this so evidently and fully , that it cannot be denied , he that loveth pleasure shail be a poor man , and he that loveth wine and oyl shall not be rich , prov. . , . be not amongst wine-bibbers , amongst riotous eaters of flesh , for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty , and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags , and the experience of all ages , of all nations , of all cities , towns , countries , and villages , are undeniable arguments to prove this , and save me a labour to speak much of it , few but can evidence this truth by experience : how many ancient families in our times and in our neighbourhood , have by drunkenness been everted and overthrown ? nay , where do you see one that is much addicted to this vice , but there is a sensible decay in his estate ? perhaps there may be some that have large revenues coming in , left them by their predecessors , whose estates are not quickly perceived to moulder away , but doubtless there is a worm eating at the root of this goard , that in time will make it wither ; god will blow upon it , and a secret curse of god will dry up this their euphrates ; many have turned houses , livings , lordships , down their throats , and many of the great ones that have thousands per annum , cannot keep both ends together , and no wonder when gods laws are violated , that nothing they do prospers : there are many men ( as one saith ) drink god out of their hearts , health out of their bodies , wit out of their heads , and money out of their purses , the ale out of the barrels , wives and children out of doors , the land out of quiet , and plenty out of the nation , and when all is done they have nothing to shew for it but some buttery door buttons , a red firey measled pimpled nose and face , a diseased , dropsical , gouty , deformed body , and a leprous soul , and do procure such an insatiable thirst that can never be satisfied , the more they drink the more they may , as solomon saith , he that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver ; so he that loves strong drink will never think he hath enough , they drink not only the poors part , for which they shall be called e're long to a strict account , they being gods stewards , to give them their meat in due season , mat. . , &c. but these gormundizing wretches devour also their childrens portion , even that which was left them by their predecessors , expose them to want and beggery , how many poor children had been better if they had never seen such parents ? how many wives and children lie weeping and wailing , and wringing their hands at home , not having bread to eat , or cloathing to put on , when their prodigal husbands , or fathers are merry enough amidst their cups , and queans , devouring that which should sustain them , but these will prove bitterness in the latter end , and god will make them vomit up those sweet morsels they so greedily swallowed ; see the doom of such offenders , matth. . , &c. many a poor labourer that hath but from hand to mouth , and with his work can scarcely maintain his children with bread , yet is so addicted to this bewitching vice , or so won upon by cursed company , that oft-times he spends in a day what should maintain his family a week , and so expose them either to begging , stealing , or starving , and many spend that in youth , should maintain them when they are old , sell their estates , ruin themselves , and if the parish make not provision , either beg or steal , and oft end their dayes in prison or on the gallows . there are many that fear poverty more than hell , and think that the greatest argument against drunkenness , which yet is to be feared , are like to have the one in earnest of the other , for neither poverty , nor hell can make them leave this beastly sin ; god will give such something in hand , and the devil will pay them the rest of their wages , and those that keep such men company get a blot to their own souls , prov. . . noah got nothing amongst the luxurious old world , nor lot , in intemperat sodom . the prodigal spent his substance with riotous living , luk. . . and there are many prodigals in our age , there are many that like livius are their own executors , and may boast as they did that left their heirs nothing praeter coelum & coenum , the air to breath in , and the ground to tread upon . some drink the cloth off their backs , the money out of their purses , the beds whereon they lie , and the houses wherein they live . oh the bottomless gulf of a devouring throat ! which like the horseleech cries give , give , and can never be satisfied , or like hell that never saith it is enough ; these men fall oft-times from luxury to beggery , from beggery to thievery , and from thence to the halter ; from the tavern to tyburn , from the alehouse to the gallows : i need not give you examples of this kind , every place is full , yea too full , you cannot open your eyes but you must see them , and in them foresee what is like to be your condition , if you follow such courses ; like sins will bring like judgments . now therefore if you would avoid this certain mischief which unavoidably will follow this wicked vice , the ruin of your estate , the undoing of your wife and little children , exposing them to those miseries that want and beggery are attended with , if you would not undo your self , and your posterity , and bury your family in the ashes of ignominy : if you would keep your your self out of debt and danger , out of prisons and fetters ; if you would not procure the wrath of god , and force him to cut you off by some untimely death , or the curses of a ruined family ; if you would not procure the grief of your friends , and the scorn of your enemies , leave off these courses betime , and break off your sinful society , which are the cords of vanity with which the devil draws you on in his service , and by custom they will be cart-ropes to ty you faster to him , and lead you after him to hell it self . consid . . drunkenness unfits a man for any calling , place , or office in church or commonwealth , for any imployment , vocation , or business whatsoever , for any duty either to god or man , either to our general or particular calling , and consequently it renders a man an useless , unserviceable , unprofitable burthen of the earth , and like salt that hath lost its savour , thenceforth good for nothing but to be trodden under foot , or to be cast off ; or like a rotten member to be cut off and not cherished , lest it infect the other also . the ancient romans commanded such should be banished , lest by their ill example they should infect those that were sound : such as these have a plague-sore running upon them , and are not fit for human society ; they are leperous persons and ought not to come into the camp amongst the clean . whatever calling , whatever place , whatever office they are in ; they are still bringing dishonour to god , and grist to the devils mill , when they are put into the magistracy they do abundance of mischief . prov. . . when the righteous are in authority the people rejoyce , but when the wicked bear rule the people mourn , these men make sad the hearts of those whom the lord would not have made sad , and strengthen the hands of the wicked : for how can they execute judgment and justice when they themselves are void of reason , or how can they punish offenders , when they themselves are chief in the transgression ? or , how can they take gods part when they themselves are his sworn enemies ? or hinder the devils work which they design to promote ? prov. . . it is not for kings o lemuel to drink wine , nor princes strong drink , lest they drink and forget the law , and pervert the judgment of the afflicted . many crack their brains with drinking , as swine do their bellies , and are thenceforth good for nothing . but men are but so much the worse , by how much the better they should be : it was said of bonosus the emperour , that he was born , non ut vivat sed ut bibat , not to live but to drink , and when he was overcome in drinking by probus , he hanged himself , and it was said of him , there hangs a tankard , not a man. eph. . , be not drunk with wine wherein is excess , but be ye filled with the spirit , intimating all excessive drinking is downright drunkenness ; those that rule according to law , should live according to law , otherwise they throw down with the one hand what they build with the other , and do more hurt by their example than they do good by their office : did you ever see a swearer , drunkard , or debaucht fellow , stockt , whipt , or punished by a drunken magistrate ? if the devil can get such into office , he need not fear but his work will be done : and as he is unfit for the magistracy , so for the ministry , and much more unfit ; if he be not a fit guide for the body , much less for the soul , they stray themselves and therefore are unfit to be others guides . isa . . . they have erred through wine , and through strong drink are gone out of the way , the priests and the prophets have erred through strong drink , they are swallowed up of wine . hos . . . whoredom , wine , and new wine take away the heart . one lust calls upon another , as one souldier doth upon another in fighting , or as those did , king. . . now therefore moab to the spoil . solomon joineth giving the heart to wine , and giving it to folly both together , eccles . . . and commonly those that serve one of these masters , serve the other also ; and this is thought by some to be the beginning of solomons apostacy . drunkenness in a minister , is no less unseemly than in a magistrate , and 't is severely forbidden in both ; god absolutely forbids any priest to drink wine , or strong drink in their approaches , and addresses unto him , lev. . . ezek. . . there are none more affected than such as those that will be drunk with them for company , if they will , saith god , prophesy of wine and strong drink these shall be the prophets for them , mic. . . yea god complains of such , isa . . . come say they , we will fetch wine , and we will fill our selves with strong drink , and to morrow shall be as this day , and much more abundant . esa . . . but a wo is pronounced against such , isa . . . wo unto the crown of pride , to the drunkards of ephraim , and christ gives his disciples a caution , and doubtless not without need , and if they needed who doth not ? luke . . take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeting and drunkenness , and the cares of this world , and that day come upon you at unawares . the best of us have corruptions within , which if watered with temptations without , will produce this as well as other sins . tit. . . a bishop must be blameless , the steward of god , not selfwilled , not soon angry , not given to wine , &c. and indeed how is that man fit to rule the church that cannot rule his own family , nay his own appetite ? or can he be a guide , that goes himself so far out of the way ? or how can any man void of reason rule his children , servants , or any under his charge , when he is made a beast and drink rules him ? nay , what calling is that man fit for in this condition ? for in every calling there is some labour or some care , or some thing or other requisit , which a drunken man is unfit for . now if the devil can get such as these in office , especially in the magistracy or ministry , ( and he will do it if his own wit , or his instruments interest can do it ) what a deal of service do they do him ? court fashions spread themselves over the countrey ; what an influence had the kings of israel and judah over the people , as they were wicked , or as they were good , so reformation , or deformation was promoted : when rulers themselves are wicked they are a shelter to impiety , and terror to good works : yea , what duty either to god or man , is a drunkard fit for ? what can he do ? can he pray ? alas he cannot speak ! or at least speak sence or reason , and suppose he could , how loathsom do you think such a prayer would be to god , that is performed , that is accompanied with belching and vomiting ? what will he pray for ? for the pardon of that sin he never intends to leave , and for those graces he never intends to act or exercise , or can he hear , or read , or meditate ? alas his condition suffers it not ! his heart is made sick with bottles of wine , hos . . . the like we may say of any duty , or office to god or man , or any imployment for his own good , and the good of others ; therefore i may well say of him , he is an unuseful and unprofitable creature , good for nothing but to do just like pharaohs lean kine , that eat up the fat ones ; they devour what should keep others ; if therefore now you would not be disabled , for any business , for your self or others , for any calling or business , for any imployment in the commonwealth ; nay , for any duty to god or man , in your general or particular calling , if you would not be rendered useless , worthless , and unprofitable , if you would not live meerly like a drone , good for nothing but to devour , to fill and empty , if you would not live undesired , and die unlamented , take heed of this swinish sin which will certainly thus render you useless . consid . . as drunkenness unfits a man to live , so it unfits a man to die , and wo to that man that is neither fit to live nor to die , and yet oft-times it hastens his death , and puts a period to his life ; and unhappy is that man whom the world is weary of ; and heaven disclames . what is said of the bloody and deceitful men , may well be said of the drunkard , he doth not live out half his days . many of our gallants , or roaring-boys , ( as they stile themselves ) are cut off in the flower of their age , in the prime of their youth , while their bones are full of marrow , and when they end their roaring on earth , it is to be feared they sing the second part in hell : many by drinking other mens healths lose their own , yea oft-times life and all ; a hellish custom hatched there , invented by the devil as a shooinghorn to drunkenness , and excess , and as some of the fathers write , a custom derived from the pagans and infidels to us , and was in use amongst them , and was a drink-offering sacrificed on their knees to their dunghil-deities , to the devil himself , as part of that service , homage , worship , devotion , fealty they paid to him : and the devils seem unwilling that this ceremony should be left off , or any circumstance thereunto belonging , it must be upon their knees , and sometimes attended with the breaking of the glasses , burning of their hats , coats , or other garments , &c. what prodigious madness , hellish folly is this ? and to make the sacrifice compleat , it must be powdered or salted with horrid blasphemies , damnings , and rammings , as if they had been in hell to learn the the exact language of the devil and the damned ; and t is to be feared , that many drink healths of damnation here , that they shall be pledging in hell to all eternity : for god is more dishonoured , the creatures more abused , and devoured , the devil more obeyed , served , and adored by this , than almost any other sin. their healths are oft-times made to great men , whom they adore , making gods of them , and beasts of themselves ; and hence many times grow quarrels , strifes , debates , fightings , stabbings , and death it self : yea , i suppose there are more drunken quarrels occasioned by their healths than by any other thing whatsoever , ( whores excepted : ) sometimes they chalenge the field , sometimes they give each other the lye , and the stab , and oft-times comes to bloodshed ; for when the drink is in the wit is out , and the greatest friends in a moment prove the greatest enemies , and those that even now professed the greatest amity , suddenly shew the greatest enmity , and sheath their swords in each others bowels , as we read , alexander in his drink killed his dear friend clit us , only for disallowing his profuse healths , and had he been suffered would afterwards have killed himself ; and it was not long before he and thirty five more of his consorts killed themselves by immoderate drinking at one time , and forty of his companions at another . but we need not look far for examples , our own age , our own nation , our own neighbourhood yields us too many : how many of our gallants , and youthful gentlemen , within a few years , and a few miles have caught their death by their excessive drinking , and died of surfeits : almost every parish , town , and hamlet , may afford examples of some that have come to an untimely end this way , either in their drink killing one another , and so come to the gallows , or breaking their necks , drowning , burning , scalding , and some such accident , or by surfets , feavors , gouts , dropsies , or some dangerous uncurable disease gotten this way , which puts a period to their lives , and drinking : or that by this means run into misery , danger , debt , poverty , and dye on a dunghil , in a barn , &c. for want of sustenance ; or end their days in prison : these and such like are the fruits and effects of this filthy sin ; this sin is as one calls it , a flattering devil , a sweet poison , the bane of virtue , the mother of vice , voluntary madness , the author of quarrels , contentions , strife , and debate . the drunkard's heart is a fit receptacle for all vice , for as frogs live and thrive in a filthy lake , a stinking ditch where no fish can abide , so vices are nourished here , but no virtue can live but is poisoned . when the old world could not overcome noah , this filthy sin did ; this sets it self against the law of god , of grace , of nature , and of nations , 't is the grief of friends , the scorn of enemies , the ruin of families ; it opens hell , and shuts heaven gates against us . the soul where this filthy pestiferous weed grows , is like that which was sowed with salt , it became baren to every thing that was good . the graces of the spirit of god cannot abide to dwell in such a nasty house , or to lodg with such a filthy bedfellow , for as smoke drives away bees , so drunkenness drives away the spirit of god , all holy desires , and good resolutions , and quencheth all holy motions , and is as water to the fire , extinguishing all hopeful beginnings , 't is like the mare mortuum wherein no good fish can live ; and therefore if you would not be accessary to your own death , both of body and soul , if you will not run the hazard of a sudden or violent , or untimely death , or fil your bodies with surfets , feavors , gouts , dropsies , &c. by intemperance ; take heed in time of this filthy sin for these are the natural products of it , and god doth usually witness against it by such judgments as these . consid . . consider the horrible judgments which god the righteous judg hath brought upon offenders in this kind . in the time of the law as we may see , deut. . , , . god commanded , if a father had a son that was a glutton or a drunkard , and upon reproof and correction would not amend , the father of that son should bring him out to the elders of the city , and they should stone him : now if magistrates are negligent of their duty , and will not punish this sin according to its , demerits and if the ecclesiastical courts take little notice of it , then god is forced to take the sword in his own hand , and cut off the putrified member , and though he be slow , yet many times he strikes home , nay he doth not spare his own people , yet he lets them blood as a physician , not as an executioner . as for the other , though he reserves many till the general assizes , to have their doom , yet some he hangs up in chains , that others may hear , and fear , and do no more so wickedly . noah though a good man , and escaping the pollutions of the old world , was after tainted with this sin ; god suffered him to uncover his nakedness , and to be a laughingstock to his own son , who by this means entailed the curse to him and his posterity , and the generation then to come had cause to bewail the act . righteous lot , whose righteous soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked sodomites , fell through this sin to that of incest , for this seldom goes alone , and became the father of the moabites and ammonites , two cursed generations , haters of god and his people , which had he lived to see would have been a further trouble to him . my intention is not in reciting these examples , to rank them amongst drunkards , or confer that odious name upon them ; for 't is not our bare simple act deserves , or can fasten such an imputation upon them ; a godly man by the subtilty of satan's temptations , and the prevalency of corruptions , or inadvertency , not knowing the nature of wine ( as it may be imagined of noah , if not of the other ) may fall in the sin , but there is difference between a sheep falling in a foul way , which riseth again , shakes himself , and takes better heed , and a swine that wittingly , willingly and delightfully wallows in the mire : a godly man through imprudence , or want of heed may have a fall , and lose some degrees of innocency which is great cause of shame and sorrow , but those that make it their trade and daily practice , best deserve the name . but gods dealing with others is more severe , elah the king of israel drinking himself drunk in his steward's house , was killed by zimri his own servant , a sad death , especially at such a time when he was most unfit to dye ; the like had befallen nabal in his drunkenness , had not wise abigail prevented it , and when he heard the danger he was in , his heart became as a stone within him , and he died , sam. . , &c. amnon one of holy davids ungracious sons , who before had ravished his sister tamar , and when his heart was merry with wine , was slain by the command of his brother absalon , sam. . . benhadad and the thirty two kings that were with him being all drunk , a sad example to their servants , had his mighty army defeated by a handful of ahabs men , and hardly escaped with his life . belshazzer carousing wine with his wives and concubines in the vessels of the temple , had the hand-writing sent by god upon the wall , which foretold his ruin and destruction , which suddenly fell out accordingly . holofernes in his drink was killed by judeth , and should we examine the records of all ages , you may find god's terrible hand stretched out against men of this profession ; some have grown so audacious as to drink healths to the devil himself , such a beast , or rather monster was pope john the twelfth , or as some reckon the thirteenth . a lincolnshire man drinking a health to the devil fell down dead in the place ; three more in germany for the like offence were all found dead the next morning . in almain in the year , one drinking a health to god , stretching his hand towards heaven , with a cup of wine , was dead in that posture , neither by strength could be removed , the other by the people was hanged on gibbets before the door . i have heard also of some struck suddenly dead in the very act , some drowned , some scalded to death , some choaked with the drink , some broke their necks , some lying in the way were slain by carts , some in their drink murthered their parents , many that have caught surfets and died upon them , he that would read more examples of this nature , may find them in beard 's theatre of gods judgments , and in mr. clearks treatise upon the same subject , but the experience of our own times may spare us that labour ; for who is so great a stranger in the neighbourhood he lives in , but may add examples of this nature ? how oft do we hear and see men struck dead in the very act , or suddenly after with surfeits , or otherwise were it but convenient , the time , the place , the persons names might be produced ; and no man of discretion that takes any notice of gods dealings in the world , but may add some experience which shews gods hatred of this detestable vice , for i think he hath not more eminently appeared against any sin except it be against atheism , blasphemy , adultery , or persecution of the power of godliness , than against this ; if therefore you would not be guilty of your own death , and become the object of gods infinite hatred , and dreadful judgments : if you would not run violently upon your own destruction , and force god to cut you off as an unprofitable unuseful member , beware of this sin , for doubtless 't is the ready way to temporal and eternal death ; and if death arrest you by such a sergeant as this , your case is lamentable . consid . . but the greatest danger is yet behind , and that is the loss of the soul , which is ten thousand times greater than the loss of life , skin for skin , and all that a man hath will he give for his life ; yet the soul is in more danger than it , and where this sin is predominant , 't is a sad sign of an ungracious heart , and that the wrath of god hangs over their heads , god pronounceth wo to such , and who then can speak peace , wo to the crown of pride the drunkards of ephraim : wo to those that rise early to drink strong drink , and continue till night , till wine enflame them . wo to those that are mighty to drink wine , and men of strength to mingle strong drink . wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink , and putteth the bottle to him , and maketh him drunk . doth god speak in earnest or in jest ? or can he , or will he make good his threatnings ? if so , what a woful condition are drunkards in ? 't is for this sin that hell hath enlarged her self , and opened her mouth without measure , isa . . . these are the men whose end is destruction , whose god is their belly , whose glory is their shame , who mind earthly things , phil. . . they sacrifice to nothing else but the creature , thus saith the lord to such , drink and be drunken , and spew , and fall and never rise again , this is spoken to those that make it their business to drink , and make others drunk also , jer. . . these are plying the devils work , and he is preparing them their wages , which he will pay them at the day . those that now so profusely spend and wast gods good creatures given by him for an higher end , the time is coming , and will not be long , if repentance prevent not , they will not be able to purchase one drop of water to cool their tongues : remember this all ye that forget god lest he tear you in pieces when there is none to deliver . without repentance hell will be your portion , and the place of your habitation , and endless , easeless , and remediless torments are the wages which the devil pays to his miserable servants , for their most faithful service : see the doom of your elder brother , matth. . . &c. that neglecting the duty god required at his hands , to give his fellow-servants meat in due season , and doing the work the devil enjoyned him , in beating them , and eating and drinking with the drunkards , he was cut in sunder , and his portion appointed him with hypocrites ; and that unfaithful unprofitable servant , that hid his talent in the earth was cast out into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth , matth. . . and if only those shall have the sentence of absolution at the last day , that have fed the hungry , clothed the naked , relieved the stranger , &c. mat. . , &c. what will become of you that spend the poor's part , yea and pluck the very meat from the mouths of your wives and children , and make many others want meat by your extravagancies : you know not but some may this day be in hell , tormented in those flames , for those very sins which you occasioned them to commit and no doubt many more will be , which may be a sad reflexion upon your own heart . if god should give you repentance , this may be a corasive to you , you help to destroy men , but cannot give repentance ; but if you repent not , the blood of their souls will be required at your hand ; and did you know the price of this blood you would beware . the time is coming a separation will be made between the precious and the vile ; and though the wheat and the tares grow together , ere long they shall be separated ; the wheat shall be gathered into barns , but the tares shall be bundled up ; swearers with swearers and drunkards with drunkards , and burnt with unquenchable fire . drunkenness is compared by some to chain-shot , it sends men to hell by clusters ; some other sins to single bullets , that kills but one at once . there are many that have knowledge enough in other things , and yet know not the way to heaven ; they can search natures garden from end to end , but cannot search their own hearts : they are well skill'd abroad , strangers at home . they are like the lamiae , a sort of witches that were blind at home , quick-sighted abroad . they are skilled in all courts but the court of conscience , but let them have never so much knowledge , they are really fools , to sell their souls to satan for so low a value as a belly-full of ale. they are worse than esau , that sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage ; or a king i have read of , that lost his kingdom for a draught of water . can we imagine those are christians , that cannot deny themselves in a cup of drink , when they have enough before . the first lesson in christs school is self-denial , and if we deny not , forsake not father , mother , wife , and children , yea hate all and our own lives , we cannot be his disciple . can those men lay down their lives for christ , that cannot deny their sensual appetite ? was it ever known that a debaucht drunkard ever suffered for him ? as drink increaseth their thirst , and the more they drink the more they may ; so drunkenness increaseth hell-fire like oyl , which will never be quenched . the wages of sin is death , but the gift of god is eternal life ; rom. . . nay god tells us as plain as he can speak , that a drunkard shall not go to heaven , cor. . , . know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god ; be not deceived , neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor effeminate , nor abusers of themselves with mankind , nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards ; nor revilers , nor extortioners , shall inherit the kingdom of god. gal. . , , . now the works of the flesh are manifest , which are these , adultery , fornication , vncleanness , lasciviousness , idolatry , witchcraft , hatred , variance , emulation , wrath , strife , sedition , heresie , envying , murther , drunkenness , revilings , and such like ; of the which i tell you before , as i have also told you in times past , that they which do such things , shall not inherit the kingdom of god. and i fear that most drunkards are guilty of many of these : what now can you say for your selves , why this is not your portion ? do you think god is not just , will he speak one thing and do another ; or is he not able to do as he saith ; and that you shall go to heaven notwithstanding ? see what god saith to such , deut. . , &c. he that heareth the words of this curse , and blesseth himself in his heart , saying , i shall have peace though i walk in the stubborness of my heart , adding drunkenness to thirst , the anger of the lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man ; and all the curses that are written in this book shall lite upon him ; and god shall blot out his name from under heaven . however great offenders in this life may escape temporal judgments , yet spiritual judgments , which are far more dangerous , seize upon them ; blindness of mind , hardness of heart , searedness of conscience , a reprobate sense , strong delusions , &c. and eternal judgments dog them at the heels ; the devil that now sets them on work , takes notice of their work , that he may not be behind with them with their wages : but what this wages is , the tongue of men nor angels cannot fully describe ; for though the torments themselves are exquisite , yet the duration is an aggravation : though the pain of loss be inexpressible , and the pain of sense be insupportable , yet eternity is unimaginable ; and though the pain of sense be ten thousand times beyond our conceiving , yet the perpetuity of it will be the greatest torment ; and the word never will be a hell in the midst of hell. if the drunkard were to suffer but a thousand years in hell , for every cup of drink he hath drunk above measure ( and this would be dear-bought pleasure ) yet were there hopes an end would come : ah! but what is this to eternity ? oh eternity , eternity , how shall we conceive of thee , how shall we number thee ? if this be the drunkards portion , we may well say as the holy ghost doth , woe to them . job . . . if i be wicked woe to me . if the aking of the head , saith one , came before the drinking of the wine , which usually follows it , there would be few drunkards . but i think we may well say , if but one hour the pains of hell were felt by them , it would make them sober all their life . if now you would not lose the use of reason , and be transformed into a beast , if you would not bring upon your body deformities without , and infirmities within , if you would not bring reproaches upon your self , and bury your good name in obloquy , if you would not debauch your soul and incline it to all manner of wickedness ; if you would be preserved from that filthy sin of adultery , to which this inclines you ; if you would not waste your estate , ruin your family , undo your wife and children , and bring them to beggery ; if you would not unfit your self for any calling and employment , or any duty to god or man ; if you would not by intemperance hasten your own death , and set a period to your life ; if you would not bring the horrible judgments of god upon you , and force him to cut you off in the midst of your days ; and if you would not lose your soul , and suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ; take heed of this filthy , beastly sin of drunkenness , which carries all those evils and many more in the belly of it . thus you see what charge i have drawn up against this sin of drunkenness , and much more may be said ; for 't is a fearful mother , and most sins are bred in the womb of it , or fed or fostered by it ; for in sin almost nothing can be named but drunkenness doth patronize it , and excites men to the practice of it : i do not hereby intend or mean that all that are addicted to it , are guilty of all other villany ; some perhaps never blasphemed or murthered , yet this in others is the cause of blasphemy and murther ; neither do i mean that all that ever were overtaken with drink , that they are thus to be tearmed : a godly man may have his slips , though this is rare ; but there is a difference between a sheep and a swine , as i said ; the one falls into the mire unwillingly , the other wallows in it ; so here some are surprized unawares as 't is conceived noah was . these by repentance wash away their spot , and others seek occasions , and are not well till they find them . and now though i have done with drunkenness in the general , yet have i not done with you in particular , for i conceive your sin admits of many aggravations , which some other mens sins do not ; and that is worse in you then in them : some of those i shall draw up against you , that if possible i may shame you out of it ; for though this sin by some is compared to hell ; few fall into it that recover ; and by some to the gout incurable ; yet i having known some have recovered , i am not out of hope . the aggravations are these : aggra . . consider your education , which was civil , nay , not only civil but religious , you are extracted from those that were ancicient professors , trained up in family duties , prayer and praise ; the word of god was read in the family , and many a prayer put up with you and for you , you were dedicated to god in your baptismal vow , which since you owned and were listed into his company ; and shall all this be lost upon you : it had been better then for you that you had had turks or pagans for your parents . many an exhortation and loving admonition you have had ; the danger of sinful courses you have been told ; you have had examples and presidents of a holy life before you , and some of the contrary , and you have seen the difference : the family you live in , hath been a house of prayer ; and will you now make it a cage of unclean birds ? you have been warn'd of the devils temptations , and the worlds allurements ; you have seen the difference between those that have resisted them , and those that yielded to them . consider in whether of their cases you would rather be when death calls you ; and whether a day spen in prayer , or a day spent in an ale-house , wil then bring most comfort ; you have lived under the powerful means of grace all your days , and heard thousands of sermons , besides other ordinances , and are all those lost : remember what christ saith of chorazin and bethsaida , and capernaum ; it shall be more tollerable for tire and sidon , or sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment , than for them . a fruitless tree in the vineyard , is more in danger than if it grew in the desert : others may say i never knew the danger of such a course , my parents rather incouraged me then otherwise ; but what can you say , or what excuse can you make . aggra . . the many convictions which you had upon your spirit , will witness against you that yours is not a sin of ignorance , but against knowledge and conscience , and those sins as they make the greatest gashes in the soul , so they will make the greatest noise in the conscience ; those that sin ignorantly are to be pittied , but those that sin wilfully deserve to be punished : he that know not his masters will , and doth things worthy of stripes , shall be beaten with few stripes ; but he that knows his masters will and doth it not , shall be beaten with many . some ignorant souls may perswade themselves that drinking and swilling is the chiefest happiness , but i dare appeal to your consciences in cool blood , whether you do not know to the contrary ; you have been better instructed , and and doubtless have felt a better rellish in something else ; god hath sent you into his vineyard to work , and will you leave your work before the evening , when the time of receiving your wages comes ; you have been planted in the vineyard , hedg'd about with gods providence , watered with the dew of heaven , and he hath expected fruit year by year , and will you still be barren , or worse than barren ; will you bring forth wild grapes , grapes of sodom , whose clusters are bitter ; what could he have done for his vineyard that he hath not done for us ? well ere long he will pluck up his hedg , and take away his fence ; he will lay by his basket and take up his axe ; he will bid cut him down , why cumbreth he the ground . lucifers punishment shall be greater , because he was an angel ; and julians , because he was a christian ; and judas , because he was a disciple ; and capernaum , corazin , and bethsaida , because they enjoyed the means which others wanted . if you have knowledge in the head and not grace in the heart , you will carry your own mittimus to prison with you ; or like vriah , letters to cut your own throat : you sin with a candle in your hand , when others ignorance may excuse them , a tanto , though not a toto : your knowledge will encrease your guilt and heighten your torments . aggra . . nay , you your self have made a profession of religion and owned your baptismal vow ; you have held out a lamp in your hand , but 't is to be feared have no oyl in your vessel , the want of which now makes your lamp shine so dim , and you to walk in darkness ; you performed many duties , and put up many prayers , and made many promises to god and man of your reformation . oh let it not be to tell the world how far a hipocrite may go and fall short of heaven ; and let them know , whatever you said you meant nothing less : with what face can you ever call god father , or ever beg for mercy at his hands , thus to use him ; or beg power against sin , when you mind nothing less than a reformation . are you inded willing to lose all the pains that ere you have taken in heavens way , now you have born the burthen and heat of the day , and for ought you know , the time of your receiving reward is at hand . many a day and many an hour you have spent in prayer , humiliation , hearing , reading , christian conference , meditation and such like duties ; and will you now out-run and lose them all : shall all your petitions be lost , as foolish boys lose their arrows , shoot them , and then mind them no more : if a righteous man turn from his righteousness , he shall die in his sin ; ezek. . . all his righteousness , shall not be remembred . is the way of holiness too severe , or will heaven be had upon easier terms ; or were the godly from the beginning of the world all deceived , which took holiness to be the only way to happiness ; and is there a nearer way found out than they dreamed of ; and was christ himself deceived that told us the way was narrow , and the gate strait that led to life , and few there be that find it ; or was the holy ghost mistaken when he said , drunkards , whoremasters , swearers , &c. should never enter heaven : or can you imagine you may dance with the devil all day , and sup with christ at night ; or do the devils work and receive christs wages ; or are you willing to take up with the hypocrites a portion ; or do you love your company so well , that you will go to hell for company : you carry your own condemnation with you . if religion be not good , why did you profess it ; if it be , why do you not practice it ? or doth religion teach you such courses ? i know some will be apt to charge religion with it from your practice ; and say , see what your professors are , they will be drunk as well as others ; but the apostle tells us , titus . . that the grace of god , that bringeth salvation , teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . have you found out a better master , better work , and better wages , 't is well ; but praise in the parting . the world hates you because of your profession , and will you make god hate you for your hypocrisie ? would you reconcile god and the world , it will never be ; or would you have your good things both here and hereafter ? you will find the mistake , you must renounce the one or the other ; heaven will not be had in a vicious course of life . aggra . . this course of life in you , that have been a professor of religion , is exceeding injurious both to god and man ; if you never had pretended better , none would have expected better at your hands : but to be wounded in the house of our friend , to have one with whom we took sweet counsel together , and walked to the house of god in company ; he lift up the heel against us : this would trouble a david himself . the former hopes you gave us , the noise you made in the world of more than ordinary sanctity , is an aggravation to your crime : the higher men clime , the greater will be their fall . how doth this make sad the hearts of those that the lord would not make sad , and strengthen the hands of the wicked . if israel play the harlot , saith god , yet let not judah offend ; you did run well , who hindred you , you began well and you end ill ; you began in the spirit , and will you end in the flesh : what a blow will this be to religion , when the chief prop in such a family shall not only break , but like an egyptian reed , run into our hands . what a discouragement is it to an army , when a chief champion not only turns his back , but revolts to the enemy ? what a dishonour is this to god , to leave his service and serve his greatest enemy . how will the enemy in sult , lo ( saith they ) you see what a master they serve , for all their brags , they are soon weary of his service . davids sin caused gods enemies to blaspheme , and for that cause god told him the sword should never depart from his house . how doth this sadden the hearts of the godly , and fill their faces with shame ? how is religion loaded with aspersions , as if there were no real difference between the godly and the wicked ? these , say they are your professors , they 'll take their cups as well as others . poor doubting christians are discouraged , and think they shall never hold out , when such cedars are shaken , and such champions foiled . others are incouraged in their sin , and are apt to say , let them have their fling , they will come bank again to us ere long . what account will you give of this to god at last , what iniquity have you found in him , that you are departed from him ? is there any thing in religion that causeth you to forsake it , or hath god ever given you any cause ? testifie against him , hath he been a barren wilderness to you ? is there more real worth in your pot companions , which have wrought your ruine if god prevent not , both of body and soul ; than is in the communion of saints ? and had you rather be hearing swearing , cursing , and blaspheming than prayers , or praises unto god ? consider the blood of your own soul , and the soul of your children and servants , that are like to be undone by your example ; and of many others that are either hardned in their sins , or discouraged in their duties , will be laid at your door : consider the price of this blood , before you are too lavish of it ; one soul is worth a world , and do not sell it for pots of ale. aggra . . the many covenants , promises , vows , and ingagements , which you have made to god for better obedience , and the many promises and ingagements which you have made to ministers and other christians , and which you have so often broke , are no small aggravation to your sin ; so that you cannot commit this sin at so cheap a rate as some others may : 't is better not to vow , then to vow and not preform . in your baptismal vow , which you have since owned and ratified , you were dedicated up to god , and devoted to his service ; and 't is sacriledge to divert things dedicated up to god to profane uses : you then received press-money , and listed your self into christs company , and promised to fight under his banner ; and that his enemies should be your enemies , and you would maintain war while you lived against sin , the world , and the devil ; and he promised , you so doing , you should have what ever was necessary here , and heaven it self for a reward ; and to this covenant you have often set your other seal in the sacrament , and will you after all these vows and covenants to god , and promises to men , treacherously and perfidiously revolt , change sides , and joyn with the devil , gods sworn enemy ; and that to fight against him , his cause and people , and the power of godliness , which you did profess . what cause hath god given you to do thus ? testifie against him , was he ever worse than his word to you , nay , he was before-ahand with his promise ; he gave you a better portition in the world than thousands of your brethren ; you may eat the fat , and drink the sweet , when others must moil and toil and cark and care , and all little enough to prevent poverty : all that you have is from him ; he gave you limbs , when others are lame ; sight , when others are blind ; health , when others are sick ; liberty , when others are imprisoned ; you have the use of reason . , when others run raging in the streets ; yea , you have your life and breath and all from him , and how dare you then provoke him ; you have not only mercies for this life , but for the life to come offered also ; the means of grace , the tenders of mercy , christ and heaven , and glory ; and for which of all these good things do you hate god , and leave his service ? can the devil or your pot-companions better reward you ? can they defend you from the dreadful judgments of a sin revenging god ; can they secure you under the shadow of their wings ? if not , how dare you provoke this god ? are you stronger than he , if not , why do you take up weapons of defence against him ? was there ever any hardened himself against god and prospered ? god will avenge the quarrel of his covenant ; and where are you then ? do you know what it is to be an enemy unto god , or to have god to be an enemy unto you ; if you did , it might send you trembling to your grave ; if you are his enemy , and his enemy you are while you serve the devil , for his servants you are to whom you obey ; you may expect he should deal with you as with an enemy , and then what evr judgments you have heard , or read of , either threatned against , or executed upon any graceless wretch ; you are not sure but , nay , you may expect that it may be your portion : and how ever , he may suffer you here to fill up the measure of your iniquity , yet he will pay you home , full measure and running over . 't is better for you to have all the men on earth , and all the devils in hell against you than god ; you are but a worm , and if he tread upon you , he leaves you dead behind him ; if he with-hold your breath , you return to the dust , and all your thoughts perish ; there is no strugling out of his hand : wo to him that striveth with his master , let the potsheard strive with the potsheard of the earth , isaiah . . you can get nothing by this contention . aggra . . this carriage and demeaning of yours , how ever it may for a time seem pleasing to your self , is yet offensive to god , father , son , and holy ghost , and 't is the grief of all good men that know it ; to your friends and relations , and all that fear god : that god takes it to heart , you may find by his often complaint of and expostalations with the children of israel in their revolts ; you may find in three parables in luke . of the lost sheep , the lost groat , and the prodigal son. it was he that lost the sheep , and seeks till he finds it , and then receiveth ; he is the father of the prodigal son , and his prodigality was his trouble ; as may easily appear by his rejoycing at his return : yea , christ tells us there is joy in the presence of the angels , when a sinner returneth ; and if there could be sorrow in heaven , sure it would be at their revolting back : the resisting the motions of gods spirit , is called a grieving of , or a quenching of it ; and if each saint have his guardian angel , as some imagine , and it may seem probable ; for they are guarded by the angels : we may imagine they rejoyce when we do well , and as far as they are capable , are troubled at our falls and slips : and what sorrow and sadness , also must this be to your relations , put your self into their condition ; how sad would it be to you , to have a child , the only hope of the family , to ruin himself and his posterity ; to have a young fellow take such extravagant courses , to have a brother or a sister thus debaucht ; what grief is it to a godly minister , that travelled in birth till he thought christ had been formed in you , and then suddenly see all his hopes dasht , all his exhortations , admonitions , reproofs , prayers , &c. lost upon you ; how may it trouble and shame him that ever you were of his society : your christian friends , and those of your society , how may it trouble them , that you are gone from them , and with demas have chosen the world before christ ; to think what will become of you , and of your family , and of your poor soul , when death shall seperate it from your body , and where you will stop that are running down the hill so fast , and whether of a professor you may not as others have done , turn persecutor ; for those that forsake god , no wonder if they forsake their friends also , and those that hate god will hate his image also . i wish this be no more than my own surmise and fears : in a word , there are none that carry the face of honest men , but will be troubled at this your apostacy ; and there are none but the devil and his instruments , your pot-companions and brethren in iniquity , that will rejoyce that you are brought back again into the devils slavery : these are the dalilah's that hugg you in their bosome while they betray you ; these are the syrens , that by their song intend to wrack and ruin you : and if you think this is your only way to happiness , ere long you will find your mistake and your judgment will alter . aggra . . in this course of life you lead , the loss of your precious time which is given you for an higher end , is no small aggravation to your fall ; for though you meet with other considerable losses by this extravagant course of yours , yet no temporal loss is comparable to this : this cannot be redeemed with silver nor gold , jems , nor jewels ; nay if the world were sold to its worth , it could not call back one day that is past ; and yet alass how prodigal are many of their time , as if they knew not how to waste it fast enough ; they drink and play and rail it away ; nay go purposely to drive away time : that did they but know the value of it , would prize it at a higher rate ; but the time is coming you will know the worth of it by the want of it . god hath placed you in his vineyard , given you work to do , and sufficient time to do it in ; if you idle away this time , and your work be undone , what wages do you expect : amongst other talents he hath given you this talent of time ; if either you not use it or abuse it , what can you expect but the doom of the unprofitable servant that hid his talent in the earth . you have a little time in the world to spend , and 't is but a little ; and one of these days they will say of you , he is dead also ; for you see younger and stronger are gone before you , and your turn may be next ; how as you spend this time , so it will fare with you to eternity . this is the harvest of the soul , if you lay not in provision for the winter with the bee , you are like to want with the grasshopper : this is the market day to lay in provision for the following week , and to buy oyl ; if this season be let slip , the door will be shut against you , and we know not how soon this day may be over , which will never dawn again : you have a great deal of work to do , and work of great concernment ; if it be not finished in the time , you are undone ; you are in a race , and your soul is the prize you run for ; and will you either stand still or run back : you are in the field fighting with cruel blood-thirsty enemies , who will make no truce with you but upon more unreasonable terms than nahash the ammonite offered to the men of jabesh gilead , which was to thrust out all their right eyes , and lay it as a reproach on all israel , sam. . . but the devil will make no truce , but the everlasting destruction of soul and body : and will you cast by your armour , and yield to his mercy ; and revolt from him that will warrant you the victory , if you will but keep the field : you are in a journey on life and death , and will you now turn back , or run after butterflies , when the sun grows low and you have far to go ; when you must be sure to tread these weary steps back again , or lose your life : much of your time is already spent , and your work undone , and what you have done you are again plucking down , and making your work every day more and harder . consider you will repent or not repent , if you do not repent you are undone ; for no unrepenting sinner shall come to heaven ; if you do repent it will cost you more pains , dolour , trouble and grief , than ever the pleasure of your sin was worth ; you must vomit up all those sweet morsels which you have swallowed with so much delight . eternity lies before you , and one of these days death will open the door and let you in . what apprehensions then will you have of these courses , when you see an infinite ocean of eternity before you , and all your friends and pleasures departing from you and forsaking you : now what good will your merry company do you , what comfort can they bring , where are now your merry meetings , and your drunken revels ? will the thoughts of them chear up your hearts , those that were your councellors and consorts in your vanity , now will be your companions in your misery . those for whose sakes you lost your soul , your god , your glory , what will they , what can they do for you if you miscarry together : you will curse the time that ever you saw each others faces , and those that now give such big words against god and godliness , will then call upon the mountains to fall upon them , and the hills to cover them : well such a day will come , and we know not whether you have a day to live , or what may be in the womb of the next morning : our saviour christ adviseth to prepare for it ; luke . , . and take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness , and cares of this life , and so that day come upon you unawares ; for as a snare shall it come on all them than dwell on the face of the whole earth . how dare you spend a day in an ale-house , that do not know if you have another to live : but as the poet saith , fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem , rides cum non sit forsitan una dies . many a man would weep and mourn , if he knew he had but a month to live , that now laughs and rejoyceth and hath but a day to live . this time which now you so lavishly spend , neither in your general nor particular calling , must be accounted for ; and what the price will be god only knows : and at death , whether do you think the time spent in humilation , prayer , hearing , reading , meditating , christian conference ; exhorting the careless , instructing the ignorant , comforting the dejected , visiting the sick , relieving the poor ; and generally in acts of piety and charity ; will bring most comfort : or the time spent in drinking and drabbing , in hawking , hunting , carding , diceing , cocking , playing , or such like vanities ? i know not what your thoughts be now , but i know what they will be hereafter ; god hath allowed us no time to spend idly , but all should be spent , either in our general or particular calling ; or that which may enable us thereunto : but there are many that can spare no time from their recreations , either for the one or the other ; but time will be better valued . aggra . . by your accustoming your self to this filthy sin , you are grown more bold and impudent in it ; it hath almost , if not altogether , taken away the conscience of sin : you are almost come to that pass as those that god complained of , jer. . . were they ashamed when they committed abomination ? nay , they were not ashamed , neither could they blush ; therefore they shall fall amongst them that fall , &c. is not this your condition ? nay , do you not rather boast of it ? and indeed this sin is grown very brazen faced in our dayes ; the time was when , they that slept , slept in the night ; and those that were drunk , were drunk in the night . this sin was a work of darkness , and like the owl , was ashamed to be seen by day ; but now it fears no colours , men are not ashamed to be seen reeling in the streets , or vomiting in the market-place , or dead-drunk at noon-day , or swearing in the magistrates presence ; such a height of impiety men are arrived at : but there was some hopes when sin was driven into corners , but there is little when it dares authority and beards the magistrate himself . by often sinning men come to be past feeling ; like a workman's hand , by much labor is hardened . conscience when 't is often check'd and snub'd , at last leaves checking ; and the devil sears it with his hot iron , that it becomes unsensible ; but at last it will speak , and will not hold its peace : the devil at last makes a path-way over the heart , and so all the seed is lost that falls upon this high-way ground ; and men become sermon proof , and ordinance proof : they can sit still and have hell-fire flasht in their faces , and not regard it . what god speaks of the leviathan , job . is true of them , in another sense ; their heart is as firm as a stone , yea as hard as a piece of the neather millstone . the acts of sin increase the habit , and at last it becomes as natural to them to sin as to live ; and they draw in iniquity as they draw in their breath : they commit sin as easily as water runs down the channel . custom breeds a second nature , of such doth god speak , jer. . . can the ethiopian change his skin , or the leopard his spots ; then may ye also do good , which are accustomed to do evil . some vainly promise themselves repentance hereafter , but their deceitful heart puts a cheat upon them ; there is not one of many that send repentance thus before them , that ever overtake it . those that have long accustomed themselves to sin , and those that have long enjoyed the means of grace , and are grown sermon proof ; and those that have made profession of religion , and faln back , 't is a rare thing to see them prove true converts . how much of this concerns you , let your own conscience judge ; i do not say god will not receive such when they do come , but i have not observed many such willing to come . aggra . . by this sinful course of yours , you also disable your self for doing that good in the place which god requires at your hands , and otherwise you might do , either to the souls or bodies of others : for the soul you have a great deal of knowledge , and might have been very instrumental of doing good in your place , either by admonition , exhortation , reproof , counsel , comfort , or such like ; but you have made your self incapable almost of doing any good this way , by your bad example : who will think you are in earnest , when your actions give your tongue the lie ? who will not think you do not believe your own words ? do not you throw down with the one hand what you build with the other ? who can think that you believe there is indeed such a deformity in sin , and such a beauty in holiness , that observes your life and conversation ? how can you say to your brother , let me pluck out the mote out of thy eye , when you have a beam in your own ? will not he quickly say , physician heal thy self : qui alterum incusat probri ipsum se intueri oportet . he is an unfit reprover , that is guilty of the objected crime . and for the body you likewise disable your self for doing that good that god requires , and which otherwise you might do . god hath given you a competent estate , whereby you may be helpful to those that want ; he gave it to this end , to feed the hungry and cloath the naked ; to be ready to do good , willing to distribute , and to be rich in good works . think not that you are the chief proprietor , you are but a steward , and must give an account ; you may not do as you will with what you call your own : but if you dispose of your estate according to the mind of god , he will give you sufficient wages . but by this your extravagant courses and excessive spending , you waste not onely your own part , but gods part also ; which he hath reserved for the poor . all men are his servants , and what they have are but talents lent ; to some five , to some two , and to others one ; and where much is given , much will be required . the great housholder provides meat for all his family , but he keeps stewards under him , to see they shall not want ; and to give them their meat in due season : and you are one of these . if now you beat your fellow servants , and eat and drink with the drunken , your lord will come when you are not aware , and give you your portion with hypocrites ; mat. . , &c. the poor have a right to what you enjoy and can spare , and though they cannot challenge it and take it , yet god will vindicate their cause if it be denied or with-held . how much might you promote religion and gods interest in your neighbourhood , were your life and conversation exemplary ? but now you do more harm than good by your example , and it had been better the countrey had not known you ; and that you had never known your estate , if you thus proceed . aggrav . . the excessive wasting of your estate , is no doubt a great sin in you at any time ; but at this time of scarcity especially , is a very great aggravation . when there is complaining in our streets , and the children cry for bread ; when there is none to break it , and many poor families are ready to perish for want ; and a supply can hardly be found : when corn hath been at such an excessive rate , and shillings the measure . eye the many poor housholders that before made a handsome shift to live , are now forced to beg with their wives and families ; and some 't is believed have perished for want of bread. now at this time , when the hand of god is so evidently stretcht out against us , that you and such as you , if you were unconcerned , should thus waste and devour the good creatures wilfully ; which should keep poor christians ; and one of you swallow down more in one day , than would keep a considerable family with bread a week . will not the lord visit for these things ; and will not his soul be avenged on such a people as this ? the great housholder hath provided bread enough for all his family , but that some of them by gluttony and drunkenness devour what the others should eat . will he not call them to an account at last ? see how he likes of it , isa . . , . in that day did the lord call for weeping and for mourning , and to baldness and girding with sackcloth ; and behold joy and gladness , slaying oxen and killing sheep , &c. and it was revealed in my ear by the lord of hosts , surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die . god also threatens those , that they shall go captives with the first that go , that drink wine in bowles and annoint themselves with chief ointment , and forget the afflictions of joseph , amos . , . and the blood of those which have perished for want of those creatures which you have wilfully wasted , god will lay at your door . in a word , consider your pious education , your former holy conversation , the convictions upon your spirit ; knowing and acknowledging your courses bad : the profession of religion you have made , the incouragements which you gave , the sading of the hearts of the godly , the strengthening the hands of the wicked , the vows and covenants you have made to god , and promises to men ; the grief you bring your friends and relations , the hardning of your heart by custom , the disabling your self to do good to soul or body ; and the wilful wasteing of the creatures in this time of need ; will all rise up in judgment against you . obj. . but it may be you will object and say , you do not drink to drunkenness , you can carry it away well enough ; you stagger not over it , neither do you vomit as others do : and though i fear this excuse cannot always be pleaded , yet if it were taken for granted , 't is but a fig-leaf to cover your nakedness , and will prove too thin and short . a man may drink to excess that can carry it away as you say . we read of benhadad , whom god himself tells us was drinking himself drunk with the thirty two kings that were with him ; and yet could give directions to his souldiers : yea , escaped away on horse-back with his army . the trial of drunkenness which we have amongst many , is not the same with gods : many think that man is not drunk that can crawl out of the carts way , or rise himself out of the fire , or hit fingers with another ; but they are not competent judges in that case , that are themselves so nearly concerned . 't is not only drunkenness that trips up a mans heels , that he cannot go nor stand , but when a man over-affects drink , or spends too much time , or too much money ; or wastes the good creatures needlesly ; that drinks too much for his purse , or too much for his health , or too much for his reason : for a man hath no more reason to drown his time , to drown his estate , or his credit , than he hath to drown his wit ; for all these are talents for which he must be accountable . but suppose you are stronger than others , and can drink more ; is this therefore a warrant so to do ; see whether god seals it or no : isaiah . . wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine , and men of strength to mingle strong drink . must god be dishonoured , the creature abused , because thou hast a stronger brain ; 't is pity mercies should be so abused : but besides this guilt , are you not in the mean time guilty of the drunkenness of others ; have you not forced them to it , that you may laugh at their folly ? see then what the lord saith to you ; hab. . , . wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink , that puttest thy bottle to him , and makest him drunken also ; that thou mayst look on their nakedness : thou art filled with shame for glory : drink thou also , and let thy fore-skin be uncovered : the cup of the lords right hand shall be turned unto thee , and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory . now if you glory in your strength to drink , and this too common ; consider this text , and see what will be the issue : the cup of gods indignation will be such as you cannot bear ; thy own sins are great enough , you need not other mens . obj. . perhaps you will say , we have the examples of many , yea , many great men , and many learned men , and of some good men also , for our imitations : yea , this disease is epidemical and grown common , both in court and country ; and when a fashion is become national , 't is no discredit to wear it ; and 't is true , the more is the pitty : examples of great ones are very prevalent , and if bad infectious ; these are stars of the first magnitude ; and like the primum mobile , carry all before them : and they have oft times a hand in the transgression , and leave an infectious air , that few can escape that comes near them . what a sad example did benhadad and thirty two kings that were with him give to their followers , when they were all drunk : but will this excuse serve our turns before god ; did it excuse poor men before the flood , that great ones did thus or thus ; or in sodom , that the rulers were in the transgression ? should they command sin , they are are not to be obeyed ; because 't is forbidden by a greater authority : how much less when we are left at liberty . great men are not always good men , neither is their example always imitable ; cor. . . not many wise men after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble are called : the greatest number commonly are the worst , and the greatest men not always the best : had nooh followed the examples of the ●●●…at ones of his age , he might have been ●●●…wned for company : it was better be in the 〈◊〉 alone , than in the flood with company . i ●●●…nking and drabbing is too much in fashion in these times , but 't is a bad fashion , and that for which the land mourns ; and god hath a controversie with us ; and threatens to pluck the cup from the drunkards mouth ; hos . . , . and such customes are better broken then kept . the way to hell is most trodden , and most mens custom is to walk in it ; but wo to that man that follows that fashion : we must not follow a multitude to do evil . we are the sinful off-spring of adam , and therefore like him we frame excuses , and seek to lay the fault upon another : i was forc'd , i could not help it ; i must pledg the health : but had we known there had been poyson in the cup , we would have helpt it . harpaste , a woman in seneca , being in the night suddenly struck blind ; she blames the darkness of the house , the sun for not rising , &c. but would not acknowledge her own deficiency . thus 't is with us , any shall be faulted so we be free ; like the man that had a thorn in his foot , yet imputed his halting to the roughness of the way ; no man can live in such an age , but he must do as others do ; but no man should break gods command to please any mans humour . that the sin is grown national , 't is so much the sadder , and presages a national judgment ; as sodoms sins and the sins of the old world did ; and israels before the captivity : when it hid it self in corners there was hopes , but when it dares the magistrate , and sends a challenge to god himself ; the ulcer is desperate , and the member more fit to be cut off than cherished : when rotten fruits hangs out in the sight of the sun , and men declare their sin as sodom and hide it not ; what can we expect but sodoms plagues : but blessed be god there is no force upon us , men may be sober if they will , and many are ; yea many noble and learned : why do you not follow their examples which is worth imitating . i know vicious great men , are like load-stones that draw iron ; that if a chain of iron be near , the loadstone draws the first link , then the second , till the whole chain comes ; so the devil puts such an influence in men , that one draws his neighbour and he a third , till most are corrupted : or rather they are like to jet that draws straws , or light refuse ; but no solid thing : they are like to gun-powder , when one corn is fired it fires the next , and that another , till all be in a flame . the devil is like a cunning angler , he holds out the bait , but hides himself behind the bush : many are fastened with the bait before they see the hand that holds it . the devil doth not thrust a man into an ale-house by the head and shoulders , this might terrifie him ; but he sets good-fellows at the ale house door to call him : and then he apprehends no danger . and for the falls of the godly as they are rare , so they are not recorded for our imitation but caution ; they shew not what we should do , but what we should beware : they are as sea-marks , set up to warn others ; and what mad pilot will rush upon such places , where he knows other ships have there been split . the best men are not always to be imitated ; we must follow paul as he follows after christ ; to the word and to the testimony : this is a sure guid . obj. . but i must do as others do , or i shall be mockt , scorned , and had in derision ; should i refuse their healths , what would they think of me ? answ . this is an unsafe rule to follow : some break their necks , hang themselves ; must we needs follow them for fear of a scorn ; some turn thieves , hackers ; and come to the gallows ; and must we follow them also . if you do as others do , you must fare as others fare , and receive your wages together : if you follow the greatest company , it will be in the worst way ; for most miscarry and go to hell. christ tells us broad is the way that leads to destruction , and many men go that way . who is it that will mock you for keeping the commands of god ? not one that loves god , ior oves your soul , or that carries the face of an honest man ; and those that have neither good word for god , or for any good man , for the word of god , or the image of god ; what matter is it if they have none for you : those that hate god and godliness , and every thing that looks like god ; that love none but those that will damn their own souls with them for company ; what is their love worth ? will you venture for their love to have gods hatred , and to go to hell to bear them company ? were a malefactor going to execution ; and laught at you that you would not bear him company ; would this move you so to do ? by this rule indeed daniel might have escaped the lions den ; and the three children the fiery furnace ; but not the wrath of god. probably god was mockt in the old world , and lot in sodom ; but they could not mock them out of their innocency : 't is better have the devil mock them , than god mock them ; prov. . . take heed of being mockt out of heaven , lest when you come to hell you be laught at for your labour . the seed of the serpent will alwayes oppose the seed of the woman ; and faithful isaac shall meet with a scoffing ishmael ; gods ark and the devils dagon cannot stand together : christ and belial cannot accord : the world will love her own , and cannot abide that christ should pluck one feather from her wing . if you are content to take up with the world , and the world shall pay you your portion , then 't is not best to cross the world ; if not 't is impossible to please it : god willl not allow us to do the devils drudgery for fear of a scorn from his servants . christ gave no dispensatition to break his laws rather than be scorn'd . obj. . but though i do follow these courses for a while , yet i intend hereafter to repent and to reform . why may not i do as the penitent thief did ? and you may ( saith one ) as rationally conclude that the sun shall stand still at your command , because it did so at the command of josuah ; or that the sea should divide to let you pass , because it did so for israel : or that you may spur your ass and make him speak , as balaam did : or that you may take a journey and leave your money behind , in hope to find a purse of money in your way , as some others have done . were not these think you mad conclusions , and truly this is as reasonless . one man in five thousand years was saved by late repentance , therefore i shall be a second , when five thousand men in one year miscarry upon the like account . god doth seldom work such miracles , where the means of grace is afforded ; perhaps it was the first sermon that ever this thief heard , but you have heard thousands : there are indeed many , that like you , send repentance and religion before them to sixty ; but such men seldom ever overtake it . do you really think that god will take up with the blind and the lame , will he give us leave to sacrifice the prime and marrow of our time to the devil , and give him the dregs and the refuse ? will he suffer you to do the devils work all day , and receive his wages at night ? no , no , most men deal by god , as bad debtors do by their creditors , beg more time , and put it off from one week to another , and then break and never pay ? so they break their time with god , but never come to make good their promises . more objections might be answered , but there is none that can stumble a rational unprejudiced man : and i have already far exceeded my intended limits , i shall therefore draw towards a conclusion . thus have i performed a christian , though perhaps an unwelcome duty , in putting you in remembrance of what you knew before ; if you would not lose all your pains for heaven , and all the duties that ever you performed ; and have them all thrown back into your face as dung : if you would not lose gods favour , the benefit of christs merits , your own soul , heaven , and happiness , consider from whence you are fallen and return and do your first works : if you have found out any nearer , easier way to heaven than ever any yet could do ; demonstrate it , and convince us of it ; but before you venture your soul upon it , be sure it ends there : the attempt of any such experiments will prove vain ; for if there be any but the path of holiness that ends in happiness , then call me a false prophet ; or if there be any other way into gods holy hill , than by a pure heart and clean hands , then am i content to be called a deceiver ; but if i be deceived god himself hath deceived me , who tells me , without holiness no one shall see god ; without faith no one can please god ; without repentance we shall all perish ; that no unrighteous person shall enjoy heaven , and no unregenerate man shall ever enter there ; that those that live after the flesh shall die ; that the ungodly shall go into everlasting punishment , but the righteous into life eternal : those that think otherwise will find that god speaks in earnest what they took in jest . the time is comming , that you will find it had been better for you that you had never known the way of life , then having known it to depart from it . if you give up the reins to corruption , it will mislead you , and prove a treacherous guid ; if you decline the way of self-denial , you will miss of heaven ; for none ever come there any other way loose licenciousness and carnal liberty , is diametrically opposite to it ; wicked company if you forsake them not , will be your bane ; and if repentance prevent it not , you will curse the time that ever you saw each others face . what ever society or party a man be , what ever religion or opinion , though in the most reformed church , and in the society of the strictest christians ; yet without the power of godliness , and the practice of holiness , he shall never go to heaven ; for no unclean thing shall ever enter there : no dirty dog shall tread upon that pavement . or what ever his profession , or seeming holiness hath been , yet if he backslide , he shall die in his sins , and his righteousness shall not be remembred : the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways ; prov. . . he that puts his hand to the plow and looks back , he is not fit for the kingdom of heaven ; if any draw back , gods soul shall have no pleasure in them . thus have i made bold , perhaps you may think too bold , to tell you my thoughts of your present condition ; perhaps you may dislike it because 't is not in the language of your flatterers ; but to skin over a sore is not the way to cure it ; the rebukes of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy . rebuke a wiseman , saith solomon , and he will love you . let the righteous smite me , saith david , psal . . . it shall be a kindness ; and let him reprove me , it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my head . what event it will have upon you i know not , or what entertainment it will meet with i cannot tell ; though you will not receive it , my reward will be with my god , and my judgment with the most high , whose errand it is i am come upon ; and he that knows the secrets of all hearts , knows whether it be in love or hatred that i have dealt so plainly with you : had i hated you , i know no more effectual means to ruin you , than to incourage you in this sinful course ; and if i meet with hatred for my love , 't is no more than i am acquainted with well if you neglect this warning and miscarry , these lines will be a witness upon record against you ; and i my self shall stand up in my lot to bear witness for god , that he sent you this warning by me : but my end and design is next to gods glory , your reformation and salvation ; which as it is my desire , so it shall be the prayers of him who is eaton . april . . your faithful monitor edward bvry . finis . books to be sold by thomas parkhurst at the bible and three crowns in cheapside . sermons upon the whole epistle of saint paul to the colossians , by mr. john daille : translated into english by f. s. thomas taylor 's works , the first volume , fol. these two treatises next following , are written by mr. george swinnock . the door of salvation opened , by the key of regeneration . the incomparableness of god in his being , attributes , works , and word , opened and applied . an antidote against quakerism . by steven scanderet . an exposition on the five first chapters of ezekiel , with useful observations thereupon . by will. greenhill to . the gospel-covenant , or the covenant of grace opened : preached in new-england , by peter bulkely , to . god's holy mind touching matters moral , which himself uttered in ten words , or ten commandments ; also an exposition on the lords prayer . by edward elton b. d. to . fiery jesuite , or an historical collection of the rise , increase , doctrines , and deeds of the jesuites . exposed to view for the sake of london , to . horologiographia optica ; dyalling universal and particular , speculative , and practical ; together with the description of the court of arts by a new method . by sylvanus morgan , to . the conversion of a sinner . heart-treasure ; or a treatise tending to fill and furnish the head and heart of every christian , with soul-inriching treasure of truths , graces , experiences , and comforts . the sure mercies of david , or a second part of the hearts treasure . closet prayer , a christian duty , all three by o. heywood of quenching the spirit , the evil of it , in respect both of its causes and effects , discovered . by theophilus polwheile . the greatest loss , upon matth. . by james livesey . a defence against the fear of death . by zach. crofton . gods soveraignty displayed . by will. greering . the godly mans ark , or city of refuge in the day of his distress in sermons ; with mrs. moor's evidences for heaven . by ed. calamy . the almost christian discovered : or the false professor tryed and cast . spiritual wisdom improved against temptation . both by m. mead. the true bounds of christian freedom : or a discourse shewing the extents and restraints of christian liberty , wherein the truth is setled ; many errours confuted , out of john . ver . . the lords day enlivened , or a treatise of the sabbath . by philip goodwin . the sinfulness of sin , and the fulness of christ , two sermons . by will. bridge . a plain and familiar method of instructing the younger sort , according to the lesser catechism of the late reverend assembly of divines . by tho. lye. finis . gods judgements upon drunkards, swearers, and sabbath-breakers. in a collection of the most remarkable examples of gods revealed wrath upon these sins with their aggravations, as well from scripture, as reason. and a caution to authority, lest the impunity of these evils bring a scourge upon the whole nation. by w. l. hammond, samuel, d. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing h ba). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing h ba estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) gods judgements upon drunkards, swearers, and sabbath-breakers. in a collection of the most remarkable examples of gods revealed wrath upon these sins with their aggravations, as well from scripture, as reason. and a caution to authority, lest the impunity of these evils bring a scourge upon the whole nation. by w. l. hammond, samuel, d. . [ ], p. printed for william london, [london] : . title page and leaves a , a , b . , c - , f , and f are cancels. divisional titlepages: of blaspheming the name of god, by cursed oathes. with the judgements of god upon cursers & swearers (g r); of the sabbath day, with gods judgements upon the profaners thereof (i r). in fact, by samuel hammond--wing (cd-rom edition). reproduction of original in the folger shakespeare library. eng alcoholism -- england -- early works to . swearing -- early works to . sunday -- early works to . god -- wrath -- early works to . a r (wing h ba). civilwar no gods judgements upon drunkards, swearers, and sabbath-breakers. in a collection of the most remarkable examples of gods revealed wrath upon hammond, samuel d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion written by wm london a bookseller in newcastle upon tyne . local cases . houghton le spring p carlisle pp , , stanhopep dalston &c. p , cockermouth p callerton p gods judgements upon drunkards , swearers , and sabbath-breakers . in a collection of the most remarkable examples of gods revealed wrath upon these sins : with their aggravations , as well from scripture , as reason . and a caution to authority , lest the impunity of these evils bring a scourge upon the whole nation . by w. l. cor. . . now all these things happened unto them for examples , and they are written for our admonition , upon whom the ends of the world are come . luke . . jesus said , suppose ye that these galileans were sinners above all galileans , because they suffered such things ? i tell you , nay , &c. printed for william london , . to the right worshipfull , the mayor , recorder , aldermen , sheriffe , and common-councell ; together with the most ingenuous inhabitants of the famous and flourishing town of new-castle upon tine : the authour in testimony of his sincere desires for the peace and prosperity of the town in general , and every person in particular , dedicates this his labour to their kind acceptance . christian reader , when i consider how the great moderator of the world , the holy and just god is concerned in the regular or irregular conversations of men , and how much he hath interested himself in the providential notice he hath taken of them , i cannot but judge that the brandishing of his sword , the recording of the signal judgments of god ; may be both acceptable to the lord , and useful to many an habituated rebellious sinner , for the allaruming his drowsie conscience . shall a trumpet be blowne in the city , and the people not be afraid ? the lord is known by his judgment which he executeth . god will not suffer the worst part of the world to sink into atheisme : the wretched emperour shall have claps of thunder to fright him into suspitions of a deity . julian the apostate shall be made to throw his blood into the ayre with a {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . judgments have been one of the usuall wayes of gods asserting his authority in the world : and that the usefulnesse of the following treatise may be the more discovered , i have a few things to intimate about the number of the judgements of god . . that gods judgments are not not like arrows shot into the aire at randome , he does not {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , god hath blessed ends , either to reclaim the party smitten , i● judgements short of death seize on them , or to be ● pillar of salt to others , that they may hear , fear , and do n● more so : those jews that exemplarily fell in the wildernesse ; they are said cor. . . to be {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , types to future generations ; they are engraven characters of divine vengeance , that we should read their punishment , and avoid their sin . . consider the principles that judgements have to work upon . bondage , fear , and self-love ; the one like the spaniel , forbearing to offend for the cudgel over it , the other from a principle of self-preservation , had rather want the bait , then swallow the hook ; god having left some reliques of these in the most debaucht consciences , that he might have somewhat to treat with in the vilest sinners , when his judgements were abroad . . weigh the convictions they leave of an over-ruling deity ; atheism is one of the natural fruits of the first apostasy , and as it is heightned by impenitency , so it is strengthned by impunity ; now god by his judgements gives some evidences of his being and soveraignty ; he hath , his coecum in mente flagellum , he hath his fulmen in orbe , and fulgur in animo pharaohs bold challenge of who is the lord , shall shrink into a , moses , pray for me when the lord is in the way of his judgements . . he will convince the world that scripture-threatnings are not only a voyce of words , but when and where the lord pleases , they are {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , they are fiery darts , the breakings forth of fiery indignation against impenitent sinners , especially when they meet with sinnes that do devastate conscience , such as the sins here witnessed against ; sins that provoke the eyes of gods glory , which in no nation , if raigning , he will suffer to go unpunished : he is a jealous god , & where his honour is so eminently concerned , he will unsheath his wrath , the first of these in a bestial metamorphosis , strives to raze out his image , the second to tear his name , the third to deprive him of his worship ; and i cannot but approve and encourage the design of the ingenuous author ; who , whilst these crying sins dare with an open and brazen face , so frequently shew themselves , will set a brand upon their foreheads , of the notable judgements of god against them ▪ and for my own part , i would not be wanting to countenance such publick designes for god , for the discovering of the eminent judgments of god against these sins , may like the angell to balaam , stop the career of some sinner , provoke the zeale of those magistrates , and under officers , upon whom god and man , so loudly call for a severe proceeding against these sins , and draw forth from the people of god that glorious confession , psal. . . verily he is a god that judgeth in the earth . books of this nature may do much good , where sermons cannot reach through the prophane absence of many of those that are most guilty of these sins . i shall say no more , but recommend the ensuing treatise to thy serious perusall , and subscribe my self one willing to be a servant to any design for god , j. hammond . to the jvstices of peace in the nation ; especially these northerne parts . gentlemen , the chief pillars of a nation , are the magistracy and ministery ; the one for punishing sin , the other for advancement of righteousnesse . these are the officers of state , which , like the two great luminaries of heaven , give law to all the rest ; and amongst the wisest , and best of men , are accounted as useful to a common-wealth , as castor and polux , to the mariners in a tempestuous night : so that as the flux and reflux of nile , portends plenty , or dearth ; so these sword-bearers of god , are pledges of his favour , to that nation , or place , where they are honoured and respected ; and great care ought to be had in the due election of such as may be for the promotion of the great end of such places : for , as one lately said well , they should not be like brambles , which teare the wool off the poor sheeps backs that come to shelter , for protection , under them . the lacedemonians chose none into the senate as magistrates , but onely upon account of honesty and vertue ; forgeting the bare consideration of riches , friends , &c. where piety was a stranger . and cicero tells us , a good magistrate is the common-wealths physitian , badge of vertue , staff of peace , and pillar of honour . i would onely beg leave to break my thoughts to the first of these : and though to some this may seem boldnesse to be free ; yet considering that a good cause teacheth confidence . i think in this case i should offend if i presumed not ; and i have taken care so to order my flight , as not to soare above the region of duty and civility . gentlemen , i set before you three grand impieties , viz drunkenness , swearing , and sabbath-breaking , sins that are opera tenebrarum ; it 's your work to look to them , they are rageing , reigning , polluting sins ; sins for which a land mourns , and the nation puts on the sable garments of sorrow and heavinesse : these sins beget a controversie betwixt a people , a place , a person , and god , and who is able to abide his indignation ? for if once his wrath be but a little kindled , blessed are all they that put their trust in him . these therefore are sins that ought not to go unpunished , and that without the strictest severity in a christian common-wealth . magistrates are not to beare the sword in vain ; if you do not quarrel with sin , god will with you ; you are , or should ●e , the banks of the common-wealth , to keep us from a land-flood , and torrent of confusion ; you are the hed●es to prophanesse : the life of the law is executions ; it s a principle in moral policy , that not to execute the lawes , is worse than to break them , acts and ordinances will not beat down prophanesse , unlesse the first be throughly acted , and the last set on fire by authority : many take encouragement by the slack execution of justice , which otherwise might with care prove a hinderance , not onely from sin , but punishment , nay , it may be , from eternal flames . i am much afraid that many are guilty of others sins , more than they dream of , by suffering their understandings to be darkened in the sense of their duties , thorough the sight of their honours ; not seriously weighing what trust god hath committed to them : they cannot deny presentments , but think it a work below them to search and find out debaucht houses , or persons , or examine who idlely stayes from the word ; or take care in publick resorts , to find out blasphemers , cursers , and swearers , and punish them in the act. how sad would it be to us , if we heard the sad cryes in torment ? it may be some saying , o that the magistrate had hedged up my way with thorns ! had he set bounds to my drunken meetings , cursed oathes , and prophane sabbath-breaking ; then had i not been now roaring in anguish , under the fury of a revengful god! the mild punishment of obstinate transgressors , makes sin grown to an excrescency : it festers a body politick , as well as natural , to have the wounds not thoroughly dressed ; it forces to a relapse , where the causes are not diverted or rooted out . seeing drunkennesse hath so great confidence , as if authority led it by the hand , let me strike at the bowels of it , that hath so many thousands crawling out of it ; oh that we might see this sin reel with the drunkard ! that there were a frequent visiting of ale-houses , and none suffered , under the greatest engagements , not to suffer any to be drunk , or drink to excesse ! and methinks , as i travel these northern parts , especially about ( i had almost said in ) the metropolis of these counties , it s scarce possible to passe without infection , the streets are lined with these pest-houses ; the greatest wonder is , that they are under the roof of authority , and yet suffered to breath . oh down with disordered ale-houses , that ●rove the hell and damnation ●f many a poor soul ! where many poor wretches sit securely , and there drown their families bread in drunkennesse ! where many a person of respect , buyes the ruin of his families honour , together with his own ▪ at a vast expense ! one said , if it were not for secret drunkennesse , they might bar up their doors ; oh , set a barica● do to the entrance of such impieties and villanies , which flow hither as the humours to the stomack ! banish these fire ships from the coasts of ● christian common-wealth , o● we shall be set on fire from hell● then your towns , counties cities , and the whole nation will move in a regular orbe , & congregations be well filled we may say , it would be a wonder in england if it were in any great town , as it was in rome , where there was a street called vicus sobrius , because there was not an ale-house in it . what if some have no other living ? the question is , can they live no otherwise , than by making men drunk ? i admire the neglect of this foundation of reformation in this place , which so oft by the faithfull servants of god hath been reiterated in our congregations ! if these corners of hell were blown down with the breath of authority , all the traine of attendants , like a great courtiers , would fall with himself ; as cursing , swearing , blaspheming , the holy name of god , murthers , adulteries , and all other such wickednesses , for which the hand of the lord is ready with his judgements to reach us : till this be done , till we see the sword of justice make sin stagger , and like that mighty wind that came from the wildernesse upon jobs children , blow down the four corners of these places of iniquity ; i say , till this come to passe , every moment will thrive towards a dismal no one , the minutes of time will swell into ages , and those into eternity of punishments , if not prevented . if gods wrath and anger be the evils that compasse these sins about , like sparks of our own kindling , and if the reformation of sin , be the removing of judgement ? what need then to strike at the root of iniquity ? if ahabs humiliation , and the ninevites sackcloth and ashes , caused god to let the resolution of his judgements run backwards ; if phineas zeal stayed the plague , and saved many thousands ; i say , if outward reformation tyes gods hands from outward plagues , what need then to look about and reform ? lest we that are left of so many thousands lately swept away by sicknesse , diseasses &c. be made examples because we learn not to beware . i could instance many examples of gods severity , to such as were slack in their duties ; as eli , whose impunity to his sons impiety , shrunk him under the heavy stroke of justice ; but i had rather lead you by examples of piety and justice , than drive you by those of judgements . look to nehemiah , he sets servants at the gates of the city , and laid hands on such as prophaned the lords day . it s worthy observation , what ambrose sayes to theodosius ; that he was more earnest and careful , to observe the things of god as a magistrate , than himself as a man . the lacedemonians had their ephori ; magistrates that took care to all manner of intemperance and excesse in the city , and if any were found , they were beaten publickly . the carthaginians made a law , that no magistrate should drink wine ; such was their care to avoid this beastly sin of drunkennesse : solons law was death to a prince that was drunk . in carthage , lacedemon , and creet , this sin was so abominable , that all which were found guilty of it , were thrust out of the senate , and dismantled of all manner of liberty to bear any office in their cities . what zeal was here in heathens against this odious sin ? and this may not unfitly be accounted as the reason why a woman reflected upon king philips unrighteous sentence of judgement , by desiring to have her cause removed from drunken philip , to king philip sober : and it may be , this sin of his , was the cause of his death , which by a lacedemonian gentleman was executed by a thrust in his body , because he refused to do justice . we read of lewis king of france , upon reading psal. . . blessed are they that keep judgement , and he that doth righteousnesse at all times ; was so wrought upon , that he presently said ; he that doth not punish sin , is the patron of it . these sins i speak of , are grown now so bold by impunity , as if justice were afraid to look them in the face ; like the snake in the fable , rise up against the greatest and most noble ingenuity possible ; its severity must subdue them . when true zeal bends the bow , and draws the arrow of justice to the head , then it strikes sin to the heart ; it flyes home to the life of the law , and death of the offence . a modern example we have of an irish lord , who lodged at west-kirby waiting for his passage , and being a prodigious swearer , the officers serve a warrant upon him , at which he rages with curses and oathes ; but they seize upon his horses , and forced him to pay pound to the use of the poor of the parish ; and all the while he stayed there , his tongue was held as with a bit and bridle . this is the true effect of justice , which looks not asquint upon any man ; like aristides , who without an eye of favour to father , or friend , or malice to his enemies , distributed alike to all , so that he purchased the deserved name of aristides the just . in the areopagite judicature , they onely heard the cause , and never saw the persons , giving judgement in the night , that all might have equall justice . i cannot omit the example of one * mr. jourdain , of whom it might be said as of david , that the zeal of gods house had eaten him up ! for when the book of sports came forth , he sent an expostulatory letter to the king , inclosed to the bishop of exceter , who carefully conveyed it to his majesty , who reading , said in a rage , he should be hanged that wrote it : the bishop fell on his knees , and begged pardon , saying , that god had not a better servant , nor his majesty a better subject . the bishop after being visited by mr. jourdain , said ; ah! mr. jourdain , would you put me upon so hot service , knowing how many eyes * are upon me ! who replied , yea my lord , the eyes of god , and his holy angels , are upon you , to see how you discharge your office and duty . by his justice upon swearers , he brought such an awe and dread upon men adicted to that sin , that many citizens observed , that in places of publick resort , they heard not an oath sworn for many years together . i le end with one pretty passage recorded of king james , who being upon removal to theobalds , his majesties carriages went out of the city upon the lords day , which the lord mayor hearing of , commanded them to be stopt ; which affront , was represented to the king , with as great asperity , as men in authority crossed in their humours , could expresse . the king swears , he thought there had been no more kings in england but himself ; but when it may be he thought there was a king in heaven ; he sent a warrant to the lord mayor , whom with these words he obeyed . while it was in my power , i did my duty ; but being taken away by a higher power , it is my duty to obey ; which afterward it 's said , the king took well , and thanked him for . but least i be taken for one ▪ transported with an over-hea● of zeal , without a regular and proportioned mixture of knowledge , give me liberty to clear my self , and leav● my thoughts behind me , th●● i may not be found guil● of that asperse , ( which some men pressed with a fiery zeal , vented more in passion than discretion ) which fixes a scandal to justice , more than it promotes gods honour or reformation of men : were to consult with the prudent part of our duties , mannaging punishment to such as are drawn aside by temptation , &c. with reproof , and that secretly : but to incorrigible transgressors , such as are so accustomed to do evil , as if they professed debauched courses , let the severity of the law proceed ; for to such onely , the law strikes , to such as will not be warned : who can they blame but themselves , if they smart ? and if i should here plead for respect to be had to persons , it may by some be thought , to be out of the way ; but however , i am much for it , and do account it no lesse than a grand master-piece of prudence ; for if such as seem to lead others by their example , be won from prophanesse , the fruits cannot be bad . if therefore there be any of the better ranke which digresse from the good orders of government , either of the nation , or themselves , we are to use such with all the winning respect imaginable ; and if the law be satisfied , not to provoke their displeasure : the law aimes more at reformation than punishment ; and to persons of quality , whose reputations in the beame of honour weighs down the rate of their punishment : we ought to deal with candid behaviour , and to extend meeknesse and respect , as far as the greatest civility , and favour of law will reach . vpon this ground , no question , was that prudent piece of administration of justice ; performed by a chief magistrate , upon a person of quality , not long ago ; by sending a letter , begging his excuse , and hoping as ●e was a gentleman , he would not be angry at the administration of justice , which was his honour ; demanding satisfaction which was due by law for so many oathes , which in such a place he had sworn ; the gentleman with a high acknowledgment of civility , freely submitted . i would not be thought a favourer of debauchedness in any , much less in the gentry , in whom , if such vice● be set , they have a bad foil ; ye● i must needs say , they ough● to have more allowance that common persons ; especially if they be ingenious ( as alas many that are most ingenious most often fall into the snar● of temptations ! ) a little liberty they expect more than others , and as much as is not an affront to the law , let them have ; because , its fit to win such by civility , which the law cannot by force do , without a rape upon their honours and reputations ; and one great reason is , because many times inferiour persons are the inflictors of punishment , which cannot have over good a relish , unlesse sweetned with a kinde of submission ; and therefore when drink or passion is departed , then to write or send to them : yet where civillity and meeknesse will not allure , to that just decency and order , which holds conformity to the wholesome lawes of the nation , then currat lex . all which i could wish were done without malice , prejudice , revenge , a spirit of domineering , or to be accounted some petty some body ; but with a principle , that may not onely approve the integrity of a mans soul to act for the glory of god , but also a not expecting your reward from popularity , or any other secret advantage below the truth and intent of the action ; guided by the best principles both divine and moral . now , gentlemen , to you that are guilty , or may be found in these disorders ; if lawes were not , we had as good live amongst salvages ; you could not say your lives were your own , if another through fear of the lawes , were not kept from murdering you ; if we had none to punish transgressors , we had as good be without lawes : for your own honours therefore , beware you involve not your reputations to the punishment of every mean officer ; be not angry at justice which is more the honour of the gentry , then any ; because they are looked upon as patrons of it : be rather like king henry the fourth , who thanked god , that justice was executed , though it lighted upon one of his own loyns . to conclude , are not these sins fitter ( if for any in any sense ) for brutes , beasts , beggars , and the scum of a nation , than for gentlemen or christians ? for shame then , you that are in any degree guilty of such foul spots of dishonour , to the nation , to christianity , to your families , good names , and your own souls , let these wicked , debauched , beastly , prophane sins , be abandoned from your thoughts and actions , and hate it in others , that the nation ( the gentry first leading the van ) may make iniquity and sin blush , and even shame these vild courses to the eternal honour of england . and now gentlemen , to whom i have been bold to dedicate my paines , i beg you to look upon the work , in that which you see it doth drive at , and not at the unworthinesse of the authour , whose desire in it is nothing lesse , than may be concluded in this wish : that by your good government , they that are to come , may blesse your remembrance , and we present , may together with your selves , live a comfortable , peaceable , and quiet life , and that in all godlinesse and honesty . so prayes your humble servant w. l. to the reader . when i weigh my owne unworthinesse in the ballance with any thing that may be called a work for god , i am extremely discouraged to adventure ; wondring more that the lord should not rather make me a warning to others , by his judgements upon me for my own sin , then to write examples of others ; in the deep sence whereof , i cannot say that i was constrained to this work , purely from those noble and divine principles , which should move in the wheeles of all undertakings for the glory of god ▪ and good of others , lest i deceive my own spirit ; though ● desire a heart for both ; fo● upon a strict scrutiny , it will be found a difficult , and more then common attainment● though most men are loath ▪ but in all their designes to plume themselves with these fair feathers ; so that in modesty i choose to be rather jealous it is not so , then boast it as a reason that it is , i can indeed say and that truly , that i am an honourer , and lover of order , decency , and good government in a nation , city , or town ; and from a naturall and moral principle , do detest these three sins of drunkennesse , swearing , and sabbath-breaking , as they strike at the honour of order , government : and the reputation of a nation , place or person : and i wish this principle were wrought in such ingenuous persons , as otherwise are not perswaded of a greater evill in these sins ; they are evills that wound the glory of god , honour of a christian state , and the good of a civill government ; yet have i been wound up to more then a common hatred of these notorious sinnes , since i have seen the face of them in the glasse of gods judgements . i have observed drunkennesse , swearing , and the slight observance of the lords day , with the profanation of it , to grow the more by opposition , which i think is , because but slenderly punnished , like the seas , where but bounded with weak banks , rages and roares the more , when they are broken down ; i have likewise observed , that that which should be our greatest honor , is turned into sin , in that they which are under the strictest tye to christianity by profession , should so profane the lords day , and keep it with lesse exactnesse , then the heathens do their dayes of worshiping the devil , whilst we in troops runne to the profanation of god and his holy ordinances , by more then the one halfe of most parishes absenting themselves from the congregation , and either prophane the day by drinking , or , which is as sad , by a more then heathenish idlenesse and sloathfull contempt of their own salvation ; nay , and this is so common , that it seems not otherwise , then if it were turned into a law to contemne the meanes of salvatien , and slight , and abuse such as would turn them aside from hell and eternal damnation ; and by this meanes they slight the faithful ministers of the gospel , that labour night and day for the good of our soules , which i account the first step to apostasy from the ways of god . i have likewise observed the slack execution of lawes , by justices not performeing their duties , discourageing under officers , and leaving them a scorn and a reproach to wicked and ungodly men ; and if it please not the lord to stir up the hearts of justices of the peace themselves , to search diligently , to go about and find out disordered houses , ( the plagues of the nation ) and hunt men out of their houses to the congregation , sin will grow impudent , and bold ; if i say they do not shew their faces , to encourage and set a rate upon others under them ; men will be hardened in their wayes , and be taught to grow worse by the faintnesse of justice ; and this i account a duty , which a good conscience rightly principled cannot shift , nor excuse before god or their own consciences . the consideration of these things , with the tendency of all to ruine , where these evills are not redressed , put me upon this , ( i hope useful , and may i not say necessary ? ) work ; especially considering the use of judgements ; their energy if pondered in a sober and deliberate mind ; they walk not alone , the causes and ends are to be examined ; nor are they only limited to the persons or sins they punish , but for warning others from the like sins , or any other sinnes whatsoever . and we see how god loves to warne before he strike , so he did to nineve and belshazar , and used very much of long-suffering and patience to pharaoh , whose heart at last not taking warning , he ●ardened ; what are examples of gods judgements upon others for , if not to keep us from being the examples our selves ? and though precepts in●eed are very binding , yet they never shine so much , as when set in examples . we are all acquainted how little hold reproofs , admonitions , and exhortations from the pulpit take of men : therefore it is , that i have great hopes , that these examples may do good ; for as one in another case sayes , a verse may find him whom a sermon flyes , and turn delight into a sacrifice . so such as come not to hea● their sins ript open in a soul● searching sermon , may by reading , or hearing these examples , be frightened at the voyce of gods judgements . to consider the severity of god to those that fell , may well make us think with our selves , shall i that am guilty as much as others , be yet in the land of the living ? will not the patience , goodnesse , and long-suffering of god , lead us to repentance ? i say examples are of more force to move , nay to instruct , then the arguments and proofs of reason , or their precise precepts ; for they shew things not onely ●n the theory , but in the practice and execution . it 's reported of one waldus in france , that at the sight of gods judgement upon on● that was suddenly struck dead ; went home , and admonished his friends to repent , and turne from their evill wayes , and wa● himself a famous christian● from whom also sprang the name of the waldenses . examples mix so with the apprehensions , as they force the mind to a deeper understanding , and search , of the ends and causes of them . what i have collected are not of common examples , which daily present themselves before our eye● but such as are the most notorious and remarkable , and i question not but authentick ; those of modern and more late experience , i have taken from such authours as are living , and who from their own knowledge have given testimony to the truth of them . now what am i , that should undertake to direct others in that , wherein i am to seek my self by walking below the strictnesse of what i prescribe to others , and short of my own duty , having , it may be , that found upon my trencher , which i disswade others from as pernicious ? yet i consider the advantages of the undertaking , and , it may be , this may be one to my self , that these strict limits to others , will girt me more straitly within the compasse of my own duty ; and though this hath been strugling for a birth a long time yet now the truth and integrity of my intentions have prevailed to launch into a sea of censures , and if i aim at the good of others in the reformation of their minds and manners ; i am sure it cannot be any hurt to them or my self : and this is the rock on which i hope to stand against the proud assaults of envy or detraction ; for if any thing in the ayme or intention be good , it 's made of more value by the diffusive quality of it , in disaffecting that humour of aspendius , who delighted to play on his harp , so that none should heare but himselfe . i shall conclude in the words of the apostle , and pray : that the love of god which hath appeared unto all men , may teach us to deny all ungodlinesse , and worldly lusts ; and to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . w. l. the contents of the whole . the character of drunkards . page . . . drunkennesse a sin against the lawes of temperance and sobriety , and the practice of heathens against it . . . the strict lawes of heathens against drunnkennesse . . the spiritual evils of drunkennesse . . drunkennesse the fountain of other sins . . . the outward evils which accompany this sin of drunkennesse , consumption of estate , ruine of relations , losse of health , a shame to friends , scorn to servants , derision to boyes , losse of sences , &c. . . . &c. a friendly exhortation to such gentlemen as are tempted to this sin ; especially to the most learned , and ingenuous persons . . . &c. gods threatnings aginst drunkennesse . . . gods righteous and terrible judgements upon such as take not warning ; in a collection of the most choyce examples , such only as bear the strongest remark of gods displeasure . . . to . some few disswasives from this sin of drunkennesse . . . of profane taking the lords name in vain by cursed oathes , &c. . the several aggravations of this sin of cursing and swearing . . swearing a sinne directly against god himself . ibid. it 's a sin of high ingratitude . the sin of the devils in hell . no profit by it . ibid heathens detest it . dissuasives from it . . the severity of former lawes , and time against wicked swearing . . gods threatnings against it . . gods severity in his just judgements upon such as practised it , in a few sad and doleful examples . , . to . the sin of profaningg the sabbath day , a great sin . . . the strict command of god himselfe to observe it . . gods own practice for our example , to keep one day in seven from labour , &c. . gods end in commanding us to observe it , is for our own good . . the reasonablenesse of gods command , for one in seven . . the breach of this day a great sin by many high aggravations of it , &c. . a sin against gods daily blessings and mercy to us . . a word to such as sit idly at home on the lords day . . a word to such as profane it , by playing , drinking , &c. . perswasions to hear the word , and attend ordinances , as the greatest advantages to our soules . . . objections answered . . gods threatenings against sabbath-breakers . . . gods severe examples of judgement and justice upon the profaners of the sabbath day . . . to . conclusion . . . . . of drunkennesse , and gods judgements upon drunkards : the sin of drunkenesse being the womb of all others , i chuse first to speak of ; by shewing , what a loathsome creature a drunkard is ; how it 's condemned by the lawes of nature , as well as nations ; the sad consequences of it , to soul , to body ; by setting a full point to his life , when nature hath not yet made a comma : ruining his family and relations , leaving himself at last a prey to necessity , and scorne to fooles . the aggravation of this sin to the gentry , who by their birth , estates , parts , &c. are seated above the reach of such vulgar rudenesse ; and therefore should soare so high with a noble mind , as to scorne to prey upon such garbage , as is only fit to feed swine with . the threatnings of god against this sin , with his judgements for it . first then , a drunkard may be called a monster ; such as entred not into the ark ; unlesse you account noah one , who fell through temptation ; he made no practice of it , yet smarted for his pregnant curiosity , to make an assay upon the unruly spirit of wine ; but let 's more strictly visit him , it's charity to visit the sick . i take him to be no man ; god indeed made him one , but that stamp and superscription of god set upon him to distinguish him from other creatures is so defaced , that if all other of gods creatures had done the like , who could have traced in the search of the knowledge o● god in his creatures ? if then he be n● man , he is no beast ; for in this sence they are sober , content with the liberty of natures choyce ; if neither man , nor beast , then sure god never made him ; his soul is drowned , so n● man ; his sence is lost , so no beast ; if we grant he have a rational being , it is like those idols mentioned , that have eyes and see not , eares and hear not , neither do they perceive any thing ▪ the man is turned out of possession ; here lies the cabinet , the jewel's lost . he is antipode to all other creatures , nay to god himself ; if you will have him a beast , he must be a beast of prey , whose belly is the very sepulcher of gods creatures , as if his life were but potestas vivendi ut velis ; like him that mourned , because his sences were not incorporated into that one of tasting ; which pleasure he wished had been spread over all his body , whereby he might have ranged over all the sweets of nature , with a prolonged delight . hannah gives the fittest name to him , in her answer to eli , count not thine handmaid a daughter of belial . in a word , he is a poor dead creature , a lazarus , whom god in mercy raise to life again ; that out of this chaos of insensible bestiality , god would please to speak a word of power , another fiat , even a voyce saying ; awake thou that sleepest , and arise from the dead , and christ will give thee light . let 's now see how much this sinne contributes to the breach of natures lawes , and how much condemned and rooted out by heathens . temperance and sobriety , those just stewards are dismantled of their authority , whilst this sin with schollars , shut the door against their master when they rebell ; it forces nature to run the gant-lope , which without violence would best provide for her self , if she could but spread her own table ; go to the crib you that are given up to ebriety , who cares for no more than what justly relieves the urgency of nature : i am too much afraid that it may justly be said of us , as it was once of philosophy ; that it was taught at athens , but practised in sparta . temperance and sobriety is taught in england , but practised in turkie ; alphonsus king of aragon , alwayes tempered his wine with water , least it should flie above his understanding , and betray his reason . it was a christian reply of alcamen to his frugal reprovers ; saying , that gods blessings should prompt us to live up unto reason , and moderation , not of ●ust , by turning gods mercies to a wanton liberty of excesse : the wicked man , sayes plutarch , liveth to eat and drink , but the good man , eateth and drinketh to live : and salust said , nothing can be more abject and hurtful than to be a slave to thy mouth and belly : gorgius being demanded how he came to live in health , to so great an age ; answered , by forbearing to eat or drink through pleasure . there is a breach of this temperance , a power to drink to a greater excesse in measure , and abuse of gods creatures , than many a weaker constitution can endure , without being drunk with the fourth part of other's riot : to drown and force nature beyond her due proportion , is a drunkennesse before god , though thou beest never overtaken with the power of it to the sight of the law . if a heathen could say , it becomes not a king to extinguish that by excesse of drink , which suports the name of an emperour : how much ought a christian to value his profession at a higher rate ? how sweet and comely a thing is it for men to live soberly , wisely , and temperately , by mixing our enjoyments with an equal proportion and measure of sobriety ? the opposite was that which stained the glory of great alexander . the lawes of heathens and former nations , condemn our impunity and cheapnesse of this sin : we do as it were sell drunkennesse ; for where forfeitures bite not above the pleasure of it , men will be content to pay for it . the ancient romans banished all epicures out of their cities , accounting them the plagues of youth . romulus made a law to punish drunkennesse in women with death . minos king of creet , suffered none to drink one to another unto drunkennesse , without the censure of the law . severer lawes are not in the world against this sin , than in turkie ; a story whereof i remember of one , that at a festival time , had been too liberal with his cups , and being carried before the grand vizier , had lead poured into his mouth and eares , and so died : not that one act needed such severity , so much as to suppresse the growth and progresse of sin : the law rather intends reformation than punishment , if the one might be without the other ; for lex non irascitur . let 's see the spiritual evils of this sin ; a drunkard wounds his own soul , his heart is like mare mortuum , where no grace can live , he drowns the voice of nature , and conscience , the two great lights which god sets up in every man ; he sells himself with ahab , to work wickednesse : tell him of god , he replies as the cyclops in the tragedy to vlysses ; i know no other god but my belly : or like that monk mentioned , who upon the news that all abbies were voted down , and yet his maintenance continued for life , stroaked his belly with these words , modo hic , sit bene ; his care was past , so long as his camp was victualled : with solomons fool , come let 's drinks , for to morrow we shall die ; but remember , post mortem nulla voluptas . is it not a sad thing , to see men drown body and soul together ? men may play with their eternal estates , and dance about the flames , and never see their danger till irrecoverable . how many like amnon , die drunk , carry their own condemnation with them ; that as sir gervise elloway said ; his own hand which he took such a pride in , appeared to his condemnation , when nothing else could have wrought it : and such judgements are heavy , seeming as if the execution were alike intended against the soul , as well as the body ; they spend their dayes in mirth , and suddenly they go down to hell , job . . what art thou guilty of that occasions this sin ? which is accompanied with so great tokens of gods sore displeasure ? thou that in company forcest down drink , or takest pleasure in thy sad profit , by suffering them in thy house : read the prophet , wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink , that putteth the bottle to him , and maketh him drunken also . it swells greater yet , as its the fountain of other sins ; as nero wished the people of rome had but one neck , that with one stroke , he might cut it off : so the devil , makes up all his compounds of this one sin ; this he makes the onely rode to the breach of all gods commandments at once : as one well said ; prove a man ungrateful , and he is every thing that is evil : so let a man be a drunkard , and i le secure , he shall not stick at the vilest murther , rape , or whatever mischief come in his way . this sin is without a guard , and though it be the king of other sins , yet it hath not so much as a life-guard : for some kill their dearest friend , who when sober , account him according to that wise standard of solomons , friendship ; better than a brother : others their father , sister , and the wife of their bosom . cyrillus was slaine by his drunken son , who not content with his fathers blood , sends his mother with child to another world , in a bloody winding-sheet ; wounds one of his sisters , and deflowers another . uncleannesse escapes not this beastly sin , any more than murder , an example whereof is recorded of one , that tempted to adultery , murder , or drunkennesse , chose the last , as the least , but proved the greatest ; it was all of them : for now drunk , he commits adultery with one , whose husband at the same time coming in , he murders : the sin of uncleannesse is the channel wherein drunkennesse runneth : nunquam ego ebrium castum putabo , sayes one : i will never believe that chastity lodgeth in the drunkards bed : as its said of pumming-stones amongst the mediterranean islands , that they are produced of the scum of those seas ; so i may say of uncleannesse , that it is the froth of drunkennesse . wine is to most men the milk of venus ; he can never have a pure soul in a chast body , that sucks at these breasts , that frequents the society of this baude of lust . it is the furnace of lust , the forge on which the devil frames all other sins upon . as in nature all things spring from the root , so all sins are incorporated into this one of drunkennesse ; as our natures contain the seeds of all impiety , and there lie for mintage : so when once a man is drunk , he is ready to coine any mischief , and set the devils stampe on every action . i pray god keep every man from this sin . the outward evils are not few ▪ thy estate , family , relations , smart for thy drunken excesse ; and when thou art under the extremity , what thinkest thou is the greatest smart , but to consider , that thy distraction is of thy self ? if a severer judgement prevent not , this misery of want and need ●n old age , will be the inseparable ghost of this sin . a drunkard makes himself the living tomb of his ancestors , travelling from luxury to necessity , never till now writes an omnia vanit as upon his extravagancies . this sin , sayes one , is like gun-powder , which blowes up many a faire fortune . and , no doubt , that which cuts sore , is , to consider , not onely my own misery and poverty , but that my poor and innocent relations , should come to misery , thorough the road of my sin ; that thorough want , they should be put upon such rocks of sin and temptation , as post them out of the world with lamentation and woes , against such courses , the guilt whereof lyeth at my door . this is the vinegar , and gall . the next evil is , the miserable estate of their bodies ; some mens sins run before to judgement , and some come after : this sin , i think , is foremost in every thing ; for whereas god sayes , i will destroy both the meat , and the belly ; he cries , no , no , i will not stay so long , i le destroy my self by rhumes , dropsies , gouts , inflammations , apoplexies ; who sees no● complexions altered , countenanc● changed ? how many destroyed by ● violent death ? infinite numbers drowned , some broken in pieces by falling into pits , fall off horse-back dead● fareing with them as it is said of tha●pope whom the devill carried away with him in the very act of adultery intemperance is a root proper to every disease ; sayes plato : and sicknesse is the chastisement of intemperance . seneca who hath woe ? who hath sorrow● who hath contention ? who wound without cure ? those that stay long a● the wine , saith the royall phylosopher . he is next a shame to his relations , his servants scorn and slight him so cheaply doth he part with his honour , and authority , that his groom i● his master ; is any thing in the world so much the subject of folly and laughter , to the meanest persons , even to the boyes in the street ? as once at a meeting , a company of persons having a tempest in their heads , by reason of a sea o● drink , verily thought the house a pinnace at sea , and the storm so vehement , that they unladed the vessel , throwing all they could get hold of , out of the windowes , instead of over-board , cal●●ng the constable neptune ; some got under the tables , as under the hatches , another holds a great pot for the mast , ●hinking that that which once threw him down , might now hold him up ; all of them crying out , what pitty it was ●o many brave gentleman should be ●●st , and founderd at sea ! that could not find the way home by land ; not ●uch unlike a gentleman of no mean ●rts , attending a funerall in the ●hurch , pulled out his keyes , and ●hockt at the pue door , calling of the ●●awer for a reckoning : or him that ●ught his horse in every inne , when he ●me on foot to the town . the most remarkable story i find recorded , is of one ●hom the duke of burgundy found dead ●unk , and carried to the pallace ; dis●●bed of his own apparell , and equiped ● the court mode ; as soon as he a●aked , the dukes attendants wait upon ●●m , perswade him he is some great ●ince : they serve up dinner with ●e same state as to the duke himself , ●t a word spoke , all in silence , to the ●eat astonishment of the poor man , and ● small recreation of the duke and ●dies : after supper they began to revell it in his presence , the musick play and dances begin , with a great shew ● much splendor , according to the custo● of the court ; which done , they fill b● belly as full of drink , as his head w● empty of wit and reason , so convey● him to the place where he was foun● putting on his own apparell ; the m● when recovered , when invested wi● reason , made better sport with his ow● imagination ; the jest being all the ear●est of his confused conceptions , w● now had his understanding as farre● seek in pursuit of his own information as when he was drunk ; hardly believin● but that now he was drunk , if ● thought it any thing above a pleasa●● and delightful dream ; this he resolve● that a vision he had seen , and could n● by any means be disswaded from i● thus are the sences besotted , the m●mory that noble recorder lost , an● reason it selfe more stupified , then ● any capacity to use it . this is the evi●● of it , that let him do the greatest evil● he remembers it not . he knowes not what a secret i● though it concern his own life or ● state ; and this is the reason that i● some courts they tempt embassado● to ebriety , knowing that he will then be as leaky at the mouth , as an old ship at sea ; all he knowes , comes up with as much ease , as his drink went down ; it is just with a drunkard , as it is said of a spaniard , and a frenchman ; that all the drugges in egypt , is not able to purge a secret out of the former , which is a sicknesse and punishment for the latter to retain . i could have said much more of the evill effects of this sin , but i affect brevity , though i fear to be tedious . we see it is a wofull , doleful sinne ; damnes the soul without repentance , destroyes body , estate , reputation of a good name ; in a word , undoes in this life , and that which is eternall . me thinks i see the whole nation reel under the depression of this sin , as in that though often cut , yet like quick hedges grow again ; hydra-like , increases by his wounds ; but if once cut at the root the cedars as well as the shrubs would fall to the ground ; so long as the tall okes stand to shelter the storms of authority from the brambles ; lets never expect a hopefull reformation of this abuse . for as gondamar said at a councel at madrid , never let 's expect good from the netherlands , so long as england feeds the humours ; let 's begin at the cause , and the effects will follow ; so i say if exhortations , threatenings , nor civility , will serve to find out common ingenuity from the great ones , let a handle be cut out of the bowels of greatnesse it self , to lop of these exuberant branches of wickednesse , which hinder the buddings o● vertue , and promote the worst of vices ; but because i account my self strictly related to wish them well , give m● leave to treat civilly with the gentry . and oh that i could perswade som● gentlemen from this foolish sordid and unmanly trade of drinking ! some few there are , and i hope but few , tha● think it an honour to be drunk , swear and roar with debaucht company ; many there are in these counties as wel● as other , which bear the remarks of exemplary piety ; persons , who for their vertues , are the honour of their country , whose conversations alone set a brand upon debauchedness ; of such i be● the honour to honour them : but such as are addicted to this sin , i would distill better perswasions into their minds ▪ especially to such as in all points save this , are extreamely ingenuous ; and such as through their too much ingenuity cannot resist temptations , i pity their easie natures , and wish their temperatures had been more steril and morose ! oh that i could reach the most inward part , and there plant the force of perswasion if it were but to a moral and philosophical kind of life ! that in the sight of this debauched and beastly custom of excesse , and riot , they might live like sober and discreet men , rather glorying in their sobriety like christians , than ●mpiety like beasts . mirth , chearfulnesse , and sobriety , may be nourished without the foolish custom of drinking healths , on purpose to be drunk . as lord bacon in his speech in star-chamber , upon the consideration of ●hat cruelty acted against sir tho. ●verbury , by imprisonment said ; it s ●are in the island of brittain , it s neither of our country , nor church ; in ●ome and italy there is a religion for 〈◊〉 ; if it should come amongst us , it were ●tter living in a vvildernesse , than a court . may i not wish , that drunken●esse were a sin rare in the island of britain ? this , i say , let other nations have a religion to be debauched and drunk , let it be to other nations as their natures ; but let england account it self a wildernesse o● wild beasts , when this sin reigns : le● us say , it s better to live amongst salvages , than such beasts as adam never found , nor god never created . this sin formerly was practise onely by tinkers , beggars , &c. it wa● a shame to a gentleman to be drunk but alas ! how many now glory i● their shame , instead of being ( b● their moderation , knowledge , and sobriety ) a glory to their country ▪ would but shame attend this sin , ● would soon be left , but this boastin● of such a dayes meeting , wipes off ● shame ; so that men grow hardned ● their iniquity . he that tempts me ● passe the bounds of moderation , a ● sobriety , does but civilly invite ● to a fever , or some ruinous distemp●ile drink my own health , sayes a w● man , and pray for the kings . wh●intollerable madnesse● sayes a learn●● divine , hath seized upon great porti●● of mankind , that this folly should poss●● the greatest spirits , the wittiest men ! ● best company ! the most sensible of the word honour ! the most jealous of loosing the shadow , but throw away the thing ! thou hadst better give away thy estate , than say thy belly was the grave of thy patrimony . is it not a horrid thing , that a wise , learned , or noble person , should lose his honours , become an apellative of scorn , a scene of abuses , a dishonour to that party for which he with ●thers have suffered ? that which i ●eplore , sayes he , is , that most men pre●er a cause before their life , and by one drunken meeting , set it further backward in its hopes , and blessings , than a whole year of counsells and arms can ●epair . indeed the nation would hardly ●lush , if onely the scum and froth of ●t were tainted ; but for this disease ●o fall upon the vitals , it s a dye in ●rain , a ruine to honour without a ●emedy . i hope there are sparkes of ●ngenuity yet remaining in some , as well as this sin , which if once they take ●re , from the consideration , either of ●hreatnings , judgements , reason , honour , ●eputation , or a good name , this de●auchednesse would soon be blown ●nto the aire ; and if once the gentry left it , then it would become a shame indeed in the very nation : but i fear the habit and custom of this sin , will force us at last to the sordid practise of some nations , where it s not accounted friendly entertainment , if men be not drunk before they part ; i wish it may not be found a practise in some gentlemens houses in this nation ! let me conclude with lamenting , and perswading ; is it not a great pity , that men of the greatest honour , and expectations of the nation for gentility , breeding , learning , &c. should suffer the shipwrack of every thing that can be called good ! that such should be so sadly ruined in this se● of drunkennesse ! which like a hericane , spareth none , but such as feel a lesse punishment than ruine it self . a● one said , he could willingly lose half his learning , to redeem his health ; so many may lament and wish half their knowledge and learning which once they had ! may i perswade you , let me tell you , it s as much below gentility , as a gentleman is above other by birth , and that which should distinguish him from other more peasantly deportments . can there be no medium in your mirth and chearfull repasts , below this sinne of dishonour , beastly , and debaucht behaviour ? let me beg you to hate it , and remember that nothing more ennobles a gentlemans name , or blazons forth his honour and reputation , but studying an aptitude for his countries service , purchased not by drunkennesse , and beastlinesse ; but by learning , parts , knowledge , wisdom , sobriety , temperance , vrbanity , and all which , this sin destroyes , if you escape with the shipwrack of a good conscience : let solomons instruction be remembred ; my son , be not among the wine bibbers , for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty . if perswasions built upon the prin●iples of reason , the sad fruits of it , ●ame , dishonour , &c. gods threatning must nextly have place , which indeed are not small , and yet will but ●ake way for his more severe dispensations in his judgements . wo to the drunkards of ephraim ; the lord as a mighty and strong one , which as a tempest of haile , and a detroying storme , as a flood of mighty waters and overflowing , shall pull down the pride of the drunkard ; for with wine they have erred , and with strong drink have gone out of the way : thy are swallowed up of wine ; for all tables are full of vomit , and filthinesse : for which the overflowing scourge is threatned , as a just reward for so great a sin ; together with famine , which saith the prophet in the last verse , cometh forth from the lord of hosts . and again , the lord calleth for weeping , howling , and lamentation , which shall come upon gluttony and drunkennesse ; and the lord of hosts , saith the prophet , hath revealed it in mine eare , that this iniquity shall not be purged from you , till y● die . in another place . vvo to them tha● are mighty to drink wine , and men o● strength to mingle strong drink ; for ● the fire devoureth the stubble , and the flame consumeth the chaff , so their root shall be rottennesse , and the blossom shall go ● as dust ; therefore is the anger of the lord kindled , and hath smitten them and the hills did tremble , and their carcases torn in the midst of the streets if these denunciations were deliberately weighed , how would the ver● joynts of sinners tremble , and smite one against another , as beltshazars , when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall . hear the prophet joel . awake ye drunkards , and weep and howle all ye drinkers of wine . god oft comes when we are asleep , and many poor souls have never awakened from their drunkennesse , till in hell with dives ; this is a sad awakening . go to , weep and howl , sayes st. james , ye have lived in pleasure and wantonnesse , and nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter . if yet all will not warne , what must gods appearances then be when he comes in terrour and wrath , by his visible examples of judgement , which i have collected from scripture , history , and modern experience . elah , king of israel , was murdered by zimri , in the midst of his cups , as a judgement of god upon his excesse . ammon , when his heart was merry with wine , was murdered by absoloms servants . righteous lot , by this sin commits incest with his own daughters ; and as one well observes , made a sodom of his own family . the heavy curse , that to this day lieth upon noah's son , cham's posterity , was through this sin , whereby he discovered his own shame . holofernes , having too much exceeded in wine , lost both wit and head at once . alexanders sorrow after his sin , will tell us the sad fruits of it ; for seldom some or other of his dear friends escaped his fury when he was drunk . cleomena , king of lacedemonia , at a time being drunk , was never sober after ; but as a judgement of the lord , he lost his senses for not having judgement to keep them . another is as justly rewarded with the fruit of the vine , anacreon , that grand engulpher of wine , was choaked with an empty grape . the earl of aspermont drained his estate so dry by his excesse in this sin , as he justly died in misery ; for at a meeting , he drunk so deep , as he could never rise again ; for he died with it . the emperour bonosius , through his custom in this sin , was said , not to be born so much to live , as to drink . this was he that would force drink into ambassadours , the better to pump up their secrets : he was shamefully hanged with this epitaph . this is a tun , and no man . zeno , emperour of the east , became so hateful by his intemperance , that none could endure to see him ; his wife ariadne one day when he lay senselesse ( as he oft did ) cast him into a tomb , and buried him alive , as a just reward of his drunkennesse . august . . tho. vvilson labourer , a known blasphemer , and curser , by oathes , &c. was also given up to this beastly sin of drunkennesse ; who through the justice of god , against both sins , in an angry passion stab'd himself with his own knife , and so died in the midst of many neighbours . may . . john bone of ely , coachman to mr. balnum of beenham , was a very vild swearer , and drunkard ; who on a sabbath day , in sermon-time , being drunk , and not able to sit in the coach-box , fell under the horses feet , and was troden to death . you sabbath-breakers , and swearers , hearken to this doleful example of gods immediate hand . nov. . . one tho. alred of godmanchester butcher , being very prophane , and given to this sin , was desired by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay , and being drunk , let his pitchfork fall , and stooping to reach it , standing with the forks upwards , fell upon it , that it run into his body , and so fell down dead , as a warning to others . july . . one john vintner of godmanchester , being a known drunkard , and given ( especially in his drink ) to scoff at religion and godly people , fell from the top of a peare-tree , and broke his neck , and so died under the hand of justice : an example for all prophane drunkards , and scoffers of god and his people . a gentleman of good reputation , and demeanour , being not addicted to this sin , was through temptation overtaken with this snare ; but lo , justice will be satisfied on some , to be an example and terrour to others ; for riding home , his horse threw him , and beat out his brains : he being void of reason , and so not capable of advice , would follow no way but his own , which led to destruction ; for without fear or sense , he spurred his horse over all sorts of crosse and desperate wayes , till he thus fell under the stroak of divine wrath . about the year . nigh maldon , five or six notorious drunkards had plotted a meeting , and laid in beer for their prophane drinking healths : but ( divine justice that can with his breath blast all our undertakings ) did so justly give them up to excesse in this sin and meeting , as they never met more , but all yielded up their spirits to the justice of that god , whom they abused by his creatures . a man coming home drunk , would needs swim in a mill dam , which his servants and wife disswaded him from , because he could not swim , and once got him out after he was in , but he gets in again , and by the just hand of god there perished . i was , says my authour , at the house to enquire of the truth thereof , and found it too sadly true . and one of alisham in norfolk , a notorious drunkard , was drowned in a shallow brook , with his horse standing by him . a butcher in haslingfield , scoffing at the preacher for his reproving of this sin , was in the instant of his railing , choaked by somewhat that stuck in his throat , which could by no means be got up or down ; but strangled him . oh the divine justice ! how righteous and just is the lord in all his wayes ! how are his judgements past finding out ! at tillingham in essex , young men meeting to drink , one fell down dead , and never rose again ; the other two escaped through mercy ( by the gates of much sicknesse ) that they might repent , and if not , to be the lesse excusable , if god followed them by the like severity . at bungey in norforlk , three drunken companions coming out of an ale-hous in a dark evening , swore they thought hell was not darker ; but observe the end of justice ; one fell over a bridge , and was drowned ; the second slain with a fall from his horse : a third sleeping by the river side , was found frozen to death . at hedly , a bayliffe being drunk , got upon his mare , saying , she would carry him to the devill ; she indeed casts him off , and broke his neck . this justice was the more remarkable , being upon the lords day . a company meeting in an ale-house in harwich at night , over against mr. russels house , was once or twice desired to depart and avoyd such wickednesse ; but they would not : he comes to the place himself , and apprehends one of them , and offering to carry him to prison , he drawes his knife , and made his escape ; but oh the justice of the lord ! the strange and wonderfull wayes of his providence ! this man was not heard of for three dayes , and at last was taken out of the sea with his knife in his hand , justified by mr. russell himself , who was the mayor of the place . at tenby in pembrokeshire , a common and frequent drunkard , in the midst of this sin , fell from a high rock , and was broke in pieces ; and four other instances , my authour sayes he could relate wallowing and tumbling in their drink , slain by carts , &c. but being the common wayes of gods justice , he forbeares them in the midst of so many extraordinary and remarkable passages of gods justice and power , and indeed innumerable might be such instances , which the experience of every place prevents in this . a glasier in chancery lane london , having some sparks of profession , but falling from them , fell into this sin ; who being often reproved by his christian friends , and no better : god hardened his heart against them , and once being drunk , by the violence of vomiting , broke a vein , continued two dayes in extremity of anguish and torment , not without great conflicts and distresse of mind , his conscience being awakened , and god in much mercy breathing some comfort to his distressed soul , he yielded up his soul to god , as he had done his body to sathan , attested by a kinsman of his own to my authour . o that , if it had been gods will , all examples of justice were accompanied with such sweetnesse and mercy , as to give any hope of the safety of the soule , when the body in the act of sin is destroyed . a knight given to this wicked sin of drunkennesse , did sometimes order pailes of drink into the fields to make people drunk . on a time drinking with company , a certain woman comes in , and giveth him a ring with this posie ; drink and die ; which he accepted of and wore ; and in six dayes died through excesse of drink , justified by a minister dwelling within a mile of the place . two children my authour sayes , he hath known to murther their mother in drink ; and another that attempted to kill his father , of which being frustrated , he set fire of his barn , and afterward came to the gallowes . in broad-street london , many gentlemen drinking healths to their sole lords on whom they depended , one wicked wretch takes up a pottle pot of sack , sweares a deep oath , saying , will none drink a health to my noble lord and master ? and without any more words he begunne himselfe , and drank up the pot full to the bottome , and suddenly fell as if dead , snorting , but not speaking ; he is layd by as one overcome , and covered with cloathes , till they drink as large a proportion , as their insatiate appetites would take in ; when done , expecting their friend should rise , they found him dead indeed . oh sad to go to eternity swearing and drunk ! who would not dread the issue ? at barnwell nigh cambridge , a young man and a woman , with a hundred more in company , met at the sign of the plough , agreeing to drink off a barrell of beer , which they did ; but will not examples of others warn us ? then let 's expect to be monuments to others ; three of them died in twenty four houres , the fourth escaped with great sicknesse , and by the gates of death had life given him , witnessed by a justice of peace of the county near by . two servants of a brewers in ipswich , whilst i was minister there , said my authour , drinking for a rump of a turky , in their drink they strugled for it , and both fell into a scalding caldron , the one died presently , the other in torment and anguish pined away . at a tavern in essex , a constable was threatned by a drunken serving-man , to be forced out of the house by his oathes and curses , if he would not be gone , and in his drink pursuing one of his company to force him to drink off a pint of sack , he fell down stairs , and immediately fell under the stroke of divine vengeance ; oh ! you swearers and cursers , remember these examples of god! let them be examples to you ; will not the wrath of god revealed stand in our way , and encompasse us about with terrour and fear ? oh be not proud of your strength , to devour and engrosse the creatures of god to satisfy your lusts ! it is recorded of a noble-man coming to ipswich to visit his kinsman in that university , that demanded how he profited in his studies , to whom they reply very well , and that amongst one thousand five hundred , he had the garland given him for the ablest drinker . gods judgements will find us sooner or later . in salisbury , one in the midst of his drink began a health to the devill , saying , if he would not pledge him , he would not believe there was either god or devill , his associates being terrified at his words , with fear runne away ; the vintner hearing a hideous noyse , and smelling , and unusual and noysom savour , ran up to the chamber , but his guest was gone , & the windows broken , the iron barres of the windows bended and bloody ; and the poor wretch never more heard of . these are sad instances of gods displeasure , if he would please in mercy to set them home upon some poor sinners . in the year . in bohemia , five drunkards were met together to drink , who seeing a picture painted upon the wall , for the devill , drank healths to him ; the next night they were all found dead with their necks broken , and their bodies crusht in pieces , blood running out of their mouthes , nostrils , ears , &c. in the county of cavan in ireland , a gentleman of castle-terra , was much given to delight in drunken company , wherein healths went down swiftly , and glasses broke against the walls at every health ; by this sin he was so much addicted to wickednesse and impenitency , as his sport was to repeat the ministers sermons in scorn , and derision , especially at one time having heard a sermon upon faith , demanded of the minister if he could remove mountaines , else he would not believe he had faith . this gentleman is by gods hand struck with the small pox , which gets into his throat , in such extremity , that he could not swallow any meat or drink to cool and refresh the violence of his internall heat ; that throat that had been the gutter and channel of many a pounds worth of drink , could not now , in torment like dives , suffer one drop to refresh him . in this sad and bitter conflict , he breaks out into these expressions to an honest man standing by . oh thomas , would i could now receive one of those glasses of drink , which formerly i profusely and profanely have thrown against the walls ! and growing worse and worse , without hopes of life , perceiving no remedy but death for all his soares , he breaks out again in his agony and torment ; oh that now i had but as much faith as a grain of mustard-seed , and so expired the . year of his age . i pray , and cordially desire , that such sinners as parallel this example , may not be reacht with the like justice ! many there are in this nation grown up to a height of malice , and rage against gods ministers , and some in this place boyled up to a proportion of envy , ready to break ; the lord break their hearts , and humble their soules , under that two-edged sword of his word , that they may be saved in the day of the lord . a gentleman of quality being drunk , and rising to urine , evacuating that into the fire , that prepared fuell for himself , he fell into the fire , and not being able to rise again , his belly was gathered together like a piece of lether , the chamberlain coming in , helped in , that could not pity or help himself , and though in great torture and pain , through the piercing anguish of gods judgement , yet he called for , and drank off two and twenty double jugs of beer , and so in this sad and lamentable estate , died ; roaring , and crying , that he was damned for breaking his vow of reformation , oh that the lord would work a reformation indeed ! that poor creatures may not thus fall under divine justice , too much to be feared , as well to soul as body . remarkable is the example of that tragical story of two drunkards , who the fourth of july , . at nekershofew in almain , came into an inne , called for bread and wine , and drinking to an infinite excesse ; at last , one of them drinks a health to god , demanding what wine god would pledg him in ? and reaching forth his arm with a cup full sayes , god i know not what wine thou likest best , but this i think is too good for thee , unlesse thou hadst sent better ; but such as it is i give thee , take it , pledge me presently , and carouse it off every drop , as i have done to thee , or thou dost me wrong . here 's a piece of blasphemy , which i am confident the most wretched creature in the world , durst not speak sober ; oh this sad sin ! we little know what the fruits of one drunken hour may produce . this vile wretch , no sooner ended his hellish courtesie , but that just and wise god ( who must be provoked before he will execute his severe judgements ) whom he had blasphemed , pledged him with a witnesse , for he left him as a pledge to the world of his wrath , and displeasure against this sin . his arme which he stretched out , was never able to be pulled in again ; his body stupified as well as his senses , not able to stirre from the place , continuing a long time , in this sad condition , his eyes rolling to and fro in a terrible manner , his breath and speech lost , yet seemed to all alive ; the people flock in droves to see this sad spectacle of fury and vengeance , some offer to remove him , but could not ; horses are tied to him , but could not stir him : they put fire to him , which would not take hold : so perswaded god had set him there as a warning to drunkards , they left him so , and to this day , sayes my author , he stands as a pillar and mark , to bid others avoid the like wickednesse , least they participate of gods wrath , which though it moves a slow pace , will in the end light heavier , in as much as gods patience provoked , turns to the most irresistable punishment . his companion who had escaped the imediate hand of god , fell into the hands of justice also ; for as the other died a terrible , so this a shamefull death , being hanged by the common people before the door of the house where the sin was committed . o that you would consider this , ye that forget god , least he teare you in pieces , and there be none to help ! at one of alexanders great meetings , appointed for his officers and favourits , no lesse died with excesse of drink , than . and after many a health , promachus , at the bottom of four gallons of wine found the prize and jewel appointed for the conquerour . another time he ended his own health and life , by drinking a health out of hercules cup , which to effect , . drunk their last also . these are direful and pregnant testimonies of gods judgements upon this impious custom of drinking healths . against that good law of the spartans : vt bibat abitrio pocula quisque suo . every man to his own liberty : or that of the goths , where it was death to drink or force a health . it s placed in the records of time , that popelus , second king of poland , doubting the fruits of his male-government to be the peoples deposing him ; by his queens counsel , faines himself sick , sends for twenty of the elective princes out of pomerania , intreating their visit , ( who as well now as at other times ) came , and for their just reward and punishment of their great excesse in drink , and custom of healths , they now drunk their last , without being drunk at all . the king makes a speech , intreates his son may be elected heir to the crown , after his departure , which they promise , if the nobility consented to their resolves ; the queen to seal the bargaine , brings a cup of poisoned liquor , intreating to drink his majesties recovery : they had been so often used to this sinful custom , as it would have seemed ridiculous to refuse it ; but the kings health cost them all theirs , to the utter ruine of the polonian race . but this justice of god upon health-drinkers , ceases not in their deaths ; but after also , for ( to admiring of justice ) from these poisoned bodies , such infinite troopes and swarmes of rats and mice proceed , as pursued the king , queen , and family , from place to place , from land to sea , and from sea to the strong castle of cracovia , where they were forced to flie , and neverthelesse al● arts were used , all opposition made , by guards and garrisons , water-works and fire-works , yet were they eaten up , and destroyed by these rats and mice . the lord i hope will awaken some to see the evil of sin , by that o● punishment . at kesgrave nigh ipswich , three serving-men taking their leave , the woman of the house would needs perswade them to drink wit , money , and her ale out ; but oh ! that this wonderful example of gods judgement upon her , may warn all people , not to suffer , much lesse to provoke , any to this sin under their roofe ; for this woman stands with lots wife , a pillar and statue of gods wrath : she no sooner approaches with the pot in her hand , but was suddenly deprived of her speech ; her tongue ( that smooth oratour of the devil to perswade to sin and wickednesse ) swells in her mouth , and without a word more died . sir anthony felton justice , and others , sayes my author , related it to me , as a thing they were eye-witnesses of : and within these few years , sayes he , upon mine own knowledge , three being drunk nigh huntington , were all undone and destroyed by a water , which passing , they were forced into the stream and drowned ; leaving behind them the remarks of gods righteous judgements . on november . . saith a divine of this nation , a company of odious drunkards met at a house , and one coming home was drowned in a shallow ditch , his body not yet buried ; concluding , oh ! those ale-houses the pest of the nation ! another as sad , from a reverend divine also , of the same county , who at my request , gave it me under his hand , which he could have done many others of falling off horseback ; into rivers , &c. but i onely aime at such as are most remarkable , knowing that the sad experience of most places , gives intelligence sufficient of such examples , which indeed are sad enough though the commonnesse take away the sense of them . the example thus . about the year . there dwelt in houghton on the spring , in the county of durham , one christopher hull , a taylor who kept an ale-house in the said town , and at west herrington in the same parish , lived one mr. punshon , a most infamous and notorious drunkard , and every way most wretchedly prophane ; he being a frequent haunter of hulls house , did one day fall out with him , and coming out of the door said , if ever i come within these doors , the devil shall bring me in : some few dayes after , punshon , going up the street of houghton , hull stood at the door , and said to him , will you not come in ? no , said he , for i have sworn the devil , &c. then said hull , i will be the devil for this time ; so taking punshon on his back , carried him in , where they drank one another drunk , and quareling , hull stab'd punshon in the throat , who immediately died : hull was cleared at durham assizes by the favour of his clergy , but soon after died , and , as it s reported , very penitent . in the year . a blacksmith in oxford , being a very frequent drunkard , after he had continued so some dayes together , did in a desperate manner , cut his own throat , yet lived some dayes , during which time , some schollars and others , came to visit him ; he often thrust his hand into the wound , and pulling out handfuls of blood , did spread it before the company , crying out , see here gentlemen the fruits of drunkennesse . this was affirmed by a gentleman of the county of durham , who saw and heard it . in the year . james fairburne , in the town of mellerston , nigh the river tweed , died in a most miserable , and roaring condition , through excesse of drink . on easter monday , . one tho. foster , carrier of carlisle , being drunk , rode out of town , and had not rode above a quarter of a mile from the town , but in the very high road , fell off his horse , and in a water , not above a quarter of a yard deep , he miserably perished . in the year . james bouch of cockermouth , being a most notorious drunkard and swearer , being drunk at rosley faire , did quarrel with two troopers , who there killed him , as a judgement of god upon his former and present drunkennesse and swearing . robert copeland , a butcher in carlisle , being a common drunkard , and prophaner of gods name , by cursed oathes , being drunk , did in the year . break his neck in a stable hard by the castle . . john emerston of dalston , in cumberland , was a very notorious drunkard for many years , and one time in an ale-house , died suddenly with a cup of drink in his hand . in the year . one mr. herridge , who formerly was a linnen-draper in colchester , now living in this place , being too often found in the sin of drunkennesse , was at last overtaken with justice ; for coming on horseback from sunderland , full of drink , he fell off his horse ; and there died , without speaking one word . god will be glorified in his judgements , where mercy and patience will not perswade and allure . anno . one john coultred of orton parish nigh carlisle , coming drunk out of an ale-house from thursby , fell from his horse , not far from the ale-house , and died immediately . . vvilliam howe , who kept an ale-house in carlisle , one time was drunk with two of his guests that were borderers , and going to convey them over the bridge , did all three fall into the river caud ; the two guests were drowned , howe escaped by means of some bushes , and was taken up alive : which may be as a warning to such as keep drink , to beware of other mens blood ; i would be loath to be so guilty , though i might escape with my life : it s a sad thing to be a means of any mans outward ruine , but to have a hand in mens dying in their sins , it s much more to be accounted for . these are sad examples of gods severity and justice , who can stand before a consuming fire ? when once his anger is but a little kindled , blessed are all they that trust in him . our judges find in their circuit , few that are arraigned , which are not brought to it by this sin , like slaves to the judgement-seat ; and are sent quick , from their sins to judgement , forcing charity it self to censure their eternal estates ; the eccho of whose sins , resounds in their punishments with vengeance from heaven . were i to prescribe prophilacticks , i would intreat thee to blesse thy self from this sin : none knows whither the wind of a distempered brain will hurry thee , or whither this spirit of bacchus will drive thee : if once thou put thy foot into the stirrup to mount his saddle , when thou art up , thou must needs run when the devil drives thee . play not with healths ; if thou lovest thy own , drink not other mens : flie evil society ; they are the devils trapanners : be afraid with the fuller in the fable , who for fear of infection , durst not entertain the collier , lest he should make that black , which he made white . be in this like the river danube , that will not mixe it self with the muddy streams of sava . evil fruit grows in bad company ; they have no autumn : wickednesse withers not ; the mischiefs attending them are like the spanish indies , which the ambassadour told the venetian , had no bottom . ephes. . . be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse . of blaspheming the name of god , by cursed oathes . with the judgements of god upon ●vrsers & swearers . of blaspheming the name of god , by cursed oathes : with the judgements of god upon cvrsers & swearers . this cursed and crying sin of taking the lords name in vain by wicked oathes , hath like the river nile , so overflowed the banks of authority , that many who should restrain the fury and rage of so horrid an impiety , are too sadly guilty of it . this sin , to the sad experience of this nation , doth swarm in all corners of it ; a man can hardly negotiate in the world , unlesse he resolve it no sin to hear the holy name of god , that god that made us , blasphemed by all sorts of people ; amongst poor people its common , and for gentlemen its sadly accounted generous and valorous . that it is a sin against god , i hope so few doubt it , as i may be spared to prove it ; the most forcible argument against it , lieth open in the possitive command of god almighty , which made heaven and earth . thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain ; and the reason is a terrible one , by way of threatning ; for the lord will not hold him guiltlesse : which commandment is seconded by christ in his sermon upon the mount ; swear not at all , neither by heaven nor earth , marg but let your yea be yea , and your nay nay . the aggravations of this sin are great , if parallel'd with the little reason for it , or profit by it : it must needs be a horrid sin that can propound nothing as the object , but god himself : we may in this sin confesse with david , against thee onely have i sinned , and done wickedly . all the creatures he hath made bow to him , and to the remembrance of him : shall that mouth that sucks breath from god that made and daily preserveth thee , breath out oathes and curses against him ? oh impiety in the greatest dimensions ! wickednesse with an emphasis ! would not such ingratitude look odious in vulgar friendship ? to sit at thy friends table , and there receive daily food at his care and cost for thee , and for thee to make him the subject of thy malice and rage , and that to manifest it against his good name ; is not this ● say , monstrous ingratitude ? would not this swell provocation to the greatest latitude of revenge ? is not the lords name as the apple of his ●e ? a thing he is jealous of : if ●alousie be the rage of a man , which he ●ill not spare in the day of venge●●ce , nor wil regard any ransom ; what ●nst thou expect from the eternal ●od , with whom is terrible majesty ? it must be presumed , thou knowest ● to be a sin ; how inexcusable then ●st it be unto thee , whose consci●●ce is convinced thereof ? it is a ● therefore with the full consent of ● will , and for want of due care over thy heart and lips . oh man , what is it can provoke thee , unlesse the height of a reprobate mind by blaspheming the blessed name of god! how canst thou expect that blood to expiate thy sins , and to wash away thy iniquities , that hath so often spit his blood and wounds out of thy mouth ? i think i should not be guilty of over-rash censure , if i say to such as are given up to this horrid impiety ; that it s but as an earnest of that cursed condition in torment , and that the devil teaches thee in this world , that thou mayest be the more ready to blaspheme god in the world to come ; else what can be the meaning of mens giving up themselves to this wickednesse ? considering the little profit got by it , a fa● advantage god knowes ! no more than to rob out of sport , not need● and be punished for it . what profit have you of those things wherein one day you shall be ashamed ? is it because god forbids , that we will swear like that man of venice , who for nine years , never stept out of the city , b● when on occasion he was commanded upon forfeiture of his life not to sti● then he was seen abroad : much like that of the apostle , sin took occasion by the commandment . how canst thou call on the name of that god in the time of calamity and distresse , which thou hast so often cursed and blasphemed ? he that will mention the name of god , must depart from iniquity . shall i , saith polycarpus , that have served god to such an old age , prophane his sacred and blessed name , that so lovingly hath preserved my life unto this day ? and being urged by the proconsul to save his life , onely replyed , know i am a christian . it is indeed a sin that makes men lesse believed . a heathen could say , he was unwise that put trust in the words of a common swearer . and another philosopher sayes , virtue is never in that heart , which breaths out curses and oathes . he is accounted by all sober men , to be a prophane , wicked , and ungodly man , and its the greatest height of prophannesse that can be ; it s the onely sin and practise of devils in hell , to curse , swear , and blaspheme god . the godly have this character given them , that they fear an oath ; but the wicked are not afraid of a world of oathes . the common excuse of this sin is the custom of it , which is so slender , that it strengthens it , and indeed aggravates it ; for custom in sin by degrees hardens the heart from the fear of god . this sin indeed is hatcht in the bowels of passion , which boiling to a height , vomiteth up all the corrupt filth and scum of the soul , casting it in the face of god . beware therefore of passion , which through the depravednesse of our natures make us like mad dogs , that run at every thing in their way , they bark at the moon : to see a man rage against god because his neighbour hurteth him , is a perfect madnesse in reason . strive against the custom of this sin , thou wilt lose thy senses else , and the sense of it , which is the height of sin ; its gods giving up a soul to sin , when it loses the sense that it is a sin . beware of little ones , they are the spawn of greater , faith and troth , are the livery of gods wounds and blood , and god damn thee . we damn our souls by this sin at a low rate , if we consider the little , either pleasure or profit of it . avoid evil society , cursers , and swearers , are not to be associated with , lest partaking of their sin , thou taste of their punishment . if a master of a family ; or school-master ; destroy it there , nip it in the bud , and resolve with david , that none such shall be under thy roof . i conclude with psal. . let them be confounded that sin without a cause . if reason prevail not , remember the penalties of the lawes , which though severe at this day , yet short both in the greatnesse and execution of former times . philip king of france , made a law ; that whosoever blasphemously swore should be drowned : and max. the emperour ; that every vain swearer should pay shillings pence , or if he refused , to be executed . in hen. the fifth's time , a law was made against prophane and vaine swearing ; the forfeiture for a duke shillings , a barron shillings , a knight or esquire shilling , a yeoman shillings pence , and a servant , to be whipt ; and this law was so well executed , that all the nation over , very few were heard to swear an oath . these were times of lesse light , than we pretend unto , yet a spirit of reformation for god , was much more above our age we live in . if still we will not forbear , see gods threatnings against this sin . in the law stoning to death was the lowest punishment : bring him forth , that all the people may stone him . in that black and forlorne band of sinners , the swearer leads the van , which together with other sins , maketh blood to touch blood , and the land to mourn . in zachariah . . the thief and the swearer are linked together , against whom the flying roll , with the curse of god is threatned to the consumeing of their house , timber , posts , and stones . as he clothed himself with cursing , marg saith the psalmist ; so let it come into his bowels like water , and like oyle into his bones . there is nothing more usual and certain , then for the arrows of this cursed quiver , to reverberate and fly back upon a mans own face . god will be a swift witnesse against such as dishonour his holy name by profane swearing . now those that will not be warned by the nature of this sin , nor danger to soule and body , nor be diverted from it by gods threatnings ; let such harken to his just judgements in these following examples , which are not only as a cloud of witnesses against profanenesse , hut also stand as a pillar of salt to warn thee from disobedience , and wilfull running in a carreer , of sin to thy eternal ruine . earl goodwin having slain alfred , wished at the kings table , if it were so , that the bread he was eating might choak him , which god in justice suffered , ere he stirred . a fisherman ( known to the authour ) coming with a boat of mackarell to a town in suffolke , and being the first that came that year , the people pressed hard to be first served ; one steps into his boat , he presently taketh up a stone , swearing by god he would make them stand farther off ; which was no sooner said , but he fell down and died presently : how many have i heard swear by god as commonly as speak ? oh take heed of gods judgement ! consider what a mercy it is to thy soul , that thou art not thus judged . a gentleman in edward the sixths time riding with other gentlemen , being reproved for swearing , opened his mouth wider , and raged worse and worse ; mr , haines minister , tells him mildly the danger of it , and that at the great day an account must be rendred ; he with solomons fool refuses instruction , bids him prepare , and take care for his own estate . mr. h. replies , repent and amend , for death is as sure as uncertain . but raging and roaring with cursed oathes , he sayes ; gods wounds , take no care for me ; and and coming to a bridge , his horse leapt over with him ; who like an impenitent wretch ended his dayes . as he had lived , crying , horse , and man , and all to the devill . in lincolnshire , there lived a servingman , who was so accustomed to sweare , as at every small occasion he used gods blood in his mouth , his friends mildly warne him from the evill of those wayes , lest vengeance follow at the heels of his impiety ; but he takes no notice of friendly admonition , being visited by the hand of god , his friends again advise him to repent of his wickednesse , but god intended not that affliction to have so sanctifying a vertue in it , as to soften his obdurate heart ; who by his accustomed oathes had forfeited the patience and long-suffering of god , and turned his mercy into fury ; he grows worse , and nigher to the chambers of death ; and hearing the bell toll for him , starts up ; and under the pains and violence of death , cryes , gods wounds the bell tolls for me , but he shall not have me yet . suddenly the blood from his nose , mouth , wrists , knees , and all the joynts of his body flowes out in abundance , that he became a spectacle of gods wrath , and died . o the dreadfulnesse of gods judgements . there was a man in germany so much accustomed to use the devill in his mouth ; that if he did but stumble , the devill was uppermost ; he was often reprehended for it , to no purpose , except to make his sin the lesse excusable ; which he continuing in , coming to a bridge , stumbled and fell down ; saying , hoyst up with a hundred devils , instantly the devill appears , and carried him quite away , that he was never heard of after . one who was given much to cursing & ●wearing , being on his death-bed , most wickedly desired those that stood by , to help him with oathes : and to swear for him and himself , swearing so fast , as one would think there was little need of any other then himself in the world , that could so quickly find out a way for to blaspheme god , and damn his own soul . in the city of savoy , there lived one , who after much exhortation and reproof , hardened his neek against all admonition ; the plague breaking out light upon him , he with his family retires to a garden , the words of reproof by the mouth of gods ministers follow him , that if possible the plague of his heart might not at the same instance , together with gods outward hand , contribute to the eternal ruine of his soul , with that of his body , but all in vain ; as good turn the course of the sun , as his soul accustomed to sin , at last swearing and cursing , with the devill in his mouth , the devill suddenly hurries him away into the ayre , in sight of his wife and kinswoman , who saw the devil flying with him over their heads ; his cap fell off his head , and was found at kosne , but himselfe was never heard of to this day . the magistrate at the noyse of this exemplary piece of gods just judgement , repaires to the witnesses of it , who testify , with a sad relation ; their woful experience , no lesse horrid then true . three souldiers travelling through a wood in the coutrey of samurtia , a tempest of thunder and lightening arose , one of them breaks into his usual oathes , and in the instant of swearing , the violence of the wind ( no doubt directed by god ) throwes a tree upon him , whereof he presently was crushed to pieces . another that was very much habituated to swear by gods armes , had his own arm hurt with a knife , and could find no remedy , but it festered daily , till it rotted and mouldred away gradually , and he through anguish and torment died , and one michael a jewish rabbin , as he was swearing by the name of jesus , fell down and broke his neck . a boy at tubing in germany , invented strange and unusual oathes , but god sent a canker , that eat out his tongue ; these are signal tokens of gods anger ; they are so immediate from himself , that none can see lesse then a wonderful hatred in god of them . at benevides , a village in spain , a whirlwind arose ; two young men being in a field , apprehending the approaching danger , fall down upon the ground , lest the violence of it might carry them into the ayre ; when it was past , the one arises in great amazement ; the other being a very notorious curser , and swearer , lyes dead ; his bones so crusht , that his joynts turned every way , his tongue rooted out , and could not be found . in june . a souldier at warre , goeth with others to wash in a shallow river , asked whether there was a deeper to swim in , and they answered there was one nigh hand , but dangerous , by reason it was a deep pit , who replies , god damne me , if it be as deep as hell i will in ; he was no sooner in , but sunk to the bottom , and never rose again ; which , sayes mr. clark , was attested by good witnesses . and god met with that swearer and curser in france , a citizen of paris , whom lewis . ordered to have his lips seared together with a hot iron , saying ; i would to god that with sear●ng my own lips , with a hot iron , i could ●anish out of my realm all abuse of ●athes ! a souldier falling sick in his jour●ey through marchia , in almain , stay●d in his inne ; and when recovered , ●emanded of his landlady the mony ●e gave her to secure for him , but con●ulting with her husband ; resolved ●ot to confesse any ; so denied it : the ●ontroversie arose to a contention , till the landlord interposed , and justifi●d his wife , and thrust him out of his ●ouse ; the souldier drawes , and ●rusting at the door , the landlord ●ries , theeves ! the souldier is impri●oned , and ready for judgement : the ●ay of pronunciation of death , the devil ●●ters into prison , tells him , he is con●emned , but if he will resign up soul and ●●dy to him , he would free him ; he like a ●hristian , repells those fiery darts ●ith a strong denial ; which the de●●ll seeing , perswades him when called ● the bar , to intreat the judge to ●●ant him the man in a blew cap to ●ead his cause , for he was , ( and that ● was ) innocent of the crime brought ●●ainst him . the poor souldier being arraigned , had this blew-cap't attourney allowed him for his advocate , who affirmed this poor man to be much abused , relating all the circumstances of the money , with the place where it was laid , the landlord denied all with an imprecation , wishing the devill might take him , if it were true ! the devill looking for this advantage , took this poor man , and carried him up into the ayre ; who was never more heard of : oh that the lord would open some mens eyes to see gods mercy to them , that though they have often been guilty , yet god in mercy spared them ! tremble at the justice of god , and let these warning● be so to us . a certain priest in ruthnerwall wished if luthers doctrine were true a thunderbolt might destroy him ! a●ter three dayes a tempest , with lightning and thunder , so terrified him that he run to church , and at his devotion was struck down ; who recovering , and led homewards , a flash o● lightening burnt him to death , a● black as hell it self . one in france , of some knowledge and profession in religion , in passion wisht the devill to take one of his children ! the child immediately was possessed , and , though the prayers of the church prevailed with god for the release from this evill spirit , yet , dyed of it . a man in anger , wishing his wife to the devil ! she was forthwith possessed , and never recovered it . a young courtier at mansfield , whose customary asseveration was , the devill take me . the devill when he was asleep , took him indeed , and threw him out of a window , where though he was not slain , yet he learnt to curb that unruly member of the tongue , by escaping the danger of a severer punishment . at a horse-race , where divers noble-men were present , some cries , the devill take the last , which happened ●o be a horse that broke loose , which the devill carriad away , and was never seen more . these examples may ●artle us , and not only to warn us , ●ut also as a lanthorn of the lord to direct our feet from these paths of sin ●nd ruine . at s. gallus in helvetia . a man that made foul linnen clean , and coming out of a tavern drunk , wished the devill to take him if ever he followed his trade more ! next day being sober , he regards not his oaths , the devill appears to him in the likenesse of a tall man , and told him of his promise , presently smiting him upon the shoulders , so that his feet and hands presently were dryed up , and he trembling with horror ; yet god gave the devill no farther power , that it might be an example both to himself and others . relates of a taylor , that whilst the fleet was engaged in fight with a portugal galleass , he cometh running out of the cabbin with his goose in his hand , swearing , he would never follow his trade more , throwing the goose into the canon mouth ; suddenly came a bullet from the enemy , and shot him to pieces . henry earl of schwartburg , by frequent and wicked wishes , was at last answered in his own coyn , for at every common occasion , he desired he might be drowned in a privy , if such a thing were not so or so ! which god in justice answered ; for he died that filthy death . a very remarkable story is recorded of a woman in the dutchy megalopole , at a village called oster , who gave her selfe to the devill by her frequent cursings , and wicked oathes ; and at a wedding she was publickly reproved , and dehorted from her sins ; but taking no warning , the devill , when they were all merry , came in person , and with horrid cries and roarings , mounted her into the ayre , before the face of all the company , and hovering over the town , the people that saw it were extremely perplexed with fear ; she is torn into four parts , which are let fall into as many high wayes ; as directions to avoyd the road to hell . the devill returns to the feast , and before the mayor , and all the company , threw her intralls upon the table , saying . behold these dishes of meat belong to thee , whom the like destruction ●wayteth , if thou dost not amend thy wicked life . this is testified by mr. herman minister of oster ; the mayor and all the town ; who desired it to ●e communicated to posterity for an example , and land-mark to avoyd eternall destruction . a gentleman of gorlitz , having invited many friends to supper , who failed him ; in a rage , wished , that all the devils in hell would come : presently his table is furnished as well with guests as meat , whom he welcomed , but perceiving clawes instead of hands , it was not time to bid him be gone ; his wife follows him , leaving in the house onely a child and a fool , by the fire side , who through mercy were not hurt . we are by these , bid to beware of rash imprecations to our selves or others . it s fresh , the story of hacket o●oundle in northamptonshire , who ( ● in the raign of queen eliz. the ● year ) in his common discourse use● to say : if it be not true , then let a v●sible confusion come upon me : and h● had his desire ; for being delivered u● of god to sathan , he fell foul off ● many errours , that at last he arrive● to the height , and called himself christ : with himself he seduced to gent. coppinger , and arthington , w● believed all hacket said ; and wh● he bid them proclaim , that christ u● come with his fan in his hand , to ju●● the earth ; they did , through 〈◊〉 city ; and in cheapside , got upon two carts , crying repent , repent ! for christ jesus is come to judge the vvorld ; they affirmed also , that hacket presented christ , by taking his glorified body , &c. hacket hereupon is apprehended , brought before the lord mayor of london , and at last , hanged on a gibbet in cheapside , uttering to the last horrid blasphemies against god . this was a visible confusion indeed . before mr. luther and others : a woman at vveteburg , whose daughter was possessed , did confesse ; that she in fury wished the devil to take her ! who instantly possessed her , with an evil spirit , to their great terrour and fear . john peter , son to the cruel keeper of new-gate london , was a horrid swearer and curser , usually saying , if it be not so , i pray god i may rot ere i die ? and so he did with great misery . in misina , sep. . . a child not quick enough to dispatch his fathers will as he ought , provoked the fathers rage into this imprecation ; that he might never stir from that place ! its presently granted , his son sticks immoveable , for his body could not be moved or bent : some godly people meet and pray for him , whereby his anguish is asswaged : yet he continued three years standing with a post at his back ; and four years he continued sitting , and then ended his life ; yet this was a mercy to him , for that he doubted not of the mercy of jesus christ to save him : and being demanded how he did ? frequently replyed : that he was there fastened of god , and his mercy onely could release him . here was a living example of rash oathes . at neoburg in germany , a cursed mother , wishing she might never see her son alive again , was answered ; for the child was drowned the same day . in astorga , a woman cursed her son , wishing the devils of hell to take him from her presence ! with many horrible execrations : it being late at night , the child was afraid of her anger , retiring to a little court behind the house , to whom appeared men of grim aspects , and large composures , who carried him into the aire with such swiftnesse , as was not possible to believe , and alighting amongest some bushes , trailed him , to the great torturing of his body , and tearing of sundry parts thereof . the boyes thoughts being better fixt than his mothers , craved aid of god , and so was delivered . the devils bringing him back through the aire , put him in at a little window in a chamber , and there he was found almost out of his wits , and sadly tortured and mangled , in his face , hands , legs , &c. that penitent gentleman , sir gervise ellowis , being drawn in to be a partaker in the sad death of that poor gent. sir tho. overbury , in the tower ; was at last brought as a sufferer to tower-hill , acknowledging the just hand of god against his rash and unpreserved vow , which a great losse at cards one time occasioned ; in the sense whereof , clapping his hands upon his breast , he vowed seriously betwixt god and his own soul ; that if ever he played again , he wished he were hanged ! and being upon the ladder , now , sayes he , god in justice hath made me keep my imprecation , and paid my vow , by this just , though violent , death ; and so wished all to take warning by his sad example ! mr. young reports of nichanor , who for his blasphemous cursing and swearing , had his tongue cut out , and in small pieces thrown to the fowls . a young couple in love together , solemnize their private promises alone , the maid being rich , and the young man poor , she to assure him of her love , promises that unlikenesse of fortunes shall not disoblige her engagements , nor disinherit her of that loyalty which she hoped grace as well as good nature , had planted in her ; which he , though before earnestly fearful , that she might be as changeable as others ; did now neverthelesse content himself in the strength of this assurance , and so at the giving their faith one to another , she with many more imprecations tied her self most strongly with this , that the devil would take her away that day she married to another . she marries another , and on the wedding-day two guests uninvited , come well mounted to the door , and dine with them , and were made welcome ; after dinner , one of them complements the bride , and borrows her hand to lead the dance , and after a turn or two , lead a dance which none could follow ; for in presence of all her friends , he carries her out of doors , and notwithstanding her crying for help , she is mounted into the aire , and with his companion and horses , was never seen more . see the fruits of rash vows , oathes , and imprecations , they are not to be slightly dealt withal ; for god takes notice of our own desires , when we never think of our words , how we must give an account of them . two prophane young men striving who should be most exquisite in oathes , were met with by gods judgement in justice ; for he that out-vied the other in swearing was immediately distracted . also he relateth of two young men , delighting themselves in swearing ; sporting with oathes , as the flie with the flame , are overtaken with gods judgement , the one is struck dumb , and never spake word more , the other was distracted : both of them standing to the example of all young men , that do not remember their creator in the dayes of their youth , unlesse by blaspheming and cursing it . a noble person of the city of eflinghen , at a losse by gaming , began to swear and curse bitterly , in which rage and madnesse , he mounts his horse for home , the devil meets him , pulls him off , who with his servants was misguided all the night by evil spirits ; and in the morning finding themselves not lost , they get their master safe to bethen-hansen , where in great torment for three dayes , he yeilded justice victor . a woman in marchia , being a prophane curser and swearer , was justly left by god to sathan ; for in sight of many people she is snatched into the air , and thrown down again , which brake her neck . god we see can break us from our sins and lives together , if we do not from the first , break off by repentance . one margret vvood , of allercleugh , in the parish of stanhop , in the county of durham , was notoriously known for many years , upon every slight occasion , to use this imprecation , i wish i may sink into the earth . upon the last day of august . she with one elinor mason of the same parish , being both washing of lead oare , to fit it for the lead-mill , and standing upon the same spot of ground , where many horses laden with lead had passed the immediate day before ; the earth suddenly failed under them , and swallowed them both up ; next day , when their dead bodies were digged out , elinor mason was found with her body erect , but margeret vvood was many yards deeper within ground , and her head direct downwards . one elinor short , of the same parish , did frequently use this imprecation ; i wish my feet may rot off , if this or that be not so or so : it pleased the just god about years ago , to visit her with a pain in her feet , which by degrees did rot quite off , as afterwards did her legs also ; and she is yet alive at this day , as a monument of gods signal judgement : she creepes upon her hands and thighs , and doth often acknowledge gods just dealing with her . robert durance , butcher in carlisle , was a known swearer and drunkard , who about years ago , being playing at cards with some of his companions , and having lost all his money , except s began fearfully to swear he would be revenged upon himselfe , whereupon he run out at the gates of the city towards the river eden , and though he was followed by divers , some on horse-back , yet did he destroy himself by leaping into the river ; in which river , hard by the place where he leapt in , he lay for the space of four years ; at the end of which , a fisherman found the lower parts of his body , only the other parts being consumed . william knot of dalston in cumberland being a common swearer , when he was a servant to alderman grey of york , he fell into a lead full of boyling liquor , by which means in ten days he dyed . john prestman of weighton in cumberland , a sheriffes bayliffe , being accounted a common swearer , one night when he was drunk at carlisle , went out in the night ; and notwithstanding the perswasion of his landlord , leapt over the bridge with his horse , and was drowned in the river caude . one hudson of dalston in cumberland , did wager with another man , who should swear more oathes by god ; the other man was by the just judgment of god struck dead ere he parted , & hudston was struck dumb to his dying day ; and though he lived many years after , yet could speak nothing , but swear by god , which he did upon every occasion . oh the justice of god to some , and the patience and forbearance to others , waiting to be gracious : let such as swear by the name of god , look upon this example , this sad example . on may eve , . one troe of gloce●ter a carpenter , in the parish of st. michael , being demanded by some , whether he would go with them and fetch the may-pole , swore by the lords wounds he would go , though he never went more . but mark the justice of god ; on may day morning , as he was working on the may-pole , before it was finished , he was by a divine stroke of justice smote with such a lamenesse , and swelling in all his limbs , that he could neither goe , nor lift his hand to his mouth , to feed himselfe , but was forced to keep his bed for half a year together , and to this day goeth lame , may . . of the sabbath day , with gods judgements upon the profaners thereof . of the sabbath day , with gods judgements upon the profaners thereof . i am now to treat with the sabbath-breaker , who for many reasons will appear to be lesse excusable before god for this sin , then either the drunkard or swearer . here is a double sin , profaneing it and neglecting that which is ordained by god for the eternall good of our soul ; besides , it is a premeditated act , and goes along with a great aggravation , as we shall see in a word presently . it is now become so great a custome to prophane the lords day , that he almost becomes a scoffe to others , that offers to reform or punish it ; and that men may not so much slight it , i have collected a few reasons to perswade men to observe it , and disswade from the profanation of it , for god will not be mocked . that we may know this day is no mock-day , the lord that made heaven and earth , that great jehovah stiles himself lord of the sabbath ; and the lord hath in a more speciall manner singled out this commandement with a memento . remember , by no meanes forget the sabbath , for the lord rested that day , and he blessed the sabbath day , and hallowed it . it 's a great consideration to make us weigh the duty of keeping it , for six dayes the lord made heaven and earth , and when the seventh day came , he rested on it . the lord , as it were , hasted to finish the world in six dayes , that he might himself be an example to lead us to the understanding of the great weight which god himself put upon this day , and that we may see it is no ordinary nor common thing to break this day , see how strictly god in his holy word commands it . this is that which the lord hath said , to morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the lord , six dayes may work be done , but the seventh is the sabbath of rest , holy to the lord ; he that works shall be put to death ; that soul shall be cut off from amongst the people , it shall be observed throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant . the lord threatens sore judgements , and why . because they have hid their eyes from my sabbaths , and i am prophaned amongst them ! blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it ; it 's called by the prophet the holy of the lord , honourable ; there might be many more places quoted , but these few are enough to let people see that it is not a trifling matter to profane the day , and that we ought to give all diligence and respect to this day , as a day greatly valued , prised , and esteemed of by god himself . anno . there was a deplorable accident , a tremendous instance of the justice of god upon a person , a ●armer in a village called little-●allerton in the county of northumberland , about six miles distant from new-castle . the relation is thus . the minister teaching upon that scripture , epist. pet. . cap. . latter part ; who hath called you out of darknesse , into his marvellous light , and in the fore-noon sermon insisting upon the spiritual darknesse and blindnesse of unregenerate men , and aggravating the many evills attending upon that condition in this life , and asserting the wofull condition , period state , and conditon of such as should die in that estate of spiritual darknesse ; how that to such is resreve● the blacknesse of darknesse , which was occasionally improved to discove● the miserable condition of the damned in hell , by reason of their separation from god , called utter darknesse . mat. . . and . & . ● at the ending of the first sermon this miserable man accompanied others of his neighbours to the al● house for refreshment : the time of r●paire to the second sermon bein● come , some of them moved him to return with them , to whom he replye● that the minister was preaching upo● darknesse , and he would not hear hi● till he should treat upon the light ; and so continued drinking in the alehouse with some other profane souldiers , and by having immoderately taken ale and hot waters , was in the height of his drunkennesse , carried to bed in the ale-house , where after a short time , he ended his miserable life , dying in the very act of sin , without any visible act of repentance . this relation is inserted verbatim , as i have it from a godly minister of the gospel , in the same county , and not farre from the same place , and is indeed a sad example of gods judgement ; not only against the sin of profaning the lords day , but also of drunkennesse , and contempt of the gospel . now because i observe this day so greatly neglected by the generality of the nation , not onely neglecting to hear the word preached , which is able to save their soules , but also violating of it by profanation ; give me a word , and that only to such as professe the observance of it as lawfull ; for if such a slighting of this day grow , we shall from it , run to atheisme , by contempt of gods holy ordinances , and commandments . let us first consider the end of god in the sabbath , which is chiefly for sanctification of his name ; and what creature dare say he is not strictly tyed by all the obligations expressable ; it is a day of liberty , not of bondage , god can be sanctified without us ; he shineth not with borrowed lights , these tapers that burne from mortall breach , can adde no glory to god , but as in his great mercy and condescention , he is pleased to accept of us . then the intent of this day as to our advantages , it 's for the eternall good of our soules , that the lord may by this occasion reach our slow understanding , and with his word preached , that he may dwell with the humble & and contrite spirit . we are not only to avoyd profaning it , by not working , drinking , playing , idlenesse , travelling , &c but we ought to frequent the publick worship of god in the assemblies of his people , and there to hear his word with godly reverence and fear . the reasonablenesse of one day in seven for god and our own souls , may convince us in a great measure of this day , & that is a sin less excusable that 's so reasonable , & that we may have the lesse to say for our excuse , he gives us for our outward affairs , oh then who can grudge the th ! especially when god links in our immortal happinesse together with his own glory . it was the custom of christians in trajan the emperours time , to meet on the lords day morning , sing a psalm , receive the sacrament , and covenant to flie sin on that day : and when christians were summoned before the heathen governours , and demanded ; dost thou believe the lords day ? the answer was , i am a christian . take away the sabbath , sayes a reverend divine , and religion will soon wither and decay . the indians might as well have been chosen the subjects of this profitable obedience , and we in their conditions , keeping , instead of a sabbath to god , every day to the devil . it will be more tollerable , i am afraid , for them at that great day , than for us . if we had been left to our own choice , what squarer division of time could have been thought upon , than one day for our souls , and another for our bodies , one for the world , another for heaven ? this had been the reasonable rule of proportion ; it s more grace than reason , that god should desire but one day in seven , and that day also to be for our eternal good . oh how inexcusable will it be for us that prophane it , or neglect the advantages of it ! is refraining from labour a toil to us ? is to be eased of sin a burden ? lord then let me be burdened ? for lord , thy yoke is easie , and thy burden is light . what is a more unspeakable mercy , than for souls to have communion with god , as well as our own hearts ? and , as divines say , glory is but grace perfected : so that eternal sabbath of rest , is but , as i may say , this perfected . this sin is accompanied with many aggravations , and this is none of the least , that we have a will given us to refuse to prophane it ; besides its a deliberate act of the mind , it s not sudden , as an oath , or murder ; but in the very act it self , thou canst not but know thou art sinning against the light of thy conscience : it s the greatest sin , that is accompanied with time to consider , an enlightened mind to understand the evil : to purpose to evil , is an aggravation as high as the sin . if aggravations face not this sin with a dreadful countenance , consider , and in reason think ; is it not just with god to suffer thy frail composure of corruption to shrink under his heavy judgements ? that at night gods protection should leave us , as in our graves , when we are in our beds ? or canst thou expect any blessing upon thy outward estate , when it is in the power of god to dispose of life , being , health , estate , and all ? is it not just ; if we travel on this day , that god should judge us with sudden death in the like severity , as he hath made others examples of to all ages ? yet if god do suffer thy corn , wine , and oil , to encrease , fear a curse under the strawberry leaves of thy enjoyments ; for a blessing is not the shadow of sin , it will not follow thee in the wayes of wickednesse ; rather fear some judgement will overtake thy swift motion to impiety . a word to two sorts . first those that prophane it , contemning not onely gods lawes , but the lawes of the nation ; know that what is lawful on other dayes , are sins on this day ; and such of you as need not ( by gods blessings in a full estate ) toil all the week , whereby you cannot plead a wearinesse to waite on god upon his own day , you turn his blessings into a curse , if you prophane it : you play all the six dayes , it s a sin with a witnesse if you play away the seventh also . you that cannot close this holy day without an evening sacrifice to bacchus , instead of prayers to the lord that made heaven and earth , gods judgements sleep not , you are preparing your selves as fuell for the fire of gods vengeance and displeasure . nextly , to you that sit idly at home , never dreaming how to escape that wrath to come ; methinks i read your sad conditions in your conversations ; that never think of god all the week ; you cannot for your callings , you will not for your pleasures on the lords day : if there be any difference betwixt you and heathens , it is , that you know your condemnation before it come : you will be at the great day , witnesses for god against your selves . to see so many idly sit at home , and never mind to hear the word , methinks i am amongst the indians ; it s a very heavy thing to consider in some places , half the parish at home in idlenesse , or walking abroad in sermon-time ; nay , i have heard it credibly affirmed from the mouth of a minister in this county , that of some thousands in a parish , there hath not been , sometimes , a hundred at a sermon , nay , not fifty , nay not twenty , shall i say not ten ? is not this a sad case to be in a christian common-wealth ? nay it s the sad experience of this place where i live , and i may speak it to my own knowledge , that three quarters of the people able to come , of this populous place , do idly stay at home , or walk abroad , not a family of ten , but the most of them are at home in idlenesse , if not at play or drinking . upon this account i would conclude with one word ; good people , let me perswade you to serve god , rather than gratifie the devil with your own damnation : is your labour lesse to sit at home , than in the congregation ? do you think you have no souls to save , nor to lose ? you had better be working than idle , for that is a sin in it self , and is made greater on this day . you live more like the brute beasts that are fed by the senses onely . how can you be saved if you will not come unto him that you may have life ? are you christians or infidels ? do you professe to worship god , or mahomet ? how shall you believe on him of whom you have not heard ? how can you hear without a preacher ? not to hear that blessed gospel which christ hath sent into our coasts , our houses , is to do as the gadereans did , drive christ from our habitations . such as followed christ and his apostles , were converted , i read of few else ; and such onely as lay at the pool , were healed : to see people flocking to hear the word , like doves to the windows , it is a blessed sight ; but instead hereof , we have some that entertain quakers meetings in their houses on the lords day ; they have a sad account to give . i hear some excusing their staying at home sometimes , by their going other times ; these are common excuses : but thou knowest not but that day thou stayest from the ministery of the word , god may have intended thy eternal salvation , and that with zacheus , god might have said , this day salvation is come into thy house . but i read good books ; that thou mayest do when thou canst not hear good sermons : and though it be good to read , yet here its a sin , and a temptation , because thou neglect'sta greater good . the word stirs the soul under it , and commonly cometh with power and demonstration of the spirit ; and i know ther 's great difference between hearing and reading ; and the later is no lesse an evil thus used , than the ejection of different thoughts in prayer from the subject and nature of the duty , is an evil by consequence . but i do no body hurt , i am not playing , nor drinking , nor swearing , so that i need not fear gods judgements : what judgement dost thou think a hard heart is , which commonly is the fruit of the neglect of gods ordinances ? is it not the worst of judgements ? for thou mayst be destroyed with bodily punishment , as eli and others were , and yet thy soul be saved : but thou canst not have a judicial hardnesse of heart upon thee , and be saved : therefore take heed of this sin , and fear lest a worse judgement befal thee than an outward destruction ; for how canst thou escape , if thou neglect so great salvation ? my design is not to direct others to the keeping this day , so much as to keep from prophaning it ; yet if any be perswaded to look to the keeping of it , by way of sanctifying it , i refer them to such learned divines as have spent their labour in it . to those that are not moved by reason , nor perswaded by their own advantages , from polluting this holy day by their wickednesse , debauchednesse , idlenesse , or playing at cards , &c. read gods threatnings , that his judgements may appear to be more just , by his forewarning us from the sin , as well as the punishment . if you will not hearken to me , to hallow the sabbath , then will i kindle a fire in the gates of jerusalem , and it shall devour the palaces thereof , and shall not be quenched . fire in the palace , sayes a divine , is ment , fire in the seats of justice , and the ornaments of a city : fire in the palace , no going in , fire in the gates , no going out ; because justice was not executed upon sabbath-breakes , therefore the place of justice shall be destroyed ; those gates that suffered any co come in to profane the lords day , must be now on fire , that none shall escape his judgements : if we should see our towns flaming with the wrath of god , and the fire of his indignation taking hold of our habitations , it is then in vain to offer to quench it ; it hath been thus in our nation , as in the examples following . if such a judgment be threatned against such as keep not this day ; what must be the fearful looking for of judgment by the profaners of it ? did not god bring all this upon us in this city , yet bring you more wrath upon judah by profaning the sabbath , sayes the prophet . ezekiel mentions the sin of the sabbath , and therefore have i powred my indignation upon them , i have consumed them with the fire of my wrath , and in the . chapter is threatned plagues and judgements , and v. . the reason ; for they have profaned my sabbaths . if these serve not the end intended , take a prospect of gods terrible examples , which stand as beacons to warn us from the like sins . the poor man that did but gather sticks on the sabbath day , may stand as a monument of gods severity . a noble-man that used to hunt on the lords day , had a child born unto him with a head like a dog , with eares and mouth crying like a hound , which was a very remarkable judgement of god , reports of an husband-man , that went to plough on the lords day , and cleansing his plough with an iron , it stuck so fast in his hand for two years , that he carried it about with him as a signal tostimony of the lords just displeasure against him . another that gathered corn into his barn upon the lords day , had it all with fire from heaven consumed , together with the house . at kimstat in france , . there lived a woman that neither would go nor suffer others of her family to go to church on the lords day ; as she was drying flax , fire issued out of it● but burnt it not : she taking no notice , next sabbath day as she was busie with it , miraculously again fire proceeds out of it , and burnt it ; but was put out , this poor creature was ● blind , as not to see or take warning by these foot-steps of gods mercifull providences , but the third sabbath day , when she was busied about her flax , as before , it fires of it self , and could not be quenched , till she , and two of her children were burnt to death . and in the year . one grinding corn upon the lords days it took fire , and gave him timely warning not to break the sabbath day , by the works of his calling . in helvetia , nigh belessina , three men were playing at dice on the lords day , one called vlrick schraeterus , having hopes of a good cast , because being crost to the losse of much money before ; he now expected fortune , or rather the devill to favour his desire ; and therefore he uttered these horrid words . if fortune do dececeive me now , i will thrust my dagger into the body of god as farre as i can ; o the cursed frames of our naturall tempers , if once god cast the reins into our own wills , the dice favours him not , and presently he drawes his dagger , and with a powerful force throws it up towards heaven , which never was seen more ; and immediately five drops of blood falls before them all upon the table , and as suddenly comes the devill amongst them , carries away this vile wretch , with such a terrible and hideous noyse , as the whole city was astonished at it . those two remaining alive , endevoured to wipe off the blood , but to so little purpose , that the more they rub'd , the more the drops of blood were perspicuous . report carries it all over the city , multitudes flock to see this wonder , who found only the sabbath profaners rubbing the blood to get it out ; these two by decree of the senate of the city , were bound in chains , and as they were led to the prison ; one of them was suddenly struck dead ; from out of whose body , a wonderful number of wormes and vermin was seen to crawle . the city thus terrified with gods judgements , and to the intent that god might be glorified , and a future vengeance averted from the place ; caused the third to be forthwith put to death : and the table with the drops of blood on it , preserved as a monument of gods wrath upon this sin , not only of sabbath-breaking , but swearing , and wicked gameing : o the depth of the knowledge of god , how unsearchable are his judgments , and his wayes past finding out , january . . at the bear-garden in southwark on a sabbath day afternoon , many people pressing on the scaffolds to see the sport , forced it suddenly down , with which fall eight were killed , and many spoyled in their bodies , who lived not long after . much like to it was that at risley in bedfordshire , . where many people , rather then resort to hear the the word of the lord by the mouth of his minister , came in great numbers to see a stage-play on the lords day ; the chamber floor fell down , and as a judgment of god upon this sad & wilful sin , many were killed and wounded , thus we see , when the works of piety and mercy are neglected , to prosecute sinne and wickednesse , gods judgements are swift to overtake us ; thereby endeavouring to hedg up our way with thornes , which examples may push us back from the like impiety and vengeance of an angry god . a sad example of gods severity , in ●is hot and sore displeasure against ●abbath-breakers , is recorded of feverton in devonshire ; which place , saith he , , was frequently admonished of the profanation of the lords day , by a market kept the day following ; which without reformation , would inevitably pluck down divine vengeance : a little after the ministers death , upon the third of april . a sudden fire from heaven consumeth the whole town in lesse than half an hour ; excepting only the church , court-house , and almes-house , where was consumed in this fire of gods wrath , four hundred dwelling houses , and fifty soules destroyed . who will not say this was a sad and immediate hand of the lord ? but alas ; what will not poor creatures do , that follow sin with greedinesse ! the same town fourteen years after , on the fifth of august , . for the same sin , was wholly consumed , except some thirty poor peoples houses , school-house , almes-houses : these judgements are not recorded for historical perusall , but to consider of , and remember those on whom the tower of shilo fell . at alcester in warwick-shire where the authour lived , there were of his own knowledge , four remarkable judgements of god . one that upon the publishing of the declaration for sports and pastimes upon the lords day ; a young woman on this day comes to the green , and sayes , she would dance as long as she could stand , and dancing , in the midst of her sin , god struck her with such a violent disease , that in two or three dayes she died in misery ; as an example to all that delight more in serving their own pleasures , and sinfull desires , then to wait upon god , and delight in his wayes . the other of a young man of the same place , and not long after the other ; who on the lords day , immediately after the evening exercise was finished , brings into the street a pair of cudgells , layes them down nigh unto the ministers house , and invited divers to play with him ; who refusing , at length comes one , and taking up the cudgels sayes , though i never played in my life , yet i will play one bout now . a little after , sporting with a young woman , he takes up a birding-piece charged , saying , have at thee ; the piece goes off , and murders her immdiately ; for which , as a deserved judgement , he suffered the law . another of a miller at wootton in the same county , who going forth to a wake , and coming home at night , found his house , mill , and all that he had , burnt down to the ground . a fourth upon mr. clarks own knowledge , is of many wicked and prophane persons , at woolston in the same county ; who on the lords day met at a whitsun-ale , in a smiths barn , and though it grieved the holy man of god , who was minister of the place , as the sodomites did lot , yet he could not help it ; but in their profanenesse they proceeded ; not long after , a fire kindles in the place of this impiety , and burnes down not onely his house , shop , and barn , but rages so vehemently , as it reaches many other houses with ruin , all being chief actors in this horrid profanenesse . in the year . upon a lords day , when the river trent was frozen over , fourteen young men were at foot-ball upon the ice near gainsborough , and meeting all in a cluster together , the wrath of god met with them , and suddenly the ice broke , and they were immediately drowned . oh the justice of the lord , upon the prophaners of his holy day . the same painful and useful author of gods examples , relates a sad one , of gods judgements upon two fellows in essex near brinkely , that were working in a chalk-pit ; one of them boasting that he had vext his mistresse , by coming so late in from his sabbath-dayes sports and recreations ● but sayes he , i will anger her worse next sabbath day : which words were no sooner out , but justice seizes upon him ; for the earth falls upon him , and he never stirred more to his sabbath prophanesse ; his fellowes limbs were broken ; both being sharers in the sin of the sabbath , are made also to be so in their sufferings and punishments . the lord will be known in the paths and wayes of his judgements , to such as will not be led and allured by his tender mercies . and of one mr. ameredith , a gentleman of devonshire , being recovered from a pain which he had suffered in his feet , one of his friends saying he was glad to see him so nimble : the gentleman replies ; he hoped his hopes should not be frustrated of the great expectations he had to dance about the may-pole the next sunday : but behold the lord in a just punishment ( for such impious and wicked resolutions , and no doubt also for his former prophanesse on that day ) smites him suddenly with feeblenesse and faintnesse of heart ere he stirred from the place , and with such a strange dizzinesse in the head , that he was forc't to be led home , and from thence to his last home , before the lords day shined upon him . now tell me , any that can , what little hopes the poor souls thus ushered to the chambers of death , have to keep an eternal sabbath with god , that will not keep his sabbath from prophaning on earth ? truly , these are sad symptoms of gods heavy displeasure against soul as well as body : his mercy ( if any be in such dismal dispensations ) are occult and hidden ; the lord in mercy warn poor sinners to avoid the wrath of such an infinite god , that such as will not be intreated to keep the lords day , as they ought , may be terrified from prophaning of it . another as severe he relates , which together with the three former , are attested by sufficient witnesses . at walton upon thames , in survey , upon a great frost , in the year . three young men having in the forenoon heard a sermon , from cor. . . we must all appear before the judgement-seat of christ , &c. they went over the ice into an house of disorder , and gaming , where they prophanely spent away the rest of the lords day , and night also , in revelling , and drinking ; the one of them next day boasting merrily of his pleasure upon the sabbath day , and his adventure over the ice . all three on tuesday return the way they went , and upon the ice suddenly sunk to the bottom like stones , one of them onely miraculously preserved . these judgements may be mercies to some that are yet prophaners of the lords day , if god please . at burton upon trent , mr. abberly a godly minister , often took occasion to reprove and threaten such as make no conscience of the lords day , by prophaning it : in a more peculiar manner , such as bought and sold meat upon this day ; which it seems was a sin as great , and as commonly practised in this place , as it was lately at buntingford , where in my journey , some gentlemen of newcastle being my fellow-travellers , we took occasion after sermon to acquaint the minister withal : i pray god it may not be so still , lest such a judgement befal the place , as did this prophane wretch : which was thus . a taylor being a nimble and active man , dwelling at the upper end of the town , must needs in a bravado go to the further end to buy some meat before morning-prayer , but coming home with both his hands full , in the midst of the street he fell down stark dead . i was , sayes doctor teate , an eye-witnesse both of his fall , and burial ▪ and that it wrought a reformation in the place , both among the butchers and others . it was a remarkable providence , and i wish , i say , that other places may be reformed of this bold and impudent sin ; or truly they may repent of it when it s too late . a pious divine : sayes he , the lord hath spoken so loud from heaven against sabbath-sinners , that i cannot be silent ; we hereabout , have had in a short time , terrible tokens of god severe vengeance , upon such as mind not the service of his day : amongst our selves a sad example ; a townsman going to gather cherries on the lords day , fell from the tree , and in the fall was so battered , and bruised , that he never spake more , but lay groaning in his blood , until the next day , and then died . another man , not far from this place , in cherry-time , as he was gathering fruit , fell from the tree , and with the fall was so hurt , that he lay in anguish and dreadful dolour , all the week , till sabbath day , and then ended his miserable life . and of a young man , that on the lords day , in a place nigh unto mr. goodwins , scrambling with others for peares , thrown out in the church-yard , broke his main thigh-bone , and the bone of his leg , on the same side , which was so miserably and strangely broken , as that the bone-setter ( who was a godly man ) told mr. goodwin , though he had seen many , yet he never saw the like . god here dealt in mercy , as well as in judgememt , in that he 〈◊〉 him space to repent , and see his sin . the lord warn us all by these examples . a company of prophane young men in . near salisbury , upon the lords day morning , went to clarington park , to cut down a may-pole , and having loaden the cart with the tree , and themselves with the bitter fruits of sin , they are severely punisht by the hand of god : for entring into the city of salisbury , through a place called milners bars , unawares the cart gives a turn , and the end of the tree , struck one of the sabbath-breakers such a mortal blow that his brains flew out , and there on the place , he yeilded himself a conquered sinner by the just hand of the lord , lying there , as a sad spectacle of gods indignation : and sayes mr clark , i enquired of the truth of this at my first coming to sarum , and very many godly persons in my hearing , attested it to be true , upon their own sight and knowledge . and further , doctor teate , he gives a second example upon his knowledge thus . to my knowledge , at compton-chamberlin in vviltshire , at the house of sir j. penruddock , a dancing match was held on the lords day , where a stranger ushers in , to act his part , and after a few turns about , and a few capers , he in the midst of the sin , falls dead to the ground , before all the company . here was a sad dispensation of providence from gods immediate hand , as many else besides are ; here was no instrument to take off any of the most severe vengeance of god ; and such examples in my mind , should be taken as pregnant testimonies , to let all men know this day ought to be kept as holy . oh take heed of slighting this day , that god so severely punishes in his sore displeasure . and mr. clark upon his own testimony , brings in a sad relation thus . when i lived in cheshire , there was one sir t. s. a papist , and at that time a favorite at court , who at his appearance in the country was very much feasted and entertained by the gentry : once amongst the rest , he was invited to a knights house on the lords day , where many accompanied him : towards evening , the proper time for the deeds of darknesse , they fell to dancing : but look to the finger of god , and see what fell upon their sinful prophanesse ; in the midst of their sport , there was one sir j.d. had a blow given him on his leg by some invisible hand ; for none was seen to touch him , as was attested by all the company : and thus he went lame for a good while after . it may be it set him upright in his practise and conversation ever after ; if it did , it was a good providence that saved him from a more severe judgement . one sabbath day in the afternoon , a match at football was made in bedfordshire : as two of the company was tolling a bell to summon the rest together , some that sat in the porch of the church suddenly hear a terrible clap of thunder , and saw a flash of lightning , coming through an obscure lane ; which flasht in their faces , to their great terrour and fear , so passing on to these that were tolling , it trips up the heels of the one , and leaves him stark dead : the other so blasted , that he died also in few dayes . these are the swift messengers of god , which overtake poor sinners in the way of their sins , before resolution can be proud of any actions ; god will be seen in his wrath and terrour , to all wilfull and impenitent sinners . at tidworth on the lords day , many were met in the church-yard to play at football , where one of this wicked company had his legge broken , which by a secret judgment of the lord so fester'd , that it turned to a gangrene in despight of all means ; whereof he speedily died . stratford upon sluon , was no lesse then twice consumed , by the fire of gods wrath for this sin of sabbath-breaking , and on one and the same day twelve-moneth : besides , they were great contemners and slighters of the word of god by his minister ; a sin that is commonly followed with hardnesse of heart , if no visible judgement get before it . it is recorded of pompey , that he shrunk under the depression of gods sore displeasure , for profaning gods sabbath , and sanctuary . that which god consecrates , must be kept holy , or woe to the profaners of it . and of herod who profaned gods name by his wickednesse , and that , when for some treasure which he supposed to be hid , he caused the sepulcher of gods saints to be pluckt up ; the lord in judgement caused a fire to breake forth of the earth , and destroyed those that he imployed , which when he saw he desisted , and durst go no further . nov. . . one richard bourn servant to gasper burch of ely , was so accustomed to travell on the lords day , that he made no conscience of it , seldom or never coming to the assembly to hear the word of god on that day , but went to st. ives market , where he stayed and spent the day ; wher being drunk , he was overtaken by gods justice ; for coming home fraught with commodities , he fell into the river , and was drowned ; a just reward of other sinnes in the punishment of one . in the year . a miller at church-down nigh gloucester , would needs make a whitsun-ale ; notwithstanding the private and publick admonitions of the ministers , and of his christian friends , large provision was made , and musick was set out , as the minister and people in the afternoon went to church ; when prayer and sermon was ended , the drum beat up , musick played , and the people fell a dancing till evening ; at which time , they all resorted to the mill : but o the justice of god! before they had supped , at of the clock , a sudden fire seized on the house which was so sharp , that it burned down his house and mill , and the most of all his other provision , and houshold-stuffe . at baunton in dorcetshire , some being at bowles on the lords day , one threw his bowle at his fellow , and hit him on the ear , whereupon blood issuing out at the other ear , he died ; he that threw it fled . at simsburg in dorsetshire , one rejoycing at the erection of a summer-pole on the lords day , said , he would go see it , though he went through a quickset hedge ; a proverb here going with wood in his arms to cast into the bonfire , profanely uttered these words ; heaven and earth are full of thy glory o lord : he was immediately smitten by the stroak of god , and in two or three days died , and his wife also . at dover , the same day that the book of sports was read in st. james parish , one profanely went to play upon a kit , which drew a rude multitude of the younger sort together . but oh the terrour of the lord ! he was struck with a divine hand , and in two dayes died . two boyes of st. albans , going into verolans pond to swim upon the lords day , one of them was drowned , the other narrowly escaped , as a warning to others . two young men of st , dunstans in the west london , going to swim on the lords day , in september , , were both drowned . a fellow in sommerset-shire , being to make a tent on the lords day , for a fair , which was to be on the day following , said on the satterday , that he would make it on the morrow ; which was the lords day , and being drunk , he died the same day roaring . one mr. prince chyrurgion of the of the tower of london , did on the lords day ride upon his horse to pace him for a chapman , but see the justice , yet mercy of god , he broke his leg , and lay in great pain and anguish eight weeks ; his son had disswaded him from so great a sin , which now he acknowledged as a judgement of god upon him for prophanation of his day : and ever after he became a more frequent resorter to the congregation , and hearing gods word . at thornton nigh worcester , upon the publishing of the book of sports on the lords day , the people prepared for a solemn prophanation , by ordering purveyors on purpose , to provide things fit for it ; a proper maid went to the mill on satterday , to fetch home the meal on the lords day , the maid passing by a hedge with the meal upon her head , was overtaken with a sudden and sad stroak of divine justice , for she fell down dead into a ditch , there she lay all sabbath day ; on munday she was carried to her grave , where all their intended mirth was buried with her , &c. such a terrour it wrought in the people , and such reformation in the place , that no more summer-ales were kept ; they took down the may-pole , and none durst set it up again , or have to do with the publick prophanation of that day . one at ham nigh kingstone , a scoffer of goodnesse , and a common prophaner of the lords day , did on that holy day presume to visit his grounds , where finding some cattle grazing , which were not his own , & running to drive them out , he fell down , and suddenly died upon the place . upon may day , being the lords day , a maid in cripple-gate london , being married to one that had three children , one of them being at nurse in the country , they did on the lords day spend the whole afternoon in feasting and dancing ; but god is just , and will be seen in his judgements to warn others ; for a week after the plague began in the parish , & the first house it entered into , is this new married couples , with which , both himself , wife , and two children were swept away by death . these things are not to be scoffed at , they are not things of chance or blind fortune ; no , no , they are providence ; and though they are judgements in themselves , yet in the issue , i hope they will be mercifull warnings to others . not far from dorchester , lived one widow jones , whose son richard upon the lords day ( notwithstanding her admonitions , and perswasions did with his companions go to stoak to play ; where after they had done , and drank somewhat freely , they return home ; and by the way fell out , whereupon john edwards one of his consorts stabbed him under the left side , vvhereof at seven a clock the next night , he died . one david price , a servant to t. hill , a grasier , offering to drive his cattel from banbury , was dissvvaded by his landlord , and told him he vvould be stopped , and forced to satisfie the lavv , to vvhich he replied , let me see who will hinder . in the morning he set out , and not yet out of the tovvnes end , one met him , and said , what david , to day , to day ? he ansvvered not , but passed on ; and although he never complained , nor any other saw any signes of the least sicknesse , yet in a stones cast of the town , he fell down dead suddenly , and was buried in banbury church-yard , the next day after . at wicks , betwixt colchester & harwich , upon whitsunday last in the after-noon , two fellowes meeting at the foot-ball , the one killed the other . at oxford , one lords day , one hawkes a butcher would needs mend his ditch , his wife disswaded him from it on that day ; but he would , and did go , but behold the remarkable justice of god! he is struck dead in the ditch : a sad example , amongst other of gods terrible judgements , one mr. powel upon the lords day did at lemster serve a writ of sub poena upon one , mr. shuit a gentleman , ( which he did on purpose upon that day , as is credibly reported ) as soon as he came out of the church into the church-yard ; to whom mr. shuit said , i thought you had been an honester man , than to do so upon this day ; who replied , i hope i am never a whit the more dishonest ; which he had no sooner spake , but suddenly he fell down dead , and never spake word more ; his wife seeing it , was immediately struck with sicknesse . may . . being the lords day , one rich. clark apprentice to timothy donorell of sherston in wiltshire , was drunk in company with one h. parrum , to whom he said he vvould hang or drown himself ; desiring to know which was the best , who replied , that he hoped he would do neither : but oh the judgements of the lord upon the prophaners of this day , and upon the sin of drunkennsse ! for on monday morning , he was seen going thorough the town , as if he were going about his masters businesse , and having got up upon the midst of a tree without the town , he there did hang himself . at billericay in essex , one theo. pease the ministers son , would needs ring the bells on the sabbath day , but was hindred by the officers ; the next lords day , he had gathered many together , and in despite of any , would ring , and whilst he was ringing , a giddinesse surprized him like one drunk , of which he fell sick , and in three dayes died . the tapster and chamberlain of queens head southwark , rode upon the lords day to be merry , and having been too bold with drink , one of them riding homewards , fell off his horse , and broke his neck . being the lords day , an apothecaries man in lime-street london , rid with another to barnet , to be merry , and being drunk , upon their return they met with a man travelling , to whom offering some abuse , the man strikes one of their horses , one of them bid the other run him through , which with his rapier he did through the left breast , so that he fell down dead ; and being both apprehended , they confessed , and were sent to new-gate . at baildon in yorkshire , two men sitting drinking at a wake , they quarrelled with one another ; but being parted , and one of them sitting by the fire side , the other presently falls upon him with a hatchet and cleaves him down the back , insomuch as his bowels fell forth ; the murderer being hotly pursued leapt into a river , and drowned himself . four travelling from london to maidenhead , one of them would needs travel on the lords day , the rest refused , spending the sabbath there ; this man rode in the morning to henly , and there heard a sermon , after that travelled again in the afternoon , and on his way , leading his horse down a smooth descent , his horse suddenly fell , and broke both his fore legs ; he was suddenly amazed at so strange and unexpected a providence , and could not but attribute it to the immediate hand of god : whereupon seeing him past recovery , he knockt his horse on the head , and so left him . the next day , being overtaken at abington by his fellow-travellers , they wondering , demanded the reason how it came to passe , he was no further on his way ? he smote his breast , and related the strange providence of god , towards him , saying , he had heard many a good sermon , but none of them ever wrought so much upon his conscience , as this providence of god did : and since it was no worse , it should be an example and a warning to him for ever after . oh that it might be so to others , that may heare of it or read it . in the year . was a beer-brewer ( dwelling in giles-criplegate london , nigh unto the white horse ) that usually followed the sinful practise of brewing upon the lords day , for which he was warned , and told of the greatnesse of the sin , and how severe god was to such sinful practises , but he reformed not : once upon a lords day at noon , the reverend m. t. vveld , lecturer of the said place ( from whom i had the relation ) went into the house , and taking them at work , lovingly , yet sharpely , admonished them , to whom they promised to do so no more : within a sabbath or two after , the same servant of the house , which before was taken in the act , was now again found guilty of the same sin ; but mark the justice of the lord ; for setting fire to the copper , when it was scalding hot , he fell over into it , and was immediatly scalded to death . another , which i had from the same hand . a cook in the same parish , using to make it his trade , on the lords day , to heat ovens , and bake meat , whereby all the family was imployed as on other dayes , without regard to the lords day , unlesse to his own profit ; never , or seldom , frequenting the word preached ; was often admonished , yet went on in his sin : one christmas day , which fell upon the lords day , as he was working , and labouring ( as if no time were unlawful to gain the world , though he neglected his eternal soul ) he was consumed to death by fire . a vintner , that was a great swearer and drunkard , as he was standing at his own door upon the lords day , with a pot in his hand to invite his guests , was by the wonderful justice and power of god , carried into the aire with a whirlwind , and never seen nor heard of more . much might be said ; but my work swells upon the loome , yet have i left many example , to have the choice . i shall conclude with one word , and that is to pray us to consider , that god blessed ( that is , say divines , with intention of bestowing favours and benefits ) this day : o let 's then labour for gods blessing above all things ! read those promises in esay , . , , , . jer. . , . let us labour for hearts to attend with delight to his lawes and ordinances ; when once we leave off ordinances , i durst almost say , we are in a more sure way to ruin , than the most outward prophane . they are mercies not so much prized as they would , if we wanted them ; a confluence brings a glut , and that a disgust of the most relishing mercies . a ten or five mile sermon formerly , tasted sweeter than now greater opportunities of grace and mercy nigher hand , and within our reach : i say , let us set a high value upon the favour and means of conveyances : let 's love and honour the faithful ministers of the word : to love them , is to love to hear them ; hate thy minister , and then follows contempt of the word , and so hardnesse of heart : this is commonly the sad effect of this sin . scoffers of religion , the ministers of his precious gospel and people , have been made spectacles of gods anger ; judgements are prepared for scorners , prov. . . they are blessed that sit not in their seat , psal. . . one present in this congregation , ( sayes a reverend divine ) was an eye-witnesse of a woman scoffing at another for piety , immediately she had her tongue strucken with a palsie , and in two dayes died thereof . value therefore , i say , thy minister , for he is set over thee for to watch for the good of thy soul ; the love of the minister , and the word , is no small help to the keeping of the lords day . i conclude with the psalmist . consider this all ye that forget god , lest he teare you in pieces , and there be none to deliver you . reader , these following sad examples came to my hand , since the printing of the former part of the treatise ; which i thought good to insert here . on thursday , in the last week save one , of june . a house was burnt down at hether set in norfolk : there being a jar in the morning between the man and his wife ( as is said ▪ ) the woman wished that her husband going out , might never return to his house ; which was burnt down e're he came home . on the th of july . at barnham-broom , some would needs draw up a bell ( it being the lords day ) into his place , that it might be ready against the bell-founder came on friday , that so they might not hinder their businesse . some went unwillingly to it , but others went forewarned , and did it : when it was up , he that was one of the readiest w. baynes , setting his foot on a board that brake or slipped , fell and beat out his braines , and miserably ended his dayes . aug. . . at scolebridge , a man drunken being fastned on a cart , the horse turning suddenly , overthrew the cart into the river , loaden with lime upon the drunken man , where he was drowned , and fearfully burnt with lime . in the former part of summer , a man being drunk at vvimondham , fell into a watery , miry place , and was drowned . another drunkard vomiting , a sow followed him , and eat up his vomit , at last falling from his horse , the sow pulled out his throat , and so he miserably died : reported by the judge at the assizes . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- amos . . psal. . . notes for div a e- epistle to mr. murcots wo. * mayor of exceter . mr. mantons epist. to his life & death . * suspected to favour puritans . vvilsons . k. james . notes for div a e- tit. . , a . notes for div a e- turkish hist. wilson . k. ja. prov. . . r. junius . l. bacon . d. taylor . esay . , , , , , . chap. . , , . chap. . . joel . . king. . , . sam . . gen. . . peards . theatre . non ut vivat fed ut bibat . mr. nealson , minister , his letter to mr. taylor in theatre of gods judgements . mr. ward , his wo to drunkards . d.t. taylor . mr. beadles diary . mr. clerks examples mr. young . mr. stubs anatomy of abuses mr. young . doctor beards theatre . mr. trapp . m. l. marg math. . . prov. . . levit. . . hosea . . marg psal. . . neh. , . mal . mr. beadles diary mr. ridsley serm. r. junius . theatre of gods judgements . mr. bolton . theatre of gods judgements . mr. clerks examples . theatre of gods judgements . luthers colloquia . theatre of gods judgements . mr. terry's east-india voyage . theatre of gods judgements . theatre of histor● . theatr. gods judgements . stow. cron. theatre of god , judgements . fox acts . theatre histo. theatr. of gods judgements . wilson k. james . sin stigmatised . sword against swearers . dr. williams true church . mr. nowel . these two i have from a reverend divine of this county . the relation from his brothers own mouth now alive . . . mr. burtons tragedy , &c. mat. . . exod. . exod. . . & . . & . . ezech. . . isay . . & . . rom. , , . mr. goodwin . mr. cawdry . jer. , . neh. . . ezek. . . & . theatr● of history . theatre of gods judgements . mr. clarks examples . rom. . . theatre of gods judgements . luke . mr. clarks examples . mr. p. goodwin . dies dominicus redivivus . . mr , clarks examples . dr. twiss on sabb. dr. beards theatre . c. tacitus , josephus . mr. nelson minister , his letter to mr. taylor in theatre of judgements . . . . july , . . july , . . july , . octoct . . . . january . march , . june feb. . . april . . mr. weld . mr. clark . king. . king. : mr. greenhill , on ezekiel . psal. . the drunkard's character, or, a true drunkard with such sinnes as raigne in him viz. pride. ignorance. enmity. atheisme. idlenesse. adultery. murther. with many the like. lively set forth in their colours. together with compleat armour against evill society. the which may serve also for a common-place-booke of the most usuall sinnes. by r. iunius. younge, richard. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the drunkard's character, or, a true drunkard with such sinnes as raigne in him viz. pride. ignorance. enmity. atheisme. idlenesse. adultery. murther. with many the like. lively set forth in their colours. together with compleat armour against evill society. the which may serve also for a common-place-booke of the most usuall sinnes. by r. iunius. younge, richard. [ ], , [ ], - , [ ] p. printed by r. badger, for george latham, at the bishops-head in s. pauls cuhrchyard [sic], london : . r. iunius = richard younge. the words "pride. .. atheisme." and "idlenesse. .. murther." are enclosed in brackets on the title page. signatures: a- x y² chi¹ (= m ) z- l m² (- m ). "compleat armour against evill society" has separate dated title page; pagination and register are continuous. includes index. variant: title page partly in another setting, reading ".. pride. enmity. ignorance. atheisme. ..". reproduction of the original in the folger shakespeare library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng alcoholism -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jennifer kietzman sampled and proofread - jennifer kietzman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the drunkard's character , or , a true drunkard with such sinnes as raigne in him , viz. pride . enmity . ignorance . atheisme . idlenesse . adultery . murther . with many the like . lively set forth in their colours . together with compleat armovr against evill society . the which may serve also for a common-place-booke of the most usuall sinnes . by r. iunius . london , printed by r. badger , for george latham , at the bishops-head in s. pauls cuhrchyard . . to the right reverend father in god , ioseph , lord bishop of exceter . right reverend father , and no lesse honoured lord. i see many make use of your lines , few acknowledge , none return to give thanks : but no cheating , like the fellony of wit ; for hee which theeves that , robs the owner , and coosens all that heare him . why i presume to make use of your name , is not hard to divine ; your interest being so just , and great , both in the man , and matter : it is not my respect onely , but your right ; and for encouragement , your own words may serve mee for a sufficient both plea , and protection . it is your lordships , that presents of love , feare not to be ill taken of strangers . nor could i more fitly dedicate this book , which ( so much crossing the stream of natur all corruption ) may happily provoke some insolent , yea , potent offenders . i cannot so over esteeme these lines , as to hold them worthy your judicious eyes , much lesse your patronage : yet , as the case standeth with mee , it would bee no lesse then injurious , not to look so high ; and i should offend , if i presumed not . benefits received , are bonds obligatory : and if so , both my duty and thankfulnesse make my best services your debt , and if neither of these , my most endeared affection : vv hether should the riverreturn , if not to the occan , from whence it received it's streams ? and i have not alone watered my garden from your fountain ; but a great part of this my candleslight , took it's being ( next the element of gods word ) from the shining lamp of your workes . many of these are flowers from your garden , sciences from your orchard , i have taken a great part of my seed from your granary : if i shall seeme to saucy , in plucking and taking them , without leave from the owner ; i humbly crave , that restitution and acknowledgment may serve for part of amends . if this posie and new fruit answer your sent and tast , i have obtained my desire : or if the graine of this new crop chance to differ , impute the fault to the soyle , and seeds-man ; though it was not my purpose to impaire the quality , by improving the quantity . briesly , as the bee gathers from one flower , wax ; from another , honey ; from a third , bee-glew , and bringeth to her hive that which is profitable from all : so have i ( under correction ) filch't from your lordships worthy workes , and other authors , ( both divine and humane , whether ancients or neotericks ) what soever elegant phrases , pithy sentences , curious metaphors , witty apo● hegmes , sweet similitudes , or rhetoricall expressions i could meet withal , pertinent , whole some , and delectable , wherewith to enamell this tr●atise of mine : so that you may almost say of it , as apollodorus was wont to say of chrysippus his bookes , that if other mens sentences were left out , the pages would be void : and others cannot but resemble it to horace his daw , which was drest and pranked in other birds feathers , being otherwise naked and bare : nay , my selfe will acknowledge , that to this nosegay of strange flowers , i have put little of mine owne , but the thread to bind them ; and that to all this frame , i have not much more then made the pins , which fasten the joynts together ; for most of the materials were squared and fashioned to my hand , by more judicious workmen : it is but borrowed mettal ●ast into a new mould . yet pardon me , ●e who hath but a cock boat to sayle in , must not go far from the shore : and such as want a stock of their own , are forced to borrow , and trade with other mens money . peradventure the magazine of my memory is better furnished with matter , then the store-house of my invention ; yet each are so meanly , as i am forced both to pity and disdaine my felfe . who knoweth not , that the suggestion of one new thought , is harder , and better , then many repeated ? wherein your lordship excelleth some other of my authors , as the sunne in brightnesse the rest of the planets . it is reported of epicurus , that in three hundred volumes , which he left behind him , he had not made use of one allegation : who , in our times , doth resemble him more then your lordship , lesse then my selfe ? yet this i will avouch in mine owne praise , that i love wisdome , and honour learning , as much as they that have them . and for my defence , if in reasons , comparisons , and arguments , i trarsplant any into my soyle : i am no thiefe in it : since i either say , or am ready to acknowledge of whom i had them . i have so made use of other mens wits , as you may see i do● not steale , but borrow . i desi●e not to conceale their nam●s , as naughty women do the right fathers of their children ; though i confesse , many of my authors names , and places , of what i have ●udled up together , are by me so absolutely for gotten ; that he which would know of me whence they are taken , and from whom i had them , would greatly ●ut me to my shifts : yet have i not beg'd them but at honour able and well known gates ; they are all , or almost all , so famous th●t , me thinks , they sutficie●tly name themselves ▪ without me ; for they are both vich , and they also come from rich and worthy hands ; wherein authority doth concurre with reason . but of all the rest , it is easie for any , that have been conversant in your lordships bookes ▪ to know by the smell of each flower , which hath had the aspect of your sunne . neither ( if i shall speaking enuously ) had this web ever beene , but for the silke , which i found ready spun from your worthy breasts . i had suff●red sh pwrack on the first shore , but that i was steered by so good a pilot , as your selfe , by whose compasse i have securely sailed , and ( though sometimes weather-beaten safely arrived at my expected haven yea , my molde was so kindly bedewed with your heavenly co●templat●o●s ; when it was sun-burnt ; and so gently thawed by your divine meditations and other observations , when it was frost bound ▪ that the earth it self would cause me blush , if i should not present yo● with the first , or best fruits . not that my ambit on , or hope doth so far transport●me as to think it worthy your serious serveigh , whose houres are taken up with more excellent and heavenly notions : much lesse able to add the least gleame , to what you know : such a fond co●ceit were as absurd , as to light a taper to the sun , to teach an eagle to fly , a dolphin to swime , or with phormio the philosopher , to read a lecture of souldiery to hannibal , the most expert warrier of his time , and i might be worthily laught at for my labour , as he was : i only offer it to your censure and dispose , that it might therather cree● forth , under the safe conduct of your goodnesse , unto the hands and use of others ; and even therin feare also , that i have coveted too high , and intruded too much on your lordships more weighty affaires . indeed , to alter a little of what is yours , would interdict mee all apologie , since that were to use the pensile upon a picture finished by apelles ; or to write the destruction of troy after homer , which with ease may be marred , but cannot be mended . suppose , with epicurus , you loath to repeate any thing againe , be it never so pleasing , or profitable ; as it appeares by your compositions you do : yet far be it from you , to barre others that benefit ; when the same god , by whose spirit your pen was guided , gave command , that his children should lay up his words in their hearts and souls , bind them upon their hands , and between their eyes , teach them their children , repeat them sitting and walking , lying down , and rising up , yea , write them upon the posts and gates of their houses . besides , experience shewes that the oftner these nayles are hammered , the deeper they pierce ; and pierce too deep they cannot ; for five words remembred are better then a thousand forgotten ; and every help to our devotion , deserves to be precious . it was an envious humour ( not befitting your lordships worth , whose ayme is god's glory , not your owne ) which caused alexander to bee angry with aristotle , for making his bookes common : and a peevish condition , which made aspendius , that cunning musitian , to play always so softly on his harpe , that none conld heare but himselfe . vertue is destributive , and had rather accommodate many with selfe-injury , then bury benefits that might pleasure a multitude ; and that which is good of it selfe , is so much the better , by how much the more it is communicated ; yea , to conceale goodnesse is a vice . i need not tel your lordship , that gray advisements in a fine filed phrase are like 〈◊〉 , fire , water , the more breathed , the clearer ; the more extended , the warmer ; the more drawne , the sweeter ; or the bright sun , whose beames are not the worse , for shining in every corner , but the places the better . if then i detract not from their worth , who may not benefit by their use ? in which my care and desire was , with the bee , to 〈◊〉 my selfe and others without prejuaice to any one flower . put case i have fa●otted and piled one thing upon another independantly , and without forme , or order ; precious stones willshine , though set in lead ; and linkes of gold , have their true value and lustre , though a bungler make the chaine . indeed , if in borrowing the matter , i impaire the forme , ( as many times it commeth to passe , that sentences translated , or repeated , doe , like silke twise dyed , loose their glosse ) if i adulterate , or sophisticate any one peece , let the author reward me , as archelaus and philoxenus did some , which sang their ●eeters illfav●uredly and undecently , who either kickt them on the shinns , or broke their potts , using these words , you breake mine , i breake yours ; or as learned musurus candiot served marsilius ficinus , in correcting his translation of plato , all over with a sponge , finding it to imitate the copy originall , no more then cicero the younger did his father , which was only in name ; or take the same course with my book , which philoxenus did with a tragedy , that dionysius sent him to correct ; who finding it not worthy to bee published , tooke a knife and rased it in peeces . for praise , i seeke none , as i have deserved none ; and i am so farre from expecting thanks , as that i humbly crave pardon ; yea , a conditionall acceptance is all i aske . wherefore vouchsafe it your favourable aspect , and let this meane , but faithfull testimony of my humble thankfulnesse , be shrowded under the wings of your learned patrociny ; as was persius under the wings of pallas ; and teucer under the shield of ajax . and your deserved greatnesse , shall make it more acceptable , and by consequence the more profitable : yea , your name , to which it is consecrate , shall add life to it , as the sunne to a withered plant ; and your protection will no lesse support it , then bones do the flesh of a mans body , or walls the building of an house . true , alexander , at first , disdained the corinthian embassadors , who offered him the freedome and burgueship of their city ; but when they told him , that bacchus , and hercules were likewise in their registers ; he kindly thanked them , and accepted their offer . if there be any thing herein worthy , let it induce your acceptance ; if not , it may please you to imitate caesar , who never rej●yced more , then to heare how they talked of his valiant exploits , in simple cottages . divers doe dedicate their heavenly labours , according to earthly respects ; and i have often seene an heavenly pearle , presentted to the hand of an earthly and sensuall patron : but such incongruous , and untuneable de dications have ever beene harsh to my judgement : wherefore that i might avoid the like incongruity , i was bold , in nuncupating my booke , to fixe upon your lordship ; in whom , to the outwa●d gifts of nature , and fortune , are conj●yned the inward endowments of grace ; as piety , humility , affability , temperance , justice , wisdome , with maturity of judgement , and the like ; which by a rare and happy combination , have met together , as diamonds set in a border of gold , or sapphirs placed in a cabinet of ivory : touching which your vertues ) for i will not use many words , of your selfe , to your selfe ) i shall rather praise god , and pray for the continuance and increase of them , in the secret closet of mine own heart , than make any publike proclamation of the same , in the eares of others ; knowing , that your selfe affects no other the ater , for your worth , then your owne conscience . and in regard of others , it were as needlesse , as to lend spect●cles to lynceus , an eye to argus , or to wast gilding on pure gold. for who hath heard of your name , that is not driven to admiration and veneration of your singular sufficiencies ? againe , alexander's victories and vertues , ( to which i may fitly resemble them ) were not to be drawne in the compasse of a signet ; neither did it become any to paint them , but apelles ; to grave them , but pyrgoteles ; to carve them , but lysippus . wherefore i will passe over with a dry pen , that which neither befits the person to write , in regard of his meannesse , nor the place of an epistle to containe in regard of it's expected briefnesse ; though it is detraction to conceale due praise , when good related , might more goodnes raise . true glasses both our deformities and favours tell : and precepts never shine so much , as when they are set in examples ; nor examples , as when they are set in curious persons : nor is it easie to finde so fit a person , so meet a patterne for imitation , for incitation . the which benefit that we may long enjoy , as a set copy in the schoole of this our nation , my prayers , with many other , are hearty and fervent , that your life may be as long , as it is beneficiall ; then shall you as much out-live others , as your name you ; which will bee so long , as nature hath an eare , or eye , ortongu● ; for though you dye , your sweet remembrance shall ever live . oh that these lines might live but so long , as your fame and known integrity ; then i were confident they should never meet a grave in comming ages . thus loving rather to say nothing , then too much ; i desire your lordship to accept , as from an affectionate heart , and dutiful hand , in part of payment , by way of restitution , this small mite ; which i bring you , in your owne and other mens coyne , which is not more yours than the author , and so i commend it's successe to god , it 's patronage to you , it 's use to the world , and your lordsh●p to the protection , tuition , direct on of the mighty creator loving redeemer , comfortable preserver of all the elect. your lordships most humbly devoted , and in all service ever to be commanded r. i●nius . the drvnkard's character , or , a true drunkard lively set forth in his colours . having found out a new creature which god never made in the creation ( as once anah in the wildernesse , gen. . . ) i present him to view , first whole and intire , then cut up and anatomized ; taking liberty in method and distribution , so to place my divisions , subdivisions , notions , as may best serve for brevity , perspicuity , my purpose , and the readers benefit . § . a drunkard ( and i take him for such that drinkes more for lust , or pride , or covetousnesse , or feare , or good fellowship , or to drive away time , or to still conscience , then for thirst ) being generally considered , is one that was borne a man , lives a beast , and consorts with beasts of his owne kinde ; one that through custome of sinne , and a just judgement of god upon it , hath his heart changed from mans nature , and a beasts heart given him in the steed , as it fared with nebuchadnezzar , dan. . . for what other can wee thinke of him that gives himselfe to this vice ; doth not wine rob a man of himselfe and lay a beast in his roome ? hee is not himselfe , hee is not his owne man , though a master of others : neither are drunkards to be reckoned amongst men , but beasts , saith seneca . indeed they are humane , or rather inhumane beasts , or as some more favourably admit , reasonable beasts , or sensuall men : but yeeld them the utmost , a drunkard hath but a bestiall heart in a case of humane flesh , and there is little difference between him and a beast , but that he doth exceede a beast in beast●nesse , as hermes well observes . § . yea to prove them beasts in condition , though men in shape , were a taske so easie , that it would accrue small credit to an opponent , for each natuall man ( so long as he remaines in his sinnes impen●tent ) is a very beast in condition as ieremy affirmes , ier. . . and st. peter , pet. . . hee may be so proud as to scorne the comparison ; but it is so , for the wisdome of heaven puts it upon him , and that which the prophet in this place wraps up in a short metaphor , is in other places of scripture , as it were , illustrated , and unfolded by a continued allegory ; the selfe same spirit making good that generall charge by many particular instances , as looke but in gods dictionary ( who can give most congruous names to natures ) and you shall find , nero termed a lyon , tim. . herod , a fox , luk. . the iewish false teachers , dogs , phil. . davids persecutors , bulls of bason and vnicornes , psal. . the egyptian enemies , dragons , psal. . the scribes and pharesies , serpents and vipers , math. . the babil●nian monarch , a lyon , with eagles wings ; the percian , a bearc ; the macedonian , a leopard , dan. . the enemies of the church , wild boares , psal. . greedy iudges , evening wolves , zeph. . schismaticks , foxes cubs , canticl . . &c. or admit the scriptures were silent herein , wee may evidently see men and women transformed into beasts of all kinds everyday , some into epicurean swine , others into barking dogs , a third sort into cruell tygers , &c. yea no wildernesse afords so many beasts as some great city : for each covetous muckworme , is a blind mole ; every lust full person , a rancke goate ; the fraudulent man is a fox ; the busie body , a squirrell , the murmurer , a frog ; the flatterer , a spaniell ; the slanderer , an aspe ; the oppressor , a wolfe ; the persecutor , a tyger ; the church robber , a wild boare ; the seducer a serpent , yea a devill ; the traitor , a viper , &c. for the time and my breath would faile mee if i should reckon up all kinds of humane beasts , or beastiall men , beasts in the forme of men ; yea it s well if all these brutish conditions meete not in one man ( especially a drunkard ) as rivers in the sea , for there is not one beastlike , or serpentine quality which every of their natures much more this sinne , would not admit if god restrained them not . § . even such is the power of sinne , that it made god become man , angells become devills , and men become beasts ; but this sinne , this vile and odious sinne of drunkennesse , hath a more superlative power ; for it makes a man worse then any beast which goes upon foure legs . neither can i finde a sample for him amongst beasts , hee is such a beast that i know not with what beast to match him , such a beast that no other beast will keepe him company ; the neerest to him is the ierff , a beast in the north parts of suetia , whose property ( as gesner , out of olaus magnus , relates it ) is when he hath killed his prey , or found somecarkasse , to fal a devouring the same , and never leave feeding untill his belly be puft up , and strouteth like a bag-pipe , and then not being able to hold any more , he goeth presently betweene two narrow trees and straineth out backward what hee hath eaten , and so being made empty , returneth againe to the carkasse , and filleth himselfe as before , and then straineth it out the second time , and so continueth filling and emptying himselfe untill he hath devoured all ; which being consumed , he hunteth after more , and this is the course of his whole life . now if the drunkard , whose whole life is little els but a vicissitude of devouring and von●itting , who spends all his time in drinking , and venting , and abominable spewing , so disgorging himselfe when he hath drunke his fil , thereby to be able to drinke the like quantity againe , had but this ill quality and not an hundred more and worse with it , i might well couple these two beasts together ; for in this particular there cannot be devised a more expressive hieroglyphique of his loathly condition : but alas , this is rather one of the drunkards vertues , for which he lookes to be applauded , and is so by all that keepe him company , so that this comparison falls short by much . § . vvherefore in my encounter with this monster , i will neither spend time , nor blot paper with shewing wherein they are equall with beasts ; as that they are onely led by sensuality , that their whole intendment is their bellies , that like hogs they thinke no garden so pleasant as the dunghill , no cleare streame comparable to the mire wherein they wallow , that seeming a heaven to them which to a sober and religious man is little better then an hell ; yea , who thinks it not lesse labour to plow all day , then to pot it , that it is a taske almost invicible , to make them owne those words and behaviours when they are sober , which in their pots they were authors of , that notwithstanding drink hath often made them as sicke as ever was sea-man , and exposed them to a thousand perills , yet they are never the wiser afterwards , that they have no more conscience nor feare of god , then beasts : yea , tell them of god , their hearts will make reply , as the cyclops in the tragedy did with his mouth , when vlysses told him of god ; i know no other god but my belly : that they are as improvident & without forefight of what will follow , as beasts ; providing no refuge against the evill day , but thinke to beare off the judgments of god with head and shoulders , that like bruite beasts they will beleive nothing but what they are led to by sense , that they consider no more how time passeth away then a beast is able to tell the clocke ; whereupon their departure is commonly so suddaine , that when they looke for a pleasant peale , behold , it is their passing bell , that they are no more ashamed of their deeds then beasts ; yea lesse , for a very dog , though he cannot blush , will goe away , as if he were ashamed , when he hath done a shrewd turne , and is taken in the manner ; but drunkards have a meretricious forehead , stupid , and steeled with impudence , shame-proofe , there is not so much blood of grace in their hearts as will serve to make halfe a blush in their cheekes . if it bee objected that a drunkard can sometimes speake ; i answere , that is no more then a beast hath done , even a silly asse , num. . . these and many the like i will passe over , and only shew you wherein they be worse then beasts . § . in which , let none thinke mee over tart , or my comparisons too homely ; for they must not looke to live like beasts , yea , worse then beasts , and be slattered as if they were men : what , shall wee walke in the spirit of falsehood , and prophesie of wine and strong drinke ? no , this were to bee a beast for company : if men thinke scorne thus to be compared , let them forbeare to deserve such comparisons . what saith st. chrysostome , shall i thinke thee to be a man when thou hast all the qualities of a beast ; kickest like an asse ; neighest after women , like a horse ; ragest in lust , like a bull ; ravenest like a beare , stingest like a scorpion , rakest like a wolfe , as subtill as a fox , as impudent and shamelesse as a dog ? thou hast nothing in thee to induce mee to thinke so , seeing there is a greater similitude betweene thee and a beast , in the disposition of thy minde , then dissimilitude in the composition of thy body : as for thy shape , that affrights mee more when i see a beast in the likenesse of a man. but i speake not so much to them as of them , for these beasts rarely reade bookes , especially tending to piety : i speake to the sober , as unto men of understanding , and let them judge what i say . § . drunkards inferiour to beasts in five particulars . viz. in swilling to excesse , whereas beasts keepe within the bounds of moderation . i● cosing the prerogative of their creation , wheras beasts keepe theirs . in depriving themselves of sense and motion , wherein beasts excell plants and stones . in that they subvert reason , & prove cruell to themselves , yea , ofttimes become their owne executioners . in transforming themselves into the condition of cvill angells , whose whole delight is to sin and make others sinne , and whose portion is in the burning lake . first , it is not so bad to be a beast , as for a man ( who hath more noble endowments ) to live like a beast , which is the drunkards case , who in their practise resemble beasts , saving that beasts are therin better then they : as for example , beasts , whether horses , oxen , or any other brutish creature ( as knowing when they have enough , when once they have drank sufficient to quench their thirst , and to satisfie nature ) have so much reason and good manners in them as to forbeare to drinke any more then they neede ; yea , they cannot be forced by any violence to drinke againe ; which shewes that excesse is a most unnaturall and abominable sin : whereas the drunkard drinks double and treble , yea , ten times more then hee needs , and not onely satisfies nature , but also gluts and oppresseth it with superfluity , even unto surfeit . yea , this even one of their owne poets have confest ; who , when his wife askt him whether hee were not ashamed to lye drunke in the streets like a beast ; replyed , thou lyest like a whore , for if i were a beast i would not be drunke . i marvell how a drunkard could give so good a reason . neither is this all , for as beasts know when they have enough , these brutish animals are so far from having command over their affections , from putting a knife to their throate when they have taken enough , as salomon adviseth , pro. . . that they will be ready to sheath it in the drawers belly , if hee shall but offer to set bounds to their throats ; at least they will unblesse themselves , when meanes , and time , and company , will not permit another sacrifice to their bacchus ( their belly ) so that to say the truth , and give beasts their due in this particular , it is a wrong to beasts , to call drunkennesse their sinne , for generally they are sober , and these so much worse then beasts , as they ought to be better . § . drunkards are worse then beasts , in that beasts remaine the same they were created ; whereas drunkards subvert natures institution , cease to bee what god made them , reasonable creatures , and suffer themselves to be transformed by drinke into swine , as elpenor , one of vlysses companions was turned by circe into a hog , so sha●ing their creation : and whereas other sinnes deprive a man of gods image , this deprives him of mans , leaving him neither the use of reason nor speech , without which ( but for the name and dimensions of a man ) he is no better then a beast , as the foole said of his coulestaffe , when he rid upon it into the water ; as good no horse but for the name of a horse : yea , the drunkards soule is made a slave to his sense , and whilst this rebells , she that worst may must hold the candle . now a man having lost the use of his soule , is worse then a beast which keeps the use of his instinct ; yea , a man that hath lost his senses , is therein worse then a beast that hath them , as sure as a living dog is better then a dead lyon : wherefore in this regard also the drunkard should have a name inferiour to that of beast , and not be reputed so good . § the drunkard deprives himfelfe , not onely of the use of his reason , but also of his senses ; not of his understanding alone , but of his standing and motion also ; beasts have no reason , no more have they , but beasts can use their limms , and so cannot they : drinke not onely robs him of reason and speech ( which two things distinguish beast and man ) but likewise of sense and motion , wherein beasts excell stocks and stones , yea , it so blockefies him for the present , that neither hand nor foote can doe their office , as terence hath it . it is no rare thing in our swinish age , for men to imitate the ancient persians , who though they were able to carry themselves into their banquetting rooms , yet they were alwayes carried out of them ; in which case they can neither prevent future danger , nor feele present smart : why , he is gone , according to the drunkards phrase , that is gone in his senses , gone in his standing , gone in his understanding . indeede , as there is a meane in drinking , which is lawfull , so there bee degrees of drunkennesse : the first draught f wine comforteth the heart and stomack , the second inflames the liver , the third fumeth into the head , and makes men fooles , the fourth quite takes away their senses , and makes them to adore their god bacchus , like beasts upon all foure , or rather like blockes , as having never a leg to stand upon ; so what is feighned of proteus , viz. that he was transformed , first , into a lyon , then into a boare , and at last into a tree , is really verified in many a drunkard : as have you not knowne some of them towards their latter end , in cleomenes condition , who carrousing after the manner of the scythians ; dranke so much , that he became and continued ever after senselesse . what shall i say of a drunkard ? that little mouth of his , hath swallowed downe himselfe , his paunch hath buried the wine , and in the wine is his wit buried , his senses , his soule , and perhaps his last wealth ; yea , hee is dead as well as buried : for you may ring a bell in his eare , hee heares not , much lesse can he speake , yea scoffe him , rob him , spurne him if you will , he feeles not , he stirres not , much lesse can he quarrell . matheolus writing of the asses of thuscia , saith , that when they have fed upon hemlockes , they sleepe so soundly that they seeme to be dead , in so much as the countrymen many times more then flea off halfe their skins before the asses will awake ; these drunkards are such asses , when they have drunke stiffe , and are fallen asleepe , you may halfe flea them before they will awake : i have knowne it so in effect by one of them , whom no violence , or paine could awake , so that hee is more like a stocke or stone then a reasonable or living creature . or if he be not so dead as a dore naile , yet at least the drinke hath turned him out of dores , for whosoever would speake with him , must stay untill hee come home againe to himselfe : and hereupon , when cyrus in his childhood was asked by his grandfather astyages , why at such a feast hee dranke no wine ? he returned this answere , full of witty simplicity : because , said he , i tooke it to be poyson , for i have seene it to spoyle men of their wit , sense , speech , health , strength , and motion : neither proves it lesse hurtfull to drunkards then ranck poyson , but farre more ; for it intoxicateth the braine , benummeth the senses , enfeebleth the joynts and sinewes , and bringeth a man into a temporary lethargy , besides the evill that it brings to the soule , which is farre worse ; so that a beast is a man to such a man : for what is he better then a walking tankard at best , as aurelius called bonosus , that quaffing emperour , who afterward ( being overcome by probus ) hanged himselfe , leaving this to be spoken in his praise , that he was not borne to leade an army , but to lift a pot . but in case aforesaid , namely , when they have drunke themselves deafe , and blind , and dumbe , nay , dead and senselesse , to what can i so firly compare them , as to the idolls of the heathen , which have eyes , and see not ; eares , and heare not ; tongues , and speake not ; noses , and smell not ( no not their owne vomit ) hands , and handle not ; feete , and walke not , being as dead men , that can neither sit , stand , nor goe , nay worse by farre : for hee that is dead , can doe neither good nor ill , but drunkards are dead to all goodnesse whatsoever ; and alive , yea , very active to all wickednesse ; so that their conditon is farre worse then the very beasts that pepith , psal. . . . but admit the best , namely , that they are beasts , you cannot but grant that these uncleane beasts , which wallow in the mire of sensuality ; these brutish drunkards , which transforme themselves through excesse ; are even those swine , whom the legion carries headlong to the sea , or pit of perdition , mat. . . or will they have themselves to be men ? surely to come to drinke , as to a sacrifice unto the belly , is a most base and brutish idolatry ; and what men are they like , or to whom may they fitly be compared ? surely unto none , except epicurus , who maintained , that sensuall pleasure was the only summum bonum : or cerinthus the hereticke , who verily beleived , that the chiefe felicity in heaven , should be eating and drinking , and such like fleshly lusts . § . or ( that i may passe to the fourth particular formerly propounded ) that lunatick man , mentioned , math. . . . whom all the disciples could not cure , untill the master himselfe came ; and to that mad man they are very like . for as hee being fore vexed , fell oftentimes into the fire , and oftentimes into the water : so these being robbed of their strength and senses by drinke , are frequently subject to all fearefull accidents , and miserable mishaps , which often fall out by reason thereof . as some being drunke , fall into the fire , and are burned ; as i could instance in a gentleman of worth , that rising to make water , could finde no fitter place to do● it in , then the chimney ; where , being a few live embers , hee fell downe , and not being able to rise againe , had his belly puckerd together like a sachell , before the chamberlaine could come to helpe him ; whereupon , being in great torture , hee dranke off twenty two double jugs of beare , and so dyed , roaring and crying that he was damned , for breaking his vow which he had made of reformation : some againe fall into the water , and are drowned , as is commonly seene : againe , some fall and batter their faces , bruise their bodies , breake their armes , their legs , and many breake their necks , in the very act of drunkennesse , whose cases are desperate : others are wounded , beaten , and many times murthered , as often times they stab and murther others : but this is notably described by salomon , proverbs , . . to . indeed drunkennesse is nothing else , nor hath ever beene reputed amongst the wise and learned , then a voluntary madnesse , a temporary forfeiture of the wits , worse then frenzie , in that the one is violent , the other voluntary ; that , the evill of punishment ; but this , the evill of sinne . the wine , which of it selfe is a good creature of god , and , being moderately taken , of excellent use ; becomes to them which use it to surfeir , as the water of the river gallus in phrygia , which maketh all those mad that drinke of it : other vices doe but alter and distract the understanding , whereas this utterly subverteth the same , and astonieth the body : even wrath makes a man a beast , but drunkennesse makes a man mad , and if so , how odious is this sinne ! for if it be a hatefull thing for a man to wound his owne flesh , and willfully to maime the members of his body ; how abominable is it to wound the mind it selfe , and to offer violence unto our reason and understanding ! if it be a crime to offer violence against the subjects ; then surely to lay violent hands upon the king himselfe , and to pull him out of his regall throne , must needs bee condemned as an outragious wickednesse . or lastly , suppose them men , they are but like that man spoken of , marke : . . to . who being possest of the divell , lived amongst the graves , and cut himselfe with stones ; for they love none but base company , base places , and base courses ; and what other doe their frequent and horrible oathes , but cut them deeper then those stones did him ? it 's true , hee may seeme to be in a better condition : as first , he may have a name to live , but indeed he is dead , as s. iohn speakes . secondly , he may have the appearance of a man , but indeed he is a beast , as ieremy speakes . thirdly , he may be thought a sound man , but indeed he is demoniacall , obsessed , or rather , possessed with a devill , yea , many devills , and more miserable then such an one , because it is a devill of his owne chosing , as basil speakes . and certainely , if every raygning sin be a devill , as s. austin holds ; much more , if the heart of a reprobate containes so many devills , as unchast thoughts , as st. gregory affirmes ; every true drunkard is posiest with more devills then mary magdalen was , and good reason ; for , as our saviour intimates , the devill can find no such rest in dry places , math. . . indeed this may seeme , to some ignoramusses , a big word : but let mee tell you , the corporall possession of evill spirits is not so rare , as the spirituall is rife , no naturall man is free ; one hath the spirit of error , tim. . . another the spirit of fornication , ose . . . another the spirit of blasphemy , revel . . . and . . . . another the spirit of falsehood , math. . . another the spirit of feare , tim. . . another the spirit of slumber , rom. . . another the spiof giddinesse , esay , . . to . another the spirit of pride , all have the spirit of the world , cor. . . yea , let me assure you from gods word , that all yee who are not changed in the image of your minds , eph. . . rom. . . who have not yet felt the power of godlinesse , tim. . . are as truly , though spiritually , carryed by evill spirits into the deeps of your knowne wickednesse , as ever the gadarean hogs were carried by them downe the precipice into the sea. alas ! the devill hath more then one way to possesse men : hee keepes possession in some by his tenants , as by drunkennesse , swearing , whoredome , &c. in others actually and immediately by himselfe ; yet hee rather choseth to possesse men by these his tenants , then by himselfe , that so hee may not carry them against their wills as hee did that man in the gospell , into the fire and water , so using violence to their bodies ( all those forced and violent motions which they performe , who are really possest , being the devills owne sins ) but rather desireth to carry them willingly , and drive them , as free horses , that neede only the shaking of the hand , to the taverne , to the stewes , to this or that evill company ; and therefore hee desired not to possesse iobs body , because his intent was to draw iob himselfe to blaspheme god. so that wicked men , although their bodies are free usually from this posses . five power of sathan , yet sathan hath a farre greater power in the voluntary motions of their bodies and soules , even such a power , as that they shall be agents in what they doe , and as guilty of the sinne as himselfe , when he makes them abuse their eyes to wantonnesse , their mouthes to filthinesse , and makes their feete swift to shed blood : so that as paul being guided by the good spirit of god , could say , i live not , but christ lives in me , gal. . . so may they , we live not , but the devill lives in us , for he is their god , cor. . . and their prince , iohn , . . and workes in them his pleasure , eph. . . tim. . . now this possession of soule and body together , is the more fearefull , and yet the more ordinary , neither doe men marvell or wonder thereat , because it is not discerned . § . but fiftly , that drunkards are possest with as many devills as raigning sinnes , is not all ; their condition being yet worse , for in effect they are turned devills . in the former place you saw men transformed into beasts ; prye more narrowly into them , and you shall see those beasts transformed againe into devills , in the delight they take in sinne , in their mischievous tempting others to sinne : for surely if want of reason makes a beast , abuse of reason this way makes a devill ; and admit man hath some advantage above beasts , it is a miserable advantage that onely makes us apt to evill , yea , the worst of evills , and capable of an hell : small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts , that they make us worse then the worst of beasts . but of their acting the devills part and their severall slights in seducing and enforcing others to sinne , in drawing others to perdition : expect more , section the . &c. onely this for the present let the drunkard know , that except he doe repent and amend , there is not the most lothsome and despicable creature that crawles upon the earth , which he shall not once enuy , and wish to have beene , rather then what he is ; which should have been my next theame : but of this when i come to the punishment of drunkards , swearers , and seducers , section . . to . and . and . to . and so much of the person in generall , and a part : now take a generall view of the sinne , before i come to particulars , and see how the learned in all ages , both christians and heathens , have censured this vice , and judged of this sinne , though indeed the odiousnesse of it is beyond all expression : neither have i dehortation answerable to my detestation of it , onely what cannot be spoken ( your meditation supplying the defect of my speech ) may be implyed as under a curtaine ; which was the painters shift in deliniating the picture of venus , and the wont of timanthes ; who , in each picture hee drew , occasioned more to be understood , then was painted . § . the learned of all ages have concluded ; yea , drunkennesse it selfe ( if it could speake , as it can take away speech ) would confesse , that it is a flattering devill , a sweet poyson , a voluntary madnesse , an invited enemy , the author of outrages , quarrells , debates , murthers , the nurse of fury , the mistris of pride , the fountaine of all vice , the originall of all diseases , and bane of the soule : that it is a fire ; whose flame , is lust ; whose sparkes , are oathes , and evill words ; whose smoake , is pride , and infamy ; whose ashes , are diseases and poverty ; and whose end , is hell . that it is a sinne which cracks mens credits , consumes their estates , distempers their constitutions , dulls their spirits , infatuates their senses , intoxicateth their braines , stupefies and besots their understandings , perverteth their wills , troubleth reason , overthroweth the judgment , infeebleth the memory , corrupteth all the affections , excludeth counsell , and without gods infinite mercy , and their sound repentance , damnes the soule . that it is a bewitching sweete in the mouth , which turnes to deadly poyson in the heart , the revealer of secrets , the ship wrack of chastity , the shame of honesty , the ruine of good manners , the thiefe of time , the disgrace of mankind ; a sinne which makes man an abomination to the lord , odious to the angells , scorned of men , abandoned of all good society , and above all , makes men subjects and vassalls to sathan : a sinne of all others the most spreading , most infectious , most incurable , most inexcusable , a sinne which makes no difference of times , places , persons , &c. a sinne which is against the lawes of god , of grace , of nature , and of all nations , against sense and reason ; a sinne , which brings wrath and judgment upon the whole land ; a sinne , which is a griefe to friends , a ruine to families , which separates from the society and company of gods saints on earth , excludes and shuts them out of the kingdome of heaven , as plutarch , solon , pittacus . boetius , st. austin , st. ierom , st. chrysoftome , and others stile and define it . that it is of sinnes , the queene ; as the goute is of diseases , even the most prodigall , wastfull , unthrifty , unprofitable , unnaturall , unseemely , insatiable , unreasonable sinne ; the most base , brutish , beastly , foule , filthy , odious , execrable , detestable , horrible , abominable state , disturbing , heathenish , infernall , prodigious , damnable , gracelesse , and shamefull sinne of all others , as some of our moderne writers render it . in fine , it is a sinne odious and lothsome in any ; but in us , who have so much light , so many lawes of god and man against it , most unsufferable : but as it was once observed , that philosophy was taught in athens , but practised in sparta : so now temperance and sobriety is taught in england , but practised in spaine and turky . § . and as it is a most grievous and matchlesse sinne in it selfe ; so it is the cause of all other sinnes , a monster with many heads , the roote of all evill , the incendiary of all vice , the magazine of all misery , the mother and metropolis of all mischiefe . as tell mee , was there ever any sinne committed which wine hath not beene an occasion of ? for notwithstanding wine doth first serve and obey the drinker , yet by little and little mixing it selfe with the blood in the veynes , it doth rule over him , and , like saules evill and controlling spirit , makes him it 's vassall , whereby , like the centurions servant , he no sooner heares the word from sathan , doe this , but instantly hee doth it , whether it be to the committing of adultery , with holofernes ; inces● , with lot ; murther , with alexander , cambyses , and philopater : one of which , in his drinke , slew his deare and faithfull friend clytus , who was his chiefe captaine in all his exployts ( though it so troubled him being sober , that he would have made away himselfe ) the second , his onely sonne ; the third , his deare father and mother : or treason , with him that confest to king pyrrhus upon his arraignment , all this wee did and spake against thee , and much more should have done , had not the wine failed us : or blasphemy , with belshazzar and his princes , dan. . . and what not ? for even to rehearse the severall examples which history affords , and experience hath made knowne , were endlesse . some examples i have given you , and he is a very young man and unobservant , that cannot adde forty out of his owne experience . and doe not our reverend judges , in their severall circuits finde by experience , that few brawles , murthers , manslaughters , rapes &c. are committed , which arise not from this roote of drunkennesse . and indeed as in justice , all vertues are couched together summarily , as aristottle affirmes : so in drunkennesse , all vices are lapt up together as it were in a bundle , for it is a confluence or collection of all the rest : and as he said of old , prove a man to be ingratefull , and you prove him naught all over ; so prove one to bee a drunkard , and you prove him guilty of every thing that is evill , reprobate to all that is good : for what sinne is it which a drunken man will sticke to commit , when wee reade that cyrillus his sonne being drunke , slew his father , and his mother great with child , hurt his two sisters , and defloured one of them , as st. austin affirmes : when another being tempted by the devill ( as philip lonicer witnesseth ) to commit some crime or other , putting him to his choice either of drunkennesse , adultery , or murther ; he chosing the first , in his drunkennesse he abused the wife of him in whose house he was , and her husband comming in the whilst , he slew him ; and so in chosing that one , he committed all three : which being rightly considered , me thinkes a man had neede to be drunke before hand , that shall admit of more wine then enough ; that shall for one houres mad mirth , hazard a whole age of griefe and shame , together with his displeasure , that is able to destroy both body and soule in hell. § . but you have not heard all ; for as others observe , it is a queller of all good notions , motions , actions ; a sinne which decayes all a mans good parts , and morall vertues ; which disables men from all good imployments , either in church or common-wealth , making them unprofitable , which otherwise might be serviceable , and indisposeth them to grace and godlinesse , yea , to all the meanes thereof . for as by too much raine ( saith st. austin ) the earth is resolved into dirt , and made unfit for tillage : so drunkards by excessive swilling are altogether so unfitted for the spirituall tyllage , that they can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse , but rather like bogs and marishes , are fit to breed nothing but vermine , frogs , and serpents , that is , all manner of abominable sinnes , and lothsome wickednesse . more particularly , it keepes them from repenting , esa. . . . and all saving knowledge , esa. . . debarreth them from regeneration , christs righteousnesse , and that heavenly inheritance , rom. . . . gal. . . cor. . . by it the spirit is quenched , eph. . . and the body of sinne , with all it's lusts , strengthened , pet. . . yea the soule by it is made like a city broken downe and without walls , pro. . . besides , it keepes them in finall impenitencie , esay . . . . pro. . . neither can that soyle which brings forth this vice ( like ground sown with salt ) bring forth any other thing which is good , i meane , so long as a man is such ; as snow can never be made hot , so long as it is snow ; yea , where drunkennesse reignes or carries the raynes , there cannot dwell the least good , that heart is empty of all grace : and indeed how should such a worthy princesse as grace is , endure such rogues for her bed-fellowes ( so many filthy lusts as are in the drunkards heart ) to lodge with her , yea , as smoake drives bees from their hive : so drunkennesse drives all the graces from such an heart . and how should the holy-ghost ( which delights to dwell in the heart of an holy man ) but scorne to be an inmate , where drunkennesse is an inhabitant ; noysome lusts , and evill cogitations drive him away ; if the divell comes in , the holy-ghost will goe out . and therefore the scripture tells us , that the spirit went from saul when he sinned , sam. . . and so on the contrary , when the holy spirit enters into the heart of a man , all sinnes ( in some measure ) are abandoned ; as , when the king comes into the tower all the prisoners goe out . the drunkards heart is like mare mortuum , for as no fish will live there , so no grace will thrive here : it is the roote of all evill , the rot of all good . much traveling makes bad way , if one goe but now and then over a meadow , the grasse will neverthelesse grow , but when it is made a common through-fare , and beaten roade for all passengers , this maketh the path bare : so the frequent custome of sinne in any heart , when there is a perpetuall concourse of all filthinesse , hinders , yea , kills every good motion as fast as it springs up ; and this is a sinne which turnes a man wholly into sinne . the drunkard resembles vejovis that heathen god , who could doe no good , but hurt at will : and is like ahab , who sold himselfe to worke wickednesse ; yea worse , if worse can be , for the drunkard wholely dedicates , resignes , surrenders , and gives himselfe up to serve sinne and sathan ; his whole imployment is onely to drinke , drab , quarrell , sweare , scoffe , slaunder , and seduce ; as if to sinne were his trade , and he could doe nothing else ; like the devill , who was a sinner from the beginning , a sinner to the end . to say that sinne were in him , would be improper , for hee is nothing else but sinne in the abstract , as st. austin speakes , even a very chaos of sinne bunged up , for as when a man is overcome with anger , we say hee is in heate ; and when wee say such a man is in drinke , we imply more then that drinke is in him ; yea , when we call a man a drunkard , we imply more then that he is drunke , or hath beene drunke , for it argues frequency ; and lastly , as when simon peter told simon magus thou art in the gall of bitternesse , and in the bond of iniquity , hee implyed , that not onely these were in him , but hee in them : so both more is implyed , and it is more proper to say of a sotted and sordid drunkard , hee is sinne , then a sinner ; yea , that man of sinne is not fuller of sin , then such an one : so that as solomon saith , speaking of the vertuous woman , many daughters have done vertuously , but thou surpassest them all ; so may i say of a drunkard , many sinners have done wickedly , but thou surpassest them all . § . but to roave no longer in generalls , having given you a superficiall view of this monster , and the summe of that which he makes his onely summum bonum in a lumpe , or as it were wrapt up : i come now to strip him naked , and turne his inside outward ; by acquainting you with such speciall and particular observations , as best deserve our discovery and the worlds notice . in handling whereof , it is not to be expected that i should observe a distinct propriety in referring all particulars to their generall heads , for as much as many of them are coincident one with another . neither will i undertake to observe an exact order in his description , seeing hee keepes none at all in his life : my principall care being to paint him really and historically ( not poetically ) every way as he is ; his words , as he speakes them ; his deeds , as he acts them , even to the very life , and present him upon the stage such , as the spectators may verily thinke they either see him , or the devill in his likenesse ; as sr. tho. more concluded touching erasmus , when he but heard him speake , having never before seene the man. § . the first thing i 'le fall upon shall be his body , touching which i will lay open . his outward deformities . his inward infirmities . his outward bodily deformities are many , and those odious ; as if you observe it . the drunkard commonly hath ( vertumnus like ) a brasill nose ; a swolne and inflamed face , beset with goodly chowles and rubies , as if it were both rost and sod ; swimming , running , glaring , gogle eyes , bleared , rowling , and red ; a mouth nasty with offensive fumes , alwayes foaming , or driveling ; a fevorish body ; a sicke and giddy braine ; a mind d spearst ; a boy●ing stomacke ; rotten teeth ; a stinking breath ; a drumming eare ; a palsied hand ; gouty , staggering legs , that ●aine would goe , but cannot ; a drawling , stammering , temulentive tongue , clambd to the roofe and gumms ; in fine ( not to speake of his odious gestures , lothsome nastinesse , or beastly behaviour , his belching , hickups , vomittings , his ridiculous postures , and how easily he is knockt downe , whose hamstrings bacchus hath already cut in two ; nor of the unmeasurable grosenesse of such , whose onely element is ale , especially your ale-wives , who , like the germane froas , are all cheekes to the belly , and all belly to the knees , whose dugs and chins meete without any forceing of either , because you may dayly see such fustilugs walking in the streets , like so many tunnes , each moving upon two pottle pots ) his essentiall parts are so obscured , his sense so dulled , his eyes so dazeled , his face so distorted , his countenance so deformed , his ioynts so infeebled , and his whole body and minde so transformed , that hee is become the child of folly , and derision of the world , a laughing stock to fooles , a lothing stock to the godly , ridiculous to all . yea , questionlesse had they a glasse presented them , they could hardly be brought againe to love their owne faces ; much more , should they reade a true character of their conditions , would they runne besides their wits , if they had any to lose , or goe and dispatch themselves ; as bupalus did , at the sight of hipponax his letter ; or as hoc●tratus did , upon view of a booke which reuchlin writ against him ; oras brotheus did , who being mocked for his deformity , threw himselfe into the fire , and there died : for , thersites like , many are their bodily deformities , but far more and worse are those of their soules . whence it was that the laced & monians used to shew their slaves in the time of their drunkennesse unto their children , thinking that their ugly deformity , both in body and minde , would be an effectuall argument to make them loath this vice , which even at the first view seemed so horrid . and indeed , how should the drunkard be other then ugly and deformed ; when experience shewes , that intemperance is a great decayer of beauty , and that wine burnes up the radicall moysture , and hastens old age exceedingly . § neither are his diseases and infirmities fewer then his deformities : for ●ee but his body opened , and it will appeare like a stinking and rotten sepulcher ; for excessive and intemperate drinking hath brought upon him a wo●ld of diseases and infirmities , because this sinne by little and little quencheth the naturall heate , and drownes the vitall spirits , whereby above all it impaires the health , debilitateth all the members , turning strength into weakenesse ; health , into irrecoverable sicknesse ; it being the seminary of incurable diseases , which shorten the life ; the procurer of all infirmities , and acceleration of death ; which is the reason that men are ordinarily now so short lived , in respect of that they have beene heretofore . neither can there be any other cause alleaged , why men in this our age are so weake , diseased , and short lived , but our excessive drunkennesse and intemperance . it is true indeed , that the world now waxing old , and , as it were , hoareheaded , cannot generate children of such strength and vigour as it did in time of youth and full strength ; and therefore wee must needs decline , as the world declineth : it is true also , that the mother earth is infeebled with much bearing , and hath her strength much abated with so innumerable childbirths , and being now come to her cold melancholy age , cannot bring forth her fruits so full of vertue and strength , and so fit for the nourishment of our bodies , as shee did in former times : but that there should be such a change , so suddaine and extraordinary , in the great difference of our health , strength , and long life , betwixt this our age , and that which went next before it ; can be imputed unto nothing more , then that now drunkennesse and intemperance is , after an extraordinary manner , increased ; whereby the naturall and vitall heate of men is drowned , and extinguished , before it be neare spent ; like a candle cast into the water , before it be halfe burned . indeed , drunkards pretend they drinke healthes , and for health . yea , doubtlesse they thinke wine another kinde of panace , which is good for all diseases ; or some moly , good against all sorcery and mischiefe . but to whom , saith salomon , are all kinde of diseases , infirmities , deformities , if not to drunkards ? who can recount the hurts that by this meanes come to the whole body , especially the head , stomack , liver , and the more noble parts ? who can recite the crudities , rhumes , gowts , dropsies , aches , imposthums , apoplexes , inflammations , pluresies , consumptions ( for though he devours much , yet hee is the leaner every way ) with the falling-sicknesse , and innumerable other distempers hence ensuing ? which drunkards know better by experience , then i how to reckon up . to whom are pearle faces , palsies , headakes , if not to drunkards ? what so soone brings suddaine old age ? what so much as swilling blowes up the cheekes with wind , fills the nose and eyes with fier , loads the hands and legs with water ; and , in short , plagueth the whole man with diseases of a horse , the belly of a cowe , the head of an asse &c. almost turning him into a very walking dunghill . believe a man in his owne art ; the distempered body , the more it is filled , the more it is spilled , saith hippocrates : and to this the prophet sets his seale , hosea : . . and indeed but for the throats indulgence ; paracelsus ( for all his mercury ) had dyed a begger : which made callisthenes tell alexander , that hee had rather feede upon graines with diogenes , in his dish ; then carrouse the juyce of grapes with him , in this standing cup ; for of all the gods , said hee , i love not aesculapius . in a word : though wine , being moderately taken , is physicall ; yet , if it be taken immoderately , there is nothing more banefull , saith st. austin : for by it the body is weakened , strength decayed , the members dissolved , the whole body distempered , and out of order ; so that the drunkard drawes death out of that which preserves other mens lives . that many have perished by this meanes we read , eccl. . . , & if many then , surely many millions now : for in former ages it was as rare , as now it is common . for wee read that the locrians would not permit their magistrates to drinke wine ; whereas now with us , the meanest ( by their good wills ) will drinke nothing els . we read also that the ancient romans would not suffer their women to drinke wine ; whereas many of ours are like cleio , who was so practised in drinking , that shee durst challeng all men whatsoever to trye masteries who could drinke most , and overcome 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 love 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 . § . vvhy , but saith the tipler , wine , 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 hippocrates , or ten salomons . salomon answers in effect thus much , prov. . . to . 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. . . 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 , tim. . 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. . . 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 . and 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 § . thirdly , 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 be 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 , 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 pl●tarch 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 ●lay 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 . § . of which there is a double reason . 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 theyvent forwards is the same , for it comes out as sheere wine as it goes in . now no marvaile that starchaterus did exceed other men in strength and savagenesse ; when he fed onely upon beares flesh , and frequently drank their blood . secondly , another reason is , when the drink is in , the wit is out and so having lost the stern of reason , hee is apt to say or doe any thing hee can stand to execute , except vertue , a meere stranger to him . and it shall go hard but he will either give offence , or take it : for having once fallen out with his owne wits , and members ( that one goes one way , and another another way ) he can agree with no body , but becomes raging mad , as a heathen hath it in salomons words . a drunken man , you know , will make a fray with his own shadow ; suppose he but nods against some post or table ( for they will even fall a sleepe as they sit ) he is so stupified , that in revenge he will strike his opposite for the wrong , and then call for drinke to make himselfe friends againe , which friendly cup gives occasion of a second quarrel ; for whether he laughs , or chafes , he is a like apt to quarrell ; or let but a friend admonish him , hee were as good take a beare by the tooth . when cambyses being drunk was admonished thereof by prexaspes , who was one of his councell ; what followed ? cambyses commandes his admonishers sonne to be sent for , and bound to a post , while he shot at him ; and then having pierst his heart , vauntingly cryes out ; now judge whether i am drunk or no. this sinne scornes reproofe , admonition to it were like goads to them that are mad already , or like powring oyle down the chimney , which may set the house on fire , but never abate the heate . neither can the rest better brooke what he speaks , then he what they speak : for these pompeian spirits think it a foule disgrace either to put up the least wrong from another , or acknowledge to have overslipt themselves in wronging of another ; whereby thousands have been murthered in their drink , it faring with them as it did with that pope , whom the divel is said to have slaine in the very instant of his adultery , and carry him quick to hell . for this is the case of drunkards ( as of souldiers and marriners ) the more need , the lesse devotion . i am loth to trouble you with the multitude of examples which are recorded , of those , that having made up the measure of their wickednes , have ammon like dyed and beene slaine in drink ; god sometimes practising martiall law , and doing present execution upon them ( least fooles should say in their hearte , ( there is no god ) though he connives at , and deferres the most , that men might expect a judge comming , and a solemne day of judgement to follow . and what can be more fearefull , then when their hearts are merry , and their wits drowned with wine , to be suddenly strucken with death ; as if the execution were no lesse intended to the soule , then to the body ? or what can bee more just , then that they which in many yeares impunity will find no leisure of repentance , should at last receive a punishment without possibility of repentance ? i know ●peed of death is not alwayes a judgement : yet as suddennes is ever justly suspicable ; so it then certainly argues anger , when it findes us in an act of sinne . leisure of repentance is an argument of favour ; when god gives a man law , it implies that hee would not have judgement surprise him . § . now as drunkennesse is the cause of murther , so it is no lesse the cause of adultery yea , as this sinne is most shamefull in it selfe , so it maketh a man shamelesse in committing any other sin ; whereof lu●t is none of the last , nor none of the least . yea , saith ambrose , the first evill of drunkennesse , is danger of chastity ; for bacchus is but a pander to venus : hereupon romulus made a law , that if any woman were found drunke , shee should dye for it ; taking it for granted , that when once drunke , it was an easie matter to make her a whore . the stomach is a limbeck , wherein the spirit of lust is distilled ; meates are the ingredients , and wine the onely fire that extracts it . for as the flame of mount aetna is fed onely by the vapours of the adjacent sea : so this fire of lust is both kindled and maintained by surfeiting and drunkennesse . when the belly is filled with drinke , then is the heart inflamed with lust , and the eyes so filled with adultery , that they cannot but gaze upon strange women , as salomon shewes , prov. . . whereas love , saith crates , is cured with hunger . you know when the iron is hot , the smith can fashion it to his pleasure : and wine tempers the heart like wax , for the divels impression : when a man is drunk , sathan may stamp in his heart the soules● sinne , but lust will admit no denyall . yea , drunkennesse inflames the soule , and fills that with lusts as hot as hell ; high diet is adulteries nurse . they rose up in the morning like fed horses , saith the prophet , ( and what followes , every man neighed after his neighbours wife ) ier. . . which is more then true with us , for drunkards like the horse and mule which have no ●nderstanding , no shame , no conscience , &c. especially your brazen brain'd , and flinty foreheaded clownes , can no sooner spie a woman , or maide , chast , or unchast , even in the open streets , but they will fall to imbraceing and tempting her with ribaldry , scurrility , & turning every vvord she speakes to some lascivious & obscene sense , vvhereof they are not a little proud , though it vvould make a vvise and modest man , even spue to heare them . but to goe on . when lot is drunke , hee is easily drawne to commit incest with his owne daughters ; not once perceiving when they lay downe , nor when they rose up , gen. . . to . rarò vidi continentem , quem non vidi ●bstinentem , saith st. austin , you shall rarely see a man continent , that is not abstinent : and it 's a true rule , for that heate which is taken at the taverne , must be alaid at the brothel-house ; the blood which is fired with bacchus , must be cooled with venus ; and soe sathan takes two pigeons with one beane . and the divell should forget both his office and malice , if hee did not play the pander to co●cupiscence , this way for idlenesse , makes way for loose company ; loose company , makes way for wine ; wine , makes way for lust ; and lust makes worke for the devill ; venus comes out of the froth of this sea. i will never believe that chastity ever slept in the drunkards bed ; for , although i cannot say that every whormonger is given to drunkennesse ; yet i may truely say , that there are no drunkards but are either given over , or greatly inclined to whoredome . this sinne fills the heart , and eye ( both eyes ) if not the whole life , with horrible filthinesse , naturall , unnaturall , any : this is so cleare a truth , that darknesse it selfe saw and confest it ; even a poet of the heathens could call eating and drinking the fuell that maintaines the fier of lust ; for lust , saith hee , is quenched by abstinence , kindled by excesse , and nothing sooner kills this tetter then that fasting spittle of abstinence ; for how should the wieke burne without tallow , or the lampe without oyle ? that wine is an inducement to lust , david well knew , or else hee had spared those superfluous cups : but when hee would have forced vria● to lye with his wife , that so shee might have a colour for her great belly , and the child might appeare legitimate , hee first made him drunke , sam. . . even as ice is ingendered of water : so is lust of intemperance . the drunkard is like a salamander stone , which fires at the sight of every flame : yea , if hee but see a whore , and shee him , like the weesell and ba●iliske , they poyson each other with their sight , pro. . one devill is ready to helpe another in mischiefe : hee that tarrieth long at the wine , saith salomon , his eyes shall looke upon strange women , and his heart shall speake lewd things , proverbs . . . and st. paul witnesseth , that the fruits of gluttony and drunkennesse , are chambering and wantonnesse , rom. . . yea , as drunkennesse is the onely businesse of loyterers : so lewd love is the onely businesse of drunkards ; for while they are awake they thinke and speake of it , and when they are asleepe ( even when other mens thoughts lye at anchor ) they nothing but dreame of it ; and what is it a drunkard loves halfe so well as a whore ? yea , wine so inflames the drunkard with lust ; that were his power equall to his desire , were his dreames and wishes all true , hee would not leave a virgin in the world ; might but his acts answer the number of his desires , nature could scarce supply him with severall objects ; or could his wishes , take effect , popery might have many nuns , it should have no maids . now what decayes health , and strength , and consequently shortens a mans dayes more then whoredome ? when so many dye of the pox , a disease which slayes thousands , though they will not be known of it ; for , because of the whorith woman , a man is brought to a morsell of bread , pro. . . yea , shee causeth many to fall downe wounded , and all the strong men are slaine by her , her house is the way unto the grave , which leadeth downe to the chamber of death , pro. . . . and so much of the drunkards body . § . secondly , if wee dive deeper into him , and search into his soule : what one sinne more mangles and defaces gods image , and mans beauty , then this ? how doth it damme up the head and spirits with mud ? how doth it infatuate the understanding , blind the judgement , pervert the will , and corrupt all the affections ? how doth it intrap the desires , surprise the thoughts and bring all the powers and faculties of the soule out of order ? which occasioneth one to say , where drunkennesse raignes as king , there reason is banished as an exile , the understanding is dulled , counsell wandereth , and judgment is overthrowne . and with this accordeth seneca , who defines drunkennesse to be a voluntary madnesse , or a temporary forfeiture of the wits : yea , the holy ghost affirmes , that the excesse of wine makes men mad , foolish , and outragious , pro. . . for being worse then the sting of an aspe , it poysoneth the very soule , and reason of man. yea , wee finde this and a great deale more by experience : for many a man drinkes himselfe out of his wits , and out of his wealth , and out of his credit , and out of all grace and favour , both with god and good men . neither is the scripture lesse expresse : for salomon calls wine a mocker , and tells us that strong drinke is raging . and hosea affirmes , that wine takes away the heart , chap. . . and wee reade elsewhere , that wine makes men forget god , and his lawes , pro. . . yea , utterly to fall away from god , and to be incapable of returning , for it is commonlie accompanied with hardnesse of heart , and final impenitence , esa. . . . and . . pro. . . for admonish such as are bewitched and besotted with the love of wine , you speak to men senseles , past shame , and past grace . tell them of some better imployment , they will say as once florus ( an idle fellow ) was wont , i would not be caesar , alwayes marching in armor : to whom casear replyed , and i would not be florus , alwayes drinking in a taverne . yea , being wrapt in wine , and warme cloathes , they so like their condition , that they would not change upon any termes , no , not to be glorified saints in heaven : as those swine , and other brutish creatures , which circe transformed , would by no meanes be perswaded to become men againe , though they were put to their choice by the said goddesse ( or forceresse rather ) upon the earnest request of vlysses . you shall never perswade a drunkard , that the water of life is the best wine . in a word , by long custome they turne delight into necessity , and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst , that they will as willinglie leave to live , as leave their excessive drinking : in regard whereof , st. austin , compares drunkennesse to the pit of hell , into which when a man is once fallen , there is no redemption . yea , this vice doth not onely rob men of reason , but also of common sense ; so as they can neither prevent future danger , nor feele present smart . but of this enough : having already proved them as much worse then beasts , as beasts are better then devills . besides , i shall occasionallie treate more of the soules character , in sundry particulars which follow . § . fifthly , as hee deformes his body , impaires his health , shortens his life , beastiates his soule , &c. so he consumes his estate , and brings himselfe to poverty , and want , as , to whom is poverty , as salomon speakes , but to drunkards ? who thinke no cost too much that is bestowed on their bellies , who consume their wealth at the wine , even while they have swallowed downe their whole estates . as let the drunkard have but a groate , it burnes in his purse till it be drowned in drinke ; if hee have gold , he will change it ; if plate , hee will pawne it ; and rather then not satisfie his gut , away goes all to the coate on his backe ; yea , rather then hee will scant ( as they say ) his belly , had hee a jewell as rich as tenne lordships , or as cleopatra's was , that womanlike swaggerer , his throate shall have it . o that either wealth , or any other blessing should be cast away thus basely ! or , suppose he bee a labouring man , and must earne it before he have it , he will drinke as much in a day ( saith st. ambrose ) as hee can get in a weeke , spend twelve pence sooner , then earne two pence . and hence it commeth to passe , that the company keeper goes commonly in a ragged coate , as it is seldome seene that they offend the statute against excesse in apparell , for rather then so , they will goe naked , and count that too a voluntarie penance . thus the drunkard having spent all in superfluities , in the end hee wants necessaries , and because in youth hee will drinke nothing but wine , in his old age he is constrained to drinke water : yea , hee throwes his house so long out at windowes , that at last his house throwes him out at doores . and when all is gone , glad would he be to be a swineheard , like the prodigallson , but knowing himself unworthy of any mans entertainment ; hee growes weary of his life , and is ready to make himselfe away , like peter the cardinall , base son to sixtus the fourth that monstrous epicure , the shame of the latter times ; or like apicius , the shame of the ancient age wherein he lived . all which the scriptures make good , where it is said , that the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty , and the sleeper shall be cloathed with raggs . pro. ● . . and againe peremptorily , he that loveth wine and oyle shall not bee rich , prov. . . now that this is so , every officer of a parish knowes to his great trouble , and the inhabitants cost : yea , were i enjoyned to take up a ragged regiment , i should thinke it no hard taske to muster up a thousand men , ( admit but drunkards to be men ) out of the very suburbs , that in sheere drinke spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs ; yea , that drinke the very bloods of their wives and children , for hee brings not this misery upon himselfe alone ▪ but his whole family , wife children , servants , all are impoverisht , yea , nere famished , to satisfie his throat : in which regard he is worse than an infidell , tim. . . the drunkard spends all in the ale-house ; and cares not , so hee fares well abroad , though his family starve at home : he sucks so much of the juyce of barley into his owne throat , that his family is either parcht with famine , or burnt with thirst . but marke how they are met with all ; for , as if god would pay them in their own coyne , how oft have i seene vermin sucking the drunkards blood , as fast as he doth that of the grape and malt ? neither stayes hee here , for the tiplers progresse is commonly from luxurie , to beggery ; from beggery , to thievery ; from the taverne , to tyburne ; from the ale-house , to the gallowes . i might go on , and shew you how this vice hinders men from performing the works of charity and mercy , and how the drunkard defrauds the poore of that which he might , and ought to impart unto them , if hee lived moderately : but i hasten to shew you his inwards ; only this let me tell him , that he shall once give an account for every idle penny hee spends , much more for every idle shilling , pound , &c. § . sixtly , as the drunkard consumes his estate ; so hee looseth his credit and good name , for drunkennes defames a man , and takes away his reputation . what saith the world of him ? such a man is a drunkard , a swillboule , a tospot , a sot , a swaggering companion , a spend good , an unthrift , an epicure , a belly-god , a filthy beast , &c. yea what sinne is so disgracefull ? what can discredit a man more , then to be counted a common drunkard ? yea , this sinne bringeth such an ill name upon a man , that it will never bee done away ; at least so long as he lives in this sin without repentance . wherein could noah ( that was but once drunke ) have so much shamed and dishonoured himselfe ? how could hee have made himselfe so contemptible , even to his owne children , as he did by being drunk ? so , what greater shame to any man , then to make himselfe a beast , yea , worse then a beast , in his gesture , behaviour , nonsense , and abominable spewing ? besides his communication , his cogitations , his lusts , and affections , are all most beastly and shamefull : so that nothing disguiseth or disgraceth a man more . neither need others defame him : for he either spues himselfe out , or gives occasion to be spurned out of all civill company . in briefe , all that are sober minded account drunkards but the very scumme of the nation , and good for nought but to stand in the middest of a breach , when the ordnance play , and bullets flie thick about their eares . and certainly there is nothing in the world more pitifull , an ape-carrier is honourable , compared with a drunkard ; and heare but their wives speak , you will grant that his , of the two , is farre more happy in her choyse . yea , it is such a sinne , for which a man shall bee disgraced even of his drunken companions themselves ; who murther him behind his backe , by taking away his good name ; howsoever they seeme to applaud him before his face . and no man thinkes him sit or worthy to beare the meanest office either in church or common-wealth ; nay , he is not able to subject himself to , or be ruled by , either civill or ecclesiasticall governours , ( indeed he often disturbes the officers of both ) nay , hee is so farre from all respect , that he either is , or should be , separated from all christian society , and thrown out of the church by excommunication , cor. . . indeed , he thinks to get credit and popular applause by his drinking , to have others commend him , forsooth , for a good fellow , and joviall , and so purchase a name : but indeed hee gets the name of a common drunkard , which will sticke by him to his dying day , and perhaps afterward ; yea , let him be commended by one for a notable good fellow , ( which is the height of his ambition ) another that is wiser , will reply , the better the worse . again , who will trust a drunkard with either money or commodity ? a frugall man that is worth but little , shall be trusted with more , then a drunkard which hath tenne times his estate : and good reason , for the one his diligent hand maketh him rich , while the drunkards belly makes him go in rags . indeed , to borrow of every man hee is very importunate ; but to pay he never useth , except it be his hostesse for superfluous liquor , that when money failes , hee may drinke upon credit ; as hee is alwayes indebted to my hostesse , and his belly to him , but he never to that , so long as his purse , credit , or shame , can make even with it . yea , in many cases they will acknowledge themselves unworthy to be trusted ; for they have an order amongst themselves ( which you may see set up in gurmionds hall ) that all promises , oaths , bils , bonds , indentures , or any other conveyances whatsoever , made or caused to bee made in the afternoone , bee utterly void , and of none effect . and in case they commit a villany ; there needs no better plea , ( fo● their excuse ) then this ; alas ! what would you have● i was not my selfe , or , i was in drinke , it was the wine , and not i yea marcus antonius , faith plutarch , set forth a book of his drunkennes ; wherein he proved those pranks which he played ( when he was overcome with wine ) to be good and lawfull : though in all reason he that doth evill in his drinke , should bee twice punished ; first , for being drunke , then , for the fact he committed in drinke , as pittacus in his statute-law enacted . and as hee disgraceth and shameth himselfe ; so he shameth his parents , pro. . . kinsfolks , friends , and all his acquaintance ; and maketh them so ashamed of him , that they are afraid and ashamed to owne him . yea , drunkennesse disgraceth and discrediteth the gospell , unto which it is cleane contrary ; for whereas the apostle would have our conversation such as becommeth the gospel of jesus christ phil . . . both the gospel and the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles , through such ill livers , rom. . . yea , it bringeth a scandall upon all that professe the same religion with him , revel . . . yea , the apostle tells us that their workes of darknesse which are done of of them in secret , are so shamefull , that it is a shame even to speak of them , or once name them , ephes. , . . wherefore the drunkard shall bee filled with shame , and shamefull spewing shall be all his glory , hab. . , . untill he be trodden under feet , as the lord threatens , isa. . . thus drunkards by their drinking receive much hurt ; some , in their bodies ; some , in their braines ; some , intheir estates , whilst they are called from their callings ; some , in their names , whiles bucking with drinke , they are laid out to bee sunned and scorn'd ; some , in their chastity , whilst they are used as lots daughters did their father , &c. which may serve to have beene spoken of his outward parts . now of his inwards , and more odious qualities ; for although the drunkards sorrow , strife , shame , poverty , and diseases , together with his untimely death , as one would thinke , were enough to make this sin odious : yet looke we further into him , as namely , into his more inward parts , his secret abominations , which follow and are occasioned through drunkennes ; that will make it hidious , and fearefull , at least if i had the skill to cut him up , and paint him to the life . § in speaking whereof , i will first lay open the ground of all , which is idlenesse ; for although , in one sense , idlenesse may be called an effect of drunkennesse , yet in another , it may be called the cause , both of it , and all the residue of evills which accompany the same ; for idlenesse is the most corrupting flie that can blow in any humane minde . we learne to doe ill , by doing what is next it , nothing ; and hence it is , that vice so fructifies in our gentry and servingmen , who have nothing to employ themselves in . it is said of rome , that during the time of their warres with cart●age and other enemies in africa , they knew not what vices meant ; but no sooner had they got the conquest , then through idlenesse they came to ruine . rust , you know , will fret into the hardest iron , if it bee not used , mosse will grow on the smoathest stone , if it bee not stirred ; mothes will consume the finest garment , if it bee not worne : so vice will infect even the best heart , if given to idlenesse . standing water is sooner frozen , then the running streame ; hee that sitteth is more subject to sleepe , then hee that walketh : so the idle man is farre more subject to temptation , then hee that is profitably exercised : yea , idlenesse ( saith one of the fathers ) is the devills onely opportunity ; for if hee come , and finds us well busied , hee leaves us for that time , as having small hope to prevaile . an idle person is good for nothing but to propagate sinne , to bee a factor for the devill : it faring with man , as with the earth of which hee was made ; which , if it bee not tilled , or trimmed , doth not onely remaine unf●uitfull , but also breeds and brings forth bryers , brambles , nettles , and all manner of noysome and unprofitable things : so that seneca seemes to be mistaken , in calling an idle person the image of death ; for though the body be idle , yet the soule , like a river , is alwayes in progression , and his heart , like a wherry , either goes forward or backward , it may be resembled to a well with two buckets ; the mind no sooner empties it selfe of good thoughts , but it fills with evill cogitations . if the seede dyes , the blade springs ; the death of grace , is but the birth of corruption . now all the drunkard's labour , is to satisfie his lusts ; and all his life , nought else but a vicissitude of devouring and venting : as how many of them make it their trade and whole vocation to keepe company . whereas sweat , either of the brow or of the braine , is the destiny of all trades , be they mentall or manuall ; for god never allowed any man to doe nothing . are not most populous places , by reason of this vice , like antiochus his army , fuller of mouthes then hands ? for , if you marke it , the company keeper and good fellowe ( according to the vulgar ) is the barronest peece of earth in all the orbe ; the common wealth hath no more use of him , then ier●hoham had of his withered hand ; hee is like the dumbe iacke in a virginall , for he hath not so much as a voice in the common wealth . whereas hee was borne for the good of his countrey , friends , family , &c. well may hee disturbe the common wealth , and give offence and scandall unto all that are neere or about him , rom. , , . as being unfit to doe service , or subject himselfe to be ruled by his governors , civill and ecclesiasticall ; but profitable hee is to none , except vinteners , inkeepers , and ale drapers , who are the greatest loosers by him of all the rest ; ( though they seeme to gaine much ) for these are accessary to the drunkards sinne , and have a fearefull accompt to make , for their tolleration of such , seing they might , and ought to redresse it , so that their gaine is most unjust : as may not that be written upon what ever they possesse , which diogenes writ under the golden statua , which phryne the strumpet dedicated at delphos ( this was gotten by the intemperance of the people ) and in the end will prove as unprofitable , for hereby they endanger themselves , and without repentance lose their soules , math. . . what is recorded of ns●grites , namely , that hee never plowed , not digged , nor did any thing all his life long that might tend to any good , is truly verified in him , hee is not more nimble tongu'd then gowty handed ( as iulian the apostate confest of himselfe , and yet never thinkes hee shall give an account for this sinne of all the rest : but surely , if wee must give an account for every idle word , much more for every idle day , nay moneth , nay yeare . but i proceede . all the paines hee takes is for the enemy of mankinde : if you will have him worke , you must chaine him in a celler , where are good store of springs , and give him the option or choice , whether hee will pumpe or drowne : which is the ho●●anders way to dresse an english gentleman , whose ill demeanour hath made unworthy to live . the company keeper is like a top , which alwayes runnes round , but never goes forward , unlesse it be whipt : or the mill wheele , which turnes about all day , but at night remaines in the same place : or like a blind horse in a maltmill , which is as farre in the morning as at night , for all the day hee walkes round in the same circle , over and over ; and when he hath done , and sl●pt a little , is new to begin againe . neither does hee , which walkes from six to six in paules , goe more then a coytes c●st before him , drunkards make it their whole imployment , to goe from theirs beds to the tap house , ( for the true drunkard thinkes no wine good , which is brought over two thresholds ) from the taphouse to the play house , where they make a match for the brothelhouse , and from thence to bed againe : so that they either doe nothing , or that which is worse then nothing : for hee is neither a drunkard , nor an idle person , but a civill , compleat , and well qualified gentleman , that spends the whole day , yea every day , but in bousing , and bowling , and taking tobacco . o the number of men and women in this city , that are all the day idle , yet have not an idle hower to afford either the church , or the study , or for the good of the common wealth ! and therefore no wonder if they afford not mee the hearing , they onlie sit to eate , and drinke , lye downe to sleepe , and rise up to play ; this is all their exercise , herein lyes all thei● worth , and no marvell , for if the worl● be a mans god , pleasure must needs be● his religion . they are just like so many gnats , for as gnats doe nothing but play up and downe in the warme sunne , and sing , and vvhen they have done , sit dovvne and sting the next hand or face they can seize upon : so drunkards miserably spend their good howers in unprofitable pastime , sit downe and backbite their neighbours . for , in this case , they resemble mo●us that carping god ( as the heathens faine ) whose manner was , never to doe any thing himselfe , but curiously beholding the doings of others , if anything were let passe , to carpe at the same . § but to goe on ; for i may seeme to have left them at the taverne dore . if you remember , their first flight was from their beds to the taphouse or taverne , those common quagmires of all filthinesse , where too many drawing their patrimonies through their throats , exhaust and lavish out their substance , and 〈◊〉 plots and devises how to get more : 〈◊〉 hence they fall either to open courses 〈◊〉 violence , or secret mischiefe , till at last 〈◊〉 jayle prepares them for the ●ibbet , 〈◊〉 lightly they sing through a red lettise before they cry through a grate ; but this is the worke of many mouthes doe but follow them step by step , and you shall observe that so soone as they are upon the al●bench , up comes every mans pot uncalled for , upon paine of losing their custome for a moneth after ; which being doft , are filled againe , for it is the waiters office to see that the pots bee either alwayes full or empty , and the drunkards law , that if the drawer presents a pot not filled , or one of the company leaves a snuffe in it undrunke off , that both shall bee judged guilty of the breach of good fellowship . now what 's the reason , that every morneing their first sacrifice is offered to bacchus ; and that every day , bee it sunday , they will bee in the tipling house , before they come to gods house ? i will tell you : first , they are sicke in the morning , untill they have qualified the old heate , with a new ; and so they cure sinne with sinne , which yet is no other , then to heale an vlcer by deading the flesh , which indeed doth not make a man whole , but insensible of paine . secondly , hee is an unconformitant to the rules of good fellowship , and an unproficient in art of manchery , who observes not that rule , which t●berius first brought up , of drinking , a cup of good liquor in the morning next the heart . § . vvell , by that they have doubled their mornings draught , their hearts come up as easily as some of their drinke ; for wine is the daughter of verity , as plato observes ; yea , let him get but a cup or two more in his pate , his limitlesse tongue shall clatter , like a window loose in the winde ; and you may assoone perswade a stone to speake , as him to bee silent ; for then it fares with his clapper , as with a sicke mans pulse ; which alwayes beats , but ever out of order . yea , it is so difficult a thing to be prodig●ll in drinking , and niggardly in speaking , that bias thought it a sufficient argument to prove his wisdome by , in that he could joyne these two together , which are in nature so dissonant . for being at a banquet taxed of folly by a vaine babler , because he said nothing while others talked glib : hee made answer , that even this was a reason sufficient to acquit him of the imputation of folly , for that no foole could ever be silent in the middest of his cups . and this likewise was held for a good argument by ze●o , who when diverse philosophers met with the kings embassadors at a feast in athens ; when every one , to commend his wisdome , uttered some remarkable sentence which might be related to the king , he continued silent ; and when the embasad o● observing it , demanded of him , what they should report from him unto the king ▪ he answered , nothing but this , that there is an old man at athens , who in the abundance of wine can keep silence . drink doubles the drunkards eyes , and eares ; hee sees , and heares ( in his conceit ) al things double , but multiplies his tongue beyond number : whence it comes to passe , that his talke , like benjamins messe , is five times his part . yea , one drunkard hath tongue enough for twenty men ; it being like that clapper at rhoane , which is so big , that it is said to weigh , without the bell , more then six hundred pounds : for let but three of them bee in a roome , they will make a noyse , as if all the thirty bells in antwerpe s●eeple were rung at once ; or doe but passe by the doore you would thinke your selfe in the land of parrats . § and what is their discourse ? first , they discover all secrets . for like as when the wine purgeth , ( saith plutarch ) that which is in the bottome , commeth up to the brimme , and swimmeth aloft ; or else it breaketh the vessels , and runneth all abroad : even so drunkennes discovers the secrets of the heart . yea , if discretion and moderation bee as hoops to a vessell , how should these hogsheads keepe their liquor , if you take away those hoops ? it is the property of a dru●kard to disgorge his bosome , with his stomack ; to emty his mind , with his maw ; he can ill rule his hands , but worse his tongue ; fat cups oyle that so much , that it cannot sticke ; and makes it so laskitive , that it cannot hold from bewraying hoth himselfe and others : and whatsoever is in the heart of a sober man , is found in the tongue of a drunkard . drink disapparells the soule , and is the betrayer of the mind ; it turnes the key of the tongue , and makes it unlocke that counsell , which before wisdome had in keeping ; even the thoughts of the heart , which god hath secluded from the very divell , by this do suffer a search . he that would anatomize the soule , may doe it best when wine hath benummed the senses ; no such rack for confession as wine , nor could the divel ever finde a cunninger baite to angle with : even the most benighted cogitations of the soule , in this flood doe tumble from the swelling tongue . for as steele is the glasse of beauty : so wine is the glasse of the minde , saith euripides . and experience shewes , that when a man is drunke , you may thrust your hand into him , like an ele-skin , and strip his inside outwards . and nothing more common with states-men and politians , then to make drinke their dalilah ; to draw out of their enemies those secrets which nothing else will doe . when any embassadors came unto bonosus the emperor , his manner was to make them drunk , that so he might heare all their secrets . and iosephus speakes of another politick prince , who used when any embassador was sent unto him from his enemies , to ply him with drink ; and thereby he wrested all his secrets out of him . yea , this was the onely sauce that bacchus gave ceres , when hee fell in love with venus . and did not noah being drunke reveale those secrets , which lay hid above six hundred yeares before . i confesse , there is no generall rule but admits of some exceptions ; and this rule is not alwayes infallible : for wine makes some quick spirited , others dull ; this man talkative , another dumb ; according to the disposition and constitution of the party . yea , i confesse the complot and purpose to kill casar , was as faithfully committed unto cimber , who would daily bee drunk with quaffing of wine ; as unto cassius , that drank nothing but water : neither had augustus any cause to bee discontented with lucius piso that conquered thrace , for all he trusted him with the secretest affaires he had in hand : nor ti●erius with cossus , to whom hee imparted all his seriousest counsells ; although both so gave themselves to drinking , that they were often faine to bee carried from the senate , and both reputed notable drunkards : but it is rarely seene , that the contrary holds not . wherefore i will not tell a bibber what i would not heare againe , lest i heare of it againe from those , to whom i dare not avouch it againe . yea , for this cause ( were there no other reason ) i will beware of wine , i will not doe god so great a dishonour as to demideifie man , in making him privie to my heart and thoughts . yea , seeing god hath given me two eyes , two eares , and but one tongue ; i wil heare and see double to what i speak . and so much to shew how well the drunkard can keepe counsell , if any be so mad as to trust him with a secret , i passe on to his vaine babling , surrilous jesting , wicked talking , &c. § . secondly , suppose you urge him not the wine ; having set his tongue at liberty , it shall resemble bacchus his liber pater , and goe like the saile of a wind-mill . for as a great gale of wind whirleth the failes about ; so abundance of wine whirleth his tongue about , and keeps it in continuall motion . now he railes , now he scoffs , now he lyes , now he slan ders , now he seduces , talks baudie , sweares , banns , somes , and cannot bee quiet , till his tongue bee wormed . and all this hee sets out with the same throat , that a hired waterman cryes cales sand : for commonly a lewd tongue , is a lowd one ; and a lowd tongue , a lewd one . impudent speakers are like gaping oysters ; which being open'd , either stink , or there is nothing in them . but to keepe close to drunkards . this caca-doemons discourse is all quarrelling , scoffing , or scurrilous ; for as hee hath a spitefull tongue in his anger , so he hath a beastly tongue in his mirth ; as these two inseparably attend each other . first , a spitefull tongue in his anger : for if you marke him then , having more rage than reason , hee enterlaceth all his discourse , either with reviling the present , or backbiting the absent : now all his prayers , are curses ; and all his relations , lyes ; talkative and lying , you know , are two birds , which alwayes she out of one nest . to be short , heare him when he is in this veine , and b●t seriously consider his condition , you would thinke , that by a just judgement of god , hee were metamorphosed , like hecuba the wife of priamus , into a dog , whose chiefe property is to barke with open mouth , at such as hee knowes not : for without question , their wits are shorter , and their tongues longer , then to demonstrate them rationall creatures . secondly he hath a beastly tongue in his mirth : the drunkards communication is ever filthy and beastly , ful of all ribaudry and baudinesse ; no filthy talke , or rotten speech whatsoever comes amisse to a drunkard ▪ yea , no word savours well with them , that is not unsavoury ; their onely musicke ( and so fares it with all the rude rabble ) is ribaudry , modesty and sober merriment with them is dulnesse . thus whereas hee should either bee silent , or his words should be b●tter worth then silence ; contrariwise , from the beginning to the end hee belcheth forth nothing , but what is as farre from truth , piety , reason , modesty , as that the moone came down from heaven to visit mahomet . o the beastlines which burns in their unchast and impure minds , that smoakes out of their polluted mouthes ! a man would thinke , that even the divell himselfe should blush , to heare his child so talke . how doth his mouth rune over with falsehoods , against both christians and preachers ? what speakes hee lesse then whoredomes , adulteries , incests , at every word ? yea , heare two or three of them talke , you would change the lyc●●●ians language , and say , devills are come up in the likenesse of men . yea , it is a small matter with them to meddle with their equalls , or to sit upon their parish priest ( as those hogsheads terme him ) for in such a meeting they will visit a whole diocesse , and province ; nay , the sagest iudge , and gravest counc●ller , and greatest pee●● in the land ▪ must doe service to their court , and be summoned before the alebench ; according to that in the p●almes , they set the●r mouthes against heaven , and their tongues w●●ke through the earth , psal. . . nor will they stay here ; for when they have huft their smoake into the face of these , they will have health to king charles ; and what not , for the honour of england ? o that they should 〈◊〉 to make that a shooing-horne to draw on drinke , by drinking healthes to him ! i cannot bee in charity with the places that permit this , with the persons that pardon it , much lesse , with such belialists as practise it . but see greater abominations then these , for as yet wee bee but in the haven ; if wee launch out into the deepe , we shall meete with sea-monsters , farre fowlerevills . § . from wicked talking hee proceeds to cursed and impious s●earing , bl●spheming , &c. as you seldome see a drunkard but hee is a great swearer , and not of petty oathes , but those prodigious and fearefull ones , of wo●●ds and blood , the damned language of ruffians , and monsters of the earth , together with , god damne me ; which words many of them use superficially , if they repent not . yea , the drunkards and desperate ruffians of our dayes , sweare and curse , as if heaven were deafe to their noyse ; yea , they have so sworne away all grace , that they count it a grace to sweare : and that not onely when they are displeased with others , will they tare the name of their maker in peeces , which is no better then frenzie ; but in their very best moodes . prophane drunkards sweare , even as dogs barke , not ever for curstnesse , but mostly out of custome : neither know they that they sweare , though they nothing but sweare ; as you shall heare a man , when reproved for swearing , presently rap out oathes , that he swore not , like men desperately diseased , their excrements and filth comes from them at unawares . and as by much labour the hand is so hardened , that it hath no sense of labour : so their much swearing causeth such a brawny skin of senselessenesse to overspread the heart , memory , and conscience , that the swearer sweareth unwittingly ; and having sworne hath no remembrance of his oath , much lesse , repentance for his sinne . o the numberlesse number of oathes and blasphemies that one blacke mouthed drunkard spits out in defiance , as it were , of god , and all prohibitions to the contrary ! yea , i dare affirme it , had some one of them three thousand pounds per annum , his meanes would hardly pay those small twelve penny multes , which our statute imposes upon swearers , were it duly executed . and if so , to what number wil the oathes amount , which are sworne throughout the whole land , yea , in some one alehouse , or taverne ? where they sit all day in troopes , doing that in earnest , which wee have seene boyes doe in sport , stand on their heads ▪ and shake their heeles against heaven : where even to heare how the name of the lord iesus is pierced , would make a dumbe man speake , a dead man almost to quake . did you never heare how caesar was used in the senate house ? if not , yet you know how a kennell of hounds will fall upon the poore hare ; one , catcheth the head ; another , the leg ; a third , the throate ; and amongst them shee is torne in peeces : even so these hellish miscreants , these bodily and visible devills , having their tongues fired and edged from hell , fall upon the lord lesus ; one cryes , wounds ; another , blood ; a third , hear● ; a fourth , body ; a fifth , soule ; and never leave stabbing and tearing him with their stinges , till no whole place be left . thus they pierce his side with oathes , and teare all his wounds open againe ; whereas the 〈◊〉 did but crucifie him below on the earth , when hee came to suffer ; these crucifie him above in heaven , where hee sits on his throne . and ( which i feare to thinke ) it may bee a question , whether there bee more oathes broken or kept ; for woe is mee ; one , sells an oath for a bribe ; another , lends an oath for favour ; another , casts it away for malice &c. but the drunkard , without any incitement , tumbleth out oathes at adventure , and is as lavish of them , as of ill language . o misery ! o wickednesse ! what shall i say , that ever any who weares christs badge , and beares his name , should thus rise up against him ! that ever those tongues , which dare call god father , should suffer themselves thus to be moved , and possessed by that uncleane spirit ! that ever those mouthes , which have received the sacred body and blood of the lord of life , should endure to swallow these odious morsells of the devills carving ! are these christians , dare they shew their faces in the temple ▪ yes , they dare . § . but as the church doth not owne such wicked and prophane ●retches for her children , so , if they had their due ( like dirt in the house of god ) they should be throwne out into the streete , or as excrements , and bad humors in mans body , which is never at ease till it bee thereof disburthened , as st. augu●●ine speakes . neither could they blame any ( except themselves ) in case they were marked with the blacke cole of infamy , and their company avoided , as the apostle adviseth , rom. . . thes. . . . eph. . . . . cor. . . . tim. . . if they were to us , as lepers were among the iewes ; or as men full of plague soares are amongst us : for , as the holy pages before quoted warrant this , so there are many good reasons for it , as . first , because even the gospell , and the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles , and an evill scandall raised upon the whole church , through their superlative wickednesse , rom. . . as what else ( but the unchristianlike beha●iour of such christians ) hath caused the turkes even to detest the true religion . and what was it that alienated the indians from the christian religion , and made them refuse the gospell brought by the spaniards , but this , they saw their lives more savage then those savages . yea , it made the poore indians resolve , that what religion soever the spaniards were of , they would be of the contrary ; thinking it unpossible , that such cruell and bloody deeds could proceed from any true religion ; or that hee could be a good god , who had such evill sonnes : and the argument is of force , for , who are scythians , if these be saints ? who are canniballs , if these be catholiques . whereas in the primitive times , more of them were wonne to the faith by the holy lives of christians , then by the doctrine which they taught : they made the world to reade in their lives , that they did believe in their hearts ; and caused the heathen to say , this is a good god , whose servants are so good : for thus they reasoned ; these men are surely of god , and without doubt , looke for a world to come . neither was the gospell thus honoured by some few onely , but by all that profes't it ; for tertullian witnesseth , that in his time a christian was knowne from another man , only by the holinesse and uprightnesse of his life and conversation . but as for prime christians , viz. the auncient fathers , their labours , their learning , their sincerity to men , and devotion to god , was the wonder of the world : whereas all the difference betweene these , and very infidells , is , only this ; the one are infidells in their hearts , the other are infidells in their lives , as augustine pithily . and sure i am , that in those purer times the church would have denied her blessing to such sonnes of belial as these are , who make a trade of sinne , as though there were no god to judge , nor hell to punish ; and so live , as though they had no soules to save ; such as have shaken out of their hearts the feare of god , the shame of the world , the love of heaven , the dread of hell , not caring what be thought , or spoken of them here , or what becomes of them hereafter ; yea , such a monstrous , menstruous brood , that ( like a certaine mountaine in arabia ) breede , and bring forth nothing but monsters , whose deeds are too fowle for my words , being such as ought not to be once named amongst christians , as the apostle speakes , eph. . , . such as neither moses nor aaron , c●sar nor paul , minister of the word nor minister of the sword finde reverence in their hearts , or obedience in their lives : being like mettal often fired and quenched , so churlish that it will sooner break than bow ; for they contemn all authority , as boyes grown tall and stubborn contemn the rod : yea , even such as speake ●vill of them that are in authority , and whose mouths utter swelling and proud words against such as are in dignity , as s. peter and s. iude hath it : yea , they be mockers of all , that march not under the pay of the devill . § secondly , whom but themselves could they blame , when they infect almost al that come neere them : as , have not little boyes in the streets learned of them to wrap out oathes almost as frequently as themselves ? yea , through their frequent and accustomary swearing , our children learn to speak english , and oaths together ; and so to blaspheme god almost as soone as he hath made them . now the good husbandman weeds his field of hurtful plants that they may not spoyle the good corne : and when fire hath taken a house , wee use to pull it down , least it should fire also the neighbours houses : yea , the good chirurgion cuts off a rotten member betimes , that the sound may not bee endangered . thirdly , when for their sakes , the land doth mourne because of oathes ; yea , when , if the scriptures be true , god hath a controversie with all the inhabitants thereof , and will turne our glory into shame for swearing , hosea . , , . and wee may well wonder that the land siinketh not because of oaths : for if god were not a god of infinite patience , he could not indure his most sacred and glorious name to bee so many thousand times blasphemed in one day , and that by such miserable wretches as we be . fourthly , when solong as they are christned and go to church as others do , receive the sacraments , and , without any difference , are reputed members of the visible church , they thinke themselves as good christians as the best , yea , better then the precisest : for what is their boast ? they are noe puritans , they make not such a shew of religion , nor are such hypocrites , nor dissemblers , as a great many others are &c. neither indeed are they , for their words are sutable to their thoughts , their actions to their words , all naught . and yet it is a great question ( for all they think no vertue comparable to this kinde of plaine dealing , i meane boldnesse , and impudency in evill ; for they thinke it no fault to live viciously , so their profession bee answerable , so they are the same in shew that they are in deed , all one in mouth and in mind ) whether they , or hypocrites are most superlative sinners , for both are humane divels , well met ; an hypocrite is a masked divell , an athiest ( as these are no better ) is a divell unmasked . whether of the two shall , without repentance , bee deeper in hell , they shall once feele , i determine not ; onely let me assure them ; if the infernall tophet be not for them , it can challenge no guests . , fiftly , when they contemn all admo●ition , be it private , or in the publike congregation : if it be in private , these deafe adders ( abner like ) will either stop the eare with the tongue , by engrossing all the talke , or else they will returne blowes for words : yea , a christian-like admonition will worke like yeast in their braines , until they have requited their admonisher with a mischiefe ; admonition may move them to choller , never to amendment . or , suppose the preacher declares unto them the heynousnesse of this sin , and what a fearefull reckoning of vengeance will come in the end : it is to no more purpose , then if he should speake unto liveles stones , or senselesse plants , or witlesse beasts ; for they wil never feare anything , till they be in hell fire , when it will be too late to repent . wherefore god leaves them to bee confuted by fire and brimstone ; because nothing else will do it . yea , look to it , and think of it you cursing swearers , whom nothing can perswade to be civill , to be men , i say not , to be true christians ; you sweare away your salvation , curse away your blessing , and the divell , who now sets you on worke , will hereafter pay you your wages ; and god , whose name now serves you but onely for swearing , shall then make you serve his justice , in gnashing and weeping , howling and cursing shall be your chiefe ease in hell , to whom blasphemy was an especiall recreation on earth . § . neither let any swearer blesse himself in his heart , with promises of impunity ; for of all other sinnes in the world , this is the most inexcusable . if i step aside to round the drunkard in his eare about swearing ; pardon it , perhaps what is lost in the hundred , will bee got in the shiere . first , i say of all other sinnes , this is the most inexcuseable , because , it is an evill , from which , of all evills , wee have most power of abstinence . as let him that is neverso much accustomed to swearing , ( admit hee hath habituated errors into manners ) be in place where he is afraid to offend , or sure to pay twelve pence for every oath ; he can wholly forbeare , or if he doe chance to forget himselfe once or twice ; yet he will not sweare one oath for an hundred , which he would doe , in other company , and where it would cost him nothing . now the easier the thing commanded is , the greater guilt in the breach of it ; and the lighter the injuction , the heavier the transgression , saith saint augustine . or suppose thou pretendest thou hast beene so long accustomed to it , that thou canst not leave it ; yet this is but a witlesse , gracelesse , and shamelesse excuse . for first , custome of sinne is the very heigth of sinne : and nothing more aggravates it . secondly , will a thiefe or murtherer at the barre alledge for his excuse and defence , that it hath beene his use and custome of a long time ? or if hee doe , will not the judge so much the rather send him to the gallowes ? secondly , because it is a sin , to which of all other sinnes wee have the fewest temptations : for whereas other sins have commonly some sensible profit to midwife them into the world ; as the usurer finds an increase of wealth , who desires to live with lesse faith , and more security ; or pleasure , as the adulterer finds his stoln bread of sathans seasoning and providing far sweeter , then what god hath given him of his owne ; or credit , as the hypocrite sindes , who like that romane woolfe , talkes of religion , when hee meanes policy , and playes the foule devill , under the shape of an angel of light , and may be resembled to an ugly toade in an ivory box , or a painted pot full of deadly poyson . these and many other sinners , which i could name , have some inducement to provoke them , some reasons to alledge ; ( indeed they are all taken out of the divels lectures ) but the swearer hath nothing to provoke him , nor nothing to say , but that he loves this sin , because it is a sin , and because god forbids it ; which is most fearefull and damnable , and ( as a man would thinke ) should make it unpardonable ; i am sure , this makes it inexcusable . for what hast thou to say for thy selfe ? this sinne is neither pleasing , nor profitable , nor laudable , but hath a more pure corruption and venome in it , then any of his fellowes , and must needs issue from meere malice , and contempt of god ; for all thou canst expect by it , is , the suspition of a common lyer , by being a common swearer . yea , thou canst but procure this fruit by thy swearing , that thou shalt vex others , and they shall hate thee : which shews that thou delightest in evill , meerely because it is evill ; as sinne is more stirred up and irritated by the law ; yea , inhibition inciteth , and restraint inviteth a desperate wicked wretch , and his nature most desireth what is forbidden . as it fared with eve , and that gentleman in venice , who while it was left to his owne free choyce , in ninety yeares together never went forth of the citie ; but being hereupon confined , and that upon paine of death , was observed a while after to ride much abroad . sinne , saith the apostle , tooke occasion by the commandement , romans . . as if mans na●●re delighted in this or that evill so much the more , because the law forbids them . yea , most finde it here in , as in matters of bookes , which being once called in , and for●idden , become more saleable and publike . the die●●tes of the law being to ●●●full lusts in mans heart , as water to quicke lime , a meanes to inkindle them , and make them boyle the more fiercely . but know this thou swearer , that he is bottomlesly ill , who loves vice because it is vice ; he is a desperate , prodigious , damnable wretch , and full of the venome of the serpent , that will ( rather then not dye ) anger god of set purpose , and without profit procure his owne destruction : which is thy case , if thou usest his name , to make up idle places of a hollow or unfilled sentence , or to vent and utter with some more grace and force thy choller and malice . yea , this proves thee worse then an oxe led to the slaughter , for hereby thou becommest thine owne executioner . alasse ! thou art not of thy selfe worthy to serve , or to name him ; how then darest thou to make him , and his name to serve thee , thy prophane discourse , and thy rash , and untempered anger ? § . again , supopse the ministertels them that swearing and cursing is the language only of h●ll . and no where frequent but amongst the damned spirits , ( which shewes them to be the divels● best schollers upon earth , and of his highest form , with whom the language of hell is so familiar , that blasphemy is become their mother tongue ) and that they speake not a word of our country language , the language of canaan , that they are so hardened in evill that they are past grace , and past feeling , that the swearer and blasphemer is like a mad dog , which flieth in his masters face that keepes him . that as roaring and drinking is the horse way to hell , whoreing and cheating the footway , so swearing and blaspheming followes corah , dathan , and abyram . that it is a sure rule , and an undoubted signe , if any man does weare and curse ordinarily , that he never truly feared god , as it cannot be that the true feare of god , and ordinary swearing , should dwell together in one man ; yea , dead are they while they live , if they live in this sinne . that sathan stands ever at the swearers elbow , to take notice , reckon up , and set on his score , every oath he sw●areth , and keepes them upon record against the great day of reckoning ; at which time he will set them all in order before him , and lay them to his charge , and that then every oath shall prove as a daggers point stabbing his soule to the heart ; and as so many weights , pressing him downe to hell. and shall further tell them , that swearing is cl●athed with death , ecclus. . . and that the swearer wounds his owne soule , worse then the baalites wounded their owne bodies ; that he which useth much swearing shall be filled with wickednesse , and that the plague shall never goe from his house , yea , his house shall be full of plagues , ecclus. . . that the curse of god shall enter into the house of the swearer , and shall remaine in the midst of it , and shall consume it , with the timber thereof , and the stones thereof , untill the owner be destroyed , zach. . . . . that god himselfe will be a swift witnesse against swearers , mail. . . that the almighty hath spoken it ( and that in thunder and lightning ) how hee will not hold them g●iltlesse , which take his name in vaine , and that such mighty sinners as they bee , shall be mightily punished . and goe on in this manner to shew them the heynousnesse of their sinne , and grievousnesse of their punishment , it is to no purpose ; for they will answer all , yea confute what ever hee can say , with this short sentence , god is mercifull : yea , though the swearer hath made his soule hell fire hot with oathes and blasphemies , yet hee presumes , that one short prayer for mercy at the last gaspe shall coole him : they will not believe , that are ordained to perish . yea , the divell and sinne so infatuates and besots them , that they thinke to be saved by the same wounds and blood which they sweare by , and so often sweare away ; that heaven will meete them at their last hower , when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten roade toward hell , not considering , that the devill being alwayes a lyer , labours to perswade the godly , that their estate is damnable ; and the wicked , to believe without once questioning , that they are in favour with god : so they spend their dayes in mirth , saith iob , and suddenly they goe downe into hell. iob. . . § . neither is it strange that they should be so jocund , confident , and secure , 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 are they ignorant . a dunse , wee know , seldome makes doubts , yea , a foole , saith salomon , boasteth , and is confident . pro. . . 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 , 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 fifth 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 weigheth 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. . . rev. . . 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 . § indeed a course might be taken by the state to make them leave it , 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 alp●red'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 , if 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 as●dod 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 sm●t 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 , sam. . . 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 tibert●s 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 heard to sweare , or very rarely . and would not the like penalty now work the like effect ● yes undoubtedly , for men stand more upon their silver , or upon their sides smarting , then upon their soules . have you not heard how that host answered his guests , when they could get no flesh at his house in lent , yet might have it in other places ● alasse ! said he , we are bound , and they are but sworn ; the tale lookes like mirth , but the meaning is in good earnest : too many feare an obligation , more than religion ; and are more carefull of a recognizance , then of their conscience . what most mens care is , touching spirituall evills , and eternall reward , is lively exprest by salomon , because sentence against an evill worke is not executed speedily , therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evill , eccle. . . ignorant worldlings thinke because god strikes not , he minds not , ps. . . but o foole , though hee come softly to judgement , yet he commeth surely ; and in the end , what hee wanted in swiftnesse , shall be supplyed in severenesse . yea , were that good statute lately enacted by our gracious king , and his nobles , thorowly , strictly , and severely put in execution , without partiallity , we should finde another manner of reformation touching oaths , then now we see ; be●ides the pore should be richly maintained , and none be in want but swearers , whose want also were the onely way to make them rich , to recover their soules , and procure all blessings from god upon their persons and estates , so all should be gainers : whereas now though we have good laws provided , the matter is as well mended touching oaths , as it was once in lyons touching stewes , of which hugo card nalis said , that whereas innocentius found foure at his comming thether , he had left them but one , indeed that reached from one end of the city to the other , urbs est jam tota lupanar ; for wee have not lesse but more swearing since that prohibition , by reason that mans nature most lusteth after that which is most forbidden , and slights the fruite of that tree which is easily climbed : so that for want of due execution , because of oathes the land doth mourne , hos. . . and threatens to spue out her inhabitants because of drunkennesse . and so much of the drunkards swearing . § . now when the pots for a while have stopt all their mouths , ( though every man had his share before ) and they forgot what was formerly spoken ; you shall have one , for very pure love , and want of other expression , weep in his fellowes bosome ; another sit kissing of his companion , not without some short sentence nothing to the purpose ; a third , setting his mouth on the racke with laughter ; ( wise were the man that could tell at what ) a th swaggering and swearing because the wine was brought him no sooner ; a fifth , ( for i passe him that sits there in a corner , nodding , and slavering ) falls down upon his marrowbones ( in devotion to bacchus ) and up with the pot hand smooth , after which every one that is awake sings his song , seasoning the same with many a goodly belch ; then one in stead of a harpe , takes a knife and a quart pot , with which he will make fine musick in his conceit ; another , in his song commends his mistris , another , the goodnesse of the wine ; another , being better skilled in prose than meeter , relates all the passages betwixt him and his wife at home , for wine descending , causeth words still to ascend ; another ▪ tells how many quarts , he , and so many more , dranke at such a ing ; another , begins to argue of religion , and matters of state ; another brags of his lying with such a woman , into whose company hee could never yet bee admitted ; another boasts how he jeered such a puritan , ( for the drink having bitten him , hee runnes like a mad dog up and down , snapping at every body , and many a good man may say with david , i became a song of the drunkards ) another , falls a riming all in satyre against the rest that are absent , and will not drinke , ( and perhaps steeps his jest in his own laughter ) which being lik'd and laught at , they all fall a riming ; then each one , in his order , must play the poet out of the inspiration of bacchus , only , ( for sibylla like ) they never yeeld any oracle , except they are first possest with a fury , and the muses may goe hang for any roome they have here ; their library is a large roome , ranked ful of pots and canns of all sorts . now although the wisest of them cannot make two true verses in his mothers tougue in three houres ; yea although they bee the veriest lack-latins , and the most unalphabeticall raggabashaes that ever lived , ( for i never heard of above one good poet they had , and hee was starved to death , for telling truth out of season ) yet notwithstanding ( for stand well they cannot ) they will , one with a cole , another with a candle , fill all the walls and ●eelings with epithalamiums , elegies , and epitaphs ; which done , are expounded to the rest of the company , if any be awake to heare it ; your eares would blister to read them , though it would doe a deafe ma●s heart good to heare them , or a blind mans to see them . § . and yet poore soules they thinke themselves wiser then salomon , for being bribed with self-conceite , what can not they doe , what doe they not know , what will they not say ▪ yea , it is a wrong to their reputation to be ignorant of any thing ; and yet they know not this one thing , that they know nothing ; as it is hard to tell whether pride or ignorance beares the greatest sway . it is incident to a weake mind to overvalue it selfe , the gentiles professed themselves to bee wise even when they became fooles , romans . . ●●e prince of tyrus would bee reputed wiser then daniel , ez●ch . . . when indeed he was of all fooles the greatest , v. . and s. paul tels us , that they which never knew what wisdome meant , yet named themselves philosophers , col. . . yea , they hold all the world dunces besides themselves , and will sweare , they are shallow fellowes that doe not drinke sack . tell them that pythagoras drank nothing but water , that demosthenes that great orator never drank wine ; they will say , it cannot be , it is impossible ; for they have as high an esteeme of wine about making wise , as the stoicks had of their doctrine about making holy , who were of opinion , that whosoever received the same , if in the morning hee were wicked , in the evening hee should become a very good man : and hence it is , that according to the custome of duchmen , and ancient persians , they never make bargaines , nor consult of any great matters , but in the midst of their cups , when halfe drunke . neither will any wonder at this their conceit , that considers these two things . first , what the nature of wine is , for wine , as plato wel observes , being immoderately taken , makes them which drinke it thinke themselves wise , and their discourse unanswerable , and so it is , by reason of their obstinacy ; hereupon their speech is much , though little to the purpose , and what ever the question be , the truth is on their side , all is spoken in print that is spoken by them , though their phrase ( the apparell of their minds ) hath a rash outside , and fustian lynings ; which would make them hold their peace , if they but heard themselves with my eares , as xenocrates the philosopher told one that was a great babler : yea , all the drunkards geese are swanns , and all their vertues tenne foote long ; as for faults , they have none , for poore soules they see neither their slips , nor wants . secondly , a drunkard , with the sluggard in the proverbs , is wiser in his owne co●ceit , then seven men that can render a reason , because , he speakes so much , and heares so little . they that talke so much to others , seldome speake with themselves enough ; and then for want of acquaintance with their owne bosomes , they may well be mistaken , and present a foole to the people , while they thinke themselves wise . alasse ! if they have once read but the fayry queene , the arcadia , and montaigne his essayes , ( i dare not say the booke of statutes , or the chronicles ) or can but breake a jeast , as many of them are like sarmantus , a gentleman of rome , whowas famous only for his scoffing , then they conceit of themselves , as menecrates the physitian did , who ( though not worthy to be aesculapius his apothecaries boy ) would needs be iupiter ; and opinion you know is all in all , every thing wee light upon is as we apprehend it ; opinion makes women faire , and men lovely ; opinion makes men wise , valiant , rich , nay any thing . § but are they so wise , because they thinke themselves so ▪ no , no more then simon magus was great , because he called himselfe a great man : for what ever they thinke , by the rule of scripture every drunkard is a foole , pro. . . and experience shewes , that the greatest bowsers are the greatest buzzards in the world , that they have most leaden conceits , dull understandings , drossie wits , grosse and muddy affections ; for either they are of so meane breeding , that they are ignorant of any other entertainment ; or of such slow conceit , as they are not company one for another , without excessive draughts to quicken them . or thirdly , so abundantly talkative , that they prove themselves fooles the other way ; for even their much babling , is an argument sufficient to prove them fooles . what saith wise salomon ▪ a fooles voi●e is knowne by a multitude of words , and babling drunkards account it not wisdome to speake few things or words ; yea , they can better aford you a sea of words , then a drop of wit ; as marke whether their discourse be not more sound , then substance ; winde , then matter . yea , tell me whether a talkative drunkard bee not an unbraced drum , able to beate a wise man out of his wits , except he should stop his eares , or absent his person , when such intrude themselves into his company . we reade that horace was put into a sweat ( almost into a feaver ) by the accidentall detention of a bablers tongue . but to goe on , ever where is least braine , saith socrates , there is most tongue , and lowdest ; even as a brewers cart upon the stones makes most noyse , when his vessells are emptiest . indeed when a modest man gave thankes to god with a submisse and low voice , an impudent criticall gallant found fault with him , that hee said grace no lowder ; but he gave him a bitter reply , make me but a fo●●e , and i shall speake as lowd as you , but that will marre the grace quite . a babling tongue sheweth great pride , and little knowledge ; but how seldome is the tongue liberall , where the heart is full ? spintharus gives this praise of epaminondas , that he hardly ever met with one , that knew more then he , or spake lesse : profound knowledge sayes little , deepe rivers passe away in silence , but what a murmur and bubling , yea , sometimes what a roaring doe they make in the shallowes ? yea , both the greatest knowers , and the greatest doers , are ever the least talkers . sampson slew a lyon , yet he made no words of it ; whereas they that have busie tongues , have commonly lazie hands , which also proves that they have vaine hearts . the lesse vertue , the greater report , who can wonder to finde a flood in the tongue , when the heart is empty ? indeed when once a rabbi little learned , and lesse modest , usurped all the discourse at table , one ( not for want of ignorance ) ●uch admiring him , asked his friend in private , whether he did not take such a man for a great s●holler ? but what was the answer ? he may be learned quoth he , for ought i know , but i never heard learning make such a noyse . the full vessell gives you a soft answeare , but found liquor : so the knowing and sollid man , will either be silent , or his words shall be better then silence ; whereas they that speake much , seldome speake well . § . but to make it undeniable that drunkards are fooles : see how drunkennesse either finds men fooles , or makes them fooles that follow it . first , it commonly finds them fooles , for excesse , is a true argument of folly , plut●rch was wont to laugh at those , that would be counted wise as plato , and yet would be drunke with alexander . indeed we use to say when the drinke is in , the wit is out ; but surely if the wit were not first out , drinke ( in excesse ) would not be admitted in . a wise man will moderate his appetite , master his unruly affections , gainesay all unreasonable requests ; whereas to be overcome with excesse , and overswayed by every idle solicitor , is the cognizance of a foole . yea , who more sottish , then he which refuseth to be a saint , that he may be a beast ? who more foolish , then those prophane esa●s , that will fell their birth-right , reason , and the blessing of grace here , and glory hereafter , for a messe of pottage , a little sensuall delight , and with adam , part with their ●alvations for an apple ▪ yea , esau was a foole for selling away his birth-right , but in ●elling it away for a messe of pottage , he was twice a foole . what greater folly and madnesse , saith st. gregory , then for a little worldly pleasure , to loose an eternall kingdome , and then rest in torment for evermore . many censure herods grosse impotencie , and yet second it with a worse ; giveing away their pretious soules for the short pleasure of sinne ; for what is halfe a kingdome , yea , the whole world to a soule ? so much therefore is there madnesse greater , as their losse is more . yea , the drunkard is a foole touching temporalls . i would faine know , whether is wisest the prodigall waster , or the covetous griper ; he that with a wanton eye , a liquorish tongue , and a gamesome hand , indiscreetly , ravells out his auncecestors faire possessions , it may be a hundred pounds per annum in three yeares , and then leads the rest of his dayes in prison , there to repent at leisure , having for his attendants , sorrow , griefe , diri●ion , beggery , contempt , &c. or he that to get a hundred pounds per annum , and onely possesse , not use the same , after he hath got it , perhaps three yeares , is content to be weeping , and wayling , and gnashing of teeth in the prison of hell for evermore ? without question these two are both fooles alike . in a word , what greater folly then for a little tickling of the palate , a kinde of running banquet , to hazard the losse of eternall comfort , and expose ones selfe to a devouring fire , an everlasting burning ? isay. . . surely in this case if a man were not either foolish , or drunke before hand , he could never yeeld to be made drunke . secondly , or in case they have wit , and other good naturall parts before , and those well improved ; yet this vice makes them become fooles , for drunkennesse banisheth wit. reason is so clowded with those fogs and mists , which ascend up out of the kitchen of the stomacke to the braine , that their wits runne a wollgathering , as the saying is . a full belly makes an empty braine , when a masse of moysture ( like the first chaos ) is in the stomacke , all the faculties of the soule are void and without forme , and darknesse is upon the face of it , untill there be another fiat . even a voice from heaven commanding a new light . drunkennesse takes from men wit , memory , and all other their good parts ; as how many of these quagmirists have lost their soules sight by overmuch drinking , as dionysius the tyrant did his bodily ? how many old men through a long custome in this vice , are grown sottish and stupid , as if their spirits were buried in beefepots ▪ whom wee may fitly compare to the people of pandorum , a country in the indies , who ( as they say ) have white heads in their youth , which turne cole black in their old age . yea , drunkennesse besots the strongest braine , and beastiates even the bravest spirits when the grecians ( that sage nation ) fell to this vice , they mightily decayed in braine : and take this for a rule ; while bacchus is a mans chiefe god , apollo will never keep him company . neither are men rob'd by it of their naturall parts only ; but drunkennesse darkens the light both of nature and grace , and so yeelds men over unto sathan , to bee led , as it were blindfold , into all manner of sinne and wickednesse , as we shall see anon . yea , ( which is most remarkable ) this may seeme to be the drunkards ayme ; for being at it , he will never give over drinkking till hee hath laid reason his keeper to sleep , and blown out that little light which is left in him , and desperately drowned the voyce and cry of conscience . § but before i go on , an objection would bee answered ; for me thinks i heare some impatient drunkard reply to what hath beene said ; that his wits ( god bee thanked ) are as fresh as ever , and although he hath beene drunk a hundred times , and so deprived himselfe both of re●son and sense for the present yet his wits have alwayes returned againe : which i grant in part , for i confesse it is not so with them all , at all times ; every drunkard is not wholly forsaken of his reason , wit , and memory , ( though there wits at the best be but as it were asleep ) but sure i am , it is so with the best of them at certaine times . we read that philip king of macedon , a prince both wise and just , being drunk , gave a wrong sentence against machetas , and condemned him being innocent ; which hee perceiving , made his appeale from king philip drunke , to king philip sober ; who being come to himselfe , and better considering of it , reverst his former sentence . and i have my selfe seene sitting in a grocers shop ( for such men i seldome meete in a taverne ) a scholler and a witty man , being somewhat gone in drink , take up a sand barrell , in stead of a boule of beere , and ( having said , here cosen to all our friends ) hold it to his mouth , untill a good part of the sand ran in betweene his teeth ; and have beene told of many the like ; as , that one being abroad late , seeing the shaddow of a signe-post crosse the street , stroue to lift his legg over , but gessing the matter impossible , he fell to chafeing and cursing , that the city was no better ordered ; that another fell to cussing of a post for not giving him the wall , and being told that it was a post , made reply , he might have blowne his horne then : that another seeing the moone shine bright through a round hole , would needs light his candle at it : that another being fallen down in fleetstreete , should reply , when some admonished him , and offered to lift him up , what can i not bee quiet in mine owne roome ▪ and you have heard what athen●us relates , how a tavern was , by the fancy and imagination of a drunken crue , turned into a gally ; who having a tempest in their heads , caused by a sea of drinke within , verily thought this tap-house on land a pinnace at sea , and the present storm so vehement , that they unladed the ship , throwing the goods out at window , instead of overbord ; calling the constable , neptune , and the officers , tritons ; whereupon some got under the tables , as if they lay under hatches , another holding a great pot for the maste ; all crying out , that so many brave gentlemen should be cast away . and could this be , if drunkards were not stupendiously besotted ? yea , surely if their wits did not dwell in a fenne , they could not have such muddy conceits : but so it is , as i have prooved by sundry , and those strong , evidences . i confesse it is the better for them that they are fooles , the case being rightly considered : for what owen speakes in the epigram , may bee applyed to sundry drunkards , good wine , they say , makes vinegar mmost tart : thou the more witty , the more wicked art . yea , had they been born meere naturals ▪ they had either beene in no fault , or in a great deale lesse fault , then they are . and so much of the drunkards wit ; now of his memory . § . as touching memory , they have hardly any at all ; for the abundance of wine hath drowned and mudded that noble recorder . the drunkard first speakes he knowes not what , nor after can he remember what that was he spake ; it is the funerall of all a mans good parts . a drunkards mind and stomack are alike , neither can retaine what they receive ; deep drinkers have shallow memories . have you not heard of one drunkard , that sought all the innes in the towne for his horse , when indeed he came thether on foote ? of another , that was halfe perswaded by the chamberlain , that he came thether without his breeches , having laid them over night under his mat , for the more safety of his purse ▪ and i can witnes that one of no meane parts , being invited to a buriall , puld out his key in the church ( being halfe a sleepe , halfe awake ) and knockt on the pew crying , drawer , what is to p●y ▪ by all which it appeares , that drunkennesse deprives men both of wit and memory , and yet madly wee persue this vice as the kindler of them : but no wonder , when the forbidden tree which promised our first parents knowledge , took their knowledge from them , the same divell having a hand in both . i might proceed to his knowledge in the best things , and shew you , that whereas some are like the moone at full , have all their light towards earth , none towards heaven ; other , like the moone at wane , or change , have all their light to heaven-wards , none to the earth ; drunkards are like the moon in eclips , having no light in it selfe , net her towards earth , nor towards heaven . though they are apt to thinke themselves giants for wit , and eagles for light and judgement , even in divinity also , which makes them so put themselves forward , as how often have i seene a case o● leather stuft with wind , as he in marcellus d●natus thought himself a very beefe-brain'd fellow , that hath had onely impudence enough to shew himselfe a foole , thrust into discourses of religion , thinking to get esteeme ; when all that he hath purchased thereby , hath beene onely the hisse of the wise , and a just deri●ion from the abler judgements : not unlike that germane clown , who undertooke to be very ready in the ten commandements , but being ask'd by the minister , which was the first ? he answered , thou shalt not eat . if you doubt of it , doe but aske the drunkard a reason of his faith ; and you shall see hee can no more tell you , th●n the winde can tell , which last blew off my hat . or onely heare him relate what the minister spake , for seldome but hee stumbles at , and mistakes his words ; for as when s. augustine justified free will against the manichees , the ignorant would take him for a pelagian ; and when he denied free-will to the pelagians , they would take him for a manichee , when he was neither , but disputed against both the extreames , the one utterly denying it , the other too highly extolling it : so when the minister teacheth , that it is impossible for a man to bee justif●ed by his workes , bee they never so glorions and exact performaces , these brutish drunkards wil cry out , he condemneth good works ; if he shew them the necessity of living well , they 'll thinke hee excludeth faith from justifying ; let him prove it a dead faith which is without good workes , and those good workes but shining sins which are without faith , and shew that both faith and workes are equally necessary to salvation , and they will understand hee meanes them both as meritorious causes , whereas he acknowledgeth neither ; but faith as an instrument , good workes as a necessary concomitant , god alone the efficient , and christ alone the meritorious cause of salvation : for know this , that good workes cannot justifie us before the severe tribunall of almighty god , our workes deserve nothing , it is onely in christ , that they are accepted ; and onely for christ , that they are rewarded : neither is it faith which properly saves us , but the righteousnesse of christ , whereon it is grounded ; by grace yee are saved through faith , ephesians . . it is the god of truth that speakes it , and woe unto him that shall make god a lyer ; by grace effectually , through faith instrumentally ; we are not justified for the onely act and quality of believing , it is the justice of jesus that justifies us , which faith apprehends : it was the brazen serpent that healed , not the eye that looked on it ; yet without a look●●g eye , there was no helpe to the wounded party by the promised vertue . it is true , our adversaries oppose this doctrine both with pens and tongues , violently in the schooles , invectively in the pulpets ; but come they once to their death-beds , to argue it betweene god and their owne soules ; then grace , and grace alone ; mercy , and onely mercy ; iesus , and none but iesus ; this their great belweather is driven to confesse ▪ yea , saith another , give us this faith , and then let our enemies doe their worst , the devill tempt , the world afflict , sinne menace , death afright , yet faith will vanquish all , through the righteousnesse of iesus christ. againe let a minister speak against affectation of learning in sermons , they will say , he condemnes learning ; let him tell such as live and allow themselves in drunkennesse , adultery , swearing , deceiving , &c. that they are in a damnable condition , and in a reprobate sense , they will say , he calls them r●probates , and judgeth them damned : in all which they resemble the sadd ces , who tooke occasion to deny the resurrection , from that wholsome doctrine taught , that we should neither serve god for reward , nor feare of punishment , but meerely out of obedience and love : or the iewes , who when christ spake of the temple of his body , understood him to meane the materiall temple , and thereupon tooke great exceptions yea , we have a world of such amongst us , who seeme ( malchus like ) to have their right eares cut off , they heare so sinis●erly . and rather then not carpe , if the minister but use a similitude , for ornament and illustration sake , borrowed from nature or history , they will say , he affirmes the matter thereof possitively to be true : like as that simple fellow thought pontius pilate must needs be a saint , because his name was put in the creede . and so much to prove that the drunkard hath neither wit nor memory . § . have we yet done ? no , i would we had , i would we were well rid of these filthes ; but let us proceed in speaking , as they doe in drinking . by that time these gutmongers have gulped downe so many quarts , as either of their names hath letters in it , they have drawne in some fresh man ; who , perhaps after the third health , refuseth to drinke any more , being of diogenes his humor , who being urg'd at a banquet to drinke more then he was willing , emptied his glasse upon the ground , saying , if i drinke it , i not onely spill it , but it spills me ; so this mans unacustomed rudenesse , and monstrous inhumanity , begins a quarrell . for it is an unexcusable fault , or , as i may say , an unpardonable crime to refuse an health , or not to drinke eq●all with the rest , or to depart while they are able to speake sense , and this they can almost prove , for was not pentheus , son to echion and agave , by his owne mother and sister torne in peeces , for contemning of bacchus his feasts ? hereupon many have lost their lives , because they would not drinke ; but happily by gods blessing , and the parties patience in bearing their fowle language , he hath delivered himselfe of their company , at which they are so vexed , that they gnaw their owne tongues for spight , and call him the basest names they can thinke of . now begin they a fresh to spice their cups , one while with oathes , other whiles with words of scripture , which sounds most ill favouredly in a drunkards mouth , as salomon intimates , pro. . . now raile they against puritans ; for so are all abstemious men in the epicures words , or a beasts language , who hold sobriety , no other thing then humor and singularity , religion and good fellowship to be termes convertible . well , at length they dispute the case about his departure , stoutly affirming that he can be no honest man , who refuseth to pledge them ; and to this they all agree , for the utmost of a drunkards honesty is goodfellowship , and he is of most reputation with them , that is able to drinke most , being of the tartarians religion , together with the inhabitants of cuma●a and guiana , who account him the greatest and bravest man , and most compleate and wel accomplished gallant , who is able to carrouse and swill downe most ; yea , if they can but meete with a man that ( like diotimus surnamed funnell ) can gulpe downe wine through the channell of his throate , conveyed by a tunnell , without interspiration betweene gulpes , as the crocodile eates without moving of his nether jaw , they thinke him not alone worthy to be carried to gurmonds hall , and there made free of the wide throats , or large weezands company ; but thinke he deserves some great preferment , according to those ancient presidents read of in history . where it is recorded , that in the feasts of bacchus , a crowne of gold was appointed for him that could drinke more then the rest . that alexander the great , not onely provided , but gave a crowne worth a talent for reward to pr●machus , when he had swallowed downe foure steines or gallons of wine ; which none of the company could equall him in , though one and forty of them dranke themselves dead also , to shew their willingnesse . that tiberius the emperor preferred many to honours in his time , because they were famous whoremasters , and sturdy drinkers . that tiberius c●sar was preferred to a pretorship , because of his excellency in drinking . that amongst the drink-alians in tenterbelly , he that can drinke a certaine vessell of about a gallon thrice off , and goe away without indenting , for this his good service is presently carried through the city in triumph , to that goodly temple dedicated to god all-paunch , and there knighted . yea , if they might have their wills , none should refuse to be drunke unpunished , or be drunke unrewarded at the common charge ( that i exceede not my last ) each man that will not pledge their healthes , can beare me witnesse , though i neede no better evidence then their owne lips ; for how oft shall you heare them commend those actions , which deserve much blame ; and condemne others which merit great praise ? how oft doth one commend or condemne me for one thing , and another for the contrary ? yea , the famous alderguts , or gulpe-thirsts of our time , not onely thinke excessive drinking worthy of all honour during life , ( and so ratifie those ancient presidents ) but they looke their associates should not cease to honour them being dead , by m●ntioning their rare exployts herein , like darius , who caused it to be engraven upon his tombe for an honour , i could drinke great store of wine , and beare it well . but o you sottish sensualists ! how hath the devill bewitched you to magnifie , honour , and applaud all that are enthralled to this worse then swini●h swilling ? and on the other side , to vilifie , reproach , and undervalue all that hate , and loath it in their judgments , or else renounce it in their practice ? is it possible that the reasonable soule of man ( not professedly barbarous ) should be capable of such a monster ? certainely , if i did not know the truth and probate of it , by ocular and experimentall demonstrations from day to day , i could hardly bring my understanding to believe , that men , that christians should be of so reprobate a judgement , as to affect , admire , adore , &c. so foule , so base , so beastly , so unamiable , so unfruitfull , unprofitable , unpleasant , unnaturall a vice as this is in most mens judgements and experience . nay , i cannot believe what i both see and heare in this case ; for it is not possible for the most corrupted heart to thinke that any should be honoured for villany , and for honesty be contemned ; but rather , that every drunkard , in his more serious cogitations , thinkes of his fellow , dying in this sinne , a fit saint to be canonized for the devill : for not seldome are wicked mens judgments forced to yeeld unto that truth , against which their affections maintaine a rebellion . and so we see , that what seneca said long since , when wine was sold in apothecaries shops , and dranke rather in time of sicknesse , then in health ; namely , that the time would come , when honour should be ascribed unto drunkennesse , and that to drinke much wine should be reputed a vertue , is fulfilled in our age ; that very time is come , non habet ●lterius quod nostris potibus add●s posteritas , — they drinke not for strength , but lust and pride , to shew how full of sathan they be , and how neere to swine , o wofull glory ! § men were not so temperate in former times ( as we read of cyrus , and many others , that did never eate but of hunger , nor drinke but for thirst , and then but a little ) but they more abound in excesse at this present ; for he is a rare drunkard ( yea , a rare man ) in these dayes , that forbeares to drinke untill hee be thirsty ; for , as if they scorned such an occasion , they drink before they are ●ry they drink , untill they become dry ; so that thirst overtakes drunkennesse , as fooles runne into the river to avoyd a shower of raine . all drunkards , all you , who know no other calling but to visite tavernes , know that i speake true , that you drinke one liquour , to draw on another ; not to quench but to increase thirst ; not to qualifie , but to inkindle heat : in which their swinish swilling , they resemble so many froggs in a puddle , or water-snakes in a pond , for their whole exercise , yea religion is to drink , they even drowne themselves on the dry land . o what deluges of wine and strong drinke doth one true drunkard devoure , ( and cause to bee devoured ) who never drinkes but double , for he must be pledged , yea , if there be ten in company , every one must drink as much as he , and he will drinke untill his eyes stare like two blazing starres ; and drawers , or tapsters those sergeants of the maw , will see that the pots shall neither be full nor empty . they drinke more spirits in a night , then their flesh and brains be worth ; for , if it be possible , they will choake , rather then confesse beere good drinke . but in the meane time , how many thousands which are hard driven with poverty , or by the exigents of warre , might be relieved with that these men spend like beasts , whiles that is throwne out of one swines nose , and mouth , and guts , which would refresh a whole family ? o wofull calamity of mankind , saith s. augustine , how many may we find , that doe urge and compell those that be already satisfied , to drinke more then becometh them ; and yet will deny even a cup of small drinke to the poore , that beg it for gods sake , and for christs sake ! they pinch the hungry , to pamper the full ; withhold drinke from the thirsty , to make others drunke with too great abundance . § . but : o how just a punishment were famine , after such a satiety ; and pestilence , after famine , for such as turne the sanctuary of life , into the shambles of death ? o lord it is thy unspeakeable mercy , that our land , which hath beene so long sicke of this drunken disease , and so often surfitted of this sinne , doth not spue us all out which are the inhabitants . the lord of most glorious majesty and infinite purity , sees all , heares all , knowes all , and yet behold we live ; nay , the lord still causes heaven , earth , sea , land , all creatures to waite upon us , and bring us in all due provision ; nay , he hath not long since abounded even in that blessing and graine which hath bene most abused to drunkennesse ; here is patience , here is mercy , here is bounty . o that we could stay here , and suffer our selves to lose our selves , in the meditation and admiration of this wonderfullnesse ! but what 's the reason ? god will not punish the righteous with the wicked , gen. . . he knoweth how to deliver the godly , and to reserve the wicked , these brute beasts , who walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse , and count it pleasure to riot , unto the great day to be punished , peter , . . . whose judgement is not farre off , and whose dam●ation sleepeth not , ver . . for as surely as the word of god pronounceth many a woe unto them , as , woe to drunkards , saith i saith , that are mighty to drinke wine , and un●o them that are strong to powre in stro●g drinke , that continue drinking till the wine doth inflame them . woe , saith habakuk , unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke till hee be drunken . woe , saith solomon , to them that tarry long at the wine , to them that goe and seeke mixt wine . woe to his body , which is a temporall woe ; woe to his soule , which is a spirituall woe ; woe to both body and soule , which is an eternall woe : howle ye drunkards , saith ioel , weepe yee , saith st. iames , isaiah , . . habakuk , . . ioel. . . iames , . . yea , which of gods servants hath not a woe in his mouth to throw at this sinne ? so every tittle of this word shall be accomplished , god will one day hold the cup of vengance to their lips , and bid them drinke their fills . yea , as drunkards are sathans eldest sonnes , so they shall have a double portion of vengance : whereas riot in the forenoone hath beene merry , in the afternoone drunke , at night gone to bed starke mad , in the morning of their resurrection it shall rise sober into everlasting sorrow : they finde not the beginning and progresse so sweete , as the farewell of i● shall be bitter ; for as sure as god is in heaven , if they forsake not their swilling ( which they are no more able to doe , then they are able to eate a rocke , the devill hath so besotted them ) they shall once pay deare for it , even in a bed of urquenchable flames . i speake not of the many temporall judgments , which god brings upon them even in this life , though to mention them alone were omni-sufficient , if they thirsted not after their owne ruine : as i could tell them from l●vit . the . and dent. the . that all curses threatned , all temporall plagues and judgments which befall men in this life , are inflicted upon them for sinne and disobedience . but i speake of those torments which are both into●lerable and interminable ; which can neither be indured , nor avoided , when once entred into . if , i say , you persevere in this your brutish sensuallity , and will needs , dives like , drinke here without thirst ; you shall thirst hereafter without drinke ; yea , though that fire be hot , the thirst great , and a drop of water be but a little ; yet in this hot fire , and great thirst , that little drop shall be denied you , luke , . for know this , that without repentence , paul will be found a true prophet , who saith , that no drunkard shall ever enter into the kingdome of heaven . cor. . . . and isaiab no lesse , who saith , that hell enlargeth it selfe for drunkards , and openeth her mouth without measure , that all those may descend into it , who follow drunkennesse , and preferre the pleasing of their palats , before the saving of their soules , isaiah , . . . for as they shall be excluded and shut out of heaven , so they shall be for evermore damned body and soule in hell ; christ shall say unto them at the great day of accounts , depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire , which is prepared for the devill and his angells . math. . . as they make their belly their god , and their shame their glory , so damnation shall bee their end , phil. . . yea , their end is a damnation without end ; it is heauy and miserable , that their end is damnation ; but it is worse and more miserable , that their damnation is without end : wickednesse hath but a time , but the punishment of wickednesse is beyond all time . neither is the extremity of the paine inferiour to the perpetuity of it , for the paines and sufferings of the damned , are ten thousand times more then can be immagined by any heart , as deepe as the sea , and can be rather indured , then expressed ; it is a death never to be painted to the life , no pen nor pencill , nor art , nor heart can comprehend it . yea , if all the land were paper , and all the water inke , every plant a pen , and every other creature a ready writer ; yet they could not set downe the least peece of the great paines of hell fire . for should we first burne off one hand , then another , after that each arme , and so all the parts of the body , it were intollerable ; yet it is nothing to the burning of body and soule in hell : should we indure ten thousand yeares torments in hell , it were much ; but nothing to eternity : should we suffer one paine , it were enough ; but if we come there , our paines shall be even for number and kindes infinitely various ; as our pleasures have bene here : every sense and member , every power and faculty both of soule and body , shall have their severall objects of wretchednesse , and that without intermission , or end , or ease , or patience to indure it . § . neither let drunkards ever hope to escape this punishment , except in due time they for sake this sinne ; for if every transgression , without repentance , deserves the wages of death eternall , as a just recompence of reward , heb. . . rom. . . how much more this accursed and damnable sinne of drunkennesse , which both causeth , and is attended upon by almost all other sinnes , as hath beene shewed . and yet if thou canst , after all this , but truly repent , and lay hold upon christ by a lively faith , which ever manifesteth it selfe by the fruits of a godly life and conversation ; know withall , that though thy sinnes have beene never so many for multitude , never so great for magnitude , god is very ready to forgive them ; and this i can assure thee of , yea , i can shew thee thy pardon , from the great king of heaven , for all that is past , the tenour whereofis , let the wicked for sake his way , and the unrighteous his owne imaginations , and let him returne to the lord , and hee will have mercy upon him ; and to our god , for he will abundantly pardon . isai. . . and againe , ezec. . if the wicked will turne from all his sinnes which he hath committed , and keepe all my statutes , and doe that which is lawfull and right , he shall surely ● ve , and not die ; all his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not bee once mentioned unto him ; but in his righteousnesse that he hath done hee shall live , because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed , he shall save his soule alive ver . . . . . . other the like places you have , oel , . . . . yea , i can shew thee this very case in a president cor. . . . where we reade of certaine corinthians that had bin given to this sinne of drunkennesse ; who , upon their repentance , were both washed , sanctified , and justified . and st. ambrose tells of one , that being a spectacle of drunkennesse , proved after his conversion , a patterne of sobriety . yea , know this that gods mercy is greater than thy sin , what ever it be ; thou canst not be so infinite in sinning , as hee is infinite in pardoning , if thou repent ; let us change our sins god will change his sentence ; god is more mercifull , saith nazianzen , then man can be sinfull , if hee bee sorrowfull ; none can bee so bad , as god is good ; the seed of the woman is able to bruse this serpents head ; wherefore , if you preferre not hell to heaven , abandon this vice . but withall know , that if it shall come to passe , that the drunkard ( when he heareth the words of this curse , namely these threatnings before rehearsed ) shall pharaoh like , harden his heart , and blesse himself in his wickednesse , saying , i shall have peace , although i walk according to the stub . bornnesse of mine owne heart , thus adding drunkennesse to thirst ; the lord will not be mercifull to that man , but then his wrath and jealousie shall smoak against him , and every curse that is written in his law , shal light upon him ; and the lord shall put out his name from under heaven , as himselfe speakes , deutero . . , . which chapter , together with the former , i wish thee to read , if thou wilt know thy selfe , and foreknow thy judgement . § i but will some titormus say , ( being , it may be , stronger to drink , and taler to tipple , then milo himself was to eat , who devoured a whole oxe at a meale ) i was never so gone yet , but i knew the way home , i could tell what i did , what i said &c. ( for if a drunkard can but put his singer just into the flame of the candle , without playing , hit i misse i , ( which is their tryall of the victory , though hee spue whole fish-ponds , he is held a sober man ) yea , no man ever saw mee so much as wheele in the streets ; i am therefore no drunkard , neither doe these threatnings appertaine to me ; as desperate is the cause which admits no colour of defence : but what answers the prophet ? woe unto them that are mighty to drinke wine , men of strength , to mingle strong drinke , isa. . . and salomon that divine orator answers , ( whose answer is also ours ) they that tar●y long at the wine , they that go to seek mixt wine , they are the parties , to whom this woe belongs , they are to bee ranked with drunkards . yea , the abuse may bee committed many wayes , as vice is manifold , vertue vniforme ; drink then is not only abused when it turnes up a mans heeles , and makes the house runne round ; but when it steales away the affections so far , that a man cannot make too much hast to it , take too much paines for it , spend too much time at it , and money in it . believe it , if a man drink too much for his purse , too much for his calling and occasions , too much for his health and quiet of body and mind , salomon cals him a drunkard . a man hath no more reason , nor warrant to drown his time , his estate , his liver , his stomack , &c. then his wits and braines : and in cases of this nature , things are rather measured by the intention and affection of the doer , then by the issue and event . why should not a man be deemed a drunkard , for his inordinate affection to drinke , as well as an adulterer , for the like affection to his neighbours wife . sinne as sinne , in it's owne colours and nature , is neither desired nor desirable ; but onely as it is disguised , and offers it selfe to the understanding and will in the likenesse and habit of goodnesse . alasse if none be drunke , but such as have lost their leggs , tongues , senses , that by tumbling in their owne vomit and sleeping in a guzell ; what should salomon speake of quarrells , bablings &c. such bee as dead asso many withered plants , and doe what you will to them , they lye like iupiters logg , and neither answer , nor stirre again : it is your mannerly , sober , methodicall drunkard , that drinkes by the hower , and can tell the clock , that drinkes by measure and by rule ; first , so much ale ; then such a quantity of beere ; then of sack ; then of rhenish ; then back again from wine to ale , to beere , till the reynes bee cleansed , the liver cooled , the stomack set upright , and heat and moysture brought to a just and an even temper ; wherefore though it be somewhat to keep a mans senses , yet it is not sufficient ; a man may not be drunk , and yet not bee sober . § . a gaine secondly , for the drunkard doth nothing amisse , though the divell himself would scarse wish him to do worse : some will excuse themselves , yea , beare and bolster out themselves in their drunkennesse , or at least lessen their sin , by pleading presidents and examples ; many holy men , say they , some whereof are mentioned in the scriptures , have beene drunk ; as namely noah and lot ; and therfore it is not so heynous a sinne , as you would make faire for . but let such know , that drunkennes ventured on , by the example of a saints frailty , is of a more malicious nature in them , then it was in him they alledge . any transgression thus derived , is the argument of a more ungracious soule , then that it seekes to imitate . yea , this is so grosse a delusion , that what indeed is an argument of feare , they make an argument of presumption in sinning ; and what they hope shall excuse them , doth but more properly condemne them , because they had that warning before them ; and is so farre from being an evidence to acquit them ; that nothing can more aggravate their guilt : for certainly hee is more guilty of his owne death , who eates mercury , and knows such and such were poysoned with it ; or who goeth into an infected house , seeing lord have mercy upon us , over the doore , then another , that should do the same things ignorantly and unadvisedly . what pilot , that were in his right wits when hee seeth sea-marks , purposely set to give warning of rocks , sands , and shelves , whereon others have made shipwracke , will take occasion thereby to run his ship upon them ? yea , will he not employ all his care and skill , that by avoyding them , he may escape the danger ? yes , except hee be starke mad , or extreamely desperate . the holy ghost compares the examples of holy men , to the cloud in the wildernes , heb. . . which was partly light , partly dark , now if any with the israelites , that follow the light part of this cloud ( the vertues and graces of these saints and holy men ) it will safely conduct and carry them thorow the red sea of this troublesome world ; but contrariwise , if any , with those egyptians , exod. . shall follow the black part , ( their frailties and infirmities ) he is like to be drowned in the sea of eternal destruction , as the egyptians were in those waters . wherefore imitate their vertues , but beware and take heed of their vices . evill was never made to bee imitated , but goodnesse : yet alasse ! lots faith and obedience is not such a sinners object , but his drunkennes : as if iacobs modest looke , liberall hand , truth-speaking tongue , devout knee , and humble heart , were not worth the noting ; but only his lamenesse , and haulting . yea , their weaknesse is seen tears are seene in our eyes . oh ▪ sottish men , that mark none of the graces of godly men , but their skars ! but if any tender the safety of his own soule , when he seeth these examples , which are recorded for our learning , for our warning , let them bee as so many monitors , to warne him to take heed : yea , if they being so godly , had their slips and falls , let him that thinketh he standeth , take heed least he fall : let them not make us goe on more securely in our sinfull courses , but rather move us , to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling , as the apostle exhorts , phil. . . againe the saints falls should serve to raise us up , when wee are downe ; not to cast us down , when we are up ; and should serve for our consolation afterward , not for our presumption before . lastly , lots and noahs falling into this sin were nothing in comparison of thine , for , as for noah , hee was ignorant of the nature of wine , and knew not the strength of the grape : for as it was his first planting of vines there , so it was in all probability , the first time hee had tryed and experimented the operation of wine . and as for lot , he drank liberally , with intent only to comfort himselfe , and his daughters , in regard of the losse of their mother , and many other crosses lately sustained , and was overtaken unawares . neither did any of these drinke with an intent to exceed measure , and to bee drunke , neither did they use it often ; the one , only once ; the other , but twice ; and that by the instigation of his ungracious daughters : and so makes nothing , or very little , for the excuse of common drunkkards , who , like so many flyes , live wholly by sucking . but thou art not drunke with wine : no , peradventure thou hast , no wine to be drunk with ; yet if thou be overcome with strong drinke of what kinde soever it be , thou wilt be found a trespasser against sobriety , and consequently , against god himself . it is notwhat you call the thing that doth the hurt , but what hurt it doth , if it maketh either the head heauy , or the heart outragious , or the eyes to stare , or the tongue to stammer , or the feete to stagger , or the stomacke to worke like yeast in a barrell , thou canst not excuse it . indeed i have heard of a mad fellow , that excused his taking of a purse ; who when one seeing him goe towards the place of execution , said , how now neighbour , whether goe you , what 's the matter ? answered , nothing , but mistaking a word ; i should have said to such an one , good morrow , & i said , deliver ; but as this would not save him from the gallowes ; so no more will these poore excuses save thee from gods heauy displeasure . § . but thou hast yet to say , for thou wilt excuse thy excessive drinking by others example , and alledge , that it is the usuall custome of the place , and the common practice of the people among whom thou livest , yea , whom thou livest by , and art daily conversant withall ; ( as for the most part , that which is patronized by usualnesse , slips into the opinion of lawfulnesse ) and hereupon thou art ( as thou supposest ) the rather to be borne withall , if thou doe like other men , seeing singularity would make thee odious , and cause thee to be scorned and derided of all . i answere , indeed custome and example of the greatest number sayes much for it ; but that much is nothing , for it is god's expresse charge , exod. . . thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill , and st. paul's everlasting rule , rom. . . fashion not your selves like unto this world , besides , if custome of place , or multitude of people could authorize any sinne , then every sinne might stand upon it's justification ; yea , no fancy so mad can fall into humane imagination , that meets not with the example of some publique custome , as i could easily prove , if it were needefull : yea , i can hardly forbeare to make a list of their severalls , for there is no countrey without some customes , as strange to others , as pleasing to themselves ; and use brings the fight of our judgements asleepe ; the barbarous heathen are not more strange to us , then wee are to them ; subjects have divers lustres , whence the diversity of opinions is chiefly ingendred ; one nation vieweth a thing with one visage , and thereon it stayes ; another with another . to bee briefe , if custome and example could authorize drunkennesse , why could it not as well authorize that abominable sinne of sodomy ? for sodomy it selfe was once the common practice of a whole city ; and so for turcisme , iud●isine , paganisine , and popery , for these take up nine parts of the world . but tell me , were it a good plea , to commit a felony , and say that others doe so ? or if never so many should leape into the sea , or cast themselves into the fire , or breake their owne necks , would this encourage any that are wise to do the like ? why then wilt thou leape into hell , and cast away thy soule , because others do so ? alasse ! although custome and community commendeth that which is good , yet it mightily aggravateth that which is evill : a good thing the more common it is , the better it is ; but an evill thing , the more common , the worser : yea , custome grounded neither upon reason , nor religion , is the worst and most barbarous kinde of tyranny : a common fashion dissonant from gods word , is but a common sinne , which often bringeth common and universall judgment ; and therefore thou canst not joyne with them in their sinnes , and be disjoyned from them in their punishments . but seeing there is no such authority given to sinne , as by example , and that this excuse is so common in every offenders mouth , others , or every one doth so and so , therefore why not i ? or , every one is of this or that judgment , and are you wiser then al ? & considering that this is made a generall plea almost in all cases , do not such and such the like , who are wiser , and greater , and better men then your selfe ? ( for i have ever noted , that this one artlesse perswasion of others doe so , prevailes more with the world , then all the places of reason ) i will answer it the more largely and fully , and prove , that example either of the greatest number , or the greatest men , or the greatest schollers , yea , the best and holiest men , let custome and reason , ( as it is now depraved ) together with good intentions , be added thereunto , are but uncertaine , yea , deceitfull guides to follow , and that the best , or all these , will prove but a poore plea another day , god having given us his word , which is a certaine and infallible guide to direct us , and rule to walke by , and square all our actions , together with a strait command , not to swerve therfrom either to the right or left hand . first , we ought not to follow the example of the greatest number , for the greatest number goe the broad way to destruction , and but a few the narrow way which leadeth unto life , as our saviour witnesseth , mat. . . . yea , saith st. iohn , the whole world lieth in wickednesse , the ●oh . . . whereas they whom christ hath chosen out of it , are but a little flocke , luk. . . the number of those whom sa than shall deceive is as the sand of the sea , rev. . . whereas they that beleeve the gospell are few in number , isai. . . rom. . . the one may be compared to a little flocke of kids ; but the other , like the arromites , fill the country : for besides turkes , iewes , and infidells , herefie hath one part , hypocrisie another , prophanesse a third , lukewarmnesse a a fourth , &c. cor. . . so that god hath the least part , that owes all , lord thou hast but a few names in sardy , re. . . and this the scripture verifies of all ages : there could not be found eight righteous persons in the old world , for one was an impious cham ; all sodom afforded not ten ; eliah , speaking of the outward visible church in his time , saith , i onely remaine a prophet of the lord , but baals prophets are . king. . . and micha complaines of the multitude of the wicked in his time , and small number of the faithfull , micha . . . behold ( saith isai. ) i , and the children whom the lord hath given me , are for signes , and for wonders in israell , esai . . . so few and rare , that they were gazed on as monsters , and though the number of the children of israell be as the sand of the sea , yet but a remnant shall be saved , saith the lord himselfe , esai . . . rom. . . neither hath it beene otherwise since the gospell ; the whole city went out to send christ packing ; not a gadarean was found , that either dehorted his fellowes , or opposed the motion , mat. . . when pilate asked , what shall be done with iesus ? all , with one consent , cryed , crucifie him , math. . . there was a generall shout for diana for two howers together , great is diana , of the ephesians , not one man tooke paul's part ; yea , the iewes tell paul , that his sect is every where spoken against , acts , . . so that vox populi is not alwayes vox dei , yea , for the most part , it is vox diaboli , for all bothsmall and great , rich and poore , free and bond , receive the marke of the beast in their foreheads , revel . . . neither is this the vote of scripture alone , for the very heathens could see the same to be a truth , even by the light of reason . diogenes thought he should doe best , when he did least what the common people did . and socrates ever suspected that , which past with the most and generall commendations . yea , of all the . severall opinions which philosophers held , touching the chief good , reckoned up by s. augustin . de civitate dei , lib , . cap. . never any was so mad , as to thinke the way to attaine to it was by doing as the most doe ; wherefore saith seneca , regard not what the multitude do , for number is but an ill signe of a good cause , yea , it is the best note of the worst way . yea , this is so cleare a truth , that even common sense may see it : for look we upon the whole frame of nature , and every creature in the universe , even from the angels to the least moats or atomes , and from substances to accidents , this rule holds good , that the basest things are ever most plentifull . then like no vice , though followed with a throng : for who measures truth by voyces , doth it wrong . follow the best , not the most , and what the example bates of multitude , will bee supplyed with magnitude . truth may not bee measured by the pole ; it is not number but weight that must carry it with god ; a solid verity in one mouth , is worthy to preponderate light falshood in a thousand : yea , therefore be more temperate and sober , that so thou mayest not imitate , but rather reprove them ; and bee more holy , because in the midst of a perverse generation so shining as lights in a dark place ; and follow not the worlds fashion , especially in this , for this is a fashion that will one day bee wash'd off with fire and brimstone . § . secondly , suppose this were the common practise of the greatest , richest , and noblest men in the land ; it would no way serve thee for an excuse , nor make thy sin any whit more warrantable . i confesse , authority of greatnesse , doth often corrupt the integrity of goodnesse ; yea , the evill examples of great men , doe great harme , and ever have done ; and he that is most eminent , hath most followers . augustus a learned prince , filled rome with schollers ; tiberius filled it with dissemblers ; constantine with christians ; lulian with atheists . as other beasts levell their looks at the countenance of the lion and birds make wing as the eagle flies : so regis ad arbitrium totus componitur orbis : if saul even kill himself , his armor-bearer will do the like ; the leaders example is a law to the followers . yea , many ( like aesops asse , that imitated the fawning dogg , ) will doe what great ones doe , though they make themselves ridiculous by it : wee are led by whom we are fed , without any respect to him that feeds both them and us . a sicke head makes a disordered body ; a blinde eye endangers all the other members ; a rulers unrighteousnesse , like a blazing star , hath a long taile , and drawes a traine of mischiefes after it , and is ominous to the whole land ; wheras piety in a prince , like aarons oyntment , runnes downe to the skirts of his garments , psal. . . blesseth all his subjects . the bad conditions of popular persons , are like iacobs speckled rods , they make the people bring forth their owne party-coloured actions , genesis . . . the ill customes of the eminent , are drawn up like some pestilent exhalations , and corrupts the aire round about . but should their examples be followed because they are great , or because they are set by god to rule over us in matters civill , politicke , and judiciary ? no , for god doth not make every one good whom he hath made great , neither makes he difference between the voble and the rabble , either in the dispensing of his g●ace , or in the tolleration of offenders ; one is no more priviledged then another , for his grace is alike free to both , and both the same law bindes all men alike to their good behaviour , and the same punishment shall bee inflicted upon all that offend . yea , god is so farre from being arespector of persons in the dispensing of his grace , that as he hath put downe the mighty from their seates , and exalted them of low degree ; so he hath filled the hungry with good things , and the rich hee hath sent empty away , luk. . . . he hath chosen the poore of this world to be rich in faith , james . . yea , not many noble are called , as paul speakes , but god hath chosen the base things of the world , and things that are despised , to confound the mighty , cor. . , . neither is this the manner of his donation onely , but of his acceptation also ; for , as our saviour chose rather to bee born in the towne of bethlehem , a meane place of iudea , then in ierusalem , the metropolitan , and most glorious city , mat. . and as david preserred the approbation of a maid servant fearing god , before michols , a scoffer , though shee were queene , sam. . . so god esteemes more of vertue clad in raggs , then vice in velvet : hee respects a man , not for his greatnesse , but for his goodnesse ; not for his birth , but for his new birth ; not for his honour , but for his holinesse ; not for his wealth , but for his wisdome : with him ephraim shall bee preferred before manasses , gen. . . . and ishaes little sonne before the rest of his brethren , sam. , . adoniah may pretend his eldership , but salomon shal enjoy the kingdom , king. . . it is humility that makes us accepted both of god and man , whereas the contrary maketh us hated and abhorred of both . while saul was little in his owne eyes , god made him head over the tribes of israell , and gaue him his spirit ; but when he abused his place and gifts , god took both from him , and gave them to david , whom saul least respected of all his subjects , sam. . . . and . . the best nobility , is the nobility of faith ; and the best genealogie , the genealogy of good works . the blessed virgin was more blessed in being the child of her saviour , then in being his mother : the onely true greatnesse is to bee great in the sight of the lord , as iohn baptist was , luke . . . which if we bee , it is no great matter how the world esteemes of us : and he that is regenerate , is greater and more noble than the proudest that oppose them , for the righteous , saith salomon , is more worthy then his neighbour , prov. . . and better is the poore that walketh in his uprightnesse , then he that perverteth his wayes , though he be rich , prov. . . the bereans are reputed , by the holy ghost , more noble men , then they of thessalonica , because they received the word withall readinesse , and searched the scriptures daily , whether those things were so , which paul preached , act. . . whence it is that david thought it not so happy for him to be a king in his owne house , as a doore keeper in gods house : that salomon in the book of his repentance , prefers the title of ecclesiastes , that is a soule reconciled to the church , beforethe title of the king of ierusalem . that theodosius the emperor preferred the title of membrum ecclesiae , before that of caput imperii ; professing that he had rather be a saint , and no king ; then a king , and no saint . and that godly constantine rejoyced more in being the servant of christ , then in being emperor of the whole world . and good reason , for they were but poore c●sars , poore alexanders , poore tamerlanes , that wone so many victories , and lost the best ; whereas our adoption makes us at once both great , rich , and safe : as for greatnes , we are alied so high , that we dare call god father ; our saviour , brother , &c. for riches , we have heaven it selfe , which is made sure to us for our patrimony : and for fafety , we think it no presumption to trust to a guard of angels ; see that yeed spise not one of these little ones , saith our saviour , for , i say unto you that in heaven their angels alwayes behold the face of my father which is in heaven , matth. . . and thus wee see hee is great that is good , and hee noble that is all glorious within , psal. . . and that it is no measuring men by the depth of the purse , for servants are oftentimes set on horseback ; while princes walke on foote . wherefore our estimation of others , must bee led by their inward worth , which is not alterable by time , nor diminishable with externall conditions ; and for our selves it matters not , if with gideon , wee are dream't to bee but barley cakes , when we know withall , that our rowling down the hill of outward esteeme shall breake the tents of midian ; it matters not how base we be thought , so we may be victorious iudge . . . . but suppose god did make a difference between rich and poore , great and small , noble and ignoble ; yet still greatnesse , nobility , and riches would be but a deceitful guide or rule to walke by ; for the kings of the earth band themselves , and the princes are assembled together , against the lord and against his christ , psalme . . and in king. . . we read of no lesse then kings in a cluster which were every one drunke ; and elsewhere , that a thousand of the chiefe princes of israel committed fornication , and were all destroyed for their labour in one day , numb . . . cor. . . yea , of twenty kings of iudah , which the scripture mentions , we read of but six that were godly ; and of eighteene kings of israel , all , but two , are branded by the holy ghost for wicked ; and yet this nation was gods peculiar and chosen people out of all the world . and lastly , when the rulers sate in councell against christ , none spake for him but nichodemus , ioh. . . . all which shewes , that it is neither a good , nor a safe way to imitat other mens examples , be they never so rich , never so great . or if we avoid not their sinnes , wee shall not escape their plagues : if we sinne together , we shall be sure to perish together : as when those three and twenty thousand israelites committed fornication , after the example of their chiefe princes , they were every one destroyed both leaders and followers , num. . . cor. . . and as when those other cities followed sodoms lust , they were all consumed with sodoms fire , iud. . onely there shall be this difference ; as the errors of the eminent are eminent errors , and the more noble the person , the more notorious the corruption ; for great persons , like the great lights of heaven , the most conspicuous planets , if they be eclipsed , all the almanacks of all nations write of it ; whereas the small scarres of the galaxy are not heeded ; all the country runnes to a beakon on fire , no body regards to see a shrub flaming in a valley ; whereby sinne in them , is not onely sinnne , but subornatione quae in vulgaribus nugae , in magnatibus blasphemia : so these great offenders , shall meete with great punishments ; and as their fault is according to the condition of their place , so shall the nature and proportion of their retribution be . § . but thirdly , suppose most of the learned and greatest shcollers in the land were given to this vice , ( which notwithstanding is a vanity to conceive ) yet all were one , this could be no excuse for thee . for first , not many wise men after the slesh are called , but god hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , that no flesh should rejoyce in his presence , cor. . . . . yea , the preaching of christ cracified was foolishnesse to the wise sages of the world , cor. . . it pleaseth god , for the most part ▪ to hide the mysteries of salvation from the wise and learned , and reveale them unto babes , math , . . luk. . . yea , the saving knowledge of christ is hid to all that are lost , cor. . . but if once men abuse their knowledge and learning to gods dishonour , and comply with sathan and the world against the church ; then he taketh that knowledge , which once they had , from them , as he tooke heate from the fire , when it would burne his children , dan. . . i will destroy the tokens of the southsayers , and make them that conjecture fooles : i will turne the wisemen backward , and make their knowledgefoolishnesse , saith the lord , isa. . . he taketh the wise in their craftinesse , and the counsell of the wicked is made foolish , iob. . . as how many wise and learned men among the gentiles have turned fooles , and worshipped gods that were not able to wipe off the dust from their owne faces ? how many papists , that are great clarkes , and wise men , maintaine a thousand absurd and ridiculous tenents , yea , such brainesicke positions , that never any old woman , or sicke person doted worse . to nominate two , of two hundred . iohn baptist , with them , hath so many heads , that they cannot tell which is the right ; god made him but one , herod left him none , they ( as if he were another hydra ) have furnished him with a great many . christs crosse is so multiplied with them ; that the same , which one ordinary man might beare , if the peeces were gathered together , would now build a pinnace of a hundred tunne ; yet they will tell us , that every shiver came by revelation , and hath done miracles ; but this appeares to me the greatest miracle , that any man should beleeve them : yea , is not their folly and blindnesse such , as to maintaine those things for truth , which the holy ghost plainely calls the doctrine of devills ? tim. . . . and justly are they forsaken of their reason , who have abandoned god : yea , most just is it , that they who want grace , should want wit too . if idolaters will needs set up a false god , for the true ; is it not equall , that the true god should given them over to the false ? and because they receive not the love of the truth , that they might be saved , therefore , saith the apostle , god sendeth them strong delusions , that they might believe lyes ; that all they might be damned , which beleeve not the truth , but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse , thes. . . . . god giveth to every man a stocke of knowledge , more or lesse , to occupy withall ; and to him which useth the same well , viz. to his glory , and profit of himselfe , and others , he giveth more , as to the servant which used his talents wel , hee doubled them ; which makes the holy ghost frequent in these and the like expressions ; if any will doe gods will , hee shall understand the doctrine whether it be of god or no , ioh. . . a good understanding have all they which keepe the commandements , psal. . . the spirituall man understandeth all things , cor. . . to a man that is good in his sight god giveth knowledge and wisdome , eccles. . . wicked men understand not judgment , but they that seeke the lord understand all things , pro. . . but as for him which useth it not , much more , if he abuseth his knowledge to his owne hurt , and gods dishonour , as too many doe , he taketh from him even that which he had formerly given him ; as he tooke away the odd talent from the servant which had but one , and did not use the same , luk. . . that this is gods manner of dealing , you may see mat. . . gen. . . acts , . . isaiah , . . and . . and . . . dan. . . . iob , . . . ioh. . . and . . . rom. . . eph. . . . cor. . . thes. . . . . hee is not more the author of light in goshen , then of blacke darkenesse in aegypt , hee doth not more open the heart of lydia , then harden the spirit , and make obstinate the heart of sihon king of hesbon , deut. . . if there be a mordecay , growing into favour with him ; there is also an haman , growing out of favour . as eliah's spirit is doubled upon elisha ; so the good spirit departed from saul . as the gentiles became beleevers , so the iewes became infidells . as saul became an apostle , so iudas became an apostate . as iohn groweth in the spirit , so ioash decayeth in the spirit , chro. . . &c. as zacheus turneth from the world , so demas turneth to the world , and god is no lesse the permitter of the one , then the cause of the other , if we consider him as a righteous iudge , punishing one sinne with another by way of retaliation . hereupon , when christ meets with good nathaniell , a true israelite , in whom there was no guile , he saith unto him , beleevest thou , because i saw thee under the figg-tree ? thou shalt see greater things then these , iohn , . . whereas to the obstinate iewes , he saith , by hearing , ye shall heare , and shall not understand ; and seeing , yee shall see , and not perceive , math. . . even like hazar , that had the well before her , but could not see the water , gen. . . make the heart of this people fat , make their eares heavy , and shut their eyes , least &c. isaiah . . which words , with the former examples , are written for our learning and warning : for was the talent , thinke we , onely taken from him in the gospell ? did none lose the spirit , but saul ? have none their hearts hardened for their obstinacy , but pharaoh ? doe none grow out of favour with him , but haman ? doe none become infidels , besides the iewes ? none prove apostates , but iudas ? have none their eyes darkened , and their hearts hardened for their sinnes , but the gentiles ? o yes , the idle servant was but a type of many that should have their talents taken away ; saul was but a type of many that should lose the spirit ; sampson was but a type of many that should lose their strength ; the gentiles were but a type of many christians which should have their minds darkened , and their hearts hardened , whom god should give up to a reprobate minde , &c. it 's true , this is not meant of naturall , or speculative knowledge , wherein the wicked have as large a share as the godly ; but of spirituall , experimentall , and saving knowledg , which is supernaturall and descendeth from above , iames , . . and keepeth a man from every evill way , pro. . . wherein the wicked have no part with the godly , the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of god , cor. , . now god esteemes none wise , that are not so in this latter sense ; yea , naturall and worldly wisdome , without this , is meere foolishnesse in gods account , cor. . . and . . and no lesse then twelve times infatuated by the wisdome of god in one chapter , corinthians , . . whence it is that the scribes and pharisies , who were matchlesse for their knowledge and learning ( and that in the scriptures , gods oracles , which will make a man wise , or nothing ) are called by our saviour , who could not be deceived , foure times in one chapter , blind , and twice , fooles , math. . and baalam ( who had such a propheticall knowledge that scarce ever any of the holyest prophets had so cleare a revelation of the messiah to come ) is called by the holy ghost , foole peter , . . and good reason , for though he was a seer , hee could not see the way to heaven ; and the same may be said of i●das ( who knew asmuch as the wisest naturall man ) for if he had beene wise , he would not have taught others the way to heaven , and go● himselfe the direct way to hell. alasse ! the greatest clarkes , and they that know most , are not always the wisest men ; many of the wise , and the ancient , and the learned , with nicodemus , are to learne this lesson , that except they be borne againe , they cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven , iohn . . , . and they that give themselves to be so bookish , are often times so blockish , that they forget god who made them . now as our saviour said to him , which thought he had done all , one thing is behind , luk. . . so may i say to these , who thinke they know all , one thing is behinde , and that is the true knowledge of god , of christ , of themselves , and how they may be saved : and hee which knowes not thus much , although i cannot say he is a starke foole , yet i may truely say hee is halfe a foole , and halfe a wise man : as ona-centaure was halfe a man , and halfe an asse : for all learning and knowledge , without this , is but as a wodden diamond in a lattin ring , and others who know lesse , and are lesse learned , may be more wise . it was a true and just reprehension , wherewith the high priest snib'd the councell , as they were set to condemne christ , and a great deale better then hee meant it , ye know nothing at al , iohn , . . hee spake right , for if wee know not the lord iesus , we know nothing at all ; our knowledge is either nothing , or nothing worth . what saith aristotle , no more then the knowledge of goodnesse , maketh one to be named a good man ; no more doth the knowledge of wisdome , onely , cause any person properly to bee called a wise man ; saving knowledge of the trueth , workes a love of the trueth knowne : yea , it is an uniforme consent of knowledge and action : hee onely is wise , that is wise for his owne soule ; he whose conscience pulleth all hee heares and reades to his heart , and his heart to god , who turneth his knowledg to faith , his faith to feeling , and all to walke worthy of his redeemer , he that subdues his sensuall desires and appetites to the more noble faculties of reason , and understanding , and makes that understanding of his serve him , by whom it is , and doth understand , he that subdues his lusts to his will , submits his will to reason , his reason to faith , his faith , his reason , his will , himselfe , to the will of god ; this is practicall , experimentall , and saving knowledge , to which the other is but a bare name or title : for what is the notionall sweetnesse of honey , to the experimentall tast of it . it is one thing to know what riches are , and where they be , and another thing to be master of them ; it is not the knowing , but the possessing of them that makes rich . faith and holinesse are the nerves and sinewes , yea the soule of saving knowledge : the best knowledge is about the best things , and the perfection of all knowledge , to know god and our selves , as being the marrow , pith , or kernell , of christianity ; and it is much , to know a little in this kinde . what said aristippus to one that boasted how much hee had learned ? learning consisteth not in the quantity , but in the quality ; not in the greatnesse , but in the goodnesse of it . wee know a little gold , is of more worth then much drosse : a precious stone is a very little thing , yet it is preferred before many other stones of greater bulke : yea , a little diamond is more worth then a rockie mountaine : so one drop of wisdome , guided by the feare of god , is more worth then all humane learning ; one sparke of spiritual , experimental , and saving knowledge , is worth a whole flame of secular wisdome and learning ; one scruple of holinesse , one drame of faith , one graine of grace , is more worth then many pounds of naturall parts . but learning and grace do not alwayes keepe company together : yea , oh lord how many are there that have a depth of knowledge , yet are not soule wise ! that have a library of divinity in their heads , and not so much as the least catechisme in their consciences ! no rare thing for men to abound in speculation , and be barren in devotion ; to have full braines , and empty hearts ; clear judgement , and defiled affections ; fluent tongues , but lame feet ; yea , you shall heare a flood in the tongue , when you cannot see one drop in the life . but see how justly they are served ; they might bee holy , and will not ; therefore though they would bee soule wise , yet they shall not ; the scorner seeketh wisdome , but findeth it not , pro. . . let them know never so much , they are resolved to be never the better ; and they which are unwilling to obey , god thinks unworthy to know . § . no wicked man is a wise man ; for as god is the giver of wisdome , so hee reveales himselfe savingly to none but his children the godly . first , god only is the giver of it . for as no man can see the sunne , but by the light of the sunne : so no man doth know the secrets of god , but by the revelation of god , mat. . , . to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven , wee must have hearts , eyes , and eares , sanctified from above , deut. . , , . ps. . . luk. . . ioh. . . rom , . . . no learning , nor experience will serve to know the riches of the glory of gods inheritance in the saints , to know the love of christ which passeth knowledge , eph. . . . and . . for as meere sense is uncapeable of the rules of reason : so reason is no lesse uncapeable of the things that are supernaturall . yea , the true knowledge of the nature and state of the soule , must come by his inspiration that gave the substance . as the soule is the lamp of the body , and reason of the soule , and religion of reason , and faith of religion : so christ is the light and life of faith . . god reveales himselfe savingly to none but the godly , and such as he knows will improve their knowledge to his glory : even as husbandmen will not cast their seed but into fruitfull ground , which will returne them a good harvest ; the secrets of the lord , saith david , are revealed to them that feare him , and his covenant is to give them understanding , psa. . . these secrets are hid from the wicked , neither hath hee made any such covenant with them : the faithfull are like moses , to whom god shewed himselfe , exod. . like simeon , that imbraced christ in his armes , lu. . like iohn the beloved disciple , that leaned an his bosome , ioh. . . like the three disciples , that went with him up the mount to see his glory , matth. . like the apostles , whose understandings he opened , luk , . . and to whom hee expounded all things : whereas to unbelievers , he speakes all things , as it were , in parables , mar. . . see this in abrahams example , shall i hide from abraham that thing which i do ? saith god , gen. . . as if this were an offence in god , if he should tell the righteous no more then hee tells the wicked . they which love god , saith s. iohn , know god ; but they which have not this love , know not god , though they have never so much knowledge besides , iohn . . yea , suppose a man be not inferiour to porcius , who never forgat any thing he had once read ; to pythagoras , who kept all things in memory that ever hee heard , or saw ; to virgil , of whom it is reported , that if all sciences were lost , they might bee found in him : to bishop tunstal , whom erasmus called , a world of knowledge ; to aristotle , who was called wisdome it self , in the abstract ; to that romane nasica , who was called corculum , for his pregnancy of wit ; that grecian democritus abderita , who was also called wisdome it selfe ; that britaine guildas , called guildas the sage ; that iew aben ezra , of whom it was said , that if knowledge had put out her candle , at his braine shee might light it againe , and that his head was a throne of wisdome ; or that israelitish achitophel , whose words were held as oracles ; to iosophus scaliger , who was skil'd in thirty languages : yet if he want faith , holinesse , the love of god , and the spirit of god to be his teacher , he shall not be able , really● and by his owne experience , to know th● , chiefe points of christian religion ; suc● as are faith , repentance , regeneration● the love of god , the presence of the spi● rit , the remission of sins , the effusion o● grace , the possession of heavenly comforts not what the peace of conscience , and joy in the holy ghost is , nor what the communion of saints means ; when every one of these are easie and familiar to the meanest and simplest believer . now will you know the reason ; the feare of the lord , saith salomon , is the beginning of wisdome , prov. . . as if the first lesson to be wise , were to be holy . for as the water ingendereth yce , and the yce ageine ingendereth water : so knowledge begets righteousnesse , and righteousnesse again begetteth knowledge . it is between science and conscience , as it is betweene the stomack and the head ; for as in mans body , the raw stomack maketh a rheumatick head , and the rheumaticke head maketh a raw stomack : so science makes our conscience good , and conscience makes our science good . it is not so much scientia capitis , as conscientia cordis that knowes christ and our selves ; whence salomon saith , give thine heart to wisdome , pro. . and let wisdome enter into thine heart , proverbs . . againe , if it be ask'd , why the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of god ? s. paul answers , he cannot know them , because they are spiritually discerned , cor. . . and indeed , if they be spiritually discerned ; how should they discerne them , that have not the spirit ? now if it be so , that men may bee exquisitely wise , and incomparably learned in the worlds opinion ; and yet very fools in the judgement of heaven : if not many wise men after the flesh are called , but that a great number of them go the wrong way ; yea , if god turnes their wisdome into foolishnesse , that abuse their gifts ; and reveales himselfe savingly to none , but such as feare and serve him ; then is their no safety , in following their example , or in building our faiths upon their judgements . indeed we are too prone to imitate the learned , and to thinke we go safe enough , if wee tread in their steps , although they tread awry : for say wee , they know the will of god , what hee requires , and practise what they thinke will bring them to happinesse , especially so much as is absolutely necessary to salvation ; and they do so and so , or else they speake not as they think , because they do not as they speake ; for none live worse then many of them . but should this be , should we thinke ever the better of error , though a thousand of the learned should countenance and maintaine the same ? no , one micaiah , a single prophet , speaking from the oracles of god , is more worthy of credit , then . baalites , kin. . , , , , , . one luther , a mean man , is worthy to bee believed before the pope , and so many legions of his creatures , which were throughout christendom ; for what hee wanted in abbettors , was supplyed in the cause ; yea , did not paphnuti us , a weak scholler , shew more wisdome in defending the truth , against the whole councell of nice , then all those great clarks , and learned men ; to his great renowne , and their everlasting shame ? did not pharaoh find more wisdome in ioseph , a poore hebrew servant , and receive more solid advice from him , wherby a famine through out the whole world was prevented , then hee could in all the wisemen and southsayers of egypt , gen. . . to ? did not nebuchadnezzar finde more depth in daniel , a poore captive iew , then he could in all the wise men of babylon , daniel . and ? yes , and the reason is , one eye having sight , is better then a thousand blind eyes ; and one poore crucified thief , being converted , had a clearer eye then all the lews rulers , scribes , and pharisies , who being naturall and wicked , condemned and crucified jesus christ . in the councell of trent there was of . prelates , . chose out of italy , and of the rest , the pope ( who was himselfe moderator ) and his creatures , excluded and tooke in , whom themselves would , and none else ; what marvaile then if they concluded what they listed ? yea , how many schollers in all ages of the world , have resembled trajan , who was endued with great knowledge , and other singular vertues , but defaced them all by hating christianity , and opposing the power of godlinesse ? how many are so farre from doing good , that they doe great hurt with their gifts , and not seldom the more gifts they have , the more harme they do ? for as the best soyle , commonly yeelds the worst aire : so without grace , there is nothing more pestilent then a deepe wit. wit and learning well used are like the golden earerings , and bracelets of the israelites ; abused , like the same gold cast into a molten idoll , then which nothing more abominable . no such prey for the devill , as a good wit unsanctified : great wits oft times mislead not only the owners , but many followers besides : as how many shall once wish they had been born dullards , when they shall finde their wit and learning to have barred them out of heaven . and let them looke to it ; for as , in respect of others , their offence is greater ; for better many israelites commit adultery , or idolatry , then one david , or salomon . the least moate that flies in the sun , or between our eyes and the light , seemes a greater substance then it is : and the more learned the person , the more notorious the corruption : as the freshest sommers day will soonest taint those things which will putrifie ; so in respect of themselves , their sinne is , and their punishment shall bee greater : for the more glorious the angels excellency , the more damnable their apostacie . if the light become darknesse , how great is that darknesse ? if achitophel prove a villaine , how mischievous is his villany . putrified lillies smell farre worse than weeds ; if vertue turne into vice ; the shame is triple . for many iewes to deny christ , was not so much as for one peter . yea , if all the cities of the world had done filthily , it were short of this wonder , the virgine daughter of sion is become an harlot , isaiah . . if iudas become a traitor , how great is his treason ? if absalom rebell , how unnaturall is his rebellion ? and so much to answer the plea , of learned men . § . fourthly , that the example of the best and holiest men , is no cettaine rule for us to walk by , is plain : for if euery act of the holiest persons should be our rule , we should have but crooked lives : for then because noah was drunk ; lot committed incest ; abraham lied ; david committed adultery , and murther ; peter forswore his master ▪ &c. we should do the like ; which no man with a reasonable soule can affirm ; ( though some infatuated and incorrigible sinners , would faine justifie their abominable wickednesse , by the falls of gods children recorded in holy writ ; ) for every action that is reported , is not straight way allowed . yea , god hath given us rules whereby wee may examine the examples of the best saints , and as well censure the bad , as follow the good : which made s. augustine answer some hereticks , who alledged for themselves , the authority of saint cyprian , i am not bound to s. cyprians authority , any further then it is canonicall . the just saints are to bee followed , but onely in their justice and sanctity : we are not bound to be good mens apes ; let us follow such as excell in vertue , psalm . . . in such vertues wherein they excell , as every saint excells in some vertue ; one , excells in knowledge ; another , excells him in faithfulnesse ; a third , excells them both in zeale ; a fourth , excells all in humility ; a fifth , excells the rest in that christian vertue , yea , christs vertue , forgiving of wrongs ; and yet a poore man may out goe them all in an admirable patience , corinthians . . now as when paul had propounded many rare graces , hee concludes with desire you earnestly the best gifts , cor. . so take the best of every man , and therwth make up an excellent man. as the italians got up all the excellent pictures in the world , that out of them all they might make one masterpeece , or most excellent picture : ( for the sweetnes of all the best flowers make most sweet and excellent honey ) so learne of this man , zeale ; of another , knowledge ; of another , patience ; &c. follow david , where hee followed gods heart ; not where hee followed his own heart ; if he turn toward lust , blood , idlenesse , let us leave him there : let us follow peters confession , not his abnegation ; be ye followers of me , saith s. paul , even as i am of christ , cor. . . we must not imitate every one , but such as paul , philip. . . nor paul in every thing , but wherein he followes christ : the great apostle injoyneth our imitation , but gives a limitation , doe not yee follow after me , unlesse you see the tract of christ before me , imitemur bonos , sed in bonis , let us follow good men , but onely in what they are good : for otherwise no motion can want a pretence , as calling for fire from heaven , to consume such as displease us ; elias did so , and why not we ? offering our children in sacrifice ; iephta ( did so as some thinke ) and why not we ? marying of many wives , and putting away such as they did not like ; the fathers did so , and why not we ? borrowing , but never paying againe ; the israelites did so by the egyptians , and why not wee ? murthering of princes , ehud did so , why not we ? &c. yea , there is nothing more perilous ▪ then to draw all the actions of holy men into examples . actions are not good or evill , because done by good or evill men ; but because commanded or forbidden by god : now they , perhaps in many cases , may have had peculiar warrant signed from heaven , whether by instinct or speciall command , which we shall expect in vaine ; therefore much caution must be used in our imitation of the best paternes , whether in respect of the persons , or things ; els we shall make our selves apes , and our acts absurdities . so that as demosthenes was wisely wont to say , in civill matters , wee live and rule by lawes , not by examples : so say i in divine , precepts must be our guides , and not patterns , except the patterne of our saviour christ. and to imitate him is the marrow of all religion , and the true worship of god ; for then are our actions and intentions warrantable , and praiseworthy , when they accord with his , ( and what painter would not rather make his picture by the living face , then by any other picture ) wheras to square our lives by other mens lives , without respect to his , is to set our clocks by others clocks , without looking to the sun , which is the readiest way to have them go wrong ; for many times , hee that is most unfit to observe man , is the most fit to serve god. the sybarites desirous to know from apollo , how long their prosperity should last ; were answered , that so soone as they began to prefer men before god , their state should bee destroyed : and the same vve may apply to our selves . wherefore let us honour good examples , but live by good precepts ; and for such as are contrary minded , let them knovv , that that gold vvhich dreads the touchstone , is but counterfeit ; that fellon who doth refuse his tryall , and labours to suppresse the evidence which is brought against him , doth but confesse himselfe guilty . § . fifthly , that reason , together with good intentions , is no certain rule for us to walke by , is easily proved : for first , reason , as now it is clouded with the mists of originall corruption ; is but a blind guide ; for besides that faith is above reason , there is no one reason but hath another contrary unto it , saith the wisest of philosophers . solon being importuned , not to shed teares for the death of his sonne , for that they were vaine and bootelesse ; answered , for that very reason i may the more justly shed them , even because they are bootelesse and vaine . socrates his wife exasperated her griefe by this circumstance ; good lord , quoth shee , how unjustly doe these bad judges put men to death ? what replyed socrates , wouldest thou rather they should deserve death ? if my inferiour , of whom i have deserved well , should strike mee a box on the eare ; one reason would step in , and bid me give him another , least he be thought the better man ; a second , would crosse that , and say , set not your wit to his , esteeme it all one as if an asse had kick't you ; a third would reply , if you put up this , your patience , like a pully , will draw on more such injuries ; a fourth , noe , the best remedy in a causelesse injury is contempt , for this puts ill will out of countenance , and blunts the point of an enemies malice ; a fifth , doe , or you will be esteemed a coward ; a sixth , doe not , for it is greater fortitude to overcome your owne passions , then to vanquish a city ; a seventh , doe , or it will be a discredit unto you ; an eighth , noe , it is the glory of a man to passe by an offence ; a ninth , thou may'st doe it by the rules of justice ; a tenth , but thou may'st not by the rules of charity ; an eleventh , doe , or many will laugh at thee ; a twelfth , doe it not , and wise men will commend thee ; a thirteenth , doe , for it was in the sight of many ; a foureteenth , doe it not , for then you 'le be seene by ten times as many ; a fifteenth , then take the law of him ; a sixteenth , doe not , for such a remedy is worse then the disease ; a seventeenth , doe , for thou hast not deserved this from him ; an eighteenth , doe not , for thou hast deserved more from others , especially from god , who , it may be , appointed him to doe this ; a nineteenth , why then be angry with him for his ill condition ; a twentyeth , no , rather rejoyce , because thou art of a better condition ; a twentie one , but forgive him not , because hee is unworthy to be forgiven ; a twenty two , yes doe , for though he is unworthy to be forgiven , yet christ is worthy to be obeyed , vvho hath commanded thee to forgive him ; a tvventy three , at least let it grieve you , to bee so ill requited ; a tvventy foure , no , let it not grieve you , for vvhy should you vex your selfe because he hath vexed you ? and so in many the like , one reason crossing another ; vvhich shevves , that reason yeeldeth appearance to divers effects , it is a pitcher vvith tvvo eares , vvhich a man may take hold on , either by the right or left hand . i deny not but reason to religion , is as the apocripha , to the bible : which if good , may be bound up , and read with it ; but must be rejected , when in crosses the text canonicall , as in many cases it will. for although reafon was so cleare in adam before the fall , that he could see good from evill perfectly ; yet since it hath caught a fall , as mephibosheth did , and so halteth , that it is not wholly to be relied upon ; how be it , because it is of the blood royall , it is worthy to be made off ; but not worthy to sit in the throne of judgment , which belongs onely to christ our david , whose word is trueth it selfe . but to goe on . there is no man commits so foule a fact , though shallow brain'd in other things , but hee hath plausible reasons to make it good , as absolom , for lying with his fathers concubines , in the sight of all the people , having helpe from achitophel sam. . . and haman , in procuring that bloody decree against all the iewes ; for hee makes many glorious pretences , ester . . . . neither was ever any vertue performed so splendent and glorious , but there hath beene r●ason brought to prove it faulty , at least , in appearance ; witnesse our saviours casting out devills , which the scribes and pharisees gave out , was done through beelzebub , mat. . . yea , hee was made , by them , the greatest offendor , that offended not once in all his life . secondly , neither will good and holy intentions warrant what wee doe , unlesse they are backed with a precept . a good meaning , can no way justifie an evillact ; for then any action , be it never so wicked , might be made good . the very gun-powder traytors made conscience of their doings , meant well , and hoped it would make much for gods glory , and the churches good , if their purpose had taken effect . so nadab and abihu , when they offered strange fire , meant well , no question , and had some good and holy intention in it ; yet they were burnt with fire from heaven for their labour ; because god had flatly forbidden it , levit. . , . as for vzza , when the arke of god was shaken in the cart , there is no question to be made , but he had a solid reason to yeeld , why he held it from falling , and that his intent was good , none will question ; yet because he did it without warrant from the word , the lords wrath was kindled against him , and hee was smitten dead chro. . . . peters intents were very good , and i could furnish him with reasons , for his perswading of christ from his passion , yet neverthelesse he had this answer , get thee behinde mee sathan , math. . . . never any man meant better then gideon in his rich ephod ; yet this very act set all israell on whooring , iudg. . . to . when the wit of man will be pleasing god with better devices then his owne , it turnes to madnesse , and ends in mischiefe , as our papists will one day finde , to whom superstition dictates , that it is pleasing to god , to deifie the blessed mother of our lord , to helpe their devotions with a crucifix , images , &c. in great humility to make the favourites of heaven , their mediators ; and those judges , jurors , and arbitrators , who take it for a pious and charitable worke to esteeme a poore man in his cause , when god hath charged them expressely , thou shalt not favour the person of the poore , nor honour the person of the mighty , but thou shalt judge thy neighbour justly , levit , . . exod. . . yea , suppose wee doe that which god commands in substance ; yet if wee faile in the intention and end , namely , in ayming at the glory of god , and the good of our neighbour ; if wee doe it for any private respects , and not in obedience to the commandement ; god rejects it and reckons it no better then sin and iniquity ; for many shall say unto christ at the day of judgement , lord , lord wee have prophesied in thy name , and in thy name cast out devills , ( then which no worke can be greater ) and in thy name done many wonderfull workes , yet christ shall answere them , i never knew you , depart from mee yee that worke iniquitie , math. . . . many yeares did saul raigne over israel ; yet god computers him but two yeares a king , sam. . . that is not accounted of god to be done , which is not well done , both in substance and circumstance . and as in committing that which is forbidden , so in omitting that which is commanded , it is no lesse dangerous , how good soever our meanings bee . saul in a good intent shewed mercy , in saving agag the king of amaleck ; yet because hee did not therein obey the voice of the lord , it was no better then witchcraft , for which he was rejected of god , and his kingdome taken away , sam. . . and how much better is the pardoning of a murtherer ; when the lord hath said , who so sheddeth mans blood , by man shall his blood bee shed , genesis . . i perswade my selfe , hee who refused to smite the prophet , and fetch blood of him upon his owne intreaty , thought hee did wonderous well , if not merit , in denying his request ; but what was the issue ? because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the lord , saith the prophet to him , behold , as soone as thou art departed from mee , a lyon shall slay thee , and so it fell out , kings , . . . not to smite a prophet , when god commands , is no lesse sinne , then to smite a prophet , when god forbids : when hee commands , even very cruelty is obedience ; as abraham's killing of his onely son , had bene the most heroicall and religious act , th●t ever wee read of . why was sacrifice it selfe good , but because it was commanded ? what difference was there betweene slaughter and sacrifice , but obedience ? the violation of the least charge of a god , is mortall : no pretences can warrant the transgression of a divine command ; which made nehemiah ( and should have done that man of god also , king. . ) not onely distrust a prophet , but reject his counsell with scorne , that perswaded him to the violation of a law , nehemiah , . . . . one prohibition is enough for a good man ; god as he is one , so doth he perfectly agree with himselfe ; if any private spirit crosse a written word , let him be accursed . wherefore have a better warrant for the practise , then either reason , or good intentions , or thou maist goe to hell notwithstanding ; for there is nothing more dangerous , then to mint gods services in our owne braines . § . but thou wilt say ; if neither custome of the greatest number , nor of the greatest men , nor of the greatest schollers , nor of the best men , though thou hast reason for thy doing it , and good intentions in the doing of it , is a sufficient warrant for thy actions ; but that all these be crooked and deceitfull guides ; then what may bee a safe guide , and a sure and infallible rule in all cases , to steere by , and square the course of thy life ? answ. as a rule directeth the artificer in his worke , and keepeth him from erring : so doth gods word direct the religious in their lives , and keepe them from erring . the right way is the signified will of god ; and whatsoever swarves from , or is repugnant to the right , is wrong and crooked : law and precept is a streight line , to shew us whether we doe misbeleeve , or mislive : we have a most sure word of the prophets and apostles , sayes peter , peter , . . a sure foundation , saith st. paul , cor. . . eph. . . and as many as walke according to this rule , peace shall bee upon them , and the israell of god , gal. . . search the scriptures , saith our saviour , for in them ye thinke to have eternall life , and they are they which testifie of me , iohn , . . all beleevers are tied to the scriptures ; as the iewes , are tyed to their cabala ; the turkes , to their alcaron ; logicians to the axioms of their aristotle ; physitians to the aphorismes of their hippocrates and galen ; geometricians to the compasses of euclid ; rhetoricians , to the precepts of tully ; lawyers , to the maxims of their iustinian ; and grammarians , to the rules of their priscian ; and it hath ever beene the care of christians , to sticke close to the written word , having alwayes , and in all cases , an eye thereunto : even as the load-stone ( what way soever the wind bloweth ) turnes alwayes to the north pole ; it is as a load star , to guide the ships of their soules and bodies , in the right way to heaven . and without this written word ▪ a man in the world , is as a ship on the sea without a guide . the holy scriptures are a store house of all good instructions ; it is the christians armory , wherein are many sheilds , to defend our selves ; and many swords , to offend our enemies ; yea , each precept , as a sword , will both defend and slay . it is like the tower of david build for defence , a thousand shields hang therein , and all the targets of the strong men , cant. . . it is a cleare glasse , wherein wee may see our beauty , and deformity , yea , the least spots of evill , and be directed to wipe them out . it is a light , saith theophilus , which discovereth unto us all the slights and snares of our spirituall adversaries ; yea , nothing can deceive them ( saith he ) that reade the scriptures : thy word , saith david , is a lanthorne to my feete , and a light unto my pathes , psal. . . this ariadnes clew of thred , guides the beleever through the worlds maze of temptations , unto the glorious liberty of the sonnes of god. it is an apothecaries shop , saith st. basil , full of all soveraigne medicines , wherein every man may have cure for his disease ; and there is no part , or passion of our soules , saith st. chrysostome , but needeth physicke and cure from the holy scriptures . in fine , it is their counseller , it is their wisdome , it is their strength , it is their food , it is their physicke , it is their wealth , it is their joy , it is their life , it is their all in all ; if they have this , they want nothing ; if they want this , they have nothing . but see one of these particulars illustrated , ( for i will not spin out each of these metaphors into a long continued allegory ) suppose any little david , a child of god , be set upon by the greatest spirituall goliah that ever was , namely , the world , or the flesh , or the devill himselfe ; let him but chose out of this brook , the scripture , a few stones , precepts , threats , promises , keepe them in the scrippe , of his memory , hurle them with the arme of a strong faith , from the string of his tongue , as occasion serveth , at the combatant , with the level of christian prudence , even the stoutest of them shall be compelled to leave the field and give up his weapons . as for example , if thou be tempted to pride , answer ; it 's written , that god resisteth the proud , and giveth grace to the humble , iames , . . that all proud persons are under the devills regiment , his subjects , and vassalls , iob. . . if to cruelty ; that they shall have judgment mercilesse , which shew not mercy , iames , . . if to contemne reproofe , or hate thy reprover ; that hee which hardeneth his necke when he is reproved shall suddenly be destroyed , and cannot be cured , pro , . . if to sweare ; that ●athes ca●se the land to mourne , hosea , . . . and that the curse of god shall never depart from the house of the swearer , untill it be consumed , zach. . . . if to covetousnesse ; that the love of money causeth many to fall into divers temptations , and snares , and many foolish and noysome lusts which drowne men in perdition and destruction , tim. . . . if to hypocrisie ; that it is the sin , against which our saviour pronounced seven woes in one chapter , and adjudge to the lowest place in hell , math. . if to despaire , through the consideration of thy manifold sinnes and infirmities ; that christ came not to call the righteous , but weary and heavie laden sinners to repentance , math. . . and . . that he who strives most , and not hee who sinnes least , shall be best accepted with god. if to lust ; that the law ordaine death for the adulterer , levit. . . and the gospell excludes the fornicator out of heaven , cor . . . if to drunkennesse , that hell enlargeth it selfe for drunkards , and openeth her mouth without measure , that all they may descend into it , isaiah . . . and so in every other case which can be named , as well as in this of temptation , have but recourse to the written word , this , as an oracle from heaven shall give thee plenary satisfaction , and by this meanes , viz. by applying with our saviour , it is written , it is written , math. . thou shalt so silence and overcome the spirit of untrueth , that though he solicite thee by the world , or the flesh , or by a prophet , or an angell from heaven , hee shall not be strong enough to divert thee from the good thou intendest : yea , let fire and faggot doe their worst , as once in queene maries time , yet nothing shall be able to separate thee from the love of god which is in christ iesus , rom. . . to . and thus wee see , the word of god to the faithfull is an armory , out of which they may furnish themselves with all kind of munition ; a magazine , out of which they may be furnished with all manner of needfull provision : whereas on the contrary , he , which lives , without making this his rule ; he , who sets not the diall or clocke of his life by this sunne ; hee who directeth not his course in walking by this north-pole , or load-starre , but by the wavering , uncertaine , & moovable stars of custome , example , reason , or good intentions , sayles , without a compasse , and may looke every minute to be swallowed up in the ocean of sin and judgement . god hath made a promise to us , to keep us in all our wayes , psalm . . . but not out of them : we are in our wayes so long as we have a command , or warrant out of the word for what we doe : to be kept by god , is so to have him watch over us by his fatherly providence and protection , that nothing shall befall us , but what is good for us : and to have a continuall guard of angles , to protect and keepe us from every approaching evill , psalme . , , . how safe then and happy is the man , that is resolved to doe nothing without god ; who commands all creatures , both in heaven , earth , and hell , and they obey him ? the consideration of which made luther so couragious , that ( being perswaded by his friends to absent himselse from the diet at wormes ) hee made answer , though all the tyles of the houses were so many divells , yet would i goe thether : he knew he should have more , and mightier with him , then against him , being in his way , that is , having a warrant out of the word for what hee went about . neither could he want examples to encourage him herein ; wee see david , being in his way , it was not the lion , nor the beare , nor that great goliah , nor saul himself , though he darts a speare twise at him , sends to seek him throughout all the thousands of iudah , and layes so many plots to take away his life , could doe him any harme . elisha , being in his way , rather then the assyrians mighty host shall hurt him , the mountaine shall bee full of horses and chariots of fire to reskew him , king. . . neither shall ahab , or iesabel hurt eliah , though they threaten much , and do their worst , i kin. . . let daniel and the three children be in their way , do nothing either for through feare or flattery , but what they have warrant for out of gods word ; and then throw the one into the lions den , and the other into the fiery furnace , gods providence shall so keepe them , that not a haire of their heads shall perish , dan. . . and . . let the same consideration prevaile with us . have wee a warrant out of the word ? are wee in the path of gods protection ? in the way wherein the angels guard and watch ? let us go on valiantly , and not feare what men or divels can doe unto us . when ioseph had a command from god , to goe out of egypt into the land of israel , after archelaus succeeded his father herod , he was sore affraid , and ( as it seemeth ) loath to go ; yet considering that god had commanded him , he disputeth no longer with flesh and blood , but goeth his way , mat. . . it is too much tendernesse to respect the scoffes , and censures and threats of others , when wee have a direct word from god : the fearefull sluggard will cry , a lion in the way , pro. . . yea , but the scriptures cry , an angell , yea , many angels to stop the lions mouth : the lion is in those by-wayes , in which the prophet walked , kin. . . on the other side : if god take no charge of us , but when wee are in our wayes , yea , in his , by having a warrant out of the word ; how are they in their wayes , who spend their whole time in drinking , swearing , whoring ? &c. who persecute the godly , for keeping close to this word ? if that be gods way , where did he chalk it out , where , or in what part of his word hast thou a warrant to doe these things , or to hate , persecute , revile , slander , reproach , contemne , deride , or censure men for being holier and more temperate then thy selse ? if thou want his word , looke not for his protection : and miserable is that man , who in dangerous actions is left to his owne keeping ; it fares with him , touching his spirituall adversaries , as with the deere that leapes over the park pale , and straggles abroad , which a hundred to one doth cost her her life : or as it did vvith shemei , vvhen hee past his bounds set him by the king , vvho lost his life for his labour , king. . . . . as for example , pharaoh and his host were out of their way , when they pursued the children of israel going out of egypt ; but now sped they ? the sea devided to let the israelites pass , but fwallowed them up quicke , exod. . . baalam , was out of his way , when hee rode to balack , with an intent to curse israell , when god had forbidden him so to doe ; but the angel of the lord met him with a naked sword , and had slaine him , if the asse had not turned away , numb . . . sampson was out of his way , when hee went in to the harlot dalilah , or els god had not departed from him , neither could the philistims have bound him , iudg. . . ionas was out of his way , when he was sayling to tarshis , god having sent him to ninive ; but how sped hee● the windes and waves , stormes and tempests conspired together to crosse him , and would not be pacified , untill hee was cast into the sea , ionas . , . and thus caine , when he went out into the field to slay his brother abel , gen. . . to . corah , dathan , and ahiram , with those two hundred and fifty captaines , when they gathered themselves together against moses and aaron , num. . . haman when he went out unto the king , to procure that bloody decree against the iewes , ester . . absalom , when hee rose up against his father to usurpe the kingdome , sam. . the . children when they followed the prophet , calling him bald-head , kin. . . . the seduced prophet , when he went beyond his commission set him by god , king. . the two captaines , and their fifties , when they went to apprehend eliah , king . . . iudas when he went unto the high priests to sell his master , and backe with the officers to betray him with a kisse , marke . and lastly , paul before his conversion , when hee went with authority from the high priests to persecute the christians at damascus , acts . . . they were all out of their way : but how did they speed ? i need not tell you vvhat fearefull revenges and sudden destruction they met vvithall in their journeys ; onely the last vvas crost vvith a blessing , and instead of judgement , received mercy ; though thou canst no more presume to fare as hee did , then i can presume to live , and have the same strength forty yeares hence , that i have at this present , because it hapned to be so vvith caleb , ioshua . . § . wherefore looke to it in time , and if thou meanest not to meet vvith destruction by the vvay , keepe out of the vvorlds road : you see this your reason is saplesse , and vvants vveight to bee received ; yea , vvee may say of this common objection , as ierom said of the pelagian heresies , even a repetition of it , is a sufficient refutation of it ; neither needs it any other confutation , but derision and a meer hissing at . you see that al vvho follovv example , vvhether of the greatest number , or the greatest men , or the greatest schollers , or the best men , or reason , or good intentions , are miserably deluded ; and that things ought to bee judged by law , and not by examples ; that gods precepts , must be our only presidents ; and that this onely evidences a good conscience , vvhen the maine vveight vvhich sets the vvheeles on vvorke , it the conscience of gods commandement . as for thy translating and laying the fault of thy drinking upon others , that is but a meere pretence ; it faring vvith thee , as it did vvith harpaste a blind vvoman in seneca's family , vvho mindles of her ovvn infirmity , complained that the house vvas darke vvherein she vvas ; or as it did vvho another , spoken of by the same seneca ; vvho having a thorne in his foot ; imputed the cause of his limping to the roughnesse of the vvay ; for if thine ovvn heart vvere not vile and vvicked , custome and evill example could no more svvay thee , then it doth some other men , vvho shine as lights in the midst of this crooked generation ; yea , thou vvouldest therfore redeeme the time , because the dayes are evill , ephes. . . alasse ! no man that hath grace in his heart , vvill make the badnes of the times a cloak to excuse his conformity in drinking and vvasting of his precious hovvres vvickedly ; but rather a spur to incite him , to be so much the more carefull not to be svvayed with the common streame . happy is that man , who makes anothers vices steps to climbe to heaven by ; and so doth every wise and good man. even the mud of the world , by the industrious hollander , is turned to an usefull fuell : and the mariner that hath sea-roome , can make any winde serve to set him forward in his wished voyage . and good reason have they to make this use of the corruption of the times ; for if the aire be generally infectious , had wee not need bee so much the more strict in our diet and carefull in the use of wholesome preservatives ? generallity of assent is no warrant for any act : we that are christians must not live by prophane examples , but by gods holy precepts . indeed , common errors carry away many , who inquire not into the reason of ought , but the practice ; and judge of truth , not by weight , or value of voices , but by the number . but what sayes the proverbe , of bad customes , bad opinions , and bad servants , they are better to hang then to keepe . i confesse , where the law written doth faile , we ought to observe what is approved by manners and custome : but though , in this case , custome be of great authority , yet it never brings prejudice to a manifest verity : and there are other cases , wherein singularity is not lawfull only , but laudable ; when vice groweth into fashion , singularity is a vertue ; when sanctity is counted singularity , happy is he that goeth alone , and resolves to be an example to others ; and when either evill is to be done , or good to be neglected , how much better is it to goe the right way alone , then to erre with company ? yea , most happy is he that can stand upright , when the world declines , and can endeavour to repaire the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse ; that can resolve with ioshuah , what ever the world doth , yet i , and my house will serve the lord , iosh. . . it was noah's happinesse in the old world , that he followed not the worlds fashions ; he beleeved alone , when all the world contested against him ; and he was saved alone , when all the world perished without him . it was lot's happinesse that he followed not the fashions of sodom . it was abraham's happinesse , that he did not like the chaldeans . daniel's happinesse , that he did not like the babylonians . it was good for iob , that he was singular in the land of vzz : good for tobias that he was singular in ninive : good for annanias , that he was singular in damasco : good for nicho●emus , that he was singular among the rulers , as now they all finde to their great comfort , and exceeding great reward . yea , it was happy for ruben , that he was opposite to all his brethren : happy for caleb and ioshua , that they were opposite to the rest of the spyes : happy for the iewes , that their customes were divers and contrary to all other people , though haman was pleased to make it their great and heynous crime , ester . . . happy for luther , that he was opposite to the rest of his country . and no lesse happy shall wee bee , if , with the deere , we can feed against the winde of popular applause ; if , with the sturgion and crab-fish , we can swimme against the streame of custome and example ; if , with atticus , we can cleave to the right , though losing side ; or if we doe not , we shall misse of the narrow way , and consequently faile of entring in at the straite gate ; for the greatest part shuts out god upon earth , and is excluded from god elsewhere , math. . , . but the graciously prudent , will ( in things not indifferent ) rather doe well alone , then let it alone , and thinke it no disparagement to be singular among the vicious : yea , they know , if the cause be good , the more stiffe and constant the mind is , so much the better . if jesus christ , and his twelve apostles be of their side ; they care not , though herod and pontius pilate , and all the rulers , and the whole nation of the iewes , together with a world of the roman faction be against them . and indeed , if thou wert not a foole , thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of christs little flocke , which are to be saved , then in the numerous heards of those goates , which are destinated to destruction . and so your excuses are taken away , and all proved vaine coverings , even no better then fig-leaves , which though they may seems to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe , yet they will stand thee in no steede another day . wherfore drink not without thirst here , that you may not thirst without drink herafter . lu. . . . play not the foole , as lysimachus did , who being in battell against the scythians , for the satisfying of his appetite onely , and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst , gave himselfe over into his enemies hands ; and when he had drunke his fill , and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery , while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy , began to acknowledge his folly , in these words , o , said he , for how little pleasure , what great liberty , what sweet felicity have i lost and forgone ? yea , turne your laughter into sorrow , your feasting into fasting ; be revenged of your selves , of your lusts , and meete your god , and make your peace while now we call , and you heare ; yea , the lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne , that so seeing their danger , they may be brought to confesse and forsake it , that so they may be saved , pro. . . § . but what doe i admonishing , or speaking sence to a drunkard ? this is to make him turne the deafe eare ; and a stone is as capable of good counsell , as hee : besides , they have no faith in the scriptures , they will not beleeve what is written , therefore they shall feele what is written . in the meane time it were very fit , if it pleased authority , they were debarred both of the blood of the grape , and the spirit of barley ; a just punishment , for consuming the countries fat : for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such gormundizers , except we had the water of cl●torius , a well in the midst of arcadia , which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after . i doe not wish them stoned to death , as god commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the law : deut. . . . nor banished the land , as the romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons , that the rest might not be endangered ; and lycurgus all inventers of new fashions ( least these things should effeminate all their young men ) for then i thinke the land would be much unpeopled . indeed , i could wish there were pest-houses provided for them in all places , as there are for infected persons ; or that they were put by themselves in some city , ( if any were big enough to receive them all ) as philip king of macedon built a city of purpose , and peopled it with the most wicked , gracelesse , and irregular persons of all his subjects ; and having so done , called it poneropolis , that is , the city of wicked persons . and certainely , if it were considered how many brokers of villany , which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes , every populous place affords , whose very acquaintance is destruction , the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times . yea , this were marvelously expedient , considering the little good they doe ( being as so many loose teeth , in the mandible of the common-wealth , which were better out , then in ) and the great hurt by their ill examples , by devouring the good creatures of god , which they never sweat for , by disturbing the peace of the church and common-wealth , by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land ; and considering how small hope there is of their amendment , if any at all . § . it may be you have not noted it ; but it is a very difficult and hard thing , to name one habituated , infatuated , incorrigible , cauterised drunkard , that ever was reclamed with age . what said an experienced gentleman , being informed that his sonne was given to gaming , whores , prodigality , & c ? there is yet hope ; age , experience , and want of meanes will cure all these ; but when , in the last place , it was added , that he was poysoned with drunkennesse ; then hee absolutely ▪ gave him for lost and dead , his case for desperately forlorne , and so disinherited him ; because this sinne , hee knew , increased with age , and would not part till death . a gamester will hold out , so long as his purse lasts : an adulterer , so long as his loynes last ; but a drunkard , so long as his lungs and life lasts . what is noted by philosophers of every motion , namely , that it is swiftest toward the center ; may fitly bee applyed to every drunkard , and covetous wretch ; for as good men grow better and better , so these grow worse and worse , ier. . . t●m . . . they grow in sinne , as worldlings grow in riches and honours . o that we could grow so fast in grace . yea , suppose the drunkard hath every day purposes to forsake his sinne ; as i have knowne some purpose and strive against this sinne , yea so detest and bewaile it in himselfe , and whomsoever , that it hath been an hazael in his eyes , and thereupon indent with himselfe and his friends , for the relinquishing of it ; and yet if he meete with a companion that holds but up his finger , he followes him , as a foole to the stockes , and as an oxe to the slaughter-house , having no power to withstand the temptation , but in hee goes with him to the tipling house , and there hee continues as one bewitched or conjured with a spell , out of which he returnes not , till he hath emptied his purse of money , his head of reason , and his heart of al his former seeming grace : so that in purposing he doth but imitate s. george , who is alwayes on horseback , but never rides ; or the ostrich , that hath winges , but cannot fly : he may make a shew of turning , as the doore upon the hinges , but never moves a foot from the post of his olds custom and evill society , unto which hee is fast revited ; and so mends as sower ale doth in summer ; or like a dead hedge , which the longer it stands , is the rottener . o this is a difficult divel to be cast out ; for when a man is once possest with this evill spirit , a drunken divell , it is a miracle if ever hee become his owne man after . this sinne is like a desperate plague , that knows no cure ; it may be called the kings evill of the soule , ( as chrysostome calls the envie of wicked men against the godly ) for it cannot bee cured with the balme of gilead , nor by any phisitian there , untill god himselfe sayes to the heart , awake thou that sleepest , and stand up from the dead : for by a long , and desperate custome , they turne delight and infirmity into necessity , and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst , that they will as willingly leave to live , as leave their excessive drinking . as it fares with some sicke patients , touching their bodies ; who think as good be buried , as so much debarred of their appetites : so fares it with these , touching their soules ; for use what meanes you will to reclame them , they will reject it . what saith s. basil , shall we speake to drunkards , wee had as good round a dead man in the eare ? yea , certainly , saith another , he is drunk himselfe , that prophanes reason so , as to urge it to a drunken man ; in regard whereof , s. augustine compares drunkennesse to the pit of hell , into which when a man is once fallen , there is no redemption . whoring is a deep ditch , yet some few shall a man see returne to lay hold on the wayes of life ; one of a thousand ; but scarce one drunkard of ten thousand . indeed , s. ambrose mentions one ; and another , by a moderne divine of ours , is confest ; and but one a peece , of all that ever they knew , or heard of . i speake of drunkards , not of one drunken ( such who rarely , and casually have , noah like , beene surprised , and overtaken at unawares ) but if once a custome , ever a necessity . drunkennesse beastiates the heart , and spoiles the braine , overthrowes the faculties and organs of repentance , and resolution . it is a sinne of that nature , that it hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings . yea the holy ghost , by the prophet hosea tells us , that it takes away the heart , hosea . . and we find it too true , for commonly it is accompanied w●th finall impenitence , which is the greatest evill that is incident to man in this life , in that it is a certaine forerunner of eternall condemnation : yea , it is much to bee feared , that the lord hath done by them , as by ieremiah hee threatneth the babylonians , even given them over to a perpetuall drunkennesse , ier. . . and is it not most just with god ; that hee who will put out his naturall light , should have his spirituall extinguished ? he that will deprive himselfe of reason , should loose also the guide and pylot of reason , gods spirit and grace ? he that will wittingly , and willingly , make himselfe an habitation of uncleane spirits , should not dispossesse them at his owne pleasure ? that their deaths should bee answerable to their lives ? as commonly such as a mans delights and cares are in health , such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed . some that have beene used to swearing , have dyed with oathes and curses in their mouthes . some persecutors have dyed raging , blaspheming , and despiting the spirit of grace . some usurers have died , while in their conceit , they were telling their money , and casting it up after ten in the hundred . yea , one being used to play at tables all his life , with great delight , cried out upon his death-bed , size-ace , cater-trey . &c. i deny not , but god may raise a lazarus of this kind , though he bee dead in excesse , dead in sense ; yea though he be buried , and stinkes againe ; thorow long custome in filthines , and breath into his nosthrils againe the breath of life , whereby he may become a living soule ; but rarely is it seene that he doth so . § . neither speak i of what god can do , for with him all things are possible ; but with men , with drunkards , it is in a manner impossible : for surely if there were the least possibility of their leaving it , if they were not altogether hardened , past feeling , and past grace , then would they now abstaine , whilst the plague is hot amongst us . 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 gibeo●ites 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. . when the death of those few malefactors would have saved all theirs , and put away evill from israel , vers . . 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. . where the prophet complaines unto god , thou hast smitten them , but they have not sorrowed ; 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 , . 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 . § . custome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes , 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 ; neither is destruction ever neerer , then when security hath chased away feare , thes. . . as the philistines were neerest their destruction , when they were in their greatest height of jollity , iudg. . . to . 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 cut 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 hardnesse of heart and impenitency , is alwayes the harbinger to some fearefull plague , isay , . . . when god will give over men to his judgements , he first gives them over to this judgement , of an hard 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 smitten any more , for yee fall away more and more , saith god to the stiffe-necked iewes , isaiah , . . 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 you yet seven times more for your sins : lev. . . to . so that an impenitent mans preservation out of one judgment , is but a further reservation of him to seven judgments . what did it availe cham , that he escaped drowning with the multitude ? he had better have perished in the waters , then have lived unto his fathers curse ? what did it availe lot's wife , to escape turning into ashes in sodom , when suddenly after she was turned into a pillar of salt in the plaine ? or what did it availe pharaoh , that himselfe was not smitten with many of those judgements , wherein others perished ? it was farre from being a mercy ; yea , it was a reservation to the greatest temporall judgment of all here , and to that eternall judgment also in the burning lake , from which there is no redemption . so that it is not simply our deliverance , but our thankfulnesse for it , and obedience after it , that gives sufficient argument to our consciences , that god delivered us in mercy and favour . yea , to prosper in ill designes and ungracious courses , to goe on in sinne uncontrolled , is the greatest unhappinesse , the heaviest curse : for he that useth to doe evill , and speeds well , never rests , till he come to that evill from which there is no redemption . ioab kills abner , and scapes ; againe he embrues his hands in the blood of amasa , and is not indited for it ; now david is old , and adoniah towardly , he furthers him in the usurpation , and big with prefidence of his owne command , he thinkes to carry it ; but this carryed him to his grave . faire absalom was proud and ambitious , yet he flourisheth ; hee kills his owne brother , yet escapes ; he insinuates himselfe into the affections of the people , and bold of their fidelity to him , he swels even against his owne royall father , and becomes a disloyall traytor . god owes that man a grievous paiment , whom he suffers to runne on so long unquestioned ; and his punishment shall be the greater , when he comes to reckon with him for all his faults together . yea , though prosperous wickednesse is one of the devills strongest chaines , yet the currant passage of ill enterprises is so farre from giving cause of encouragement , that it should justly fright a man , to looke backe to the author , and to consider , that he therefore goes fast , because the devill drives him . § . there be three things which usually succeede one another in the church ; great blessings , great sinnes , great punishments ; yea , a fourth was wont to follow in former ages , namely , great sorrow of heart , great lamentation and woe , and upon the necke of that , great favour and mercy . as in the booke of iudges , and elsewhere , what a continued circle doe we finde , of peace , sinnes , iudgements , repentance , deliverances : the conversation of gods people with the wicked , tainted them with sinne , their sinnes drew on judgments , the smart of the judgment moved them to repentance , upon their repentance followed speedy deliverance , and upon their peace and deliverance they sinned againe ; thus it was ever , and in every age of the world , but in this her decrepit and doting age , in which religion is become contemptible , and wherein it is a shame to be strict and holy , in the service of god. but now let god send never so many and great iudgments , one upon the neck of another , as sword , famine , pestilence , yea , one pestilence after another ; yet no repentance , no reformation . witnesse these two yeares sicknesse together , and the yeere . for of so many millions of notorious sinners as were in this land ; how many , or where are any , who from thence hitherto have left off their drinking , swearing , whoreing , prophaning of the lord's day , cheating , &c. can you name tenne , yea or two of a thousand , which you partly know ? no certainely , for hee that was a drunkard before , is a drunkard still ; hee that was a swearer before , is a swearer still ; hee that was filthy before , is filthy still , &c. though such a judgement in a different age , would have caused an universall repentance and reformation , as the like ( onely threatned , not executed ) did in the ninivites . ionas . but what doe i speake of their repentance and reformation ; when they will scoffe at , jeere and persecute any , that shal but refuse to run with them to the same excesse of ryot ? what doe i speake of their being the better , when they are much the worse for this judgement ? for they are not onely the same they were , drunk every day , and scoff● at those who will not ; nor only sweare and blaspheme , as frequently as speake ; nor only whore , quarrell , and the like ( when thousands dye in a weeke , as formerly they have done ) but much more abundant , if they have where withall ; for , as some have noted , the tavernes and ale-shops ( of which too many are the thrones of sathan ) were never so thwackt , as in those times , when the streets were almost empty , especially those houses which had newly , or lately beene visited ; and which was worth the observing , each house , if not each company , had musick aurium tenus up to the eares ; so the fidlers fasted not ; what ever the poore did : yea , many poore snakes , that at other times never dranke better than whey , could now swim in wine . i have my selfe seene , when the bills were at the highest , even bearers , who had little respite from carrying dead corpses to their graves , and many other of the like ranke , go reeling in the streets . neither were men ever so impudent and audacious in roaring and declaring their sinnes in the open streets , as then . thus they declared their sinnes as sodome . neither hath this lingring visitation either found or made them better , it is no rare thing to see men , newly recovered of the plague ( at least when the sword of the destroying angell hath newly swept away the greatest part of their families , and they have but newly taken breath from those noysome roomes where they have been a long time pent up , grow more vicious and insolent , more abominably licentious and wicked then they were before , so little are they moved with this grievous judgement . § . but see the difference betweene gods people , and those sonnes of belial . hee which truly feares god , wil in such times of calamity ( vriah-like ) refraine from many lawfull and allowed recreations , well knowing , that actions of an indifferent nature are not alwayes seasonable ; not ever warrantable ; and indeed , neither the time , nor place of mourning is for mirth ; which made our saviour christ soone turne the minstrels out of doores , when the rulers daughter was dead , mat. . yea , it is the lords complaint against ierusalem , when he threatned her destruction by nebuchadnezzar , i called to weeping , and mourning , and to baldnesse , and girding with sackcloth ; but behold joy and gladnesse , slaying oxen , and killing sheepe , eating flesh , and drinking wine , isaiah . , . for which he was so offended , that he tells them , this their iniquity should not be purged till death , vers . . and doth not our saviour seeme to blame the old world , for that they did , as freely as at other times , eate , and drink , marry and give in marriage , while the ark was in building , even unto the day that the flood came , and tooke them all away , mat. . . every of which actions , at another time , had beene approved . alasse ! lawfull actions depraved by bad circumstances , become damnable sinnes ; and things benificiall in their use , are dangerous in their abuse or miscariage . is this a time , ( saith the prophet to his servant ) to receive money , and garments , and vineyards , king. . ? so the truly humbled soule will say , is this a time to drink and revell in ? can god be pleased that in this time of visitation , while the plague or famine lies sore upon our neighbours , wee should give our selves to sport and jovisance ? no , and certainely they have desperate soules , that can rejoyce and bee merry when the god of heaven and earth shewes himselfe so angry . for as nothing magnified the religious zeale of vriah more than this , that he abandoned even alowed comforts , till he saw the arke and israel victorious : so nothing did aggravate david's sin so much , as that hee could finde time to loose the raynes to want on desires and actions , even while the arke and israel were in distresse . and yet david's case was no more like these mens , then zimrie's case was like david's ; for they drinke , and roare , and sweare , and whore , as it were in a presumptious bravery , to intimate , that they regard not gods wrath , nor weigh his heavie displeasure . now though the harlot doth bad enough , which wipes her lips , that the print of her sinne may not be seene , and though shee commit it , she will conceale it : yet an absolom doth far worse , that spreads his incestuous pallet on the roofe , and calls the sunne , a blushing witnesse , to his filthinesse . yea , let any man judge , whether they are not frontlesse zimries , that dare bring whores to their tents in the face of all israel ▪ while god is offended , moses and all israel grieved , the princes hanged , the people plagued , that dares brave god and all the people in that sinne , which they see so grievously punished before their eyes ; this at any time were abominable , but now most execrable . yea , what other is this , then to imitate the thracians , who , when it lightens and thunders , shoot arrowes against heaven , thinking by that meanes , to draw god to some reason . and yet no marvaile that there should be such ; when lots daughters were so little moved with that grievous judgement , the turning of sodome into ashes , of their mother into a pillar of salt , both in their eye , that they durst think of lying w th their own father , yea , and one of them afterward impudently● calls that sonne moab , my fathers son by me : no marvaile , when pharaoh's heart was more hard after every of the . plagues : no marvaile , when the high priests and souldiers , together with the spectators , were obdurated at our saviours sufferings , notwithstanding the whole frame of nature suffered with him ; those proofes of his deitie , were enough , to have fetcht all the world upon their knees ; and to have made all mankind a convert ; and yet behold , some , mock and revile him ; some , give him uinegar , and gall in his thirst ; others , after hee was dead , pierce his blessed side with a speare other , seeing him risen , report that his disciples came by night and stole him out of the sepulchre , &c. but al hearts are not alike , no meanes can worke upon the wilfully obdured , even that which would make pagans relent ( as they which never prayed in their lives , will pray at sea in a tempest ) may leave some christians worse then impenitent . lime is kindled with water ; and the hotter the sun shines upon fire , the more it's heate abateth . but what will be the issue , i even tremble to thinke of it ; for god hath many strings to his bow , and many arrowes in his quiver ; when one way takes not , hee tries forthwith another : and this we may be sure of , that hee will never leave smiting , till we smite that which smiteth at his honour ; and let them praise at night the fairenes of the day ; that ship is most sure that commeth safe to the haven , saith anacharsis ; yea , sinnes of an inferiour ranke , shall meet with temporall judgements ; but these that dare sin god in the face , shall beare a heavier weight of his vengeance , they shall not scape with burning in the hand , not have the favour to suffer here either plague , famine , sword or the like ; but shall be fatted for an eternall slaughter in hell , an everlasting burning in the bottomles pit . while sin hides it selfe in corners , there is some hope ; if there bee shame , there is possibility of grace ; but when it dares once looke upon the sunne , send chalenges to authority , defie heaven and earth , the vlcer is desperate , the member farre more fit to be cut off , then launced . and so much of the perpetuity of this sinne in drunkards . § . now a word of exhortation to the sober , touching this time of visitation , that god may bee pacified , and wee delivered . first , let us be sure that our delights exclude not his presence . because the coles of his wrath will not bee quenched , without the teares of true repentance ; let us weepe with them that weepe , others afflictions must move our affections , as q. elizabeth to the afflicted states , haud ignaramali , miseris succurrere disco . yea , weepe for them that will not weep . if any , whose crying sinnes have pierced the heavens , and brought downe the plague , will not cry for themselves ; god requires that we should cry for them , we must mourne for them that will not mourne for themselves , ezek. . as indeed , who were they in all ages that mourned for the abominations of the times ? not they that committed the abominations , as we read , ezek. . . alasse ! their cheekes were dimpled with laughter . and in the old world , who , but righteous noah was grieved for the sinnes of that age , and the judgment which followed ? and in sodom , who , but faithfull abraham and just lot was vexed with the uncleanly conversation of the sodomites , and prayed to god for them ? and the like in other ages ; as what saith holy david , mine eyes gush out with rivers of water , because they keepe not thy law , psal. . . and againe , verse . i saw the transgressors and was grieved , because they keepe not thy word . and ieremy , lam. . . mine eye , saith he , casteth out rivers of water , for the destruction of the daughter of my people , when they were not once touched for their owne sinnes . yea , as for the wicked ; when god is angry , and their brethren are in distresse , they are no more troubled then ioseph's brethren were , when they had throwne him into the pit , who sate downe to eate , with no more compunction then esa● , having sold his birthright , fell to his pottage ; but farre be this from us . it 's true , the onely meanes to prevent a judgment , is for the wicked to repent , for the godly to pray : yet since there is great neede of mourning , neede of great mourning , for heauy judgments will not be turned away without deepe sorrowes ; and considering we have but a few to share with us in the worke , let us double our knockes at the gate of heaven : the greater the number of these mad men , and the greater their mirth ; the greater had neede to be the company of mourners ; or the mourning of that company : it is the mourning of the penitent , that maintaines the mirth of the delinquent : it is the ten righteous men , that keepes fire and brimstone from these abominable sodomites . yea , let them pray , that could never pray in their lives : as athis sonne to king cr●sus , bring dumbe from his nativity ; seeing his father ready to be slaine , by one of king cyrus his souldiers , suddenly brake forth into words of entreaty , and by his passionate speeches saved his fathers life . and this done , we shall at least deliver our selves , that is , the plague shall not touch us , nor our families ; of if it doe , it shall be so sanctified , that it shall rather pleasure , then hurt us . first , it 's probable it shall not touch us ; as when sodom was destroyed , lot and his family were singled out , the angel could do nothing , till he was safe . gen. . and when the lord smote all the first borne throughout the land of egypt ; he spared all the children of israel , whose dore-posts were sprinkled with the blood of the passeover , exod. . . and when all hierusalem , both old and yong were utterly destoyed ; all the mourners were marked on their foreheads , to the end , the destroying angell should passe by , and not touch them , eze. . . . . the like wherof we have , revel . . where the angell useth these words , hurt ye not the earth , neither the sea , neither the trees , till we have sealed the servants of god in their foreheads , ver . . or if the corne be cut downe with the weeds , it shall be to a better purpose ; for the one shall be carried into god's barne , as lazarus was ; the other cast into the fire , like dives ; one hypocrite was saved with the godly , for noah's sake , not one righteous person was swept away with the rest for company . the world may be compared to some great farme , wherein each nation , is a severall field ; the inhabitants , so many plants ; god , the owner ; whose manner is if he meete with a very good field , he pulls up the weeds , and lets the corne grow ; if with an indifferent , he lets the corne and weeds grow together ; if very ill , he gathers the few eares of corne , and burnes the weeds , but never destroyes both . indeed , that every mother's sonne of us have not perished by the pestilence , as the old world did by the deluge ; it is not because we are lesse wicked , but because god hath beene more mercifull . and so much of the perpetuity of this sinne : only , let it teach and encourage us to hold out and persevere in good ; for if they be obdurate in vice , it is a shame if we be not constant in vertue . § . now if you will know the reason , why their heaven is the taverne , whence they never depart , untill thy have cast up the reckoning ; why , like horses , they are onely guided by the mouth ; in short it is mostly , that they may drive away time and melancholy . first , the pot is no sooner from their lips , but they are mela●choly , and their heart so heavy ▪ as if a milstone lay upon it ; somewhat resembling the flye pyrausta , which dyeth , if out of the fire . i call it melancholy , because they call it so ; but the truth is , they are vexed , like saul , with an evill spirit , which nothing will drive away , but drinke and tobacco , which is to them , as david's harpe was to him , i sam. . . they so wound their consciences with oathes , intentionall murthers , rapes , and other actuall uncleanesse , and so exceedingly provoke god , that they are , even in this life , rewarded with the strappadoes of an humane soule , rackt in conscience , aud tortured with the very flashes of hell fire ; which makes them , many times , lay violent hands upon themselves , being never well , nor in their owne place , till they be in hell , acts , . . though mostly they bribe conscience to hold the peace ; as cerberus must be made with a sop , by him that goes to hell. you know caine having murthered his brother abel , to put away the sting of his conscience , fell to building . and ahab having kild naboth , went to recreate himselfe in his vineyard , gen. . . i king. . . . and saul , when god had cast him off , would have pleased himselfe with the honour of the people , sam. . . so these , when the horror of their oathes , blasphemies , thefts , whoredomes , and other prodigious uncleannesse , hath caused a dejection of spirit , and the worme of conscience to sting them , how should they remedy it ? how ! why ( as if sathan alone could expell sathan ) straight to the taverne , and drinke sorrow and care away ; or perhaps there is a factor of hell present , that cheares him up , as iesabel did ahab when he was sicke for want of naboth's vineyard , king. . . crying , come , you are melancholy , let us both to the taverne and brothel-house : and so cures all his sadnesse , for that time , with a charme , wherein neverthelesse the principall ingredient is drinke , the common refuge of melancholy sinners , their constant , and never failing friend , to which also they are as constant : for when did the sunne ever see some men sober ? and how are our cities and townes pestered , and our streets strewed with these filthes ? and this is the maine ground of all . for as they that have curst and shrewish wives at home , love to stray abroad : so these men being molested with a scoulding conscience , are faine continually to drinke , play , riot , goe to bed with their heads full of wine , and no sooner awake then to it againe ; so that their consciences must knocke at the dore a thousand times , and they are never within , or at leasure to be spoke withall : indeed at last they must be met , and found by this enemy , even as ahab was by eliah ; stay they never so long , and stray they never so farre , they must home at last ; sicknesse will waken them , conscience must speake with them , as a master with his truant scholler , after a long absence ; and then there are no men under heaven , who more neede that prayer , lord have mercy upon them ; for a wicked mans peace will not alwayes last , in the end his guilt will gnaw him , with so much a sharper tooth ; yea , they are not more jocund in prosperity , then in disasters they are amazed . whereas they should eate , and drinke , and doe all things to the glory of god ; they drinke , to this end onely , that they may the easier forget god , forget him in his threats , which sticke in their soules after some sermon ; forget him in his judgments , which have taken hold of some of their companions ; they drinke , to the end they may drowne conscience , and put off all thoughts of death , and hell , and to hearten and harden themselves against all the messages of god , and threats of the law ; as that franticke musition fell to tuning his violl , when his house was on fire about his eares . for most men take no notice at all of the strokes of gods wrath , but with the mirth and madnesse of wine and pleasures , take away the knowledge of it , and the noyse of conscience when it cryes ; as the sacrificers in the valley of hinnon , by the noyse of instruments , tooke away the cryes of their sacrificed children : and so much the rather , that others may not take notice thereof ; for though their consciences be often in paine , yet they will not complaine that this shoe wrings them . their consciences would faine speake with them , but they will by no meanes heare them ; whereas if they had wit , and were not past grace , they would both invite , and welcome this angell , or messinger of the lord , so soone as the waters be troubled , with sackcloth , ashes , fasting , going into the house of mourning , and pouring forth whole buckets of water , as is the manner of gods people , sam. . . but many a time is poore christ ( offering to be new borne in thee ) thrust into the stable ; while lewd companions , by their drinking , playes , and jests , take up all the best roomes in the inne of thine heart . indeed , blind worldlings and besotted sinners , may call it melancholy , or what they will ; but in gods dictionary ( the holy scriptures ) it hath no such name . and they may thinke to drive it away with carnall delights , but this will not doe it : yea , let ten consorts of musicke be added , it shall not drowne the clamorous cryes of conscience . these are but miserable comforters , and physitians of no value , and no way a fit expiation for a griefe of this nature ; neither can the world afford an expurgation of this melancholy . alasse ! this is but like some spritly musicke , which though it advanceth a mans mind while it sounds ; yet leaves him more melancholy , when it is done , as euripides observes . yea , i 'le appeale from your selves in drinke , to your selves in your sober fits , whether it fares not with you , as it did with menippus , who went downe into hell to seeke content : for what is this other ( in mitigating the pangs of conscience ) then as a saddle of gold , to a gal'd horse ; or a draught of poyson , to quench a mans thirst . alasse ! lot being expuls't sodom , dranke somewhat freely to drive away melancholy ( as we may conjecture ) but what came of it ? the wine made him commit incest , whereby he became ten times more melancholy , then he was before . and surely , they which strive to cure their present misery , with present mirth ; have not their misery taken away , but changed , and of temporall , made eternall ; thou hast taken thy pleasure , saith abraham to dives , therefore art thou now tormented , luke . . i love no such change ; i love not to cure one evill by another , yea , by a worse mischiefe : as empiricks in curing one disease , cause another which is worse . and let them looke to it , for surely if men call for pleasure , to please the conscience , as the philistins did for sampson to make them sport , it will but pull downe the house upon their heads . no sooner were the bellies of adoniah's guests full of meat , and their heads full of wine ; but their eares were full of clangor , their hearts of horror , the trumpets at once proclame salomon's triumph , and their confusion : the feasts of the wicked end in terror , as it fared with belshazzar , daniel chap. . v. . to . after the meale is done , ever comes the reckoning . wherefore let my spirit never come and enter into their paradise , yea ever abhor to partake of their brutish pleasures , lest i partake of their endlesse woes . and indeed who would buy repentance and misery so deare ? as demosthenes answered lais the harlot , when she asked him ten thousand drachmes of money , for her company but one night ; who would pay so deare for so short a lease ? as the country man replyed , seeing the great preparation , labour , cost , and study for a great triumph , when they told him it was to last but an houre : for could they have nectar and ambrosia to swallow , yea , could they drinke , with cl●opatra , the riches of egypt at a draught , and that upon free cost , ( which as diogines conceived , did adde sweetnesse to the wine ) yet it is but a draught , and quickly downe the throat . yea , as vaine and comfortlesse are all worldly joyes , when they are used to mitigate the panges of conscience , as it was for callico to stuff his pillow ( a brasse pot ) with straw to make it soft . indeed , your charmes may , with their pleasantnesse , bring conscience into some short slumbers ; but it waketh eftsoones , and in spite of all your spells , rageth as before . yea , if but sicknesse come , these carnall delights will runne from you , affrighted like rats from a house on fire : pleasure , like orpah , kisses , but parts ; only griefe , like ruth , weeps , and tarries with you : no joy will downe till there be hope of a pardon ; so that no hand can heale you , but the very same which wounded you : the wounds of the mind can only be cured by the word of god , which teacheth what may bee said , what is to bee known , what to bee believed , what to bee avoyded , yea , and what not . thus instead of repenting , and labouring in a lawfull calling , which is the only cure of melancholy ( fulgentius aptly terming exercise , the death of diseases , the destruction of all vices , and only cure of melancholy ) they adde sinne to sinne , leaving gods remedies , to seeke remedy of the divel ; whose office is not to quench fire , but to kindle it , even the fire of lust , with the fire of drunkennesse here , and with those two the fire of hell hereafter . § . secondly , they drinke that they may drive away time ; for every houre , seemes a day , and every day a moneth , to an idle person , which is not spent in a tap-house ; whereby with that strumpet in the proverbs , chap. . vers. . their feet can never abide in their owne howses , for you shall seldome finde a drunkard at home , when you need him ; but lay your plot to seeke him in a taverne ( as whether next , but to all the tavernes in the town ) or perhaps at a play house , ( for a play-house , or so , onely keeps him sober , and makes him an afternoone's man ) and it stands upon a good foundation . yea , they seeme to have nailed their eares to the doores of a taverne , and to have agreed with sathan , master it is good being here , let us build , &c. for be they never so long in a taverne , they thinke not the time long ; yea , they curse the clock for hast , and are angry that they cannot with ioshua , make the sunne stand still , or keepe the moone from going downe ; not till they confound the amorites , but till these amorites work each others confusion : they wish that the day might bee corrupted , and that the night would take bribes , if it proves any way an impediment unto them ; else there they live , nay , there they dye daily , as chrysostome speakes . as come to a mans house , and where is he ? his wife knowes not ; aske the servants , they know not ; when will he bee at home ? they cannot tell you ; yes , they can , but they blush to speake ; forsooth the matter is this , there is his house , but his dwelling is at the ale-house , except all his money bee spent ; and then if his wife will fetch him home with a lanthorne , and his men with a barrowe , hee comes with as much sense as michol's image had ; else sunne and moone goe over his head , till hee hath s●ept himselfe sober , and watcht himselfe drunke . for as if loosing their times were nothing , while they are in a drinking-schoole , they are bound by their law of good fellowship ( and would be so , were there no such law ) to bee powring in at their mouths , or whiffing out at their noses , one serving as a shooing horne to the other ; for tobacco being hot and dry , must have a qualifier of cold and moist from the pot ; and that again being cold and moist , must have a qualifier of hot and dry from the pipe ; which makes them like ratsband rats , drinke and vent , vent and drink , sellengers-round , and the same againe . to which purpose every one hath his purveyance at either elbow , a jurden for his urine , on the one side ; and a bowle for his vomit , on the other ; that when with their excessive beszeling they have filled their skins , and are full gorged , they may empty themselves at pleasure ; which they can doe , by only putting their finger to their throate ; though some , without ever forcing themselves , will vomit , as if they were so many live whales , spewing up the ocean , which done they can drink againe afresh . yet to whet on their appetites the better , and because it is heynous to all supervisors of the panchery , either not to goe out full bellied , or not to come in full handed ; up comes a service of shooing-horns of all sorts ; as rashers on the coles , red herrings , a gammon of bacon , caveary , anchovise , and abundance of such pulle●s on ; and then begins the full pots to go round about the table , and the empty against the walles . neither is it possible the appetite of these leeches should ever bee satisfied , seeing they have a hundred devices , naturall , artificial wickednesse , to make themselves still insatiable : to this end also they use tobacco , that by drunkennesse they may both expell drunkennesse , and being glutted with wine , they drinke smok● , that by this variety , it may not grow teadious thus they spend their money , mispend their time , spend good houres in ill actions , and great blessings to bad purposes ; wherby they are foure dayes in the week drunke , and the other three not sober ; never considering that the divell is a fisher ; sinne , his hooke ; pleasure , his baite ; fooles , his fish ; nor weighing the danger they are in , making a recreation of misery , sporting themselves in their sinnes round about the pits brinke without feare , when as they are every howre ready to topple into hell , that bottomlesse gulfe of easeles and everlasting flames . they desire most to passe away time , then which nothing ( though few consider it ) is more precious ; yea , saith seneca , there is nothing swifter , nothing sweeter then time . but did they know what treasure time offers to their poore soules , they would looke with a jealous eye upon the houre-glasse , and sigh at the dropping of every sand. and surely they that seeke to mend the pace of time , spurre a free and fast enough running horse ; which they had more need to redeeme with double care , and labour , then seeke how to hurle it away , yea , hyre the divell and others to helpe them . for my part , i had rather the company would passe away , then the time ; except it bee such company , as may helpe me to redeeme the time . and while i live here , i will study so to use time , as that i may come to live , where time shall be no more : and doubtlesse , those that dare loose a day , are dangerously prodigall ; those that dare mispend it , desperate . § . other reasons and causes there bee of it , though indeed there is no reason in it , as first , pride is one speciall cause , covetousnesse , another ; cowardlinesse , a third ; evill company , a fourth ; &c. for they will by no meanes grant that they drinke for the love of drink , any more then the hunts man pursues the hare , in cold , in heate , over mountaines , and dales , for love of her flesh ; no , will these swilbowles say , yea , sweare , that is the basest thing in the world , they are epicures indeed that will doe so , though they love it , as they should doe god , above all , above health , wealth , cred it , child , wife , life , heaven , salvation , all ; calling for that , as the pope once for his dish , even in despite of heaven ; for is not their gullet their god ? do they not sacrifice more to their god belly , then those babylonians did to their god bell. alasse ! they no more care for wine , then esau did for his pottage , for which hee sold his birth-right ; no more then vgacc●o of luca did for good cheare , who ventured his dukedome rather then hee would loose a good supper ; then lysimachus did , who made away a whole kingdome for drinke ; then vvenceslaus , who after the same manner consumed his empire ; then philoxenus and melanthius did , who , that the drink might yeeld them the more pleasure in going down to their stomacks , wish , the one a swans throat , the other a cranes neck ; then tiberius , who ▪ because hee loved wine above measure , was in derision called biberius . for let them say , or sweare what they will , i will believe the prophet isaiah , who brings in the drunkard saying thus , come , wee will bring wine , and we will fill our selves with strong drinke , and to morrow shall be as this day , and much more abundant , isa. . . and hanna , who calls drunkards the sons of belial , sam. . . that is , all belly , and for the belly . yea , let some good fellow or other tell me , whether it would not make his teeth water , and his guts grumble ; yea , whether in envie hee would not feed upon his owne heart , to see his companions drinke their healths round , while he sate by , only to see and heare them ? and if so , confesse that you drink , not to please others , but your selves , as canus played upon his harpe ; not for your friend's sake , but for the drink 's sake ; that you drink , not out of need , but lust ; not for health , but for delight . but we will accept of their owne confession , take them at their word , and see whether they mend not the matter as the divell mended his damms legg , who instead of putting it into joynt , brake it quite in peeces : for i am much mistaken , if they doe not double their shame by so excusing their fault ; for what more aggravates any ●inne , then this , that men commit it ( as i have shewed men usually sweare ) only because it is sinne , and god forbid's it , having neither profit , nor pleasure , nor credit , nor nothing else to induce them to it ? surely the lesse provocation , the greater the offence ; yea , greater the malice of the offender , and greater his dishonour that is offended : this is not only for a rich man to bee a thiefe and a lier ; an old man , to be a fornicator ; both which are abomination to the lord ; but it is all one , as if a chast man should force himself to commit a rape upon one whom hee cares not for , onely to spite her husband , or parent ; which sinne seemes to out-weigh any ransome . § . againe , whereas i charge them with covetousnesse , and tell them this is another cause , they will thinke i am madd . what , they covetous ? who so generous , free , bountifull ? yea , they hate a cove●ous hoggrubber with a perfect hatred ; and yet none more cove●ous , for drunkards are not more ryotous in spending , then in gathering they are covetous : and what is it , any one of these melting prodigals will not practise , rather then let his port decline ? yea , what lewdnesse , or basenesse will hee not put in practise , rather then want to satisfie his lusts ? yea , aske them why they drinke , and keepe company so much ? their most usuall answer is , alasse ! i should have no worke , i should neither get , nor keep my customers , i should never else buy a good bargaine , &c. for it is admirable to think , and incredible to believe , how the divell blindes them in this particular , but i passe it , for an angel from heaven shal not perswade them to the contrary , but that it is very profitable for them ; though a stander by may plainly see , that they spend more in time , then in money ; and more in money of times then they get by their drunken customer ; as it is usuall with many dutchmen , to spend the best part of three whole dayes and nights in the taverne , to drive a bargain ; neither wil they make any bargaine , untill they have sharpened their wits with the essence of good liquor ; and then are they ( as they thinke ) crafty and politicke , that they will deceive any man that shall deale with them . i have heard one of them boast , he had gotten a thousand pounds this way ; and his reason was , when he dranke most , he could bargaine best . but when both the buyer and seller goe away with this conceit , that each have over-reach't the other , the devill must needs delude one of them , and i am sure the vintner will be paid for his wine . but , alasse ! the devill hath so besotted them , that they will beleeve him , even contrary to their owne knowledge : as it fares with witches , who although they know the devill to be the father of lyes , yet will trust him . but for my part , i shall as soone beleeve that adam spake dutch in paradise ( according to goropius becanus his idle fancy ) as beleeve thee the richer for thy drinking . § . and as for pride , they know not what it meanes ; it 's an ill signe they are proud , when they goe in rags , being able to spend so much as they doe : and yet any eyes , but their owne , may see , that they care not what they spend , or how much they drinke , ( yea even forcing nature beyond their ability ) for popular applause , and to have others commend them for joviall : as one to get him a name , built d●ana's temple ( which was one of the worlds wonders ) another to get him a name , burnt it , but failed of his expectation , for to prevent his hopes , they suffered not his name to be put in the chronicle . but these have their aime , are reputed generous , and brave blades : which commendations is like the praise that homer gives of paris , that is , praising the beauty of his locks , but making him to be the ruine of his country : or like that which is spoken of pope boniface the eight , viz. that he was famous , yet for nothing , but his wickednesse . since they cannot be notable , they would be notorious , and , with ca●ne , marked , though for murtherers . opinion is all they stand upon , and that from men more gallant then wise , that have more heart then braine , yea , more lust , pride , and ignorance then either . yea , the fame and reputation of good fellowship with them is more sweete then life , then salvation ; for they had rather be famous men upon earth ( though it be for infamy ) then glorified saints in heaven ; yea , they had rather goe to hell , then be counted puritans , for shaking hands with their old associats ; wherin they resemble saul , who stood more upon the praise of men , then the favour of god ; or vlysses , who pretended to love his native country ithaca so dearely , that for it he would refuse to be immortall ; or the lord cordes , with whom it was a common by-word , that he would be content to be in hell seven yeares , so he might have the honour of winning cales from the english ; or some unconscionable fathers , who will goe to the devill , to make their sonnes gentlemen , live miserably , and damne their owne soules , that their's may be left rich , they so love their children above themselves ; for as these , so drunkards are proud of basenesse i can feele their pulses beate hither . but when all 's done , a good name is more to be respected , then a great . forsooth , they would get a name ; and indeede , they doe get the names of common drunkards , which will never be done away . or admit they get the name of good fellowes , how ridiculous is that name , when it is gotten ? achitophel hath a name , iudas hath a name , beelzebub hath a name , the powder traytors have got them a name ; but it were happy for such names if they might dye , for they will stinke while they live , and so doth the drunkards , when he hath obtained the name of good fellow , in my judgment ; and if i cannot beate the vulgar from their contrary opinion , yet i will be sure , the vulgar shall never beate it into me . i could here tell you of another pride , which occasions many to drinke , and keepe company , pride of wit ; not that drunkards are thereof guilty , but , as narcissus doted upon his owne shadow : so they conceit of their owne embryan discourse ( as the crow of her owne birds ) that it is fairer and better then ordinary , or else they would not be at such charges to have you heare it . if ye doubt his pride , marke whether all his discourse tends not , either to the praise of himselfe , or the dispraise of others ; unlesse his praysing of another may redound also to his owne praise . but wherein doth his vainelye , and the excellency of his braine consist ? the beane of all his honour lyes in scoffes , and jeeres ; for take from these aspes but their poyson and sting , you undoe them , they have nothing left of any use ; all their worth lyes in witcrackers , as some in the netherlands have their wealth in squibs and fire-workes , others in mouse-traps and tinderboxes . now in case he hath broken a jest well , he sits him downe , and sings plaudits to his own braine , and not onely falls in love with all , as pygmalion fell in love with his ivory image , but if others doe not commend and admire it for rare and excellent , as though it were found in the phoenix nest , he thinkes he hath great wrong . it is not enough , that he thinkes himselfe wise ; but we also must thinke him so , though he knowes in his conscience wee thinke wrong : as once a souldier , to have his friends in england thinke him somebody , gave it out that he was captaine of a hundred , when his conscience told him , and one of the company was able to reply , that they were not men but vermine , which were under his conduct . indeed it were happy for him , if he wanted the wit he hath herein ; and sathan should doe him a greater pleasure , if he did not so prompt him in scoffes ; for , like absalom's haire , it proves but an ornament to hange himselfe withall : the best office his wit doth him , is either to spit out friends with his tongue , or laugh them into enemies . when one brake a bitter jest upon his friend , he requited him with his dagger , saying , i cannot breake a jest , but i can breake your head . now he payes deere for a jest , who spends his time , and mony , and sells his honesty for it : but most unhappy is that wit , which stirres up enemies against the owner , and proves a snare to it selfe ; well may such an one have a good wi● , but sure i am , a foole hath the keeping of it . and so much of the fift cause , for i feare to be tedious . § . sixtly , sottish feare and base cowardlinesse is another maine cause , both of this , and almost all other sinnes : men dare not refuse to goe to the taverne when the motion is made , ( and they seldome meete one another but they make the motion ) nor refuse when they come there to doe as the rest , that is , to drinke drunke , be it to the wounding of conscience , hazard of health , life , soule , &c. for feare of seeming singular . oh how hard a thing is it , for a coward to shew his dislike of this sinne in some companies , where he shall be scoft at , and call'd puritane , if he will not revell it with them in a shorelesse excesse . and indeed , better be possest with any devill almost , then this bashfull devill , for it will give a man no respite . but like as agrippa his dog had a devill tied to his coller , and paracelsus another confined to his sword pommell : so the coward hath a devill alwayes at his elbow , to divert him from good actions , or to provok him to evill . how many men , out of a proud , ignorant , and timerous bashfulnesse , miserably wrong their owne soules , lest the standers by should censure them ? much like that lacedaemonian child , who suffered his belly and guts to be torne out , by a cub or young fox which he had stolne , and kept close under his garment , rather then he would discover his theft : or like eurydamas the wrestler , who vvhen his teeth vvere dasht out by his adversary , dissembled the paine , and swallowed downe his teeth , blood , and all , to the end he which gave the blow , might not perceive the mischiefe : or rather like herod , who at the request of his minion , cut off iohn baptists head , and why forsooth ( for he was very sory she made that her demand , and had rather she should have required halfe his kingdome ) but because they which sate at table with him , should finde him as good as his word , marke , . . . o vaine and wicked herod , not god , not his conscience came into any regard with him , but the people ; as what will the world say , if i should not yeeld to it ? every man vvill laugh at me , &c. oh the foolish aymes of ambition ! even the misconceits of the points of honour , have cost millions of soules ; this is one notable meanes to fill hell , lothnesse to displease ; and certainly there must needs be something in it , that the fearefull are placed by the holy ghost in the fore-front of the damned crue , vvhich shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone , revel . . . wherefore think of it , it is a damnable plausibility , so to regard the vaine approbation , or censure of the beholders , as in the meane time , to neglect the allowance or judgment of god. a good heart will rather fall out with all the world , then with his maker , then with his conscience . it is an ill modesty , that hinders a man in the way to blisse , or that suffers another to outgoe him ; like some travelling jade , that hearing another horse come after , stands still till he overtakes him . true love to , and knowledge of christ will think him worth following through fire and water : but goe thy way , and save thy selfe , to thy losse ; gaine the worlds fauour , and loose god's ; escape derision , and meet w th confusion , and i wil tell thee whom thou are like : thou are like some decayed gentlemen ; who because descended from an ancient house , will not so disparage themselves as to serve or work ; but which is more for their honour forsooth , take a purse ; and so while they seek to shun disrepute among fooles , purchase infamy , and loose their lives , and how it will fare with thee in the end , christ iesus will bee ashamed of thee at the latter day , who art now ashamed for his sake to beare a few scoffs and reproaches from the world , mat. , , , . for in this case , whosoever shall seek to save his credit , yea , his life shall loose it , and his soule too ; but whosoever shall loose his credit , life , and all for goodnesse and conscience sake , hee shall save it , as our saviour witnesseth , luk. . . lastly , touching evill company , expect to heare more in the reasons of breaking off society with our vicious consorts . § . thus what hathbeene spoken , proves them much worse then beasts ; but this is a small evill with them , this is but to worke out their owne damnations : their chiefe delight is to infect others , the serpents speciall venome , wherewith these his elves be intoxicated , is to make others more beasts then themselves . indeed this is not the drunkards case alone , for it fares even so with all wicked men . wherefore give me leave ( yea let me take it ) a little to stirre the earth about the roots of this science . if it be a digression , to tell you of other tempters , pardon it ; if impertinent , ( though i hope not ) passe on to section the . wicked men as they are all the seed of the same old serpent , gen , . . and children of the devill , iohn . . so they resemble the divill , and imitate him in all things , so farre as corporall creatures can possibly do spirituall substances ; but principally in tempting to sinne , and drawing to perdition , and ever have done , since the divell their father taught them the way . for even as sathan himselfe , had no sooner sinned , but immediately ( as ever since ) he laid the plot to draw our first parents , and in them all their posterity , into sinne with him , gen. . . . . so according to this president , the wicked in all ages have followed his example , and trod in his steps , whose image they beare , and whose members they are . for thus it fared with eve , who was no sooner tempted to break god's law , in eating the forbidden fruit , but she becomes a tempter , and draws her husband into the same sinne . thus with cham , who when he had discovered , and scoft at his fathers nakednesse , laboured to bring his brethren into the same disobedience . tuus with the elder of lot's daughters , who when shee had made her father drunk , on purpose to commit incest with him ; the next care shee tooke was to make her younger sister doe the like . and thus it fares with all notorious sinners of all sorts , as with thieves and murtherers , who before they goe to rob and kill , call their mates , and say , come with us , &c. pro. . , . idolaters , deut. . . false prophets , ez●k . . . persecutors of the godly , act. . . . and . ● . covetous wretches , act. . . . adulterers , &c. ge. . . wicked men being like so many corns of powder , for as every corne of powder flies off , and fires his fellow : so fares it with them , all that are viciously bent , seek after followers ; and it is thought the greatest evill , to be evill alone . § . and as all kinds of sinners are very industrious to tempt , so are they very politicke , ( in their generation ) to use such meanes as is most likely to prevaile . for as all fishes are not taken one way , but some with a net , some with a dart , or dragg ▪ others with a hooke ; nor with one baite , but every fish with that baite which is agreeable to their nature and kind , for the wise fisher baites his hooke according to the appetite of the fish : so sathan by these his substitutes , doth most subtilely seduce every man according to the bent and streame of his own nature , and inclinary disposition . for as iupiter transformed himselfe into the shape of amphitryo , to embrace alcmena ; into the forme of a swan , to enjoy leda ; into a bul , to beguile i● ; into a shower of gold , to winne danäe : or as neptune changed himselfe into an heyfer , a ramme , a flood , a dolphin , onely for the love of those hee lusted after : or as cataline in rome , gate all the gentlemen into his faction by feeding their humors , pleasing the covetous , with gold ; the glutton , with belly cheere and dainties ; the ambitious with hope of honour and preferment ; and the like : or as s. paul became all things to all men , that hee might winne the more , cor. . . so doth sathan and his ●mps , become all things to all men , that they may pervert and seduce the more ▪ to which purpose , and for their greater advantage , they mark how every man is inclined ; as , what hee loves , what hee hateth , what hee feares , what hee wants &c. and when they have the measure of a mans foote , then they will fit him ; yea , let any man aske what he will , it shall goe hard , but he that offered the whole world to our saviour , will accommodate his humour . as for example . some danäe will not be won to play the whore , unlesse her lover appeare in a shower of gold ; hee hath that way , by meanes of such an instrument , for her . some naaman will not bow in the house of rimmon , crouch at a masse , but for his masters favour ; he hath that way for him . another will not betray , or embrew his hands in innocent blood , without large promises of great matters ; he hath that way for him , as promises ( though they are the cheapest things men can part withall ) are yet the strongest inchantments , these bee the strong lines of rome ▪ whereby she catcheth so many ; promises , whereof she is as liberall , as ever was antigonus ▪ who was called antigonus doson ▪ and let such asses have no other provender , but promises . indeed some are so cunning , that they will do more for a small present benefit , then for the promise of a ten-fold value ; sathan is faine to stop their mouths with ready money : wherfore gehazi shall have the talents , achan the golden wedge , &c. o that men were so warie , as to say , — timeo danaos & dona ferentes ! or is there a bathsheba , so chast ; an vriah , so sober ; that the one will not be won to pollute the marriage bed ; nor the other be made drunke , except they are solicited by a king ; he hath that way for them : for even kings are at his command , and ready to doe him service in the businesse of tempting ; and it 's hard to refuse pledging , where a king begins a health to his subject ; for temptation is then stronger , when it proceeds from a mighty instrument : the requests of great ones are commands , their very sutes imperative . how many sober , and religious vriahs , have beene wrought to excesse by this meanes ? how many bathshebahs , and iane shores have thus been won , to pollute both a royal and matrimonial bed : the very countenance of authority is authority enough with many . againe , is none so fit as the wife to tempt the husband ? why then adam shall be tempted by eve , ahab by iesabel , iob by his wife . indeed a seducer dares not shew himselfe , in a noted good mans company , in his owne colours ; yea , vice stands abasht at the glorious majesty of a soule well confirmed in goodnes : as catoe's presence stopt the evill practises of the romane brutish floralia : wherefore in some cases hee either conceales himselfe , or playes the hypocrite , by appearing in the garments and habit of vertue . as for example . is there a holy man of god , that will not vary a haires breadth from what his maker commands ? sathan hath another prophet to seduce him , by pretending that an angell spake unto him by the word of the lord , saying , thus and thus , king. . . or is none so likely as peter to prevaile with christ ? why then peter shall take upon him the devils office , and , in a great deale of love , tempt his owne lord and master , mat. . . . in a word , as he tempted the high priests ( those arch-hypocrites ) by love of glory ; and as the high priests with money tempted iudas to betray his master , and destroy himselfe : so he tempts every man , by that way and meanes vvhich he knovveth most prevalent vvith the party tempted . § . indeed , sathan is not so lavish , as to hurle away either cost or labour , when it may be spared : wherefore seeing the rude●multitude so brutish and ignorant , that they will be cheated and guld with any thing ; he takes advantage from their darkned soules , and to deceive them , ( knowing he needs doe no more ) onely foules and smeares the beautifull face of vertue , with the blacke soote of those vices which seeme to have some affinity with them ; as by traducing each grace thus : conscience of sinne , in the devills language , is called precise nicenesse , and puritanisme ; zeale , madnesse ; faith and confidence , presumption ; syncerity , hypocrisie ; patience , pu●illanimity ; humility , basenesse of minde ; wisdome , craft , &c. and on the other side , painting vices ugly face with the faire colours of vertue , and so present her not in her owne proper colours , but guilded over with some shewes of holinesse , that it may the more easily wind and insinuate it selfe into mens affections , calling lust , love ; enuy , emulation ; pride , magnanimity ; sloth , warinesse ; covetousnesse , good husbandry ; drunkennesse , good fellowship ; ignorance , innocencie ; pestilent heresie , profound knowledge and deepe learning ; revel . . . worldlinesse , wisdome and policy ; rashnesse , fortitude ; &c. as for every severall jemme that vertue hath , vice hath a counterfeit stone , where with she gulls the ignorant ; and there is no precept nor command of god , but the devill commands the contrary ; he is ever gaine-saying what god saith ; gen. . . and . . . and this is enough , for hereby their poore blind hearts are so deceived , with that shadow of resemblance which vice carrieth of vertue ; that they embrace and receive grosse vices , insteed of glorious vertues , and yet thinke themselves as well , and that they shall speede as well as the best . and least one should mistrust another , he hath his cleargy to speake for him , and is never without false prophets , which are ready to daube over sinne with untempered morter ; such as for handfulls of barley , and peeces of bread , will sowe pillowes under each arme-hole , prophesie out of their owne hearts , and pretend a lying divination ; such as shall preach unto them , peace , peace , and tell them that despise the lord , though they walke after the stubbornnesse of their own hearts , no evill shall come upon them ; yea , such as shall even slay the soules of them that should not dye , and give life to the soules that should not live , with lyes make the hearts of the righteous sad , whom the lord hath not made sad ; and strengthen the hands of the wicked , that he should not turne from his wicked way by , promising him life . eze. . ier. . . to . so shutting heaven when they should open it , and opening it when they should shut it . and thus are millions deceived , for nothing sooner wins flesh and blood , then a doctrine which tends to licentiousnesse . indeed , most men are so greedy , either of profit , or pleasure , that sathan needs no helpe from others ; for he can no sooner cast out his angle amongst them , but immediatly , ( like the soules in lucian about charons boate , or coleminers about a line , when the candles burning blew , tells the dampe commeth ) they will fasten upon the bayte . as let ieraboam onely set up calves in dan and bethel , the people are downe on their knees , yea , all , like beasts in heards , will goe a lowing after them . yea , were there no harlot , no drunken associate to solicite , no devill to doe his office , wicked men would beget destruction on themselves . if sathan should not feede them with temptations , they would tempt him for them , and snatch their owne bane ; in which case , sathan onely suggests the thought , or sayes the word , and it is done . as if he appoint them to lye , they willy ; if he command them to deceive , they will deceive ; if he bid them slander , they will slander , and that as falsely as he ; if he perswades them to revenge , to persecute , &c. they will doe it , as spitefully and as fully , as he could doe them himselfe ; and so of every sinne , if he but say to any of his servants , let there be an oath , straight there is an oath ; let there be a bribe , instantly there is a bribe ; let there be a quarrell , immediatly there is a quarrel ; &c. just as when god said in the beginning of the creation , let there bee light , and there was light . § . thus sathan comes to us , and sets upon us both wayes , visible , and invisible ; mediately , and immediatly ; by himselfe , and by others . yea , this is not all , for that we may the lesse suspect him , he makes us become our owne tempters , as how many temptations come in by those cinque-ports , the senses ? how many more by sathans injections , presenting to the affections things absent from the senses ? ( as we have an army of uncleane desires , that perpetually fight against our soules ) but most of all by lust it selfe ( a thing not created , yet as quicke as thought , tumbling over a thousand desires in an houre ) for you must know , that the devill and our flesh meets together every day and houre to ingender new sinnes , which is the reason our sins are counted amongst those things which are infinite , as the haires of our head , the sands of the sea , the starres of heaven : yea , the devills trade and occupation all the day , and all the yeare long , is onely to make nets , and gins , and snares , to catch thee , and mee , and each man single ; the wisdome of heaven deliver us . as there is a sacred trinity , provoking to good , the father , sonne , and holy ghost : so there is a cursed cerberus , intiseing to sinne , the world , the flesh , and the devill ▪ but the chiefe of these tempters is the devill , whence he is stiled , as by a kind of excellency , the tempter , as virgil is called the poet , aristotle the philosopher , and david the king. it 's true , he could not worke his owne ends upon us , if he should professe himselfe , and appeare to us the very same that he is , and not in the persons of men , yea , in our selves , and supposed best friends : yet this hinders not , but sathan may be the chiefe : for though there be many little seducers besides , which doe us the greatest mischiefe ; yet the serpent is worse then all his seede . i 'le make it plaine . as there are sundry other crafts , so there is a craft of tempting , whereof sathan is the crafts-master , and the rest are but his apprentises , or factors under him ; for there was never any , of what condition soever , from the first to the last , tempted , but sathan had a hand in the temptation . indeed , some make question whether there be a devill or no , because they never saw him ; but thou maist see him in his effects , tempting thee to lewdnesse , and tempting thee to tempt others ; for what he cannot doe immediately by himselfe , that he doth mediatly by his instruments ; and when he hath tempted some men , he sets them to tempt other men , bestowing his bad office upon them , as once he did upon heedlesse eve. as , alasse poore soules ! they are but set on by that subtile serpent , as the woman of tek●a was by ioa● . sa . . . or as zeb●deas was by her sons , math. . . compared with mark. . . it is but his heart in their lips ; for the devill opens their mouthes , as the lord , by an angell , opened the mouth of baalam's asse , n●mb . . and speakes in , and by them , as once he did by the serpent , when he opened her mouth , and caused her to speake with mans voice . § . that sathan the prince of darknesse , which ruleth in the ayre ( even that false spirit ) speaketh and worketh by all the children of disobedience , as by his agents and instruments ; partly , as a workman worketh with his tooles ; partly , as a client speakes by his advocate ; and partly , as a generall ●ighteth by his army , we have plainely set downe , ephes. . . . yea , looke but , cor. . . and there he is stiled their god ; and being their god , they must use all possible meanes whereby to gaine soules to him , by tempting and seducing others ; to which end , and that they may be the better gifted to doe the same exactly , this great temper helpeth their infirmitie , by infuseing of his owne nature into them ; as when hee put it into the heart of iudas iscariot , to betray christ , iohn , . . and when he moved david to number the people , chro. . . and spake to our saviour by peter , as through a trunke , and infused his subtilty into herod to destroy all the males ; for though herod be called a fox , yet this old fox taught him all his subtilty . and this he can easily doe . for as the load-stone , by a secret in nature , not only●draweth the iron unto it , as iet and amber doth straw , but infuseth also a faculty into the iron , whereby one peece of iron is made apt to draw another peece after it ; yea , the loadestone being put neere a chaine of iron , doth not onely draw the link that is next it unto it , but also causeth that link to draw it's fellow , and the next to it it's fellow , and so the rest , until all be drawn : so sathan , by infusing into some men his serpentine nature , maketh them as apt to tempt others , and they their associates ; as when by the infusion of this divelish nature hee had tempted eve , and made her his vassall , she proved an apt , exquisite , and ready instrument to seduce adam to eate the forbidden fruit , at the price of death eternal : and ever since the divell might use the words of god , and say , behold , man is become as one of us . and for number , sathan hath more servants then any emperour of the world , yea , more men ( i feare me ) to fight for him , then the trinity which made us : for whereas few have the courage to speake for god , and his worship , ( even amongst us christians ) sathan hath his tempters and seducers in every country , and place , yea , in every corner of each country , like continuall leigers , to follow his busines ; who both can do it neere as well , even as witches can doe almost as much as the divel himselfe ; and will do it as faithfully as if he did it in his own person . what gideon and abimelech once spake to their troopes , iudg. . . and . . looke on me , and see what you see me do , make hast , and do you likewise , and they did it : the same speaks sathan to his followers , and they imitate and resemble the divell , as truly as apes and monkies will imitate and resemble men ; which though they cannot speake and understand , with such reason as men do ; yet they will counterfeit men in any thing that possible they can compasse . and these his servants are so at his beck , that he needs no more , but hold up his finger ; as the master of a galley , when he perceives a good gale of winde , that is faire for his voyage , doth with once whisling , make all the galley-slaves fall to their oares . so that sathan hath diverse and sundry wayes to assault us , many strings to his bow , that if some break , the rest may hold ; many traines of powder , some likely to take fire ; yea , he is like some cunning enginere , that can invent new instruments , according to the present occasion ; and he inventeth all he can , and puts in practise all that he invent●th . yea , if men have so many slights to compasse their matters , how can the compasser himselfe hold his fingers ? if the serpents seed bee so subtile , what doe you thinke of this old serpent ? yea so many snares and engines are laid , by the professed enemy of man , to intrap our soules , that wee may with reverence and love wonder at the mercy of god in our delivery ; for wee fall , o god , we fall to the lowest hell if thou prevent us not , if thou sustaine us not ; all our weaknesse is in our selves , all our strength is in thee . neverthelesse , wee can thanke none , but our selves if wee yeeld ; for though that old saba blowes many an intiseing blast , to carry us away from our true alleagiance to christ iesus , our king ; yet the minde of man is not capeable of a violation , either from man , or sathan : and who then can i tax for mine owne yeelding , but my selfe ? § . now to speake of , or nominate all sorts of seducers ; much more to shew the several slights which wicked men use , that they may make us associate them in their lewdnesse , is impossible ; yea , i may as well weigh the fire , or measure the winde ; as well reckon up the moates in the sun , paint eccho to the life , make the moone a new coate , and assoone finde out the motion of a bird in the aire , the way of a serpent upon a stone ; and the way of a ship in the midst of the sea , which are all too wonderfull for me , prov. . . . yea , had i the gift of prophecy , and knew all secrets touching the same , i should need two hundred tongues , and six hundred pens , and a mouth of steele , with an iron voyce ; if i should declare their severall diversities . for the foure and twenty letters in the alphabet make not more variety of words in divers languages : then the serpents subtilty produceth diversity of stratagems , in severall persons ; and i could easilier tell you what good they omit , then what evill they doe . o the many waies that sathan ( through mens help ) hath to seduce us ! and the many temp●●rs he hath , in every corner , to set upon us ! where shall a man come and not find a seducer ? and a drunkard of all other tempters , as he never ceaseth to seduce ; so hee seldome misses of prevailing . but though the springs and wards of temptation are so infinite , that it is impossible to decypher them all , yet according to the measure of the line , whereof god hath distributed unto me , i will discover how the drunkard seduceth ; and so goe a middle way betweene saying all and nothing ; and by looking upon him , you may more then guesse at the rest . neither will i undertake to tell all , for that the time would bee too short , or this treatise too long , if i should stand upon every severall slight which drunkards have to seduce ; yea , talking fabi●s would be tyred , before hee can relate halfe of what were requisite to be ●poken of them it would require whole volumes ; for not a fewlines , nor leaves , would containe the same . besides , notions when they exceede , are wont , as nayles to drive out one another ; and these which i have purposely selected out , are the principall , most behovefull , and best deserving our discovery , and the worlds notice . § . that none are either affected , or addicted to seduce like drunkards ; let their deeds ( which come now to bee discovered ) manifest . the drunkards chiefe delight is to infect others , the serpents speciall venome ( as i said before ) wherewith these his elfes bee intoxicated , is to make others more beasts then themselves : yea , drunkards being the divels deputies , to turne others into beasts , will make themselves divels , wherein they have a notable dexterity ; making the ale-house or tavern , their studie ; their circle , the pot ; themselves , the conjurers ; mens soules the hire ; reputation of good fellowship , the char me ; the characters , healths ; the goblin raised , is the spirit of the buttery ; and to drink god , out of their hearts ; health , out of their bodies ; wit , out of their heads ; strength out of their joynts ; all the money , out of their purses ; all the drink , out of the brewers barrels ; wife and children , out of doores ▪ the land , out of quiet ; plenty , out of the kingdome ; is all their businesse . these agents for the divell ( drunkards ) practise nothing but the art of debauching men ; for they will take no pains , unlesse the divel set them on work ; though in this case , being set like beasts to draw in the divels teame , they will leade captive unstable soules to sinne with c●rds of vanity , and as it were with a cartrope , isaiah . . for to sinne , these pernicious sedusers , divels in the shape of men , are no niggards of their paines . oh how much is hell beholding to them ! yea , seldome ever doe wee finde goodnesse so industrious , the children of light are not alwaies the forwardest in their generation . besides , they have many obstacles , thes. . . we would have come unto you once , and again , saith paul to his converts , but sathan hindred us . our way is like c●shie's , full of rubs : but they , like ahimaaz , take the plaine and beaten path ; mischiefe is nimble , and he that intends evill , will breake his sleepe to do it . iudas , and that bench of gray-headed priests and elders , will be awake , when peter and his fellow disciples ( notwithstanding christ charged them to watch with him but one houre ) are fast asleepe , matth. . . to . the 〈◊〉 sower is in the field , when the husbandman is in his bed , mat. . yea , they that worship ●he beast , and his image , never rest day nor night , revel . . . but never did opportunity meet with any , that made more use of it , then doe these seducers , they will husband it to proofe , and like some cunning antagonist , loose not an inch of their advantage , their dilig●nce is admirable ; the pharis●es would take great paines , compass● sea and land to make one like themsel●●s , matth. . . and seminary priests will come from rome , to draw one from the true religion : so what will not some drunkards do , or spend , to make a sober man a drunkard , or to drinke another drunkard under the table ; which may cast a blush upon our cheekes , who are nothing so industrious to winne soules to god. § . now for the effecting of this ( though these milo's ( be they never so strong ) oftentimes meet with some titor●us or other , ●●●onger th●● they , who throwes them und●● th● table ) what comparable to drinking of healths ▪ ( which a●tistbenes cals the only occasion and meane● of surfeiting and d●sord●r another ▪ very f●●ly , thepulley or ●●ooing●horn to al drunkennes and excess● ) ●or th●ir drinking and beginning of healths , is purposely , and serves to no other end , but to draw me● on to drinke more liberally , then els● they would , or should doe , but to allure and forc● such as they finde otherwis● unwilling ; yea , their owne hearts and consciences can tes●ifi● unto them in the sight of of god that they use these healths , but as so many baites , occasions , or pre●●●ses to allure and provoke their guests , and friends to pledge them , even unto surfeit : neither must any refuse their healths , though it be against their natur●s , judgments , hearts and consciences , which doe secretly abhorre and utterly cond●mne them . o how they will wind a man in , by drinking , first , a health to such a man ; then , to such a woman my mistresse , then to every ones mis●r●● ; then , to such a grea● person ; naming some lord , or lady or some neere friend now by this meanes of drinking their lords , their ladies , their masters , their mistresses ( and shee for the most part a common strumpet ) their magistrates , their captains , commanders , kindreds , parents , friends , or companions healths ; ●hey will wind men in to drinke , even till their braines , their wits , their tongues , their eyes , their feet , their senses , and all their members faile them . for commonly when these friends fal to drinking of healths , it is as enemies fall to fighting with weapons ▪ to shew their valour , and 〈◊〉 get the 〈…〉 and their weapons are 〈…〉 who so carrieth 〈…〉 cleere , 〈◊〉 and leades t●e rest about 〈…〉 ( if they can goe ) in t●●umph ; 〈◊〉 he gets the greatest honour , that 〈…〉 the rest off their leggs . hereupon their healths must ●ither bee great immeasure , or many in number . touching the first , you have some like tricong us novellus ▪ who dranke three gallons of wine at once ; or prot●as who gave valiant alexander a quaffe of two gallons , which set him into a disease hee dyed of . is not steven●on a towne within two miles of abindon , famous for his sake , that dranke a peck at a draught ? and did not a dyer , of barkhamsted in hartford-shire , doe the like ? as for a drunkard to disrobe the greatest goblet of his liquor , though it be of such weight , that ( as virgil said once ) the left hand is faine to helpe her sister , he makes nothing of it . § touching the second , if they drinke but indifferent healths , then the lesse the healthes are , the more strong the wine ; for the smalnesse of the cup , or glasse , is commonly made up with the strength , vigor , and dearenesse of the wine , or other liquor ; so that these small healthes , will sooner intoxicate and inebriate men , then greater healthes , in cheaper and smaler drinke ; and yet these little healthes , as well as little wedges , make but way for great ones of the same nature . for many of them , hating the mixture of malt and water , will , by their good wills , let nothing come within them but the purity of the grape , if they can get it , and that 's as naturall to them ( through custome ) as small beere is to other men : and no wonder , for if physicke be taken too oft , it will not worke like physicke ; yea , poyson by familiar use , becomes naturall foode ; as aristotle ( in an example of a maid , which would picke spiders off the wall , and eate them ( shewes . whence we may learne , that if tobacco were as wholsome a weede or hearb , as is pretended ; yet being used too commonly , nature entertaines it as a friend , not as a physitian . or secondly , when the healthes a●e small and little in quantity or measure ; they are commonly made up and recompenced with the multitude , number , and frequencie of them ; and this they have learned of the lombards , of whom we reade this story . when foure auncient men of them met together , they dranke an health round , to each others yeares ; in the end , one challenged the rest to drinke severally , so many times , as they had lived yeares , and likewise his companions pledged him : the one was fifty eight ; the second , sixty three : the third , eighty seven ▪ the last , ninety two yeares old ; so he which dranke least , dranke 〈◊〉 eight cups of wine , as diaconus relates 〈◊〉 . o the audacious , horrible , and f●ar●full drunkennesse ( which would ca●se any christian heart to bleed and tremble ) th●t is too often caused by these healthes in every place and corner , especially in the solemne time of christ's nativity ! § . and to mend the matter , least sathan should want of his due reverence and adorati●● , or they abate of their pleasure ( for the more sinfull any action , the more sweete ) these wine-worshippers will be at it on their kn●es , especially if they drinke a great mans health ; and so make gods of others , beasts of themselves , ranke idolatry . i know it 's no innovation , or new thing ; t●e custome is rather ancient , then warrantable ; our moderne drunkards have it but by tradition from their elders , and they did it not without a president : fo● health-drinking upon their knees had it's rise and pedegree , it 's birth and ●riginall , from pagans , infidells , and idolaters , yea , from ●he devill himselfe , as st. basil and st. a●s●in witnesse , who affirme that it is but a heathenish custome , savouring onely of paganisme and gentilisme ; yea , that it was but the devills drinke offering , or a part of that honour , worship , sacrifice , and adoration which the gentiles , witches , sorcerers , &c. gave to ●eelzebub the prince of devills , and those other devill-gods , to whose honour , name , and memory these adorations were first invented and consecrated . neither can sathan say , but christendome hath alwayes afforded him men , who have yeelded him this homage : for some when they have bene pumpt dry in this case , and blest all their acquaintance , they have ●ranke a health to the devill , as pope iohn the twelfth , alias the thirteenth did . and was there not a lincolne-shire man well knowne , that in his cups dranke a health to the devill , who had no sooner dranke it off , but he fell downe dead ? yea , augustine lachimer reporteth , that in germany the yeare . there was three , who after they had taken in their cups , painted with a cole on the wall a loathly devill , and then dranke freely unto him , talking to him , as if he had bee●● personally present ; but the next morning th●● were all found strangled and dead . yea , some have proceeded further , even to drinke a health to god himselfe , and have sped thereafter ; as memorable , remarkable , and terrible is that tragicall and strange example of gods avenging judgment , upon two drunkards and health quaffers in nekersho●ew , a towne in almaine , on the fourth day of iuly , in the yeare ; who comming then and there into an inne , called for bread and wine , which being brought , they disliked the wine , for it's newnesse , calling for some older , and better wine , which being brought in great abundance , they fell to swill and carouse on to another , till they were both as drunke as swine ; then one of them pouring forth wine , dranke a carouse to his fellow , who pledging him , demanded to whom he should drinke ; quoth he , drinke thou unto god ; he hearing this , drinkes a health or carouse to him indeed ; and then demands of his companion , which wine god should pledge him in : upon which he takes the new wine into his hand , and filling the cup therewith , reacheth forth his arme as high as he could , as though god should have pledged him in good earnest , saying , god i would faine know what wine thou likest best , this wine is good enough and too good for thee , if thou hadst sen● b●●ter , thou shouldest have had better , but such as it is , take it , pl●dge me quickly , and carouse it off every swo●p , as i hav● done to thee , or else thou dost me wrong ( the usuall speech and phrase of our drunkards at this day ) but no soon●r had he uttered these blasphemous speeches , but the lord forthwith proceeds in judgements against him , causing his arme , which he had stretched out , to stand stedfast and unmoveable , so that he could not pull it in ; and benumming his whole body , so that he could not move it from the place , in which agony he remained a long time after ( his countenance not changed ) rowling his eyes to and fro in a fearefull manner , his breath and speech being taken from him , so that he could not breath ▪ nor speake a word , and yet seemed to every one to be alive ; after this the people ( who flock thick & threefold , to see this wretched spectacle of gods wrath 〈◊〉 vengeance ) assayed to remove him from the plac● , but they could not stirre him by any strength ▪ in the end they tyed ho●ses to him to draw him thence ; but ●hey could not move him ; then they assayed to burne him , but no fire would take hold on him : wherefore perswading themselves , 〈◊〉 god had made him a spect●cle , stand●●● president , or fixed stat●● of his wrath●nd vengeance to all drunkards and all 〈◊〉 ages , they surceased their enterpris●s , wishing the will of the lord to be done , and in this miserable and dolefull mann●● ( saith my author , mr. s●●bs in his a●●tomy of abuses ) he stands to this very day , as a tragicall , dreadfull , and prodigious spectacle of gods heauy displeasure , wrath , and vengeance , against drunkards ; the very ●ight , nay , the very relation , or thought of which , should strike the hearts and soules of all , who are devoted unto this sinne , with terror and amazement . the other drunken beast his companion , who had escaped the imm●diate hand of god , was , by the just and avenging hand of the people , hanged upon a gibbet before the dore of the same house , for an example unto others . now consider this all ye ryotous drunkards , who forget god , least he tare you in peeces , and there be none to deliver . § . but that it may appeare they are more zealous and charitable , then either to worship sathan their god , or goe to hell their owne place alone ; and to prove that their hearts desire is , that others also may be damned , as st. paul's was , that israel might be saved , rom. . they are not more forward in drinking healthes , then they are carefull to see that others pledge them : for a health being once begun , they will looke to it precisely , that every one present shall pledge the same , in the same manner and measure , be they thirsty , or not thirsty , willing , or not willing , able , or unable ; for measuring other mens palates , bellyes , thirsts , consciences , constitutions , and dispositions by their owne , they will force them oftentimes to drinke , against their wills , their stomackes , their healthes , &c. for tell them you are not a thirst , which is all the answer i can vouchsafe such , or that it will not agree with your constitution , they will conclude you an arrant foole , and ill bred . yea , in their judgements , ahasuerus was none of the wisest , in appointing that none should compell another to drinke . or tell them that the goths ordained upon pain of death , how none should drink an health to another , nor be forced , further then their owne free wills induced them ; o this was the basest law that ever was enacted : and yet wise plato decreed ( for the avoiding of excesse ) that no one should so much as drink to another ; and the spartans law was , vt bibat arbitrio pocula quisque suo . let each mans measure of drinke bee his pleasure . § . their manner is , either to intise or enforce others to pledge them . first , to intise and perswade them , as let but a sober and religious man fall into their company , as a purse of money may fal into a stinking privie , o how they will conspire to pr●v●ke his unwilling appetite with drunken healths ! and if they can ( like that babyl●nish harlot ) make him tast poyson in a golden cup , o then they will sing , and rejoyce as in the division of a spoyle , and bragg that they have drenched sobriety , and blinded the light , and ever after bee a snuffing of this t●pe● , psal. ● . . or if they cannot perswade him , they will hate , and revile him , perhaps stab him that will not pledge their healths , as if it were an offence not to bee forgiven ; for now it is counted an injury not worthy alone of ill words , but also of wounds and stabbs , if a man will not for company grievously sin against god , wrong his own body , destroy his ●oule , and wilfully le●p into hel fire : yea , they wil hate a man more for refusing , or crossing their healths then for abjuring his faith , his religion , or his god ; and are more hot , more zealous , stoute , and resolute , in the defence , or maintainance of a health , then in the cause or quarrel of their countrey ; and will rather adventure their blood in the field , upon the refusal of , or quarrell about them , then for the chiefest article of their creed ; whence it is they are so much moved and affected , that they are mighty impatient and angry with such as crosse them in this kinde : but nothing so with others , who hinder them in gods service , or thwart them in their greatest good . § . that they 'le ●ate , revile , and stab h●m who refuseth to pledge their healthes , needs no other proofe then experience : as how many have lost their lives , because they would not be drunke ? though some others ( vriah-like ) have lost theirs , when they have yeelded to be drunke . neither is this in use here onely , bu● in other countries the same . it was a great mercy of god , that i had not my braines knockt out in the low-countries , for not drinking a great mans healthe , and losing mine owne . in the dukedome of massovia , it is no more amongst health quaffers , but either drinke to me , or fight with me : hence grow those many murthers , stabs , w●unds without cause ( as salomon speakes ) quarrels , fightings , co●tentions , and debates which we usually heare of , both at home and abroad . now what 's the reason of all , but this , long custome , and the pravity and wickednesse of men , hath made it a kinde of affront , indignity , discourtesie , and wrong both to him that begins the health , to those that second it , and to the person that is remembred in it , to refuse or passe it by , and not to pledge it , as st. austin , ambrose , ierom , &c. testifie , besides our own experience . and many men thinke , they cannot doe their absent friends a greater honour ▪ yea , their friends also take it for an high honour . but , o the stupidity both of the one and the other ! for can this be any honour or credit unto any , to be thus dishonoured of every infamous and beastly drunkard , of every pot-companion , tunne , or hogshead ; to be the dayly phrase , the theame the rhetoricke of every ebrious and luxurious sot ; the occasion , cause , and patronage of drunkennesse and excesse ? yea , what christian would not scorne to have their healthes , their names , their place and persons made a common prologue or praeludium , an ordinary bawd or pandor , an usuall in-let , way , or passage to drunkennesse and excesse , a common shoe-horne , baite , or engine to force or draw men on to drinke beyond all measure , a dayly patronage , plea , or sanctuary to justifie and beare out , or else a frequent , but unjust apology or excuse to extenuate , salve , or mitigate the excesse of sinne , and infamous , wicked , base , and swinish men ? it was a noble answer of a great prince , doe not drinke my health , but pray for it : and a wise reply of a grave and worthy states-man of this kingdome , i will pray for the kings health , but drinke for mine owne . and surely none but sots will bring themselves into grievous diseases by drinking healthes to other men ; and such is the case of health drinkers . what said callisthenes to one that urg'd him to drinke at alexanders feast , as others did ? i will not , for who so drinketh to alexander , had need of aesculapius , meaning a physitian . nay , it 's well if they prevent not the physitian , and drinke not themselves past all hope of recovery ; for not seldome doe they save the physitian a labour , and drinke at once anothers health , their owne death , as i could instance in sundry examples , i 'le onely give you two , but they are as good as twenty . at one supper , which alexander prepared for his favourites and captaines , there was no lesse then one and forty ; which kild themselves in that goodly conflict of carousing healthes . where promachus having swallowed downe foure gallons of wine , got the prize and victory . and at another drinking feast , or combat which he appointed for the indians , himselfe dranke his death and ruine , in quaffing off a whole carouse or health out of herc●●es cup , and to beare him company , there was five and thirty more at the same time dranke themselves dead in the place , and never revived more , with carousing healthes and rounds . there is another example recorded , which is so remarkable , that i am loth to passe it , though the circumstances vary . it is recorded of popelus the second , king of poland , that having incurred the displeasure of his nobility through his ill government , for which they intended to depose him ; he feigned himselfe to be very sicke , by his queenes advice , and thereupon sent for twenty of the chiefe princes of pomerania , who had the principall voice in the election of the pol●nian kings , to come and visit him in this his sicknesse , which they did accordingly ; the king upon their comming , requested them to elect his sonne to the kingdome after his decease , which thing they answered they would willingly doe , if the rest of the nobility would consent ; the queene in the meane time provides a cup of sudden poyson , of purpose to dispatch them , and presents it to them all , to drinke the king her husbands health ; they to testifie their love and alleagiance to the king , dranke off the cup , as their manner was , unto his health , but to their owne instant confusion and immediate death , and to the subversion of all the stocke and race of the polonian princes : a sudden and fearefull , yet a just j●dgement of god upon these princes , who were much addicted to the drinking of healthes formerly . but loe the infinite justice of god on both hands , for out of the dead and poysoned carkases of these princes , there issued such infinite troopes and swarmes of rats and mice , as chased popelus , his wife , and all his children from place to place , both by sea and land , till at last they were forced to flye to the strong castle of oraccovia , where they were drowned , and eaten up of these rats and mice , in despite of guard and garisons , and all those arts and policies of fire and water-workes that were used to secure them ; as the polonian histories doe at large declare . but not to travell so farre for examples ; how many health-sokers and drunkards may we see or heare of every yeare , within the verge and compasse of our land , who doe suddenly consume , perish , and come to a fearfull end , being cut downe by strange and unexpected deathes , in the very act of their sinnes , before they had any time , or space to repent ; whose deathes , even charity it selfe , must needs judge most miserable , seeing they dye in their sinnes , and are taken away in gods just wrath , even whilst they are sacrificeing their soules to sathan . and doth not the very eccho of these drunken and excessive healthes , dayly cry in the eares of god for vengeance , on all that use them , if not upon the whole land , for their sakes ? yea undoubtedly . § . then let no drunkard force thee , either against thy stomack , or thy inability to pledge his healths : yea , let quaffers quarrell , rage , and scoffe , threaten , curse , and loade thee with a thousand censures , yet hold thou thine owne still . it is true , they will be strangely importunate ▪ what then ? a shamelesse begger , must have a strong denyall . indeed if the word pledge were used seriously , properly , opportunely ; and not altogether mistaken , and used in a wrong sense , i should grant it a duty , when any shall bee called thereunto . but sotted drunkards understand not what they speake , when they use the phrase : for the word pledge , implies no intention of drinking ; as looke we but to the originall , and first institution thereof , and we shall find , that when in the borders of wales twelve welchmen had treacherously stabb'd . englishmen , as they were holding the cups to their mouths ; it grew to that , that none would drinke at any publike meeting , except they had some friend present who would undertake to be their pledge , and carefully see that none should hurt them the while ; but hee who useth the word now , makes himselfe ridiculous , the occasion being taken away , for ( god bee thanked ) we have no such cause of feare , having the lawes of god to guide the vertuous , and the lawes of the land to restraine the wicked . yet their mistake is no more in this their challenge , then it is in the combate it selfe , and the victory they get by it ; for whereas they make a sport of drunkennesse , counting him a malefactor in the highest degree , that departs without staggering , and fit to be carried before a magistrate , to render an account of his contumacie ; and delight to make men drink , till they vomit up their shame againe , like a filthy dog ; or lye wallowing in their beastlinesse , like a brutish swine ; this is the most sad and woefull spectacle that can be to a rectified understanding . and whereas they brag of the conquest , when with the weapons of full charged cups , they have overcome the rest ; it is both the basest office , and lamentablest overthrow to themselves , that can possibly be imagined . for what a barbarous , gracelesse , and unchristian practise is this , to take pleasure in making others drunke ? as if it were their glory , and pastime , and they tooke delight to see god dishonoured , his spirit grieved , his name blasphemed , his creatures abused , themselves , and their friends soules damned ; surely such men clime the highest step of the ladder of wickednesse ; thinking their owne sins will not presse them deepe enough into hell , except they also lode themselves with other mens . and how sottish is their opinion of victory , when even in conquering they are most overcome : for whilst they triumph in a drunken victory or conquest over their friends , sathan gets the victory over them : in excessive drinking they have overcome all their companions , this they see and boast of ; but they see not how they are overcome , shamefully foyled , and utterly overthrown by the d●vell their chief enemy ; under whose lash they are like to be everlastingly . but let him that delights to make another drunk , reade his doome , habak●k . , . where he shall finde , not onely shame and spewing appointed for his glory , but also that a cup of vengeance , even the cup of the lords right hand is preparing for him . and lastly , what office so base as this for men to resemble crowes , which live upon carrion , or those winglesse flies , which sucke a living out of the corrupt blood of uncleannesse , is bad enough : but to bee a tempter , to weare the livery of sathan , to bee the pentioner of hell , at the command of that malignant and degenerous spirit ; this is the most ignominious and dishonourable name and shame that can be : to be the hang-mans servant , is an honour to it : for to erre is the part of a man ; but to seduce , is the part of a divell . it is ill to play the wanton , worse to play the beast , worst of all to play the divill . but thou wilt say . this is true onely of the ruder sort , and more debauched ; and so pertaines not to thee ? yes , it doth . for though thou doest not force men to pledge thy healths ; yet thou wilt intreat , and perswade them to it , by all the art and oratory thou canst use ; and in case they still refuse , thou wilt think the worse of them , censure them in thy thoughts , and beare them an inward grudg and splene in thine heart , if not slander and revile them with thy tongue . nay , doest thou not , like the graecian drunkards , use some such phrase as this ? let him drinke , or else be packing , let him carrouse , or carry him out of the house , whereby a further wrong from others is occasioned ; so imitating the ephesians , who , ( as cicero reports ) having banished their prince hermodorus , made proclamation , that none should excell another , or if he did so , that hee should no longer there dwell , but else where inhabit . how ever it likes thee well enough , that others of thy company shall by violence enforce them , and this alone makes thee as guilty , as if thou didst it thy selfe ; so that to come fairely off , even from thy company , and neither drink nor quarrell , is impossible , or , at least , a wonder . § . and thus you see , that drunkards not only traffick to enrich hel with their owne so●les , but others also : yea , that they are so pernicious , that to damne their owne so●les is the least part of their mischiefe , for they commonly draw vengeance upon thousands , by seducing some , and giving ill example to others . o the multitude of drunkards that one true drunkard makes ! especially if he be well accomplished with ingenuity , and gifts of nature : as when achitophel's head stands upon simon magus his shoulders , there is a world of mischiefe towards . a will bent to doe harme , and a wit able to prosecute it , like cannon shot , makes a lane where it goes . for tryall , let such an one tell me , if he can , how many hee hath drawne into the same sinne with him ? were he willing , i feare his memory would faile him , though his conscience hereafter will not faile to evidence the same against him , with the severall aggravations of each circumstance . as ovid said of himselfe ; i am second to none in trifles : so the drunkard may truly say , i am second to none in tempting , yea , tell me , who are such pandors to sinne , such factors for hell , as these men ? who doe the divell such service , who deserve so great pay from him , as drunkards ? a true drunkard is like the bramble , iudg. . . which first set it's selfe on fire , and then fired all the wood : or like one sick of the plague , who ( as they say ) is carried with an itching desire to infect others that are cleare : or like a house on fire in the midst of a city , which ( if the winde blowes vehemently ) stayeth not in the burning of an house , or two , but sets on fire al adjoyning , one , on this side ; another on that ; a third , behind it ; a fourth , over against it ; neither doth the fire cease there , but every one which it hath set on fire , kindles as many more , and so one another , till , it may be , half , or all the whole city bee consumed : for this is the drunkards case directly , who is the bane of many poore soules , besides his owne . it is s. basil's observation , that one whore makes many fornicators ; but experience shewes , that one drunkard makes ten times as many drunkards . yea , the more they can seduce , the more they glory : as when theudas had got foure hundred followers , he thought himselfe a jolly fellow , acts , . . but this is no other , then the setting a mans owne house on fire , it burnes many of his nighbours , and hee shall answer for all the ruines . and surely he who gives a man wine to deceive him , is first drunke in soule , before he can procure the others bodily distemper : and to glory in giving weake braines a drench , to see them wallow in their filthinesse ; is but to brag how far they are become the devils children . § . touching their manner of seducing . a drunkard ( as if his braines were fired with all the plots , projects , and cunning stratagems that hell can yeeld ) is as rarely gifted in drawing to sinne , as the devill himselfe ; and is become the child of hell , by as proper a right : so that if sathan would change his office , or were to surrender his place to any man alive , it should be to some good fellow or other , for as the chamaeleon can change himselfe into any colour that it sits upon , but white and red ; or as the polypus can change colour at the sight of every object , but blew onely : so a drunkard can be any thing , save good ; he hath learned to handle a man so sweetly , that one would thinke it a pleasure to be seduced ; yea , these aspes will sting a man so , that he shall dye sleeping . the falsest hearts , will have the plausiblest mouthes ; like to salomons curtesan , their lips drop as an hony combe , and their mouth is smo●ther then oyle ; but their end is bitter as wormewood ; and such faire and smooth communication , is no other then a trap or snare of hony , as diogenes calls it . their custome is , with a pleasing breath , to waft a man into mare mortuum , tole him on to destruction , as we tole beasts with fodder to the slaughter house : and to take away all suspition , they will so mollifie the stiffenesse of a mans prejudice , so temper and fit him to their owne mold , that once to doubt them , would require the spirit of discerning . he is such a pleasing murtherer , that he tickles a man to death , and makes him ( like salomon's foole ) dye laughing . o how many are there , that hate their other enemies , yea , and their friends too , and yet embrace this enemy ; because he kisseth when he betrayeth ; and indeed what fence for the pistoll that is charged with the bullet of friendship ? hilary compares it to a razor in the hand of a counterfeit barber : as when vriah was set in the forefront of the battell , and honour pretended , murther was meant . which is the sole cause , that drunkards so swarme in every corner of the land , as where shall a man come , and not finde one of these seducers . § . indeed , heretof●re they were as rare as wolves ; but now they are as common as hogs : heretofore it was the sinne of tinkers , ostlers , beggers ; &c. now of farmers , citicens , esquires , knights ; &c. heretofore s. pa●ls speech was currant , they that are drunken are drunken in the night ; now they feare not the light , the sunne-shine , no , they make no difference of nights or dayes ; except this , that drunkennesse most rages on the lords day : heretofore s. peters argument was more then probable , these are not drunk , for it is but the third houre of the day ; now men are growne such husbands , as by that time they will returne their stockes , and have their braines crowing before day , or at least if you will finde many men sober , you must take them in their beds , for they rise up earely to follow drunkennes : formerly men were so unacquainted with insatiate drinking , that the divell himself was called robin good-fellow ; now a man is hated as bad as the devill ; if hee refuse to bee a good fellow ( id est , a drunkard ) there was a streete in rome called v●cus sobrius , sober-street , because there was never a drinking house in it ; finde such a street in any city or populous town in england , and some good man or other will put it in the chronicle : yea , if england plies her liquor so fast as she begins , germany is like to loose her charter , for drunkennesse , and the french disease , are upon termes of quitting their countries aleagiance , and to be made free denisons of england ; nay , have they not already given up the bucklers to the english ; who as in fashions , so in vices , will needs bee the ape of every nation . it is a disease , whereof this nation and generation is sicke at the very heart . yea , woe is me , how is the world turned beast ? what bowsing and quaffing , and whiffing , and healthing , is there on every bench ? and what reeling , and staggering in our st●e●●s ? what drinking by the yard , the dye , the dozen ? what forcing of pledges , what quarrells for measure , and forme ? how is that become an excuse of villany , which any villany might rather excuse , i was drunk ? how hath this torrent , yea , this deluge of excesse in drinke drowned the face of the earth , and risen many cubits above the highest mountains of religion and good lawes ? yea , would to god i might not say with a reverend prelate of ours , that which i feare , and shame , and grieve , to say , that even some of them which square the arke for others , would not inwardly drowne themselves , and discover their nakednesse hereby . that other inundation scowred the world , this impures it , and what but a deluge of fire and brimstone , can wash it from so abominable filthinesse ? o the drunkennesse that is in one day in this land , yea , in this city , yea , at some fayre , or market to bee seene ! for goe but to the towns end , where a fayre is kept , and there they lye , as if some field had been fought ; here lyes one man , there another ; yea , alasse for woe ! a woman , nay , a swine with a womans face : or goe into the backe-lanes , and there you have them , among frogs and toades , their fit matches . and in all probability , this infectious vice of drunken good-fellowship is like to stick by this nation ; for so long as the multitude of offenders benumes the sense of offending , a common blot is held no staine . drunkennesse is as odious with us , as adultery is in that state , wherein no body is chast . § . but to goe on ( though i dare not shew all their slights they have to draw men on , least in reproving , i become a teacher , as it fared with another in the like case . a drunk●rd for kindnesse is another iulian , who was oftentimes bountifull , but how ? he never did a man a good turne , but it was to damne his soule : hee so confirmes the profession of his love with vowes , protestations , and promises ( as a large complement , for the most part , ushers in a close craft ) that you would thinke ionathan's love to david was nothing in comparison , as no faces look lovelier then the painted . but accept of gain from him , and you are lost for ever ; for , with s●s●r● , you can no sooner tast of this i●●l's milk , but you shall feele a nayle in your temples ; so that the wickednesse of a man which feareth god is better , then the good entreaty of a drunkard ; his proffers are like the fowlers shrape when he casts meat to birds , which is not out of charity , to relieve ; but out of treachery , to ensnare them , they lay waite , saith ieremy , as he that setteth snares ; and make a pit to catch men , ieremiah . . or like traps wee set for vermin , seeming charitable , when they intend to kill : and thou mayest answer these cursed tempters , which delight in the murther of soules , as the woman of end●r did saul , wherefore seekest thou to take me in a snare , to cause me to dye ? sam. . . hee , and the usurer loves alike , for their charity is no better than cruelty ; if they reach you bread with one hand , be sure there is a stone in the other to do you a mischiefe ; for under the tast of nectar , hee will poyson you with the water of styx ; he is another absalom , who made a feast for amn●n , whom hee meant to kill ; like some prurient lecher , who provides a rich banquet for one whom he meanes to corrupt and deflour● ; or like the ivie , that by embraceing the tree sucks out the heart of it ; and ther is no subtilty like that which deceives a man , and hath thankes for the labour ; for as our saviour saith ; blessed is the man that is not offended at their scoffes , matth. . . so , blessed is the man that is not taken with their wiles : for herein alone consists the difference , hee whom the lord loves , shall bee delivered from their meritricious all●rements , eccles. . . and he whom the lord abhors shall fall into their snares , prov. . . § . now if they cannot seduce us , they wil envie and ●ate us . first , they will envie us , because wee will not run with them to the same excesse of ry●t , iohn . . prov. . . psalme . . every man is borne a caine , envying that good in another , which hee wants himselfe ; but a swinish drunkard delights to see the temperance , sobriety , and other eminent graces of him that feares god , and will not doe as he doth ; as sore eyes delight to look upon the sun. lot vexed himselfe , because hee saw men bad ; these , because men are good ; not that god's law is broken , but because others keepe it better than themselves . it is true , envie knowes what it will not confesse ; but experience shewes that sordid drunkards are as full of envie , towards such as will not consort with them , as a serpent is full of poyson . and you may know it by this token , doe they not make it their grace , both before and after dinner , to disgrace such an innocent ? o that so many loayes and fishes , as did feed five thousand in the wildernes , would but stop their mouths , that envie and speake evill of such as they know no other fault by but their vertue ; they pick their owne sorrowes , out of the joyes of other men ; and out of others sorrowes likewise , they assume their owne joyes : whereas worth begets , in those that are magnanimous , emulation ; in base minds , it contrarily begets envie ; will you know the reason ? hee that hath lost all good himselfe , is vexed to see it in another , and can no way be pacified , except that other become as bad as himselfe : as demon●des having himselfe crooked feet , and losing both his shoes , to be even with him that had found them , desired the gods , that the parties feete might he as crooked as his shoes were . but how just is it with god , that this fire of enuy , should be punished with the fire of hell ? § . secondly , as is their enuy , such is their hatred and malice : they hate the good , because they will not be so evill as themselves , micha . . . mathew , . . iohn , . . king. . . proverbs , . . the temperance and sobriety of a good man , is as great a vexation to them ; as their conversation is to him : for as if nature had made them antipathites to vertue , they so hate righteousnesse , that they will hate a man for it , and say of good living , as festus did of great learning , it makes a man mad ; but they cannot know who are sober , that are mad themselves . neither is this of theirs an ordinary hatred , for they even eate their owne hearts in anger , that they cannot eate ours in revenge ; we pray for the opening of their eyes , and they pray for the pulling out of ours ; we desire the turning of their hearts , and they wish the outting of our throats : no such concord , no such discord ( saith one of the learned ) as that which proceeds from religion ; my name , ●aith luther , is more odious unto them , then any thiefe , or mutherer ; as christ was more detestable to the iewes then barrabas . behold s●●h david , mine en●●ies , for they are many , and they hate me with a ●ruell hatred , psal. . . yea , so cruell , that it makes their teeth gnash , and their hearts burst againe , acts , . . which made the truth's adversaries give st. paul stripes above measure ; and the heathen emperours to devise such cruel tortures for all those , which but : profest themselves christians . you cannot anger a sotted drunkard worse , then to doe well ; yea , he hates you more bitterly for this , and the credit you gaine thereby , then if you had cheated him of his patrimony , with your owne discredit . that there is no hatred so virulent and bitter , as that which is occasioned by ver●uous living , and professing of christ's name , our saviour himselfe proves copiously , math. . l●k . . where he shewes , that it makes them forget all naturall affection ; wheth●r it be that which descends , as of parents to children ; or that which which ascends , as of children to parents ; or that which is mutuall , of friends , kindred , or brethren one to another ; so that be they never so neere allied , they shall betray ●●ch other , and cause them to dye , even for his names sake , as the text hath it . neither doth their malice extend it selfe to this or that person onely , but these hamans so hate the religious , that they wish , as caligula once did of the romans , that they had all but one head , tha● so they might cut it off at a blow , were it in their power , ester , . . . . . micha , . . psal. . . but our comfort is , they have not so much authority as malice , resembling the serpent porphyrus , which abounds with poyson , but can hurt none , for want of ●eeth . § . now you must know that this envy and hatred of theirs is too strong to containe it selfe , within the heart , and thereupon breakes forth at their mouth and hands . besides seeing the former stratagems will not prevaile , and that they cannot allure , nor perswade to drunkennesse , and the like sinnes , and so worke their wills upon the sober and conscionable by subtilty & faire meanes ; they wil seek to compel and enforce them to do as they do : like as when lustfull amnon could not winne tamer by faire meanes , he deflowers her by force . for as the devill , who raignes as a prince in the world of the ungodly , eph. . . is for strength , a lyon , and a fox for wit : so is the world it self , if it cannot infect us , it will afflict us ; if it cannot corrupt our soules , it will taynt our good names ; it is ( not like some bashfull suter ) easily answered , but so impudent , that while we have breath , it will never give us over , thinking that so long as there is life , there is hope . now to effect their end , and bring about their purpose , they use divers and sundry meanes , venting their hearts at their mouthes in words , and by action in their hands : with their mouthes they wil censure , scoffe at , revile , raile on , nicke-name , slander , falsely accuse , curse , threaten &c. and with their hands they will ( at least if they may be permitted ) imprison , smite , hurt ; and lastly , if all this will not doe , they will kill us ; as there be more wayes to the wood then one . to reckon up all the trickes they doe , and would use , if the law restrained them not , and to reckon up how many creatures in the vniverse , were a taske equally possible and endlesse : besides , it would overmuch swell the heape ; and the pages , like fish , would grow into a multitude , wherefore i will select out onely two verball properties of their enuy and hatred , and passe over the rest . the malice and enuy of drunkards vents it selfe at their mouthes , either . by censuring or by slandering us § . first , they will strangely censure us , if we refuse to doe as they doe , psal. . . and . . . . if a man will not sweare , drinke drunke , and conforme to their lewd customes , he is an arch-puritan , by the law which the iewes had to kill christ ; yea , for this very cause , they will definitively censure one for an hypocrite , though they scarce know him superficially ; at least , if a man be but carefull of his society , they will tax and floute him with stand farther off , for i am holier th●n thou ; they call piety pride , for not going with them to the taverne ; as indeed there is no goodnesse in man , but such will ascribe it to vaine glory . the beastly sod●mit●s thought lot a proud and imperious f●llow , gen. . . and so elia● censures david , i know the pride of thine heart , saith he , when nothing but the zeale of gods glory , and desire of his brethrens good , made him so forward . sam. . . . but as all are not theeves that dogs barke at ; so all are not hypocrites which they terme so . the pharisie censured the publican , and the infidells paul , who were more precious in gods sight , then themselves . but basenesse , what it cannot attaine to ; it will vilicate and deprave ; and prejudice casteth a false colour upon the best actions : whence it is , that if our righteousnesse , doe but exceede the righteousnesse of a swearer , or drunkard , we are sure to be censured , yea , persecuted for our righteousnesse , as abet was of caine , because his owne workes were evill , and his brothers good . if a man makes but the word of god a rule to walke by , he is too precize ; if he will be more then almost a christian , he is curious , fantasticall , factious , and shall , with david , psal. . . . be made the song and laughing stocke of every drunken beast : whereas , if he would be drunke , sweare , mispend his time , haunt tavernes , play the good fellow , and doe as they doe , he should have their love , approbation , and good word ; yea , if all men would be prophanely wicked , and make no bones of sinne , their censures would cease , and there would not be a puritane , with some of them , in all the world . but it is the custome of lewd men , ( i confesse a lewd custome ) to measure all others by their owne bushell , to forme both their opinions and censures of us , acc●rding to the mold of evill in themselves , yea , all ( for the most part ) judge others by themselves ; and hence drunkards doing all their good in hypocrisie , doe thereafter judge of others , saint chrysostome hath given the rule . as it is , saith he , a hard thing for one to suspect another to be evill , who is good himselfe ; so it is more hard , for him to suppose another to be good , who is himselfe evill . as we see in nero , who being monstrous incontinent himselfe , verily beleeved , that all men were most foule libidinists , yea , that there was not a chaste person in all the world , saving that men cloaked their vice with hypocrisie . i dispositions , cause ill suspicions ; and surely he that suspects another to be ill , without just ground , by so doing proclaimes himselfe to be guilty ; for in things uncertaine , a bad construction must needs flow from a bad mind : suspicion , for the most part , proceeds from a selfe defect : vertuous men rarely censure ; as great labourers rarely sneeze : so that to censure and traduce anothers worth , is to question thine owne : besides , it is an uncharitable and ridiculous thing , for where i want experience , charity bids me thinke the best , and leave what i know not to the searcher of hearts . § . indeed , other reasons may be given why they so censure us , as , first , their ignorance causeth suspicion ; yea , there is nothing so makes a man suspect much , as to know little ; children in the darke suppose they see , what they see not ; you shall have a dog very violent in barking at his owne shadow , or face in a glasse . an ignorant rusticke seeing a geometritian drawing of lines , not knowing to what end he doth the same , is apt to judge him foolish and fantasticke . tell a plaine country fellow , that the sunne is bigger then his cart wheele , and swifter in course then any of his horses ; he will laugh you to scorne . the duke of vondozme one day looking into his well with others , and seeing face answer face ( having never before observed the like ) went home in all haste , and called for ayde against the antipodes . paglarencis was amazed , and said his farmer had surely coosened him , when he heard him tell that his sowe had eleven pigs , and his mare but one foale . yea , i have read of a silly country fellow , that kil'd his asse for drinking up the moone . but their owne hearts can tell them , how fruitfull a mother of jealousies their ignorance of spirituall things is , and how it conceives upon first ●ight of every object which they cannot skill on , and that being once conceived , it makes the party so travell ▪ to bring forth the same in words and actions of enmity , that for the interim , he is as busie headed as if a hive of bees were in his pate , not considering , that repentance ever followes rash judgment . secondly , their passions and affections infatuate and besot them , and makes them infinitely partiall . for as in an ill pact jury , whereof there is one wise man , another honest man , five knaves , and five fooles , the greater part over-rules the better part , these ●en , over-beares those two : so fares it with a wicked man , the five senses , and as many affections are the knaves and fooles , science is the wise man , conscience the honest ; now neither science the wi●e , nor conscience the honest , can be heard , nor give their verdict , but all goes with the mad senses , and frantick affections . we know when a man lookes upon any thing directly through the aire , they appeare in their proper formes , and colours as they are ; but if they bee looked upon through a glasse , be it greene , blew , yellow , or of any other colour , all the things we see , seemes to us to be of the colour of the glasse , through which we do behold them : even so , a wicked man houlding the false spectacles of his several passions and affections before the dimme sight of his judgement , all things appeare to him in a contrary colour . the eye that is blood-shot , thinkes every thing red ; those that have the jaundise , see all things yellow : so these drunkards , being overgrown with malicious passions , thinke us in fault , when themselves are only too blame . o how the passions of anger , and affection of love over-rules and over-perswades our judgements ! wee may truly say , that love , hatred , and indifferency , lookes through three paire of eyes : what we see , or heare , being passionately transported either by love , oranger , wee neither see , nor heare it as it is . the object which we love , seemeth much more faire unto us , and that much fowler , which we loath . yea , even zaleuchus-like ) will make a man put out one of his owne eyes , that so he may see his friends vertues not see his crimes . hath not his affection rob'd him of his judgement , wh●●hinkes better of a filthy strumpet , then of his own chast wife ? yea , surely if hee did not looke through the false spectacles of his flesh , it could not be . but anger especially robs a man of his judgement , and lifts reason out of her seate , which makes these beastly , sensuall swilbowles so partial in judging between themselves and the godly . as for example , ( indeed the scriptures afford not mamy examples of it , in them which were drunkards , for drunkennesse was then as rare , as now it is common , but what is true of all the serpents seed , must needs be true of sathans peculiar ones . how did anger rob haman of his judgement , who thought mordecae's not bowing the knee to him , a more heynous offence , then his owne murthering of thousands ? and iezabel of hers , who thought it a greater sinne in el●ah to kill baals prophets , then in her selfe to slay all the prophets of the lord ? and the phari●is of theirs , who could see more unlawfulnes in the disciples plucking a few eares of corne , and the palsie● mans carrying his bed on the sabbath ▪ then in their own devouring of widowes houses ; and could better afford themselves to murther christ , then others to believe in him ; yea , they could better afford themselves to be the greatest of sinners , then our saviour to be in company with sinners . and lastly , ahab , who thought eliah troubled israel more , in doing the wil of the lord , then himselfe , in provoking the lord , above all the kings of israel which were before him ? which is the case of our drunkards , they censure more deeply , our fearing of god , then their owne blaspheming of him , ; and thinke it a more heinous offence , for us to be sober , then for themselves to be drunke . what then are their censures of us , when wee do offend ? yea , if mens passions and affections did not make them strangely partiall ; how could they suffer their faithfull and painfull minister ( who lies ledger for the great king of heaven and earth ) to feed upon crusts , and spinne out twenty or forty marks a yeare , into a thread as long as his life ; yea , murmure at his great meanes , and boast of their large contribution , and complaine he keeps no hospitality , though indeed even books would require ten pounds of the money : i speak not of their blockish stupidity , who think none live more idly then schollers ) when yet themselves , being undeserving attorneys , or silly tradesmen , who doe little else , but stand in their shops , or ungodly ale-house-keepers , whose whole life is but a vicissitude of filling and emptying , will get , and spend one hundred , two hunderd , three hundred pounds per annum a peece , and yet complaine of a hard world ? surely they think ministers can preach without study , as the apostles did ; or live by miracle , as iohn baptist did , who was in his diet , habit , and carriage indeed a miracle . . another reason is , as these drunkards can see us , but not themselves : ( without a glasse ) so they looke to us , not to themselves : it faring with them as it did with the ●airies , called lamiae , who made use of their eyes , when they went abroad ; but put them in a box when they came home ; and they have much the more quiet for so doing , a wicked mans conscience being like a bad wife , that wil either bee gadding abroad , or scoulding at home . in surveying their owne evill actions they are beetle eyed , or like him , iohn the . who had never a seeing eye ; or at least like polyphemus , who had onely one eye ; but in spying ours , they have the eyes of a basiliske , and are as quick sighted as argos , who had his head compassed with an hundred eyes ; yea , as lynceus ( who as varro speakes ) could see through a wall ; or if they have two seeing eyes , yet , like the purblind , they see double , or like those women of scythia called bithiae , they have two sights in each eye : for if they looke upon our actions , it is with an evill eye , judging of us by what wee should bee ; if upon their owne , it is with a tender eye , and so judge by what they are in their owne opinion , and the judgement of sense . and to mend the matter , sathan , like our cunning men , presents unto them spirituall things in a false glasse , stamping his own image on gods silver , and gods image on his owne drosse , and so comes their often mistake in censuring . neither are their memories lesse partiall , for in remembring our faults , they are like clement the sixth , who never forgat any thing he had once learned ; but touching their own , they resemble claudius the emperor , who presently forgat whatsoever he did , or spake . now put all together , and tel me whether it fares not with drunkards , as it did with pentheus in euripides his bacchus , who supposed he saw two sunnes , two thebes , every thing double , when his braine alone was troubled ? § . secondly , if wee refuse to participate with them in their sinne , it shall goe hard , but they will make us partake with them of their shame : as if ioseph will not commit adultery with his mistris , shee will accuse him for an adulterer , and make him worse thought of then her selfe . innocency is no shelter against evil tongues ; malice never regards how true any accusation is , but how spitefull . the baggage world desireth nothing more then to scarre the face that is fairer then shee ; and it is sathans policie , ( because report both makes jealousies , where there are none , and increaseth those that there are ) to abuse our eares , in hearing ; our tongues , in speaking ; and our hearts , in believing lies , to disable us from discerning the truth . yea this of slander , like a ●uge and mighty polypheme , hath done such service to the uncircumcised , that examples therof in scripture , are like moates in the sun ; as whom have wee mentioned therein , without mention of some false accusation ? naboth was a blasphemer upon record , and proved so by affidavit ; eliah , was a troubler of israel ; ieremiah , an enemy to the state ; susanna , a whore ; iohn baptist , had a divell ; paul , was a polluter of the temple ; stephen , was a destroyer of the law ; all the disciples , sectaries , subverters of the state , &c. acts . . yea , christ himselfe was a wine-bibber , a seducer of the people , a beelzebub , and what not ? and the same divell who spake in iezabel , and those wicked ones of old , now speaks in our debauched drunkards ; and deboyshed swearers , who resembling the divell , rev. . . iob . , , . will charge a man ( if hee bee not for their turne ) with many things , as the iewes did paul , acts . but proving nothing , verse . neither needs their any proofe ; for the common people as good as thought so before . worldly mindes looking upon iordan with syrian eyes , thinke none can be of any other , then their owne diet , ( as some moores thinke there is no other complection then their owne , because they never saw men of more temperate clymates ) and because they finde their owne filthy lusts , so strongly prevailing with themselves ; they cannot conceive how they should be capeable of a repulse from others ; and indeed , it is hard for a wicked heart to thinke well of any other , because it can thinke none better then it selfe , and knowes it selfe evill . wherein also is another disadvantage , that cannot be helped ; the multitude will sooner believe them , then our selves , affirmatives being apter to winne beliefe , then negatives are to uncredit them . you know the high priests and elders were not more ready to aise a slander upon our saviour christ , after his death , matthew . . . then the common people were apt to believe the same , vers . . yea , the lewes believe it to this day . calumny supports her selfe by lying , and shee may doe it safely among evill minded men , because they are judges , that , for the most part , will inquire no further , but believe at first . yea , saith luther , they hunger and thirst after these scandalous reports of the godly , and if at any time they heare of the disgrace of some good and eminent person , like hungry hogs , they muzzell in their excrements , and feast upon them , as upon dainties ; there being nothing that so glads their hearts , that so opens their mouths , with so much insolency and triumph : o what care they take to spread the same abroad by a common fame ! as let conscience say whether this be not so , yea , whether they will not censure , and condemne all the generation of gods people , because they heare ill of some few , that care only to bee thought good . as true it is there are such monsters , such white divels , who make religion a very stalking-horse to villany ; yea too many men , that dishonour god , by wearing of his livory . but what was sathan to the children of god ? iob. . . though he thrust himselfe into their company ? or what wise man will tax all the apostles , because one was a iudas ? to argue , because some are so and so , therefore the rest are alike , is a saplesse reason , onely becomming a foole : yea , to condemne all , for a few that are bad , is as equall and just , as it was for simeon , and levi , to murther all the sechemites , for the offence onely of hamor's sonne , gen. . . . . but to goe on . drunkards feede themselves with others adversity , as beetels are fed with their fellowes dunge ; and like flesh-flies , make the wounds of gods children their chiefe nourishment ; yea , crocodile like , they would , if they could , fatten themselves with our warmest blood ; and no wonder , when there are some that naturally feed upon poyson , and are fatned with it . but they must needs be filthy creatures , that feede upon nothing but corruption . to delight in mens supposed sins , is the sport of devills ; recovery from sinne , is the joy of good men and angells . cham derides his fathers nakednesse , it should have beene his sorrow , he makes it his sport ; but it is ill for a man to make himselfe merry , with that which angers god. § if you will know the manner of their dealing in this case , it is lively exprest by the author of the booke of wisdome , chap. . . to . which is a glasse more cleare then chrystall , to shew the face of every drunkards heart . as first , they will lie in waite to finde faults in us , and pry more narrowly into our actions , then the best man would willingly they should : and a reserved mans behaviour , you know , is like a verse , wherein every syllable is measured ; yea , what is scarce thought a fault in other men , they will hold in us a heinous crime , and thereafter take occasion in every company to erect our faylings very high , like st. pauls , for the gaze of all , whereas they hide our good parts under ground , like st. faiths , that none may note them ; for these flyes will skip over all a mans sound parts , to wit , his excellencies , to fasten on a scab or ulcer ; resembling our prognosticators , that are more diligent to make mention of foule weather , then of faire ; stormes and thunder they much harpe upon , but calme and serene dayes passe them unobserved ; dealing by good men , as one did by homer , who ( as erasmus relates ) collected all the lame and defective verses out of his workes , but past over infinite others , which were by him most excellently made . or , if in case they finde not spots , they will feigne them ; for malice makes them so nimble eyed , that they 'le finde a knot in a bullrush , staying , or going , we know , one , or the other , is offence enough , to those that seeke quarrells ; a crooked staffe will serve to beate a dog , when a streight one cannot be found ; cambyses but dreamed that his brother should be king of persia , and put him to death . yea , these spiders will turne every thing into poyson , and picke out of the most premeditated action , something to cavill at , either by misinterpreting things , and so turne good into evill , ( as an easie invention may put false matters into true syllogismes ) or if they cannot wrest them sufficiently , they will remit them unto dissimulation , and coyne others , devise of him some slander or other , as turtullus did of paul , acts , . . and indeed , if they did not so , they should want colour to persecute us . the which if thou well considerest , will make thee so farre from beleeving evill reports of good men , especially from the devills servants , ( drunkards ) that thou wilt thinke so much the better of them , for ( though the blind eate many a flye ) yet , in the judgement of the wise , not he that is accused , but he that is convicted , is guilty , as lactantius hath it . hereupon when those rayling lewes brought paul to the barre , gallio drave them from the judgement seate , because he knew they had more malice then matter against him . in the chancery are many accu●ations , they never meane to proove ; yea , upright cato was fifty times undeservedly indited , and accused by his fellow citizens , yet every time acquitted , and found innocent ; and aristophanes ninty five times by the athenians , and every time pronounced innocent . if it be enough to accuse , who shall be cleare ? which occasions our saviour to say , not , which of you can accuse ? ( for they accused him of many things ) but , which of you can convince me of sinne ? who can prove that i am a conjurer , a samaritane , a wine bibber , &c. as erasmus upon the place . in a word , as i never yet read , or heard of a conscionable israelite that hath not past under some calumniation , so i cannot yeeld him a true israelite that deserves it . § . now sundry reasons may be given , 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 ; 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 . 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 . § . secondly , 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 , he needs but give it out that he is mad : which leades me to a third reason , for . § . 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 , with 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 , . . and whose judgments are so light , that ( like philetas chous , 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 flock of them , then one single , as cato censorius once spake of the romans . as for example , let corah but kindle a fire of conspiracy , two hundred and fifty captaines will bring wood to encrease it ; let but demetrius the silversmith begin a quarrell against paul and his companions , for preaching against idolatry ; when he perceiveth his profit to cease , and his craft in danger to be set at nought , all the workemen of like occupation will joyne with him , and others with them , till the whole city be filled with uproare and confusion , every one taking diana's part , and not one taking part with god , act , . . to . you know a stone throwne into the water , makes of it selfe but one circle , but that one begets a hundred : in a word , if but some godlesse persons in sodom assault just lot , and his two angells , before night all the men of the city , from the young even to the old , from all quarters , will compasse the house round about , revile him , and seeke to breake open the dore upon him , yea , though they are strucken with blindnesse , they will still persist , till they have wearied themselves , and feele fire and brimstone about their eares , gen. . . to . we give but a touch here ( when we could be large ) for i speake to those that understand ; and plaine things , which our selves are dayly witnesses of , neede no proofe . it is but too well knowne how many blaspheme and persecute the godly , because they see others doe so ; as many will yawne , when they see others yawne ; and make water , when they see others doe so before them ; that most men yeeld themselves ( like dead images , or engines ) to be mooved onely with the wheeles of custome and example . like so many fooles , they know their heads are insufficient to direct them , and therefore they resolve that custome shall : whence it is that we are censured , laughed to scorne , and counted silly fooles of the greatest number , that we are made the but of every ones malice , and the subject of all their discourse : for should the world be barred this practice , should we , or could we gag people from censuring , talebearing , slandering , detractions , &c. there would be silence at our boards , silence at our fire ●ides , silence in the taverne , silence on the way , silence in the barbers shop , in the mill , in the market , every where silence , yea , our very gossips would have nothing to whisper . indeed , every visible act of vice , should be our encouragement to vertue ; but woe is me , we are cesternes to sinne , sives to grace . § . fourthly , our infamous drunkards censure and slander us , that they may mitigate their owne shame , with our discredit ; having lost their owne , they so vex , if they heare or mee●e another which hath got a good name , that presently they will set upon him , and seeke by all meanes to take it away , as panus having lost his boate , sued every one for it that he met . their cunning is to condemne others , that themselves may be justified : as caligula tooke off the heads from the images of the gods , to set up his owne : or as merchants , who to raise the prices of their owne commodities , beate downe the prices of others : we know the twinkling starres at the approach of the sunne lose their light , and after regaine it not , untill darkenesse be upon the deepe . bad natures , whom they cannot reach by imitation , they will endeavour to doe by detraction : and doe so in some measure , for by making vertue contemptible , and depraving the godly , they seeme to be upon the same ground with them ; being out of hope to attaine to the vertues of the religious , they seeke to come at even hand , yea , have the better , by depressing them : for like gamesters at play , what the one loseth , the other wins ; or like two buckets in a well , as the one dryeth , the other dippeth . yea , their dealing with us , is like that of a theife , who meeting with a full purse , not onely takes it away , but returnes a stab . pride was ever envious and contumelious ; thinking she adds so much to her owne reputation ; as she detracts from others . and is it not good policy , for a swinish drunkard , or a beastly liver , to fling dirt in a holy mans face , seeing any colour seemes the fairer , when blacke is by ? . but let these depravers take heede , least imitating the fact of censor fulvius ( who as the heathens feigne , untiled iuno's temple , to cover his owne house ) they partake not of the like judgement , runne mad and dye despairing . § . fiftly , these drunkards speake evill of us , because they can not doe evill unto us ; and traduce us , because they cannot otherwise hurt us . because the law binds their hands , they will be smiting with their tongues ; and because they dare not smite us on the mouth , ( as annanias served paul , act. . . ) they will smite us with the mouth , which is as bad , or worse . for as these spitting adders wil smite their stings very deepe ; so their wounds are commonly incureable . many particular persons know to their smart , that a slander once raised will scarse ever dye , whereas truth hath much a doe to bee believed , a lye runs far , before it can be stayed ; yea so far , that even death it self , which delivereth a man from all other enemies , is not able to deliver him from this of the tongue . a report once comming into the mouth of the vulgar , whether true , or false , like wild-fire , can never be quenched ; why ? report and heare-say is the alone oracle of the common people , and what they speake , is hard to disprove , would any undertake the same ; for it is the jealous mans misery , hee may prove his wife false , hee can never prove her true ; besides , the evill minded would have it true , and what men would have to be , they are apt to believe . yea , in this case a wicked drunkard will beleeve that to bee true , which lately hee knew to bee false ; for a lyer may tell his lyes so often , till in the end ▪ hee forgets that himself was the deviser and so believeth them himself ; wherin men are parties , they are apt to be partiall . but this is not all the mischiefe , for their evill reports will increase , as well as continue : a mans good name is like a milk-white ball , that will infinitely gather soyle in tossing : for this is there manner , one , begins a whisper ; another , makes it a report ; a third , enlargeth it to a dangerous calumny ; a fourth , adds somewhat of his own , the which is augmented and divulged for a truth by a thousand . so that as a stone cast into a pond , begets circle upon circle : or as a little ball rowled in the snow , gathers it selfe to a great lump : so the report that is but a little sparke of fire at the first , proves a great flame , by that it hath past through many mouths . or admit the best that can come , i am sure a man once wounded in his good name , is seldome cured , without skarres of suspicion : as fine linnen being once stained with black inke , though it be wash'd never so , will retaine an iron-mould ever after . o the malice and mischiefe of aslanderer , for he not only woundeth the party of whom he speaks , but the party likewise to whom hee speakes , if hee either rashly believes it , or is delighted in hearing it , or further divulgeth it , or doth not defend the absent wronged party ; so slaying three at once , with the one arrow of his viperous and venimous tongue , himselfe being one of the number , as luther well observes : wherein hee puts downe menelaus , that romane archer , in the warres betweene constantius and magnantius ; for although hee could shoote three arrowes at once at one loo●e , and therewith wound three at the least , yet he could kill but one , with one arrow . yea , in case this slander spreades it selfe ; the first relater may have to answer for the sinnes of a thousand , wherefore no marvaile if after those words , deut. . cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly , it bee added , and let all the people say , amen : no marvaile if , psalm . . . it be written , him that privily slandereth his neighbour , will i destroy . § . sixthly , drunkards traduce and slander us , because they must doe what sathan will have them : yea , it is hee that speaketh by them , as once he did by the serpent ; neither could hee speake for want of a tongue , if it were not for wicked men . a calumny , saith one of the fathers , is the divel's mind , in the mouth of a man , his arrow , shot by mans bow ; he lendeth him his lyes and malice , and borroweth his tongue to utter them , because the divell wants a tongue : heare this all yee , whose tongues runnes so fast on the divells errand ; it is but his heart in your lippes . the accuser of the bretheren makes use of wicked men , to traduce those , whom hee cannot seduce as hee desireth : he makes them drunke with malice , as well as with wine , and they spew out cursing and slander against such as are better , or would have them better then ver they meanes to be , mat. . . whence it is , that the divell is not more blacke-mouthed then a slanderer ; nor a slanderer lesse malicious than the divell , ioh. . where they are proved his children , and hee their father . yea , they shew themselves to be of the same house , who easily and willingly believe their slanders , neither doth sathan lesse profit , or advantage himselfe by them . for first , while he fils their eares , he kills their soules , as one of the fathers hath it . secondly , as he which reports a slander , hath the divell in his tongue : so hee that receives it , hath the divell in his eare , as bernard excellently ; the one , is the foot-post , and messenger of sathan ; the other is the recorder or register of hel : and were their no receivers in this kinde , there would bee no theeves ; if some had not itching eares to heare false rumours , others would not have scratching tongues , like the pens of libellers , to make and move them ; for see we not , that the least check or frowne of a stander by , will silence the barking tongue : and indeed , had they both their due , tale-bearers should be hanged by their tongues , and tale . hearers by their eares , as plautus speaks . and so i have given you the subordinate reasons , the principall follow . § . seventhly , the maine reason and end wherefore they do all this , and a great deale more , is , that they may discourage us in the way to heaven , flout us out of our faith , and draw us back to the world ; that so they may have our company here in sin , and hereafter in torment . the which that themselves may acknowledge ( and a faire print it must bee , that a drunkard can wel read seeing hee weares his eyes in his tongue ) much more must proofes be plaine , if they acknowledge this for a truth ; i will take leave to expatitate , and where as i have hither to but spoken of them strictly , as drunkards ; now i will speake of them more largely , as they are wicked men , seed of the serpent , and children of the divell . first , they do it that they may discourage us in the way to heaven , flout us out of our faith , and draw us backe to the world , that so they may have our company here in sinne as why doth the world cast such a number of blockes in our way , to hinder us , but because in every one that repenteth , shee looseth a limme or member ? all these things will drunkards do to the man whom the king of heaven and earth will honour with adoption , conversion , and regeneration : but so long as we remaine in our naturall condition ; and vvill pledg them in their finnes , they have no quarrell against us . as holofernes said to i●deth , feare not in thine heart , for i never hurt any that are willing to serve nebuchadnezzar , the king of all the earth , iudeth . so these drunkards , never molest any , that are content to serve sathan , the prince of this world . as let any experienced christian tell me , vvhether he was ever scoft at , or molested by drunkards , so long as hee marched under sathans colours : whether they ever hated him , untill christ had chosen him , iohn . . againe let him tell me , whether hee was not made a by-word of the people , iob . . a song of the drunkards , psal. . . and generally hated of all . mat●h . . . so soone as he became religious and conscionable . for all wicked men are like the women of lemnos , who when they had every one slain their husbands and kinsmen ; exiled hypsiphyle the kings daughter , for that shee alone saved her father alive . so that a christian in respect of his hard straits , betweene gods law , on the one side , and the malignant world , on the other ; may fitly be compared to the gibbeonites , who if they made not their peace with ioshua , must dye by strangers ; and if they did make their peace with him , they must dye by neighbours : or to susanna , who if shee did yeeld unto the two elders , must lose her chastity , and hazzard her soule ; and if shee did not yeeld , shee must loose her life : for we have a wolfe by the eares , which wee can neither stay nor let go with safety : if we seek to please god by a holy life , wee displease the world , and that will hate and vex us ; if we seek to please the world , we displease god , and he will hate and condemne us ; for their commands are diametrically contrary , acts . . . when our affections , like wild and mad horses , are violently gallopping to hell , if the spirit of god , by repentance ( as with a bridle ) suddenly gives a jerck and turnes them , yea sets them going as fast the other way , in the more narrow path towards heaven ; presently those our companious in the broad way , stand marvelling at us that wee breake off company , and envie to see themselves casheered ; and good reason , for the world as you have heard looseth a limme or member in every one that repenteth . the men of the world thinke it quarrell enough to the children of god , that they will no longer continue miserable with them ; if the gibeonites but turn to ioshua , then there is quarrell enough for the amorites against gibeon ; they cannot abide to loose any of their community ▪ neither is it otherwise with the head of this hellish complicies , there needs no other cause of his utmost fury , then to see a poore soule strugling to get out of the reach of his tyranny . that great dragon , the divell , and these his subjects , drunkards , make warre , and are wrath with none but the woman , and the remnant of her seed , which keepe the commandements of god , and have the testimony of iesus christ , revel . . . the divell and the world are much like the proscription of the inquisition , or the athenian ostracisme , which throweth out none but the best and worthiest among men . nothing is more distastfull to the world , then for a man to seperate and divorce himselfe from her evill society , and wicked customes : it seemeth to them strange , saith saint peter , that you runne not with them , to the same excesse of ryot , therefore speak they evill of you , peter . . he that refuseth an health , or wil not sweare , hee that cannot conforme to the vices of lewd men , is more taken notice of , then a great personage ; as a blazing sarre is more gazed upon then the sunne , because the one is strange , the other common ; and he had need bee much more carefull of his actions , then another man ; for they will lie in wait to finde faults in him , and let him slip never so little , if it bee not a wonder , it is strange , and all strangers wee observe more strictly , then wee doe those that have dwelt among us . § . it is betweene the seed of the serpent ; and the seed of the woman , as betweene turkes and chrictians , the turkes call and account christians as dogs ; but let the same christians turne turkes , and they shall bee highly reckoned of : so let us turn openly prophane , their quarrell is at an end ; nothing but our goodnesse is the whetstone of their envie : so that one notable proofe of saving grace in us , is , the exercise of their malice against us , iohn . . alasse ! had we continued the divels subjects , we should have beene let alone . the israelites were never set upon by pharaoh and all his forces , untill they were gone out of his land : the blind man , nor his parents were ever troubled of the iewes , untill christ cured him of his blindnesse : nor the diseased man grudged at for eight and thirty yeares together , till christ said unto him , take up thy bed , and walke ; but then as hee carries his bed , so he carried reproaches : so long as s. paul joyned with the high priests and elders to make havock of the church , hee was no whit molested by them ; but when hee became a convert , and preach'd in the name of iesus , who so hated and persecuted as he ? if the church travell , and bring forth a male , it is in danger of the dragon's streames , but not else ; that goliah defies none , but the host of the liveing god ; sathan meddles not with his owne , they are as sure as temptation can make them , they meddle not with repentance , and hee meddles not with them : to sinne hee would have our paths smooth , and calme , and pleasant , winning us forward ; but if wee turne our feet towards s●on , then he encounters , and blocks up our way with temptations , yea , then this ahab will wage cruell war with , and fight against us , untill hee recovers his ramoth gilead , that is , our soule , i kings . . otherwise he is more subtile , then to spend his malice on them that doe him ready service : carnall drunkards need no entreaty ( much lesse be forced ) to bee officious , for they have a free will to that which is evill , it is only a iob that the divell delights to vex with anguish , hee knowes an absolom will runne laughing to hell ; it is some peter whom sathan desires to winnow , luk. . . some are all chaff ; he wil not meddle with them ; ephraim is joyned with idols , let him alone , hosea . . let him alone , saith god , let him alone , saith sathan ; he is as fast as i would wish him , so all is in peace , luk. . . but let them take it for a fearefull signe of a dead heart , when they feele not sathans buffetings , for there is not a greater temptation , saith gregrory , then not to bee tempted , why ? they shall not feele his hate , till they feele his heate , even his unquenchable fire in the burning lake . alasse ! hee ceaseth to tempt them whom hee hath already wonne , but the godly are enemies , therefore they must looke to be assaulted . neither were he his craftsmaster , if he did otherwise . doth any prince or generall make warre with his owne subjects or souldiers , that march under his colours ? no , but with rebells and enemies . what jayler layes more bolts upon the shackled malefactor , that loves his prison , and would not change ? this is for such as have attempted to breake prison . besides , there is great reason why the godly are tempted more then the wicked , because the wicked doe him service in this particular , and tempt others . again , the crafty thiesfe will not break into an empty house , but where he may finde some good booty : the empty traveller sings before the thiefe , and may passe unmolested ; it is the ful purse which invites the highway man. the pirat never spends his shott upon cole-ships , but le ts flie at the rich merchant : so if the divell and his instruments , drunkards , set upon us , it is a good argument , and we may presume there is the treasure of grace , at least the beginnings of it ; for where there is no light , there is no shadow . as christ was no sooner baptised , and the spirit descended on him , but presently sathan had a bout with him ; yea , as lacob was no sooner conceived in the wombe , then esau strove with him , gen. . . so every true christian begins his warre with his being , both our births are accompanied vvith teares ; so that vvhen once vvee put our endeavours to godlinesse , expect no quiet , for a christians life can no more bee vvithout sorrovves , then the sea can bee vvithout vvaves and flovvings . and yet our case vvould be far vvorse , if vve should yeeld unto them , both here , in respect of our consciences ; and hereafter , in respect of our soules . as i have read of a christian , that to save his life , turned turke ; but this could not save him , for they presently in derision hanged him up , vvith these vvords , morieris in fide , turca , hovv ever thou livest , thou shalt dye a turke . § . and so you have the drunkards heart and tongue delineated , and therein vvhat they doe to us , in case vve vvill not runne with them to the same excesse of ryat , novv see , vvith the like patience , vvhat they vvould doe , in case the lavv restrained them not , and hovv the malice and envie of their hearts , would break forth at their hands ; for having done all this , and not finding the issue to answer their expectation , viz. that they cannot discourage us , but that we still persevere and hold out in our peremptory course of well doing , and will not reconcile our selves unto them , nor the world , doe they what they can ; they would proceed further , if they durst , and might bee allowed by the law , as . first , they would combine themselves together , and cunningly undermine us : samuel . . . . ieremiah . . acts . . . yea , lay divellish plots to destroy us : daniel . exodus i. . . psalme . , , . acts . , . and . chap. and . , . secondly , they would deliver us up , and falsely accuse us to the magistrates , i sam. . . . and . . . and . . acts , . . to . and . . thirdly , they would perswade , and give devilish counsell to them against us , rev. . . ier. . . act. . . and never leave untill they had , in the fourth place , shut us up in prison , i kings , . . ler. . . and . . luk. . , acts , . . and . . and . . and . . and . . cor. . . and in case we would not yet yeeld to associate them in evill doing , nor conforme to their lewd and wicked customes , then would they give us bodily correction , as , first , they would strike us , kings , . . ier. . . and . . acts , . . cor. . . . . secondly , they would hurt and mayme us , numb . . . ludges , . . acts , . . thirdly , if all this would not doe , in the last place these drunkards and vicious livers would kill us , for being so refractory , they would make us either bow or breake ; they would kill our bod●es , if they could not corrupt our soules ; if we would not part with our innocency , we should part with our lives ; as it fared with the three children , that were put into the fiery furnace , because they would not worship the golden image , as others did , dan , . and all the prophets of the lord , whom iezabel slew , because she could not bring them to her owne bow , i king. . . and those numberlesse martyrs , whose soules st. iohn saw under the altar , rev. . which were killed , because they would not doe and say as the rest , yea , even for the word of god , and for the testimony , which they maintained , ve . . and why fares it not so with us ? why doe not the same drunkards , vicious liveers , and other enemies of holinesse , which now enuy , hate , censure , scoffe at . nicke-name , raile on , and slander us , even strike , maime , and kill us , but because their hands are tyed by the law ? i dare say it fares with many of them ( because they cannot have their wills ) as it did with achilles , who is feigned to eate his owne heart , because he might not be suffered to fight . why are not our sanctuaries turned into shambles , and our beds made to swim with our bloods long before this , but that the god of israel hath crossed the confederacy of balack . it is no thank to wicked men , that their wickednesse doth not prosper ; the wo●ld would soone be over-runne with evills , if men might be so ill as they would . alasse ! if our gracious king and state did not maintaine true religion , and countenance the s●me , it would be otherwise then it is with the people of god ; as the word of god , and former experience witnesseth . § . first , the word of god witnesseth the same , as looke but , rev. . and you shall find it foretold by the holy - ghost , that so many should be killed , as would not worship , and give honour to the image of the be●st , that man of sin , that man of pride , that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called god , or that is worshipped , thes. . . and our saviour foretelleth , that we shall not onely be hated of all men and nations for his names sake , but be killed and put to death , mat. . . yea , he affirmeth expressely , that we should not onely receive this hard measure from strangers and enemies onely , but from our deerest and neerest friends ; that the brother should betray the brother to death , the father the sonne , and that children should rise up against their parents , and cause them to dye , even for his names sake , mat● . . . . meaning , when they are not restrained by godly kings , and their wholesome lawes . neither doe we want examples to make good these testimonies , for by whom was upright abel persecuted and slaine , but by his owne brother caine ▪ who scoffed at righteous n●ah , but his owne sonne cha●m ? by whom was that vertuous and religious lady barbara put to death , for embracing the christian faith , but by her owne father dioscorus ? and lastly , by whom was our saviour christ betrayed , but by his owne disciple ludas ? . but to goe on ; experience , as well as the scripture , proves it . in the time of the tenne persecutions , it was no more , then sacrifice , or dye . in the time of queene mary , the martyrs must either deny their faith , disclaime their pure religion and service of god , worship that bloody whore of rome , according to her damnable traditions , or be chained to a stake and burnt ; either part with their faithes , or part with their lives ; if they would not obey them , rather then god , they had a law , by which men ought to dye . yea , at this present , although we ( blessed be god , and our gracious protector for it ) endure little , but the lash of evill tongues , which is the most favourable persecution , yet in spaine , and other places , our brethren doe groane under a mercilesse inquisition . oh the quintessence of cruelty that they have wrung out unto them ! the rehearsall whereof would make a mans eares to tingle , and his heart to tremble . for as in the time of the ten persecutions , it would cost a man his life , to professe himselfe a christian , the heathen emperors making it death by their edicts ; and as in the time of queene mary , if one profest himselfe a protestant , he was sure to be burnt : so in spaine , at this day , some have beene burnt , and others put into an agony of seven yeares continuance , which is worse , for having a testament about them in the english tongue , or a bible in their house , or declaring their faith some other way . and can any doubt , but drunkards would deale as cruelly with us , if they might be permitted ? it is easie to guesse how cruell their hands would be , in case the law restrained them not , who even draw blood with their tongues : as how will drunkards shoot their shafts up to the feathers , in the disgrace of such as will not humor them , and never give over , so long as they have an arrow in their quiver ; to heare them would even make a man think they were generated out of the dragons tooth , as orpian is said to be made by pallas . in briefe ( for i might be endlesse in the prosecution of this ) take one example , which might serve insteed of all that hath beene spoken . what was the reason our saviour christ the master himselfe was envied ? math. , ? contemned ? math. . . and . ? rejoyced at in his misery and distresse ? math. . . hated ? iohn , . . murmured against ? luk. . . had his doctrine withstood and contraried ? luk. . . math. . . his actions misconstrued ? math. . . tales carried of him ? math. . . devilish counsell given to pilate and the people against him ? math. . . scoft at ? math. . . nick-named ? math. . . rayled on ? luk. . . slandered ? math. . . which slander is beleeved amongst the iewes unto this day , ver . . cursed ? gal. . . threatned ? iohn , . . undermined in talke , that they might accuse him ? math. . . why did they use disdainefull gestures before him ? math. . . . combine together , and lay devilish plots to destroy him ? math. . . take him prisoner ? math. . . smite him ? luk. . . hurt and wound him ? mat. . . iohn , . . and lastly , put him to death , even that cursed death of the crosse ? math. . . not for any evill they found in him ; for their owne words are , he hath done all things well , mark. . . he hath done , such was his power ; all things , such was his wisdome ; well , such was his goodnesse ; and yet crucified , and abused every way , he must be ; it was onely indeed for his zeale , purity , and holinesse , and because his life and practice was cleane contrary to theirs , his doctrine too powerfull and pure for such carnall hearts to embrace , or endure ; so that it 's plaine , and all men may see , who are not dead in sense , how it would fare with us , might our enemies , drunkards , swearers , &c. have their wills . § . vvhen politicians rhetorick once failed , carters logicke should doe the feate ; their arguments should be all steele , and iron , they would speake daggers points , as ioab discoursed with amasa in the fift rib ; or as zedekia disputed with the prophet , a word and a blow , yea , a blow without a word ; for he smote him first , and spake to him afterwards . every wicked man , especially a drunkard , is like iulius the second , who threw st. peter's keyes into the river tiber , protesting , that thence forth he would use and helpe himselfe with st. peter's sword ; if reason should faile , and rayling would doe no good , they would come to plow-mans logick , gun-powder arguments , open violence , they would take up swords to strike , or stones to cast at us . but our comfort is , they cannot do as they would , though their punishment shall bee never the lesse . for as the will to doe god acceptable service , is accepted , as if it were service indeed : so the intent and offer of wrong , shall be judged for wrong in that court of justice ; good and evill thoughts and desires , in gods account , are good and evill workes ; and hee which in good , accepts the will for the deed ; condemnes the will for the deed , in evill : now these men in their hearts , and gods account , are murtherers , and for murtherers they shall be arraigned at the great day of accounts ; for they would kill us , if they durst , they doe kill , so farre as they can . it were no living for godly men , if their enemies hands were allowed to bee as bloody as their hearts ; if they were not stinted by a divine and supreame power : but for our comfort as men and divels are under the restraint of the almighty ; so blessed bee god , and blessed bee our gracious soveraigne ( the very breath of our nosthrills ) feare of authority swayes thousands , who are not guilty of a conscience . alasse ! if lewd men should not feare the magistrate , more then they feare god , or the devill , there were no living among them . besides , how often are they curbed by a divine hand ? how often doe the angells ( those ministring spirits , sent forth for the good of the elect ) resist their actions , even in those sinnes which their hearts stand to . it is no thanke to lewd men that their wickednesse is not prosperous : whence is it that the world is not over-runne with evill , but from this , that men cannot be so evill , as they would ? it is with these men , as it was with zoilus , that common slanderer , who being demanded why he spake evill of such , and such answered , because i cannot do them evill , or else like another parisian vigils , we should feele their swords , before we heard their alarums . wicked men have courage above their strength , and their dareing is above their skill ; they have courage to attempt much more then their ability is to performe ; not like david , who did as much as he undertooke , in killing golish . when the devills hands are bound , he vomits a stood of reproaches with his tongue , rev. . . the master keepes the mastive chain'd up from hurting his friends , yet sets him on the theise , if he see cause : so god doth by sathan , it is not that mastives fault , that he tares not all in peeces ; wherefore we may be glad we scape so as we doe , as a iustice , upon the bench , told a condemned person at the barre , who sued to him for mercy . § now of this their savage disposition , there are five maine reasons to be rendered . . first , because they would doe the workes of their father the devill ; he is a murtherer , and so his children are given to blood , iohn , . . and what can the lambe expect of the butcher , but killing ? yea , and so given to it , that often times it contents them not to shed the blood of others , except also they shed their owne blood : as nero , who was so artificiall in cutting of throats , that at last he runnes upon his owne sword , saying , i have lived dishonourably , i will dye shamefully : and saul , who being blooded against david and the priests , became as unmercifull to himselfe , by wreaking his teene on his owne bowells : and ludas that was so cruell against the innocent blood of his master , became as cruell against the nocent blood of himselfe : and i wonder how the murtherer can expect any other doome , that either heares how many have done the like , or reades , gen. . where god saith , who so sheddeth mans blood , by man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of god hath he made man , vers . the . the meditation whereof , if it did throughly sincke into mens hearts , would make them more cautious ; how much more , if they did read and understand , gen. . . where god indit●ing cain for murthering his brother , saith , what h●st th●u done ? the voice of thy brothers blood cryeth unto me from the earth . in which place the originall hath it in the plurall number , bloods , and so signifieth , the voice of the blood shed , and of all the blood which might have come of that blood , if it had not beene shed ; which being so , implyes that a man may kill a thousand , in killing of one . secondly , that their deeds of darkenesse might not come to l●ght . vriah must be put to death , least davids adultery be discovered , and himselfe disgraced : a living curre , you know , will doe more harme then a dead lyon. the genealogies of the iewes must be burnt , that herod may be taken for a lew , and one of the blood royall : and it 's a sure rule , that of eggs fryed in the pan , come no ill chickens . . thirdly , the wicked through malice would seeke by all meanes to cut off the godly , because their wicked and sinfull lives are reproved by their godly conversation ; neither can they follow their sinnes so freely as they would , nor so quietly , without detection or check ; now if abel's good workes reprove cain's evill deeds , let cain but take away the cause , kill abel , and the effect shall not follow . fourthly , whereas the godly are too hard for them in disputing ( take steven for an instance ) they would be even with them by casting of stones , stop their mouthes with brickbats , fetch arguments from the shambles ; and this they are sure would doe , when all other hopes and healps faile , they would not stand to argue the case with us ; for let the accused plead what he could for his owne innocency , the wolfe would answer the lamb , indeed , thy cause is better then mine , but my teeth are better then thine , i will devoure thee ; so they would put off the fox , and put on the lyon , and make their party good , if not with argument● of reason , yet with arguments of steele and iron ; but this is a very hard way of confuting . fiftly and lastly , their glory and credit with the world is eclipsed by suffering those which excell in vertue . we know the moone hath so much the lesse light , by how much it is nearer the sunne , yea , so long as the sunne shines above the horizon , the moone is scarc●ly s●e●e : which made adrian and nero to kill all such as eclipsed their glory by any demerit : and for this cause mercine was murthered of her fellowes , because she did excell the res● in beauty . yea , this hath made wicked men , in all ages , to deale with the godly , as i●lia● the apostate did by our saviour christ ; who tooke downe his image in contempt , that he might set up his owne in the same place , and have the people worship it ; which he knew they would never doe , so long as the other was reverenced . you know herod thought he could not be king , if christ should raigne ; yea , as though he had beene of the race of the ottom●ans , he thought he could not raigne , except , the first thing he did , he killed all the males in beth●m from two yeares old , and under ; and the pharisees , that they should be despised , if christ were regarded ; and hereupon they put the old carinthians law in execution , that hang'd a man in the forenoone , and sate in judgement on him in the afternoone . § . and so i have showne how drunkards doe intise , how they would enforce to sinne , what they doe , with their tongues ; what they would doe , with their ●ands , if they were not manacled by the law ; and prooved that the cause of all is , they cannot have our company in sin . but one thing , of no lesse consequence , is behind , namely , the cause of this cause , which followes ; for before i speake of their drawing to perdition , and desire of community in the burning lake , i will make the way cleare , by giving you the originall ground of all . the maine ground or reason why drunkards ( and indeed all naturall men ) hate and persecute the religious , and none else , is , the one are the seede of the serpent , children of the devill , and partake of his nature , i iohn , . . . . . acts , . . iohn , . . and . . and . . and . . math. . . . . co● . . . tim. . . gen. . . and . . eph. . . to the end , and . . cor. . . rom. . . . titus , . to . . peter , . . . . iohn . . . . and the other , children of god , and members of christ , and partake of the divine nature , cor. . . gal. . . iohn , . . . and . . &c. pet. . . iames , . . pet. . . rom. . . . . . . cor. . . and . . ep●sians , . this is the cause upon which indeede all the former reasons and causes doe depend , as the lesser wheeles in a clocke depend on the great one ; or as the branches of a tree depend on the stock and roote , and spring from it , as the arteries of mans body do from the heart , and veynes from the liver : for in reason , if it be so , they must needs be very contrary ; and if contrary , no marvell they should so ill agree ; for there can be no amity , where there is no sympathy , no reconciling of turkes and christians , no neighbourhood , no alliance , no conjunction is able to make the cursed seed of the serpent , and the blessed seede of the woman ever agree , since god and the devill are everlastingly falne out ; one blood , one belly , one house , one education , could never make cain and abel accord , iacob and esau , isaac and ishmael at one ; yea , though they be man and wife , parent and child , yet , if they be not like , they will not like : and indeed , what is the father , or mother , or brother of our flesh , to the father &c. of of our spirits ? can there be such a parrity betweene the parent and the child , the husband and wife , as ther is a disparity betweene god and sathan ? no certainely , the corporall sympathy is nothing , in comparison of the spirituall antipathy , which is between the two natures , divilish , and divine . if athens and sparta could never agree , for that the one was addicted to serve minerva , the other mars , being each of them heathens : there must needs bee a greater enmity betweene a regenerate man , and him that is wholly carnall : for what fellowship , as the apostle speaks , can there be betweene righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse ; what communion betweene light and darknesse ; and what concord betweene christ and beliall ; and what peace between the believer and the infidel ? cor. . . . and wherein doe these godlesse persons , drunkards , ( though they live in our church ) differ from infidels ? onely in name . an enemy may be reconciled , enmity cannot . a vicious person may bee made vertuous , but vice and vertue can never accord ; these are so diametrically opposite , that the two poles shall sooner meet , then these be reconciled . a wicked man , saith salomon , is abomination to the just ; and he that is upright in his way , is abomination to the wicked , prov. . . and s. iames witnesseth , that the amity of the world , is the enmity of god , and that whosoever with bee a friend of the world , maketh himselfe the enemy of god , lames . . michael and the dragon cannot agree in one heaven ; nor ●ehemiah and sanballat in one city ; nor the cleane and the leprous in one campe ; nor the arke and dagon in one house ; nor god and idols in one temple ; nor iohn and cerinth●s in one bath ; nor isaac and ishmael in one family ; nor iacob and esau in one wombe . in vaine then shall any man attempt , to make an agreement betwixt a wicked and a godly man ; except the one , of wicked becomes godly , or the other , of godly becomes wicked : for there is such an enmity , or mutuall malevolence between person and person . that as the fish lexus , is poyson to man , and man to him : so these can no way brooke one another . yea , that cannot properly bee said to ridd this enmity out of them , which rids them out of the world , death it selfe : for what wee reade of those two birds , aegitbalus and achanthus , namely , that they so hate one another living , that being dead their bloods will not mix , but presently separates : and that which is recorded of florus and anthus ; polynices and etheocles , viz. that the two former being killed , their bloods would not bee mixed ; the two latter being burnt together , their ashes instantly parted ; is truly verified in this enmity and antipathy , which is in the seed of the serpent , against the seed of the woman ; for it is so deadly and mortall , that dureing life it is altogether irreconcileable , and after death , they part and separate as farre asunder , as is hell from heaven , ma● . . . . and . . § . awicked man can agree with all that are wicked , be they papists , or turks , or athiests , prophane and loose persons , for all these agree with him in blindnesse and darknesse , yea , they are all , haile fellow well met ; but with sincere christians , and practisers of piety , he cannot agree ; the religious shall be sure of opposition ; because their light is contrary to his darknesse ; grace in the one , is a secret disgrace to the other . yea , let wicked men bee at never so much odds one with another , yet they wil concurre and joyne against the godly . as for example . edom and ishmael , moab and the hagarins , gebal and ammon , amal●ck and the philistims , the men of tyre and ash●r , each had severall gods ; yet all conspire against the true god , psalm . . . to . manasses against ephraim , and ephraim against manasses ; but both against iudah . herod and pilat ( two enemies ) will agree , so it bee against christ ; they will fall in one with another , to fall out with god. the sadduces , pharisies , and herodians were sectaries of diverse and adverse factions , all differing one from another ; and yet all these joyne together against our saviour , matth. . the libertines , cyrenians , alexandrians , cilicians , and asians , differ they never so much , will joyne in dispute against steven , act . . herod neither loved the iews , nor the iewes herod ; yet both are agreed to vex the church . thus wicked men , like sampsons foxes , though they be tyed taile to taile , yet they joyntly set on fire and burn up the barley field of gods church . i cannot think of a fitter emblem of a naturall man , then lyme , which agreeth well with all things that are dry , and of it's owne nature ; but meeting with water ( a thing directly opposite ) it breaks , burns swels , smoaks , crackles , skips , and scatters , so nature will give a man leave to be any thing , save a sound christian , and agree well with all others , bee their conditions never so contrary , provided they agree in the maine , are all seed of the same serpent : but let the naturall man meet with one that is spirituall , they agree like heat and cold ; if the one stayes , the other flies ; or if both stay , they agree like two poysons in one stomack , the one being eve● sick of the other , bee they never so ne●re allied . and no marvaile ; for though they dwell in the same house , yet they belong to two severall kingdomes ; and albeit they both remaine on earth , yet they are governed by two severall laws ; the ones burgueship being in heaven , phil. . . and the other being a denison belonging to hell ; as irishmen are dwellers in ireland . but denisons of england , and governed by the statutes of this kingdome . neither is it strange , that wicked men should agree one with another ; for even savage beasts agree with themselves , else the wildernes would soone be unpeopled of her foure footed inhabitants : we know the lion , is not cruell to the lion ; nor the leopard , to the leopard ; nor one tiger , to another ; nor the dragon , to the dragon , ●aith aristotle , but every one will fight with , and against the lambe ; one crow never puls out another crows eyes ; on wolfe will not make war with another ; but every wolfe will make war with a sheepe : yea , the snakes of syria , the serpents of tyrinthia , and the scorpions of arcadia , are gentle and sparing to them of their naturall soyle , though cruell to others , as plini● reports . yea , even divels themselves , while they so mortally hate , and violently oppose god , and his image in all the sonnes of adam , are not at enmity with themselves , but accord in wickednesse : and iudas , the very worst of men , he that would be false to his owne lord and master , would yet be true to his chapmen , the high priests : even evill spirits , and the worst of men , keepe touch one with another . § . this also is the sole cause , why they strive so after perfection of evill , ( if it be a digression , either pardon it , or passe on to section ) they being the divels children , must imitate him in all things , yea , partaking of his cursed nature , they can doe no other : as the children of god , partaking of the divine nature , can not but resemble god , and in nothing more , then in being holy , as he is holy , and in striving after perfection of holinesse . abundance of men giving the raines to their wicked nature , and wanting both the bit of reason , and the curb of religion , more then i●itate iehu ; for as iehu said in dissimulation , aha● served baal a little , but iehu shal serve him much more : so these , in the uprightnesse of their heart● , seems to say , such and such a wicked wretch serves the divel a little , but i wil serve him much more . yea , knowing the divel is like that king , which montaigne speaks of , with whom that souldier only , which in one , or diverse combates , hath presented him with seven enemies heades , is made noble ; many of them count it the greatest honour to commit the greatest sinnes , and are sorry they cannot commit a sinne unpardonable , and without , or beyond a president ; imitating aristides of locris , who dying of the biting of a weasell , was grieved , that he had not beene bitten by a lion . i have heard a cauterised gallant , boast of his lying with women of all conditions , save witches ; and protest that should be his next attempt : but what doe i mentioning such a novice , or speaking of that , which was only heard by a few . i would faine know , i say , how men in this and other ages before us , could wholly imploy their time , and strength , and meanes ; how they could take such paines , and be at such cost , to commit robberies , rapes , cruell murthers , treasons , blow up whole states , depopulate whole towns , cities , countries , seduce millions of soules , as mahomet and the pope have done , make open war against the church of god , as herod , ant●ochus , and others did ; persecute the known truth , as i●lian the apostate did ; invent all the new vices they can , and destroy the memory of all ancient vertues , as heliogabalus did ; make it their trade to sweare and for-sweare , if any will hire them , as our post-knights do ; not unlike those turkish priests , called seitie and cagi , who for a ducket will make a thousand false oathes before the magistrate , and take it to be no sinne , but a worke deserving praise , by lies , swearing , and forswearing , to damnifie christians what they can ; did they not strive tooth and naile ( as wee use to say ) to imitate their father the divel ? o that our land had not such monsters , who , upon an howers warning , can lend iezabel an oath , to rob poore naboth of his life and vineyard ! that we had not such vultures , irreligious harpies , that have consciences like a barne-doore , and seldome wake , but to doe mischiefe ! some men and women that will bee bauds to their owne wives and daughters ! o that the sunne should shine upon her , that will sell for gaine unto hell , that body which she brought forth with such pains to this earth ! certainly , there was never woman more deserved to bee called the divells damme then shee : some that dare the day to witnesse their ungodlines , and doe their villanies , as the phari●ies gave their almes , and said their prayers , to be seene of men ! who ( z●mry-like ) dare bring whores to their tents openly ; yea , like absalom , dares spread a tent on the top of the house , and goe in to their concubines in the sight of all men ! yea , gallants , that in a bravery , will assemble themselves to their minions by companies , ( i must not say they are harlots houses ) and there commit their adulteries in the presence of each other ! not much unlike diogenes the cynick , an impudent fellow , who would openly commit filthinesse even in the streets . and when their bodies have beene the organs of unrighteousnesse , their mouths shall after be the trumpets to proclaime it : much like those savage women which ( as montaigne relates ) for a badg of honour , weare as many fringed tossells fastned to the skirt of their garment , as they have lyen with severall men : you shall often heare old men glory in their fore passed whoredomes , boast their homicides , &c. yea , perhaps , if it be possible , make themselves worse then ever they were : yea , rather then men will want matter of oftentation , they will boast of the fowle●t vices , as agesilaus bragd of his stumpt foote , sertorius of his one eye , and rathro●d of his scabs ; for their excrements they account ornaments , and make a scarf of their halter ; but this is a cursed commemoration . againe , men there are , who ( like them of gibeah , i●gd . . and the sodomites , gen. . ) are not content with the common way of sinning , but are mad with a prodigious and preposterous lust , bring forth the men that wee may know them , verse . and hath not this age some , whoequall lycaon , that was turned into a woolfe by iupiter , for his cruelty ? who seeme to have beene suckled with the milke of woolfes , as it is reported of the first founder of rome ? who , through custome , have made sinne so familiar unto them , that the horror of it is turned into a pleasure ? who being inured to blood , make killing of men but a sport , as it fared with abner , who called it playing , when every one thrust his sword into his fellowes side ? sam. . . . some you shall haver hazard land , life , soule , ( yea , more , if more could bee ) on the fortune of a rapiers point , when but aske whence the cause of that contention ariseth , they cannot tell you without blushing , so vaine , and so frivolous is the occasion : many men had rather see a combate fought , wherein one man kills another , then heare a sermon , or partake of a rich banquet ; being of hannibal's humour , who seeing a ditch swim with mans blood , profest never to have seene a fight which more delighted him : or of herods , who thinking hee could not shed blood , and bee cruell enough while hee lived , and to make the lewes sorry for his death , whether they would or no , commanded , and made sure that they should slay all the noble-mens children in iury , as the breath went out of his body : some resemble cajus caligula , who , amongst other tyrannies , caused at his meales ordinarily one to cut off before him the heads of poore prisoners , wherein hee tooke great pleasure : or nero and domitian , who studied strange deaths , to afflict the saints , and to suppresse the gospell : or iustinian , who , being restored againe to his empire , as oft as hee moved his hand to wipe the filth from his nose , which was cut off , he commanded one of his enemies , or some of their allies to be put to death : or lastly , the numantines , who being besiedged by the romanes , and brought to great misery , made a vow , no day to eate meat , unlesse the first dish might bee of a romans flesh ; nor drinke any drinke , unlesse their first draught were romans blood . againe , are there not some as blasphemous , as impudent pharaoh , who being bloodied with his unresisted tyranny , could belch out defiance in the face of heaven ( who is god ? ) thinking he might be bold with heaven , because he was great on earth : or nicanor , who being perswaded from cruelty upon the sabboth day , in that god had appointed it holy , answered , if god be m●ghty in heaven , i am also mighty on earth ; though the same tongue that spake it , was cut into little peeces , and flung to the fowles , and the hand that smote , was cut off and hung before the temple : or lastly , pope h●ldebrand , who asked the sacrament of christ's body , before all the cardinalls , how he should destroy henry the emperour ? and having no answer , flung it into the fire , saying , could the idol gods of the heathens tell them what should succeed in al their enterprises , and canst not thou tell me ? and many the like ; for the time would be too short for me to speake of all i might , who being past feeling , have given themselves to worke all kinds of wickednesse , even with greedinesse , eph. . . besides , i cannot ( without red cheeks ) name the things that are commonly done by them , not in secret , but openly , and that without blushing , yea , not without boasting ; and the report of sinne , is oft as bad as the commission ; i am ●oth , i say , to speak of that , whereof the very speech is lothsome . wherefore to shut up with a word of application . do we not know , or have we not heard of such as these , who are indifferent in nothing but conscience ? i would there were none such to be knowne , or heard of , or , at least , i would they were thrown out of christ's crosse-row , but if there be , and ever hath beene such , let any reasonable man judge , whether they could bee thus desperately wicked , if they did not emulate i ate sathan , strive after the perfection of evill , to be superlative in sinne , to h●ve , as it were , the lowest place in hell , and who should come there first ; as gods people desire to imitate god , strive after perfection of holinesse , and to have a greater degree of glory in the kingdome of heaven . § . question . but how doth sathan work men to this height of impiety ? answer . not at all once , but when custome of sinne hath deaded all remorse for sinne . a man at first goes into sinne , as a young swimmer into the water , not plunging himselfe over head and eares at first dash , but by degrees , till he come in profundum , and then co●temnit . the imbellick peasant , when he comes first to the field , shakes at the report of a musket ; but after hee hath ranged through the fury of two or three battels , he then can fearelesse stand a breach , and dares undaunted gaze death in the face : so the first acts of sinne , are for the most part trembling , fearefull , and full of the blush ; it is the iteration of evill , that gives forehead to the foule offender : it 's easie to know a beginning swearer , he cannot mouth it , like the practised man ; he oathes it , as a cowardly fencer playes , who as soone as he hath offered a blow , shrinks backe , as if his heart suffered a kind of violence by his tongue ; yet had rather take a step in vice , then be left behind , for not being in fashion . the first time the fox saw the lyon , he feared him as death ; the second , he feared him , but not so much ; the third time , he grew more bold , and passed by him without quakeing . there is no man suddenly very good , or extreamely evill , but growes so : as a river is small and foredable at the head , but greatens as it runnes on , by accession of new waters . salomon first takes two wives , then three , then hundreds ; and having once got beyond the stakes of the law , and all modesty , he is ready to lose himselfe amongst a thousand bedfellowes . as men eate divers things by morsels , and digest them with ease , which if they should eate whole , would choake them : so fares it with sinners . we deale with our consciences , as with our apparell , when we have got on a new sute , fresh and faire , we are very chary of abusing it , we take heede where we sit , what we touch , or against what we leane ; but when it is once growne a little old , soyled and sullied , we have no such regard of it , we little passe what we doe with it , nor minde where we cast it ; so the uxorious husband , at the first idolizeth his wife , no noyse must disturbe her , the cold wind must not blow upon her , the sunne must be shaded from her beauty , her feete must scarce touch the earth , nothing must offend her , she commands all , her will is a law ; it may be , after a while none of all this , but the contrary : even such is our dealing with conscience ; as we see in david , who at first was so tender of it , that the lap of saul's garment onely troubled him to the heart ; but giveing way to his owne corruptions , and sathans temptations , to what a height of sinne was he risen ? at first he onely loosed the raynes to idlenesse ; from idlenesse , he proceedes to lust ; from lust , to drunkennesse ; from drunkennesse , to murther , &c. murther shall be imployed to hide adultery , the fact which wine cannot conceale , the sword shall ; yea , what a brood of sinnes hath the devill hatched , out of this one egge of adultery ; vriah shall beare his owne mittimus to ioab , and be the messenger of his owne death ; ioab must be a traytor to his friend ; the host of god must shamefully turne their backes upon their enemies , much blood of israel must be spilt , many a good souldier cast away , that murther must be seconded with dissimulation , and all this , to hide one adultery . o how many , by this meanes , have declined from a vigorous heate of zeale , to a temper of lukewarme indifferencie ; and then from a carelesse mediocrity , to all extremity of debauchednesse ; and of hopefull beginnings , have ended in incarnate devills ! resembling domitian , who ( when first chosen emperour ) did so abhorre cruelty , that he would not suffer any beast to be kill'd for sacrifice ; yet after by degrees , and when custome had brought an habit , he thought no cruelty too much , to put in execution against men : or dionisyus , who so long as he was beloved , and well reported of , was a good man ; but when the priuy talke to his defamation came to his eares , he fell by degrees to exercise all manner of cruelty : or nero , who at first being required to signe ( as the manner was ) the sentence of a criminall offendors condemnation , earnestly wished of god , that he ●ould not write , rather then be forced to doome a man to death ; and yet after , became the most lively image of cruelty that we reade of . vice is a pere patetike , alwayes in progression ; yea , both grace , and sinne , are of a growing nature : for as it is in wealth , he that hath much , would have more : so in vertue , and vice ; but evill men especially , and deceivers wax worse and worse , deceiving , and being deceived , tim. . . they goe first over shoes , then over bootes , then over shoulders at length over head and eares in sinne , as some doe in debt . § . o the dangerous and insensible insinuations of sinne ! if that crafty tempter can hereby worke us but to one dram of lesse detestation to a familiarity in evil , he promiseth himselfe the victory . custome brings sinne to be so familiar , that the horror of it is turned into delight ; and as men doe at first lesse like sinne , so with continuance they doe lesse feele it : frequency in sinne , takes away the sense of sinne ; as a man may looke so long upon the sunne , that he shall become blind , and then he is not sensible of any light it hath ; or heare a great noyse so long ( as they which live neare the fall of the river nilus ) that it may make him starke deafe : for even so it fares with the notoriously wicked , who being familiarly accustomed to all manner of lewdnesse , can commit foule sinnes with lesse touch of conscience , then others can heare of them : as you shall have blacke-smiths that are used to the frequent and dayly handling of hot iron , hold a scorching fire brand in their hands , and laugh whilst another would rore out ; estrich-like , they can concost iron , and put it off , as easily as another weake stomacke can doe jelly . oh hovv the soule , that takes a delight in levvdnesse , is gained upon by custome ! neither vvill any meanes restraine such a sampson , for let him be bound vvith greene vvithes ( the shame of men ) they vvill not hold him ; with new ropes , ( the feare of authority ) they will not hold him ; vvith the pinne and vvoofe ( of lavv and gospell ) none of these vvill hold him . indeed , for a time shame it selfe may hold them in , though sinne holds them under ; but shortly after they have brazen faces , so bloodlesse , that they cannot blush ; and then farewell all good . there is some feare to offend , some knowledge of good and evill , some remorse , some conscience , while shame lasts : but if shame once depart , knowledge goes , and feare goes , and remorse goes , and conscience goes , none will tarry behind shame ; at least , where the feare of god ( which is the bridle and curbe to sinne ) is absent , all vices will there be present and abound ; and when they are once crusted over with perseverance , no hope of returning : like as the tortise ( delighting in the sunne ) swimmeth on the top of the water so long , untill the heate hardeneth her shell , that she cannot sinck , and then she is taken . wherefore let not this point part with us , till it hath taught us two things , to wit , to make conscience of small sinnes ; not to reiterate , or allow our selves in the practice of any knowne sinne . § . and so you have the maine ground , foundation , roote , or spring of their opposition ; which yet is not all , for , admit their natures were not contrary , this alone were omni-sufficient , god , from the beginning , hath proclaimed an enmity between the seede of the serpent , and the seede of the woman , which is irreconcileable and endlesse : for as it hath beene from the beginning of time ; so it shall last to the end of all time : when time , saith one , began , this malice first began ; nor will it end , but with the latest man. it is an everlasting act of parliament , like a statute in magna charta , gen. . . where even in paradise , iehova , the eternall god , and lord of hosts , saith unto sathan , i will put enmity betweene thee , and the woman ; and betweene thy seede , and her seede ; hee , or it shall bruise thine head , and thou shalt bruise his heele ; whereby sathans seede , is meant the wicked of all ages ; and by enmity , bitter , immoderate , inveiterate , irreconcileable , and endlesse hatred , and division , opposite to that amity and familiarity , which formerly had beene betweene the woman and the serpent ; as expositors universally conclude . so that there was a twofold kingdome set up in this world ( both spirituall ) a kingdome of sinne and darkenesse , and a kingdome of light and holinesse ; the king and cheife commander of the one , being sathan , the prince of darkenesse , the god of this world , and chiefe of evill spirits ; his subjects , all unregenerate men : and the king of the other , being christ , called in scripture , the wonderfull counsellor , the mighty god , the everlasting father , and prince of peace , the lords of lords , and king of kings , isay , . . rev. . . who is also the chiefe of men , even the chiefe sonne of man ; his subjects , the godly and regenerate alone : betweene which kings , and their regiments , god himselfe having proclaimed a perpetuall warre , saying , i will put enmity betweene the one , and the other , how can we expect lesse ? for with god , neither doth his word disagree from his intention , because he is truth it selfe ; nor his deede from his word , because he is power it selfe ; god is not as man , that hee should lye , neither as the sonne of man , that hee should repent : hath he said , i will put enmity betweene the men of the world , and his owne people , and shall he not doe it ? or , hath he spoken the word , and shall not he accomplish it ? numb . . . heaven and earth shall passe away , but one jot , or tittle of his word shall not passe , till all be fullfilled , math. . . so that to be without temptations , reproaches , and persecutions , we may rather wish , then hope : for what peace can wee looke for , betweene the seede of the serpent , and the seede of the woman , since god himselfe , from the beginning , hath set them at enmity ? yea , once to expect it , were an effect of frenzie , not of hope . § . that sathan is their king , you have it , iohn . . and the prince of this world , it is plaine , iohn , . . and that he ruleth by , and worketh in all the children of disobedience , eph. . . makes cleare : and that they are his servants , kept by the devill in a snare , and taken captive of him ? at his will , are the very words of the holy-ghost , tim. . . which being so ( considered together with the former proclamation ) how should they not seeke his wealth , and honour by fighting for him ; how should they not strive to enlarge his kingdome , and the territories of hell , by winning all they can from christ , by a continuall warre and skirmish , as they have not beene wanting hitherto in any age ? yea , i could produce testimonies and examples till darke night , to prove that there hath beene in all ages , is now , and ever shall be ( betweene these two kings , sathan and christ , and their regiments , the wicked , and the godly ) a perpetual war enmity and strife , according to the lords prediction , or proclamation ; for there is scarce a page in the bible , which doth not either expresse , or imply , somewhat touching this warre : yea , as if the scriptures contained nothing else , the holy-ghost ●ignificantly calls them , the booke of the battells of the lord , numb . . . as rupertus well observes . but because it would take up much roome , and none , except they are blind , will question the same i will wave that . satan is not a captaine of forties , nor of fifties nor of sixties , nor of hundreds ; 〈◊〉 he is generall over all which fight not under christ's banner ; which is but a little flocke . it 's true , every christian in his baptisme hath taken presse-money of christ , to be his souldier , and to serve him in the field of this world , against his , and our enemies : yea , i confesse , amongst us christians , christ is the subject of all tongues ; o that he were the object of all hearts : but whereas the schoole disputes of him , the pulpit preaches of him , hypocrites talke of him , time-servers make use of him , politicians pretend him , prophane men sweare by him , millions professe him ; few love him , few serve him , few care to honour him : godly men , even amongst us christians , are like timber trees in a wood , here one , and there one . yea , it is to be feared , that , as once in israel a thousand followed baal , for one that followed god ; so now many serve the world , and the flesh , and the devill , for one that truely serves god in sincerity , truth , and holinesse . now as when abimeleck raigned , downe went gideon's children : so where wicked men beare sway , and sin raignes , downe goes christ's friends , and the fruits of faith . and when hath the visible church kept her owne so well , but it might truely be said ( not as the women of saul and david , saul hath slaine his thousand , and david his tenne thousand , but ) sathan by himselfe and his host , hath slaine more then his hundred thousand . yea , of these drunkards , who have taken the devills oath of allegiance , he is a very meane souldier , that hath not won some from christs standard : as amongst the hungarians , he is not held worhty to weare a weapon , nor reputed a brave gentleman , who hath not kil'd a turke : yea , some there are that have wonne more men from him , then they have beene weekes at their owne dispose ; as cato censorius boasted , he had taken more townes in spaine , then he had beene dayes in the country . nay , hath not the devill made as good use of some famous drunkard , as sampson did of that jaw-bone of an asse , iudg. . wherewith he slew a thousand men ? § . now wherein doe they overcome , and what is it these spirituall kings , and their regiments chiefely fight for ( for having made cleare way , i come now at length to prove the second part of my former proposition , namely , that their utmost aime and end ( whether they seeke to intise or enforce us to sinne with them ) is , that they may have our company hereafter in the burning lake ) but to win soules each from other ? and what thinke you doe drunkards , the seede of the serpent , and children of the devill , more delight in , then the murther of soules ? and why doe they so subtilly perswade , and so violently enforce us to sinne with them , but that they may pluck us out of christs fould , and bring us into the same place of torment , whether they are going ? this is the very end and purpose of all their warring against the seede of the woman . for as nothing but the dishonour and rape of tamer , could please amnon ; and nothing but the blood of amnon , could satisfie absalom ; and nothing but the heart of absalom , could content ioab ; and nothing but the death of ioab , could pacifie salomon : so nothing but our soules , will satisfie the serpent and his seede . this is the very pricke , white , and butt , whereat they shoote all their arrowes , and lay their levell . if any shall say , this word is too big for my mouth , i wish them , first heare , and then determine . the devill by these , as through so many bowes , shootes a deadly arrowe at thy soule , as lycian pandorus did at menelaus the grecian ; but god , like pallas , turneth by the shaft , and makes it hit upon the body , goods , or good name ; as that upon the buckler of his girdle . why thinke you are all their frownes , and frumps , and censures , and scoffes ; why so many slanders , and stigmaticall nick-names raised and cast upon the religious ? why are they the alone object of their scorne and derision , but that they may flout them out of their faith , dampe , or quench the spirit , where they perceive it is kendled , but that they may baffle them out , and make them ashamed of their holy profession and religious course , and consequently pull them back to the world ; why did the heathen emperours so violently oppose , and so cruelly persecute the christians , but to make them become heathens too ? why did bonner and gardiner , with the rest of that crew , in the time of queene mary , burne at the stake all that truely profest the purity of religion , but to winne them from christ ? why did st. paul , before his conversion , breath out threatnings and slaughters against the disciples ; why did he persecute them , even to strang cities , shut up in prison , and punish them throughout all the synagogues , but that he might make them renounce christ , and his religion , and compell them to blaspheme ? as himselfe confesseth , acts , . . . why did the high priests so consult and contrive about putting lazarus to death , after he was raised ; and christ also , that raised him , but because for his fake many of the iewes went away , and beleeved in iesus ? as the holy-ghost affirmes , iohn , . . . see also chap. . . lastly , if there were not many men so cursedly wretched , as to delight in the murther of so●les ; what should holy david so much , and in so many places , use these , and the like expressions , they have laid waite for my soule , psa. . . . they rewarded me evill for good , to have spoyled my soule , psal. . . mine enemies , the wicked , compasse me round about for my soule , psa. . . they gather themselves together , and lay waite for my soule , psalme . . and many the like , which was not more his case , then it is ours : for all their ayme , when they either tempt , or afflict us , is , that they may make us square our lives , according to their rule , ( as that gyant did proportion the bodies of all his guests , to the bed of his harlot ; either by stretching out , if they wanted in length ; or cutting off , if they did exceed ) and consequently , draw us to perdition . they rather wish all damned with themselves , then any to bee freed from their owne prison : and as in the blessed , there is perfect charity ; so in the damned , there is perfect envie ; neither the good would be saved , nor the wicked would be damned alone ; wherefore they seeke to winne all they can . § . when once a man is got out of the snare of the divell , he will doe what he can , to pluck others after him . as by his sinnes and bad example , hee hath drawn others from god : so now he will , all hee can , draw others with himselfe to god ; saul converted , will build up , as fast as ever he plucked downe ; and preach , as zealously , as ever he persecuted . but take a view of each case in severall persons , and first of the godly . we read that noah and lot , hazarded their own peace and safety , ( such was their charity , to preserve theirs that afflicted them ) they did admonish others , like prophets ; and advise them , like fathers ; but both in vaine ; these holy men seemed to them as one that mocked , and they did more then seeme to mocke them againe . we read likewise , how andrew was no sooner converted , and become christ's disciple ; but instantly hee seeketh out his brother simon , to gaine him also to the same faith , iohn , . . and of philip , that he did the like to nathaniel , verse . and of the woman of samaria , that she did the like to many of her neighbours , iohn . . to . and of the twelve apostles , that so soone as they were endued with the holy ghost , they spread the gospell throughout the whole world , and with so good successe , that wee reade of three thousand soules converted , by one of them , at one time , namely , by peter ; so well did he obey christ's command , who said unto him , when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren , luk. . . yea , moses so thirsted after the salvation of israel , that rather then hee would bee saved without them , hee desired the lord , to blot him out of the booke of life , exodus . . and paul to this purpose saith , i could wish my selfe to be separated from christ , for my brethren , that age my kinsmen , according to the flesh , meaning the iewes , rom. . . their charity , and spirituall thirst after salvation , was much like the naturall thirst of alexander , who being with his troopes in the field , and in extremity of thirst , when one presentted him an helmet of water , he refused it , saying , si solus bibero , hos maeror occupabit : or that of rodolphus the emperour , who in his warres against octocarus , king of bohemia , being offered drink by a rusticke that attended his harnesse , when both he , and his whole army were ready to perish with thirst ; refused it , saying , that his thirst was for all his army , and not alone for himselfe . there is a greate dearth of reason and charity in that man , who would bee happy alone ; much more doe they desire the blessednesse of others , that are of the communion of saints : all heavenly hearts are charitable , and it is a great presumption , that hee will never finde the way to heaven , who desires to go thither single : yea , a desire to win others , is an inseparable adjunct , or relative to grace ; for it is impossible , that a man should be converted , but having got himselfe out of sathans clutches , he will seeke to draw others after him ; yea , where the heart is thankfull , and inflamed with the love of god and our neighbour , this shall be the principall aime : as that vertuous lady , which camden speakes of , having beene a leper her selfe , bestowed the greatest part of her portion , to build an hospitall for other lepers . neither can enlightened soules choose but disperse their rayes : we are no whit thankfull for our owne illumination , if we doe not looke with charity and pity , upon the grosse misse-opinions and misprisions of our brethren . it is a duty commanded by god , iud. . . tim. . . . heb. . . and every good mans meat and drink , is to doe the will of him that sent him ; and though he cannot do , what he would ; yet he will labour to do , what he can , to win others ; not to deserve by it , but to expresse his thanks . § . and as gods people would not bee saved alone , but winne all they can , knowing , society no small part of the very joyes of heaven : no more would wicked men be damned alone , but mislead all they can , thinking it some ease and comfort in misery , to have companions . as for example . what made the scribes and pharisies compasse sea and land , to make one of their profession , but that they might make him twofold more the child of hell , then themselves ? as out saviour expresly witnesseth , matth. . . yea , they shut up the kingdome of heaven ( so farre forth as they could ) and would neither goe in themselves , nor suffer others , that would have entred , to come in , v. . and what else , but this love of community , made baalam ( being a cured reprobate himselfe ) so willing ; first , to curse all israel , and after , when that would not fadge , to give such divellish counsell against them ? nnmb. . or what is the reason thinke you , of all their practises against the just now of their , tempting them , and attempting what they can against them , but this , they would discourage us in the way to heaven , beat us off from our holy profession , or being religious , and draw us backe to the world , that so they might have our company here in sinne , and hereafter in torment ? as if this were not to carry brimstone to their own fire , and to make their own bed in hell . and let such know , that how many novices , or apprentises of religion soever , have beene beaten off , by meanes of their scoffs , slanders , reproaches , or other their malicious practises against the godly ; how many soever they have forestalled with prejudice against the religious , by making their favour to stinke before their neighbours , and acquaintance , through their lies and forgeries ; so putting a sword into their hand , to slay them , as the children of israel unjustly charged moses and aaron , touching pharaoh , and his servants , ex. . . or how many soever are drawn to do and commit the like sinnes , by their example ; even so many of christs band ▪ they have ( as much as in them lyeth ) diminished , and shall one day be arraigned and condemned , not only for high treason , against our soveraign lord christ , but also for slaying so many soules with death eternall ; which sin , having a reward of torment answerable , ( as i shall shew anon ) must of necessity , bring upon them more then double damnation . wherefore let them , more wisely then dives , looke to it in time , take heed of powring water upon the fire of the spirit , which had more need of kendling , then of quenching ; and beating down the weake hands and knees , which should rather bee listed up for god , and against sathan . and thus you see that drunkards , and all wicked men , ( whose meat and drink it is , to doe the will of their father ) ayme at our eternall ruine , as the divell did at the ruine of our first parents , and their off-spring ; and how could they doe so , if they did not partake of the divells nature yea , if they were not quite changed from men into divels ? § . but see other two reasons , why they desire community in the burning lake , and why they make no bones of soule-murther , the first is this , they know themselves irrecoverably lost , and therefore they are desperate , because they cannot rise themselves , they would ruine all ; they know , they have so grievously offended god , and so despited the spirit of grace , so ●inned against knowledg , and conscience , and so often reiterated theirabominations , that they are become so incurable , and past hope of remedy , that no medicine , can helpe them , as god speaks , touching the sorrowes of the iewes by ieremiah , chap. . . . . as sometimes it fares with a sicke patient , who while he hath hope of cure , is willing to abstaine from such meats as are dangerous ▪ and hurtfull for him ; but knowing his disease incurable , forbeareth nothing that he likes , and likes onely those things which are most forbidden him ; so the proverb is verified in them , over shoes , over bootes , yea , which is desperate , over shoulders . as a man sinking into the deepe water , catcheth hold of him that is next him : so men diving into the bottome of iniquity , pull downe their adherents : and how can they more lively prove themselves the divells children , whose ayme it hath ever beene , seeing hee must of necessity bee wretched , not to bee wretched alone ? it is little content to them to bee reprobates , except they have company . wherefore as falling lucifer drew numerous angells with him : so all his agents and adherents , as firebrands , in burning themselves , burne others ; the divell out of malice misleades them , and they others : what wretched companiouns then are these men ! the lord grant wee may know no more of them , then by hearesay . § secondly , there is another winning reason , why they strive so after community : for you must know , the devill propounds to them and they to themselves , some appearance of good in every thing they doe . they thinke it some ease and comfort , in misery to have companions , yea , the more , the merrier , thinke they , as sorrowes devided among many , are borne more easily : it is some kinde of ease to sorrow , to have partners ; as a burthen is lightned , by many shoulders : divers backs will carry a greater burthen , with lesse paine ; or as clouds scattered into many drops , easily vent their moysture into ayre : many small brookes meeting , and concurring in one channell , will carry great vessells : yea , our griefes are lessened , our joyes enlarged , our cares lightned , by one friendly associate . in all heates of anguish , good assistance and society breathes some coole ayre of comfort : when paul must answer before nero , he complaines , that no man stood with him , but all men forsooke him , tim. . . and certainely , it was a plague upon a plague ; to the leper , that he was condemned to live alone : it cannot but aggravate their sicknesse , which are now pent up , by reason of this visitation , and compelled to be sicke without any visitant , either to ease , or pity them . the comfort of fugitives is , that ther● be many fugitives ; we know nothing seemes to fall , where everything falls ; a generall disease , is a particular health : whereupon the curt taild fox , in the fable , endeavoured to have all foxes curtaild . they have a whimsie in thei● braines , much like that of amurath , who , at the taking of isthmus , sacrificed six hundred young grecians to his fathers soule , to the end , their blood might serve as a propitiation , to expiate the sinnes of the deceased . wherein they imitate the dragon , which is very desirous of the elephants blood , for the coldnesse of it , wherewith she desires to be cooled ; or the great cham , who whensoever he dyeth , takes order , that ten , or twelve thousand tartars be slaine , to accompany his death . but ala●●e poore soules ! they are much mistaken , in thinking it will either comfort , or ease them , to have fellowship in torment : for though by the multitude , of participants , the joyes of heaven are enlarged ; yet hereby the sorrowes of hell are much increased ; for know this , thou tempter , that thou dost not more increase other mens wickednesse on earth , ( whether by perswasion , or provocation , or example ) then their wickednesse shall increase thy damnation in hell , as is plainely seene in the case of dives ; for what made that damned churle move for his brethren ( seeing there is no charity in hell ) but that he felt , every step they followed of his leading , to increase the pile of his torments , luk. . non fratres dilexit , sed seipsum respexit , he desired not their salvation , but his owne lesse damnation . againe , this is made good , gen. . where the serpent is cursed , for makeing eve transgresse ; and eve , for makeing her husband sinne . yet such is the implacable enmity , and unchangeable malice of the serpent , and his seede ; of the prince of darkenesse , and these his adherents , against the children of light , that they will enhance their owne damnations , to procure other mens ; rather make their owne fire hotter , then not labour to bring others to the participation of their owne torments ; yea , though their consciences tell them , that such a bitter roote shall answer for it selfe , and for all the corrupt branches , yes they will endure more grievous misery , to have a more numerous society . and so much of the warre which god proclaimed , betweene sathan and christ , and their reigiments , the wicked and the godly . if you would know the originall , and meritorious cause of this proclamation ; it was adam's sinne , in eating the forbidden fruit ; and sathan's malice , in moving and seduceing him thereunto ; the originall of this discord , is from originall sinne . § . vvee have got through the greatest part , and are past by the principall stages of the drunkards progresse ; there is but one mile further , of about eight short furlongs , to goe , and we have overcome it ; yea , to speake truth ▪ i am now at the top of the hill , and shall , after a short pause , goe downe faster then i went up . but let us make a stand here , and looke backe upon what we have past , since section ( . ) from which stage hitherto , i have shown how drunkards imitate that old serpent the devill . in tempting enforceing to sinne , and in drawing to perdition . after a review taken , let any stander by ( for being no wayes a party , i referre it to him ) say , whether sathan be so much beholding to any men alive as to them ; whether he hath any servants , that doe him such faithfull service ; any factors , that make him a better returne of soules ; any generall , that subdues so many souldiers to him ; any advocates , which pleade so hard for him , as the true drunkard ; i presume he cannot nominate , or thinke of one ▪ i consesse , a beautifull whorish woman ( another of the devills lime-twigs ) who hath a flattering tongue , pro. . . smooth and enticeing words , pro. . . lips which drop like an hony combe , and a mouth 〈◊〉 soft then oyle , pro. . . as salomon speaks ▪ doth the devill singular good service in the businesse of tempting ; for infinite are the soules , which these artificial paradises have beguiled ; yea , it cannot be denied , but sathan is more beholding to the face , then to all the body besides . for as through an hell upon earth , god brings many to heaven : so through an heaven upon earth , many bring themselves to hell. and she hath one priviledge above other tempters , for , cockatrice-like , she killeth with her very ●ight ; yea , she is able to take a man , with her very eye-lids , pro. . . which makes the wise man say , that many have perished by the beauty of women , ecclus. . . yet neverthelesse , let her have as many lovers , as toringa once had ( who attempting to count them upon her fingers , was forc't to call for a bushell of pease , before she could number them all ) and strength like rotorus , who contracted with a notable pirate , to serve the turne of him and him hundred souldiers : and 〈◊〉 will as free as dunkerke , which bids 〈◊〉 to all commers , so that any 〈◊〉 fellow may ride her post to the devill , with a golden bit ; she shal never be able to fil hel ( her body wil not hold out ) nor help to people that infernall kingdom ; as some drunkards doe , that are gifted thereafter . the which considered , together with his other sinnes of idlenesse , epicurisme , adultery , murther , his vaine babling , scurrilous jesting , wicked talking , impious swearing , atheisme , &c. ( for he hath treble heads to cerberus , that ugly porter of hell ) proves him the king , or chiefe of sinners , as the basiliske is called the king of serpents ; and not onely shewes them to be children of the devill , as they were long since , but to be really metamorphosed into devills , as lots wife was really metamorphosed into a pillar of salt , and vlysses companions into hogs and dogs , and cadmus , with his wife , into serpents : yea ; certainely , if the devill would change his properties , he would put himselfe into the person , and appropriate to himself the very qualities of some drunkard ; how ever , he chooseth drunkards to be his instruments , to t●mpt , rather then other sinners , because they are more fit for it , then any other ; as of all the creatures which god made , he chose the serpent , an instrument , to tempt eve , because it was more subtile then any beast of the field . gen. . . as also for the naturall affection which they bare to him , above other men ; for the drunkard loves sathan so extreamely , that , for the most part , he either swims to him in blood , or sailes to him in a vessell of wine , before nature summons him to depart , and will needs be tormented before the time . all which their zeale , industry , and fervent affection , to doe the will of their father , should teach and stirre up go●s people to the like zeale , industry , and fervent affection , to doe the will of their father . their voluntary lewdnesse , calls for our dutifull and more zealous obedience ; that our god may have as faithfull ●ervants , as he hath unfaithfull enemies . shall wicked men be at more cost and paines , to please an ill master ; then we can afford to please so good a god , so gracious , so loving a father ? shall they labour so hard , for that which shall confound them ; and shall we thinke any paines too much , for that which shall 〈◊〉 us ? is it their meate and drinke to doe mischiefe ; and shall good duties downe as a potion with us ? this were to acknowledge more venome in the seede of the serpent , then there is health in the seede of the woman . indeed , the world could not stand before us , if our truth might be but as hotly followed as their falsehood . o that our god , whose cause we maintaine , would inkendle our hearts , with the fire of holy zeale , but so much as sathan hath inflamed theirs , with the fire of fury and faction o saviour , it was thy meate and drinke to doe the will of thy father , how doe we follow thee , if we suffer either pleasures , or profits to take the wall of thy services ? but of this elsewhere . § . for i consider , that both by gods , and mans law , next after inditement and conviction , followes sentence ; and after sentence is past , comes execution ; if a reprive , or pardon be not use out , in the 〈◊〉 . wherefore , as drunkards have seene their sinne laid open , so let them now hearken to their punishment ▪ if there be any of these antipodes to god and his kingdome , who like trees , have rooted both head and heart into the earth , and set heaven at their heeles , that have in this treatise , as in a picture , taken a full view of his owne horrid and detestable condition , and with b●palus the pain●e● , read the lively character of his odious and deformed demeanour ; and after hee hath seene , as in a cleare glasse , the ugly face of his foule heart , with those spots and wrinkles , which otherwise hee could not have confest in himselfe , and further seene how miserably hee hath been deluded in his judgement , touching the religious ; and shall notwithstanding resolve against yeelding , and presence the humouring of his soule , before the saveing of it , and shall thinke it a disparagement to repent him of his errors , and would rather obstinetely continue in them , then disclame them ; so shutting his eyes , that hee may not see ; and stopping hes eares , that hee may not heare ; and hardening his heart , that he may not consider ; presumptuously , as pharaoh did ; maliciously , as 〈◊〉 did ; desperately , as ahab did ; and blasphemously , as iulian did ; let him know this , that he shall surely perish . the reason of it , is taken out of the proverbs , an arrow drawne out of salomen's sententions quiver , read the words , and tremble , a man that hardneth his neck , when he is rebuked , shall suddenly be destroyed , and cannot be cured , prov. . . yea , faith the lord himselfe , prov. . . . . because i have called , and ye refused ; i have stretched out mine hand , and ye would not regard , but despised al my counsell ; i will also laugh at your destraction , and mock when your feare commeth . and of this we have sundry instances . the sonnes of ely would not harken unto , nor obey the voyce of their father , why ? because ( saith the text ) the lord was determined to destroy them , samuel . . their hearts must be hardened , that they may be destroyed . i know , ( saith the prophet to amaziah ) that god hat determined to destroy thee , because thou hast done this , and hast not obeyed my counsell , chr. . . . o remember that there is a day of account , a day of death , a day of judgement comming , wherein the lord iesus christ shall bee revealed from heaven , with his mighty angells , in flaming fire , to render vengeance unto them which obey not unto his gospell , and to punish them , with everlasting perdition from the presence of the lord , and from the glory of his power , . thes. . , , . iude . wisdome . . to . at which time thou shalt heare him pronounce this fearefull doome , depart from me ye cursed , matth. . . which is an everlasting departure , not for a day , nor for yeares of dayes , nor for millions of yeares , but for eternity ; and that from christ to the damned , to the divells , to hell , without either end , or ease , or patience to endure it ; at which time , within thee shall bee thine owne guilty conscience , more then a thousand witnesses , to accuse thee ; the divell , who now tempts thee to all thy wickednesse , shall on the one side , testifie with thy conscience against thee ; and , on the other side , shall stand the holy saints and angels , approving christ's justice , and detesting so filthy a creature ; behinde thee , an hidious noyse of innumerable fellow damned reprobates ; tarrying for thy company ; before thee , all the world burning in a flaming fire ; aboue thee , that irefull judge of deserved vengeance , ready to pronounce the same sentence upon thee ; beneath thee , the fiery and sulphureous mouth of the bottomlesse pit , gaping to receive thee ; into which being cast , thou shalt ever bee falling downe , and never meet a bottome ; and in it thou shalt ever lament , and none shall pitie thee ; for thou shalt have no society but the divell and his angells ; who being tormented themselves , shall have no other ease , but to wreak their fury in tormenting thee ; thou shalt alwayes weep for paine of the fire , and yet gnash thy teeth in indignation , for the extremity of cold ; thou shalt weep to think , that thy miseries are past remedy ; to think , that to repent is to no purpose ; thou shalt weep to thinke , how for the shadow of a few short pleasures ( if they could bee called pleasures ) thou hast incurred these sorrowes of eternall paines , which shall last to all eternity : thy conscience shall ever sting thee , like an adder , when thou thinkest , how often christ by his preachers offered thee remission of sinnes , and the kingdome of heaven freely , if thou wouldest but believe and repent ; and how easily thou mightest have obtained mercy in those dayes , how neere thou wast many times to have epented , and yet did dest suffer the divell and the world to keep thee still impenitent ; and how the day of mercy is now past , and will never dawne againe , for thou shalt one day finde , that conscience is more then a thousand witnesses , and god more then a thousand consciences . § . if you will not believe mee , yet at least believe pharaoh , who in the rich mans scalding rtorments hath a discite a me , learne of me ; he can testifie , out of wofull experience , that if wee will not take warning by the word ( that gentle warner ) the next shall be harder ; the third and fourth , harder then that ; yea , as al the ten plagues did exceede one another , so the eleventh single , exceeds them all together : innumerable are the curses of god against finners , but the last is the worst , comprehending and transcending al the rest ; the fearefullest plagues god still reserves for the upshot , all the former doe but make way for the last . when the dreame , and the miracle , and the prophet had done what they could upon nebuchadnezzar ; god calls forth his temporall judgements , and bids them see what they can doe ; if they will not yet serve , he hath eternal ones , which will make them repent every veine of their hearts and soules , that they did not repent sooner . oh that i could give you but a glimpse of it , that you did but see it , to the end you might never feele it , that so you might be won , if not out of faith , yet out of feare ; for certainly , this were the hopefullest meanes of prevention : for though diverse theeves have robd passengers , within sight of the gallowes ; yet if a sinner could see but one glimpse of hell , or bee suffered to looke one moment into that fiery lake ; hee would rather choose to dye tenne thousand deaths , then commit one sinne : and indeed , therefore are wee dissolute , because we doe not thinke what a judgement there is after our dissolution ; because wee make it the least and last thing we thinke on ; yea , it is death , wee think , to think upon death , and we cannot indure that dolefull bell , which summons us to judgement . something you have heard of it here , and in section the . but , alasse ! i may as well with a cole paint out the sunne in all his splendor , as with my pen , or tongue , expresse the joyes of heaven ( which they willingly part withall ) or those torments of hell ( which they strive to purchase ) for as one said , that nothing but the eloquence of tully could sufficiently set forth tullie's eloquence : so none can expresse those everlasting torments , but hee that is from everlasting , to everlasting ; and should either man , or angell , goe about the worke , when ( with that philosopher ) hee had taken a seven-nights time to consider of it , hee might aske a fortnight more , and at the fortnights end , a moneth more , and be at his wits end , at the worlds end , before he could make a satisfiing answer , otherthen his was , that the longer he thought of it , the more difficult he found it : alasse ! the paine of the body , is but the body of paine ; the anguish of the soule , is the soule of anguish . § . but to be everlastingly in hell , to lye for ever in a bed of quenchles flames , is not all : for as thy sinnes have exceeded , so shall thy sufferings exceed ; as thou hast had a double portion of sinne to other men here , so thou shalt have a double portion of torment to them hereafter ; the number and measure of torments , shall be according to the multitude and magnitude of offences ; mighty sinners shall be mightily punished , for god will reward every man according to his workes , revel . . . . and . . as our workes are better or worse , so shall our joyes in heaven , our paines in hell bee more or lesse ; as every one hath beene more wicked , he shall bee more wretched ; capernaum exceeding sodome and gomorrah in sin , shall feele also an excesse of punishment ; and the willfull servant shall receive more stripes , then the ignorant , luk. ● . . . mat. . which being so , viz. that every man shall be punished according to merit ; what will become of thee ? surely thy sins are so prodigious , that they scorne any proportion under a whole volume of plagues . but see wherein thy sinnes exceed other mens , that shall go to the same place of torment , how every sinne receiveth weight and increase in regard of circumstances , and how thou , after thine hardnes and heart which cannot repent , heapest unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath , and of the declaration of the just judgment of god , who will reward every man according to his workes , rom. . , . the particulars which greaten , aggravate , and adde weight to thy sinnes , and make them above measure sinfull , are so diverse and sundry , that i may not insist upon all ; yet some are of such import , that i dare not omit them . first , the civill justitiary , who omi●t●th the performance of those good duties which the law require●h , is in a damnable condition ; but thou in a farre worse , who wilfully runnest on in the commission of those sinnes , which the law flatly forbids . it was the not slaying of agag . sam. . that lost saul his kingdome , and the favour of god. the not circumcising of moses his first borne . exodus . had like to have cost him his life . the not relieving of poore lazarus , luk. . was the rich mans ruine . it was not the evill servants spending his masters money , which cast him into prison , but the not gaining with it ; he did not evill with his talent , no , it was enough to condemne him , that he did nothing with it . now if barrennesse bee sent into the fire , how can rapine looke to escape ? if omission of good works be whipped with rodds , surely commission of impieties shall be scourged with scorpions . the old world did but eat , and drink , build , and plant , marry and bee merry , and were swept away with the beesom of an universall deluge : which things were in themselves lawfull : what then shall become of lyers , swearers , drunkards , adulterers , malicious monsters , scandalous sinners , whose workes are in themselves simply unlawfull ? if the civily righteous shall not bee saved in that great and terrible day , where then shall all ungodly drunkards , and deboyshed swilbowles appeare ? heaven is our goale , we all runne : loe the scribes and pharisies are before thee ; what safty can it bee to come short of those , that come short of heaven ? except your righteousnes exceed , &c. meroz was cursed by the angell , because they came not to helpe the lord , in the day of battell , iudges . . they fought not against god , yet because they did not fight for him , they are cursed . and if they that stand in a luke-warm neutrality shall be spewed up , sure the palpable and notorious offender , who takes up armes against god , and opposes all goodnesse , shall bee trodden under foot of a provoked justice . o consider this , and lay it to heart , you , that commit sinnes of all sorts and sizes ; you , that can tear heaven with your blasphemies , and bandy the dreadfull name of god in your impure mouthes , by your bloody oaths and execrations ; yee that dare exercise your saucy wits in prophane scoffes at religion ; yee that can neigh after strange flesh &c. § . secondly , the sinnes which thou committest are against knowledge and conscience , and so farre greater then the same sinnes , if another should doe them ignorantly . the servant that knowes his masters will , and if he doe it not , is a greater sinner , and shall indure a greater punishment , then hee which neglects the same , not knowing it , luk. . . . to know and not obey , doth but teach god how to condemne us ; the greater light wee have , the more shame it is for us to stumble . anaxagoras that saw the sunne , and yet denyed it , is condemned , not of ignorance , but of impiety . the infidell disputes against the faith , the impious lives against it , both deny it ; the one in termes , the other in deeds ; both are enemies to the gospell ; but of the two , it is worst to kick against the thorns , wee see , then to stumble in the darke at a block , which we see not : it shall go ill with sinnefull pagans , but worse with wicked christians ; for the thistell in the forrest shall not fare so ill , as the barren figgtree in the vineyard , the vine fruitlesse , is of all trees most uselesse : the daughter of sion would never have beene so notorious an harlot , had shee not first beene so rare a virgin : iulian and lucifer had been lesse damned , if the one , had not beene a christian ; and the other , an angell of light . reade wee not that the sinnes of the iewes were greater , then the sinnes of the gentiles ? because , in iury god was known , and his name great in israel ; it was not so , saith the holy ghost , with other nations , neither have the heathen knowledge of his wayes ; so the sinnes of us christians ( other circumstances being matches ) are greater , then the sinnes of the iewes ; because our knowledge is more , or may be more ; they had but an aspersion , line to line , here a little , and there a little ; we have an effusion , asts . . i will powre out my spirit upon all flesh . for if simple ignorance find no mercy ; what cloak is long enough , to cover wilfull and affected ignorance ? certainly , if nescience be beaten with stripes , willfull impiety shall be burned with fire ; sinne , even in ignorance , is a talent of leade ; but sinne , after knowledge , is a milstone , to sinke a man to the lowest . if flaming fire be their portion that know not god , and could not ; how terrible shall their vengeance be , that might know him and would not ? howsoever men live , or dye , without the pale of the church , a wicked christian , who either doth , or may know the whole revealed will of god , shall bee sure of plagues . o how many at that dreadfull day ( when god's revenges have found them out ) shall unwish themselves christians , or wish that the gospell and they had never beene acquainted ? yea , how will they in hell curse their knowledge , and unprofitably wish , that they had beene ideots or infidels , and never had so much as heard of christ ; when they shall find this glorious light , a meanes to promote them to a higher place in the kingdome of darknesse , and procure to them , a greater revenew of torment then others have , who know lesse ? for he who is ignorant of , or neglects his owne salvation , all his knowledge tendeth to his greater condemnation : to know good , and doe evill , makes a mans owne mittimus to hell. if with baalam and iudas , we have knowledge in the head , without holinesse in the heart ; we shall , with vriah and bellerophon , but carry letters to cut our owne throates ; or with that servant in the comedy , carry sathan a speciall warrant , to bind us hand and foot , and cast us into everlasting fire . § . thirdly , as in sin there is sundry steps and degrees , whereby one and the same sinne , may be lessened , or increased ; so thou doest mightily increase the guilt of thy sinne this way . as for example . it is a fearefull thing to omit good ; more fearefull , to commit evill ; ( as i have shewed ) but worse , to delight in sinne ; worse then that , to defend it ; but worse then worst , to boast of it ; which is an usuall thing with thee . or thus , hee doth bad enough , that sins through infirmity , being led captive against his will , to doe foule crimes ; but thou doest incomparably worse , who sinnest presumtuously , and of se● purpose , yea , of obstinate and resolved malice against god , and his image ( as i shall in due place prove ) sining , not only without all shame , but not without malice ; insomuch that it is thy least ill , to doe evill ; for behold , thou speakest for it , joyest in it , boastest of it , enforcest to it , mockest them that dislike it ; as if thou wouldest send challenges into heaven , and make love to destruction . fourthly , thy sinnes exceed and weigh downe other mens , that shall goe to the same place of torment , because they are so open and scandalous ; for he that sinnes publikely , to the dishonour of god and religion , is a greater offender , then if hee did the same at home , and in private . sinne that is done abroad , ceaseth to be single , for it is many sinnes in one , and that in a double respect ; it stumbles others , it infects others . first , it stumbles others , and this doth much to increase it . it did wonderfully aggravate david's sin , that it caused the enemies of god to blaspheme : and made the sinne of elie's sons ( whose scandalous lives , made men abhorre the offerings of the lord ) so heynous , that god even swore unto ely , that the wickednesse of his house should not bee purged with sacrifice , nor offering for ever , sam. . . o the difference between thy practise , and what it ought to be : christians ought to be blameles , pure , and without rebuke , yea , to shine as lights to other men , in the middest of a naughty and crooked nation , phil. . . whereas thou by thy deboyshed life : and abominable licenciousnes , doest scandalize the gospell and true religion , yea , make it odious to turkes and infidels , according to that of the apostle rom. . . secondly , it infects others , in which regard , saith i siodore , it is a greater offence to sinne openly then secretly ; for he is doubly faulty , who both doeth , and teacheth the same . to sinne before the face of god , is to dishonour him ; but withall to sinne before the face of men , whereby others are taught and incouraged to doe the like , is doubly to dishonour him . an exemplary offender , is like a malicious man sicke of the plague , that runs into the throng to disperse his infection , whose mischiefe outweighes all penalty : many an israelite committed fornication , and yet upon repentance got pardon ; but zimry that would doe it impudently , in the face of god and man , was sure to perish . § . fiftly , this aggravates thy guilt exceedingly , in that thou addest sinne to sinn ; as first , thou committest drunkennesse , and then in the necke of that thou blasphemest god , slanderest thy neighbour , seducest thy friend , committest adultery , murther , &c. as thou best knowest the wickednesse , whereunto thy heart is privie : when for a lesse matter then one of these , that worldling forfeited his soule , luk. . . againe , thou aggravatest thy guilt , by multiplying of sinne , that is , by falling often into the same wickednesse ; and hereby sathan makes sure worke , for though the devill be the father , lust the mother , consent the midwife , sinne the child , and death the portion ; yet all is like to miscarry , if custome become not an indulgent nurse , to breede up the ●ame till it come to an habit . sathan first twines certaine small threads together of seeming profit , pleasure , &c. and so makes a little cord of vanity , therewith to draw us unto him ; and afterwards composeth of such lesser cords twisted together , that cart-rope , or cable ( custome of iniquity ) and therewith he seekes to bind men fast unto him for starting ; for when ●inne , by custome and long practice , is growne to an habit , this is sinne in perfection , or the perfection of sinne ; because custome in sinne , brings hardnesse of heart ; hardnesse of heart , impenitency ; and impenitency , damnation . yet this by the way is to be noted and remembred , that men of yeares liveing in the church , are not simply condemned for their particular sinnes , but for their continuance and residence in them : sinnes committed make men worthy of damnation , but liveing and abiding in them , without repentance , is that which brings damnation upon them : such as live within the precincts of the church , shall be condemned for the very want of true faith and repentance . § . sixthly , thy judgment shall not onely be increased , according to thy sinnes ; but god will therefore adjudge thee , to so much the f●rer and severer condemnation , by how much thy meanes of repentance hath beene greater . if i had not come and sp●ken unto them ( saith our saviour ) they should not have ●ad 〈◊〉 ; but now have they no cloake for their sinne , iohn , . . ordinary disobedience in the time of grace ; and wilfull neglect of gods call , in the abundance of meanes , is a great deale more damnable , then the commission of sinne in the dayes of ignorance and blindnesse , when the like meanes are wanting . those gentiles , the ninivites , were more righteous then the iewes , in that they repented at the voice of one prophet , yea , and that with one sermon ; whereas the iewes refused and resisted all the prophets , which god sent among them ; but the iewes who resisted our saviour christ's doctrine , and put him to death , were more righteous then such as amongst us are scoffers at religion , and antipodes to the power of grace , they were never convinced that he was the messias , sent from god to redeeme the world , as all , or almost all are , that call themselves christians , because they professe themselves members of christ , and protestants , in token that they are ready to protest against , and resist all such as are professed enemies to , and opposers of christs gospell . as for the heathen philosophers , who knew not god in christ , they are more righteous then wicked christians beyond compare , for they beleeved as pagans , but lived as christians : wheras such beleeve as christians , but live like pagans : yea , many of them would have beene ashamed to speake that , which many of these are not ashamed to doe : and though we are unworthy to be called christians , if we professe him in name , and be not like him in workes ; yet the most part of men amongst us proclaime to the world , that they have never thought whether they are going to heaven or hell. there be many professed christians , but few imitaters of christ : we have so much science , and so little conscience ; so much knowledge , and so little practise ; that to thinke of it , would move wonder to astonishment , had not our lord told us , that , even amongst those that heare the gospell , three parts of the good seede falls upon bad ground . the common protestant is of baalam's religion , that would dye the death of the righteous : but no more , ioshua's resolution ; i and my house will serve the lord , is growne quite out of credit with the world : and there are more banquerupts in religion , then of all other professions : but let men take heede , least by their disobedience they lose their second paradise , as our originall parents did their first . if we are commanded to exceede scribes and pharisees in our righteousnesse , then those that come short of the ethnick pagans , what torments shall they suffer ? ierusalem is said to justifie sodom ; yet were the sodomites in hell ; now if we justifie hierusalem , sure we shall lye lower in hell , then either the sodomites , or the iewes ; for we are so much the worse , by how much we might have beene better . § . but see how many wayes god hath called thee , how many meanes he hath used , that he might winne thee to repentance . first , the holy scriptures are , as it were , an epistle sent unto thee from heaven , and written by god himselfe , to invite and call thee to repentance : and therein christ himselfe no lesse saith unto thee from heaven , when thou art drinking , swearing , mocking , scoffing , deriding , enuying , hateing , opposing , and persecuting any that beleeve in him , then once he did to saul , why persecutest thou me ? i am iesus whom thou persecutest ; it is hard for thee to kicke against the prickes : for whatsoever the spirit speaketh generally , or specially in the word , is the voice of the whole trinity , and intended particularly to thee , and to me , and to every man single , his case being the same : what ▪ dost thou looke for caine or iudas to come out of hell to warne thee ? it is sufficient their sinne and punishment is written for thy learning . but this is not all ; for though he calls chiefely by his word , yet he doth not call onely by it ; for never any thing happened unto thee in thy whole life , whether thou receivest benefits , or punishments ; hearedst threatnings , exhortations , or promises , from any his embassadors of the ministery , but all , whether faire meanes , or foule , have beene sent from god , to invite and call thee to faith and repentance ; he even therefore threatens hell , ( saith st. chrysostome ) that he may not punish thee by the same . all gods blessings are like so many suters , woing thee to repentance ; yea , they put on even the formes of clyents , and petition thee for repentance ; his afflictions are embassadors , sent to treat with thee about a league , which cannot be had without repentance ; all the creatures of god , ordained for thy use , are so many silent sermons , so many trumpets , that summon thee to repentance ; in briefe , wherefore doth the spirit of grace knock at the dore of thine heart , with such infinite checks , and holy motions , but that he would come in ? and he will not come in , till repentance hath swept the house . why wast thou not with thy harlot , like zimry in the armes of cozby , smitten in the act of thy adultery ? why was not thy soule and hers , sent coupled to the fire of torment , as your bodies were undevided in the flame of uncleannesse ? while thy mouth is opened to sweare and blaspheme , why is it not instantly fild with fire and brimstone ? when thou art dead drunke , why art thou suffered to wake againe alive , but this , god waites ( as in the parable of the fig tree , luk. . ) another , and another yeare , to try whether thou wilt bring forth the fruit of repentance , and new obedience ? yet presume not ; for as when men give long day , they expect larger payment ; so does god , or for default thereof , conferres a heavier doome ; the first fellony may s●ape , in hope of amendment ; but the second , much more the seventh , meetes with ( as well it deserves ) a halter . yea , of this be sure , if gods long suffering workes no reformation , this silent judge will at last speake home . the elephant suffers many injuries from the inferiour beasts ; but warre being too farre provoked , his revenge is more extreame , then his patience was remisse : and the higher the axe is lifted up , the deeper it cuts . but what doe i nominating particulars , when thou hast had more warnings , and invitations , then thou hast haires on thy head : gods benefits offered thee in christ ( and they all solicit thee to repent ) are without number , though thy sinnes strive with them , which shall be more . if thou couldest count the numberlesse number of creatures , they would not be answerable , to the number of his gifts ; though the number of thine offences , which thou returnest in liew of them , are not much inferiour . not to enter into particulars , which were endlesse , but to give you the summe or epitomy of them ; for i had rather presse you with weight , then oppresse you with number of arguments . the lord christ hath not onely ransomed thee from infinite evills here , and everlasting torments hereafter ; but also purchased every good thing thou dost enjoy , whether for soule , or body , even to the very bread thou eatest , and that with the price of his owne precious blood ; and , as if all this were too little , he reserveth for thee such pleasures at his right hand , as never entred into the heart of man to conceive ; and to the end onely , that thou shouldest serve , and set forth the praise of his name , who hath done all this . as he descended into hell , that we might never come thither ; so he ascended into heaven , to prepare a place for us , which we have no right unto . what should i say ? if we looke inward , we finde our creator's mercies ; if we looke upward , his mercy reacheth unto the heavens ; if downeward , the earth is full of his goodnesse , and so is the broad sea ; if we looke about us , what is it that he hath not given us ? ayre , to breath in ; fire , to warme us ; water , to coole and cleanse us ; cloathes ▪ to cover us ; foode , to nourish us ; fruits , to refresh us ; yea , delicates , to please us ; beasts , to serve us ; angells , to attend us ; heaven , to receive us ; and , which is above all , his owne sonne to redeeme us . whithersoever we turne our eyes we cannot looke besides his bounty . o consider of these his mercies , you that forget god ; and then , though there were no hell , no punishment for sinne , yet you would not transgresse . hast thou any braines , or heart to conceive what it is he hath bestowed , what thou hast received , what thou hast deserved ? no surely , for if thou hadst braines , and wert a wise man , it would make thee mad , as salomon speakes in another sense , eccl. . . or if thou hadst a heart not like a stone , or an adamant , the consideration of gods love , and thy odious unthankefulnesse , would make it split and breake in peeces . but heare it againe . first , thou wert created by him a man , and not a beast : in england , not in aethiopia ; in this cleare and bright time of the gospell , not in the darkenesse of paganisme , or popery . secondly , thou wert redeemed out of hell by his precious blood ; he spared not himselfe , that his father might spare thee . oh thinke what flames the damned endure , which thou mayst escape , if thou wilt thy selfe ; me thinkes this should melt a heart of adamant . thirdly , he hath preserved thee here from manyfold dangers of body and soule . fourthly , he hath all thy life long plentifully and graciously blessed thee with many and manifold good things . and lastly , promised thee not onely felicity on earth , but in heaven , if thou wilt serve him . § . besides , as these mercies are great in themselves , so our unworthinesse doth greater them more , being shewed to us , who are no lesse rebellious to him , then he is beneficiall to us . and is all this nothing to move thee ? dost thou thus requite him ? art thou so farre from loveing and fearing him , that thou hatest others , which doe ? o monstrous ingratitude ! oh foolish man , to looke for other , then great , then double damnation ! o that such soveraigne favours as these , should not onely not profit thee , but turne to thy destruction , through thy wilfull , blind , and perverse nature ! he is thy lord , by a manifold right ; his tenure of us is diversly held , and thou his servant by all manner of obligations ; indeed our tenure of him is but single , he is ours onely by faith in christ , gal. . . first , he is thy lord by the right of creation , thou being his workmanship , made by him . secondly , by the right of redemption , being his purchase , bought by him . thirdly , of preservation , being kept , upheld , and maintained by him . fourthly , thou art his by uocation , even of his family , having admitted thee a member of his visible church . fifthly , his also ( if it be not thine owne fault ) by sanctification , whereby he possesseth thee . sixtly , and lastly , he would have thee of his court by glorification , that he might crowne thee every way his . yea , he hath removed so many evills , and conferred so many good things upon thee , that they are beyond thought or imagination ; for if the whole heaven were turned to a booke , and all the angells deputed writers , they could not set downe all the good , which christ hath done us . now favours bestowed , and deliverances from danger , binds to gratitude ; and the more bonds of duty , the more plagues for neglect . hath god contrived so many wayes to save us , and shall not we take all occasions to glorifie him ? hath he done so much for us , and shall we deny him any thing that he requires , though it were our lives , yea our soules , much more our lusts ? we have hard hearts , if the blood of the lambe cannot soften them ; stony bowells , if so many mercies cannot melt us . was he crucified for our sinnes , and shall we , by our sinnes , crucifie him againe ? doe we take his wages , and doe his enemy service ? is this the fruit of his benificence , of our thankfulnesse ? is this th● recompence of his love , to doe that which he hates , and hate those whom he loves ? o for shame thinke upon it , and at his instance be perswaded , by whose blood you were redeemed from all these evills , and interrested in all these good things . the apostle could not finde out a more heart-breaking argument , to enforce a sacrificing of our selves to god , then to conjure us by the mercies of god in christ , rom. . . and indeed , we could not be unthankefull , if we thought upon what the lord gives , and what he forgives : but if the thought of these things will not move thee , lord have mercy upon thee . for , as it is a fearefull marke of a reprobate , alwayes to abuse gods mercy and patience , to the hardening of our selves in our evill courses : so good turnes aggravate unkindnesses , and our offences are increased with our obligations : yea , there is not one of these favours , of those warnings , which i have mentioned , or which thou hast received , that shall not once be a wirnesse against thee , as appeares by , sam. . where god saith unto ely , by the prophet , did not i doe such and such things for thee , and thy fathers house , wherefore then hast thou done thus and thus ? and likewise by chap. . where the lord reproving saul for his disobedience , exceedingly aggravates his sinne , by what he had formerly done for him : yea , how doth the lord by the prophet nathan aggravate davids fact , by repeating the many and severall favours , and deliverances , which formerly he had extended to him , sa. . . to . § yea , even this very booke shall be a witnesse , and rise up in judgement against thee ( as plutarch told trajane the emperour , touching his letter of advise ) and those very eyes that read it , and that understanding , and will , which hath conceived , and consented unto the equity and truth of it , shall be cited as witnesses against thee . and , in the meane time , thou shalt never hereafter drinke , sweare , whore , seduce , hate , persecute , or reproach any for well doing , but thy conscience , as a sergeant , shall arrest thee upon it ; yea , this booke shall gnaw thee at the heart , with a memorandum of hell , that thou shalt with , o that i could abandon my sinnes , or else that i had never had such a warning . but then , perhaps , the gate of mercy will bee shut , and though thou wouldest gladly repent , yet it will be too late , then shalt thou begin to say ; o what a warning had i such a time , what an opportunity did i then let slip ! woe is me , that ever i was borne ; and woe is me , that ever i had such a warning , which cannot choose but double my damnation hereafter , as now it doubles my feare and horror . even thus , and no otherwise will it fare with thee , when once thine eyes are opened : and opened they shall be , for though sathan , and thy corrupt conscience doe sleep , and suffer thee to sleep for a while , yet , at least upon thy death bed , or in hell , when there shall bee no more hope , or meanes of recovery , they will both wake against thee , and awaken thee up , to everlasting anguish and unquietnesse : yea , god shall once enliven , and make quick the sense of thy benummed conscience , and make thee know his power , which wouldest never take notice of his goodnesse ; he will then teach thee with a vengeance , as gid●on taught the men of succoth vvith briers and thorns . those carelesse guests made light of their calling , to come unto the marriage of the kings sonne ; but they found at last , ( vvhen they vvere shut out ) that there vvas no jesting ; and the rich man lift up his eyes in hell , luke . . those scorching flames opened them to purpose , they vvere never opened before . § . this is the difference between a godly wise man and a deluded worldling : that which the one doth now judge to be vaine , the other shall hereafter finde to be so , when it is too late . o the want of consideration what is spoken , and who speaks , is the cause of all impiety , and neglect of obedience . the reason why samuel returned to his sleepe one time after another , when god called him , was , he ignorantly thought it was only mans voyce : and for the same reason , thou wilt not listen to what justice and truth speakes in this behalfe , otherwise , thou wouldest search the scriptures and try , whether my doctrine and allegations be of god , or no , acts . . and being of god , and agreeing with the pensell of the holy ghost ( for otherwise thou art free ) entertaine these lines , as if they were an epistle sent unto thee from heaven , and writ by god himselfe , to invite and call thee to repentance : and though thou canst not imitate zacheas , who was called but once , and came quickly to christ ; yet thou wouldest imitate peter , and at this last crowing of the cocke , remember the words of iesus , which saith , take heed to your selves , least at any time your hearts he oppressed with surfeiting and drunkennesse , and cares of this life , least that day come on you at nnawares , luke . . and againe , whatsoever ye doe unto the least of mine , ye do it unto me ; and weighing them with thy selfe , goe out of thy ●innes by repentance ; as he went out of the high priests hall. and so doing , it should bee unto thee as ionathans three arrowes were to david , which occasioned his escape from saul's fury : or as david's harpe was to saul , which frighted away the evill spirit from him , samuel . . yea , as the angels was to peter , that opened the iron gates , loosed his bands , brought him out of prison , and delivered him form the thraldome of his enemies ; yea , if thou beest thine owne friend , it shall serve thee as a buoy , to keep thy the ship of soule from splitting upon the shelf of presumption ; which is my prayer , and hope , and should bee my joy to see it ; these things have i said , that ye might be saved . you know , the good counsell of sauls servant , ledd him , in a doubt , to the man of god ; but his owne curiosity , ledd him to the witch of endor , sam. . . and that little , which craesus king of lydia , learn'd of solon , saved his life : and if pilate would have taken that faire warning which his wife gave him , as hee sate to judge christ ; it might have saved his soule , matth. . . and so may this thine , if thou wilt be warned by it . but if this , nor no other warning wil serve thee , if neither present blessings , nor hope of eternall reward will doe any good ▪ if neither the preachers of god , in exhorting ; nor the goodnesse of god , in calling ; nor the will of god , in commanding , nor the spirit of god , in moving can prevaile with thee ; tr●●ble to think what a fearefull doome will follow ; for they shall tremble at the voyce of his condemnation ; that have shut their eares , at the voyce of his exhortation , prov. . . to . and so much of the sixth aggravation . § . seventhly , this will above measure aggravate thy doome , and adde to thy torment , that thou seducest , yea , enforcest others to sinne , and drawest them to perdition with thee ; for the infection of sinne , is much worse than the act ; and misleades into evill sinne more , and shall suffer more , then the actors ; and although to commit such things as thou doest , single , and alone , were enough , yea , too much to condemn thee ; yet because thou drawest others with thee to the same sins , thy damnation shall be farre greater . for they whom thou hast taught to doe ill ; increase thy sinne , as fast as they increase their owne . now if their reward in heaven be so great , that save one soule from death , dan. . . how great shall their torment bee in hell , that pervert many soules to destrustion ? matth. ● . . they shall bee maximi in inf●rm , greatest in the kingdome of hell : he that can dam● many soules , besides his owne , supererogates of sathan , and hee shall give him a double fee , a double portion of hell fire for his paines . who then , without a shower of teares , can think on thy deplorable state ; or without mourning meditate thy sad condition ? yea , if ely was punished with such fearefull temporall judgements , onely for not admonishing , and not correcting others which sinned ; what mayest thou expect , that doest intise others ▪ yea , enforce them ? though to intise others were wicked enough . let me say , to the horror of their con●●rences that make merchandize of soules , that it is a question , when such an one comes to hel , whether iudas himself would change torments with him . how fearefully think you , do the seducer and seduced greet one another in hell ? me thinks i heare the dialogue between them , wher the best speaks first , and saith ; thou hast beene the occasi●●● of my sinne ; and the other , thou art the occasun of my more grievous torment , &c. evill men delights to make others so ; one sinner maketh another , as eve did adam : but little doe they thinke how they advance their owne damnations , when the blood of so many soules as they have seduced , will be required at their hands : and little doe sinners know their wickednesse , when their evill deeds , infect by their example , and their evill words infect by their perwasion ; and their looks , infect by their allure ments ; when they breath nothing but infection ; much lesse do they know their wretchdnesse , till they receive the wages of their unrighteousnesse , which shall not be paid , till their work be done ; and that will not be done , in many yeares after their death . for let them dye , they sinne still . for , as if we sowe good works , succession shal reape them , and we shall be happy in making them so : so , on the contrary , wicked men leave their inventions and evill practises to posterity , and , though dead , are still tempting unto sinne , and still they sin in that temptation ; they sinne as long as they cause sinne . this was ieroboam's case , in making israel to sinne ; for let him bee dead , yet so long as any worship his calves , ieroboam sinned ; neither was his sinne soone forgotten ; nadab his sonne , and basha his successor , zimry , and omry , and ahab , and ahaziah , and iehoram all these walked in the wayes of ierob●am which made israel to sinne ; and not they alone , but the people with them . it is easie for a mans sinne to live ; when himselfe is dead ; and to leade that exemplary way to hell , which , by the number of his followers , shall continually aggravate his torments . the imitaters of evill , deserve punishment ; the abetters , more ; but there is no hell deepe enough , for the leaders of publike wickednesse : he that invents a new way of serving the divell , hath purchased for himselfe a large patrimony of unquenchable fire . though few men will confesse their sinnes ; yet many mens sins will confesse their master . to beget a president of vice , is like the setting a mans own house on fire , it burnes many of his neighbours , and he shal answer for al the ruines . alas ! while i live , i sinne too much ; lerme not continue longer in wickednesse ; then life . sin hath an ubiquity ; one sinners example infects others , and they spread it abroad to more ; like a man that dyes of the plague , and leaves the infection to a whole city ; so that hee must give an account even for the sinnes of a thousand ; yea , they have so much to answer for , that have thus occasioned so much ill , that it had beene happy for them , if they had never beene at all , then being , to be laden with the sinnes of so many . o what infinite torments doth mahomet endure , when every turke that perisheth by his jugling , doth daily adde to the pile of his unspeakable horrors ! and so each sinner , according to his proportion , and the number of soules , which miscarry through the contagion of his evill example ; for they shall speed at last , like him that betrayed a city to a tyrant ; who when he had conquered it , first hanged up the party that help'd him to it . yea , perhaps god will even in this life make them an example of his just vengeance , and provoked indignation ; as he did pharaoh and iulian as their sinne hath perverted many , so their fall and ruine may perchance convert many : the life of iulian , made many infidels ; the death of iulian , made many christians : god will teach men to feare him ; even by their ruine , that taught them not to feare him . yea , the d vell , who now is their good master , will in the end reward these his subjects , as that emperor , which plutarch speakes of , did by one that kild a great man , who first crowned him , for his valour ; and then caused him to bee executed , for the murther : or as the wolf does by the ewe , who sucks her , while she is a little one ; and devours her , when she is growne a great one : nutritus per me , sed tandem saevtiet in me . so that it were happy for all seducing drunkards , whors , &c. if they were prevented of doing this great mischiefe , and in their non-age throwne alive into the sea , as the citizens of rome threw heleogabalus into the river of tiber , with his mother sem●a , to bear him company , for that she bear and brought forth such a gulfe of mischiefes , as lampridius reports : yea , the whole state should fare the better for such riddance , for so they should become ( though not profitable ) yet infinitely lesse hurtfull , to such as should remaine . § . the eight circumstance which aggravates thy sinne , is the object , or party which is offended ; and in this respect , thou art liable to the greater condemnation , in that thou injurest those whom god tenderly loves , which is farre more displeasing unto him , then if the same were done unto others : they are as the signet upon his right hand , yea , as the apple of his owne eye , he that toucheth you , saith god , meaning the iewes , his chosen and beloved people , toucheth the apple of mine owne eye , zach. . . and who are they which thou scoffest at , traducest , nicknamest , revilest , and persecutest , but the best of men , such as are most religious and conscionable , such as wil not sweare , nor be drunke , nor commit such wickednesse as thou doest ? now he which doth these things to evill men , who are gods enemies , grievously offend him ; for what saith the scripture ? him will i destroy , that privily slandereth his neighbour , psa. . and the word neighbour includes very heathens . how heinously then doe they offend , which doe the same , and worse to his children ? cor. . . galat. . . iohn . . who partake of the divine nature , peter . . and are like god in hol●nesse , pet. . . members of christs body , corinth . . . bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh , ep. . . and being temples of the holy ghost cor. . . if the goates at the great day , shall bee bid depart into everlasting torment , for not feeding , cloathing , visiting , matt. . . to . . what shall be done to those that persecute christ in his members ? but let as many as have eares , heare what god hath threatned in his word against such . i will produce but a few of many , the holy ghost affirmes , that hee will destroy them for ever and root them out of the land of the living , whose tongues imagine mischiefe , and are like a sharpe razor , that cutteth deceitfully ; loving to speake evill , more then good , ps. . to . . that hee will confound such as persecute his children , and destroy them with a double destruction , ier. . . yea , that he will render unto their enemies , sevenfold into their b●some , their reproach wherewith they have reproached the lord , psal. . . o consider this yee that forget god , least he teare you in peeces , and there be none that can deliver you . in fine , that hee will raine upon them snares of fire and brimstone with stormes , and tempests , psal. . . and after all , cast them into a furnace of fire , where shall be wailing ; and gnashing of teeth for evermore ; when the just , whom they now despise , shall shine as the sunne in the kingdome of their father , matthew . . . men may dip their tongues in venome , and their pens in poyson , to speak against the righteous ; but the lord will once revenge the cause of his poore ones , he will not alwayes hold his peace , nor hide his face ; well may the vengeance of this sin sleepe , but it can never dye : yea , as truly as god hath threatned , to curse all them that curse his children , gen. . . so as truly will he performe it , in one kind or other ; either cursing them in their bodies , by sending some foule disease ; or in their estates , by suddenly consuming them ; or in their names , by blemishing and blasting them ; or in their seed , by not prospering them ; or in their minds , by darkening them ; or in their hearts , by hardening them ; or in their consciences , by terrifying them ; or in their wits , by distracting them ; or in their soules , by damning them . it were endlesse ( for the sea of examples hath no bottome ) to recite all , which scripture , and ecclesiasticall history makes mention of , with the variety of fearefull and incredible judgements , both spirituall and corporall , which god hath executed upon them , even in this life ; though i count it a mercy to smart here , ( if they dye penitent ) rather then bee reserved to those flames , which are easelesse and endlesse , that fearefull damnation , made up of an extremity , universality , and eternity of torments . yea , if god caused two and forty little children to bee devoured of wild beares , for calling elisha bald-head , kings . how can these aged persecutors hope to escape ? yea , what vengeance shall bee prepared , or is enough for them ? if god will come in flames of fire , to render vengeance unto them which knowe him not ; how terrible will hee appeare to these his profest enemies , who wittingly , willingly and maliciously oppose him , and his image , all they can ? § . objection . but thou hast only used thy tongue against them ; whereas some have shed the blood of the saints . well , suppose it bee so , yet what should they suffer from thee , if they were at thy mercy ? it is not so materiall what thou doest , as what thou desirest : the very purpose of treason , though the fact bee hindered , is treason : not the outward action , but the inward affection is all in all with god , who measures the work by the will , as men measure the will by the worke . but to take only what is confest : the persecution of the tongue is a greater evill , then thou art aware of . wee reade that chams scoffing only , brought his fathers curse , and god's upon that . and that their sinne , which brought a scandall upon the holy land , and made all the people to murmure against moses , dyed by a plague from the lord , and was the cause that they never entered into it ; they found it was no jesting matter , numbers . . now wee may judge of their sin , by their punishment : yet their sinne was not halfe so bad , as theirs is , who amongst us , cause the way of truth to be evill spoken of ; for this is either atheisme , or frenzie , or blasphemy , or rather all these ; and thou shalt one day wish , with hecebolus , that thy tongue had been rivetted to the roof of thy mouth from thy conception , rather then thou haddest sinned so against the brethren , wounded their weake consciences , and so risen up against christ , cor. . . yea to be a scoffer , is the depth of sinne ; such an one , is upon the very threshold of hell , as being set downe in a resolute contempt of all goodnesse . besides , some men will better abide a stake , then some others can a mo●k . zedechiah could happily have found in his heart , to have harkened to the prophets counsell , but that this lay in his way ; i am afraid of the iemes , least they deliver me unto the chaldeans hands , and they mocke me , ier. . . it was death to him to be mocked . a generous nature is more wounded with the tongue , then with the hand ; yea , above hell , there is not a greater punishment , then to become a sanni● , a subject of sc●rne . sampson bore with more patience the boring out of his eyes , then the 〈…〉 of the philistims ; they made a feast to their gods , no musitian would serve , but sampson , he must now be their sport , that was once their terror ; every wit , every hand playes upon him , who is not ready to cast his bone , and his jest at such a captive● so as doubtlesse he wished himselfe no lesse dease , then blind , and that his soule might have gone out with his eyes : oppression is able to make a wife man mad , eccl. . . and the greater the courage is , the more painefull the insultation . alcibiades did professe , that neither the proscription of his goods , nor his banishment , nor the wounds received in his body , were so grievous to him , as one scornefull word of his enemy clestiphon . yea , o saviour , thine eare was more painefully pierced , then thy browes , or hands , or feete ; it could not but goe deepe into thy soule , to heare those bitter and girding reproaches from them , thou camest to save . and hereupon good queene esther , in her prayers to god for her people , doth humbly deprecate this height of infelicity , o let them not laugh at our ruines . and david acknowledg'd it for a singular token of gods favour , that his enemies did not triumph over him , psal. . . thou thinkest not tongue-taunts to be persecution ; but thou shalt , one day heare it so pronounc't , in thy bill of inditement . ishmael did but flout isaac , yet st. paul saith , he persecuted him , gal. . . god calls the scorning of his servants , by no better a name then persecution : and whatsoever thou conceivest of it , let this fault be as farre from my soule , as my soule from hell. alasse ! this is no petty sinne ; for one malicious scoffe made f●lix nothing , day and night , but vomit blood , till his unhappy soule was fetcht from his wretched carkasse . and pherecydes did no more but give religion a nick-name ( a small matter , if thou mayst be made judge ) yet for that small fault , he was consumed by wormes alive . and lucian for barking , like a dog , against religion , was by a just judgment of god , devoured of dogs . yea , suppose the best that can come , namely , that god gives thee an heart to repent of it , beforethou goe hence , and that thy soule hath her pardon sued out in the blood of christ , as it fared with st. paul , that chosen vessell ; yet know , that thy body and mind shall smart for this sinne above all : doe but heare the apostles owne testimony of himselfe , corinthians , . . to : did he make havocke of the church ? the world made havocke of him for it ; did he hale men and women to prison ? himselfe was often imprisoned : did he helpe to stone steven ? himselfe was also stoned : did he afflict his owne countrimen ? his owne countrimen no lesse afflicted him : did he lay stripes upon the saints ? the iewes layd stripes upon him : was he very painefull and diligent to beate downe the gospell ? he was in wearinesse , and painefulnesse , frequent watchings , and fastings , in hunger , and thirst , cold , and nakednesse , to defend the gospell , &c. thus he endured when he was paul , what he inflicted as he was saul ; and yet he did it out of ignorance , tim. . . from whence we may argue , by way of concession , thus . if he that found mercy , felt the rod , which scourged him so smart : what shall their plagues be , in whose righteous confusion god insulteth ? pro. . . isay , . . if he who had his booke , felt so much paine ; what shall they feele , that are sentenced to eternall death ? if he that did it of ignorance , and out of zeale , was lasht with so many stripes ; what will become of them , that doe the same knowingly , and maliciously ? if christ will be ashamed of them , when he comes to judge , that onely were ashamed to confesse him , when he came to suffer : how will he reject those with indignation , that rejected him with derision ? if the wretched gergasites , who repelled christ for feare , are sent into the fire : what doe they deserve , who drive him away with scorne ? § . now the reason why god punisheth this sinne so severely , is this . what wrongs and contumelies are done to his children , he accounts as done to himselfe ; as we may plainely perceive , by , psal. . . . . pro. . . psal . . . and . . rom. . . and . . math. . . and . . luk. . . zach. . . sam. . . isa. . . . . . psal. . . . . . . psal. . . . acts , . . and . . . psal. . . isa. . . iob. . . isa. . . the. . . . . . . . . . . num. . . sa. . . and well he may , for they that hate and revile the godly , because they are godly , as these doe , hate and revile god himselfe ; and they that fight against the grace of the spirit , fight against the spirit , whose grace it is ; and whatsoever wrong is done to one of christ's little ones , is done unto him , math. . . it is an idle misprision , to sever the sense of an injury , done to any of the members , from the head : there is that straite conjunction betweene christ and beleevers , that the good , or evill offered them , redowndes to him ; christ is both suffering , and triumphing in his saints ; in abel , he was slaine of his brother ; he was scoft at by his sonne , in noah ; he wandred to and fro , in abraham ; in isaac , he was offered ; sold , in ioseph ; driven away , in moses ; in the prophets , he was stoned ; in the apostles , tossed up and downe by sea and land. what did ioseph's brethren , in going about to kill him , but in effect , and so farre as they could , they kild their father in him : ioab smot absalom's body , but therein david's heart . the rebell saith , he meanes no hurt to the person of the king , but because he doth it to the subjects , he is therfore a traytor : thus when the proud philistine defied the army of israel , david said directly , that he had blasphemed god himselfe , sam. . . and rabsheka defying the iewes , is said , by hezekiah , to have rayled on the living god , isa , . . . . as eager wolves will houle against the moone , though they cannot reach it . saul , saul , saith christ , seeing him make havocke of the church , why persecutcst thou me ? i am iesus whom thou persecutest , act. . . . and iesus was then in heaven , but we know , the head will say , and that properly , when the foote is trod upon , why tread you upon me ? wicked men are like that great dragon , that old serpent , called the devill , and sathan , rev. . who when he could not prevaile against michael himselfe , nor pursue that man child , christ , he being taken up to god , and to his throne ; waged spitefull and perpetuall warre with the woman , who had brought forth the man child , that is , with the church , and the remnant of her seede , which keepe the commandements of god , and have the testimony of iesus christ. history reports , how one being to fight with a duke in a duel , or single combat ; that he might be more expert , and doe it with the greater courage , got his picture , and every day thrust at it with his sword : and onely to deface the picture of an enemy , when we cannot come at his person , hath a little eased the spleene of some . it contents the dog , to gnaw the stone , when he cannot reach the thrower . it was well pleasing to saul , since he could not catch david , that he might have the blood of ahimelech , who used him so friendly , and relieved him in his great distresse , sam. . so though these men cannot wreake their malice upon god , he being out of their power and reach , yet , that they may doe him all the mischiefe they can , have at his image , they will wreake it upon his children , in whom his spirit dwells : as mithridates kild his sonne siphares , to be revenged of the mother : or as progne slew her sonne itys , to spite her husband tereus ; or as the panther , that will fiercely assault the picture , for the inveterate and deadly hatred which he beareth to man : or as calignla caused a very faire house to be defaced , for the pleasure his mother had received in the same ; it being as true of malice , as it is of love , that it will creepe , where it cannot goe . which being so , shewes that this thy sinne is not small : for if one revile or slander his equall , it is an offence , and may beare an action of the case ; but if a noble man , it is scandalum magnatum , deserving sharper punishment ; and if the king , it is treason , and worthy of death : then how foule must that sinne be , which is a trespasse committed directly against god , the king of kings , sam. . . and how fearefull the punishment ? wherefore take heede what thou dost , for as verily as christ is king of kings , and lord of lords , so will he dash all those peeces of earth , which rise up against him , as a potters vessell . § . true it is , they are so blind that though they doe hate god , and his graces , where everthey finde them , and desperately fight against the most high , yet they thinke they love god , or , at least , doe not hate him ; yea , what one is there of them , not ready to call for a bason , with pilate , and to wash his hands from this foule evill , with many faire pretences ? yea , if they had no answer to frame , no false plea to put in , we might well say that sathan were turned foole , and that his schollers had no braines left : but let the sacred truth of holy scripture be judge , and all the powers of their soules and bodies doe fight against him ; not a ●inew , nor a veine , of theirs , but it wars against their creator , iohn , . . . which at last shall appeare , for ( though they may dissemble it for a time , yet ) when vengeance shall seize upon them , then shall they openly and expressely blaspheme him to his face , revel . . . . common eyes may be cheated with easie pretexes , but he that lookes through the heart at the face , will one day answer their apologies with scourges : yea , if a man could but feele the very pulse of these mens soules , he should find , that the foundation of their hatred and enmity to 〈◊〉 , is their hatred against god , and christ , the chiefe of the womans seede : even as when sathan slew iob's servants , his malice was against iob : or as when saul darted a speare at ionathan , his spite was against david , sam. . . or as when sampson burnt the corne , vineyards , and olives of the philistins , his quarrell was against his father in law , who was a citizen of timnah , iudg. . he that loves not the members , was never a friend to the head ; he that wrongs the wife , is no friend to the husband ; he loves neither , that vilifies either ; lip-love , is but lying love ; if thou lovedst god heartily , thou wouldest love the things and persons that he loves ; vertue is the livery of the king of heaven , and who would dare to arrest one that weares his cloth , if he were not an arch-traytor and rebell ; if we loved him , we would love one another . when david could doe the father barzillay no good , by reason of his old age , he loved and honoured chimham his sonne , sam. . . and to requite the love of ionathan , he shewed kindnesse to mephibo●heth : so if thou bearest any good will to god , whom it is not in thy power to pleasure , thou wilt shew thy thankefulnesse to him , in his children , who are bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh . is our ionathan gone ? yet we have many mephibosheths ; and he that loves god , for his owne sake , will love his brother , for gods sake , especially , when he hath loved us , as it were , on this condition , that we should love one another ; whereas thou hatest the children of god , even for their very graces and vertues ; for thou couldest love their persons well enough , if they were not conscionable . and so much of the eighth aggravation . § . ninthly , againe touching the party wronged , thy sinne is incomparably greater , in as much as thou makest that the subject of thy derision , which is the onely meanes of thy preservation . knowest thou not , or mayst thou not know , how the wicked owe their lives unto those few good , whom they hate and persecute ? it were bad enough to wrong enemies , but to wrong such , by whom thou art preserved alive , is abominable : but see it proved , for this may seeme incredible to thee , the religious , whom thou persecutest , keepe off judgements from thee , and the whole land . by their innocency . by their prayers . first , by their innocency . the innocent ( saith el●phas ) shall deliver the iland , and it shall be preserved , by the purenesse of his hands , iob. . . runne to and fro by the streets of hierusalem , ( saith god to ieremiah ) and behold now , and know , and enquire in the open plac●s thereof , if ye can find a man , or if there be any that executeth judgment , and seeketh the truth , and i will spare it , ier. . . to which testimonies , i could add a world of examples , even all noah's family , were preserved from drowning in the generall deluge , for noah's sake . in the destruction of sodom , if ten righteous persons could have beene found , the whole city had beene spared ; ten , had saved ten thousand , gen. . . . yea , when there was no remedy , but destroyed it must be , the angels promised lot , whomsoever he brought forth should escape for his sake . againe , god saved zoar , a city belonging to sodom , for lot's sa●e , gen. . . now zoar might happily be as bad as sodom ; but here was the difference , zoar had a lot within it ; sodome had none . potiphar was a heathen , yet his house shall be blessed , because ioseph is in it : a whole family , yea , a whole kingdome , shall fare the better for one despised , traduced , imprisoned ioseph , though he were sold for a slave . laban was cruell , churlish , wicked , yet he shall be blessed for iacob's sake , gen. . . among two hundred three score and sixteene soules , there was but one paul ; yet behold , saith the angell , god hath given thee all that saile with thee , acts , . . . zacheus alone beleeved , yet this brought salvation to his whole house , luk. . o the large bounty of god , which reacheth not to us onely , but to ours ! § . secondly , good men by their prayers keepe off judgements from them . the saints are like sampsons haire , the strength of the land , and the very pillars of a state , even such pillars , that ten of them would have supported sodom from falling , and their prayers would have cried lowder in gods eares for mercy , then the sinnes of those thousands did for vengeance : the prayer of a righteous man availeth much ( saith st. iames ) if it be fervent , chap. . . i need not tell you what prayer hath done ; as that it hath shut up the heavens from rayning , and opened them againe , made the sunne stand still in the firmament , one while , goe backe , another , devided the sea , and made it stand as a wall , fetch fire and hailestones from heaven , throwne downe the wales of ierico , subdued kingdomes , stopt the mouthes of lyons , quenched the violence of fire , raised the dead , let out of prison , &c. onely see what it hath done in this very case . was not abraham's prayer so powerfull , that god never left granting one request after another touching sodome , untill he left asking ? gen. . . was not moses prayer for the people , when they had made the golden calfe , and imputed their deliverance to it , so powerfull , that god was faine to say unto him , let me alone , moses , that my wrath may wax hot against them , and consume them , and yet moses would not let him alone , but pleads his promise , what the aegyptians would say , &c. untill he had obtained their pardon , though god promised to make of him a mighty people ? exod. . . to . was not lot's prayer touching zoar so powerfull , that god saith unto him , i have received thy request concerning this thing , that i will not overthrow this city , for the which thou hast spoken , adding this moreover , that he could doe nothing to sodome , untill he was entred into zoar ? gen. . . . . thus the prayer of abraham removed that judgement from abimelecke his wife , and women servants , when the lord had shut every wombe , gen. . . . thus moses prayer removed the leprosie from mirriam , num. . . . . and kept off sundry judgements from the israelites , as when they murmured against him at the red sea , exod. . . . againe , at the waters of marah , chap. . . then at the desart of zim , chap. . then at repidim , chap. . . then , when they fought with amalecke , ver . . after , when the lord would utterly have consumed them , chapter , . . to . then he removed from them that judgement of fire , which burnt among them , num. . . . againe , when they murmured for flesh , vers . . . . after that , he saved them from being consumed by the pestilence , num. . to . then from another plague , chap. . . to . and lastly , he tooke away the serpents by his prayer , num. . . . . againe , how many severall plagues did he remove from pharaoh and all aegypt , by his prayer ? as first , the judgment of frogs , exod. . . then , the judgement of flyes , ver . . . then , the thunder , hayle , and fire , chap. . . then , the grashoppers , chap. . . . &c. thus by the prayer of iehoahas , all israel was delivered from the oppression of the king of syria ; king. . . . and by samuel's prayer , the israelites were delivered out of the hand of the philistines , sam. . . . and by the prayer of esay . and hezekiah , the israelites were delivered from the great host of senacharib , under the conduct of rabshekah , and that miraculously , for the angell of the lord , in one night , smote in the campe of the assyrians , an hundred foure score and five thousand , king. . . . many the like examples i could give you . § . and are not the like faithfull prayers of godly men amongst us , alike prevalent with god , both for the averting and removing of judgements , which now have beene , and daily hang over our heads , through the many and grievous sinnes , which wicked men daily commit , and which cry in the eares of god for vengeance ? yes , undoubtedly , for if there were not some abrahams , and lots , and ezraes , and i●shuas , isaiahs , ioels , and ieremiahs , amongst us , powring out there soules before god , in cryes and lamentations for our iniquities , what should become of us , eze. . . . nothing wil do it but prayer , and fasting , and repenting ; and the fasting and prayers of faithlesse people , god regardeth not , ier. , . yea , the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the lord , only the prayers of the righteous is acceptable unto him , prov. . . and this they will confesse in their affliction : wherefore when godlesse persons are in any distresse , they ever praythe people of god to pray for them , and commonly those too , whom they have most hated and abused : for the oppressor is in no mans mercy , but his , whom he hath trampled upon : and injuries done us on earth , give us power in heaven . hereupon ieroboam's hand being dryed up , for stretching it out against the prophet , he sueth to the man of god , saying , i beseech thee pray unto the lord thy god , and make intercession for me , that my hand may be restored unto me ; and the man of god besought the lord , and the kings hand was restored , kings . . . thus the israelites pray samuel , to pray for them , sam. . . and againe cease not to cry to the lord our god for us , that he may save us out of the hands of the philistims , sam. . . and he did so , and the lord heard him , delivered them , and slew their enemies , verse . . thus mirriam , though shee grudges at , and contests with moses , was forcst to be beholding to moses for his prayer , before shee could bee cured of her leprosie , numb . . . thus when the lord's wrath was kindled against eliphaz , and his two friends , nothing would appease the same , but the prayer of iob , whom they had so contemned , as the lord himselfe witnesseth iob . . thus elimas the sorcererprayes peter to pray for him . yea , of whom did dives , being tormented in the flames of hell , expect and seeke for ease , but from lazarus , whom lately before hee despised● luk. . . for though the wicked scorne and despise the godly , in their prosperity ; yet in their distresse they only are set by , to pray unto god for them ; who are more ready to solicit god for their mortallest enemies and persecutors , then they to desire it , be it at the time , when they wrong them most ; witnesse steeven , who when the iewes were stoning him to death , kneeled down and cryed with a lowd voyce , lord , lay not this sin to their charge , acts . . and our saviour christ , who when hee was scoff'd at , scornd , scourged , beaten with rodds , crowned with thornes , pierced with nailes , nailed to the crosse , fild with reproaches , as unmindfull of all his owne griefes , prayeth for his persecutors , and that earnestly , father forgive them : they cry out , crucifie him ; he out cries , father pardon them : yea , they account it a sinne to cease praying for their worst enemies , sam. . . § . neither ( in time of calamity ) do they thinke it enough to bee freed themselves ( as they are sure , a judgement shall be no judgement unto them ) as we see in moses , who fared well himselfe , what ever the rest suffered : what needed he to have afficted himselfe with the affliction of others● himselfe was at ease and pleasure in the court of pharaoh ; but a good heart can not abide to bee happy alone , and must needs , unbidden , share with others in their miseries ; and at severall times after : for when god threatens to consume the israelites , with the same breath , hee promiseth to make of moses a greater nation , and mightier then they , exod. . . . and againe , numbers . . . all which ( when their enemies have the wit to discerne ) forceth them to confesse their owne folly , wickednesse , unthankfulnesse ; the godlies superlative goodnesse , &c. as once laban to iacob , gen. . . and pharaoh to moses , exodus . . . and againe chapter . . . saying , i have sinned against the lord , your god , and against you ; forgive mee my sins , only this once , and pray unto the lord your god that hee may take away from mee this death only . and saul to david , saying , i have sinned , i have done foolishly , and have erred exceedingly , thou art more righteous then i , for thou hastrendered me good , and i have rendered thee ●vill , &c. sam. . . and . . though afterward , when the rod is off their backes , they are apt to harden againe , and returne to their old byas , as did the same pharaoh and saul . for no longer then they smart , no longer can they see ; and unlesse affliction opens their eyes , there is no perswading them , but the righteous man is worse then his neighbour ; yea , none so vile , no such enemies tothe state , as the religious . what though it were but haman's pretence , yet it was abab's very case , who peremptorily thought eliah the cause of all his misery , when it was himselfe , his sinne brought the famine ; eliah's prayer , brought the raine ; yet ahab tells eliah ( and speakes as he thinkes ) thoutroublest israel . and nothing more usuall , then for wicked men , to hate , persecute , and complaine most of those , to whom they are most bound , and beholding . saul received more benefit from david , then from any one man in his kingdome besides , both in frighting away the evill spirit from him , killing goliah , and many the like ; yet none was so hated , persecuted , and evill spoken of by him , as hee was . thus laban and potiphar were most angry with iacob and ioseph , for whose sakes only they prospered . § . and thus you see , that the righteous man keepeth off judgements , and procureth blessings , not only to himselfe , but others , his family , friends , enemies , to the whole city , and nation wherein he lives , yea , his posterity for many ages fare the better for him ; as god promiseth to establish david's house , for his sake , and blesse it for ever , sam. . . . . . and promiseth to phineas the sonne of eleazar , who turned away the lords anger from the children of israel , and saved them from being consumed , that hee would give unto him his covenant of peace , and to his seede after him , together with the priests office for ever , numb . . . . . thus israel , from time to time , were blest and fared the better for abraham , isaac , and iacob's sake , even many yeares after they were dead , de. . . kin. . . as abraham , is●ack , and iacob , yea all the posterity of adam , are blessed , for iesus sake , for else all , even the best , should have perished , all were apostates , adam did forfeit his patent , and none but a saviour could renew it ; but see the different natures of the godly and the wicked . god forbeareth the wicked for the godlies sake . as when augustus had conquered antheny , and taken alexandria , the citizens expecting nothing but present massacre , the emperor proclaimed a generall pardon , for arrius his sake , a philosopher of that city , and his familiar friend . whereas the wicked , in requitall , persecute the godly , for whose sake they are forborne ; and contemne those , to whom they owe their very lives : like as brutus , cassius , domitius , trebonius , cimber tullius , and many others , slew iulius caesar , with . wounds in the senate house ; albeit hee had lately pardoned them for sighting against him on pompi●'s side : or as they , whom william the conqueror most advanced , had the speciall hand in his destruction ; or as pompilius lan● , whom marcus tullius cicero , saved from the gallowes , by pleading his cause before the judges , when he was accused for murthering his father , was the prime man , that puld his head out of the litter , and cut it off . but , o foolish and unwise ! is this any other peece of policy , then if the sodomites should make hast to turne out lot , and his familie , that fire and brimstone may make hast to destroy them● for as when the prophets went from hierusalem , then sword , and famine , and pestilence , and all plagues rained upon them ; even as fire came downe upon sodome , so soone as lot was gone out . or as when noah , and his family , were once entred the arke , the flood came , and destroyed the first world , gen. . . . so the number of christs church being accomplished , fire shall come down to destroy the second world ; yea , the raine should not fall , nor the earth stand , but for the elects sake , the earth should burne , the elements melt , the heavens flame , the divels , and all reprobates bee laid up in hell , the elect men and angels imparadised in heaven all , but for this , gods number is not yet full ; till this be done , sathan may range abroad , the wicked domineere , the righteous suffer misery , and sinne walke their round , the heavens move , the seas ebb and flowe , the world stand , and the lord suffers all . wherefore cease yee malicious sinners , to vex the religious ; you are beholding to them for your very breath : if they were taken away , you should be tormented before your time : yea , make you friends of such as feare god , for it is no smal happinesse to be interrested in them , who are favourites in the court of heaven ; one faithfull man on these occasions , is more worth , then millions of the wavering and uncertaine . indeed , you may so long provoke the lord , that he will not suffer his people to pray nor intreat for you , as is well set forth , ier. . . to . and then can you expect nothing but death and hell . yea , the time will come , when all christs enemies shall be dragged out of the prison of their graves , to behold him whom they have pierced , revelation . . at whattime , there shall be no moses to stand in the gap for them ; no aaron , to stand betweene the living and the dead ; no , noah , daniel , or iob to pity , or pray for them ; yea , when there shall bee no more mercy , no more patience , no more repentings in god towards them , but judgement without mercy or mitigation , but god laughing at their destruction , and the saints , which shall judge the world , cor. . , . rejoycing to see the vengeance , that they may at length wash their feet in the blood of the wicked , prov. . . psal. . ● . when there shall be no rocks , nor mountaines to fall upon them , when the earth shall melt with heate , when the day of the lord shall burn as an oven , and eat their flesh as it were fire , revel . . . . pet. . . mal. . . , . lam . . . § . tenthly , thy sinne is incomparably greater , and consequently , thy punishment shall be , in that the hurt which thou doest to thy neighbour , is against his soule . for as the hurting and endamaging of the person and life of another , is a more hainous offence , then is the diminishing of his goods , and outward estate : so the hurt which redowndeth , by our meanes , unto the soule of any , is much more abominable every way , both in it selfe , and in the sight of god , then is that wrong , which is offered unto his body . now thou art a soule murtherer , yea , many are the soules which thou hast ( intentionally , and as much as in thee lyeth ) slaine with death eternall : and what canst thou expect ( without repentance , and an answerable endeavour to win soules as fast to god , as formerly thou hast to sathan ) but to bee many fathoms deeper in hell , then other men● will god powre out his curse and vengeance on them , which make the blind stumble , to the hurt of his body , deut. . . and will he not much more , do this to soule-destroyers● objection . but thou , like those disciples , iohn . . wilt think this a hard saying ; neither canst thou believe , that thou art a soule murtherer , though i have made it undeniable , in section the . . . . . . . answer . but it will one day be a harder saying , if you take not heed , when christ shall answer all your apologies , with depart from me into everlasting fire , prepared for the divel and his angels , mat. . . luk. . . to . as for further proofe of what i lay to thy charge , i could easily shew thee , how the daily scoffes reproaches &c of thee and thy fellowes . . detaines many from entering into a religious course . . staggers many which have made some progresse in the way . . keepes many from doing the good which they would , or appearing the same which they are . . beates many clean off from their profession . . hardens many and makes them resolve against goodnesse . for there is no such rub in the way to heaven , as this ; sathan hath not such a tryed shaft in all his quiver ; which makes our saviour pronounce that man blessed , that is not offended in him , matth. . . but of these severalls elsewhere , least i should overmuch seeme to digresse : only i grieve to see how they wrong themselves , in thus wronging others : for in that wicked men doe so mock and deride such as are in love with heavenly things , it is hard to say , whether they doe most offend , in hindering the honour of god thereby , or their neighbours wellfare , or their own salvation . what are the waters of thine own sinns so low , that thou must have streames from every place , to run into thine ocean● thy owne bu●then is unsupportable , yet thou wilt adde to the weight other mens , that thy rising may be irrecoverable . content thy selfe , for assuredly , thou shalt once pay deare for it , either by teares , or torment . yea , let such take heed , for the fire of hell will be hot enough for a mans owne iniquities ; he needs not the iniquities of others , like fuell and bellowes to blow , and increase the flame : which if they well considered , would make them cherish all good desires in the weake , and to deale in this case , as we use when we carry a smal light in the winde , hide it with our lap , or hand , that it may not go out . oh how much easier is it to subvert , or cast down a thing , then to erect it , when even a base fellow could destroy that temple in one day , which was six and thirty yeares in seting up . true it is , if the barking of these currs shall hinder us from walking on our way , it is a signe we are very impotent ; yea , if our love be so cold to christ , that we are ashamed for his sake to beare a few scoffs and reproaches from the world , it is evident we are but counterfeits : for , for our comforts , it shall not bee so with those whom god hath any interest in , notwithstanding all the scoffes of atheists and carelesse worldlings , they shall not onely loose their labours herein , but themselves too . the faithfull will neither buy peace with dishonour , nor take it up at interest of danger to ensue : wel may they serve as snuffers , to qualifie our zeale , andmake it burne brighter , but never become such extinguishers , as to put it quite out , either by persecutions , or by perswasions . so that their spitefull adversaries imagine but a vaine thing , they shall be no more able to hinder any one from salvation , whom god hath chosen to his kingdome of grace and glory , then saul with his courtiers , could hinder david , from attaining the promised kingdome of israel : they may move the godly , but not remove them ; they have often times afflicted me , from my youth , may israel now say , but they could not prevaile against me , psal. . . it is given to the great dragon , and the beast , in the thirteenth of the revelation , to make warre with the saints , as well as with the rest which dwell upon the earth ; but hee shall not prevaile with any , save those , whose names are not written in the booke of life , vers . . if so , let them not spare to doe their worst ; the winds may well tosse the ship wherein christ is , but never overturn it : if christ have but once possest the affections , there is no dispossessing him againe : as that cloth which is throughly dyed black , will afterwards take no other colour . the league that heaven hath made , hell wants power to break : who can separate the conjunctions of the deity , whom god did predestinate , saith paul , them also hee called ; and whom he called , them also he justified ; and whom hee justified , them hee also glorified , rom. . . they shall sooner blow up hell with traines of powder , then breake the chaine of this dependant truth . no power of man is able to withstand the will of god , it shall stand firmer then the firmament : it is as possible to stop the motion of the sun , as the course of gods predestination . a fire in the heart overcommeth all other fires without , as wee see in the martyres , which when the sweet doctrine of christ had once gotten into their hearts , it could not bee got out again , by all the torments , which wit , and cruelty could devise : and the reason is , they over-looke these bug-bears , and behold christ calling , the spirit asisting , the father blessing , the angels comforting , the word directing , and the crown inviting . alasse ! if their scoffes , and all they can say , could flout us out of the integrity of our hearts , when our fore fathers feared not the flames , we were feareful cowards . indeed , the timorous snaile puts out her hornes to feele for danger , and puls them in againe without cause . if the sluggard heares of a lion in the way , hee quakes ; but tell it to a sampson , or a david , they wil go out to meet him : yea , let aggabus tel paul of bands at ierusalem , he answers , i am ready not only to be bound , but to dye at ierusalem , for the name of iesus , act. . the horse neighs at the trumpet , the leviathan laughs at the speare : so tell the resolved christian of enemies , or danger , hee feares not , hee cares not ; to carnall friends he sayes , i know yee not ; to diswaders , get yee behind me sathan . but what of all this what though none of christs owne band can be diminished . when thou dost the utmost of thy power , and , so farre as in thee lyes , flout men out of their faithes , and slay them with death eternall and when the intention , and offer of this mischiese , shall be judged , as if thou hadst done the mischiefe ? god regards not so much what is performed , as what was intended ; and measures what we doe , by what we meant to doe . he that shot at a marke , and kild a man , by the law of god , was not held a murtherer ; but he that shall purpose to kill a man , though he be prevented , is as guilty of his blood , as if he had actually killed him . one man wills the knowledge of anothers wife , he never attaines it , perhaps never attempts it ; yet he is an adulterer . a man would steale , if he durst , he is a thiefe , though he have stolne nothing . a strang thing ; saith augustine wittily , the man is still alive , and yet art thou a murtherer ; the woman is still chast and untouched , and yet art thou an adulterer . good and evill thoughts and desires , in gods account , are good and evill workes ; and as mostly he accepts the will for the deed ; so usually hee mesures the deed by the will. men indeed looke on the outward appeareance , sam. . . and so measure the will by the worke , but god beholdeth the heart , ier. . . and measures the worke by the will : for though our persons shall be judged according to our workes , yet our workes shall be judged according to our hearts ; as was the widdowes mite , marke , . . the lord accepts affecting , for effecting ; willing , for working ; desires , for deeds ; purposes , for performances ; abraham had onely an intention to offer isaac , and yet the holy-ghost tells us , that abraham did offer isaac , and 't was rewarded as done . neither had david beene lesse guilty of vriah's death , in that he wrot to ioab , to put him in the fore-front of the battell , that he might be smitten and dye , although he had escaped the sword , then he was , it being performed , sam. . . nor iesabel of naboth's , in that she sent her letters to the elders of his city , to that purpose , king. . . . so he that murthers soules intentionally , is as guilty , as if he had done the same actually , and shall speed thereafter ; for god ( who pnnisheth , or rewardeth nothing but the will ) will even arraigne and condemne thee for doing the same in fact . § . to which may be added ( as another aggravation , belonging to this circumstance ) the extention of it . and herein thou dost out-strip almost all other sinners , in the heynousnesse of thy offence : for whereas other sinnes , viz. swearing , theft , murther , &c. may be compared unto a single bullet , which kills but one at once , namely , the party offending : one of thy sinnes , viz. drunkennesse , may be compared to chaine-shot , which sends men by clusters to hell ; the other , i meane , thy scandalizing the way of truth , and turning good into evill , is like that plot of the gunpowder treason , which , if it had taken effect , would have destroyed a multitude at one blow . yea , thereby thou dost not onely thy utmost , but even sufficient without gods great mercy , to murther and destroy all that heare of thy milicious slanders , and bitter invectives , make them ashamed of their holy profession , and flye from christs standard , backe to the world . now injuries are so much the more intollerable , as they are dilated unto more : those offences which are of narrow extent , may receive an easie satisfaction : the amends are not possible , where the wrong is universall ; as may be collected from the story of queene vashti , esther , . . . . and thou dost not inveigh against this , or that particular person , or congregation , but against all the faithfull throughout the land : wherein thou more then resemblest a mad dog , who spareth none , but bites at all that come neere him : for this thy ill report of the way of truth , like poyson , disperseth it selfe into every veine of the body politicke . now he is monstrously malicious , and deserveth grievously to be punished , that casts poyson into one cup , with an intention to poyson one alone ; but he more , which throweth it into the whole vessell , whereof all the family drinkes , with a purpose to speed every one in the house ; but he is desperatly and prodigiously wicked , beyond expression , who hurleth deadly poyson into the fountain , whence the whole city is served ( as once the iewes served this city ) and even such , and no other is thy case , it differs not a haires breadth ; only thou poysonest soules , the other bodies , and therein transcendest . now as this is an heinous offence , above any i can think upon ; so great offences , if ever they obtaine forgivenesse , had need of answerable satisfactions : notorious offenders , may not thinke to sit downe with the taske of ordinary services ; the retributions of their obedience , must bee proportionable to their crimes ; as was that of paul's , who as he had done more evill to the saints , then all the rest of the apostles ; so he laboured more then they all , in adding to the church such as should be saved ; yea , faith god to ananias , i will shew him how many things hee must suffer for my names sake , act. . . § . thus i have unfolded thy severall and superlative sinnes ; and laid before thee the punishment due unto them single : i have also shown thee how they are greatned and aggravated by sundry circumstances , which will also adde weight to thy torment , and ( without repentance ) double thy doome . all which me thinks being put together , and duely considered should make thee loath and abhorre thy present condition , and not onely awaken thy conscience , but fetch blood from thy secure heart ; yea , if thou wishest , or carest to bee saved , or ever hopest for entrance into gods kingdome , thou wilt with ephraim , strike thy selfe upon the thigh , ier. . . smite thy breast , with the publican , luk. . . and with amazement and indignation say , what have i done● what shall i doe to be saved● at least if it be possible . but as there is no hole to bee found in all the barke of popery , but some popish proctor , or other , will finde a peg to stop it : so though this pot hath so wide a mouth , that , as one would thinke , no pot-lid could bee found big enough to cover it ; yet thou hast a shift for thy persevering , or rather , the enemy of mankind hath furnished thee with an evasion ; for , that he may make smooth the way to perdition , hee will tell the procrastinator , that the thiefe upon the crosse was heard by our saviour , at the last howre ; and that god is mercifull , therefore he may go on boldly ; aud let the worst that can come , repentance at the last howre , and saying , lord have mercy upon me , ( which the common people make their necke-verse ) will make all even ; otherwise , god is not so good as his word , who saith , at what time soever a sinner repenteth &c. for hee can take liberty to continue his sensuall lusts , by a warrant of scripture : what is written for his consolation , hee turnes to poyson , making of his restorative physicke , a drinke to intoxicate him to desperatenesse : yea , he can apply christ's passion , as a warrant for his licentiousnesse , not as a remedy ; and takes his death , as a licence to sin ; his crosse , as a letters patent to doe mischiefe : so they not only sever those things , which god hath joyned together , sin , and punishment ; and joyne together , what god hath severed , sinne , and reward ; but even turn the grace of god into want onnesse , as if a man should head his taber with his pardon . wherein the divell deales with them , as once with our saviour , cast thy selfe downe headlong , for the angels shall beare thee up ; so plung your selves into this , or that sinne , the mercy of god shall helpe you out ; poyson thy selfe , here is a counterpoyson ; break thy head , here is a plaister , surfeit , here is a physitian . upon which ground , the most impudent and insolent sinners , drunkards , adulterers , swearers , mammonists , &c. presume , that though they live like swine all their life long , yet a cry for mercy at last gasp , shal transform them into saints , as circe's charmes transformed men into swine . we are all willing to believe what we wish . the divell makes large promises , and perswades his they shall have what they desire , but ever disappoinrs them of their hopes : as what a liberty , what wisdome , did hee promise our first parents● when indeed , hee stole from them that liberty and wisdome they had : even as laban promised iacob beautifull rachel , but , in the dark , gave him bleare-ey'd leah : or as hamor promised the sechamites , that by their circumcision , all the goods of the house of israel should be theirs , wheras in deed , the goods of the sechamites fell to the house of israel , diabolus ●entitar , ●t fallat ; vitam pollicetur , ●t peri●at , saith s. cyprian . the condition of an inconsiderate worldling , is much like as alchymists ; who projecting for the philosophers stone , distils away his estate in limbecks , not doubting to find that , which shall do all the world good ; yea , hee dares promise his friends before hand gold in whole scuttles : but at last his glasse breaks , and himselfe with it . thus when agag was sent for before samuel , he went pleasantly , saying , the bitternesse of death is past ; but his welcome , was immediately to be he●en in peeces , sam. . . the rich man resolves when he hath filled his barnes , then soule rest ; but god answers , no , then soule come to judgement , to cverlasting unrest , luk. . . . the hope of an hypocrite is easily blown into him , and as soone blowne out of him ; because his hope is not of the right kind ; yea , it is presumption , not confidence , viz. hope frighted out of it's wits ; an high house , upon weak pillars , which upon every little change , threatens ruine to the inhabitant , for a little winde blowes down the spiders-web of his hope , wherby , like the foolish builder , he comes short of his reckoning . that heart , which wine had , even now , made as light as a feather , dyes , ere long , as heavie as a stone , sam. . , . § it is sathans method , first , to make men so senselesse , as not to feele their sins at all ; and then so desperate , that they feele them too much . in the first fit , men live , as if there were no hell ; in the last , they dye , as if there were no heaven . while their consciences are asleepe , they never trouble them ; but being stirred by sathan , ( who , when he sees his time , unfolds his ephemerides , and leaves not the least of all theit sinfull actions unanatomized , but quoats them like a cunning register , with every particular circumstance , both of time and place ) they are fierce , as a mastive dog , and ready to pul out their throats . this serpent may bee benummed for a time , through extreamity of cold , but when once revived , it will sting to death . the divell is like dalilah , who said to sampson , the philistims be upon thee , when it was too late , and she had taken away his strength , iudges . wicked men are altogether in extreams ; at first , they make question , whether this or that be a sin ; at last , they apprehend it such a sin , that they make question whether it can bee forgiven : either god is so mercifull , that they may live how they list ; or so just , that hee will not pardon them , upon their repentance : no meane with them , betweene the rocke of presumption , and the gulfe of despaire : now presumption encourageth it selfe , by one of a thousand ; and despaire , will not take a thousand for one . if a thousand men be assured to passe over a foord safe , and but one to miscarry , desperation sayes , i am that one ; and if a thousand vessels must needs miscarry in a gulfe , and but one escapes , presumption sayes , i shall be that one●as we read of but one sinner , that was converted at the last howre , of millions that had lesse iniquity , yet have found lesse mercy . but see further the strength of their argument . the thiefe was saved at the last howre ; and therefore , i shall . thou maist as well conclude , the sunne stood still in the dayes of ioshua ; therfore , it shall doe so in my dayes : for it was a miracle , with the glory whereof , our saviour would honour the ignominy of his crosse : and wee may almost as well expect a second crucifying of christ , as such a second thiefes conversion at the last howre . hee were a wise man that should spurre his beast till hee speake , because baalams beast did once speake : yet even so wise , and no wiser is hee , that makes an ordinary rule , of an extraordinary example . againe , the thiefe was saved , at the very instant of time when our saviour triumphed on the crosse , tooke his leave of the world , and entered into his glory . now it is usuall with princes , to save some heinous malefactors at their coronation , when they enter upon their kingdomes in triumph ; which they are never knowne to doe afterwards . besides , the scripture speaks of another , even his fellow in that very place , and at that very instant , which was damned . there was one faith s. augustine , that none might despaire ; there was but one , that none should presume . that suddaine conversion of one , at the last howre , was never intended , in gods purpose , for a temptation ; neither will any , that have grace , make mercy a cloak or warrant to sinne ; but rather a spurre , to incite them to godlinesse ; well knowing , that to wait for gods performance , in doing nothing , is to abuse that divine providence , which will so worke , that it will not allow us idle : and yet by sathans policie , working upon wicked mens depraved judgements , and corrupt hearts , in wresting this scripture , it hath proved , by accident , the losse of many thousand soules . the flesh prophesies prosperity to sin , yea , life and salvation , as the pope promised the powder traitors , but death and damnation ( which gods spirit threatens ) will prove the crop they will reape ; for god is true , and all flesh is a lyer . § . but god sets forth himselfe to bee incomparably gracious , mercifull , long-suffering , abundant in goodnes , &c. ezo . . . and is acknowledged to bee so by david , psalm . . . by ioel , chap. . . by ionah , chap. . . by micha chap. . and in many other places . it is very true , for it is a part of his title , exodus . . hee is mercy in the abstract , iohn . . cor. . . tim. . . rich and abundant in mercy , ephesians . . pet. . . . his love is without height , or depth , or length , or breath , or any dimensions , even passing knowledge , ephes. . . yea , the scripture advanceth god's mercy above his justice , psa. . . to . not in it's essence ( for god in all his attributes is infinitely good , and one is not greater then another ) but in it's expressions and manifestations . it is said of mercy , that it pleaseth him , micha . . whereas justice is called his strange worke , esay . . lamentation . . that he is slow to anger , but abundant in goodnesse , exedus . . hee bestowes mercyes every day , inflicts judgements but now and then , sparingly , and after a long time of forbearance , when there is no remedy , chron. . . esay . . . that he visiteth the iniquities of the fathers upon the children , to the third and fourth generation onely ; whereas hee shewes mercy to thousands , exodus . . so that by how much three or foure come short of a thousand , so much doth his justice come short of his mercy , in the exercise of it . againe , that his love to his people outstrips a father's love to his sonne , matth. . . and a mothers too , esay . . for he is the father of mercies , cor. . . as being himself most mercifull ; and the author of mercy and compassion in others . in fine , he is so mercifull , that the kingly prophet repeates it over six and twenty times together in one psalm , that his mercy endures for ever , psal. . but what makes this for thee , except thou repentest● indeed , let the wicked forsake his wayes , and the unrighteous his owne imaginations , and returne unto the lord , and he will have mercy upon him , and to our god , for he is very ready to forgive , saith esay , chap. . . and that we should not doubt of this , he redoubles the promise , ezekiel . and confirmes the same with an oath , chapter . . yea , he is more ready to shew mercy upon our repentance , then we are to beg it , as appeares in that example of the prodigal son , luk. . do but repent , and god will pardon thee , bee thy sinnes never so many and innumerable , for multitude ; never so heynous , for quality and magnitude ; for repentance is alwayes blest with forgivnes ; yea , sinnes upon repentance are so remitted , as if they had never been committed , i have put way thy transgressions as a cloud , and thy sinnes as a mist , esay . . and what by corruption hath beene done , by repentance is undone , as abundance of examples wi●●esse . he pardoned david's ad●ltery ; salomon's idolatry ; peter's apostacie ; paul did not only deny christ , but persecuted him ; yet hee obtained mercy upon his rep●●tance . yea , amongst the worst of gods enemies , some are singled out for mercy : witnesse 〈◊〉 , mary magda●en , the thiefe , &c. many of the lewes did not only deny christ , the holy one , and the just , but crucified him ; yet were they pric●ed in heart at peter's sermon , gladly received the word , and were baptized , ast. . . and a very gentile , being circumcised , was to be admitted to all priviledges and prerogatives , concerning matters of faith , and gods worship , as well as the children of israel , gen. . . but on the other side , unlesse we repent and amend our lives , we shall all perish , as christ himselfe affirmes , luk. . . . § . for though mercy rejoyceth against justice , iames . . yet it de●troyeth not gods justice : though hee is a boundlesse ocean , flowing with mercy ; yet he doth not overflow ; he is just as well as mercifull ; yea , saith bernard , mercy and truth are the two feet of god , by which he walketh in all his wayes : his mercy , is a just mercy : and his justice , is a mercifull justice ; he is infinite in both ; hee is just , even to those humble soules that shall be saved ; and he will be merciful , while presumptuous sinners go to hell : and therefore in his word , hee hath equally promised all blessings , unto those which keepe his commandements ; and threatned all manner of judgments , to those which break them ; with their severall extreames , according to the measure and degree of every sin , deut. neither is salvation more promised to the godly , then eternall death and destruction is threatned to the wicked : and as christ is a saviour , so moses is an accuser , iohn . . alasse ! though to all repentant sinners , he is a most mercifull god ; yet to wilfull and impenitent sinners , hee is a consuming fire , heb. . . deut. . . doth not the apostle say , that neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor buggerers , nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards , nor railers , nor extortioners , to which number s. iohn , revelation . . addeth , the fearefull , and unbeliveing , and murtherers , and sorcerers , and all lyers , shall not inherit the kingdome of god , corinth . . . . galathians . . but shall have their part in the lake , which burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death ? and doth he not likewise affirme , that all they shall be damned , which believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnes ? thes. , . doth not the lord say , ier. . . that he will have no mercy , for such as are desperately wicked ? and again , deut. . . . that if any man blesse himself in his heart , saying , i shall have peace , although i walke according to the stubbornnesse of mine owne heart , that he mill not be mercifull to him ? &c. doth not our saviour himself say , that the gate of heaven is so strait , that few find it ? mat. . . . and will hee not at his comming to judgement , as well say unto the disobedient , depart from me ye cursed , into everlasting fire , prepared for the divell and his angels : as to the obedient , come ye blessed of my father , inherit the kingdome , &c. yes , they are his owne words , matth. . . . and s. iames saith , that he shal have judgement , without mercy , that hath shewed no mercy , iames. . . in fine , he that believeth in the son , hath everlasting life ; but he that obeyeth not the sonne , shall not see life , but the wrath of god abideth on him , ioh. . . for , as mercy , in the second commandement , is entailed only to believers , and to those which love god , and keepe his commandements : so god , at the last day will reward every man according to his righteousnesse . sam. . . as hee did david , sam. . . though not for his righteousnesse , deut. . . . . which is as a menstruous cloth , esay . . . yea , hee hath sufficiently manifested his justice and severity already in punishing sinne , and powring vengeance , upon others that have provoked him : as , ( . ) upon the angels , ( . ) upon our first parents , and all the race of mankind , ( . ) upon the old world , ( . ) upon whole monarchs and empires , ( . ) upon whole nations , ( . ) upon whole cities , ( . ) upon whole families , ( . ) upon divers particular persons , and ( . ) upon his owne sonne , that no sinne might goe unpunished ; which may make all impenitent persons tremble , for as the locrians might once argue ; if our king is so just , to his owne onely son , in punishing adultery , that he caused one of his eyes to be pul'd out , and another of his owne , how can wee his subjects expect to be dispensed withall ? so may i argue ; if god was so just and severe , to his own son , that nothing would appease him , but his death on the crosse ; how can the wicked , his enemies , looke to be spared ? if he spared not a good and gracious sonne , saith s. bernard , will he spare thee , a wicked and ungracious servant , one that never did him a peece of good service all thy daies ? if he punished david's adultery and murther so sharply , ( a man after his own heart , yea , and that after his sinne was remitted ) what will hee doe to his enemies , but send them to that devouring fire , that everlasting burning ? if a. . . if gods own children ( who are as deare and neer to him as the aple of his eye , or signet on his right hand ) suffer so many and grievous afflictions here ; what shall his adversaries suffer in hell ? if sampson be thus punished ; shall the philistims escape ? yea , if judgement begin at the house of god ; where shall the ungodly and wicked appeare ? if many shall seeke to enter in at the strait gate , and shall not be able ; how shall they be able , who seek not at all ? luk. . . and if the righteous scarcely be saved ; where shal the ungodly and sinner appeare ? as the scripture speakes , pet. . . and thus you see , that mercy is for vessels of mercy , mat. . and not for vessels of wrath : that he , which is truth it selfe , hath a like threatned the eternal death and destruction of the wicked ; as promi sed the salvation of the godly . § . but thy carnall heart , which is flint , unto god ; wax , to the divell ; will believe the promises , let goe the threatnings : you shall dye , saith god , is heard ; but you shall not dye , saith the divell , is believed ; as it fared with eve , when she eate the forbidden fruit : yea , thou believest his promises , that thou shalt have them ; but thou believest not his precepts , to doe them ; nor his threatnings , that thou shalt suffer them , for thy not believing and disodedience : which sheweth , that thou truly believest neither : yea , this makes it apparant , that either thou believest there is no god at al , or else that god is not just and true , nor speakes as hee meanes in his word , which is worse ; or if thou doest believe that hee is a just and true god , thou believest also , that thou shalt bee punished , ( as hee threatens ) for thy provoking of him ; and thou provokest him , that thou mayest be punished , which is worst of all : so that take thee in the best sense , thou art but one of david's fooles , which say in their heart , there is no god , and livest therafter ; which is never a whit strange , for it is usuall with them to thinke there is no god , for whom it would make that there were none ; what we would have to bee , we are apt to believe . i confesse , it is hard for men to believe their owne unbeliefe , in this case ; much more hard to make them confesse it : for he , whose heart speakes atheisme , will professe with his tongue , that he believes there is a god , and that hee is just and true , and that every tittle of his word is equally true ; which being but granted , this must necessarily follow , that god will as well punish the impenitent , as pardon the repentant . wherefore bee no longer faithlesse , touching what is threatned against obstinate sinners , but faithfull : for he that will not believe these witnesses of gods severity against sin , shall everlastingly perish . but , suppose the scriptures were lesse expresse and cleare in this point : the law must not be interpreted according to the delinquents judgement , but after the will and meaning of the law-giver , which made the same . indeed , a world of men believe , with origen , that god is so mercifull , that al in the end shall bee saved , both reprobate men , and divells : they presume that god must needs save them , because hee made them , without any other ground ; though in another fit , they are as apt to despaire , and to say with the same origen , should all other sinners obtain mercy , yet not i : yea , it is to be feared , that many die with this fond presumption of mercy in their minds , as the israelites with meat in their mouths ; but shall they therefore be saved , because they think they shal be saved ? no , no more then esau had the blessing , and agag his life given him , because they confidently thought they should . § . secondly , looke upon the promises single , ' and thou shalt finde , that they are not made indefinitely , to al ; but with a restriction , to such only , as are qualified and made capeable thereof , by grace from above . the penmen of holy writ , have set out gods mercy in high and stately termes , heb. . . . . ion. . . pet. . . . ephesians . . but withal , they declare that hee resembles augustus caesar , in his dispensing the riches thereof , of whom they which write his life , note , that in his military discipline , hee was exceeding liberall and lavish in his gifts , to such as were of any de●ert ; but withall , as sparing and straite handed , to the undeserving . what though christ in the gospell , hath made many large and precious promises ? there are none so generall , which are not limited with the condition of faith and the fruit therof , unfained repentance ; and each of them are so tyed and entailed , that none can lay claime to them , but true believers , which repent and turne from all their sinnes , to serve him in holinesse , without which no man shall see the lord , heb. . esay . . so that hee must for sake his sinne that will have god to forgive it , samuel . . as for instance , our saviour hath made publike proclamation , mark. . . that whosoever shall believe and be baptized , shall be saved ; but marke what withall is added , he that will not believe , shall be damned . againe , heb. . , he is said to be the author of eternall salvation , unto all that obey him ; not unto them , which continue in their rebellious wickednes , and never submit themselves , be ruled by the scepter of his word . these and many the like promises , yeild joyful assurance to the sinner that repents ; no comfort to him that remaines impenitent . or in case the condition of faith andrepentance is any where unexprest , yet every promise must be understood with such condition : yea , it was never heard , that any ascended into heaven , without going up the staires of obedience , and good works ; that any have attained unto everlasting life , without faith , repentance , and sanctification : for , even the thiefe upon the crosse believed in christ , and shewed the fruits of his faith , in acknowledging his owne sinne , reproving his fellow , in confessing our saviour christ , even then , when his apostles denyed and forsooke him , in calling upon his name , and desiring by his meanes everlasting life . for know this , that whosoever christ saveth with his blood , he sanctifieth with his spirit ; and where his death takes away the guilt and punishment of sinne , it is also effectuall for the mortifying of sinne , romans . , . christs blood , saith zanchie , was shed , as well for abl●tion , as for absolution ; as well to cleanse from the soyle and silth of sin , as to cleare and assoyle from the guilt of sin . god hath thosen us in christ before the fou●dation of the world , that wee should be holy and without blame before him , in love , eph. . . they therefore that never come to be holy , were never chosen . hee is said to have given himselfe for us , that hee might redeeme us from all iniquity , and purge us to bee a peculiar people unto himselfe , zealous of good workes , titus . . and luk. . , . yea , the lord binds it with an oath , that whomsoever hee redeemeth out of the hands of their spirituall enemies , they shall worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse , all the daies of their life , peter . . other scriptures , to this purpose are many ; as matth. . hee that will enter into life , must keepe the commandements , viz. so farre forth as hee can . and titu● . . the grace of god which bringeth salvation , teachethus that we should ●eny ungodlines , and worldly lusts , and that we should live soberly , and righteously , and godly , in this present world . by all which it is plain , that as christ's blood is a charter of pardon , so withall , it is a covenant of direction ; and hee that refuseth to live , as that covenant prescribes , may perish , as a malefactor that is hanged , with his pardon about his necke . and yet every drunken , dissolute , and deboyshed person , doubts not to fare well while they feare not to doe ill . § . but secondly , what else did thy vow in baptisme ( which is a seale of the covenant ) import , but that there are articles and conditions , viz. certaine duties , on thy part , to be performed , aswell as promises on gods part to be fulfilled ? a sacrament is the sealing of a league , with covenants betweene party and party , saith pareus , now as god hath covenanted , and bound himselfe by his word and seale , to remit thee thy sinnes , adopt thee his child by regeneration , and give thee the kingdome of heaven , and everlasting life , by , and for his sonnes sake : so thou didest for thy part , bind thy selfe by covenant , promise , and vow , that thou wouldest forsake the divel , and all his workes , constantly believe gods holy word , and obediently keep his commandements , the better thereby to expresse thy thankfulnesse towards him , for so great a benefit , pet. . : ps. . . . . and we know , that in covenants and indentures , if the conditions be not kept , the obligation is not in force ; whereby many even ( magus-like ) after the water of baptisme , goe to the fire of hell. yea , except wee repent and believe the gospell , that holy sacrament ( together with the offer of grace ) instead of sealing to us our salvation , will bee an obligation under our owne hand and seale against us , and so prove a seale of our greater condemnation . § . but , for ought thou knowest , thou art regenerate , hast repented , and doest believe in christ , as well as the best . indeed , some will not believe they have the plague , till they see the tokens : but to put this out of question , know that to be regenerate , is to bee begotten and borne anew , iohn . . by the ministery of the word , iames . . . and the spirits powerfull working with it , ioh. . . . . and of the children of wrath , and bondslaves of sathan by nature , to be made , by grace , through faith in christ , ( the sonnes of god , titus . . to . and that they which are thus borne , have christ formed in them , galathians . . are led by the spirit of god , rom. . . and live uprightly , iohn . . and exercrse righteousnese , ver . . regeneration will alwayes manifest it selfe by a just and holy life , by the innocency of our actions , and the sobriety of our speeches : god's children are known by this marke , they walke not after the flesh , but after the spirit , rom. . . they are translated from the raigne of sin ; to the raigne of grace ; they confesse him , ore , with the mouth ; professe him , opere , with the life ; love him , corde , with the heart ; for these are the three objects of a christians care , the devotion of his heart , the profession of his mouth , and the conversation of his life . it is the summ of all religion , to imitate him we adore : he that follows christ's ex ample , is a true christian ; hee that squares his life according to the rule of gods word , is godly , and none else : for otherwise if we be drunkards , and swearers , wel may we boast that wee are the sonnes of god , as the spanyards did to the west indians , when they came first amongst them : but he that knowes any hing , will certainly conclude with those poore salvages , that hee cannot bee a good god , who hath such evill sonnes ; well may he be the god of this world , as the divell is called , cor. . . if christ be formed in any , he destroyeth the divells power , which formerly he had in them , heb. . . . and his wicked works , ioh. . . he is not subject to the dominion of sin , sinne doth not raign in him , psa. . . wherefore be resolved against transgression , as you would be resolved of your regeneration , and salvation . true conversion workes a manifest change ; the old man , changeth with the new man ; worldly wisdome , with heavenly wisdome ; carnall love , for spirituall love ; servile feare , for christian and filiall feare ; idle thoughts , for holy thoughts ; vaine words , for holy and wholsome words ; fleshly workes , for workes of righteousnesse , &c. as if a man were cast into a new mould . otherwise , if godlinesse hath not made us good , what power hath it wrought ? a feeble godlines it is , that is ineffectual ; if it hath not wrought us to bee devout to god , just to men , sober , and temperate in the use of gods creatures , humble in our selves , charitable to others , where is the godlinesse , where is the power ? when the heart is changed , and set towards god , all the members will follow after it ; as the rest of the creatures after the sunne , when it ariseth ; the tongue will praise him , the foot will follow him , the eare will attend him , the hand will serve him , nothing will stay after the heart , but every one goes , like hand-maides , after their mistresse ; which makes david ( presenting himself before god , ) summon his thoughts , speeches , actions , &c. saying , all that is within me praise his holy name , psal. . . prov. . . so that it is a true rule , he that hath not in him all christian graces , in their measure , hath none ; and he that hath any one truly , hath all . for as in the first birth , the whole person is borne and not some peeces : so it is in the second , the whole person is borne againe , though not wholly ; how much the regenerate man is changed from what hee was wont to be , may be seene , corinth . . . . . tit. . . to . rom. . . to . and here upon christ is compared to purging fire , and fullers sope ▪ to signifie , how hee should fine and purg , purifie and cleanse his people mal , . . . god never adopteth any his children , but he bestowes love tokens upon them , which are the earnest of his spirit in their hearts , cor. . . and his saving graces , as an earnest , and for a signe : that they shal overcome their ghostly enemies , and live everlastingly with him in heaven : as he gave hezekiah , the going backe of the sunne tenne degrees , for a signe , that hee should be delivered out of the hands of the king of ashur , and have added to his dayes fifteene yeares , kings . . . alasse ! though there bee scarce a man on earth , but he thinks to goe to heaven ; yet heaven is not for every one , but for the saints , would any man have a lot in canaan , let him bee a sure to bee a true israelite . and so we see , there must of necessity bee a manifest change ; that fruitfulnesse , is the best argument , he hath begotten us anew ; that the signes of salvation , are to be sought in our selves , as the cause in iesus christ ; that wee must become new creatures , as s. paul hath it , cor. . . talk with new tongues , mar. . . and walk in new wyaes , matth. . . hating what we once loved , and loving what we formerly hated , then shall we have new names , rev. . . put on new garments , and have a portion in the new ierusalem , revel . . otherwise not . take notice of this , all ye carnall worldlings , who are the same that yee were alwayes , even from the beginning ' , and think the same a speciall commendations too , though you have small reason for it , for that wee need no more to condemne us , then what we brought into the world with us . besides , doe you live willingly in your sinnes ? let mee tell you , ye are dead in your sinnes , this life is a death ; and wee need no better proofe , that you are dead , then because you feele not your deadnesse . § . secondly , that thou hast not repented , nor doest yet believe , is plaine ; for as faith is a gift of god , whereby the elect soule is sirmly perswaded , not only that the whole word of god is true , but that christ , and all his benefit doe belong unto her : so it is an honourable , and an operative grace , alwayes accompanied with other graces , over bearing fruit : and repentance , being a fruit of faith , is a whole change of the mind , and a very sore displeasure against a mans selfe for sinne , as it is sin , and a breach of god's holy lawes , and for offending so good a god , so mercifull a father , with a setled purpose of hateing and for sakeing all sinne , and yeilding universall obedience for the time to come : wherefore , hast thou a true , lively , and a justifying faith ? it will manifest it selfe , by a holy life . for , as fire may bee decerned by heat , and life by motion : so a mans faith may bee decerned by his workes : for , though faith alone justifieth , yet , justifying faith is never alone , but ever accompanied with good workes , and other saving graces : as the queene , though in her state and office shee be alone , yet shee goeth not without her maids of honour , tttus . . spirituall graces , the beauties of the soule , and good workes , the beauty of graces : and our justification is to bee proved by the fruits of our sanctification : faith and workes are as inseparable , as the root and the sap , the sun and its light ; and wheresoever they are not both present , they are both absent , i am . . . . faith purifies the heart , act. . . worketh by love , galath . . . and sanctifieth the whole man throughout , thes. . . act. . . for as if our repentance bee sound , it will make us grieve for sins of all sorts , secret , as well as known ; originall , as well as actuall ; of omission , as of commission ; lesser ( viz. thoughts ) as well as greater ; yea , as well for the evill , which cleaves to our best workes , as for the evill workes . rom. . . and as heartily and unfainedly desire , that we may never commit it , as that god should never impute it , . tim. . . againe , it will worke tendernesse of conscience , and such a true filiall feare of god , that we shall feare to displease him ; not so much because hee is just , to punish us , as for his mercy and goodnesse sake ; and more feare the breach of the law , then the curse : which we may know , by asking our owne hearts these questions . whether we would refuse a booty , if we had as fit an opportunity to take it , and no man perceive the same , as achan had ? whether wee would refuse a bribe , like elisha , though wee should meet with one , which were as willing and able to give it as naaman ? whether we would not deceive , though we were in such an of fice as the false steward , whose master referred all unto him , and knew not when he kept any thing backe ? whether wee would not yeeld , in case it should be said unto us , as the divell said to christ , all this will i give thee , if thou wilt commit such a sinne ? whether we have a spirit without guile ? psa. . . and be the same in closet and market , as being no lesse seene in the one , then in the other ? whether we more love to be , then seeme , or be thought good , as plato spake of his friend phocion , and seeke more the power of godlinesse , then the shew of it , iob . . for christians should be like aples of gold with pictures of silver , whose inside is better then their outside , but both good : and hee serveth god best who serveth him most out of sight ; that wheresoever hee is keepes a narrower watch over his very thoughts , then any other can doe of his actions ; and no mans censure troubles him more then his owne . againe , whether wee are as carefull to avoide the occasions of sinne , as sinne it selfe , and not now and then , but continually ? whether we seare our own corruptions , as well as sathans temptations ? whether we esteem the word , as if god immediately spake to us in particular ? &c. so likewise if our saith be true , our obedience is constant , like the fire of the temple , which never went out , rev. . and universall , making conscience of all gods commandements , one , as well as another ; the first table , as well as the second ; and the second , as well as the first ; matth. . . for a regenerate minde cannot consist with a determination to continue in any one sin ; as when christ cast out one divell , we read that he cast out all , even the whole legion , marke . . god loves those best , that stick closest to his word in every tittle : and as parents most affect those children , that most resemble them : so doth god. it is true ( saith saint augustine , ) god gives us commandements impossible to nature , that wee may the rather seeke unto him for grace : and corruption will mix with our purest devotions , imperfection swayes in all the weake dispatches of our palsied soules . in all we do , we something doe amiss : and our perfection , imperfection is . neither is it to any man given , to be absolute in any thing : yea , the very best of us , have not done one action legally justifiable all our dayes ; so , that we are as farre from perfection , as the center of the earth is from the circumference , which semediameter or space is judged , by the most expert , to bee three thousand five hundred miles . what then , because we cannot obey in all , shall we obey in nothing ? if we cannot performe our duty , as we ought ; let us do our good will , and endeavour what wee can : for it is better to hault in the right way , then runne in the wrong ; especially , when god expects no more then wee can do , and accepts of what we are willing to doe ; for if we purpose before hand not to sin , and in the act doe strive against sinne , and after the act be sorry for the sinne , sin shall never bee laid to our charge ; if wee hate our corruptions , and strive against them , they shall not be counted ours . it is not i , saith paul , but sin that dwelleth in me for what displeaseth us , shal never hurt us ; and wee shall bee esteemed of god to be , what we love , and desire , and labour to be . now let this point bee argued in the court of the conscience ( for although others may give a shrewd guesse , yet the mother knowes best , whether the child bee like the father or no ? ) say , whether thou art guilty of these graces , or not guilty ? he who makes not conscience of sin , hath no true faith ; and the true method of grace is , first , cease to do evill , then , learne to do well , isa. . . for , as we die to nature , ere we live to glory : so we must dye to sin , ere we can live to righteousnesse ; there can be no fellowship , between light , and darknesse , christ and belial , the arke and dagon cannot lodge under one roof ; the house must first be cleansed , ere it can be garnished ; in a payre of tables nothing may well bee written , before the blots and blurs be wiped out ; the good husbandman first stubs up the thorns , and puls up the weeds , then soweth the good seed : if the wax receive a new image the old doth cease : at least , as the increase of light , makes a decrease of darknesse ( it being impossible , that two things of contrary natures should bee together in one subject , the one not expelling the other , either wholly or in part ) so it is betweene grace and corruption . in a word , if thou canst say , i deprecate all sin , i repent heartily of that is done , i abhor to commit it , i earnestly pray against it , i strive , with all my power , to avoid it , i thirst for more grace , i am ready to all good works , i rest wholly and onely on my saviours merits , thou mayest goe on , and say , i therefore rightly believe , i believe , and therefore am justified ; i am justified , therefore called ; i am called , therfore elected ; i am elected , therefore i shal be glorified . otherwise , if thou beest , as it were , a dead man , continuing under the burthen of notorious crimes , without forrow , or feare , or remorse , or care of amendment , ephes. . . if thou art a drunkard , if thou art frequent in the language of hell , viz. swearing , cursing , & , without feare , or sorrow , or striving to leave it ; if thou delightest to boast of sinne , and mischiefe , or seekest to defend it , psal● ● . if thou art of a reprobate judgement , touching actions and persons , esteeming good evill , and evil good : if the divell hath so bewitched thee , that thou preferrest hell to heaven , and blamest those that do otherwise : if thou imitatest a bad stomack in turning every thing to an evil construction , so making a temptation of every thing titus . . if , ishmael like , thou mockest , or , cham-like , thou scoffest at the religious , or usest bitter jests against them , psal. . . ephesians . . if thou raisest slanders of them , or furtherest them , being raised , psalme . , and . . and . . as the red dragon , revelation . cast a flood of water out of his mouth , after the woman , when hee could not reach her with his clawes , verse . or any way opposest them ( for the opposition of goodnesse , gives thee the title of wickednesse , which alone is the enemy thereof , and shewes thou art a souldier of the great dragon , who goes out to make warre with that blessed seed , that keepe the commandements of god , revel . . . ) these or any one of these , especially the last , shew that thou never camest where regeneration , repentance , and faith grew ; that thy soule ( like venus altar in the i le paphos ) was never yet rained upon by grace from above , for if the image of god by faith were repaired in thee , thou couldest not but bee delighted with those that are like thy selfe , thou couldest not but love the godly , because they are godly ; for the very first part of conversion is , to love them that love god , iohn . . and in vaine shall a mans heart absolve him , that is condemned by his actions : for vertue and vice are both prophets , forewarning us of things to come ; the one , of certaine good ; the other , of paine , or penitence . § . but behold an other starting hole . for if the evill spirit sees thee convinc'd of the necessity of repentance ; he will perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter , knowing that if he can prevaile therein , it is all one , as if thou hadst never purposed to repent at all ; for as experience may informe us , not one of a thousand , which take this course , ever attaine unto it ; for either they adjourne the time prefixt , from next yeare to next yeare , &c. or else they attaine not to that repentance which is true and sound . but see the particulars laid open . thou promisest thine owne soule that thou wilt repent , when thou art sicke , ( though indeed the farthest end of all thy thoughts , is the thought of thy end ; and to make thy reckoning at the last day , the last and least thing thou makest reckoning of . ) but hark in thine eare : oh secular man , thy life is but a puff of breath in thy nosthrils , and there is no trusting to it ; yea , the least of a thousand things can kill thee , and give thee no leasure to be sicke . surges may rise on suddaine ere wee think , and whiles we swim secure , compel us sink . s●ul being minded to aske counsell of the lord , concerning the philistins , was prevented for want of time , samuel . . and commonly wee never have so much cause to fe●re , as when we feare nothing . when sampson was sporting w●th his dal lah , he little thought that the philistins were in the chamber , lying in waite for his life , ind . full little doe sinners know how neare their jollity is to perdition ; judgement is often at the threshold , while drunkennesse and surfeit are at the table . § . but admit what thou imaginest ; namely , that death be not sudda●ne : much the better , for is it not commonly seene , that the purpose of proroging for a day , or a weeke , doth not onely last for a yeare ( as the suspension of the councell of trent , made for two yeares , lasted tenne ) but as ill debtors put off their creditors , first , one weeke ; then , another : till at last , they are able to pay nothing . so deale delayers with god , they adjourn the time prefixt , from next yeare , to next yeare , whereby they , and that good howre never meet : as you shall observe one coach wheele followes another , one minute of a clock hastens after another , but never overtake each other . in youth , men resolve to afford themselves the time of age to serve god ; in age , they shuffell it off to sicknesse ; when sicknesse comes , care to dispose their goods , lothnesse to dye , hope to escape , &c. martyres that good thought , and their resolution still keepes before them . or else it fares with them , as with many an unthrifty trades-man , who is loth to turne over his books , and cast up his debts , least it should put him into sad dumps , and fill him with melancholly cares . when christ went about to cast out divels , they said , he tormented them before the time , matthew . . so , whensoever thou goest about to dismisse thy sinnes , and pleasures , though thou stay till thou be an old man ; yet they will still say , thou dismissest them before the time ; but then is the time , when the divell saith the time is not yet , for the divell is a layer . alasse ! how many men post off their conversion , and at twenty , send religion before them to thirty ; then , put it off to forty ; and yet not pleased to overtake it , they promise it entertainment at three score ; at last , death comes , and will not allow them onehowre : and perchance when their soule sits on their lips , ready to take her slight , then they send for the minister , to teach them how to die well . but as , in such extremity , the apothecary gives but some opiate physick : so the minister , can give but some opiate divinity , a cordiall that may benum them ; no solid comfort , to secure them : here is no time to ransack for sins , to search the depth of the ulcer , a little balme to supple , but the core is left within ; for though true repentance is never too late , yet late repentance is seldome true . but here is great hope , thou wilt say , as it is the divinity of diverse , let men live as they list , in ignorance , and all abominable filthinesse , so they call at last , and but say , lord have mercy upon me , we must infallibly conclude , their estate as good as the best ; as though the lord had not said , you shall cry , and not bee heard , prov. i know the mercy of god may come , inter pontem & fontem , inter gladium & jugulum , betwixt the bridg and the brook , betwixt the knife and the throate ; and repentance may bee suggested to the heart in a moment , in that very instant ; but this only may bee , there is no promise for it , many threatnings against it , little likelihood of it ; it were madnesse for thee to break thy necke , to try the skil of a bone-setter . but how many , on the other side , dye in spira's case● who being willed in his sicknesse to say the lords prayer , answered , i cannot find in my heart to call him father : whereas , not one of many leave a certaine testimony , or sure evidence behind them , that their repentance is true and sound . and indeed , how is it likely they should dispatch that in half an howre which should be the busines of our whole life● for as hee which never went to schole , will hardly , when he is put to it , reade his neck-verse : so hee , that never learn'd the doctrine of repentance , in his life ; will find it very hard , if not impossible , at his death . let men therefore repent while they live , if they would rejoyce when they dye : let them with noah , in the dayes of their health , build the arke of a good conscience , against the floods of sicknesse ; yea , if they have spent a great part of their time in the service of sinne , as paul did , let them , for the residue of their life , make the world amends , by their double , yea treble endeavour , to redeeme that time , by a holy life , and godly conversation ; for else we may justly suspect the truth and soundnesse of their repentance , and conversion . we seldome reade of any , that were long barren , either in soule , or wombe , but they had the happiest issue afterwards ; witnesse sarah , manodh's wife , hannah , elizabeth , saul , mary magdalen , &c. as for the purposes of repentance , which men frame to themselves at the last hour● , they are but false conceptions , that ( for the most part ) never come to bearing ; and indeed , millions are now in hell , which thought they would repent hereafter ; not being wise enough to consider , that it is with sinne in the heart , as with a tree planted in the ground , the longer it groweth , the harder it is to be pluck'd up , it is too late to transplant trees after two seaven years : or a nayle in a post , which is made faster by every , stroke : or a ship that leaketh , which is more easily emptied at the begining , then afterwards . or a ruinous house , which the longer it is let runne , the more charge and labour will it require in the repairing . yea , sinne out of long possession , will plead prescription ; custome of any evill , makes it like the lawes of the medes and persians , which may not be altered , or removed : an old vice , is within a degree of impossible to be amended ; which maketh the lord say ; by his prophet ; can the black-more change his skin , or the leepard his spots ; then may ye also doe good , that are accustomed to do evill ler. . . all other men have but three enemies to encounter with , the divel , the world , and the flesh ; but he that hath long continued in the practise of any evill , hath a fourth , which is worse then the worst of them , even custome , which is a second , or new nature . § . but suppose after many yeares spent in the service of sinne , and sathan , thou art willing to relinquish thy lusts , and offer thy seruice , and best devotions at the last gasp to god ; will he accept them● no , in al probability he will not : for heare what himself saith , pro. . because i have called , and ye refused , i have stretched out mine hand , and ye would not regard , but despised all my counsell , and would none of my correction : i wil also laugh at your destruction , and mocke when your feare comm●th ; when your feare commeth like suddaine desolation , and your destruction like a whirlewind . when affliction and anguish shall come upon you , then shall you call upon me , but i will not answer ; you shall se●ke me early , but you shall not find me ; because you hated knowledge , and , did not choose the feare of the lord. you would none of my counsell , but despised all my corrections , therefore you shall eat the fruit of your owne way , and bee filled with your owne devises , ver . . to . and this is but justice , if god be not found , of those that were content to loose him : if he heare not them , that would not heare him : if he regard not them , that disregarded him ; if he shut his eare against their prayer , crying to him for pardon , that stopt their eares against his voyce , calling upon them for repentance , as salvian speakes . alasse ! no child would bee whipt , if he might scape for crying ; but hee onely findes helpe in adversity , that sought it in prosperity : and ther can be no great hope of repentance at the houre of death , where there was no regard of honesty in the time of life● : god useth not to give his heavenly and spirituall graces at the houre of death to those , who have contemned them all their life : yea , it is sensles to think , that god should accept of our dry bones , when sathan hath suckt out all the marrow ; that he should accept of the lees , when we have given to his enemy all the good wine . but , heare what himselfe saith , by the prophet malachy , c. . . and s. ierome upon the place , it is a most base and unworthy thing , to present god with th●t , which man would disdaine , and th●nk sco●●e to accept of . wherefore , as you tender your owne soule : even to day heare his voyce , set upon the work presently ; he that begins to day , hath the lesse work for to morrow . and proroge not your good purposes , least ye saying unto god in this life , with those wicked ones in iob , depart thou from mee for a time ; god say unto you in the life to come , depart from me ye cursed , and that for ever . hee hath spared thee long , and given thee already a large time of repentance ; but he will not alwayes wait for denyals ; his patience at length wil turn into wrath . time was , when hee stayed for the old world , an hundred and twenty yeares ; he stayed for● a rebellious nation , forty yeares ; he stayed for a dissolute city forty dayes : but when that would not serve , his patience was turned into fury ; and so many as repented not , were cast into hell . if in any reasonable time wee pray , hee heares us ; if we repe●t , he pardons us ; if we amend our lives , he saves us : but after the houre prefixt in his secret purpose , there is no time for petition , no place for conversion , no meanes for pacification . the lord hath made a promise to repentance , not of repentance : if thou convertest tomo●row , thou art sure of grace ; but thou art not sure of to morrowes conversion : so that a fit and timely consideration is the onely thing , in every thing ; for , for want of this , di●es prayed , but was not heard ; esau wept , but was not pitied ; the foolish virgins knockt , but were denied : and how many , at the houre of death , have offered their prayers , supplications , and services unto god , as iuo as offered his money to the priests , and could not have acceptance , but they died as they lived , and went from despaire unto destruction . § . but thou wilt say unto me ; if this be so , that all the promises are conditionall ; that mercy is entayled onely to such as love god , and keepe his commandements ; that none are reall christians , but such as imitate christ , and square their lives according to the rule of gods word ; that of necessity we must leave sinne , before sinne leaves us ; and that god will not heare us another day when we call to him for mercy , if we will not heare him now , when he calls to us for repentance ; how is it , that so few are reformed , that most men minde nothing but their profits , and pleasures , yea , count them fooles , that doe otherwise ? i answer , there be two maine reasons of it , though one be the cause of the other . ignorance . vnbeleife . first , few men beleive what is written of god in the scripture , especially , touching his justice and severity in punishing sinne , with eternall destruction of body and soule : for , did they really and indeed beleive god , when he saith , that his curse shall never depart from the house of the swearer , zack . . they durst not sweare , as they doe . did they beleive , that neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor theeves , nor murtherers , nor drunkards , nor swearers , nor raylers , nor lyers , nor covetous persons , nor extortioners , nor vnbeleivers , nor no vnrighteous men shall inherit the kingdome of heaven ; but shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death . cor. . . . rev. . . they durst not continue in the practise of these sinnes , without feare , or remorse , or care of amendment . did they beleive , that except their righteousnesse doe exceede the righteousnesse of the scribes and pharisees , they shall in no case enter into the kingdome of heaven , matth. . . and that without holinesse no man shall see the lord , heb. . . with many the like , it were impossible they should live as they doe . yea , if they did in good earnest beleive that there is either god or devill , heaven or hell , or that they have immortall soules , which shall everlastingly live in blisse or woe , and receive according to that they have done in their bodies , whether it be good or evill , cor. . . they could not but live thereafter , and make it their principall care , how to be saved . but alas ! they are so farre from beleiving what god threateneth , in his word against their sinnes ; that they blesse themselves , in their heart , saying , we shall have peace ; we shall speede as well as the best , although we walke according to the stub●ornnesse of our owne wills , so adding drunkennesse to th●rst , deut. . . yea , they preferre their condition before other mens , who are so abstemious , and make conscience of their wayes , even thinking that their god deceiveth them with needlesse feares , and scruples , as once rabshek●h would have perswaded the iewes , touching their trust and confidence . king. . . . . . . the beleive what they see , and feele , and know ; they beleeve the lawes of the land , that there be places and kinds of punishment here below , and that they have bodies to suffer temporall smart , if they transgresse ; and this makes them abstaine from murther , fellony , and the like : but they beleeve not things invisible , and to come ; for if they did , they would as well , yea , much more , feare him that hath power to cast both body and soule into hell , as they doe the temporall magistrate , that hath onely power to kill the body : they would thinke it a very hard bargaine , to winne the whole world , and lose their owne soules , luk. . . but enough of this , having proved the drunkard an atheist , sect. the ( . ) § . secondly , another maine reason is ignorance ; yea , ignorance , if we rightly consider it , is the cause of all sinne ; sinne indeed ; at first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sinne . swearing , and lying , and killing , and stea●eing , and whoring , ( i may well adde drunkennesse ) abound , saith the prophet , because there is no knowledge of god in the land , hosea , . . . it is a people that doe erre in their hearts , saith god , why ? because they have not knowne my wayes , psal. . . yee are deceived , saith our saviour , because ye know not the scriptures , neither the power of god , matth. . . when christ wept over hierusalem , what was the cause ? even their blindnesse ; if thou hadst knowne , saith he , at the least , in this thy day , those things which how are hid from thine eyes , luk. . . because men know not the wages of evill , therefore they doe it ; and because they would securely doe it , therefore they refuse to know it . oh that men knew how good it is to obay , to disobay how evill , then should we have a new world ; but the devill takes an order for that , where he can prevaile ; and therefore he hath the po●e , in one part of the world , who will allow his subjects ( i meane the layty ) no divine learning ; the turke in another , who denies to his any learning at all : and this is no small advantage unto him , for that edict of iulianus the emperour , whereby it was interdicted unto christians , to be admitted into scholes , lectures , and other exercises of learning , was esteemed a more pernicious engine and machination against the christi●n faith , then were all the sanguinary per●ecutions of his predecessors . ob : but blessed be god , and our gracious soveraigne , may some say , this is not our case , we have plenty of light in our horizon , our land abounds , both with humane and divine learning . a●sw . very true , and it is a blessing , which we can never be sufficiently thankfull for ; and yet the devill takes such an order , that the odds is not much , betweene our light , and their darknesse : for , either , wizard-like , he prese●●s things in a false glasse ; or , sorcerer-like , he makes things appeare other then they are , by deception of our spirituall sight ; or , sophister-like , he darkens the truth ( which the word will not suffer to bee conceald ) with subtils distinctions , as a man that puts out the candle with snuffing it ; or , casuistlike , he fills mens heads , with a world of problemes and paradoxes ; their hearts and consciences , with a thousand needlesse and endlesse questions , unprofitable , cold , and bloodlesse impertinencies , whereby the sound and saving knowledge of iesus christ , and him crucified ( which was the onely care and studie of st. paul : i cor. . . ) is the portion but of a few , even amongst us , as the effect shewes : for , are not most men , to whom the gospell is so gloriously preach't , cheifely guided according to the rudiments of the world , and not after christ ? col. . . quest. but will any now , in this cleare sunne-shine of the gospell , be perswaded that they know not christ crucified ? answer . it is too true , that few know him , for if they knew christ , they could not but love him ; and loving him , they would keepe his commandements , iob. . . for hereby , saith st. iohn , is it knowne that we know him , if we keepe his commandements , ioh. . . but he that saith , i know him , and yet keepeth not his commandements , is a lyer , and there is no truth in him , ver . the . rightly , a man knowes no more then he practiseth ; it is said of christ , cor. . . that he knew no sin , because he did no sin ; in which sense , he knowes no good that doth no good ; and he may know much , that cannot utter much , as a martyr answered bishop bonner , my lord , i cannot dispute for the truth , but i ca● dye for the truth : a good argument , to prove that he knew christ , for mens actions expresse their knowledge better then their words . vertue is ordained a wife for knowledge , and where ●hese two joyne , there will proceede from them a noble prodiene , a generation of good workes : but they that wander in by pathes , declare themselves ignorant of the right way of salvation , rom. . . that is but a raw knowledge , which is not digested into practise . what 's the difference , betweene christianity and infidelity , but holinesse ? for as rhetoricke , is the art of speaking well ; and logicke , the art of disputing well ; and magistracy , the art of governing well : so christianity is the art of liveing well . it is not worth the name of knowledge , that may be heard onely , and not seene : good discourse is but the froth of wisdome , the pure and solid substance of it , is in well framed actions ; when we are wise in our hands , as the dutch are said to be . these things if ye know , happy are ye if ye doe them , iohn , . . and in deut. . . keepe the commandements of god , and doe them , for this is your wisdome and understanding before god and men . the knowledge that saves us , is more then a bare apprehension of god ; it knowes his power , and therefore feares him ; knowes his justice , and therefore serves him ; knowes his mercy , and therefore trusts him ; knowes his goodnesse , and therefore loves him ; &c. for he that hath the saving knowledge of god , hath every other grace ; there is a sweete correspondence betweene every one , where there is any one in truth . as in the generation , the head is not without the body , nor the body without each member , nor the soule without it's powers and faculties : so in the regeneration , where there is any one grace in truth , there is every one , cor. . . but see it in particulars . they that know thy name , saith the psalmist , will trust in thee , psal. . . there 's saith . let him that rejeyceth , rejoyce in this , that he understandeth and knoweth me , ier : . . ther 's joy . hee that knoweth god , heareth us , i ioh. . . there is an awfull attention to the word preach't . if thou knewest me , saith our saviour , thou wouldest have asked of me , iohn , . . ther 's the spirit of prayer and supplication . he that knoweth god , loveth god , and the children of god. i iohn . . . . he that knoweth god , keepeth his commandements , i iohn , . . now i know thee , saith iob to god , i abhorre my selfe , and repent in dust and ashes , iob. . . . he that knoweth god , is borne of god , i iohn , . . there is love , obedience , hurnility , godly sorrow , regeneration , i might goe on , and instance in every other grace . for as feeleing is inseparable to all the organs of sense , the eye , sees and feeles ; the care , heares and feeles ; the palat , tastes & feeles ; the nosthrills , smell and feele : so knowledge is involved in every grace , faith , knowes and beleives ; charity , knowes and loves ; patience , knowes and suffers ; temperance , knowes and abstaines ; humility , knowes and stoopes ; repentance , knowes , and mournes ; obedience , knowes and does ; confidence , knowes and rejoyees ; hope , knowes and expects ; compassion , knowes and pities . yea , as there is a power of water in every thing that growes , it is fatnesse , in the olive ; sweetnesse , in the figg ; cheerefulnesse , in the grape ; strength , in the oake ; talenesse , in the cedar ; rednesse in the rose ; whitenesse , in the lilly , &c. so knowledge . is in the hand , obedience ; in the mouth , benediction ; in the knee , humility ; in the eye , compassion ; in the heart , charity ; in the whole body and soule , piety . alasse ! if menhad the true knowledge of iesus christ , it would disperse and dispell all the blacke clouds of their raigning finnes in a moment : as the sunne doth no sooner shew his face , but the darknesse vanisheth : or as caesar did no sooner looke upon his enemies , but they were gone . egypt swarmed with locusts , till the west winde came , that left not one . he cannot delight in sinne , nor dote upon the world , that knowes christ savingly . § . ob. but the objection , which as they thinke cannot be answered , like the invincible nauy in . is this . we see by experience , that the strictest livers are seldome the wisest men ; yea , who more vicious , then many that know most ? answ : i am not ignorant , that some fooles have made other fooles beleeve , that none trouble themselves about religion , but the simplest ; yea , the most holy and religious , in all ages , have beene accounted fooles and mad men , el sha was counted no better , by that man of the sword , king. . . in hosea's time , the prophet was esteemed a foole , and the spirituall man mad , hosea , . . yea , our saviour christ , with open mouth , was proclaimed mad , by his carnall hearers iohn , . . mar. . . and paul the like , by festus , acts , . . yea , all the apostles were reputed fooles , cor. . . and this hath beene the worlds vote ever since ; the sincere christian was so reputed in pliny's time , and after in st. austins time , yea , iulian the pelagian could gibe st. austin , that he had none of the wise sages , nor the learned senate of philosophers on his side , but onely a company of meane trades-men and handycrafts-men , of the vulgar sort , that toke part with him ; whose answer was , thou reproachest the weake things of the world , which god hath chosen , to confound the things which are mighty . and is it otherwise now ? is not the honest , devout , orthodox christian , the plain dealing and religious man , hee that declares his meaning by his words , that cannot , or will not lye , and desemble , shift , and flatter , temporise , and accommodate , buy promotion , supplant , growe rich , take bribes ; he that will rather suffer then do evill , ordinarily esteemed an idiot , or silly asse ? yes , by all that are craftily wicked , as you may heare out of their owne mouths , wisd. . . to . to worldly men christian wisdome seemes folly , saith s. gregory ; and well it may , for even the wisdome of god is foolishnesse with the world , cor. . . . but shall we therfore take it for grant , that they are wisest , because they suppose and say they are ? no , for first , as he must have a sweet breath , that can judge who hath a sweet breath : so to judge who is a wise man , is onely the office of a wise man. secondly , the lawes of our land , wil not admit a delinquent for a witnesse , af-after he is found guilty ; neither will irand they stand convicted of folly , sections the . . . . . . . . . but if they will put themselves upon a faire tryall , they shall have an equall proceeding ; or if they will heare the case argued , if reason give not sentence on the good mans side , let mee suffer as a slan●erer . indeed , wisdome hath alwayes carried that shew of excellency , that not only the good have highly affected it , as salomon , who prayed for wisdome ; and moses , who studied for wisdome ; and the queene of sheba , who travelled for wisdome : but the very wicked have laboured for it , who are ashamed of other vertues : so that wisdome is not only justified of her children , but also of the children of folly . knowledge is so faire a virgi●● , that every cleare eye is in love with her ; it is a pearle , despised of none , but swine●o the pleasure that rationall men take in it ! they that care not for one dramme of goodnesse , would yet have a full scale of knowledge , though they never mind to do good , yet there is no good which they would not know ; among all the trees of the garden , none so pleaseth them , as the tree of knowledge . as wisdome is excellent above all , so it is affected of all : as oyle was both of the wise and foolish virgins ; it hath beene a mark , which every man hath shot at , ever since eve sought to be as wise a● her maker . but as an hundred shootes , for one that hits the marke , some short , some over , and some aside : so an hundred ayme at wisdome , for one that lights upon it , ●cclesiastes . . yea , as many thinke themselves good fellowes , for one that is a good-fellow indeed ; so many thinke themselves wisemen , for one that is wise indeed . of all sorts of men in the world , none repute themselves , or are reputed by others wiser , then the profound humanist , and cunning politician ; and the yet neither of these , may compare with the go●ly 〈◊〉 for wisdome and knowledge . § . first , not the humanist ; for they are not alwayes the wisest , which know most as i have proved at large ● . . . i will further confirme it . there are a generation of men , that mightily thirst after wisdome and knowledge ; and to get it , they are no niggards of their labour , for they leave nothing unstudied , but themselves ; they know all parts and places of the created world , can discourse of every thing , visible , and invisible , divine , humane , and mundane , whether it bee meant of substances , or accidents , are ignorant of nothing , but the way to heaven ; are acquainted with all lawes and customes , save the law of god , and customes of christianity ; they are strangers no where , but in the court of their own consciences ; yea , they build as hard , and erect as high , as did the babel projectors , but never come to the roofe ; they spend alltheir time in seeking after wisdome ; as alchymists spend all their present estates to finde the philosophers stone , but never find it ; for their thirst after knowledge being a natural thirst ( which stands more upon the quanity , then the quality , themselves being like ballances , which make no difference betwixt gold and lead , but in the weight ; for a worldling is as well pleased with the handmaid , humane , or mundane wisdome , as with the mistresse , divine and supernaturall ; wheras none but this will content the generous christian ; natural men resembling the three lower elements , of aire , water , and earth , which are pleased with lower romes ; the regenerate , the element of fire , which no place will content , but the uppermost , it 's owne region ) they never attaine to that which is true wisdome indeed . for as the ragged poettold petronius , that poetry was a kind of learning , which never made any man rich ; so may i tell these , that humane learning , of it selfe , never made a wise man. for so long as men desire knowledge , and not a blessing with it , for no other end , but to remove their ignorance ; as pharaoh used moses , but to remove the plagues ; and studie the scriptures and other bookes , only to make gaine thereof , or to bee the abler to dispute and discourse , as boyes go into the water to play and paddle there , not to wash and be cleane , as many , with eue , doe highly esteeme the tree of knowledge , but regard not the tree of life , they may heape up knowledge upon knowledge , bee ever powring into their brains , as the fifty daughters of king da●●us , who killed their husbands , are faigned to bee alwayes filling of a tunn , with water , that is bored full of holes , but labour they never so much about it , yet they can never bring it to passe ; for whensoever they dye , they are undone , that houre , like penelope's night , will undoe all that ever the day of their life did weave ; wherein they resemble albertus magrus , who bestowed thirty yeares stud●e and pai●es upon an image , or st●t●● , till with engines and wheeles within , he had made it able to speake divers words very distinctly , the which aquin●●●t●terly ●t●terly spoyled in one minute but to make it more plaine . i would faine know , what it is , or what it profits a man , to have the etymology and derivation of wisdome and knowledge , without being affected with that which is true wisdome indeed : to be able to decline vertue , yet not love it ? to have the theory , and be able to prattle of wisdome by roate , yet not know what it is by effect and experience ? to have as expert a tongue , and as quicke a memory , as portius , who never forgat any thing that hee had once read ? a perfect understanding , great science , profound eloquence , a sweet stile , to have the force of demosthenes , the depth of theseus , the perswasive art of tully , &c. if withall he live a wicked life ? with the astronomer , to observe the motions of the heavens , while his heart is buried in the earth ? with the naturalist , to search out the cause of many effects , and let passe the consideration of the principall , and most necessary ? viz. . sinne the cause of all misery and wretchednesse . . grace the cause of all good and happines . . god's will of all other causes , the cause . god's glory of all other causes , the effect with the historian , to know what others have done , and how they have sped , while hee neglects the 〈◊〉 of such as are gone the right way ? with the law-maker , to set downe many lawes in particular ; and not to remember the common law of nature , or law generall , that al must dye ? or lastly , with adam , to know the nature of all the creatures , as appeared in his naming of them ; and with solomon , to be able to dispute of every thing , even from the cedar to the hysope , or pellitory , when in the meane time hee lives like dives , dies like nabal , and after all goesto his owne place , with iudas ? ●lasse ! many a foole goes to hell with lesse cost , lesse paines , and more quiet . that is true knowledge , which makes the knower blessed ; to be wise and happy , are 〈◊〉 termes , saith aristotle in his ethicks ; and mans happinesse , ●aith another , consists in believing the gospell , and obeying gods commands , which is sure to be crown ed with everlasting felicity : yea , socrates could say , that learning pleaseth me but a little , which nothing p●ofits the owner of it to vertu● ; and being demanded who was the wisest man ? he answered , he that offends least . hee is the best scholler that learnes of christ obedience , humility , &c. he is the best arithmetician that can adde grace to grace ; he is the best learned , that knowes how to be saved ; yea , all the arts in the world are artlesse arts to this . but few are thus wise and learned ; because they thinke that to bee wisdome , which is not ; like eve , who thought it wisdo●e to eat the forbidden fruit ; or absalom , who thought it wisdome to lye with his fathers concubines , in the sight of all the people ; or the idle servant , who thought it wisdome to hide his talent ; or the false steward , who thought it wisdom to deceive his master : for , if a man take his marke amisse , hee may shoot long enough , ere he hit the white : and these men , are as one that is gone a good part of his journey , but must come backe againe , because he hath mistaken his way : for however these mens knowledge may seeme wisdome , ( as a bristow stone may seeme a diamond ) yet it only seemes so , it is not so ; for if they were wise , saith saint bernard , they would foresee the torments of hell , and prevent them : yea , epaminondas could say , that of all men he was the wisest , that lived well , and died well ; for , quoth hee , the art of dying well , is the science of all sciences , and the way to learne this art , is to live well . we only praise that mariner , which brings the ship safe to the haven . againe , if thou wert a wise man , thou wouldest know what wisdome is , and not mistake one thing for an other : as iacob in the dark mistooke leah for rachel , and then chose the best : as a traveller for his provision & convenience in his journey , carrieth his money in gold , thou wouldest like a wise merchant fraight thy felfe with that commodity , or coyne , which for mettall and stamp will passe for currant , both in this world , and in heaven : wheras thy lip-learning , and tongue - wisdome , and braine-knowledge , is perishing , and wil stands thee in no stead in the next life , nor any way further thee in the way to blisse . for thou art but like a powder-master , who hath provision against an enemy , but is ever in danger of being blown up : or some covetous churle , who though hee have lights good store , yet is content to sit in the dark : or an irregular physitian , who prescribes a wholsome diet to others , when himselfe feeds foully , and surfets with intemperance : which in reason is to play the foole , and to imitate the miletians , who as aristotle writeth , were not fooles , but did the selfe samethings that fooles were accustomed to doe : wherein this is all the difference , a man shall be the rather punished , and the more , because he hath knowne good , and done evill , for knowledge without grace , will but sinke men lower in hell. and great reason shall all such have , who either know , and believe not ; or believe , and repent not ; or repent , and amend not ; or amend , and persevere not in well doing , to cry out upon their death-beds , as tully did in his latter age , would god i had never known what wisdome meant . again , as themselves are never the better for their great wisdome and learning : so , no more are others : for commonly they resemble dark lanthornes , which have light , but so shut up and reserved , as if it were not : and what is the difference betwixt concealed skill , and ignorance ? it is the nature and praise of good , to be communicative , whereas if their hidden knowledge do ever looke out , it casts so sparing a light , that it onely argues it self to have an unprofitable being . wee know the unicorne hath bu● one horne , but hee doth more good with that , then other beasts do with two : so an holy man doth more good with a little knowledge , then a worldling with a great deale ; yea , he thinks himselfe as happy , in giving light to others , as in receiving it into himselfe . now suppose a mans greatest learning . be religion , and his knowledge only lyes in the best things , as the weaker vessell may hold the better liquor ; yet a competent estate well husbanded , is better then avast patrimony neglected . never any meere man , since the first , knew so much as salomon ; many that have known lesse , have had more command of themselves . true it is , in some kind of skill they out . strip even the best of gods people ; who , if they are put to it , may answer as themistocles did , when one invited him to touch a lute for , as he said , i cannot siddle , but i can make a small town a great state : so may the godly say , wee cannot give a solid reason in nature , why nilus should over flow only in the summer , when watersare at the lowest : why the load-stone should draw iron , or incline to the pole-starre ; how the heat of the stomack , and the strength of the net her chap , should be so great : why a flash of lightning should melt the sword , without making any impression in the scabbard ; kill the child in the wombe , and never hurt the mother : how the waters should stand upon an heape , and yet not overflow the earth : why the clouds above , being heavie with water , should not fal to the earth suddainly , seeing every heavie thing descendeth , except the reason which god giveth , gen. . . and iob . . but we know the mystery of the gospell , and what it is to be borne anew , and can give a solid reason of our faith , wee know that god is reconciled to us , the law satisfied for us , our sins pardoned , our soules acquitted , and that we are in the favour of god : which many , with their great learning , doe not know . and thus the godly are proved wiser , then the wisest humanist , that wants grace . § . secondly , they are wiser then the most cunning politician that lives . for to judge aright , the greatest politician is the greatest foole , for he turnes all his religion into hypocrisie , into statisme , yea , into atheisme making christianity a very footstoole to policy . indeed , they are wiser in their generation , then the children of light , and are so acknowledged by the holy ghost : luk. . . but why ? not that there is a deficiency of power in the godly , but will : for could not david go as far as achitohpel ? could not paul shew as much cunning as tertullus ? yes , surely if they would . but because their master christ hath commanded them to bee innocent as doves , they have vowed , in an heroicall disposition , with abraham , gen. . . that the king of sodome shall not make them rich ; no crooked , or indirect meanes shal bring them in profit , they will not be beholding to the king of hell for a shoo tye ; and hereupon , the foxes wiles never enter into the lions head . but take these politicians as they are in their owne element , and it may peremptorily bee spoken of them , as one speakes of women ; that in mischiefe they are wiser then men , neere upon as that old serpent the divell ; yea , they are so arted in subtilties , through time , and practise , that they will have trickes in their sconces to over-reach the divell himselfe : indeed , he hath one trick beyond all theirs , for like a cunning fencer , hee that taught them al their tricks , kept this one to himselfe , namely , how to cheat them of their soules . but to go on . these are not wise as serpents , according to our saviours counsell , but wise serpents , that is , wise in evill , not wise in that which is good ; or , if you will , wise in goods , not wise in grace . for as that old serpent seemed to boast , that he was richer then christ , when he said , all these are mine : so the politician may truly say , for the most part , i am wiser then my plain dealing neighbour , by five hundred pounds , but see their wisdome displayed . they are such cunning dissemblers , that like pope alexander the sixth , what they think , they never speake : why is this cast away ? saith iudas , crafty cub ! he would have had it himself : as the fox would disswade other beasts from that booty , which hee meanes to make his owne : or like a fellow that rides to the pillory , they go not the way they looke ; they will cut a mans throat under colour of curtesie : as vlysses by gold and forged letters , was the means of stoning palamedes , even while he made shew of defending him : and then , to wipe off all suspicion from themselves , their gesture and countenance shall be like iulius caesar's , who seeing pompie's head , fel a weeping , as if he had beene sorry for it , when by his onely meanes it was cut off ; so , like rowers in a boat , whilst , in their pretence , they looke one way , in their intent , they go the quite contrary . it is observed of the fox , that he will stand by the river and let his taile play in the water , till the fish come flocking about it ; and then with a jerke , he swoopes them out with his paw : these are such foxes , they will not looke towards the booty they ayme at ; yea , they are so politicke , that no man shall be able to determine , either by their gesture , vvords , or actions , what they ●esolve ; for their vvords , like an italian torch , vvill prove your bane , vvhen they seeme to give you most light , and best direction ; they vvill say , as elisha to the syrian army , follow me , and i will lead you to the man whom yee seeke , vvhen they lead you into the lap of your enemies . kings . . and sutable to this is their gesture and actions , for like acco , they will evermore seeme to refuse , what they most desire ▪ and to desire , what they most despise . yea , they can hardly be read , though , like hebrew letters , you spell them backwards : for admit the stander by conceives their going to be like that of a crab-fish , contrary to the way they looke , as our saviour knew it fared with the pharisees and sadduces , mat. . . . which made him conclude with , o hypocrites ! yet having not the spirit of discerning , he can but guesse at it , and so give over ; onely this he may be sure of , that they doe not intend , what they pretend ; like as in jugling feates , though we know not how they are done , yet we know well , that they are not done , as they seeme to be . now if they can any way advantage themselves by anothers ruine , and doe i● cunningly , as iesabel did , when she kild naboth , by suborning false witnesse against him , and proclaimed a fast , before the murther ; though all such policy , be but misery ; and all such knowledge , ignorance ; yet , ô how wise they thinke themselves , now they are able to blind the devill with a cushion : but they are grossely mistaken , for wherein doth this their great wisdome consist , but first , in being wise to deceive others , as the old serpent did our first parents ; or , secondly , in the end to deceive themselves , as the same serpent did , which brought a curse upon himselfe for so doing , gen. . the crafty fox hug'd himselfe , to thinke how he had cosened the crow of her breakfast : but when he had eaten it , and found himselfe poysoned with it , he wish't the crow her owne againe . wealth got by deceit , is like a peece of buttered sponge , ( an italian tricke ) it goes downe glib , but in the stomack swells , and will never be got out againe . the gaines a man gets by deceiving , at last , he may put in his eye , and yet see himselfe miserable . sinne is the greatest cheater in the world , for it deceives the deceiver . that it is so with them , and all others , who goe to counsell , and leave the god of wisdome behind them , let their case be viewed in other persons . what ●aith pharaoh to his deepe counsellers ? come , let us doe wisely , when indeed he went about that which destroyed him , and his countrey . the scribes , pharisees , and elders tooke counsell against christ , as though they would most wisely prevent their owne salvation . ioseph's brethren to prevent his having dominion over them , as his dreames imported , thought they had taken a very wise course , in selling him to the ishmalitish merchants , which was indeed the only meanes to effect it . see here in these three examples , you have the depth & solidity of our great est and wisest politicians ; and yet lewd men , most absurdly , and ridiculously , call wicked policies , wisdome ; and their successe , happinesse ; but herein sathan makes them of all fooles the superlative , in mistaking villany and madnesse , for the best vertues . and what is the summa totalis of all , but this , faux - like , they project other mens over-throw , purchase their owne : neither hath any man beene wise to doe evill , but his wisdome hath had an evill end , as , o the multitude of examples which are recorded , to give credit to this doctrine ! was not the wisdome of the serpent turned into a curse ? the wisdome of the pharisees into a woe ? the wisdome of achitophel into folly ? the wisdome of nimr●d into confusion ? the wisdome of the unjst steward into expulsie● out of heaven ? the wisdome of iesabel into a shamefull death ? and shall not the deceivers wisdome , the extortioners wisdome , the sorcerers wisdome , the hypocrites wisdome , the matchevilians wisdome , and the persecutors wisdome have their severall ends answerable ? yes undoub●edly ; for in the issue , their case will be but like the spiders , that was weaveing a curious net to catch the swallow , who when she came , bore away both net , and web ▪ and weaver too . wherefore o god make me but soule wise , and i shall never enuy their knowledge , that pity my simplicity : yea , let me be weake in policy , so i may be wise to salvation . but to make it more manifest , that they are starke fooles , come we to particulars , though i 'le give you but one of ten , being loth to surfer my reader . § the particulars wherein the pol●tician is a foole , are these six . he is improvident and without foresight . he saith in his heart there is no god. let him be brayed in a morter , he will not depart from his foolishnesse . uertue is in farre lesse esteeme with him then riches . he proves cruell to himselfe . hee rates not things according to their true value . first , like a naturall foole , he is improvident and without foresight , matth. . . never bethinking himselfe , what a reckoning he is to give , untill it is too late , untill he is bearen with his owne rod : for if such an one have wealth , which lasteth but for the present day of this natural life , it may be , but a day naturall , as the same sunne saw iob both rich and poore , to a proverbe ; and as sometimes , by reason of fire or water , there hath beene but one day , betwixt a great city , and none , as seneca observes ; or an earth quake , ( which this present yeare , hath in the province of calubria the inferiour , in the kingdome of naples , utterly destroyed many cites , townes , and castles , kild , drowned , and suncke into the earth about fifty thousand persons , within the circuite of . miles compasse , in one instant of time , viz. betweene three and foure of the clock in the afternoone , being saturday , the . of march , . ) they take no care , or thought for the morrow of eternity , how they shall fare then ; yea , they runne on in sinne , and so upon score with sathan , without feare or wit how they shall satisfie the same ; yea , all that he offers them , whether it be this orphant's good , or that heires lands , this enemies life , or that great mans office , be the meanes never so indirect , and horrid , they will greedily embrace the same , and never thinke what a wofull reckoning will come in the end ; as , item , for falsehood ; item , for forgery ; item , for hypocrisie ; item , for bribery ; item , for sacriledge ; item , for murther and treachery : but come they once into those flames with dives , and finde that of samuel to agag , sam. . . verified upon them , as thou hast done to others , so shall it be done to thee , o then i had not thought , but now i see , i have spun a faire thread , when i must answer for all my sinnes , that am not able to answer for one of the least of them ; then , woe is me that ever i was borne ; and then , gladly would every ahab restore to naboth his vineyard , every iudas his bribes , every achan would willingly cast downe his gold gotten by sacriledge , and every gehazi his goods gotten by forgery and deceit . but which of these fooles will beleive this , before the feeles it , and before it be too late ? secondly , like david's foole , he saith in his heart there is no god , psal. . . yea , as if he were a brute beast , he will beleive nothing but what he is led to by sense . for suppose you tell such a covetous laban , or cruell pharaoh , that god seeth him , when he is contriving his secretest plots against his people , and withall takes notice of his oppression , gen. . . exodus , . . he will not regard it ; for , marius-like , he esteemes it a great point of vertue to be skillfull in cosenage , and mammon is all the god he worships ; yea , and herein he applauds his choyce no lesse , then that popish dolt did , who having got the picture of st. franc is curiously painted in his closset , said , they talke of the rhode at rome , and our lady of lauretta , and katherine of sienna , and iames of compostella ; but i have a picture at home , meaning yellow pictures , worth ten of them . thirdly , idiot-like , bray him in a morter , as wheate is bray'd with a pestell , yet he will not depart from his foolishnesse , pro. . . for let god send never so many messengers to him , and plagues upon him , as he did upon pharaoh , he will not depart from his sinnes ; he must retaine , if not all , yet , at least , this his beloved sinne , untill he is overwhelmed in the bottomlesse ocean of his wrath : yea , let him heare , even our saviour himselfe say , that he shall give an account at the day of judgement , for every idle word , matth. . . yet he will goe on in his helli●h plots , and perswade himselfe , he shall give no account at all ; or let some prophet of the lord tell him , what traines are laid to catch his soule , and how many principalities , spirituall wickednesses , and powers of darknesse lye in ambush against him , ephes. . . as el sha disclosed the traines and ambushments of the king of syria , against the king of israel , king. . . which was as good a peece of service as could be , he makes nothing on 't he shall speede as well as his fellowes , and indeede so he sh●ll , even as laban , or nabol , or dives doe in hell , if in due time he repent not , and so restore what he hath wrongfully gotten ; as the worst of them would doe , if they were suffered to returne out of hell , to their former riches . now that thou mayst repent while the day of thy life lasteth , take one motive from the damned in hell , who would gladly repent now , but cannot . st. augustin asketh this question , what we thinke the rich glutton in hell would doe , if he were now in this life againe ? would he take paines , or no , quoth he , would he not bestir himselfe rather then returne into that place of torment againe ? yes , his teares should even strive with the sand in the hour-glasse , he would doe any thing , to seeke the lord while he may be found . wherefore to day if ye will heare his voice , harden not your bearts . yea , as our saviour christ said , to forewarne all revolters , remember lot's wife : so say i , to forewarne all arch-politicians , and cunning machevillians of the world , remember poore naboth's vineyard . § . fourthly , vertue is in farre lesse esteeme with the cunning politician , then riches . as it fares with a naturall foole , he is so farre from selling all that he hath , to buy the rich pearle of faith , with the wise merchant , matth. . . that he will sell this rich pearle , and all other grace to boote , to purchase the triviall commodities of white and red earth ; and good reason , as temporising states-men , politicke machevilians , and hypocriticall ambidexters thinke , who make a shew of religion , but in their hearts laugh at it ; he knowes no other coyne , he desires no other stampe ; yea , to be rich , thinkes this worldling , is to be three parts of the way on-ward to perfection . indeed , gold is the onely coverlet of imperfections , t' is the fooles curtaine , that can hide all his defects from the world , yea , from himselfe : for though he have a want of all good , and which is worse , a sense of want of that want , yet he thinkes himselfe in a very good estate and so much neerer to heaven , for having abundance of earth . and yet if god did not give to some of them their riches in wrath he would not deny them the use of their owne ; as how often are men baser by being wealthier , like pierce gavistone , who ( as the chronicle reports ) the more he was enriched , the worse was his estate ; or whether it be , that they have not so much wit , as to know their money will buy them all necessaries of meate , drinke , apparell , and the like ; or whether , by a just judgment of god , the devill makes them his drudges , to get and bring him in gold ( as the king of spaine doth the poore indians ) that he may keepe it in banke , for the next prodigall to spend , as ill as the other got it , ( as how oft is that spent upon one christmas revelling , by the son , which was fourty yeares a getting , by the father ? ) i know not ; but sure i am , that though with that priest , king. . . they can put a world of gold and silver into their chests , yet they cannot take it out againe , to doe themselves good ; for the devill keepes the key , as iehoash the king of israel did of that chest , vers . . so that a covetous griper is like tantalus , who standeth up to the chin in water , and hath all kinds of fruits hanging over his head , but is not suffered to tast them . or like an asse , who is laden with gold , but feeds upon thistles . or like the indians , who though they have all the gold amongst them , yet are the most beggerly and naked people alive . for what is he other then a rich begger , or a begger in the midst of his riches , when upon all his estate there is set a spell , and his wealth sayes to him in effect , touch not , tast not , handle not ? but o fooles incomparable ! aristippus cared onely for the body , as if he had had no soule : zeno but for the soule , as if he had had no body : achitophel for his family alone , as if he had had neither body , nor soule of his owne to care for : but these care neither for soule , nor body , nor family , ( for he both tyres and starves them ) but for a little mucke to leave behind them . fiftly , as a foole can finde in his heart to be surety for a stranger , yea , yeild himselfe to prison for anothers enlargment , pro. . . so the politick worldling , and cruell oppressor , can finde in his heart to goe to hell for another ; he will damne his owne soule , to leave his sonne rich : yea , what a deale of paines and care doth the covetous man take , for his owne damnation , he scarce weares a good garment , or eates a liberall meale , or takes a quiet sleepe , but torments himselfe to get that , for getting whereof he shall be tormented : so himselfe is voluntarily miserable here , and elsewhere , that others may be happy . and yet let him , with pope iohn the . leave behind him . tunnes of gold , even all this will not make his sonne happy , ' it s well , if it make him not more unhappy . no , neither it , nor the whole world , without grace , shall ever make him contented : as it fared with alexander , who having conquered this world , was troubled that there was no more worlds , for him to conquer . besides , in a short time , this sonne of his must part with his wealth also : for either his r●ches shall be taken from him , as they were from iob , or else he from his riches , as the rich man was from his substance and wealth . wherefore it were more policy a great deale , for him to make his sonne good , then great ; for godlinesse is great gaine , as the apostle well phraseth it , tim. . . because it gaines god himselfe , and so his blessing upon all outward meanes , hagg. . . &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 , 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 , now ten cubits 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 painfull philosopher , the other ▪ 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 ma●iner , that seeing a fish in the sea , leaps into the water to catch that , which , together with his life , he looseth : or like narcissus , who to embrace his shadow , drowned himselfe : yea , set life and death before him , as moses did before the israelites , deut. . . . . and withall shew him , from matth. . . 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 ; 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 farre otherwise with the godly ; for as they that are after the flesh , savour 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. . . 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. . . and againe , corinth . . all things are yours , whether it be paul , or apollos , or cephas , or the world , or life , or death ; whether they be things present , or things to come ; even all are yours , and you are christs , and christ gods , v. . . . and indeed , if god give the substantive , christ , we may be sure he wil likewise afford the adjective , things , necessary for this life , matth. . . so that the godly man , is only rich , the servant of christ , is lord of all . § . and thus you have the wisdome of humanists and politicians decyphered , together with the wisdome of gods people : you see the difference betweene them , and therein , as i suppose , that the former are none of the wisest , and that the later , viz. the vvisest politician upon earth , the most ample and cunning machevilian that lives , be he a doctor in that deep reaching faculty , is a starke foole , in six main particulars : ergo , not so vvise as the godly man , nor so vvise as the vvorld reputes him , or he himselfe . yea , he is vvorse then a foole , for , saith saint augustine , if the holy ghost tearmes him a foole , that only laid up his owne goods , luke . . . find out a name for him , that takes away other mens . yet by the way , mistake me not , i am farre from advising thee to trust them ever the more , for their simplicity : i would rather wish thee to beware them ; for though the divell makes fooles of them , yet withall , he makes them wise enough , to make fooles of us ; and though they be but one eyed , with gorgon , yet have they also iron talons ; and though with the osprey , a ravenous bird , they have one flat hand to stroake , yet have they another with clawes , which wil cruelly gripe ; yea , though they have the faces and tongues of men , yet they have the talons of gryffons , full of rapine , cruelty , and oppression . but you will tell me , that the world is of another judgement . i answer . so shall we if we looke upon them sidewayes , as most men doe , ( like as apelles pictured antigonus , making shew only of that halfe of his face , which was perfect , but hiding the other side , wherein he was blind and deformed ) then we shall take them for wise men , and so be mistaken . i confesse , the one speak latine , greek and hebrew ; the other statutes , history , and husbandry well enough , to make their neighbours think them wise men ; but the truth is , they seeme wiser then they are , as we use to say of the spanyards : whereas the godly , like the french , are wiser then they seeme ; as thus , they are wise men in foolish things , and foolish men in wise things ; sharp eyed , as eagles , in the things of the earth , but as blind as beetles , in the matters of heaven ; and may be compared to bats , night-crowes , owles , and cats , which can see better in the darke , then in the light : their wisdome is like that of moles , which will dig under ground with great dexterity ; but are blind when they come into the sunne ; or cats ( especially the later sort ) that are onely gifted to catch mice , being in every thing else the simpliest creatures that live : or the fish polypus , which is a most stupid and foolish fish , yet useth great skill , in taking of other fishes : yea , these are directly like witches , and that in foure particulars . first , a witch is rarely pregnant in doing that which is evill , . a witch neither can , nor will doe good : . a witch will sell her soule to the divel , that shee may a little excell others in mischiefe ; . both they , and these , are indeed blind and in darknesse , as having their beginning from sathan , the prince of darknesse , and their end in hell , which is the pit of darknes : for as they and witches , do the same worke ; so they shall have the same wages , because they are wise to evill , their wisdome shall have but an evill end . againe , if innocency be acknowledged meere simplicity , then none are so simple as the religious ; for , as it seemes , their ignorance will not suffer them to doe evill . yea , as plistonax the sonne of pausanias , when an orator of athens said , the lacedaemonians were unlearned and ignorant : answered , thou sayest true , for we only , of all the grecians , have learned none of thine ill conditions : so may i say to these ; the godly , of all others , have learnt none of your atheisticall practises . but let the holy ghost determine , that knowes better how to judge then any : and then , he is most wise , that is most holy : for goodnesse , in the scripture , is tearmed wisdome ; and vice , folly ; sinners and fooles , synomina , prov. . . in the dialect of the wise man it is plaine , that the greatest sinner is the greatest foole : and david thinkes there is no foole to the atheist , psa. . . whose wayes utter his foolishnesse , ps. . . and though worldly men call the simple , fooles , yet god calls the crafty , fooles , ieremiah . . luke . . mat. . . and of all atheists , which seeme wise , there bee no such fooles in the world , as they which love money better then themselves . to conclude , the feare of the lord , is wisdome ; and to depart from evill , is understanding , iob . . and hee that is truly wise , thinks that to be wisdome and folly , which god thinks so . § . if you would know what to judge of them , and how to call them ; they are properly subtile persons , as the holy ghost stiles ionadab , who gave that wicked and crafty counsell to amnon , sam. . . . and the woman of tekoa sam. . . and elimas acts . . being rarely gifted to deceive , and more crafty and wily then is usuall ; but not wise men , or if it may be termed wisdome , ( as sometimes the scripture terms it wisdom ) in an holy derision , as , ge. . . is to be understood : or else calling it wisdom , because worldly men deeme it so , as in another place , it calls preaching , the foolishnesse of preaching , because wicked men esteeme preaching but foolishnesse : and as christ calls the pharisies , just , because they justified themselves , luke . . or thirdly , meaning by wisdome , the wisdome of the flesh , or of the world , and that is as much , as if it should say in other words , foolishnesse ; for the wisdome of the world is foolishnesse with god , saith paul , as the wisdome of god is foolishnesse with the world , cor. . . i am sure , to be wise to evill , is an evil wisdom , or rather wisdome backward : for , where as god saith , if any man will bee wise , let him become a foole , that hee may bee wise : these , on the contrary , become wise , that they may bee fooles ; they studie the dangerous art of selfe-sophistry , to the end , that they may bee wily to beguile themselves , and to plot selfe-treason , then which there is no greater , when the betrayer and betrayed spell but one man. there is , yea , this is a kind of wisdome , which is more contrary to wisdome then ignorance : and indeed , whence proceeds the subtilest folly , but from the subtilest wisdome ? for as from the extreamest friendships , proceeds the extreamest enmities ; and from the soundest healths , the mortallest diseases : so from the rarest and quickest agitations of our mindes , ensue the most distempered and outragious frenzies ; there wants but half a pegs turn , to passe from the one to the other . in mad mens actions we see how fitly folly suiteth , and meetes with the strongest operations of our mindes ; who knowes not how unperceivable the neighbourhood is , betweene folly and the liveliest elevations of these wits ; yea , their crafty wisdome , the occasion of their folly , thy wisdome and thy knowledge , saith isai●h , they have caused thee 〈…〉 . . and what is rebellion but folly ? as iob . . proverbs . . . and . . deut. . . hosea . . iames . . . t●m . . . and other the like places shew . if then ( to use our saviours words ) the light that is in them be darknesse , how great is that darkn●sse ? matth. . . if their wisdome and knowledge be ig●orance ; how great is that ignorance ? yea , how inconceivably great is the folly of that ignorance ? surely in my judgment it is such , that if the law admit any to be beg'd for fooles , these are the fittest ; and i cannot but wonder to see , how the most are mistaken in them : but being thus discouered , i hope it will appeare , that as love and lust are not both one ; so a cunning man , and a wise man are not both one . wee have seene some that could packe the cards , and yet cannot play well . now as i have shewen these two sorts of men their folly ; so it were as easie to shew , that the voluptuous are fooles also ; though , of all men , they are the wisest in their owne conceits , because they live the merriest and freeliest of all others . yea , i could make it plaine to them , that the very worst thing in religion , even the reproach of christ , is better then the best pleasure , that is in the sweetest sinne ; for so it was to moses , a man of a right esteeme : and that one day in the courts of god , viz. his holy temple , is better then a thousand elsewhere ; for so it was to david , a man of a refined and reformed judgement : yea , s. paul , a sanctified man , after hee was rapt up into the third heaven , reckoned so meanly of the things below , that he could hardly find forth a comparison for them homely enough . philipians . . it is true , carnall men think that if they once embrace religion , farewel all joy aud delight : but they only think so , it is not so , for a good conscience , when it is at the worst ; is even filled with joy , act. . . . cor. . . thus it fared with steven , act. . . . and those disciples , chapter . . yea , a good conscience made peter more merry , under stripes , then caiaphas upon the judgement-seat ; and paul happier in his chaine of iron , then agrippa in his chain of gold . neither have gods children a lesse portion of outward blessings , then the wicked , when god knowes the same good for them . abraham was as rich as any of our aldermen ; david as valiant as any of our gentlemen ; salomon as wise in humane skill , as any of our deepest naturians ; susanna as faire , as any of our painted peeces , &c. but i feare mee egypt hath beene so teadious to you already that you aske for goshen ; though , indeed , you have beene all this while in the light , that you have look'd upon darknesse ; for darknes could never be seene by it self , but by the light . besides , i have search'd and rubd enough this sore , only the plaister is wanting ; wherefore i will winde up this objection , with a few helpes to , or meanes of true wisdome , and saving knowledge ; that so each one may bee able to understand the scriptures , and what qualifications god requireth in such , to whom he will shew mercy : and so much the rather , because the worke of regeneration begins at illumination ; a man desires not , that he doth not know , saith chrysostome , neither are unknowne evils feared . § . i● any would ob●aine this excel lent grace of saving knowledge , let him use these six helps and further ances , . discard all filthy lusts and 〈◊〉 affections . . get an humble heart . . procure the eye of a lively faith . . bee constant in prayer . . be irequent and studious in the scriptures . . advise with others . first , let him be careful to dispell and remove al filthy lusts and lewd affect●on● , for these are our eues , which doe deceive us ; our dalilahs , which ●ull us asleep , while wee are deprived of the strength of our reason ; our enemies , that are ever fighting against our soules , as peter speakes , peter . . yea , there needs no more to besot a man , then the inordinate love of money ; for had one as many eyes as the poets feign of argus , the melody of gaine would play them all out , or fast asleepe . our affections , like fire and water , are good servants , but evill master ; for being corrupted and overswayed by lusts , there be no such enemies , as these home-bred , and of a mans owne houshold . sinne is like the albug● , or white spot in the eye , which dims our understandings , and makes fooles of catoes and platoes , and tullies , and achit●phels , leaving them never an eye to see withall . for as the arke would not stay with the philistins : so wisdome and grace will not stay with sinners , but ●lieth from them , as believers would doe from a persecuting tyrant . if ierusalem forgets her first love , presently her right hand forgets her cuning , and her tongue cleaves to the roofe of her mouth , psalm . . . . if sinnes come in at the fore-dore , graces will go out at the postern : what communion hath light with darknesse ? they will not keepe company together : vertues drop from such a tree , like leaves and fruits in a great wind : yea , one sin openeth the doore for many vertues to goe out . if one vertue be offended , she lureth away all her fellowes ; as when ner , was offended , he drew away many of ishbosheth's friends , and they shrunk from him . as a judge to acquit his office , must be free from passion and affection , touching either party ; and as our eyes , could not aright judge of colours , except they were void of all colours ; nor our tongues discerne of tastes , unlesse freed from tasts : so no man can jndge aright of passions , except his mind be altogether free from passions . wherefore bee not so much led by lust passion , or affection , as by reason . wee know appetite in a burning feavor , will call for cold drink , even to the overthrow of our lives , if reason gainsay it not . but as they that would see more sharply and certainly , shut one eye : so doe thou , let the eyes , or windowes of thy affections bee shut to the allurements of the world , and the flesh , least they draw thee from the right line of obedience : yea , shut to humane reason also , least it make thee mistake and swerve from faiths injunctions . and then if thou canst but bring thy flesh with it's lusts , a little asleep , while thy soule is waking , thou hast entred ●hrough the gate into the porch of this heavenly palace . but he that will doe this , must shunne all dispute with sathan : of which else where . secondly , he must get an humble conceit of his owne wisdome . the first step to knowledge , is to know our owne ignorance ; we must become fooles in our owne judgements , before we can be truly wise , cor. . . and indeed , the opinion of our knowing enough , is one of the greatest causes of our knowing so little : for what we presume to have attained , we seeke not after . humble eyes are most capable of high mysteries , he will teach the humble his way , saith david , psal. . . yea , the first lesson of a christian is humility , matth. . . pro. . . and he that hath not learnt the first lesson , is not fit to take out a new . one would thinke , that a worldly wise man , might most easily also make a wise christian : but st. paul saith , no , except first he becomes a foole , that is , acknowledge his cleare light and wisdome , which he hath so magnified for clearenesse , to be blindnesse and ignorance , he cannot be wise in this case , cor. . . yea , saith st. cyprian , it is as much lost labour , to preach unto a man the things of god , before he be humbled , with the sight of hi● wants , as to offer light to a blind man , to speake to a deafe man , or to labour to make a brute beast wise . pride is a great let to true wisdome , for god resisteth the pro●d , a●d onely gives grace to the humble , iames , . . pet. . . hence it comes to passe , that few proud wits are reformed . i am come unto judgement into this world , saith our saviour to the pharisees , that they which see not , might see ; and that they which ●ee , meaning in their owne opinion , might be made blind , ioh. . . which was the reason he propounded his woes to the pharisees , and his doctrines to the people . an heart full of pride , is like a vessell full of aire : this selfe-opinion must be blowne out of us , before saving knowledge will be powred into us . humility is the knees of the soule , and to that posture only the lamb will open the booke : christ will know none but the humble , and none but humble soules truly know christ. now this grace of humility is obtained , by taking a serious view of our wants : the peacock's pride is abated , when she pe●ceives the blacknesse of her legs and feete . now , suppose we know never so much ; yet that which we doe knovv , is farre lesse then ●hat which we are ignorant of ; and the more we know , the more we knovv vve vvant , at all , both vvise and holy ●en , have felt and confest : yea , this vvas the judgement of the vvisest , even amongst the heathen ▪ 〈◊〉 being demanded vvhy the oracle of delpho● should pronounce him the vvisest man of greece , made ansvver , i know nothing , but this , that i kno● nothing ; neither can there be any thing in me to ●●rifie the oracle , e●cept this , that i am not wise , and know it ; whereas others are not wise , and know it not ; and to be ignorant , and knovv it not , is by farre the greater ignorance . so the renovvned orator cicero , even bevvayled his own emptinesse , i would , quoth he , i could light on the truth , as easily , as i can 〈◊〉 fasehood : a negative knovvledge , vvas the greatest knovvledge , he vvould acknovvledge in himselfe . he is wise , that can truly see and acknowledge his ignorance ; he is ignorant , that thinkes himselfe wise : i 'le cleare it by a similitude , being here below , we thinke one iland great , but the whole earth unmeasurably ; if we were above in the firmament , with these eyes , the whole earth , were it equally enlightned , would seeme as little to us , as now the least starre in the firmament seemes to us upon earth : and indeed , how few stars are so little as it ? even such is the naturall mans mistake , in judging of , and comparing what he hath , with what he wants ; naturall wisdome , with spirituall and heavenly . wherefore , if thou perceivest not more strength and wisdome to be in the weaknesse and foolishnesse of gods truth , cor. . . ( which therefore only seemes weaknesse and foolishnesse , because the strength and wisdome of it is not perceived by the fleshly eye ) then in the strength and wisdome of the profoundest naturian , and , if thou beleivest not the godly to be most wise ; doe not blame them for foolishnesse , but thy selfe for blindnesse , and desire the lord ( as elisha did for his servant ) to open thine eyes . thus , as by mortification and dying unto sinne , we come to vivification and living unto grace ; or , as by dying the death of nature , we obtaine the life of glory : so by becomming a foole , a man may attaine to wisdome . wherefore get humility , and thou hast mounted another step toward wisdome , entred a second roome of this palace . § . thirdly , let him get faith . for as without faith , no man can please god : so without faith no man can know god. faith doth clearely behold those things , which are hid both from the eye of sense , and the eye of reason . i am come into the world , saith our saviour , that whosoever beleeveth in me , should not sit in darknesse , iohn , . . reason and faith are the two eyes of the soule . reason discernes naturall objects , faith spirituall and supernaturall . we may fee , farre with our bodily eye , sense ; farther , with the minds eye , reason ; but farther , with the soules eye , faith , then with both . yea , the rationall doth not so farre exceede the sensuall , as the spirituall exceeds the rationall : and though reason and humane learning , is as oyle to the lampe of our understandings , which makes them burne clearer ; yea , so doubles the sight of our minds , as menander speakes , that there is as much difference , betweene the learned and unlearned , as there is betweene man and beast : yet faith and illumination of the spirit , adds to the sight of our minds , as a prospective glasse adds to the corporall sight , matth. . . christ is the sunne of the soule , reason and faith the two eyes , i am the light of the world , saith our saviour , he that followeth me , meaning , by a lively faith , shall not walke in darknesse ; but shall have the light of life , iohn , . . and more see two eyes then one . yea , the day , with one eye , doth for more things descry , then night can doe with more then argus eyes . vnregenerate men who want faith , are like blind sampson , without his guide . so that we must have minds lifted above nature , to see , and love things above nature ; heavenly wisdome , to see heavenly truth ; or else that truth , which is saving , will be to us a mystery , yea , seeme foolishnesse ▪ cor. . , , . wheras the spirit reveales all things to the beleiver , even the deepe things of god , cor. . , , , . giving him a mouth , and wisdome , where ag●inst all his adversaries shall not be able to speake , or resist , luke , . . wherefore get faith , and thou hast mounted another step to wisdome , entred a third roome of this palace . fourthly , he must be frequent and fervent in prayer to god , for the direction of his holy spirit , for , first , humble and faithfull prayer , ushered in by meditation , is the cure of all obscurity , especially being accompanied with fervor and fervency . if any lacke wisdome , saith st. iames , let him aske of god , which giveth to all men liberally , and reproacheth no man , and it shall be given him , iam. . . marke the words : it is said , if any : wherefore let no man deny his soule this comfort : againe , aske , and have , it cannot come upon ea●ier termes : yea , god seemes to like this sute so well in solomon , as if he were beholding to his creature for wishing good to it ●elfe , yea more , whatsoever we aske in prayer , if we beleeve , we shall have it , math. . . and in vaine doe we expect that almes of grace , for which we doe not so much as beg . secondly , as sampsons companions could never have found out his riddle , if they had not plowed with his heyfer : so no man can say that iesus is the lord , but by the holy ghost , cor. . . and as none can behold the light of the sunne , but by the benefit of the sunne : so none can know god ( who is called the father of lights , in the plurall number , because of the degrees and diversities of his gifts ) nor the things of god , but by the revelation of god , cor. . . math. . . with the spirits helpe , the meanes can never be too weake ; without , never strong enough . one excellent and necessary prerogative of the spirituall man , is this , he hath god for his teacher , he learnes the counsells of god , of that spirit , which only knoweth god's counsells , luke , . . for though his outward man receives the elements and rudiments of religion , by breeding and education ; yet his inward man receiveth them by heavenly infpiration . for as spirituall wisdome is not the fruite of time and study , as the naturall is : so it hath a higher fountaine then nature to feede it , even the spirit of god ; which is no small priviledge ; for the scholler learnes quickly , when the holy ghost is his teacher ; the eye sees distinctly , when the holy ghost doth enlighten it . when christ taught in the temple , they askt , how knoweth this man the scriptures , seeing he never learned them ? so it is a wonder what learning some men have , that have no learning : like priscilla and aquila , poore tent-makers , which were able to schole apollos , that great clarke , a man renowned for his learning . what can we say to it ? for no other reason can be given for it , but as christ said , father , so it pleaseth thee . for as iacob came so soone with his venison , that his father askt him , how he came by it so suddenly ; and iacob answered , because the lord thy god brought it suddenly to my hands : so holy and righteous men , can give no other reason , why they understand the words of god so easily , and the wicked doe conceive them so hardly , but that god brings the meaning suddenly to their hearts , as we reade , luk. . that christ standing in the midst of his apostles , after he was risen from the dead , opened their understandings , that they might understand clearely the scriptures , and what vvas vvritten of him , in the lavv of moses , and in the prophets , and in the psalmes vers . . . loe , hovv suddenly their knovvledge came unto them ! but see vvhat a generall promise god , in the person of vvisdome , hath made to all that serve him , pro . . wherefore importune god the father , for the dir●ction of his holy spirit , and thou shalt , at the least , have light enough on earth , to bring thee to the light of heaven . but in praying for wisdome , observe one caution , doe not pray for it , without putting difference . there is a speculative knowledge in the braine , common to hypocrites , with gods children ; heb. . . and there is an experimentall and saving knowledge in the heart , peculiar to the godly alone , eph. . . and . . pray especially for the last of these , let thine hearts desire be , to know god in christ ; christ , in faith ; faith , in good workes ; to know gods will , that thou mayst doe it ; and before the knowledge of all other things , desire to know thy selfe ; and in thy selfe , not so much thy strength , as thy weakenesse : pray that thine heart may be insteed of a commentary , to helpe thee understand such points of religion as are most needfull and necessary , and that thy life may be an exposition of thy inward man , that there may be a sweete harmony betwixt gods truth , thy judgement , and whole conversation ; that what the naturall man knowes by thinking , thou mayst double by feeling the same in thine heart and affections : as indeed , experimentall and saving knowledge is no lesse felt , then knowne ; and i cannot tell how , comes rather out of the abundance of the heart , then by extreame study , or rather is sent by god unto good men ; like the ramme that was brought to abraham , when he would have sacrificed his sonne isaac . but if thou shalt pray unto god for knowledge , without making a difference ; and shalt stand more upon the quantity , then the quality : so resembling the curre in the fable , which preferred the shadow to the meate ; or those parents among the heathen , which sacrificed to the gods for children , but not for good children ; or nero's mother , who being told , that her sonne should be emperour , but to her griefe and sorrow , answered , so my sonne have the empire , let my sorrow and griefe be what it will ; or eudoxus , whose wish and prayer to the gods was , that hee might once view the sunne neere at hand , to comprehend his forme , greatnesse , and beauty , on condition he were immediately burnt and consumed by it . god will either crosse thee , in thy desire , as he did those anticke builders , gen. . . to . who purposed a tower , the top whereof should reach unto heaven , for no other cause , but to get them a name . and what if the height had answered their desire ? or as he doth dayly men and women , that had rather be rich , or honourable , then good ? or if he doe grant their desires , yet he will grant it them in judgement ; as he did a king to the israelites , and quailes , with which he fed their bodies , but withal sending leannesse into their soules ; or as he granted a boy to sr. thomas moor's lady , who being sicke of daughters , prayed importunately for a boy , and nothing but a boy would serve ; whereupon she had a boy , which ( as sr. thomas wittily and twittingly told her ) would be a boy , so long as he lived ; or as christ committed his purse to iudas , when as he gave his holy spirit to his faithfull apostles ; or as bacchus is feighned to deale with midas , who desiring of him , that whatsoever he touch't might instantly bee converted into gold , granted his request , but so as it became his bane ; for his wine became gold , his bread gold , the feathers of his bed , his shirt , his garments , and every thing else , were all turned into that hard mettall , whereby he was halfe starved with hunger , and halfe with cold , as fulgentius relates ; he would gladly now have unprayed his prayers . alas ! even the wicked , for the most part , have their desire ; yea , more then their hearts can wish , as the psalmist speakes , psal. . . . but what 's the issue ? they set their mouthes against heaven , like an unruly jade , that being full fed , kickes at his master ; yea , how often doth wisdome without grace , prove like a faire estate in the hands of a foole , which not seldome becomes the ovvners ruine ; or like absolom's haire , which vvas an ornament vvherevvith he hanged himselfe : yea , vvisdome vvithout grace , is nothing else but a cunning way of undoing our selves at the last ; for is not many mens knowledge to them , like the arke to the philist●nes , which did them more hurt then good ? a wicked mans knowledge may make him prouder , not better , ; more rebellious , not more serviceable : thy wisdome and thy knowledge , saith isay , they have caused thee to rebell , isa. . . o how many doe mischiefe insteed of good with their knowledge ? like h●rod , whom you shall see turning over the bible , searching the scriptures , examining the prophets , but to what end and purpose to know good , but to doe evill ? yea , the greatest evill under the sunne , slay christ in the cradle : with many their knowledge and learning is not for god , and for gideon ; but for antichrist , and for babylon . and so of all other gifts : how many are the wor●e for them ? as , give saul a kingdome , and he will tyrannize ; give nabal plenty , and he will be drunke ; give iudas an apostleship , and he will sell his master for money . wherefore , in praying for wisdome , pray not so much for braine-knowledge , as to be soule-wife ; nor more for wisdome it selfe , then for a blessing upon it ; that god will so sanctifie it unto thee , that he may have glory , thy selfe and others good by the same ; for , for want of this , many are able to speake like angells in the church , while they live like devills abroad . ob : but i cannot pray , or not to purpose . answ : as we poure some water into the pumpe , that thereby we may fetch up more : so let us pray , that we may pray more and better . when the mill is set on going , an easie wind keepes it so ; and a stronger encreaseth the motion . ob : but i have often prayed , and yet remaine as stupid as a stone . answ ▪ though , with peter , thou hast fished all night , and caught nothing , yet cast out thy net againe , pray still , and the issue shall more then recompence the delay : yea , thy perseverance in prayer , will prove that thou hast mounted another step to wisdome , entred a fourth roome of this palace . § fiftly , he must use the meanes , as well as pray ; acquaint himselfe with the scriptures , for they , and they alone are able to make a man wise unto salvation , as st. paul tells timothy , tim. . . we must not , in the search of heavenly matters , either follow the blind guide , carnall reason ; or the deceitfull guide , our corrupt hearts ; but the undeceiveable guide of gods word , which is truth it selfe . and great need there is . for , as we cannot see the foulenesse of our faces , unlesse it be told us by some other ; or wee take a glasse , and looke our selves therein : so neither can we see the blemishes of our soules ( which is a notable degree of spirituall vvisdome ) but either god must make it knovvne unto us , by his spirit ; or vve must collect the same out of the scriptures , that coelestiall glasse ; though this also must be done by the spirits helpe . now if thou wilt truly profit by reading the scriptures , resolve to make them the rule of thy life . what is the reason many are conversant in those divine and heavenly mysteries , all the dayes , of their life , and yet are neither the wiser nor the better , resembling wormes in a booke , or fish in the sea , which though they are bred and nourished therein ; yet , the one , is never the more learned , nor the other , one jot the salter : or like some athenian gentlemen in our city , who were wont to spend all their time in measuring of pauls , yet know not the length of it : or some innes of court gentlemen , that studie the law , but , being borne to great meanes , never intend to practise it : or , rather some physitians , who learne the use of physicke , and prescribe it to others , finding sweetnesse and profit thereby , but will not once tast thereof themselves , knowing it unpleasant . yea , what is the reason , that in studying the scriptures , they resemble the rustick sayler , who sees gods wonders in the deepe , but so , as they rather appeare his playfellowes , then the stirrers of his zeale ? yea , that the very meanes of their reformation , should become the very fuel of their wickednesse ? whereas , the story of god , makes others no lesse good then wise , who improve their time by it ; as some do at a game at chesse , who by way of returne , learn both arithmeticke , and geometry . the reason is this , naturall and ungodly men read and heare the scriptures , and mind not ; or mind , and understand not ; or understand , and remember not ; or remember , and practise not ; no , this they intend not , of all the rest ; and they which are unwilling to obey , god thinks unworthy to know . when the serpent taught knowledge , hee said , if ye eat the forbidden fruit , your eyes shall be opened , and you shall know good and evill , gen. . . but god teacheth another lesson , and saith , if ye will not eat the forbidden fruit , your eyes shall be opened , and you shall know good and evil , rom. . . indeed , an holy submission to the word is the a b c : the primmer and grammar , the first lesson and the last lesson of a christian : so to know the good , and perfect ▪ and acceptable will of god , that wee our selves become good , and perfect , and acceptable in gods sight , romans . . is all in all . touching wisdome , it is the beginning , the middle , and the end ; they that observe the commandements have a good understanding , saith david , psal ▪ . . and proves it true , by his owne example and experience . i understood , saith he , more then the ancient ; and became wiser then my teachers , because i kept thy precepts , psalme . , , , . and he was brought up to little else but keeping his fathers sheep ; only his aym was ; that the word might make him not witty , but holy , teach him to follow vertue and embrace wisdome , not talk of it ; and therefore god gave him both goodnesse , and wisdome , as hee gave salomon wisdome , and riches , and honour , when his petition was only for wisdome . briefly , he that can say with david , i love thy law , and keep thy precepts , and hate all the wayes of falshood , ps. ▪ . . may follow , with david , i have more understanding then my teachers and know more then the ancient , verse . to . but , as david could not understand why the wicked prospered , untill he went into the sanctuary of god , psalm . . and as aaron , might not enter into the sanctuary , where god did answer , untill hee had sanctified himselfe ; so , if we will understand mysteries and heare ▪ god himselfe speake , we must put off our sins , as moses put off his shoes , exodus . . or else we shall be like images , that have eares , and cannot heare , psal. . . cor. . . wherefore , bee studious in the scriptures , and follow that rule : adde nothing of thine owne unto it , but obedience and subjection , and thou hast mounted another step to wisdome , entred a fifth room of this palace . § . sixthly and lastly , he must do , touching his spirituall estate , as worldly men do , touching their temporall possessions : goe to counsell , take advise of the learned , ( i meane the ministers ) when hee is in any doubt : as who knowes the spots of his owne face , but either by the reflection of a glasse , or by the relation of others ? and in a worke of great consequence , it argues the candor and modesty of a man , to desire a coadjutor . now the priests lippes , saith malachi , preserve knowledge ; and the people seek the law at his mouth , for hee is the messenger of the lord of host● , mal. . . yea , there is use to bee made of our friends , private christians , we ought to borrow our friends eyes ; and lend them ours ; for that we do not more love our selves above others ; then we see others better then our selves ; we can more easily see a moate in anothers eye , then a beame in our owne , matth . , it is not amisse sometimes to goe from home , to heare what newes there is at home : as tarlton told the queene , hee was going to london , to heare what newes at court : so a wise man will gather much knowledge of himself , from others observation ; lookers on many times see more , then the actors doe . tully said , hee could better heare the newes of rome at antium , then at rome it selfe ; neither can paris tell more newes of france ; or madril of spaine , then our exchange in london of both . yea , what traveller is able to speake so much of forraigne parts , as hee that lookes no further then his studie . besides , every man in his owne cause is a party , and therefore partiall ; so that hee which learnes of none but himselfe , hath a foole to his teacher : yea , salom●n , no lesse then nine times ▪ brands him for a foole , who refuseth admonition . but herein observe one caution : neither advise , nor consult with brutish sensualists ; for their knowledge is ignorance ; their wisdome , folly ; their sight , blindnesse , &c. they neither consider what reason speaketh , or religion commandeth , but what the will and appetite affecteth : for will is the axeltree , lusts and passions the wheeles , whereupon all their actions are carried , and doe runne ; appetite being their lord , reason the servant , and religion their slave ; whereas religion should govern their judgments , judgment and reason their wils , and affections , as adam should have done eve , these are the six steps which lead up to the palace of wisdome ; answerable to those six steps which led up to salomons throne ; which all must ascend by , that meane to enter : the more of them you have ascended , he nearer you are to heaven , if you have once attained this precious grace of s●ving knowledge , you will ( as much as in you lies ) ●moloy the same , to the glory of the giver . there be some that care not to know ; and there be some , that care for nothing else but to know ; many strive after , and pray for knowledg , but why ? they would be wiser , not holier by it : it is their owne honour they seek , not the honour of ●hrist : if they may bee thought great rabbies , deep and profound s●hollers , this is the height of their ambition ; though neither the church be benefited , nor god glorified by it , whereas they ought the contrary . for , as the grace of god is the fountaine from which our wisdom flowes , so the glory of god should be the ocean to which it should runne : it is derived from the one , and must bee directed to the other . yea , that god may be honoured by our wisdome , is the onely end for which he gives us to be wise ; and for default of this end , he not seldome curseth the meanes , whereby many striving to expell ignorance , fall into error ; as an empirick to cure one disease ; cau●eth a worse . if you would know in speciall , whom they are , that in using their gifts , seek not the glory of god ; you may discern them by these marks . first , they will have al the talk , wheresoever they come , like parrats . . they contemne others , like the pharisies . . they will be wiser then god , and not submit their judgements and opinions to his word , like the romish pontifician doctors , who because the commandement thwarts their opinions , and stands plainly forbidding images ; that images may stand , they forbid the commandement . . they spurne at him which tells them of their faults , like abner . . they jump with their superiours in every thing , like the herodians . . they turn with the time , like demas . . they seek their own credit , by the discredit of others , like the enemies of paul. . they love to heare their own praise , like herod . . above all , they would have their owne wills , like iezabel ; let these men denie it if they can . yea , i would faine know what fruit , or effect these mens knowledge hath in them , except it bee to enable them to dispute , and discourse , to increase wit , or to increase wealth , or to increase pride ? whether the utmost of their ayme be not to enrich , dignifie , and please themselves ; not once casting the eye of their soules at gods glory , or their neighbours good ? as let any fluent herod , or eloquent turtullus tell me , whether his knowledge puffs him no●●p , as if he had eaten a spider ; and whether he seekes not more the praise of his wit , then the profit of his soule , and feares not more an affront from his superiour , then he feares hell . againe , let any strong brain'd achitophel tell me , whether hee had not rather seeme wicked , th●● simple ? any unrighteous judge , or lawyer , whether his whole ayme bee not the purchasing of land , without either feare of god , regard of men , or the discharge of his duty and office . briefly , so many as are puft up with their knowledge , or doe not part with their sinnes , shew , that they never sought it for gods glory , but for their own honour and glory ; and certainly , if we seeke nor gods glory , in doing his worke ; hee will give us no wages , at the latter end . but to apply what hath beene spoken . if it be so , that god reveales himselfe savingly to none but his children , the godly ; and that none are soule wise , but such as digest their knowledge into practise , and imploy their wisdome to his glory that gave it , and the good of themselves and others : then your objection , of what the world thinks ( like a childs bubble blowne into the aire ) is fallen to the ground , and dissolved to nothing . alasse ! the world is no more fit to judge of cases of conscience , then a blind man is fit to judge of colours . wherefore as the orator would admit none but rhetoricians , to judge of his orations : so henceforward , admit none but spirituall men to sway thee in spiritual matters , and follow our saviours counsell , seeke to justifie thy judgement and practise to the children of wisdome , of whom wisdome is justified ; and not to fooles , by whom shee is daily crucified . only condole these blind mens disasters , and drop some teares in pity and compassion , for their great and greivous misery . and so much for the objection . § . now that i may fasten againe the thread of my discourse , where i brake it ; and fall in , where i left off ; let your thoughts return with me to the law ( i meane , to the law of christ ) and to the testimony alleadged , and explained from § : . to § . . and you will easily confesse , that sathan hath hitherto gulled you , and all in your case ; that he holds a paire of false spectacles before the eyes of wicked men , and thereby perswades their deceitfull hearts , that the bridge of gods mercy is farre larger then it is : and they give such credit therunto , that while they thinke they are upon the bridge , they go besides , and so are sure , in the end , to fall , and be drowned in the waters of eternall destruction . wherefore if thou meanest to fare better , make not christ a bolster for si●●ne , least the plaister prove worse then the sore ; nor gods mercy a warrant for thy continuing in an evill course ; for this is to sin with an high hand , or with a witnesse ( as we use to say ) which if thou doest , thou shalt also perish with a witnesse , deuteronomy . , , . i have heard of a woman , that presumed so much upon her husbands love , that if he should find her in the bed of incontinency , he would not harme her ; but it proved farre otherwise , to her shame and ruine : and so it will fare with thee , in the end , for hee that deliberately resolves to sinne , doth what he can , to make himselfe uncapeable of forgivenesse : yea , how should the crosse of christ be a friend to them , that are enemies to his crosse , philip. . . and trample upon him with their feet , because hitherto hee hath borne the contumelies of their tongues , and excesses of their lives ? o what a blasphemous imagination is this , against jesus christ ! to think that he came into the world to bee a patron of sinne , or a bolster , whereupon we may more securely sleep in sensuallity ; and not to destroy the workes of the divell , iohn . . . . . oh that christians should so live , as if the practise of the gospell , were quite contrary to the rule of the law ! but such men shew what they are , for none but base minds , and perverse dispositions , saith saint bernard ; will therefore be evill , because god is good : and those that belong to gods election , wil never make that liberty which christ hath purchased for them , with his precious blood ; a cloak to cover their wickednesse ; but rather a spur , to incite them to godlinesse ; they , for whom christ dyed , will not presumptuously lavish on his score not caring what they spend , because he is able to pay for all : no , they will live as though there were no gospell ; dye , as though there were no law : and nothing so soone leades an ingenuous mind to repentance , as when hee considers gods bountifulnesse and long suffering towards him , rom. . . there is mercy with thee , saith david , what ? that thou mightest be despised , blasphemed ? &c. no , ( if you take him so , you mistake him ) but that thou mightest be feared , psalm . . and the love of christ constrained paul to duty , cor. . . § . whereas nothing will do good upon thee ; for albeit , i have informed thee how dangerous thine estate is , that thou mightest plainly see it , truly feare it , and timely prevent it ; yet i have not the least , or , at most , very little hope of thy yeelding . for first , these lines to thee , are but as so many characters written in the water , which leaves no impression behind them ; thou being l●ke one , that beholdeth his natural face in a glasse ; who when he hath considered himselfe , goeth his way , and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was , iames . . . or like some silly flie , which being beat from the candle an hundred times , and often ●inged there in , yet will returne to it againe , untill shee bee consumed . if thou wilt behold thy case in another person , look king. . to . proverbs . . all those beasts which went into the arke uncleane , came likewise out uncleane . secondly , though these sparks of grace may kindle piety in others , yet not in thee : for what is light , to him that will shut his eyes against it ? and men of thy condition do on purpose stop their eares , and wink with their eyes , least they should see with their eyes , and heare with their cares , and understand with their hearts , and so should bee converted , as our saviour shewes , matth. . . and saint paul , acts . . o , if these adders had not stopt their eares , how long since had they beene charmed ! and indeed , it were an unreasonable motion in me , if i should request minds , preposessed with prejudice , to heare reason : there is no disputing with him that denies principles , if they believe not moses , and the prophets , they would never be perswaded , although one should bee sent unto them from the dead , to testifie what a place of torment they are going unto , luk . . a brute beast is as capeable of good counsell , as a drunkard , once became a scorner ; for like salomons foole , braying in a mo●●ar will not alter him : yea , a very stone , ( to which ezeki●l compares a hard heart , chapter . . ) is not more insensible , then such a sinner ; for he will neither be softned , with benefits , nor broken , with punishments ; neither god's severity , can terrifie him ; nor his kindnesse , mollifie him ; yea , the more these anvills are beaten upon , the harder they are : the change of meanes , whether the word , judgements , mercies , &c. do● but obdure their hearts instead of melting them ; as we see in the example of phara●h . we know the same sunne which procuretha sweet savour from flowers , makes carrion to stink . and as the same water , which washes other things cleane , makes clay more dirty : so this , which hath been collected out of the word , instead of diminishing their sinne , will ( as may bee feared ) increase it : like as physick , if it worketh not upon choller , turneth into choller ; their nature being serpentine , in lapping this sweet milk , they turn it forthwith into poyson . let one charme never so sweetly , these adders will not onely stop their owne eares , but stop the charmers mouth too , if they can . at least , if we play upon david's harp , to drive away the evill spirit , from these saul's ; they will let flie the darts of reproach , and the arrowes of ●lander at us , yea , whereas i offer them wine , as christ did to the iewes ; they will returne me vineger , as the iewes did to chri●● , or they have lost their old wont . what should i say ? if thou beest a drunkard , and a sco●●er , thou art dead in sinne ( only thy sinne is alive ) and not only dead , as iairu's daughter was , matthew . . nor onely dead , laid out , and coffind , as the widowes sonne of nau● was , luke . . but dead , coffind , and buried , as lazarus was , iohn . . even tell thou stinkest in the nosthrils of god , and all good men . and what rubing can fetch heat in such a dead body ? so that to admonish thee , were as if a man should knock at a deaf mans doore : yea , it were almost as ridiculous , as that ceremony , which the mahometans use , of flinging stones to stone the divell with . if you would have a president , to make good what hath beene spoken , see matth. . where when iesus cried with a lowd voice , and yeelded up the ghost ; the vaile of the temple rent in twaine , from the top to the bottome , the earth did quake , the graves did open themselves , and the dead saints came forth , and went into the holy city , the sunne was forsaken of his light , &c. as if all were sensible of their maker's suffering ; when as the generality of the people , yea , those great clarkes , the scribes , and pharisees , were altogether insensible , and worse then all the rest of the creatures ; the very stones of the temple were soft , in comparison of their stony hearts , and they which were dead in their graves , were alive to those which were dead in their sinnes . so that i have no other message to deliver unto thee , then that which the vigilant captaine delivered , together with a deaths wound , to his fleeping watchman ; dead i found thee , and dead i leave thee . onely thou , o father , ( to whom nothing is hard ) if it be thy good pleasure ( as why not ? seeing it will make much for the glory of thy great name , to save such a mighty sinner , who , manasses-like , hath multiplied offences , above the number of the sand of the sea , and is bound downe with many iron bands ) say unto his soule , live . it 's true , thy angry threatning towards sinners is importable , but thy mercifull promise is unmeasurable , and unsearchable : thou therefore that art able to quicken the dead , and make even of stones children to abraham , mollifie these stony hearts , with the blood of the lambe , and make of these children of the devill , members of thy sonne iesus christ. § . and so much of the drunkards character , though i might expatiate ; for he is a creature made up of many ingredients , to which every vice contributes something , as the gods did to vulcan , toward the making of his pandora ; for as many vices challeng part in him , as cities did of homer : the true toffe-pot is deficient in no evill under the sunne , though few , or scarce any , sufficiently discerne and deplore the same , by reason of custome , and the commonnesse of this sinne . much of him hath beene said : o how much more might be said ! i could carry you a great way farther , and yet leave more of him before , then behinde : for he is like some putrid grave , the deeper you digge , the fuller you shall find him , both of smitch and horror . yea , as in hercule's monster , there was still fresh heads arising , one , after the cutting off of another : and as in ezekiel's vision , after the fight of some abominations , still more : so , as the lord said to his prophet , i should yet shew you more abominations in him , then these ; but that it would crave a longer time , then i am willing to afford him , or my reader me , with patience . if any marvell at this which hath been discovered , he would marvell much more , if all should be told ; and say , it was a true report that we heard of his sin , of our danger , of the churches losse , but the one halfe was not told us . yea , if halfe so much were knowne to man , as god knowes of him , how would all drunkards hang downe their heads for shame ? or if we had but a window into his breast ( which momus would have had in vulcan's man ) or that he had written on his forehead what he thinkes ( as tully so much wisht ) or that himselfe might discerne unpartially in an instant ( as mercury made charon , in lucian , by touching of his eyes ) what strange monsters would there appeare to be ? what ugly , odious , hiddious feinds would represent themselves ? o what swarmes , what litters , what legions of noysome lusts are couched in the stinking stye of a drunkards heart ? which i may rather wish , then hope to unbowell , or anatomize : for man , saith st. augustin , is a great deepe : one may better tell the haires of his head , then the thoughts of his heart ; and god only hath reserved it , as a prerogative royall to himselfe , exactly to search it to the bottome . iem . . . . then what am i , that i should attempt to empty the same ? when the well is not more deepe , then my pitcher is narrow , little , brittle , my plummet light , my line too short , and weake to sound it . for if i cannot see it , how should i describe it ? if i cannot know it , how should i make you know it ? yet , as well as i can , i have deliniated this monster , given you ( as in a small map ) the drunkard set forth in his colours , together with his skill , will , and power in seducing , and by this you may guesse at the residue : for as huge as the sea is , we may tast the faltnesse of it in a drop . if these be their words and actions , what thinke you are the secrets of their hearts ? certainely , if all their thoughts did but breake forth into action , they would not come farre short of the devills them selves . § . if any shall thinke i have beene too bitter ; let them pardon this holy impatience ; and blame the foulnesse of this sinne , not my just vehemency ; considering that the medicine is but fitted to the disease ; the wedge but proportionable to the timber ; or ( as i rather feare ) my expressions have too little heate in them , to unwarpe these crooked boards . the harder and more knotty our hearts are , the harder and stronger must be the blowes that shall cleave them . that vvood vvhich a single iron vvill not rive , must have a double wedge , to split it . nothing but a diamond vvill cut a diamond ; and nothing but gunpovvder vvill blovv out some kinde of flame . cold diseases , must have hot remedies . wounds more dangerous , require more dolorous plaisters . neither is my ayme , so much to stroake the eare , 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 , 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. . which at the first were but ancle deepe , and then knee deepe , and then up to the loynes , which afterwards did so rise 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 , kings , . for , as st. augustin said of the two mites , a little money , but a great deale of charity : so may i of the title of my booke , viz. the drunkards character , 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 . § . now why have i unmasked their faces ? 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 sodo●ites ? gen. . . . 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 , pro. . . 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 , 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 compleate armour against evill society . for considering a vision of the sinne , without a provision against it ; a discovery how they tempt , without directions how to avoid their temptations , is not enough : as in the former treatise , i have shewed what drunkards doe ; so in that which followes , i will shew them and others what they should doe . finis . compleat armour against evill society . by r. iunius . cor. . . if any man that is called a brother , be a fornicator , or covetous , or an idolater , or a railer , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such an one eate not . london , printed by r. badger , for george latham , at the bishops-head in s. pauls churchyard . . compleat armour , against evill society . § . in the former treati●e i have applyed my selfe to drunkards in shewing how injurious they are , to god. their neighbours . themselves . for all that hath beene spoken , may bee reduced to one of these heads . in this which followes , i will wholly apply my selfe to the sober ; i meane such , as either are sober , or would be sober ; such , as care more to be good men , and good christians , then good fellowes ▪ indeed , it remaines that i should shew the drunkard how he may leave his drunke●●esse , and become , first , a sober man , and after that a found christian : but how hard a matter is it ( as cato speakes ) to preach abstinence to the belly , which hath no eares , and will take no denyall however the case standeth ? besides , the drunkard hath beene too long sicke of this disease , to be recovered : for the sound of the pot , w th him , will drown al reprehension , all admonition ; even al the precepts , and sweet promises , all the menaces , all the terrors of god , contained in the bible , cannot move them , bnt he that is thus filthy , will be filthy still , in spite both of law and gospell . the drunkard will rather be confounded ; then reformed : for ( as if he were infected with the poyson of that serpent , which is cold in the fourth degree mortall ) hee lackes heat to bee wrought upon ; he hath a brazen brow , a stiffe necke , an uncircumci●ed eare , a fat heart , yea , his heart is adamantine , as strong as a stone , and as hard as a nether mil-stone , iob . . a blinded eye , an obdurate soule , &c. nay , he is dead in sense , and dead in soule , as i have proved ; why then should i touch that sore , which is all dead flesh ? the sick man may heare , or feele , the dead can neither : yea , when a man is dead , chaffe him , rub him , bow him , put aqua-vitae into him , then take him by the hand , and bid him , walke , yet hee cannot stirre the least joynt ; except the soule be restored , all perswasions are in vaine . i have said enough to perswade them to a detestation of this vice , had they the least spark of grace , or matter combustible in them . but , alasse ! how should mud take fire ? plants , and stones lye under the same beames of the sunne , and are wet with the same moysture of the clowds , yet the plants spring and grow , when there is no alteration of the stones . an ethiopian enters blacke into the bath ▪ and commeth out againe blacke . a good man is easily stopt in his evill intendments , as david , in his purpose of murthering nabal , but nothing shall prevaile with the desperately minded . nay , if i may speak it with reverence , what meanes can god use , that shall bee able to convert such an one , which resolves against yeelding ? neither word , judgements , mercies , threatnings , promises , or an angell sent from the dead to warne him , shall prevaile . the nine plagues shall not prevaile with pharaoh : the graves openning , the dead arising , the temple renting , the light of the sunne failing , the centurion confessing , &c. will doe no good upon the scribes and pharisies●yea ●yea , though ahab be told from the lord , that if he goe to warre , he shall perish ; yet he goeth and speeds accordingly . againe , let malchus be smitten to the ground , with the very words of our saviour , let him have his right eare cut off , and miraculously healed againe by him , whom he came to apprehend , yet he will be one that shall lead him bound to pilate : o malchus , could thy eare bee whole , and not thine heart broken , and contrite with remorse , for rising up against so merciful and so powerful an hand ! let the sodomites be all strucken blind , for contesti●g with lot , and his two angels , they w●ll not cease seeking his doore , to break it open , persist they will , untill they feele fire and brimstone about their eares , gen. . yea , let god himselfe forbid balaam to goe with bala●ks messengers , to curse the children of israel ; yea , let an angell stand in his way , with a drawne sword to stop him ; yea , let him heare his beast speak under him ; yet he slights all : who does not wonder , that this magician wondered not ! who would not looke that his haire should stand upright , his blood forsake his cheekes , that hee should alight from that strange kind of beast , and stand amazed at the miracle ! yet stil he persists , and resolves desperately , as esther did religiously , if i perish i perish . what shall i say ? reason once debauched , is worse than brutishnesse . i see the savagest of all creatures , lions , tigers , beares , & . by an instinct from god , came to seek the ark ( as we see swine foreseeing a storme , runne home crying for shelter ) not one man doe i see ▪ except noah , and his family : so none but the wel affected , whose hearts it pleaseth the lord to change , would follow my directions , should i take the paines to prescribe : as they only followed saul , when hee was chosen king , whose hearts god had touched , samuel . . indeed , though they refuse to heare , yet wee must not altogether bee silent . the fountaine casteth out her water , though none come to drink : and though physitians come not to infected persons , that are past cure , yet they give antidotes to preserve the sound . wherefore a word , and but a word to them of the remedies ; because others have well handled them already , were they as well put in practise . § . if there bee any then that would relinquish this sinne , that would mortifie and subdue this abusive , excessive , unseasonable drinking ; that would leave this swinish swilling , which makes sick the land , this besotting sinne , that takes away the heart , especially from god , against the first commandement ; this idolatrous sin , which makes men worship the belly , and sacrifice upon their knees to others , instead of god , against the second comman dement ; this blasphemous and execrable sin , that setteth men so on swearing , cursing &c. that makes a jest of gods words , and his name ; that prophane and sacrilegious sin , which makes no difference of times or dayes , but most rageth on the lords day ; this mad and unruly sin , that knowes neither magistrate , nor minister , nor father , nor king , nor caesar ; this murtherous sin , which kil●l more then the sword ; this adulterous sin , which fils all corners with whoredome and uncleannes ; this thievish sinne , that steals away mens time , wealth , wits , that robs the poore of their due ; this slanderous sin , that loades the world with tales and slanders , against the host of the living god ; this atheisticall sinne , that believes no more the threates and promises of god , then if some imposter , had spoken them ; this hellish sinne , which hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings ; this unnaturall sinne , that puts off al thoughts of ones familie , ones selfe , and sends him on grazing with nebuc hadnezzar , this sinne , this vile sinne thus transcendent ; let him first dwell upon , and lay to heart the things formerly delivered , that by this tast hee may learne to detest the drunkards qualities ; let him remove and take heed of all the forenamed causes , ( especially of affecting popular applause , and reputation of good fellowship ) that so the causes being removed and taken away , the effect may cease : to unlearn evill , is the best kind of learning . next observe these rules , which i shall but touch ; whereof some are generall ; some more proper and peculiar . the generall meanes are , § . first , believe thine estate dangerous , and that there is but one way to helpe thee , viz. to repent what thou hast done , and never more to doe what thou hast repented , not fostering one knowne sin in thy soule ▪ for the only way to become good , is , first , to believe that thou art evill ; and by accusing our selves , we prevent sathan ; by judging our selves , we prevent god. and lastly , one hole in a ship may sinke her , one bullet may kill a man , aswel as twenty : neither is repentance without amendment any more then to pump , and never stop the leake . . secondly , if thou beest convinced , and resolvest upon a new course , let thy resolution bee peremptory and constant . if with these premonitions , the spirit vouchsafes to stirre in thy heart , by good motions , and holy purposes to obey god , in l●tting thy sinnes go , as once the angel in the poole of bethesda , take hold of opportunity , and having eares to heare , harken what the spirit faith , and take heed you harden not againe , as pharaoh and the philistins did . thou knowest pharaoh had many purposes to obey god , in letting the children of israel goe , but still hardens againe , as often as he purposed , untill god had almost destroyed the whole land ; yea , after hee had stood out nine plagues , when death entred within his palaces , he dismissed the people , but presently after , in all hast makes after them to fetch them back againe ; yea , he could seeme religious , when the fit tooke him ; every great plague put him into a feaver , and then he was godly of a sudden , o pray for me now , but when the fit was over , phara●h was phar●●h againe , as prophane as ever ; nine times hee began to relent , and nine times againe hee hardened his heart ; but he was never good egg nor bird , his beginning was naught , his proceeding worse , and who could looke for better at his later end : and the philistins being five times punished , five times repented themselves , and at last returned to their old by as againe , in which they remained constant , samuel . and . chapters . againe , pilate had strong purposes and desires to let christ goe , yet at lenght condemned him , to content the people , luke . . to . the young man in the gospel resolved verily to follow christ , but turned backe and went away sorrowfull , when hee heard the condition propounded , of giving that he had to the poore , mat. . . iudas was grieved for murthering christ , yet no change ensued , hee after murthered himselfe ; all these conceptions dyed , before they came to the birth : therfore take heed , least it should fare so with thee . how many thousand good motions of the holy ghost prove still-borne and abortive , through our negligence , or be over-laid with our vanities ? we use them , as iulius caesar did the paper that concerned his owne life , all the other petitions he read , only that he put in his pocket , and never look'd on it . men commonly regard the songs of sion , as they doe musicke , which they heare at night in the streets , whiles they are in bed ; perhaps they will step to the window , and listen to it awhile , as if they lik'd it , but presently to bed againe . o doe not like the israelites , who are said to heare god , and , in the same chapter , to worship the calfe ; quench not the spirit , thes. . . if thou be upon the mountaine , looke not backe againe upon sodome , as lot's wife did . if thou be within the arke , fly not out againe into the world , as n●ah's crow did . if thou bee well washed , returne not againe to the mire , as the hog doth . if thou beest clean purged , turne not againe to thy filthy vomit , as the dog doth . if thou be going towards the land of canaan , think not of the flesh-pots of egypt . if thou have set thy hand to the plow , looke not behind thee ; for better not begin , then leave off having begun ; better remaine cold , then first bee hot , then luke-warme , and after key-cold againe . for as in naturall things , as water that which hath beene a little warmed , becommeth more cold , then if it had never had any heat in it : so in spirituall , the evill spirit having once forsaken a man , if he returnes to that house , after it is empty , swept , and garnished , he bringeth with him seven more spirits , worse then himselfe , and the latter end of that man is worse then his beginning , matth. . . . thus it fared with iulian the apostate , and iudas the traitor , who suffering the divell to enter into him , when he had newly received the sacrament , he could never afterward be driven out againe : so if the divell enter intothee , after thouhastreceived this warning , had these good purposes , and made these holy resolutions , he will possesse thee , like iudas , stronger then he did before . oh , it is a fearefull thing to receive the grace of god in vaine ; and a desperate thing , being warned of a rock ; wilfully to cast our selves upon it . wherefore , resemble not the chelidony stone , which retaineth his vertue no longer , then it is rub'd with gold ; nor the iron , which is no longer soft , then it is in the fire . be not like those which are sea-sicke , who are much troubled , while they are on ship-board , but presently well againe , when they come to shore ; for that good , saith gregory , will doe us no good , which is not made good by perseverance . § now if thou intendest to hold out in thy good purposes , and meanest to bring thy thoughts to the birth ; thou must not be ashamed to confesse , with that honest theife upon the crosse , even before thy companions and fellow drunkards , that thou art not now the same man thou wast , both thy mind and judgement is ch●nged , and so shall thy practise , god assisting thee ; nay , thou wi●● not only forsake thy sin , but their company too , except they will forsake their old customes of drinking , and scoffing , and jeering at sobriety and goodnesse . and so doing , thou mayst perchance winne thy brother , even as that penitent wanton , in st. ambrosse , did his old love ; who when she courted him , according to her accustomed manner , and wondred at his overmuch strangnesse , saying , why doe you not know who i am ? answered , yes , i know you are still the same woman , but i am become another man , i am not i now , neither would you be you any longer , if yee knew so much as i doe . but if yet they persist , and seeme incorrigible , flye their company for feare of infection , least it happen with thee , as once it did with a chast person among penelopes suters , who went so often with his friend , till in the end he was caught himselfe : for if thou keepest them company , there is no possibility of thy holding out to the end , though thou shouldest for a time : as a man may make some progresse in a good way , and yet returne before he is halfe at his journeys end , as saul kept himselfe well for two yeares , iudas for three yeares , and ( as it is storied ) nero for five yeares , yet all fell into damnable wickednesse , scarce three worse in the world . but of this more in it's proper place . besides , how hard a thing is it for thee , a coward , to shew thy dislike of this sin in some companies , where thou shalt be scoff't at thy selfe , if thou dislike their drinking , and scoffing at others ? fiftly , another thing which i had need to advise thee of , is , to take heede of delayes ; for to leave sinne , when sin leaves us , will never passe for true repentance : besides , if the evill spirit can but perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter , he knowes it is all one , as if thou hadst never purposed to leave thy sinne at all ; as you have it largely proved , sections , . . . sixtly , omit not to pray for the assistance of god's spirit , to strengthen thee in thy resolution of leaving this sinne . st. ambrosse calls prayer , the key of heaven ; yet prayer , without answerable endeavour , is but as if a wounded man did desire helpe , yet refuseth to have the sword puld out of his wound . seventhly , be diligent in hearing god's word , which is the sword of the spirit , that killeth our corruptions , and that unresistable cannon-shot , which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne . eighthly , be frequent in the use of the lord's supper , wherein we dayly renew our covenant with god , that we will forsake the devill , and all his workes of darkenesse . ninthly , ponder and meditate on gods inestimable love towards us , who hath not spared to give his sonne to death for us , and the innumerable benefits , which , together with him , he hath plentifully bestowed upon us , both in temporall and spirituall things ; say unto the lord , what shall i render unto thee for all thy benefits , but love my creator , and become a new creature . tenthly , meditate on that union , which is betweene christ and us , whereby wee become members of his glorious body , and so shall we stand upon our spirituall reputation , and be ashamed to dishonour our head , by drawing him , as much as in us lyeth , into the communication of this swinish sinne : consider that our bodies are the temples of the holy ghost , the which we shall exceedingly dishonour , if , by drinking and swilling , we make them to become like wine vessells . eleventhly , consider that the lord beholdeth thee in all places , and in every thing thou doest ; as the eyes of a well drawne picture , are fastned on thee , which way soever thou turnest ; much more , while in a brutish manner thou liest wallowing in this sinne ; and consider him as a just judge , who will not let such grosse vices goe unpunished . twelftly , beever , or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning , not only for this sinne , but for all other our sinnes , which this shall occasion , to our very words and thoughts . and lastly , if thou receivest any power against this great evill , forget not to be thankfull ; and when god hath the fruite of his mercies , he will not spare to sow much , where he reapes much . § . more especially , that thou maist master and subdue this abominab●e sin , does but set before thee in a generall view , the heinousnesse thereof , and the manifold evills and mischiefes , which doe accompany it , of which i have already spoken , as , that it is a vice condemned by god and men , christians and infidells ; that thereby we grievously offend god , by making our bellies our god , by unfiting and disabling our selves for his service , by abusing his good creatures , which with a pleantifull hand he hath bestowed upon us , the necessary use whereof , many better then we want ; that thereby we sinne in a high degree against our neighbours generally , and particularly against the whole church , and common wealth , strangers , and familiar acquaintance , and most of all against our owne family ; that hereby we most grievously sinne against our selves , by making us unfit for our calings , and for the performance of all good duties , by disgracing our profession , and bringing our selves into contempt , by making our selves the voluntary slaves of this vice , by impovershing our estate , and bringing upon us want and beggery , by infatuating our understandings , and corrupting our wills , and affections , by deforming , disabling , weakning , and destroying our bodies , and bringing our selves to untimely death , by excluding our selves out of the number of christs members , by quenching the gifts of the spirit , and strengthening the flesh and lusts thereof , by causing our soules to be possessed with finall impenitency , which is inseparably accompanied with eternall damnation . also remember , that as in it selfe it is most sinfull , so it is also the cause of , almost , all other sinnes ; as of the manifold and horrible abuses of the tongue , of many wicked and outragious actions , and particularly , of those fearefull sinnes of murther and adultery . also , call to mind that as it is the cause of sinne , so also of many heauy and grievous punishments , as making a man lyable to a fearefull woe , and gods heauy curse , subjecting his name to infamy , his state to beggery , his body to diseases , infirmities , deformities , and immature death , his soule to senselesse sottishnesse , and depriv●ng the whole man of the joyes of heaven , entereth him into the possession of eternall hellish torments : and this will be a good meanes , to make thee moderate thy greedy desires , mortifie thy carnall affections , and curbe thy unruly appetite , by putting a knife to thy thro●●e , as salomon adviseth , saying , i could , but i will not take more then is good , or fit . yea , the consideration of these things , and of the wofull condition that drunkards are in , will provoke thee to hate their opinions , to strive against their practice , to pity their misguiding , to neglect their censures , to labour their recovery , and to pray for their salvation . for , o how ugly doth this monster appeare to the eye of that soule , which hath forsaken it ! how doth she hate her selve , for loving so foule , so filthy a fiend ! for to an understanding rectified , the drukard is a strange chimaera , more prodigious then any monster , being &c. the drunkard a strange chimaera , more prodigious then any monster , being , in visage a man , but a brotheus . in heart , a swine . in head , a cephalus . in tongue , an aspe . in belly , a lumpe . in appetite , a leech . in sloth , an ignavus . the drunkard a strange chimaera , more prodigious then any monster , being a ierffe for excessive devouring . a goate for lust. a siren for flattery . a hyaena for subtilty . a panther for cruelty . the drunkard a strange chimaera , more prodigious then any monster , being in enuying , a basiliske . in antipathy to all good , a lexus . in hindering others from good , a remora . in life , a salamander . in conscience , an ostrich . in spirit , a devill . in surpassing others in sin . in tempting others to sin . in drawing others to perdition , even the most despicable peece of all humanity , and not worthy to be reckoned among the creatures which god made . § . secondly , if thou vvouldst reclaime thy selfe from this vice , have a speciall care to refraine the company of this drunken route , pro. . . cor . . who not only make a sport of drunkennesse , but delight also to make others drunke : i say ( as christ said ) beware of men , math. . . for he that goes into wicked company , will come wicked out , at least worse then he went in . it is rare , if wee denie not christ , with peter , in caiaphas his house : with salomon , it is hard having the egyptian , without her idolls : whereupon , the fuller , in the fable , would not have the colliar to live in his house , least what he had made white the other should smut and collow : yea , be as wary , and as wise as a serpent , to keepe out and get out of their company , but as innocent as a dove , if it be po●●ible , while thou art in it , and canst not choose ; remembring alwayes , that they are but the devills deputies , yea , humane devills , as once our saviour called peter ( being instrumentall to sathan ) sathan himselfe , get thee behind me , sathan , matth. . . they that will have his trade , must have his name too . now by thy observing , or not observing this rule , it will appeare , whether there be any hope of thy reclaiming , for all depends upon this ; yea , could the most habituated , incorrigible , cauterized drunkard , that is even dead in this sinne , but for sake his ill company , i should not once doubt of his recovery ; for doe but drive away these uncleane birds from the carkasle , a million to a mite the lord hath breathed into his nosthrills againe the breath of life , and he is become a living soule . thirdly and lastly , abstaine from drunken places , which are even the nurseries of all ryot , excesse , and idlenesse , making our land another sodom , and furnishing yearely our jayles and gallouses ( farre be it from me , to blame a good calling , to accuse the innocent in that calling , i know the lord hath many in the world in these houses , but ) sure i am , too many of them are even the dens and shops , yea , thrones of sathan , very sinkes of sinne , which , like so many common-shores , or receptacles , refuse not to welcome and encourage any in the most lothsome pollutions they are able to invent , and put in ctise , who ( if there were any hope of prevailing ) would be minded of their wickednesse , in entertaining into their houses , encouraging and complying with these traitors against god , and of their danger in suffering so much impiety to rest within their gates : for if one sinne of theft or of perjury , is enough to ●ot the rasters , to grind the stones , to levell the walls and roof of any house with the ground , zac. . . what are the oathes , the lyes , the thefts the whoredomes , the murthers , the numberless and namelesse abominations , that are committed there . but should i speake to these ▪ i should but speed as paul at ephesus , i should be cryed downe , with , great is diana , after some one demetrius had told the rest of this occupation , sir● , ye know that by this craft we have our wealth ; surely , if feare of having their signes pulled downe , their licences called in , &c. cannot prevaile , it little boo●es me to speake . only to you church-wardens , constables , and other officers , that love the lord , the church , the state , your selves , and people , helpe the lord , the king , and his lawes against this mighty sinne ; present it , indite it , smite it , every one shoote at it , as a common enemy , doe what you can to suppresse and prevent it . tell me not , he is a friend , a gentleman , such an ones kinsman that offends ; for he is better , and greater , and nearer to you that is offended ; learn to feare , to love , and obey your maker and saviour , your gracious protector ; yea , learne this normane distinction , when william the first censured one that was both bishop of baieux and earle of kent , his apologie to the plaintife popeling was , that he did not meddle with the bishop , but the earle : doe you the like , let the gentleman escape , but stocke the drunkard ; meddle not with your friend and kinsman , but for all that , pay the drunkard ; or if you doe not to your power , you shall have ahab's wages , his faults shall be beaten upon your backes , king. . . but most of all are they to be desired , who are within the commission of peace , in god's name , whose servants they professe themselves to be , to remember him , themselves ▪ their countrey , their oathes ; & to bend their strength & power against this many headed monster , that they will purge the country , much more their own houses , of this pernicious and viperous brood : yea , if there be any love of god , any hatred of sin , any zeale , any courage , any conscience of an oath , away with drunkennesse out of your houses , towns , liberties , balk none , beare with none that offend : say they be poore , in whose houses the sinne is practised ; it is better one or two should loose their gaine , than towns of men should loose their wits , their wealths , their soules . oh beloved , did you heare , and see , and smell , and know what is done in some one tavern , or ale house in the land ; you would wonder that the earth could beare the house , or the sunne endure to looke upon it . but alasse ! how many of these houses bee there , in some one towne ! how many of these townes , in some one shiere : and so upward ! you often complaine of bastardies , sheep-stealers , robbers , quarrellers , and the like : will you be eased of these diseases ? believe it , these gather into the ale-house , as the humours doe into the stomack , against an ague-fit ; take them ther , drive them thence with some strong physick , and you heale our land , at once of infinite distempers . § . and so much to make the sick whole : now to preserve the whole from being sick of this almost irrcoverable disease . wouldest thou keepe out of this snare of the divell and drunkards ? consider in the first place , that out of the premises ariseth this conclusion : how we live in so corrupt an aire , that wee need many antid●tes to keepe us from being infected : for lay altogether , and the summe is , that sathan and his instruments ; are ever , and every way practising to lift us out of vertues seate , that we are compassed round with temptations , even as the sea compasseth the earth , watching where it may conveniently get in ; here , kissing the banks with flattering waves ; there , swelling against it with roring billowes ; for , if the divel can not winne men to hell , as hee seemes an angell of light , hee will strive to accomplish it , as he is a spirit of terror , and what he cannot do by himselfe , hee will by his instruments , wicked men . more particularly . consider that every man hath two great and importunate suters for his soule , vertue and vice , whose agents are good and evill men ; those that are agents for vertue , leigers for christ , are chiefly his faithfull ministers ; their commission , is the word : the weapons of their warfare , their tongues ; the only meanes they use , is , to intreat and beseech men , by the mercies of christ , that they will be reconciled unto god ; the only motive to induce men hereunto , is , that if they will part with the sinfull pleasures of this life , they shall have a glorious kingdome prepared for them in heaven , which few have faith to believe , and , of them which doe , fewer will undergo those grievous temptations and persecutions , which usuaully accompany the profession of the gospell . for though the gospell brings remission of sinne , and remission of sinne occasions all true joy and peace internall , and eternall peace with god , and peace of conscience ; yet our warre with sathan , the world , and the flesh , is wonderously increased thereby ; which makes divers , that seeme to be of christs band : forsake him : for with many , like mutinous souldiers , no longer pay , no longer fight : as that desperate mercenary said , he came not to fight for his country , he came to fight for his money ; like the law-logick , and the switzers , they are for his service , that gives them the best ready wages : here sathan takes his hint to usurpe upon the children of perdition , religion bri●gs crosses , ecclesia est haeres crucis ; they find their devotion answered with tribulation , and cannot be quiet , because they seeme to bee good . now steps in the divell , why should you buy misery with want , when as you may want misery ? why will you embrace certaine cares , in hope of uncertaine comforts ? why doe you take paines to bee poore , when you may be rich with case ? here they , that have not the grace , nor the face to give the divell the lye , throw the plow into the hedge , and will not waite till harvest , but lay hold on these new offers of the world , and for a messe of pottage sell their patrimony . whereas on the other side , , those that are agents for vice , factors for the divell , have diverse and sundry ways to prevaile ; whether of policy , to allure and perswade ; or of strength , to compell and enforce us to yeeld . sathan , as you have heard , hath many strings to his bow , that if some breake the rest may hold ; many traines of powder , some likely to take fire ; yea , he is like some cunning enginere , that can invent new instruments , according to the present occasion , and inventeth all he can , and puts in practice al that he inventeth ; and when old tricks of cheating can doe no good , sathan and his instruments will find out new ▪ o the many advantages that sathans instruments have , above gods servants , both in wooing and winning to sinne by faire meanes , and in keeping such as they have wonne , and likewise in compelling and enforcing by foule ! you have seene sundry of them , in the former treatise : i will shew you yet more . § . as for winning by faire meanes : first , how ready at hand is an evill suggestion ? good counsel is like unto well-water , that must be drawne up with a pump or bucket ; ill counsell is like to conduit-water , which if the cock be but turned , runs out alone . secondly , how easie a rhetorick drawes us to the worse ? yea , it is hard not to doe evill uninvited : even virgil a heathen could say , that it was an easie thing in sinne to go on amaine , and with much facility , to descend into hell which is below , as a man that goeth downe a hill , cannot choose but run ; or at least , one man hath more power to pull him downe , then halfe a dozen the contrary ; but to goe forward in goodnesse and vertue , to ascend so steepy a hill as heaven which is above , is hard and difficult ; yea , we had need be drawn by many strong helpes ; for in this case we resemble the spider , which can descend with a ladder of her owne making , be the place never so low , but cannot ascend one inch , without some prop ; or rather a very stone , which descends naturally , is not raised but by violence . — facilis descensus — sed revocare gradum — down streame the boat goes fast enough , to stop it is all the cunning , before it strike on a shelfe . those things which the ground naturally produceth of it selfe , she soone and easily brings forth , and that in abundance ; you shall find your furrowes full of cockle and darnell , though you never sowe them ; but what is sowen , not without much labour , and that sparingly , because she is to those a mother , to these a step-dame . and commonly it fares with counsels as it doth with meates ; those which are least wholesome , are most requested : and the faction of evill is so much stronger in our nature , then that of good , that every least motion prevailes for the one , scarce any sute for the other ; and seldome shall wee see truth so successefull as falshood . whence it was , that theodota and calisto , two beautiful harlots , could each of them boast , that they excelled s●crates ; for that they , when they pleased , could draw away by their allurements , his disciples and auditors from him , whereas he could not , with all his great wisdome and learning , draw from them any of their lovers ? whose answer was . no marvaile , for i draw , with an unpleasing hooke , to vertue , whose way is difficult and hard ; whereas you draw , with a pleasing with of down to vice , which is easie , and men are naturally of themselves prone to it . § . thirdly , the world like iael , beginns with milke , and ends with an hammer ; whereas christ keepes backe the good wine untill afterward , and makes his servants break their fast with the rod. yea , he that offered our saviour all the kingdomes of the world , and the glory thereof , is ready to yeeld a man more then hee shall require , as the same iael did sisera ; for , as when he ask'd her water , she gave him milk : when he only desired shelter , shee made him a bed : and when he beg'd but the protection of her tent , she covered him with a mantle , giving him more then he asked , but withall , more then he expected : so deales sathan and the world with a poore soule . the divill is like a late emperor of turkie , who married his owne daughter to a basha on the one day , and then , after a night pleasure , sent for his head the next morning : for here , he is a tempter : hereafter a tormenter ; and herein christs serv●nts and the divels differ : this life is our hell , and their heaven : the next shall be their hell , and our heaven , psal. . . matth. . . luke . . iohn . . indeed , our outward afflictions here are so sweented with inward consolation , that this world may rather bee called our purgatory : for a christian here , in respect of his manifold troubles , and sweet consolation in christ , seemes half in hell and halfe in heaven , as petrus tenorius , archbishop of toledo , caused king salomon to be painted upon the walles of his chappell , after he had a long time considered the waighty reasons on each side , whether he were damned , or saved : or as the papists feigned erasmus to be , for that he was halfe a protestant , halfe a roman catholike : but this inward consolation is hidden to the world . fourthly , the divell and his instruments can so delude the fancy and judgement of a naturall man , that as he sees nothing desireable in a religious life , so hee shall give no credit to , nor believe any thing that the godly shall affirme . as for example . let us tell one , whom they have converst withall , how sweet a religious life is , and how farre the light of god's countenance , the peace of conscience , and joy in the holy ghost ; doth surpasse all earthly felicity ; he will not believe there is any such thing , because it transcends his conceite : as a poore labouring man in the country said to his neighbour , he believed not there was any such sum , as a thousand pounds of money , though rich men talked so much of it : they will believe no more , then what comes within the compasse of their five senses , for they are all the articles of their faith . but they are ill discoverers , that think there is no land , when they can see nothing but sea. yea , viewing the godly but with natures eye , they thinke both god and nature envies them of all others , and that most men are deluded with a poysonous lye , in making only the vertuous happy . but in case we say with ste●en , that we see christ iesus sitting at the right hand of god ; these blind wizards are ready to throw stones at us , for confessing what wee see , or for seeing what is hid from them . againe , let them see a man carefull to avoid the ginnes and snares of sathan , which are laid in every place to take his soule ; they will judge and call him a scrupulous fellow , for watching against that , which they neither see nor feare ; as wonder is the daughter of ignorance . indeed , as country men will rather believe the reports of travellers , then go to see it : so they will believe these things , rather then be troubled , or much trouble themselves about them . againe , let god , by his embassadors , offer them the kingdome of heaven upon faire and easie tearmes , they will none of it , yea , they will slight it : as the golden indies was offered to diverse princes , and they vilipended it , because they never saw it , yet the wealth was worth their labour , that undertooke it : and so in al other cases , worldly hearts ( especially being thus deluded ) can see nothing in actions of zeale , but folly and madnesse ; untill we be borne againe , we are like nicodemus , who knew not what it was to be borne againe , iohn . untill we become zealous our selves , wee are like festus , who thought zeale , madnesse , act. . untill wee bee humble our selves , wee are lie michal , who mocked david for his humility , and thought him a foole , for dancing before the arke , samuel . yea , it was true then , and it is true now , and it will be true alwayes , which s. paul observeth , cor. . . that to such as shal perish , or are , for the present , in a perishing condition ; religion , shall seeme foolishnes ; piety hath no relish to a brutish mans palate , but distastfull ; and indeed , how should they like the food , which they never tasted , or bee in love with the party of whom they have not the least knowledg ? for , as to speake is only proper to men : so to know the secrets of the kingdome of heaven , is only proper to believers . sense , is a meere beasts ; reason , a meere mans : divine knowledge , is only the christians . § . fifthly , the world and the divell can so forestall mens judgements with prejudice against gods people and goodnes , that they shall resolve never to be religious , so long as they live : as how many , by reason of that generall contempt , which the divels instruments cast upon religion , are both hindred from good , and hardened in evill , to their owne ruine and destruction ? pet. . , . yea , this makes them become more impudent , stupid , and insensible then salom●n's drunkard , for , as touching admonition , they are like the deafe adder ; tell them what god saith in his word , they will stop the eare with the tongue , by ingrossing all the talke ; neither is it the highest eloquence of the best preacher ; can make him fit for heaven , for they resolve against yeeld ng , and words are vagabonds , where the perswader hath an evill opinion of the perswader . oh this is a difficult devill to bee cast out even like that we reade of , mat. . . for as all the disciples could not cast out that divell , no more can all the preachers this : yea , certainly where sathan hath once set this his porter of prejud ce , though christ himselfe were on earth , that soule would never admit him , take no good from him , no , not so much as think well of him , as we see in the scribes and pharisies , who made an ill construction of whatsoever he did or spake ; for when he wrought miracles , he was a sorcerer ; when he cast out divels , it was by the power of divels ; when he reproved sinners , he was a seducer ; when hee received sinners , he was their favourer ; when he healed the sick , he was a breaker of the sabbath , &c. and even so it fares with these men : for , as an ill stomacke turnes all it receives into ill humours : or , as the spider converts every thing she eates : and the viper every thing shee touches into poyson : so they , whatsoever they heare , or see in the godly . in fine , as beggers with scumea make their owne flesh raw : so these with prejudice make their owne eyes blind : whereby it fares directly with such an one , as it doth with the serpent regulus , no charming can charme him : for prejudice , like the goddesse adrasteia ( or sorceres rather ) takes memory , wit , and grace , from all that entertaine it , and leaves them in pyrrhon's condition , who would not believe what his eyes saw , and his eares heard . sixthly , they have a great advantage of gods servants in this , when they have tryed in vaine all faire meanes , they can use violence ; as it is the use and manner of all those that are agents for vice , factors for the divell , first to use gentle perswasion , but if that will not serve , compulsion . they handle us , as once that praetor did a souldier , who to make him renounce christ , first ( as ierome notes ) imprisoned him in his owne house , allowes him a chamber vvell furnished , soft lodging , dainty cheare , vvine , musick , all delights ; vvhen this vvould not do ( yet lord , how many are thus prevailed vvithall to leave their saviour ) then hee casts him into a darke dungeon , loades him vvith irons , starves him vvith the hungry allowance of husks and puddle vvater ; vvhen nothing would do , he burnes him : or as bonner handled the martyres , whose custome was , first to allure them vvith faire promises of honours , favours , preferments , &c. if that vvould not do , send them to smithfield ; for as bloody as he was , hee had sometimes in his mouth butter and oyle , as vvell as fire and faggot . § . againe , secondly , as sathans instruments have great advantage of gods servants in getting , so no lesse in keeping such as they have got , both in regard of pleasure , peace , freedome , and many the like priviledges , which the worldling hath above gods people . . in regard of pleasure , first , whereas others that turne to god , barre themselves of such delights , and pleasures , as here they might enjoy ; these may satisfie themselves and their lusts to the full , live at ease and pleasu●e , and give their affections the full swing ; yea , and be so applauded for it , as if , with the people of china , they of all others saw with two eyes : both which makes them like their condition so vvell , that they would not change upon any tearmes : and hence it was that many schollers of every sect become epicures , but none of the epicures became of other sects , as one objected to archelaus . true it is , the godly , even here , have more true joy and pleasure , then the most happy worldling alive : but none can know the spirituall joy and comfort of a christian , but he that lives the life of a christian , iohn . . as none could learne the virgins song , but they that sang it , revel . . . no man can knovv the peace of a good conscience , but hee that keepes a good conscience ; no man knovves vvhat that hid mannah , and vvhite stone vvith a nevv name vvritten in it is , but they that receive the same , rev. . . the world can see a christians outside , but the raptures of his soule , the ravishing delights of the invvard man , and joy of his spirit , for the remission of his sinnes and the effusion of grace , with such like spirituall priviledges , more glorious then the states of kingdomes , are as a covered messe to the vvorldling , and so abates nothing of the advantage vvhich sathan and his instruments have , above gods servants in winning soules , and keeping such as they have vvon . secondly , in regard of freedome they have a free scope and liberty to doe or say what they please ; whereas gods people are restrained , even in their very thoughts . yea , many times in things of an indifferent nature : as even actions of indifferency , when once they are felt to trench upon the conscience , lay deepe obligations upon the soule , even whiles they are most slighted by carelesse hearts ; there being no lesse difference in consciences , then stomackes , of which some will digest the hardest meates , and turne over substances not in their nature edible , whiles others surfet of the lightest foode , and complaine even of dainties . everygracious hear is in some measure scrupulous and finds more safety in feare , then in presumption . o what a poore slave doe they hold the man of a tender conscience ! they dare sweare and blaspheme , why ? their tongues are their owne ; whereas we feare an oath . they dare spend their time in dalliance , and after make it their glory ; we dare not make the members of christ the limms of an harlot , fearing least heaven should be shut against us for the sinne , and hell swallow us for boasting of the sin . they dare deny any fact , and wager lyes , with that grandfather of lyes and lyers ; we dare not tell an untruth , though it were to save our selves , to relieve the poore , to honour god. they dare drinke themselves into beasts ; we dare not , least we should never be recovered againe unto men. they dare oppresse the poore , revenge all wrongs done them , &c. we dare not so reproach our maker , nor wring gods weapon out of his hand . they dare sinne god in the face , and presume upon his patience ; we feare him as a consuming fire . in fine , they dare hazard the breaking of their necks ; we would not willingly breake our shins . § . thirdly , in regard of peace . with sathan . with the world . with themselves . first , they have farre more peace with sathan then gods people , for he fights not with his owne subjects or souldiers , as hath largely beene proved ; yea , well may these have more peace then others , seeing the barques of their soules are rowed with farre lesse labour ( having the wind of sathans temptations , and the tyde of their owne affections to drive them ) then the other , who rowe against both . in regard of their peace with the world , the world loves her owne , but hates all that christ hath chosen out of it , ioh. . . and this is a strong tye to flesh and blood , though our saviour calls this a cursed condition , luk. . . yea , how doth the indifferent worldling applaud himselfe therein ; together with his owne discretion and mediocrity ; for seeing this man , vexed for his zeale ; that other , hated for his knowledge ; a third , persecuted for the profession of his saith , &c. he saith within himselfe , welfare a quiet ignorance : so his body is but like a lumpe of scarce moving earth , and his soule a standing puddle in the midst of it . they have farre more peace ( if it may be called peace ) with their owne hearts then the godly ; for their consciences being either brawned with the custome of sinne , or cast into a dead sleepe by sathan , they feele not those perilous wounds which sinne impaires them withall : yea , being past feeling , they can with more ease digest the hardest and foulest offence , then the stomacke of an estridge can digest iron ; whereby they esteeme of their sinnes , as paul speakes of an idoll , that it is nothing in the world : as for oathes , yea , the sinne of blasphemy , it is a very mite , a moate , a nothing ; in a word , how sick soever their soules be , i meane , how wicked and detestable soever their lives , yet they have healthfull consciences , which never complaine , or once paine them , no , they heare not a syllable of ill language from them , they never check them , doe they what they will , neither did they ever doubt in all their lives , or were once troubled in mind or conscience , as many scrupulous fooles are ; and hereupon , they thinke themselves more happy in serving the devill , then others in serving god : as those apostate iewes in egypt did , ier. . . to . alasse ! what should they feare ? they prosper in their wickednesse , they doe what they list , and the lord lets them alone ; therefore they thinke he is pleased with them , and with their actions , and that which way soever they take , the end of their journey must needs be salvation ; yea , this makes them thinke they doe wondrous well : as dionysius , when he had dispoyled an idolls temple of all the gold therein , and finding the winds favourable in his navigation , applauds himselfe , saying , see how the gods approve of sacriledge ; according to that in the psalmes , he that maketh gaine , blesseth himselfe , psal. . . besides , they have good hearts and meanings , as how common is it with them to talke of good meanings , when they are the worst doers in a countrey ; yea , when in their practise they embrace all morall vertues in their contraries ; yea , though they make not such a shew to the world , they have as good a heart as the proudest , and hope to be saved as well as the best , and so let who will say to the contrary , they are sure to goe to heaven , as streight as a sickle ; and so they shall , for they shall goe into heaven ( if they amend not their lives ) when the sodomites come out of hell ; and in the meane time their soules are so much the sicker , by how much lesse they are sensible of paine ; they were wretched , if they felt their danger ; more wretched , being they feele it not , as once tully said of anthony . § . thirdly , as sathan hath many advantages above gods servants , in getting disciples , and keeping such as he hath gotten ; so , no lesse in making them proficients in evill : for it cannot be denied , but sathans servants thrive more under him in sinne , then gods servants can doe in grace : the reason is this , sathan , who is the god of this world , blindeth the minds of all unbeleivers , that the light of the glorious gospell of christ should not shine unto them , cor. . . . eph. . . thes. . . . for as sathan is the prince of darkenesse , so he rules in the darknesse of the understanding , dealing with wicked men , as faulkeners doe with their hawkes ; who , that they may carry them quietly , and doe what they list unto them , first blind their eyes with a hood . hercules when he stole away the golden aples from the hesperides ( who , as the poets feigne , had an orchard of them ) first , slew the dragon that kept them : the keeper and watch of our soules is the understanding ; now if sampson's eyes be once puld out , the philistins may bind him with fetters , put him in prison , make him grind at the mill , make him a subject of scorne , and what not ? if the raven can but first pick out the poore sheepes eyes , he may easily prey upon the whole body : if the eagle can but throw dust in the harts eyes , she makes it nothing afterward to kill him : if the dragon have once bereaved the elephant of sight , his whole body easily becomes a prey to his fury : all these , namely , the philistins , the raven , the eagle , and the dragon , are fit emblems of sathan , who first seizeth upon the eye of the understanding , and then preyes freely upon the rest of the soule . and indeed , what may not an enemy doe to him which wants his sight ? if the assyrians be once blinded , how easily may one leade a thousand of them , into the mid'st of any samaria , even to their ruine ? king. . . . yea , how impossible is it for a man , not to ruine himselfe , when he wants his sight ? polyphemus , so soone as vlysses had puld out his eye , runs reeling and rushing against every rocke , untill he had dasht out his braines . so much darknesse as is left in the soule , so much roome is there left for sathan to deceive us . while the candle is out , it is safe for rogues to play their trickes in the darke . indeed , he will afford his servants any degree of knowledge , whether it be divine , humane , or mundane , so it be not a practicall , experimentall , and saving knowledge : he will allow them an understanding , like that of the scribes and pharisees , which was enough to condemne them , but not to save them : yea , let the devill , like nahash , onely obtaine our right eyes of faith to be puld out , it fufficeth , he cares for no more , he will then let us enjoy our peace , our pleasure , and what other priviledges we doe desire . it is more true of vertue and god's truth , then it was of that creetish beauty , no man loved her , that never saw her ; no man ever saw her , but he loved her : neither could concupiscence bring forth sinne , without the consent of reason ; and this would never consent , so long as the eyes are open . wherefore the devill to utter his damned commodities , dealeth as some tradsmen about their bad wares , puts out the true lights , and sets up false lights in their stead . if the light of knowledge might freely shine in the soule , sathans suggestions would soone make him ashamed , and vanish with all his workes of darkenesse . if temptations might be but turned about , and shewen on both sides , the kingdome of darkenesse would not be so populous . but when the tempter sets upon any poore soule , he shewes the baite , hides the hooke ; all sting of conscience , wrath , judgement , torment is concealed , as if they were not ; nothing may appeare to the eye , but pleasure , profit , and seeming happinesse in the enjoying of our desires ; those other wofull objects are reserved for the farewell of sinne , that our misery may be seene and felt at once . thus he delt with david in his adultery and murther , he presented to him , through the false glasse of the flesh , the pleasurable and over amiable delight of his sinne ; but concealed that shame , that griefe , those wounds of conscience , those broken bones , psal. . and sharpe corrections that were to follow , that he could not so much as thinke of them : and so he dealt with our saviour , he shewed him all the kingdomes of the world , and glory thereof ; but there was also much griefe as well as glory in the world , he would shew him none of that : so in every sinne there is farre more gall and bitternesse , then hony and sweetnesse ; yet he suffers not our deceitfull hearts to take any notice thereof , till it be too late ; as it fared with our first parents , who could not see what they did , until they had eaten the forbidden fruite : but then , saith the text , were their eyes opened ; the divell that shut them before , opened them them , gen. . yea , for the most part he labours to keepe men blind , during the presumption of their lives ; and only opens their eyes , in the desperation that waits on their death , or in hell , as it ●ared with the rich man ; who never lift up his eyes to heaven untill he felt those flames : like the syrians ▪ whose eyes were never opened , till they were in the midst of their enemies : sin shuts up mens eyes , but punishment opens them . § . and so much of the advantages , that sathan and his instruments have above gods servants , in getting , and keeping , and improving their converts : wherby it appeares , that he who will not be overcome by them , must be watchfull . wise . valiant . as well watchfull , to defeate ; and wise , to 〈◊〉 their crafty alurements ; as valiant , to despise their cruell impositions for that we may be the better for what we have heard , these three uses would be made thereof ; else , evill were as good not seene , as not avoided ; our happinesse is in the prevention , not prevision of them , wherfore . first , since the devill , and the world are ever practising to lift us out of vertues seate , and study nothing but our destruction , by tempting and enforcing us to sinne ; let us be watchfull , ever prepared , alwayes ready , and standing upon our guard ; like as wise and experienced souldiers , when they looke every minute for the approach of their enemy , doe both wake and sleepe in their armour , least they should be surprised at unawares : or like wise mariners , who alwayes prepare and make ready their tackling , that a storme ( which they cannot looke to be long without ) may not take them unprovided : well may we sheath our swords , but put them off we may not : yea , let us , in vigilancy and watchfulnesse over our selves , imitate the nightingale , which sleepes with her breast upon a thorne ; for feare of the serpent , that continually studies her ruine . the philistines could not blind sampson so long as he was awake ; wouldst thou not be overcome ? be not secure . yea , wouldest thou be secure ? continually buckle unto thee the whole armour of god , prescribed by st. paul , eph. . . to . and walke circumspectly , eph. . . the traveller that hath money in his purse , rides with a pistoll by his side : yea , the rich merchant will not step over into the low-countreyes , without a man of warre at his heeles , least he should meete with a dunkerker by the way . an assaulted city must keepe a carefull watch , and so must thou , if thou wilt keepe out of their snares : we see they are busie and subtile , therefore it behoves us to be circumspect . when the theife compasseth the house , let the owner guard the house . if a castle be besiedged and not defended how shall it stand ? whereas , in vaine does the theife looke in at the window , when he sees the master standing on his guard in the roome ; besides , it is easier to keepe an enemy out by bolting the doores , then to thrust him out , being once got in . § secondly , let us be wise and cautelous to avoid their crafty allurements , take heede of beleiving their words , of trusting their promises , of yeelding to their perswasions and solicitations , when they woe us to drinke more then will doe us good : yea , let quaffers quarrell , rage , and scoffe , threaten curse , and load thee with a thousand censures ; yet hold thine owne still , pledge the devill for none of them all . o● . but i shall offend my friend , and the rest will take exceptions . answ. thou art what thou art , when thou art thus tried and put to it : wherefore , if the wife of thy bosome shall tempt thee to evill , or seeke to alienate thy affection from god and his law , she is a traytor both to thee , and to him , and therefore must be rejected . what saith st. hierom ? should my father kneele to mee , my mother beseech me with teares , my brothers and sisters seeke to entise mee to the love of this world , and the neglect of gods worship , i would shake 〈◊〉 my father , tread under foote my mother , and spurne my brothers and sisters , rather then they should be a meanes to keepe mee from the service of god. neither will the complaint of our first parents , be taken for a good answer or plea another day : it will be fruitlesse to say , such and such a friend deceived me : eue was perswaded by the serpent to eate the forbidden fruit , and adam by eue ; yet that would not justifie them in the court of heaven , each of them had a severall curse , both tempters , and tempted . true it is , drunkards being better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning , and deeper in love with strife then truth ; what they cannot maintaine by reason , a feminine testinesse shall outwrangle , at least , if a man will be subdued with words , which is the case of none , but cowards and fooles : but as for their exceptions . if thou wouldest avoid all circumvention by these multiplied healthes , pledge the healths of none , and then none can take exceptions : he that would not be drawne to pledge many healthes , let him not admit of any upon any tearmes . but they will be importunate above measure . ans. a shamelesse begger must have a strong deniall . o but i shall be held unmannerly , discourteous , uncivill , &c. what , because thou wilt not hazard thy health , credit , soule , &c to gratifie a beast . but they are such as love me , and doe it in kindnesse ; this kindnesse of theirs is but a dog●like kindnesse , as you shall have a spaniell , in great love to his master , leape upon him , slabber his cloathes , lick his face ; is it , i pray you , any incivili●y to beate downe such a cur ? i tell thee , a dog will not more defile thee , then these drinking cattle will , unlesse thou beate them off with flat denialls . wherefore , though i wish thee not to be rude and uncivill , yet be sure to shake off these hold-fasts , and neither make thy stomack too heauy , nor thy head too light with answering expectation . it is better to be thought unmannerly , discourteous , or injurious towards men ( especially such men ) then indeed be so unto god himselfe . as for their love and friendship , if thou but knewest whose factors thy ill companions are , thou wouldest even hate them , and either not come in their company , or hasten out of it with all possible speede ; for nothing more proves them enemies , then their too much importuning thee ; and they can be no other then wicked , when their very mercies are cruelty . neither doe these enemies ever wound so deadly , as when they stroake us with a silken hand : for by their smooth tongues , and milky language , they serve their freinds , as the tyrannous emperor served his servauts , whom hee stifled in a chamber filled with roses : they are like the mistaken lanthorne in eighty eight , for under pretence of guiding , they will draw us into hazzard and losse among our spirituall enemies , and whosoever hath put confidence in their words , have found them to resemble sincking floores , which will faile us , when our waight is on them . these cunning hypocrites , never intend so ill , as when they speake fairest : resembling some crafty cheater , who while hee holds men at gaze with trickes of jugling , picks their pockets . but alasse ! most men , not knowing this deepnesse of sathan , or not having courage enongh to deny the requests of a seeming friend , or fearing , least they should seeme rude , know not how to deny : yea , it is the common complaint , they were not able to gainsay : and indeed , most men , in this particular , are like new wax , which admits of an easie impression : or like a light , and unballasted vessel , that is at command of every wave , of every wind : or like vitellius , who never denyed any mans request : or lastly , like the babylonia●s who with a little sweet musick , would be made to do any thing , daniel . . yea , they are so flexible , that let a tempter but hold up his finger , the creatures shall bee abused , the lords day prophaned , the word relinquished , and all religion suspended : so they divide themselves into three parts ; god hath one part , ( indeed that is onely in purpose ) the world hath another , the flesh another , and the divell at length will have all . § . i should here advise men to a double care and circumspection , touching these flattering allurements , because temptations on the right hand have commonly so much more strength in them , above the other , as the right hand hath above the left ; they are more perillous , because they are more plaufible and glorious . many that keepe on their cloathes in the wind , yea , that hold their cloakes the faster , when it is rough ; not only lay by their cloakes ; but unbutten themselves in the sunne . the cannon doth not so much hurt against the wall , as a mine under the wall . sathan winnes not so much by battery , as by treachery ; presents , and parlies winne him more , then the weapon , or the dragg of a compulsive hand . the golden sword will sooner conquer , then one of steele : yea , saith one , there is no doubt of that soule , which will not bite at a golden ho●ke . when all the philistins could not with their strength bind sampson , dalilah did it with her subtilty . all the spite of ioseph's brethren was not such a croffe to him as the inordinate affection of his mi●tresse . every one is not a ioab , to bee fetcht home to us , with firing his fields ; as they say witches are brought to the house , where they have done mischiefe , by casting some reliques into the fire . the divell did not appeare to christ in a terrible forme , threatening the calamities of earth , or torments of hell , but by faire promises of many kingdomes , and much glory . but i defer the exhortation unto the conclusion . though indeed a wise man unbidden will suspect the smooth streame for deepnes , knowing , that no faces looke lovelier , then the painted . the italian thinketh himself , upon the point , to be bought and sold , when hee is better used then hee was wont to bee , without manifest cause . too much importunity , does but teach a wise man how to deny . the more wee desire to gaine , the more do others desire that they may not loose . the earnestnesse of the requester teacheth the petitioned to bee suspicious ; and suspition teaches him how to hold , and fortifie . againe , somtimes wee are wrought to good by contraries , foule acts , ( saith horace ) keepes vertue from the charmes of vice : and not seldome doth our good god , as a wise physitian , make this poyson of theirs medicinall , to his children ; so that their meretricious offers , and siren-like allurements , do , by his grace , but procure the good mans hate . and good reason ; for though sathan and his instruments , like a flattering host , promise good cheare , yet the reckoning payes for all . and hee that compares the welcome with the farewell , shall finde , he had better have fasted : for if we swallow the baite , the hooke will choake us . and indeed , if we could as well see what god hath in store for us , as that the divell here offereth us ; we would not regard the divels largesse . § . thirdly , let us be valiant and couragious to undergoe the consequents , what ever followes , upon this refusall : for behould , a great block , yea , a lion in thy way : thou shalt bee mock'd and branded for a precisian : haveso many frowns and frumps , and censures , and scoffes , bee pointed at for singular , endure so many base and vile nicknames , that a milk-sop will never be able to undergo them . yea , if thou beest a coward , thou wilt feare to do the good which thou wouldest , in this and other cases , or appeare the same that thou art : for this is a charm more powerfull then a witches night-spell , to detain all novices and apprentises of religion , from keeping a good conscience . for as in the netherlands no man will stop the homicide , for feare of being counted an hangman : so here , no meere man almost will refuse to be drunk , for feare of being censured for sullennesse and singularity . and indeed , hee had need to bee more then man , that can contentedly make himselfe contemptible , to follow christ ; have his religion , judged hypoc●●● ; his christian prudence , craft and policy ; his godly simplicity , sillinesse ; his zeale , madnes ; his contempt of the world ▪ ignorance ; his godly sorrow , dumpishnesse , &c. for these and the like , as unseasonable frosts , nip all gracious offers and beginnings in the bud , and ( as much as in them lyeth ) with herod , labour to kill christ in young beginners ; yea , the censures and scoffes of these atheists and worldlings , like the blasts of rammes-hornes , before the walles of ierico , lay al the strength of a young beginners vertue levell at one utterance ; for the first sparkes of grace are in appearance like fire in greene wood , which if it be not followed and cherished will suddenly dye , and go out ; whereby each resolution becomes as a false conception , which never lives to the birth of any act . and certainly , the divell gets more by such discouragements and the reproaches that are cast u●on religion , then by fire and faggot : for helena's bowle , medea's unction , venu's girdle , nor circes cup can more i●●haunt , then this afrights . yea , tell me if you can , what hath ever beene found such an enemy to vertue , as this feare ; or such a spurre to wickednesse ? o the multitude of soules that wicked men scoffe out of their religion ! how many thousands in this kingdome are content to bee misled with the multitude , rather then be an object of their scorne and derision ? how many hold it the best and safest way , in differences of religion , with out farther question , to take the stronger part ; that so , doing as the most doe , they may have the fewest to finde fault with them ? yea , how few are there that goe beyond those white-livered rulers , ioh. . who , because of the pharisies , and loving the praise of men more then the praise of god , chose rather to conceale their knowledge of , and love to christ , then to bee cast out of the synagogue , for confessing of him , verse . . i dare say , a world of people in this land , are in zedekiah his case , convinced in their co●sciences that they ought to doe as their faithfull prophets warne them , but they are afraid they shal be mockt , have so many frowns , and frumps , and censures , and scoffes , that they cannot buckle to such a course , look ie . . as i doubt not but the preaching of the word hath so prevailed with many that even think religion a disparagement , and that feare nothing more , then to have a name that they feare god , that they have some secret liking to the truth and power of godlinesse , yea , strong purposes in better times , to owne it , if they drop not into hell before those times come . so these men owe god some good will , but they dare not shew it , because of this , they would please him , yet so , as they might not displease others , nor themselves with the young man in the gospell , they will follow christ , so christ propound no other conditions then what they like off . but all such carnall thoughts ought to strike saile , and give place to that oracle of our saviour , whosoever shall bee ashamed of me , and my wo●ds , or deny me before , or among , this adulterous and sinfull generation , him w●●● i deny , and be ashamed of also , before my father , and his holy angels in heaven , matthew . . marke . . we read that c●●sar's young men were loth to fight , and so have scarres , only least the women should mislike them ; so our younge christians , for the most part are so afraid to displease the meretricious world , that they feare nothing so much , as to bee , or seeme good ; hate nothing more then to bee fashioned according to the word of god , and so , whereas shame of face was ordained for sinne , now shame is turned from sinne to righteousnesse ; for they which are not ashamed of the greatest evill , are ashamed of the least good ; and this bashfull divell never leaves a great many , so long as they live , whereby with the rich man , luke . they never thinke of heaven , till tormented in the flames of hell . § . but is not this base blood , that blushes at a vertuous action ? is it not a shame , to bee ashamed of things either good , or not ill ? is it not a sottish feare and cowardise , that puls us backe from goodnesse , much more , that constraines us to evill ? certainly , in any good action , that must needs be bad that hinders it . but to forbeare good is not all ; for oftentimes , to congratulate the company , are not many of us fain to force our selves to unworthinesse , and evill actions , when we runne exceedingly against the graine ? yea , even while we are doing them , our hearts chide our hands and tongues for transgressing , agreeable to that of s. augustine , who confesseth , that he was much ●shamed of his shamefastnesse , and tendernesse in this case , and further , that he often belyed himself with sinnes , which he never committed , least hee should bee unacceptable to his sinfull companions ; and no marvaile , when even peter denyed his lord , and cursed himselfe , to get credit amongst a cursed crew . thus as if we cared more to be thought good , then to bee so indeed , we force indurance on our selves , to omit good actions , and commit evil , both against conscience , meerly out of feare , least lewd men should laugh at us . o childish , cowardly , and base ! surely , for a man to be scoft out of his goodnesse , by those which are lewd , is all one , as if a man that seeth should blindfold himselfe , or put out his eyes , because some blind wretches revile and scoffe at him for seeing ; or as if one that is sound of limms , should limpe or maime himselfe to please the cripple , and avoid his taunts . a wise man will not bee scoft out of his money , nor a just man bee flouted out of his faith , the taunts of ishmael shall never make an isaac out of love with his inheritance . indeed , they that least can doe , best cavill can ; but vertue scornes muddy censures , and unstained honour to be suborned by vulgar breathes ; yea , she is strongest when shee lives in the presse of many temptations : for to doe wel , where is neither danger nor solicitation to evill , is a common thing ; but to do well , where is both perill and opposition , is the peculiar office of a man of vertue : for vertue ( as metellus speakes ) rejecteth facility to be her companion . yea ▪ he that hath truly learned christ , had rather live hated of all men for goodnesse , then beloved of all for vice ; rather please one good man then content a thousand bad ones ; his single authority being sufficient to countervaile the disdaine of a whole parish . and indeed , how little is that man hurt , whom malice condemnes on earth , and god commends in heaven ? let the world accuse us , so god doth acquit us , it matters not : for , alasse ! their words are but like a boyes squib , that flashes and cracks , and stinks , but is nothing : and they that hang their faith on such mens lips , doe but , like ixion embrace a cloud , instead of iuno ; and well may he claime a boat-swanes place in barkley's ship of fooles , that will sell his soule for a few good words , from wicked mens tongues . what is it to mee , how others thinke me when i know my intent is good , and my wayes warrantable ; a good conscience cares for no witnesses , that is alone as a thousand . § . besides , of necessity wee must bee evill spoken of by some . a man shall be sure to be backt , and have abbettors ▪ either in good or evill , and by some shouldered in both : there was never any to whom some belialists tooke not exceptions : it is not possible to please or displease all , seeing some are as deeply in love with vice , as others are with vertue ; and the applause of ignorant and evill men hath ever beene vilipended by the wise and vertuous . phocion had not suspected his speech , had not the common people applauded it . antisthenes mistrusted some ill in himselfe , for the vulgar commendations . much more reason have we that are christians , when wee find that spirituall things are mostly represented unto vicious men false and cleane contrary , to what they are indeed , as corporall things in a glasse , wherein those that are on the right hand , seeme to be on the left ; and those againe which are on the left hand , seeme to be on the right : as it fared with saint paul , who ( speaking of his unregenerate estate ) saith , i also thought verily in my selfe , that i ought to do many contrary things against the name of iesus ▪ act ▪ . . that vicious drunkards , and indeed all naturall men judge by contraries , think and call good , evill , and ev●ll , good ; white , black ; and black , white ; commend , what god in his word condemns , and condemne what he commends ; i might prove by an hundred testimonies and examples out of scripture but these may serve . first , touching things , as if they wore their braines in their bellies , and their guts in their heads , they highly esteeme what is abomination in the sight of god , luk. . . and what god highly esteemes is abomination to them , pro. . . secondly , that which is called wisdome in gods booke , they account foolishnesse , cor. . . . . and . . and . . luk. . . to . or madnesse . acts , . . wisd. . . and contrarily , that which god calls foolishnesse and madnesse , they terme wisdome , gen. . . iob. . . pro. . . ier. . . cor. . . exodus , . . iosh. . . titus , . . pro. . . they thinke there is no god , psal. . . or that he is carelesse and mindeth them not , psal. . . and . . or that he is not so just , as to reward every one according to his workes , psal. . . they thinke the service of god ( which is the greatest freedome ) iohn , . . . rom. . . . . the only bondage , psal. . . and to serve their owne lusts , and therein the devill , whose captives they are , tim. . . the only freedome , psal. . . they censure true faith in the godly , to be presumption , chron , . . . rom. . . . and yet thinke their wne presumption to be true faith . they not only thinke profession arbitrary , but blame worthy ; when as our saviour commands it , upon paine of being denied before god , and his holy angells , at the later day , matth. . . . mark. . . they censure , yea , condemne us to the pit of hell , about vanities of their own devising , luk. . . . mark. . . and justifie heynous crimes in themselves , verse . . . . they thinke if they have the worlds friendship , and good opinion , that they are in a passing good and happy estate ; when nothing more truely proves them in a cursed condition , luke ; . . iames , . . § . secondly , touching persons . first , they account the sincere christian , which walkes according to the rule of gods word , an hypocrite , iob. . . and the greatest hypocrite , who is a christian in name only , they acquit of hypocrisie , isay. . . they thinke such enemies to the state ' who are greatest friends , yea , props of the state ; and those friends , who are the greatest enemies , king. . . . gen. . . . iob. . . isay , . . they account themselves the most valiant and couragious , because they are apt to fight upon every idle quarrell , be it but the lye ; which is the greatest pusillanimity , or , at most , but stupid and desperate madnesse , and shewes that their lives are but little worth , seeing they will sell them so good cheape ; when they are the basest cowards , and vilest white-livers in a countrey , not daring to suffer for christ , or , in a good cause so much as a poore nick-name ; how much le●●e would they burne at a stake for him ( as the martyrs did , even weake women ) which is the only true valour ? and yet contrarily , account the righteous , who are as bold as a lyon , so their cause be good , pro. . . the most hen-hearted and ●earefullest . they account gods people the most dumpish and melancholy of all others ; when indeed , they are , or have cause to be the only joyfull people alive , psal. . . heb. . . iob. . . eccles. . . matth. . . luke , . . . and . . iohn , . . acts , . . rom. . . and . . cor. . . gal. . . iames , . . iohn , . . &c. they take themselves to be wise , because they are wise to doe evill ; and thinke the godly simple , because they are wise only to that which is good , rom. . . not considering , that wisdome is as the waters , of which , some descend from above , and some spring from beneath , iames , . . . such as by faith and true repentance are purged from their filthinesse in the blood of christ , and walke in newnesse of life , they thinke pure in their owne eyes ; though indeed , they esteeme their very righteousnesse but as a menstruous cloth , i say , . . when it is themselves that are pure in their owne conceits , as wanting the light of gods spirit , and the eye of faith . thirdly , touching their judgement and practise joyntly . first , they glory in their shame , phil. . . i meane , their wickednesse , gen. . . and are ashamed of that which should be their only glory and crowne of rejoycing , viz. holinesse . whereas the mercy of god is the chiefe motive , to make his children feare him , psal. . . they make it the only motive , for them to continue in sinne , iude , . whereas the godly render them good for evill ; they againe , render them the greatest evill for the greatest good , psal. . . to . acts , . . to . persecute them to the death , for shewing them the way to eternall life , acts , . . to . ier. . . even their very mercy and kindnesse is cruelty , pro. . . witnesse the drunkards love , to his friend ; the adulterers , to her whom he defiles ; the pitifull man , who gives or obtaines a pardon for the murtherer , which not only betrayes the parties soule , but makes the whole land guilty of blood ; and lastly , he who makes offers of preferment to a protestant , so he will become a roman catholike ; these and many the like are cruell mercies . they reject the commandements of god , marke , . . . that they may observe the traditions of men , and give heede unto spirits of error , and doctrines of devills , tim. . . and lastly , they thinke they doe god good service , in wronging and killing of his children , iohn , . . as paul did , in persecuting ; and the iewes in executing christ. § . vvhich being so , namely , that their judgements are directly opposite to the word of god , that they read practicall divinity with the devills spectacles , just as schollers doe hebrew , backwards ; either taking the conceptions of the holy ghost to be an adulterous seede , as once it fared with ioseph , touching marie's being with child , matth. . . or contrarily , the conceptions of sathan , viz. thoughts and affections , which spring from pride , lust , ignorance &c. to be the spirituall conceptions of the holy ghost , and to come from zeale and piety , as once ely , sam. . . and those mockers , acts , . imputed the true worke of the spirit to drunkennesse ; who would not rather be dispraised , then commended by them ? for to be praised of evill men ( saith bion ) is to be praised for evill doing : so the better they speake of a man , the worse , and the worse , the better : you shall have them maintaine with incredible impudence , accompanied with invincible ignorance , that if a man will not sweare , drinke drunke , &c. that he is over precise ; though they may as soone finde paradise in hell , as any text in scripture , which makes for loosenesse , or against circumspect walking . yea , who would dreame that so grosse blockishnesse should find harbour in any reasonable soule , as to thinke that god should like a man the worse , for his being the better , or for having a tender conscience , or looke for lesse feare , reverence , and obedience from his servants , then we doe from our servants : and yet the same men will grant , that a servant can never be too punctuall in his obedience to his masters lawfull commands : but you see the reason , they are of a reprobate judgement , esay . , . . and so speake , thinke , and doe altogether by contraries , like heliogabalus , who wore shooes of gold , and rings of leather : or the blackmores , who judging of beauty by contraries , paint the angells blacke , and the devills white : or the iewes , who preferred barrabas , a theife , a murtherer , a seditionary , infamous for all , odious to all before christ , that came to save them . wherefore , if we be wise , we will read their words backward , understand them by contraries , count their scoffes and reproaches our glory , which they take to be our shame ; so imitating the christians in the primitive church , who ( seeing the infidells , never met them , but they would make the signe of the crosse , in derision of their christianity , for that the god , whom they worshipped , was hanged on a crosse ) to shew that they were so farre from being ashamed thereof , that they gloried in nothing more ; then in that which their enemies cheifly derided , would not only make the sign of the cross upon their childrens foreheads , the most open and eminent place , at the time when they were baptized , but would frequently doe the same , in the presence of the said infidells , as occasion was offered . however , i pray god keepe me from being an honest man according to their description . besides , no wise man , that observes their life and practise , but will thinke their dislike of him an honour , and apply to them , what once the orator spake to s●llust , it cannot be , but he who lives thy life , should speake thy language : yea , a very heathen would chose his religion by such mens enmity , for it is the honour of religion and goodnesse , that it hath drunkards , swearers , &c. for her scoffing adversaries : as tertullian thought much the better of christianity , because nero persecuted it . however , the faith of the righteous cannot be so much derided , as their successe in the end will be magnified , wisdome , . . to . but this is the misery , those prove deepe wounds to weake christians , which would be balme and physicke unto abler judgements : and admit some have the wit to discerne their dispraise , an honour ; their praise , a dishonour ; yet wanting courage , and being afraid to displease , they even suffer themselves to be brutishly driven with the drove , and , like nailes in a wheele , turne , as they are turned , without either conscience of sinne , or guidance of reason . but if we live , like them that are reserved to judgment ; how should we not thinke our selves to be reserved with them ? indeed , if , with demas , thou wilt needs forsake christ , to embrace this present world , it is well thou givest over so soone , leavest off befor thou dost begin , never settest thy hand to the plough , doest not disgrace religion by professing it , for thou wouldest never hold out to the end ; he would never endure a blow , who cannot concoct a word : he is not like to overcom astrong & potent enemy , who cannot vanquish himselfe : he that is discouraged and made returne with an ishmaelitish persecution of the tongue , how would he endure a spanish inquisition , or those marian times ? he that is so afrighted with a squib , how would he endure the mouth of a canon . but heare one thing before thou goe●● . it is a shrewd signe that the lord is departed from a man , when he is thus basely afraid of those that cannot hurt him : for when the lord was departed from saul , he began to be afraid of david , never before , sam. . . true faith looking upon the preserver and reward , never feares to doe well , nor to reprove those that doe ill ; and such cowardly souldiers , as will turne their backes for a few foule words , are not for christs standart : yea , wat you what , they shall stand in the forefront of them , that shall be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone , rev. . . they have beene most backward to goodnesse , therefore shall be formost in vengeance . § . but to beare ill words , rather then be drunke , is not all which god requires in a christian : he must suffer blowes even to death rather then yeild . some ( which thinke themselves both sober men , and good christians ) presume they may be drunke , so it be to drive away a disease , or to prevent a quarrell , but they reckon without their host , for we must not doe evill , that good may come of it : that which is ill of it selfe , is not to be ventured on , for the good that commeth by accident . better the body be debilitated , or dye by an honest disease ; then be cured by a dishonest 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 overcome 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 , 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 , cor. . . and . . when pyrrhus tempted fabricius , 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 consalve , who protested to his souldiers , thewing 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. . . luke , . . . 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. . . 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 idearth , 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. . the women told naomy that ruth was better unto her then seven sonnes , ruth . . 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 : 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 . § . if thou wouldest neither bee intised nor enforced to pledge them , 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 , corinth . . . that is , flee the company of fornicators ; for to be in a lewd womans company , saith salomon , and depart innocent ; aud 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. . , . 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 . 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 put to the flame , will soone be kindled again . wherfore keep out of the reach of thy vicious ●equaintance , and if they becken thee one way , be thou sure to take the contrary , at least entertaine no parley with them . when castles once come to a parley , there is great feare they will yeeld : and gates that are alwayes open , will sometimes admit an enemy . no disputing with sathan , or his deputies : when our first parents fell to arguing the case with that old serpent , though in the state of innocencie , when they had wit at wil , and their reason at command , they found him too hard for them : how much more too weak shall we find our selves , that now are as we are ? surely , we are like to lose all , if once wee enter into disputation with that old sophister , and crafty fox , after the experience of six thousand yeares almost , and when our ownflesh ( which his the greatest both deceiver and dissembler in the world ) is become his cunning solicitour . alasse ! he desires no more then to be heard speak ; for grant him but this , and he will perswade thee to believe , even contrary to thine own knowledge : as how easily did he perswade eve , by himself ; and adam , by her , ( when they gave but care to him , ) to believe what he spake , though they had heard god himself say the contrary , but a little before ? gen. . . and if innocency found no meanes of resistance , what hope have we so extreamely degenerated ? and indeed , why doe we pray not to be led into temptation , if we lead our selves into temptation ? if we will not heepe our selves from the occasion ; god will not keepe us from the sinne : and if god doe not keep us , we cannot be kept : we cannot , wee will not choose but fall . wherefore shun the society of evill men , as iosoph shunned the society of his mistresse , and leave them that leave god , as noah did the old world , and that by god's commandement , gen. . . . and abraham the cananites , gen. . . and lot the sodomites , gen. . . and israel the egyptians , exod , . . . and moab and ammon , numb . . . . . . . § . but is it warrantable , may some say , to separate from our old acquaintance , ( being vicious ) and other the like companie ? not totally ; for then we must goe out of the world , cor. . . nor from any in all cases ; for then we must separate from the publike assemblies : nor in regard of civill society , and necessary commerce ; for this were to unglew the whole worlds frame , which is contexted onely by commerce and contracts , there by certaine wise uses to be made of them , for our convenience or necessity , which need not , yea , must not be forborne : as wherefore serves discretion , but that ( as a glasse window ) it may let in the light , and keepe out the winde ? neither can wicked men , in this case , be avoided : but so long as wee are in this world , we must converse with men of the world : and we know it is lawful enough , in tearms of civility , to deale with infidels , yea , even thesavage cannibals may receiue an answer of outward courtesie . if a very dog fawne upon us we stroke him on the head , and clap him on the backe , much lesse is the common bond of humanity untyed by grace ; disparity in spirituall professions , is no warrant for ingratitude : yet a little friendship with such , is enough ; the lesse communion with any of gods enem es , the more safety : and sure i am , that those who affect a familiar entirenesse with such , bewray either too much boldnesse , or too little conscience . yea , we may not only converse with evill men , but communi●ate with them also without harme , so it be not in evill things : as in the sacrament the unworthy receiver eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe , sibi , non tibi , to himselfe , not to thee . but as touching a familiar en●irenesse , and leagues of amity , that they are unfit , unwarrantable , dangerous , is easie to prove . as what saith the holy ghost by s. paul ? wee command you brethren , in the name of our lord iesus christ , that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that malketh inordinately , and not after the instruction which 〈◊〉 received of us , thes. . . and againe , speaking unto the converted ephesians , touching others among them who were whoremongers , uncleane persons , covetous men , and idolaters , hee saith , be not companions with them , ephesians . . . and lastly , in that case of the incestuous corinthian , hee doth not only excommunicate him , but makes a rule upon it , that if any one , which professeth himself a christian , shall live in any scandalous course , that they shall not afford him so much as civill and familiar converse , i corinth . . . if any man that is called a brother , saith he , be a fornicator , or covetous , or an idolater , or a raiter , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such an one eate not . marke this all ye swinish drunkards , and beastly livers , that god dischargeth us your society . but to proceed . why was that law ●nacted , for the strict avoiding of leprous persons ? it was not the body only that was herein respected , by the god of spirits ; those that are spiritually contagious must be still and ever avoided , they must be separated from us , we from them ; they from us , by just censures ; or if not , wefrom them , by a voluntary declination of their familiar conversation : or if they can joyne our heart to theirs , they will disjoyne it from god ; to let passe saint pauls charge , corinthians . . come out from among them , and separate your selves : and that of the angell , revelation . . come out of her my people , which especially have relation to idolaters : see what hath beene the practise of gods people since noah , lot , abraham , and israel , which have beene alledged already . doth not david say , i have not sate with vaine persons , neither kept company with the dissemblers . i have hated the assembly of evill doers , and will not company with the wicked , psal. . . . and was not ioseph , whom the holy ghost stileth a just man , fully minded ( before the angell forbad him ) to put away mary , after he was betrothed unto her , when hee but supposed her to bee dishonest ? matthew . . and was not all this , to shew us what we should doe in the like cases ? wherefore , let us tread in their steps , and say with a worthy divine , though i may have many bad acquaintance , yet i will have no bad companions : for even the tame beasts will not keepe with the wild ; nor the cleane dwell with the leprous . but above all , let us keepe no drunkards , nor swearers in our houses , psalme . , , , , . no , nor scoffers , ismael must be turned out of doores , when hee once fals a jeering of isaac : and indeed if we doe , it is a shrewd suspition we are not sincere our selves : for grace , as it is resembled to heate , so like heat , it gathereth together things of one kind , separateth things of a contrary nature , as drosse from gold. in fine , if they have forsaken all honesty and good conscience , it is time for us to forsake them : if they depart from us , in the foundation of faith and good workes ; let us ( as justly wee may ) depart from them , in the building of brotherly fellowship : they build on the sand , let us build on the rock : yea , if they forsake the right way , wee must forsake them , or christ will forsake us . § . but least this should not suffice : see some reasons to enforce thee thereunto , which all gods people propound to themselves , when they bid adue to their old associates in the broad way , and purpose to pledge them no more in their wicked customes . the reasons are principally . and they are weighty . . that they may come to the sight of their errors . . that we may not be infected by them nor partake of their sinnes . . that we may not be infeoffed in their punishments . . that so farre as is possible we may be at peace with all men . . because their company would bereave us of comfort , which otherwise we should enjoy , being alone . first , that thereby they may come to the sight of their errors , and consequently , be reclaimed . s. paul , when hee commands the corinthians to shut the incestuous person out of their society and fellowship , gives this reason , that his spirit might bee saved in the day of the lord , corinth . . . againe , when he writ to timothy , that he had done the same , touching hymeneus and alexander , he yeeldeth this to be the reason , that they might learn not to blaspheme , tu●othy . . and in another place . if any man obey not our saying , note him by a letter , and have no company with him , that hee may bee ashamed , thes. . . it was the practise of the primitive church , in her first love , that shee might shine in beauty and fairenes above alother synagogues , not to admit any scandalous person , or open offender into the communion of saints ; untill their foule spots were carefully washt off , and taken away by the teares of repentance . the bread of the children was not given unto dogs ; neither , by an equall bounty , to the godly and the wicked , was there an equall encouragement to godlinesse and iniquity , but a separation was made betweene the sick and the whole ; and this separation had no other intent , but edification ; even an edification of the spirit , by the destruction of the flesh : so that men could find no fault with the dispensers of this power , having nothing to complaine of , but that their lives thereby were sought to be amended , and their soules to be saved . i confesse , that was a separation of a higher nature , the power of the keyes being added , they were delivered up to sathan , shut out of heaven ; herein it is not so , but this serves to the same end , and is done only in cases of like fact . the cause was weighty , for which the gates of heaven , were to be locked ; great , in the thing done ; or great , in the wilfulnesse of the doer ; and this not without reason : for the doome was heavie , and fit for the back of a strong and mighty evil : it was a short damnation , a temporall hell , a shutting out of heaven upon earth , yea , heaven in heaven , even the joyes , and comforts of the spirit of consolation . neither could it be but an excellent remedy , for , besides that it was gods institution , the remedy was fitted to the disease : a degree of presumption , was encountered with a degree of despaire ; the scorpion was made a medicine , against the sting of the scorpion ; sathan was set on worke , to take him downe by terror unto salvation ; whom before hee animated and puffed up to destruction ; he , that said at first , sin boldly , for ye shall not dye at all ; now hee changeth his voyce , and saith , thy sinne is greater then can be forgiven thee . but the wisdom of dispensation suffered this roring lion no longer to terrifie , but untill his terror did mollifie : hee aimed indeed at despaire and destruction ; but the church aimed at humiliation , and conversion , yea , at consolation and salvation . and indeed humiliation for sinne , is the only way to conversion from sinne ; conversion from sin , the only way to the consolations of the spirit ; and the comfortable spirit is both the guide and the way to life eternall : therefore , when the man is humbled , sathan is casheired ; the horse-leech is taken away , when he hath sufficiently abated the vicious and superfluous blood . thus were men healed , by wounding ; exalted by humbling : o admirable use and command of sathan ! hee is an enemy to god , and yet doth him service ; he is an adversary to man , and yet helpes him . a strange thing , that sathan should help the incestuous corinthian , to the destruction of his flesh , his concupiscence , and the edification of his soule . a strange thing that sathan should teach hymeneus and alexander not to blaspheme : he is the author of blasphemies , and yet he teacheth not to blaspheme . but is sathan contrary to himselfe , and is his kingdome divided in it selfe ? no surely : ●ut one that is stronger then hee both in wisdome and power , manageth both his craft and malice , to ends , which himselfe intendeth not . the divell is one and the same still , even purely malicious ; but god suffers him to go on in his temptations , just so farre as temptation is profitable , and no further : therefore while sathan is driving the offender to despaire , god stops his course , when the sinner is come to due humiliation : and then , as it was with christ in the wildernesse , so is it with the humbled sinner , sathan is dismissed , and the angels come and minister unto him . this was the nature , manner , and end of publike excommunication : private hath relation to it ; both touching cause and end . first , publike had respect to the cause ; that it was to be used , only in case of scandalous , open , and notorious impiety : so hath the private ; wee do not breake off society with any for weaknesses , and sinnes of infirmity . secondly , that did only aime at their amendment , conversion , and salvation : so doth this ; we desire only to have them looke into themselves , where the fault lyes , and seeke to amend their course : and certainly nothing will sooner make the adulteresse or drunkard bethink themselves , then when they see , all that are honest and sober , even their neighbours and old associates , shun their company and despise them , as if they were not worthy of humane society : and if they have the least desire to be reputed honest and sober againe , and admitted their familiar converse , ( without which , they are , as it were , banished into exile ) they will do what possibly lyes in them to redeeme their credit , and merit their good opinion , by a more sober , honest , and holy demeanour : the disparity lyeth only in the power and severity of the agents ; we cannot , we doe not , we desire not to deliver them up to sathan ; but heartily pray that they may bee delivered from him , and all evill . § . that we may not be infected by them , nor partake of their sinnes . it is a true proverb , evill company corrupts good manners : and he that will not evill do , must keep from all that longs thereto . to be safe from evill workes , is to avoid the occasions ; especially , he that will keepe himself from iniquity , and have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknes , must have no fellowship with wicked persons , the workers of darknesse : ioseph thought no weapon comparable , for the beating off his mistresses assaults , to running away . the first thing that god did , after hee created heaven and earth , was , to separate light from darknesse ; probably to shew , that the good should first of all separate from the evill , if they meane not againe to become evill . it is not more hard to finde vertue in evill company , then to misse vice . they were mingled among the heathen ( saith the psalmist ) and what followes ? they learned their works , ps. . peter had never denyed and forsworn his master , if hee had not beene in company with christ's enemies : but then how soone was he changed ? now , saith one , if such a cedar fell , how shall i stand ? i will not therefore hazard the fraile potsheard ( my flesh ) upon the rock of evill company for any thing . david had never dissembled , if he had not beene among the philistins : which made him after ( that hee might wisely shun that occasion ) say , depart from mee all yee workers of iniquity , for i will keepe the commandements of my god , psal. . . intimateing , that hee could not otherwise : nay , how many thousands have confest at the gallowes , i had never come to this but for evill company , which drew me to these courses ? yea , the truth is , wee can not come amongst these vipers , and not bee stung by them ; for even to heare them speake , will make us either angry , or guilty ; and not to bee intemperate with them for company , is a great discourtesie , if not a quarrell . many a man had beene good ▪ that is not , if hee had but kept good company . there is a pliable disposition in all men naturally to evill ; we follow it , as iron doth the loadstone , by a naturall and hidden propensity : our corrupt nature is like fire , which , if there be any infection in the roome , drawes it streight to it self : or like jet , which omits all precious objects , and attracts nothing but straws and dust : or , if a man hath both good and bad in his nature , either of them will fortifie , as they meet with their like ; or decline , as they finde a contrary : as sampson did in his strength , who , at first being hard enough for all the princes of the philistins , at last , by keeping dalilah company , they set a boy to lead him . yea , suppose a man stands indifferent ; his company , whether good or evill , will work him into a new nature ; and by continuance , he shall grow up to the same height with them , as the hop groweth to the end of the pole , be it never so high , and he himselfe shall do the like to others ; as one peece of iron , being rub'd with the loadstone , will draw another peece , even as if it were the loadstone it selfe . a good man in ill company is like a precious pearle , fallen into the mud ; vvhich the longer it lies , the deeper still it sinkes into it : for , if the force of custome , simple and separate be great ; the force of custome , copulate , and conjoyned , and collegiate , is farre greater ; for their example teacheth , company comforteth , emulation quickneth , glory raiseth : so as in such places the force of custome , is in her exaltation : which made the mother of alexander , the twenty sixth emperor of rome , so carefull of her sonnes education , that she kept continually a guard of men to take heed , that no vicious persons came unto him , to corrupt him in evill . it was a good conceit of themistocles , and not triviall , when he set up a bill of an house , which he had to let , that he added , aye , and there be good neighbours too : for it shall go hard , but neighbourhood will somewhat mould the whole familie into better or worse , as themselves are . the ●ore eye , we know , infecteth the sound : and they that sleep with dogs , shal swarm with fleaes : yea , a mans posterity after him , shall gaine , or loose by the bargaine . it were happy , if the injury of a wicked man could bee confined to his owne bosome ; that he only might fare the worse for his sinnes ; that it were but selfe do , self have : but as his lewdnesse , like some odious sent , is diffused through the whole roome , or place where he is , and reacheth to the times , upon which he is unhappily falne : so after generations are the worse by meanes of him . an ill president , is like goodwin sands , which not only swallowed up his patrimony , but still continues a dangerous place , where too many have miscaried . hee is a very meane person , that drawes not some clyents after him : even thewdas and iudas had their foure hundreds to accompany them . one man may kindle such a fire , as thousands are not able to quench : one plague-sore may infect a whole nation : and all the veni●● of sin is not spent in the act . sinne among men , like the murraine in cattell , or scab among sheepe , is of a catching and infectious quality : and , like the plague or leprosie , will runne along from one to another : our corrupt nature is like tinder , which is kindled with the leaft sparke : wherefore it behoves us to avoid all provoking objects : as a man that hath gunpowder in his house , keepes it safe from fire : and well were it for us , if lewd ones were forced to cry , as the leper in israel , i am uncleane , i am uncleane . every thing labours to make the thing it meets with like it selfe ; fire , converts all to fire ; aire , exiccates and drawes to it selfe ; water , moistens and resolveth what it meetes withall ; earth , changeth all that we commit to it to her owne nature . every man will bee busie in dispending that quality which is predominant in him : we can converse with nothing , but will work upon us , and by the unperceived stealth of time , assimilate us to it selfe : one rotten aple will infect a whole floore : one putrid grape corrupts the whole sound cluster . the choice therefore of a mans company , is one of the most weighty actions of our lives ▪ for our future well or ill being depends on that election : if we choose ill , every day inclines us to worse , we have a perpetuall weight hanging on us , that is euer sinking us downe to vice . antisthenes wondred at those which were curious in buying but an earthen dish ▪ to see that it had no cracks , nor inconveniencies , and yet would be carelesse in the choice of friends , and take them vvith the flavves of vice . what was the reason ( thinke we ) that our saviour vvould not suffer his vveake disciple , in the gospell , to go and bury his dead father ? luk. . 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 sore 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. . . and david sam. . , . 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. . . 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 ●lie 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 chr●st 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 . § . it is true , 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 ungovernd eye once to looke upon . we read , gen. . . 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 cat● , 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 time or other fall in . he that will doe all that he may , will sometimes doe what he ought not . it is hard for the best man to say how farre he will be tempted . if a man will put him selfe among philistins , he cannot promise to come forth innocent ; or if he doe , that soule which lives among thornes , shall hardly thrive in grace . how many have fallen into a fashion of swearing , scoffing , drinking , out of the usuall practice of others : as those that live in an ill ayre , are infected with diseases ? a man may passe through ethiopia unchanged , but he cannot dwell there , and not be discoloured . when once a man gives himselfe over to be the companion of vice , in the end he becomes the very slave of vice . the oxe being tyed to the figg-tree , looseth his strength . many strokes overthrow the strongest oke . many drops of raine , though never so soft , pierce the hardest marble , yea , even the flint stone . and let graces be never so well fixt in a mans heart , yet he may soone have them consumed and wasted this way , if he take not heede : as snow and ice cannot be so hard congealed , but they will melt , if they come to the fire . and little doe our peremptory resolvers in this case know , or consider , either the insinuative power of evill , or the treachery of their owne hearts , in receiving it , or the importunity of wicked deceivers , in obtruding it : they are the worse for their society , and perceive it not . an egg covered with falt ( as philosophers teach ) hath the meate of it consumed , whilst the shell is whole . and we reade of many townes , which have in time beene undermined , even with the most impotent and weake creatures , as one in spaine with coneyes ; in thessalia with moles ; in france with frogs ; in africa with flies . many an one receives poyson , and knowes not when he tooke it . many breath in this world , like men sleeping in a boate , are caried downe the streame , even to their gravesend , without waking , to thinke where they are . no man proves extreamly evill on the sudden : through many insensible declinations doe we fall from vertue . sathan's agents are still scattering his firy darts , among the army of israel ; and when they light upon wood , they kindle ; when upon flax , they flame ; when upon gunpowder , they blow up all . they therefore that love such intricate and perplexed walkes , had need of iron shoes . true it is , that christ conversed and kept company with publicans and sinners , ( as the physitian with the sicke ) to heale their soules : neither did they make him worse , but he made them better : but as true it is , that he was without the levell of temptation ; and so is no generall warrant . i will therefore not only shun evill , but the meanes to come to it ; and to avoid hurt , i will keepe my selfe out of shot : neither will i presume , being but a man , to follow my master in that which he did as god. indeed , many are so presumptuous of their strength , that they thinke they can come in any company , and yet come off cleare : but he which comes to save one drowning , must be stronger then the other , or else he will be drowned himselfe . pliny reports , that a family neare rome would goe upon live coles without being burnt : had it hereupon beene necessary for others to put the same in practise ? no : neither is it necessary for us to doe that herein which our saviour did . our minds have not that ballast in them , which his had , and so are sooner endangered , by the floods of wickednesse . secondly , whereas they object : that we may gaine by their company : i confesse it possible , for even the most venimous and ravenous things that are , have their commodities , as well as their annoyances : and the cocke by scraping in a dunghill , did once finde a iewell : virgil from enniu's dunge did gold extract : and apothecaries of vipers flesh can make an antidote against poyson : an harlots face may suggest chastnesse : and a sinfull surfet may prove an antidote for sinne : yea , as externall cold kindles the heate of the stomacke : so we finde it recorded in holy writ , that some , by a spirituall antiperistasis , have growne hotter in their zeale , by being encompassed with the outward cold of wicked an irreligious company : like roses and lillies , which flourish the more for being beset with thornes : and violets , which are the sweeter and more odoriferous , for being beset with garlike and onions ; for as much as they suck and draw all the ill savours of the ground unto them . thus it fared with lot , who served god better among the beastly sodomites , then when he was separated from them . and some others there are no doubt , who , as they owe not this grace to themselves , so they are more for wonder , then imitation . for if daniel found a guard in the lyons den , shall another thrust himselfe there into for shelter ? and if peter walkt upon the pavement of the water , did the rest of the disciples step forth and follow him ? no. ob. but say some . by keeping them company we may winne them , and happily convert their soules . answ. i answer . hope not so much to convert them ; as feare that they will pervert thee : for vertue is not so alluring as vice : the one spreads it selfe , like poyson in a vessell ▪ the other is not halfe so dispersive . sinne , and hagar , are more fruitfull then vertue and sarah : falsehood , more successefull then truth . the sore eye infecteth the sound : the found will not mend the sore . vinegar will mar wine ; wine will not mend vinegar , infection is spreading and catching : health is not so . an hundred sound persons shall sooner catch the plague , from one infected person ; then he receive his health from them . salomon that wonder of wisdome , might thinke by joyning in affinity with his neighbour princes , and marrying their daughters , to winne those heathens to the kingdome of god : but he was deceived , for he could doe no good upon them ; they wrought him too much evill . and doth not experience teach us , that the good are sooner perverted by the bad , then the bad converted by the good ? even as a tainted ayre doth more easily infect a sound body , then an wholesome can cleare the sicke . we reade of certaine magneticall , or adamantine rockes , in the iles of moniole , which draw all ships unto them , that have any iron pinnes , holding them so fast , that they are not able to stirre : evill society , are such rockes ; holy men , the ships ; naturall and inbred corruption , the iron pinnes : he that will be safe , let him keepe farre enough from such rocks . a good man , joyned in league with one that is wicked ; is like a living man , bound to a dead corps , which will sooner suffocate him , then he revive that : or , like an isickle , can endure the rough northerne wind of persecution well enough , but melteth with the heate of the sunne , sweete allurements of the world , and the flesh . the children of god are , as it were , dead to their lusts ; but if they should tempt god , by a too familiar society with the vicious ; who knowes , but as live coles will kindle dead ones ; so their evill speeches and actions may kindle and enflame them with the love and liking of lewdnesse ? indeed , as one said to his suppliant , make me a diviner , and i will make thee rich : so may a good man say to a vicious ; make me angelicall , that is , incapable of being seduced , and i 'le doe my best to make thee a convert . § . our entirenesse with wicked men feoffes us , not only in their sinnes , but oftentimes in their punishments also ; as it fared with the . men which were slaine before aye , for achan's sake , ioshua . where we see the innocencie of so many thousand israelites was not so prevalent , to expiate his one sinne ; as his one sinne was , to tainte and bring judgement upon all isr●el . if the storke be taken damagefeceant with the cranes , she is enwrapped in the same net , and cannot complaine that ●he is surprised . he that walketh with the wise ( saith salomon ) shall be wise ; but a companion of fooles , shall be afflicted , pro. . . this augustine well observes , speaking of the religious , taken amongst the rest of the gothes , iure amaram vitam sentire , quia peccantibus amari esse nolue● unt . and hereupon moses separates israel from corah , dathan , and abiram , saying , d●part from the tents of these wicked men , and touch nothing of theirs ; le●st ye perish with them , num. . . and doth not god himselfe say to his people , touching babylon , goe out of her , my people , that ye be not partaker of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues ? rev. . . where sinne is let in , punishm●nt will not be kept out . yea , if lot had stayed in sodom , he had beene destroyed : if his sonnes would have gone out , they had every man escaped . indeed , we cannot be too farre off from such company ; and it were happy if they were kept by themselves ; for so long as the infected person is shut up , his plague doth not spread . and besides the benefit of our safety , wickednesse would soone be ashamed of it selfe , if it were not for the encouragement of companions . solitarinesse is the fittest antidote for spirituall infection . it were happy for the wicked man , if he would be separated from himselfe . antisthenes would often say , it was a great oversight , sithence they purged their wheate from darnell , and their warres from cowardly souldiers , that they purged not their common wealth from lewd and wicked people . or if our persons escape scot-free , yet we may suffer in our estates , and be crost in our most weighty designes and determinations , only for joyning in league or friendship with gods enemies . because thou hast joyned thy selfe with ahaziah ( saith eleezar to iehosophat ) the lord hath broken thy workes ; and the ships were broken , that they were not able to goe to t●rshish , chro. ● . . but admit they can not infe●ffe us , either in their sinne or punishment : yet their society will be a shrewd vexation to us . as let a religious man fall into their company , as an honest man may fall into the hands of theeves , they will conspire how to affl●ct his eyes , with unchast visions ; his eares , with fearefull oathes , his unwilling appetite , with drunken healths ; which even a civilized pagan would abhor . we read that clitomachus the wrestler ( though a great company-keeper , yet ) if he had heard but one filthy word , would presently depart . how was just , lot vexed with the uncleanly conversation of his wicked neighbours ? sodom was worse then a jaile to his righteous soule : and report lyes , if our jailes be not much like to sodom , the very dens of mischiefe , the scholes of wickednesse : a malefactor learnes more vilany there , then ever he knew before : drunkennesse and blasphemy , usurpe the place of mortification and humility . or lastly , if their society be not a vexation to our minds ; at least it will be a great disparagement to our names ▪ every one will conclude , almost infallibly , such as our company is , such is our disposition . the common proverb is , like will to like , and , birds of a feather , will flock together . when iepthah was himselfe in banishment , there gathered to him idle fellows , such as himselfe , iudges . . when david was in trouble , and vexed in minde himselfe , their flockt unto him all those that were in trouble , vexed in mind , or that were in debt , even foure hundred of them , to the cave of adullam , sa. . . yea , our saviour meetes no lesse then ten lepers in one knot . fellowship is that we all naturally affect , though it be in leprosie : even lepers will flock to their fellows , where sh●ll wee finde one spirituall leper alone ? drunkards , prophane persons , hereticks , will be sure to consort with their matches . and hereupon the laced●m onians , when they would certainly bee informed , what the disposition and behaviour , of any one was , would wisely inquire with what persons , they were linked in fellowship . and indeed , he that makes himselfe a companion of all , sells his reputation very cheape : it being as great an indecorum , for a holy christian to be in the company of gracelesse persons , as it is for a reverend divine to sit upon the stage in a publike theater ; or an old man to dance with little children in the streetes . base company ( saith one ) kills both our fame , and our soules : it gives us wounds , which will never admit of healing . how many have irrecoverably lost their good names , by keeping company with suspected persons ? and whether the report bee true or false , it is no easiething to disprove a slaunder , for like an unruly spirit once raised , 't is hard to conjure downe againe . a mans good name is much easier kept , then recovered , and thus you see , that evill company endangers our soules : or could our soules be free , yet our persons are in danger ; or could our soules and persons both bee safe , yet our estates are in jeopardy : or could our soules , bodies , and estates be secure , yet our fame would suffer , and our good name lye at the stake . wherefore &c. § . but admit we could keepe them company without harme ; yet this inconvenience would ensue : their company would bereave us of much good , which otherwise we should enjoy , being alone ; it fareing with the godly wise , as with saint ambrose , who was wont to say , i am never lesse alone , then when i am all alone , for then i can enjoy the presence of my god without interruption . they are able to say , as du●artus , and ( before him ) scipio , i have never better company , then when i have no company ▪ for then can i freely entertaine my owne thoughts , and converse with all the learned , which have beene in former ages . antisthenes being asked what fruit he had reaped of all his study ? made answer , i have learned by it , both to live , and walke with my selfe . and alphonsus king of arragon being demanded , what company he liked best ? replyed , bookes , for these ( saith he ) without feare , or fl●ttery , or any reward , tell me faithfully all that i desire to know . cicero was , and i am of his minde ▪ and though i bee no hermit , to sit away my daies in a dull cell , yet will i choose , rather to have no companion then a bad one . when cato vtican , in vacation times , and at his best leasure , went to recreate himselfe in the country , hee used to cary with him the best philosophers , and choisest bookes . algerius an italian martyre said , hee had rather be in prison with cato , then with caesar in the senate house : so was it more comfortable , to bee with philpot in his cole-house , then with bonner in the palace : boner's conscience made his palace a cole-house , and a dungeon ; whiles philpot's made the cole-house a palace . the state of grace is heaven upon earth ; and he that knowes the sweetnesse of gods presence , wil deeme it more tollerable to bee ever alone , then never able to be so . when i read of hiero the tyrant of syracusa , and other such , that gave over their kingdomes , to live a solitary life , i somewhat wonder : i should not , to heare of a religious and christian king that did so . it is impossible for the naturall man to be so merry , in company ; as the believer alone ; yea , saith s. augustine , the teares of those that pray , are sweeter then the joyes of the theater . indeed , a witty jest may make a man laugh more , and lowder : but he who hath an inheritance fallen to him , feeles a more solid joy within : so hee that enjoyes his saviour , and hath the assurance of heaven , is truly merry at the heart , and keepes hilary tearme all his life . and indeed , nothing in the world is worth envie , besides the condition of a true christian. but to what end doe i tell a blind man , how glorious and bright a creature the sunne is ? or a poore man , what summes of money are in the kings exchequers ? to so many as are unrenewed i speake in parables , revel . . . yea , this seemes to them a paradox , that the people of god should be a merry people : for contrariwise , they dreame of nothing but solitarinesse , and melancholly : as the common people thought tully to bee most idle , when he studied most : or as the husbandman in aesope objected idlenesse to the poet : but as he replyed , i am never so idle as in thy company : so may the religious , we are never so solitary , never so melancholly ; as when in society with you that are vicious . this was david's case , which maketh him cry out , w●e is me , that i must remaine in m●seck , and dwell in the tents of kedar : he found it a heavie yoke to bee yoked with irreligious companions . and a double reason may be given of it , though we feare not to suffer either in our persons , goods , or good names ( as before you have it . ) for first , the soule that lives among thornes , shall hardly thrive , they are such backbyasses to a godly life , that they will do what they can , to hinder our goodnesse to heaven , and the goodnesse of heaven to us ; they will wither all our good parts and qualities which are in us ; like an evill north-wind , they blow upon the buds of our graces , and nip them . . secondly , it would make a mans heart to bleed , to heare and consider , how swearing , blaspheming , cursed speaking , railing slandering ▪ quarrelling , contending , jesting mocking , scoffing , flattering , lying , dissembling , vaine , corrupt , and filthy scolding , scurrilous , lose , and idle talking , doth overflow with them in all places : so that such as feare god , had better bee any where ; then in the company of most men . now i were madd , if i should so affect company , as to live voluntarily where vexations shall daily salute me . indeed , a man is not rightly said to live , untill he hath abandoned wicked society . similis having lived seven yeares apart from the world , after a long time spent in a military life , he left this epitaph behind him , here lies old similis , yet one that lived but seaven yeares . this made frederick the third , elector palatine , when some such friends of his desired his company , to answer , i have lived enough to you ; let m●e now live to my selfe , and with my lord christ. yea , saint augustine , tenne dayes before he dyed , desired none might come to him , that so , in that time , hee might the better fit him self for god. and indeed , that soule can never enjoy god , that is not sometimes retired . o that wee could , in any reasonable time ; give a stop to our madding and straying fancies : that we could , after so long time spent in the lusts of the flesh , and pride of life , bring home our cogitations and intentions unto our selves , shake off these violent hold-fasts , bid our companions farewel , which have too long engaged our soules , and estranged us from our selves . but when we are so wedded , combined , and glewed to the world , it is no easie matter to make a safe retreat : it is a fleaing to some to bee sundred ; thereby you pull away some peece of themselves . in this case , what we cannot doe all at once , let us gaine upon our selves by degrees ▪ go back step by step ; first , block up one passage , then another . will you know what course demosthenes tooke in this case ? he ▪ to the end that his acquaintance and nearest friends might not ( by carying him abroad , according to their custome ) withdraw him from his study and bookes , caused the haire of his head to be shaved off ; and after took an order , that they should not peepe out , untill hee had shook off his consorts , by continually making them loose their labours . it were happy for our young studients , if they would a little imitate him ; if they were not overmuch affected and addicted to company keeping ; if they would but consider , that friends are the thieves of time , the most precious jewell they can part withall . § . but here it will bee objected . that we are melancholly persons , strayers from the drove of mankind , and whereas nature hath made us sociable creatures , in making us men , religion hath al●ered to a crazied disposition , whereby wee are mispleasing to all , as all to us . to this is answered . suppose it were true ( but i shall in place more convenient prove , that the religious only enjoy true mirth , and that worldly mirth is more talked of then felt , spiritu●ll joy more felt then talk'd of , though i may appeale to any mans conscience ▪ that hath been softned with the unction of grace , and truly tasted the powers of the world to come ) yet they think it is better being a good christian , then a good fellow ; and hold it farre better , in good sadnesse to bee saved with a few , as noah was in the arke , then in good fellowship , with the multitude , to bee drowned in sinne , and damned for company . we are content ( saith one ) to passe , through somewhat more unsociably , into happinesse ; it sufficeth wee shall meet with good company at our journeys end , in the kingdome of heaven , even an innumerable company of saints and angels . the men of the world practise , what once a jester spake , who , when a great lord asked him , whether he would goe to heaven or hell ? answered , to hell , for there ( quoth he ) i shall bee sure to meet your lordship , and the greatest part of mine acquaintance . but it is not so with the true christian : he little loves christ , that will not follow him without company : and his zeale is cold to heaven , whom the example of numbers can turn another way . wherefore let us say , as much as peter said ; and do more , then peter did ; though all men should forsake thee , yet will i nt leave thee , o saviour : neither magnitude of princes , nor multitude of people , shall prevaile with me . but the world wrongs religion , when they accuse it to bee an enemy to good-fellowship : for she hath not a follower , which doth not say with david , psa , . . i am a companion to all them that feare thee , and keep thy precepts : for the godly mans chiefe delight is in the saints , and such as excell in vertue , psalme . . yea , and their fellowship is so good , profitable , and delectable , that as synesius was of opinion , that king hieron got more by simonides acquaintance , then simonides did by his ; and as we read that pharaoh , saul , and nebuchadnezzar were more pleasured by ioseph , david , and daniel , then daniel , david , and ioseph were by them : so i perswade my selfe , great persons would finde themselves more then required , if they would vouchsafe the company of some poore saints : for a wise and holy christian ( like his lord and master ) wheresoever he goes , makes better cheare then he findes , in an happy exchange of spiritual repast for bodily . yea , as plato accounted it one of the foure great privelidges ▪ for which he was especially bound to nature , that he lived in the time of socrates : so they should thinke it none of the least favours , for which they were bound to blesse god , that they enjoyed so religious and holy society . it is true indeed , there is a supposed good fellowship , to which religion is an enemy ; because it is an enemy to this holy fellowship of the saints : and good reason , the one are to the other , as wolves are to the lambes : now is it any marvaile if the lambes care not greatly for the company of the wolves ? the lambe would not willingly be alone ; yet it is far better when solitary , then in a wolvish society . generous mindes will associate with their matches and equalls , or none : as david being a king , when he was expulsed his owne country , resorts to none but kings : for first he goeth to achis , king of gath ; then to the king of moab , sam. . . and sam. . . neither are our ding-thirsts , who lavish out their estates , and throw the house out at windowes ( as we use to say ) good fellowes , though they call themselves so : for good fellowes and evill men are incompatible ; like simeon and levi , sworne brothers , but brethren in evill ; which is too evill a brotherhood , for an honest man to make one in , or ( indeede ) a wise man : for is not ●ee a foole , that will sell heaven for company ▪ as a great many tru drunkards doe ? for my owne part , if i have good company , i will cherish them as lot did his angels , which were sent for guardians : if i have any bad , i will studie to loose them , least by keeping them , i loose my selfe in the end . § . another reason why we should separate our selves from their society , is , that according to the apostles rule , s● far as is possible , we may have peace with all men , which is no way obtainable , but by a separation . a wicked man ( saith salomon ) is abomination to the just : and he that is upright in his way , is abomination to the wicked , prov. . . if so , either no communion , or no peace . believers , and such as are enemies to the crosse of christ , can never be reconciled , at least in heart . what communion can righteousnesse have with unrighteousnesse ? you may as well tye a sure knot betweene a cobweb and a cable , as a true and fast love-knot , between the child of god and a wicked man. these two yoked together , agree like the harp and the harrow : they are as suitable , as a wooden legg , and a thigh of flesh : which makes the apostle rom. . . in enjoyning us to have peace with all men , to add , if it bee possible : and in another place to say , be not unequally yoked with infidels , for as wee should not be yoked with infidels ; so wee should not be yoked with common drunkards , and swearers , nor with atheists , which are no better then infidels ; for that also is to be unequally yoked , unlesse vve be atheists too . as the iewes might not consort vvith the canaanites : so vvee may not consort vvith them , vvhich are like can●anites . wi●e salomon chargeth us from god , that vvee should not keepe company vvith gluttons and drunkards , proverbs . . and the apostle enjoyneth us , not to have any fellowship , nor so much as eat with a drunkard , cor. . . and that vve should have no fellowship with these unfruitfull workes of darknesse , or , if unvvittingly and unvvillingly vve bee thrust into any such society , vve must not imitate , but reprove them , ephesians . . and vvee professe our selves the servants of god : novv they are bad servants , vvho vvill keep company vvith their masters enemies , especially , after he hath streightly charged them to the contrary . alasse ! vvhat should vvee doe in the presence of base persons , vvhen even our sober ignorance , in ill courses , is more then disesteemed of the vvorld ? yea , vvhen it is not enough for them to be bad themselves , except they raile at the good ? vvhen if there be one in a company , that abhorres impious language , they vvill blaspheme on purpose to vex him ? vvhen they vvill thinke themselves slighted , if they be not sent away drunk ? when to depart sober , is held in civility ? and we cannot talk idly enough , nor doe lewdly enough , to beare them company ; we can neither say as they say , nor be silent when we see and heare their basenes . as whom would it not stirre , to heare oaths strive for number , with words ; scoffs , with oathes ; vaine speeches , with both ? we love neither to bite , nor fawne ; yet we can not forbeare to speak the naked truth ; which if we do , will breed a quarrel . as for instance ; one , jests pleasantly with his maker ; another , makes himselfe sport with scripture ; a third , fils his mouth with oathes of sound ; a fourth , scoffs at the religious ; one , speaks villany ; another , laughs at it ; a third , defends it ; one , makes himselfe a swine , another , a divell . now who , that is not all ●arth , can endure it ? yea , vvho , having grace , can heare such vvickednesse , and feeleth not some sparke of holy indignation arise in him , vvhile he thinkes of it ? or vvho having not lost his spirituall sent , can endure the savour of such noysome and stinking breath , as their rotten lunges send forth . well born children are touched to the quick , vvith the injuries of their parents : and not thus to be moved , is to confesse our selves bastards . indeed , men of steele stomackes can digest any discourse , though never so course ; but the gracious knovv , that as they must render an account for every idle word , so likevvise for their idle silence ; for in this case not to reprove them either by word , or gest●re , is to do the same things in judgement and conscience , which the other doth actually . every evill we see doth either vex , or infect us . the very sight of sinne makes a man either sad , or guilty : if we see it , and be not sorrowful , we are sinful . if lot had not beene vexed vvith the beastly sodomites , god had beene vexed vvith him : yea , in such a case not to bee very angry , is to make god very angry . ely heard of his sonnes impiety , no doubt vvith griefe enough , but not vvith anger enough ; therefore he is punished with hearing of their destruction , that was too remisse in hearing of their transgression . it is easie to be guilty of anothers wickednesse , even our very permission appropriates crimes to us : we need no more guiltinesse of any sinne , then our willing tolleration . all sinnes which we give allowance to , being committed , or not hindered by us , if we may , are ours , as if we committed them : first , commanders ; . abbettors ; . counsellors ; . consenters ; . commenders ; . connivers ; . concealers ; . not hinderers ; each of these will be found guilty before gods tribunall . what saith the prophet to king iehosaphat , wouldest thou helpe the wicked , and not only so , but wouldest thou love them that hate the lord ? therefore for this thing the wrath of the lord is upon thee , chron. . . we need doe no more to bring the wrath of god upon us , then even to love and favour those which hate him . how much better then to oppose thy friend by reproving him , then that god should reprove thee for being at one with him . but this is no friendly part : yes , the scripture affirmes , that not to tell ones brother plainely of his faults , at least , if there be probability of doing good , is to hate him in his heart , levit , . . and philosophy tell us , that is truly perfect love , which , to profit and doe good , feareth not to hurt or offend ; that admonitions and corrections are the cheifest offices of friendship . diogenes when they called him dog , for his sharpe kinde of rebuking , would answer , that other dogs used to bite their enemies , but he his friends , for their greater good . and scipio the elder , when his friends , for so doing , turned his enemies , was able to say , i have given mine enemies as much cause to love me , as my friends . phocio● when a friend of his would have cast himselfe away , would not suffer him , saying , i was made thy friend for this purpose : and to king antipater , thou canst not have me both for thy friend and flatterer . indeed , a flattering friend is a bitter enemy , yea ( as one sweetly ) no enemy can be so mortall , as those officious clyents , whose flattery soothes a man up in wickednesse ; for they are traytors to the soule , and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally . whence euripides exhorts men to get such friends , as would not spare to displease them , saying , friends are like wines , those that being new are hard and harsh , prove best ; the most pleasing , are least lasting : and indeed , he that loves not such a friend , hates himselfe . a wise man will say to his friend , love heartily , and then speake what thou wilt . and for a man not to chide his friend , least he should offend him , is as if ( when he were ready to be drowned ) he should feare to catch him by the haire of the head , lest he should loose a few of them . wherfore either let them abide thee no friend to their faults , or no friend to themselves . and what if admonition and reproofe be as unwelcome to thy friend , as water into a ship ? what if it sound no better to him , then musick out of tune ; or tast no sweeter , then bitter pills , which si●ke men take with an unwilling willingnesse ? wilt thou neglect the office of a friend , to avoid the suspition of an enemy ? indeed , if thou meete with a contentious foole , thou shalt doe wisely , in not answering whatsoever he objects : for it is more policy and discretion to gaine a friend without trouble , then a foe with it : and our saviour saith , give ye not that which is holy to dogs , neither cast ye your pearle before swine ; least they tread them under their feete , and turning againe all to rent you , matth. . . againe , as in gods and their owne behalfe we are bound to reprove them : so in our neighbours also , to whom , in this case , we owe a duty : for , ●dmit we are in company when , and where our brothers good name is taken away by false report ; it is our duty to defend the truth , in his behalfe : we must neither backbite others , nor be willing to give eare unto backbiters of others . it was an honest speech of one ; as i will be my present friends selfe , so i 'le be my absent friends deputy , to say for him what he would , and cannot speake for himselfe . but thou wilt aske me . what need men trouble themselves with that which so little concernes them ? my answere shall be such another question . what needed moses to have afflicted himselfe with the afflictions of others , that he might worke their deliverance , when himselfe was at ease and pleasure in the court of pharaoh ? what needed ionathan have purchased his fathers displeasure , and brought his owne life in jeopardy , that he might justifie david in his uprightnesse , and save his life ? what needed calvin , in the yeare , when perin had conspired against the estate of geneva , have runne into the midst of their naked swords , to appease the tumult ? what needs the hand cast it selfe betwixt a blow and the head , though it be cut off by this meane ? what needs the eye serve more to the use of the other members , in being watchfull rightly to direct them , then for it selfe ? a good heart cannot abide to be happy alone ; which is a religious answer , to a reasonable question unreasonably moved . yea , admit it were not a duty for one member to seeke the good of another , or of the whole , and that god had not enjoyned us so to doe : i am sure it is a pardonable fault , to doe lesse good to our selves , that we may doe more good to , and for others . but suppose we offend them not this way ; yet we shall another , if we keepe them company . the naturall man conceits of himselfe , farre beyond what another esteemes him : and in case he finds he is undervalued , will flye in your face , and perhaps doe you more mischeife , then can easily be repaired : as that was done in one quarter of an houre by our first parents , which tended to the ruine of them , and all mankind . it is usuall with drunkards to kisse when they meete , and kill when they part . drunken alexander kill●d clytus , for whom sober alexander would have killed himselfe . the danes and norwayes once purposing for england , fell drunke on shipboard , and so slasht one another , that there was an end of their voyage . out of their gallant disposition , you shall have one kill another , upon the interpretation of a word ; a manifest confession , that their life is not much worth , sith they will sell it so good cheape : yea , there are not wanting of them that resemble fimbria of rome , who meeting a citizen that he hated , gave him a deadly thrust into the body with his sword , and the next day entred an action against him , that he had received but part of his blade into his body , and not all , as he meant it . yea , perhaps they may make you to doe that which you never dreamt of : like herod , who cut off iohn baptist's head , only to answer the expectation of the standers by , matth. . . as for flattery it never wants welcome , while selfe-love is at home : but the plaine dealing man cannot live among these vipers , and not be stung by them : yea , he lives most in trouble , that most seekes to have peace with them by a familiarity . well then , if they are so offensive to the stomacke of our company , that they will not let us be at peace ; our best way wil be to spevv them out , to deale with our old vicious consorts , as the fox in the fable did by his fleas : who wading backward into the water , by degrees , drew them all into a lock of wooll , which he had in his mouth , and then left it swimming ; even leave them , without taking leave of them ; or if you like not to teare friendship asunder upon the sudden , you may unsowe it by little and little . he that would not continue a friend , may but neglect him , and have his ayme . § . ob. but i heare none boast so much of peace , as the ungodly ; nor none taxed so with contention , as the religious . answ. boast of it they may , but it is apparent that the way of peace they have not so much as knowne : indeed , they have some kind of agreement among themselves ; and so have serpents , and beares , and wolves : it is a rare thing , to see one wolfe devoure , or fight with another : yea , they have made a covenant with death , and are at agreement with hell , i say , . and yet : as there is no peace to the wicked , isa. . . so there is no peace among the wicked ; for every combination in evil , is rebellion , & not peace ; rather a consp●racy , then a concord ; like the agreement of absolom and achitophel , combining together against david ; or of herod and pil●te , conspiring against christ ; or of the f●lse apostles , plotting against paul , so meeting in malice to doe mischiefe : but a goldy dissention is better then such a wicked peace . neither can any wonder , that wicked men doe so cons●ire in evill , that there is such unanimity in the broachers & abbetters of it ; if he but take notice of those devills , which being many in substance , were yet one in name , action , habitation , even a whole legion in one man , marke , . . all the praise of concord is in the subject ; if that be holy , the consent is angelicall ; if sinnefull , devilish ; true peace is to have peace with god , warre with our lusts , ro. . . and . . . peace with vertue , warre with vice : whereas they have peace and are at league with their sinnes , but are at warre with god , and good men all at once : but a just warre is a thousand times better , then such an ill conditioned peace ; yea , it no way deserves the name of peace , except we be at enmity with the serpent , at unity within our selves : we ought so to be at peace with men , as that we doe not warre with god and his graces : peace must be followed with holinesse , heb. . . wherefore zachary joyneth faith , peace , and truth together , zach. . . and st. paul , peace and righteousnesse , peace and edification , peace and joy in the holy ghost , rom. . . . . &c. thus the scripture sets us our bounds for peace , which we may not passe ; and shewes that ungodly men are not guilty of this grace ; that they doe but talke of peace , not practise it . but suppose we could enjoy peace in their company ; yet we can never expect to have their loves : for drunkards only love drunkards , and one wicked man another ; but care not a rush for any that are good : being like phalaris the tyrant , who would never grant any request , except it were to a dissolute woman , but such he never denied . likenesse we know is the cause of love , and love the cause of likenesse ; whereas the beleiver and the unbeleiver are altogether unlike ; the one being crucifi●d and dead to the world , gal. . . but made alive in christ , cor. . . the other being spiritually dead , even while they are alive . tim. . . we seldome see different dispositions entirely loving : for hence growes the height of friendship , when two similary soules doe blend in their commixions . and hence it is , that two friends are said to come into vulcan's shop , to beg this boone of him : that he would either bea●e them on his anvile , or melt them in his fornace both into one , the which he granted . i'ts likenesse that makes the true love knot of friendship ; when we finde another of our owne disposition , it appeares the same soule in a divided body . nature that makes us love our selves , makes us , with the same reason , love those that ar● like us . a friend is a more sacred name , then a brother , pro. . . for what availes it to have the bodies from the same originall , when the soules within them differ ? and yet some ( rehoboam - like ) passing over the religious , will joyne themselves with ungodly persons ; like as some put away honest wives , and goe to harlots : wherein they deale as wisely , as if a man should cast away his fleshy leg , and set on another of wood. causa patroci●io non bona pejor erit . or , admit thou shouldst enjoy a wicked mans love ; it is but mercenary , base , and inconstant , and so not worth the having . indeed , there was never such abject and servile prostitutions of presentations , as life , soule , devotion , adoration , servant , slave , &c. as there is now amongst our drunkards and rorers , and what love they expresse to one , they professe to all ; every one they know , or salute , is their friend : but friendship so distracted , like as the river ganges was by cyrus , into . brookes , both looses her name and nature : a lover of so many , never loves any . or , admit a drunkard doe love thee : either he loves thee for his owne sake , because he hath some pleasure , or profit , or credit by thee , ( as prosperity procureth friends , no lesse then adversity proveth them ) which is , with craterus , to love the king , rather , then with ephaestion , to love alexander : now i doe not hold him wo●thy thankes , that professeth me kindnesse for his owne ends . or secondly , he loves only thy body or naturall parts , which is but the worst peece of thee ; and love to the body , is but the body of love ; the soule of love , is the love of the soule . neither doth he truly love , that loves the body more then ●he mind and soule , or common gifts before saving graces ; this love as it is never long liv'd , so it is of● but feigned ; as you shall have drunkards and dissembling polititians salute one another , with god save you , at their meeting ; and wish one another hanged , ●t their parting ; italian-like , they will be glorious and complementall in their in vitations , but if you accept of their offer , they will hate you for it ever after . a drinking friendship , is but a drunken friendship : and beleeve it , thou wilt find those friends firmest , that thy vertue● purchase thee : these will love thee , when thy wealth is gone : whereas those that be wonne without desert , will also be lost without a cause : you need but be an arbitrator betweene two such friends to make them both your enemies : things that differ in their end , will surely part in their way : now thy end , is to gaine him ; his end , to make a gaine of thee : for let the passage of profit be stopt , his love is likewise at a stand : have you deserved never so well from him , the deniall of one favour , nay , an health , shall drowne the memory of many fore-performed ones : which is all one , as if for the abortion of one child , a man should kill all the former issue : whereas the good mans thankes for old favours , lives even in the blowes of injurie : or can you not feede these vermine as you have done , away they goe , like a sunne diall , you shall be no longer regarded , then you are shined on by prosperity : yea , rats runne not faster away from an house on fire ; nor lice from a dead body , then they from poverty : and if ever it be your misery to stand in need of them , looke for no other requitall , then iob had of his carnall friends , whom he compares to a deceitful brooke , which in winter is hard frozen with cold , in summer dried up with heate ; betweene winter and summer passing away , alwayes deceitfull , never of use , iob. . . to . yea , a man may say of such friends , as a learned antiquary said of rum●ey marsh , bad in winter , hurt●ull in summer , never good : nay , this comparison falls short , for thou hast sped well , if such friends prove not dangerously hurtfull , as well as helpelesse . have i not knowne some of them resemble the snake , which when a kind husbandman had taken out of the cold , and cherished in his bosome , and she had recovered her lively heate , and was growne lusty , singled out him ungratefully to trie her first sting upon ? or a promotour , that in lent eates flesh at your table , and yet is the first that accuseth thee to the magistrate . if ziba be waxed great under mephibosheth , he will give him a lift for all he hath . a promoted begger hath not seldome renounced his advancer . and what else can be looked for from them ? they cannot make conscience of civill duties , who make none of divine . if a man have cast off his god , he will easily cast off his friend . they that have broken their faith with him , will keepe no faith with us . when religion is once gone , humanity will not stay long after . i take leave of this point , with a caution . reveale to such men no secrets ; for he that now loves thee dearely , may come to hate thee deadly : nor beleeve a word that they say ; for they are like antigonus , who never denied any sute , that was asked ; but withall , never performed any thing that he granted ; for what they promise when they are drunke , they forget when they are sober ; or like saul , who being perswaded of david's worth and loyalty , sweares , as the lord liveth he shall not die , sam. . . yet within foure verses , for all his oath , he da●ts a speare at him , intending to naile him to the vvall ; & in the next verse , he sends messengers to his house to kill him ; or like the councell of constance , vvho made promise to iohn husse of a conduct and safe returne ; yet , like forsworne persecuters , put him to death . § . ob. but here some of them will reply . that we lay the saddle upon the wrong horse , when we tax them for want of peace , love , and friendship ; in that the religious only shew inconstancy , by bidding farewell to their old friends and acquaintance , so soone as they embrace religion . answ ▪ to this is answered . first that constancy , except it be in the truth and in a good cause , is impudency : change in the vicious is as great a vertue , as constancy in the vertuous . the almaines were praised for changing their customes , which were found to be but bad before , as tacitus affirmeth . constancy in things ill , is so farre from being a vertue , that it is an absolute vice . of things imperfect , change is the way to perfect them . the gentiles became beleevers , the iewes infidells , zacheus turnes from the world , demas turns to the world , paul turns an apostle , iudas an apostate : i would faine know , whether charge in the gentiles , zacheus and paul , was not as great a vertue , as it was a vice in the iewes , demas , and iudas ? saint paul was inconstant indeed ; for to day ( as it were ) he breathed out threatnings , and slaughter against the disciples of christ and to morrow he preacheth christ in the synagogue : what then ? will any ( not debauched ) censure him of ficklenesse for it ? nay , will not all wise men thinke it a great honour to him , and commend him for shaking hands with the high priests , and his fellow pursevants , when once hee heard that voice from heaven ? act. . . there is not any so neare unto us , but if he fall from god , wee may fall from him . it merits the name of wilfulnesse , when we will not admit of a lawful chang to the better . as philocrates sported with demosthenes : you may not marvell athenians , that demosthenes and i do differ , for he drinks water , and i drinke wine : so some laugh at us for being sober with rhenish ; and we as much pity them , for being drunk with canary . againe , they censure us of inconstancy ; we them of impudency . now in this case when that is reputed ridiculous by one , which is accounted sage by another as wise ; what shall we doe , but make gods word the umpier ? wherefore , in all changes , i will have regard to these three things , god's approbation , mine owne benefit , and the not harming of my neighbour ; and then where the change is not a fault , i will never think it a disgrace , though the great exchange , the world , should judge it so . even modesty , in some , is a vice ; when out of a weake flexibility of nature , a man hath not courage enough , to deny the request of a seeming friend . if a man never abandoneth evill , untill he abandoneth evill company , it is high time to take courage : yea , the longer wee have beene with them , the more need have we to hasten out of them . if this satisfie not , as the emperor frederick said to certaine of his minions , that vvere importunate to get into their hands the ancient demeasne of the empire , that hee would rather be accounted of small l●berallity , then perjured : even so had vve , in this case rather be accounted inconstant , then be unconscionable . to the second part of the objection , i ansvver . that true love and friendship is only among good men . the vvicked may talke of it , and one drunkard may professe to another that hee loves him as well as himselfe ; and therein speake truth , for , saith augustine most elegantly , to such an one , thou lovest thy selfe , so as thou wilt destroy thy selfe ; and thou wilt destroy him whom thou lovest as thy selfe ; yea , better then themselves ; for you shall have one ruffian salute another , with , god save you sir , but after some strange attestations , sweare away himselfe with , god damn me sir : now how can any wise man thinke him a friend , that is his own enemy ? he that is evill to himselfe , to whom will he be good ? but see the depth of such a mans love , and whether it be not to damn thy body and soule everlastingly . s. ambrose tels us of one , who solicited a godly woman to incontinency , saying , he infinitely loved her : she answers , if you love me so well as you seeme , put one of your fingers into the flame , till your flesh be burnt off : he replys , that was no part of love in her to require it : yes , said she , if yours be love , to cause both my body and soule to be burnt in hell fire , for ever , which by consequence will follow , if i yeeld to your request , and take your counsell . oh that thou hadst the wit to answer the drunkard , when he tempts thee , thus . indeed there is a kind of agreement , which is strengthened by sinne it selfe : as if one fee the keeper of a wench , his secrecy is bought for ever . but all this while , if one call another , friend , it is but to give him a nick-name , whereof hee is not guilty : for true friendship is so sacred , holy , and pure , that it will not be used in evill : which made pericles , when hee was desired by a friend of his , to aide him with false witnesse , answere , that hee would be friend him as farre as the altar , meaning so farre , as stood with piety and religion , or his duty to god , but no further ; and phocion refuse to help his son in law cariles in judgement , being accused for bribery , saying withall , that hee had made him his friend and allie in just and reasonable matters , and in them only ; and this likewise made papinian , a pagan , ( being commanded by the emperor caracalla , whose steward and familiar he was ) refuse to defend an unjust cause , ( as marcellinus records ) and thus it fares with all that are truly religious . there is not any one ( quoth the sincere christian ) either in blood , or otherwise so neare unto me , but if he fall from god , i will fall from him : why ? our saviour christ hath taught me , both by precept and example , that i should acknowledge none ( so as to be led by them ) for my brother , sister , or mother , but such as do the will of my father , which is in heaven , matth. . . to . whereas on the contrary , in things lawfull , nothing rivits hearts so close , as religion : it unites them together as glew doth boards together : it makes a knot , even betweene such as never saw one anothers face , that alexander can not cut : yea , tyrants will sooner want invention for torments , then they with tortures bee made treacherous . how many have chosen rather to embrace the flames , then to reveale their companions , and brethren in christ ? there is no friendship like the friendship of faith . there is amor , among beasts ; dilectio , among men ; charitas , among christians , that is their peculiar : nature , makes husband and wife but one flesh ; grace makes them even one spirit : and it is a question , whether naturall parents are to be loved above spirituall : we know that christ preferred his spirituall kindred , to that of the flesh : and major est connexio cordium , quàm sanguinum , saith beza . why should wee love them more , that brought us into this sinfull and miserable world ; then those , that bring us into a better world , where is neither sinne , nor misery ? why them , that live with us on earth but a while ; equall to them , that shal live with us in heaven for ever ? but to goe on . surely , as grace in her selfe is farre above nature ▪ so is she likewise in her effects ; and consequently , unites in a farre more durable bond . christians hearts are joyned one to another , with so fast a glew , that no by respects can sever them : as you may see in that paire of friends , ionathan and david : none had so much cause to disaffect david , as ionathan ; none in all israel , should be such a looser by david's successe , as he ; saul was sure enough setled for his time , only his successor should forgoe all that which david should gaine ; so as none but david stands in ionathan's way to the crowne ; and yet all this cannot abate one dramme of his love . as also in ruth and naomy , whom nothing , but death , could part , ruth . . if you will see other examples , looke rom. . , . thes. . , . . gal●thians . , . act. . , . and . . luke . . kings . . . and . , . as grace is the greatest attractive of love ; so is it the surest bond ; it is like varnish , that makes ●eelings not onle shine , but last . where god uniteth hearts , carnall respects are too weake to dissever them ; since that which breakes off affection , must needs be stronger then that which conjoyneth it , and why doth s. iohn use these words , once to the elect lady , iohn . . and againe to gajus , iohn . whom i love in the truth , but to shew , that to love in the truth , is the only true love ? indeed , religion is the surest cement of all societies : the loser joynts of all naturall and civill relations , are compacted and confirmed by the sinewes of grace and religion : and such a lose joynted friendship cannot hold long , which wants the nerves of religion . wherefore give mee any foe , rather then a resolved christian : no friend unlesse a man truly honest . § . but here it will be objected . that wee hate and contemne all , who are not like our selves : that wee remember them so much to bee sinners , that , in the meane time , we forget them to bee men and brethren . i answer . this were to dash the first table against the second ; whereas they are conscious of both alike . a charitable heart , even where it hates , there it wisheth that it might have cause to love : his anger and indignation against sinne , is alwayes joyned with love and commis●ration towards the sinner , as is lively set out , mark. . . and philippians . . where s. paul tells us of them ( weeping ) that are enemies to the crosse of christ : and mar. . that our saviour , while he looked upon the pharisies angerly , mourned for the hardnesse of their hearts . zeale is a compounded affection of love and anger . when moses was angry with the israelites and chid them sharply ; at the same time he prayed for them heartily . and ionathan , when he was angry with his father , for vowing david's death ; did still retaine the duty and love , both of a sonne to his father , and of a subject to his soveraign . a good man cannot speake of them without passion , and compassion : yea , they weepe not so much for their own sinnes , as we doe , ( according to s. chrysostome's example ) o that our prayers and teares could but recover them . those that are truly gracious , know how to receive the blessings of god , without contempt of them who want ; and have learned to be thankful , without over lines ; knowing themselves have beene , or may be , as wretched and undeserving , as s. augustine speaks . a true christian can distinguish betweene persons and vices ; offenders , and offences ; and have no peace with the one , while hee hath true peace with the other ; love them , as men ; hate them , as evil men ; love , what they are , not what they doe ; as god made them , not as they have made themselves ; not so hate , as to be a foe to goodnesse ; nor so love , as to foster iniquity . it is a question , whether is worst of the two , to be vices friend , or vertues enemy . now saith augustine , he is not angry with his brother , that is angry with the sinne of his brother : yea , if we hate the vices of a wicked man , and love his person ; as the physitian , hateth the disease , but loveth the person of the diseased ; there is nothing more praise worthy , as saith the same father . and another , it is the honest mans commendation to cont●mne a vile person . and another , i know no greater argument of goodnesse , then the hatred of wickednesse , in whomsoever it resides ; yea , david makes it a note of his integrity , psal. . . and . . . and . . . and in psal. . he is bold to ask the lord this question ; who shall dwell in thy tabernacle ? who shall rest in thy holy mountaine ? the answer he receives , is this , . he that walketh uprightly , and worketh righteousnesse . . and speaketh the truth from his heart . . hee that slandereth not with his tongue , nor doth evill to his neighbour , nor receiveth a false report against his neighbour . but the fourth is , hee , in whose eyes a vile person it contemned , while hee honoureth them that feare the lord ▪ and he cannot be sincere who doth not honour vertue in raggs , and loath vice , though in a robe of state. so that , as the prophet asked iehosophat , chron. . . wouldest thou help the wicked , and love them that hate the lord ? it may bee demaunded ; should christians be friends with them who are enemies to the crosse of christ ? no , no. and yet to the men , separate from their manners , we have no quarrell , but wish them better , then they either wish to us , or to themselves . indeed , if we should contemn them , as they think we doe ; it were but a just recompence of their folly and wickednesse : for as one speaking of the poverty of the purse , saith , that poverty is justly contemptible , which is purchased by following of vice : so may i , of the poverty of the mind ; that poverty of wit and grace is justly contemptible , which is purchased by a wilfull rebellion against god , and the great meanes of knowledge and grace which we enjoy . to conclude this point , we think it 's better to leave them , and be thought proud , wrongfully ; then stay with them , and be knowne bad , certainly . § . againe , some will alledge , we give offence to them that are without , which is contrary to the apostles precept , who saith , give none offence , neither to the iews , ●or to the grecians , nor to the church of god , cor. . . as they will make a crooked staffe serve to beat a dog , when a streight one cannot be found . nothing but ignorance is guilty of this scruple : for the offence is only taken , not given : and herein they pervert the apostles words , touching offences , as pharaoh's servants did the same word , when they said unto their master concerning moses , how long shall he be an offence unto us ? exodus . . . for he meaneth in that place , only such offences as are contrary to the doctrine of the gospell , as he hath expounded his own meaning , rom. . . and if nothing might bee done ▪ whereat vvi●ked men are offended , then the vvord of god must not be preacht , nor his holy and divine precepts walked in , yea , christ must not have come into the vvorld to redeem it , for he was to the iews a stumbling block , and to the greeks foolishnes , cor. . but all vvhich god hath commanded must be done ; and all vvhich he hath left , indifferent , may be done , and none may , or ought to censure the doing of it . the precept is plaine , one believeth that he may eate of all things ; and another which is weak eateth hearbs , saith the apostle , and vvhat followes ? let not him that eateth , despise him that eateth not ; and let not him that eateth not , condemn him that eateth ; for god hath received him , rom . . . if i know the thing to be good , and that i doe it to a good end , what care i for their idle misconstruction ? morally good actions must not be suspended , upon danger of causelesse scandall : in things indifferent and arbitrary , it is fit to be over-ruled by feare of offence : but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good ; let them fal without our regard , not without their owne perill . now that the cuckoe may acknowledg this for her owne egg , notwithstanding she hath laid it in the doves nest ; let the men of the world know , that it is not an offence given by us , but taken by them ; yea , they first give an offence to us by their ungodlinesse , and after take the just reward of the same , namely , to be excluded our society for an offence : wherein they imitate athanagor as , who ( as tully reporteth ) would alwayes complaine of his punishment , but of his fault he would say nothing : or adam , who was ashamed of his nakednesse , but not of his sin : wicked men are neither sensible of doing injury , nor patient in suffering for it . it 's a rule of justice , that what men deserve , they should suffer : yea , in this particular case , gods rule is , if thou take away the precious from the vile , thou shalt bee according to my word , ier. . . and we would have them suffer this exclusion no longer , then till they deserve it no more : let them returne unto us , ( doe as themistocles , who being in his youth vicious and deboyst , afterwards made the world amends , by his brave exploits ) and wee will returne unto them , keepe them company , account them true friends , good men : otherwise wee have an absolute prohibition from god himselfe , ier. . . let them returne unt● thee , but returne not thou unto them . and good reason there is for it , in a musicall instrument , the strings that be out of tune , are set up , or set down to the rest ; but the strings that bee in tune , are never stirred , nor medled with : though indeed i might have stopped their mouthes with this very question , whether is better to obey god , or humour sensual men ? as our saviour christ stopt the high priests mouthes , when they asked him , by what authority hee cursed the fruitlesse figg-tree ; cast the buyers and sellers out of the temple , &c. by demaunding of them , whether iohns baptisme was from heaven or of men , mar. . . but in case they will not returne unto us , we had rather offend each of them once , then our selves every day . it is pity that ever the water of baptisme was spilt upon his face , that cares more to discontent the world , then to wrong god. they are unjust and ouer partiall , that will goe about to exact from us , that which we owe not , with more rigor then they will exactfrom themselves , that which they owe. and so i have given you the reasons , why such as are , or desire to be conscionable and religious ▪ breake off company with them ; and vindicated the most usuall exceptions against it . i will now make some use of the point ; ●nd so leave it for them to chew upon . § . . to summe up all in a word , or l●y all these grounds and motives together . if we endanger our selves , our lives , our estates , loose our credit , our peace , our time , by frequent associating wit● ungodly men , and can no way expect their love and friendship ; be sure you come not ( or at least stay not ) in their company . it is not safe venturing among them , in confidence of our owne strength ; no more then it is to consort with cheaters , in hope that they will not cozen us . dead fire , we know , being stird up , will burne a fresh : and corruption , like a candle new put out , is soone kindled againe ; if sathan but blow upon it , the owne heate is enough to enflame it . no , venture not thy selfe , though thou hast once , or twise come off cleare from them ; sampson could withstand his wives temptation seven dayes , but at length , by her importunity , she prevailed with him , iudg. . over many in this case are like to sicke men , who when they have had a good day , or two , thinke themselves presently well againe ; so they make bold to put off their kerchifes , to put on thinner garments , and to venture into the fresh ayre ; whereupon follow unrecoverable relapses . wherefore take heede , or if thou dost keepe them company , it is an argument , that thou art sicke of their disease , idlenesse . and of this vse so much . if wicked company are so infectious , that they will worke a consumption in any mans vertues , that is daily conversant with them , and waste them from an ounce , to a dram ; from a dram ; to a scruple , to a graine , to nothing , so that he may say with christ in the croud , who hath touched me , for i feele vertue gone out of me ? let us be ( as seneca adviseth ) more circumspect , with whom we eate and drinke , then what we eate and drinke . he that hath money , will beware of theeves : if you have any grace , venture it not among these riflers : for , art thou inclined to pray ? they will tempt thee to play : wouldest thou goe to a sermon ? by their perswasion , the taverne or theater stands in the way . but alasse ! if others tempt thee not ▪ thou wilt tempt others : temptation needs not stand , like a taverne-bush , in thy way , for thou wilt invite thy selfe , hunt after temptation . is every man busie in dispending that quality , which is predominant in him ? and can we converse with none but will worke upon us , and by the unperceived stealth of time , assimilate us to their owne customes ? will tvvo friends , like tvvo brands set each other on fire vvith good , or ill , vvhen one alone vvill goe out ? vvill a streight tvvig , if it be tied to a crooked bough , become crooked ; or a crooked tvvig , become streight , if it be tied to a streight rule : as peter denied his master amongst the iewes , vvhom he confest amongst the apostles ? then keepe company , but let it be vvith such as may make thee better ; flie evill society , least their kind vvords so vvorke upon thy yeelding nature , that thou knovvest not hovv to deny : they are such as have taken the devills oath of allegiance ; and thou hast small hope to prevaile vvith them to good . a certaine king ( as st. augustin reports ) being hard favoured , and fearing least his queene should bring forth children like himselfe ; got many faire and beautifull pictures , vvhich he caused her steadfastly to behold every day : goe thou and do likewise , be conversant with good men , and in good things , and thou shalt doe that unbidden , which others can scarce doe compelled by the law , as aristotle speakes of the study of philosophy . o what an happy thing it is to converse with the vertuous ! their gracious words , or holy examples , will be sure to stirre up the gifts of god in us ; they will either adde something to our zeale , or something to our knowledge : the society of prophets , is able to make even a saul prophesie . the sight of others falling heartily to their meate , brings on our stomacks : yea , if we have no gifts to stirre up , their communion cannot but leave some tincture behind it ; if not of piety , yet , at least , of a good profession , and some inclinablenesse . if saul had not had a good and discreet companion , when he went to seeke his fathers asses , he had returned backe as wise as he came : but now he is dravvne into counsell with the man of god , and heares more then he hoped for , sam. . . the messengers of the same saul , vvhen they lived in the court , vvere ( as is likely ) caried avvay vvith the svvinge of the times , and did apply themselves to their masters ungodly practises , as appeareth in their going to apprehend david , that saul might kill him : yet were they no sooner in company with the prophets , in nayoth , but their minds were changed , and they likewise prophesied , sam. . . ob. but say some of bacchus his fooles . i keepe company with brave fellowes , that are generous , free , bountifull &c. answ. alasse ! thou dost but slander him with these titles . he is a proud , ignorant , inconsiderate asse , that feares he is not loved , unlesse he be lose and scattering ; that strives so to be like a god in bounty , that he throwes himselfe into the lowest estate of man. he that gives to , and spends upon all abundantly ( which is for none to doe , but him that hath all ) he that had rather keepe company with the dregs of men , then not be the best man : he that ravells out a spacious fortune upon flatterers ; he that out of vaine glory will be worship't and kneed , to the spending of a faire inheritance , and then ends his dayes in lewdnesse and contempt ( as what is it , that ambition will not practise , rather then let her port decline ) he is a foolish steward , that thus showers away in one yeare , what his ancestors have beene gathering twenty : yea , he is a mad man , that makes his kindnesse to others , prove cruelty to himselfe , and all his posterity . ob. againe , others are all for mirth , they keepe company at the taverne , with none but curious and quaint wits , eloquent poets and orators ; now aske them , as manoah did sampson , is there never a companion for thee among thy brethren , the people of god , that thou must associate thy selfe with these of uncircumcised hearts and tongues ? they will answer . give me only these for my companions , for they please me . answ. can none please thee , but such as displease god ? dost thou not know , that who so will be a friend to such , makes himselfe the enemy of god ? iames , . . or art thou ignorant , that pleasant wits viciated in accustomed lewdnesse , with sweete tunes entise men to destruction ; as is morald in that fiction of the sirens , they delight the sense , but slay the soule : and will any man poyson his body , to please his taste ? or goe into an infected house , to fetch out a rich suite ? or put his finger into a firie crusible , to take out gold it 's true , like iugglers and such as play trickes of legerdimaine , they will deceive us with a kinde of pleasure and delight : but is it any priviledge for a man to be tickled to death , that so he may dye laughing ? their discourse may be resembled to the fruite that undid us all , which was faire in sight , smooth , in handling , sweet in taste , but deadly in effect : or to the clarian water , which made men eloquent , but withall short liv'd : or the gifts , which those elfes called lamiae , used to present unto children which made so many as accepted of them loose their comlinesse for ever after . and he that much affects their company ( being an honest man ) is just like that free citizen , that so doted on a female slave , that he would needs marry her ; though by that match , he were sure , by the law , to become a slave with her . he overvalues the drunken and reeling love of these men , that buyes it with the ruine of himselfe , his estate , and family . wherfore , as in meates , we doe not only stand upon pleasantnesse , but wholesomenesse : so let us regard wholesomenesse as well as pleasantnesse , in our discourse and company . a good man can lend nothing to the increase of mirth in wicked company : and he that will not lend , let him take heede of borrowing . and so much for defence against what they doe , which may be avoided . if you would have as much against what they say , which must be endured , reade a late treatise , called , the victory of patience . in the meane time , thinke what account you shall give of that you have read . finis . the table a admonition , admonitions and corrections the chiefe offices of friendship , . no admonishing a drunkard , . he is incapable of good counsell , . drunkards and swearers contemne it , ▪ admonition to sellers of drinke , officers , &c. . adultery , looke drunkennesse agents , some for christ , some for sathan , . sathans agents have many advantages above gods servants in winning soules , , and keeping , . and improving them , . aggravation , the drunkards sin aggravated by eleven circumstances , . atheisme , drunkards and al vicious men , atheists in heart . . . b believe , drunkards will believe nothing except their senses say amen to it , . they have no faith in the scriptures , . few men believe the whole written word , . they seeme to believe the promises , but really and indeed believe no part , . bitter , why so bitter and tart , . blessings , no blessings without god blesse them to us , . c censure , . of it foure reasons , . chide them sharply when they pray for them heartly . children , wel born children are touched to the quick , with the injuries of their parents , . wicked men children of the divel , and partake of his nature , . those whom they hate , traduce , &c. children of god , and partake of his nature , . each must do the works of their father , . combine , wicked men combine against the godly , . and lay divellish plots to destroy them , ibid. company evill a maine cause of drunkennesse , . exhortation to avoid evill company , . and keepe good company , . that it is lawful to shun their company , and how , . five reasons why , . i that they may look into themselves , . that we may not be infected by them , . that we may not be infeoffed in their punishments , . because their company wil bereave us of much comfort , . that we may be at peace , many objections about leaving their society , answered , . excuses for keeping company , taken away , . drunkards would have our company in sinne , . and likewise in torment . . they think it will be some ease to have company , . but it will prove contrary , confident , why worldlings are so jocund and confident , . consideration , want of it the cause of all impiety , . consciences of wicked men will be awakned , when perhaps the gate of mercy will be shut , . constancy , and inconstancy , . change in the vicious as rare a vertue , as constancy in the vertuous , ibid. contempt of religion , the greatest rub in the way to heaven , , corruption will mix with our purest devotions , . covenant , that we will forsake the divel and all his works , constantly believe , &c. one part of the covenant of grace , ● . covetousnesse , a cause of drunkennesse , . covetous men fooles , . in . main particulars made good , cowardlinesse one speciall cause of drunkennesse , . it will not suffer a man to doe well , . but this is base blood , . a coward pot-valiant will kill and stay , . counsell , we should go to counsell and advise with others , . wicked men give divellish counsell to others , against the godly , . custome of sin takes away the sense of fin , . d death , as men live , so commonly they dye , . defering repentance til death , . death may be sudden and give a man no leave to be sicke , . or if it be not , repentance is no easie work , . and late repentance is seldome true , ibid. death in a good cause , shall pleasure , not hurt us , . which hath made many preserre it before profit , pleasure , &c. . degrees , sathan workes men by degrees to the heigth of impiety , and not all at once , . drunkennesse . seven causes of it . . the transcendency of the sin , . it is the root of all evill , . the rot of all good , . it disables and indisposeth a man to all good , . the cause of adultery , . and of murther , . brings poverty , . deformes a man , . debilitates the body , . beastiates the soule , . findes men foo●es , or makes them so , , examples of drinke besotting men , , discovers all secrets , . makes dry , and they cure sinne with sinne , , no dispossessing of a drunken divel , . wee ought not bee drunk , to save our lives , . drunkards , not to be reckoned among men , . for they are beasts and wherein , . yea , they exceed beasts , in beastlinesse , . are inferiour to them in five particulars , . they shame their creation , . the drunkards outward deformities , . his inward infirmities , . he is his own executioner , . . one drunkard , tongue enough for twenty men , . his vaine babling , . scurrilous jesting , . wicked talking , . impious swearing , . his discourse and behaviour on the ale-bench , . to drink is all his exercise , . all his labour is to satisfie his lusts , . they drink not for the love of drink , if you will believe them , . which being so , doubles their sin , . they drink more spirits in a night , then their flesh and brains be worth , . drunkards transform themselves into the condition of evill angels , . and practise nothing but the art of debauching men , . how they intise , . what they thinke of him they cannot seduce , . but in time of their distresse they think otherwise , ibid. how they will enforce men to pledg their he●lths , . how impatient of deniall , . an unpardonable crime not to drinke as they doe , . to damne their own soules , the least part of their mischiefe , . one true drunkard makes a multitude , . if the divel would surrender his place , it should be to some good fellow or other , . the divell speakes in , and workes by them as once he did by the serpent , . how drunkards smarme in every corner , . sathan , more men on earth to fight for him then the trinity which made us , . drunkards like iulian , who never did a man a good turn , but it was to damn his soule , . wherefore keepe out of their reach , . see the danger , and know their aime , . refraine dispute with them , or thou wilt not hold out , . punishment of drunkards , . . they are reserved to the great day , ibid. the drunkard hath beene too long sicke to bee recovered , . they have a way to evade all gods threatnings , . e enmity , betweene the wicked and godly , . proclaimed by god in paradise , . envie , if drunkards cannot seduce us , they will envie and hate us . how their enuy vents it self at their mouths . by censuring the sober , . whereof foure reasons , . secondly , by slandering them , . whereof seven reasons , . againe at their hands many wayes , . of which five reasons , . evill we are more prone to then good , . example of : the greatest number , . let custome , . be added . the greatest men , . let reason , . be added . the greatest schollers , . let good intentions , . be added . example of the best men , . no safe rule to walk by without a precept , . excuses of drunkards taken away , . f faith , . drunkards would flout us out of our faith , . feare and cowardise a cause of drunkennesse , . fooles , the greatest polititian , the greatest foole , . in five particulars made good , . some wise in foolish things , and oolish in wise things , ▪ bray them in a mortar , they will not leave their sinnes , . though the divel makes fooles of them , yet he makes them wise enough to make fooles of any that will trust them , the voluptuous fooles , . the greatest bousers , the greatest buzzards , . the greatest humanist , without grace , little better . . forsake , none but counterfeits will forsake christ , for all they can do , . friends , wicked men wrong none so much , as their best friends , to whom they owe their very lives , . love and friendship only among good men , ▪ g god , his gifts numberlesse . . godly , what is done to them , christ challengeth as done to himselfe . . goodnes alone the whetstone of a drunkards envie , . good and bad agree together , like the harp and harrow , . good men must be imitated , only in good things , . good intentions cannot justifie evill acts , . good ●ellowes who , . reputation of goodfellowship . guilty we may be of anothers sin , divers wayes , ▪ h hands , hatred and malice of drunkards , would break out at their hands , were they not manacled by the law , . heart , to get an humble heart , . hatred against the religious , the most bitter and exorbitant , . they hate none but the good , ▪ but they are sure of opposition . . how their hatred vents it selfe , . their hatred is against god and christ , . not to tell our neighbour of his faults , is to hate him , . to hate the vices of a wicked man , but love his person , . wee should hate evill in whomsoever , . hell , a description of it , and the last judgement , . . good men draw all they can to heaven , . wicked men all they can to hell , ibid. none helpe to people hell , like drunkards , ● . they would have our company in hell , . and why , . the covetous man can finde in his heart to go to hell , so his sonne may be left rich , . healths , a shoing horne to all excesse , . they drinke others healths , their owne deaths , . of which many examples , and of the just judgement of god upon drunkards , . healths great in measure , or many in number , . if small , the liquor is stronger , or the number more , . healths upon their knees , . not more forward to drinke healths , then zealous and carefull that other pledge the same , . the rise and originall of health drinking , . honesty , he the soberest and honestest man , that resembles the drunkard least , . good-fellowship the utmost of a drunkards honesty , . honour , misprision of it , and reputation , hope easily blown into a wicked man , and as soone blowne out of him , . hurt , drunkards would hurt and maime us , for being sober and conscionable , if they durst , . i idlenesse , a cause of drunkennesse , and drunkennesse a cause of idlenesse , . an idle person good for nothing but to propagate sin , , ignorance of drunkards , . . and all naturall men , . . the cause of all sin , . drunkards insensible of their sinne and danger , because ignorant . . ingratitude and great folly of wicked men , . intention of soule-murther shall bee rewarded as if they did it , . ioy , if true , only enjoyed by good men , . the joy of worldlings more talked of then felt , . objections touching joy and good-fellowship answered , . iudge , wicked men judge of things , . and persons , . by contraries , ▪ their judgement and practise cleane contrary to gods word , ibid. how the divel deludes the fancy and judgement of a natur all man , . iudgements of god , what use drunkards make thereof , . the religious keep off judgements ▪ . first by their innocency , . secondly , by their prayers , . k kill , drunkards and wicked men would kil the godly , if they would not yeeld . of which their savage disposition , five reasons , . first , they must do the workes of their father the divell , . secondly , that their deeds of darknesse might not come to light , . thirdly , they cannot follow their sinnes so freely , so quietly . ibid. fourthly , what they could not make good with reason , they would with iron , ibid. fifthly , their glory and credit is eclipsed by the godly , . but they cannot do as they would , though their punishment shall bee all one , . king , sathan their king , and they must seek his wealth , and honour , and inlarge his kingdome , by winning all they can from christ , . knowledge , he that hath saving knowledge , hath every other grace , . six helpes to saving knowledge , . l law , and precept our only rule , . looke , drunkards look to us , not to themselves , . love , wicked men think they love god , but they doe hate him , . drunkards love their sinnes , better then their soules , . a drunkard can never love thee being sober and religious , . a wicked mans love , mercenary and inconstant , . nothing rivits hearts so close as religion , . lust provoked by drunkennesse , . discard all filthy lusts and corrupt affections , . m meanes must be used , . to sinne against mercy , the abundance of meanes , and many warnings , mightily aggravates sinne , . melancholly , drunkards drink to drive it away , . but this increaseth it , . memory , drunkards have shallow memories , ▪ mercy , god in mercy infinitely transcendent , . but it makes nothing for such as will not part with their sins , . his mercy is a just mercy , . mercy rejoyceth against justice , but destroyeth not gods justice , . if we forsake our sinnes , god will forgive them , how many and how great soever , . wicked men apply christs passion and gods mercy as a warrant for their licentionsnesse , . they are altogether in extreames , either god is so mercifull , that they may live how they lift , or so just , that he will not pardon them upon their repentance , . mocking , some will better abide a stake , then others a mock , . mourne , in all ages the godly alone have mourned for the abominations of their time , . modesty , in some a vice , . most , objection that most men are of another judgement , answered , . multitude , how sathan guls the rude multitude , ▪ the multitude will do , what they see others do , . of which many examples , . murther caused by drunkennesse , . n names , we should taint our names , by keeping evill company , . to defend our neighbours good name if we can , a duty , . naturall men , called beasts in scripture , . o obedience , god hath equally promised all blessings to the obedient , and threatned all manner of judgements to the disobedient , . offences , objection against offences , answered , . p passions and affections make partiall , . they must be discarded , peace , our case would be far worse , if wee had the worlds peace , . not strange that wicked men should agree so well , . agreement of wicked men , not worthy the name of peace . . persecute , wicked men persecute , not the evil , but the good , . petitions , god may grant them in anger , . plague , be it never so hot , drunkards are the same , . it hath wrought little or no reformation , . many the worse for it , . taverns fullest , when the streets emptiest , . pledge , the originall of the word , . practise , how the godly and wicked differ in their practise , . wee know no more then wee practise , . pray , gods people count it a sinne not to pray for their greatest enemies , . pray not for knowledge without putting difference , . when we cannot pray , what , . presumptuously do drunkards sin , . prejudice makes many resolve against yeelding , . pride and reputation of good-fellowship , a cause of drunkennesse , . pride of wit , . promises entailed to believers , and limited with the condition of faith , and repentance , . profession of religion , . . look scoffs . punishment , wicked men complaine of their punishment , but of their sin they speake not , . r reason , as it is clouded with the mistes of original corruption , a blind guid , . once debauched is worse then brutishnesse , . reckoning , worldlings never think of the reckoning they are to give , . regeneration , what , and how we may know our selves to be regenerate , . repentance , what , and how we may know whether we have repented , . not to deferre it , . sicknesse no fit time for it , . god wil not accept our dry bones when sathan hath suck't out all the marrow . . the several wayes whereby god cals to repentance , . in a judgement , so many as repent , are singled out for mercy . if any would repent of , and relinquish this sin of drunkennesse , let them first lay to heart the things delivered . secondly , refraine the causes , ibid. thirdly , believe their state dangerous , and that there is no way to helpe , but by a chang to the contrary , . fourthly , be peremptory in their resolution , ibid. fifthly , shame not to confesse their dislike of it , in themselves and others , . sixthly fly evill company , . seventhly , take heed of delayes . . eightly , omit not to pray for divine assistance , ibid ninthly , be diligent in hearing , . tenthly , frequent in the use of the lords supper , ibid. eleventhly , meditate what god hath done for them , ibid. twelfthly , think on the union we have with christ , ibid. thirteenthly , consider that god ever beholds them , . ly , often think of the day of judgement , ibid. fifteenthly , consider the hainousnesse of this sin , and the ●vills which accompany it , . sixteenthly , abstaine from drunken company , . for all depends upon this : seventeenthly , abstaine from drinking-places , . report , of necessity we must be evill spoken of by some , the evill report of evill men an honour , reputation , hee of most reputation , that can drinke most , . reward of drunkards , . and swearers , . they shall have a double portion of vengeance to other men , righteous , the civilly righteous have hell for their portion , . s sathan hath all worldlings under his command , . . . and they must do what he will have them . by degrees he works men to the heighth of impiety , . saints falls should make us beware , not presume , . scoffes beate off many from their profession , . the scoffer , commonly worse then the scoffed , . none but fooles will be scoffed out of their religion , . yet few , that will not offend god and their conscience , rather then be scoft at , . scripture , he must be studious therein , and follow that rule who will know christ savingly , . security , the certaine usher of destruction , . separate , drunkards and swearers deserve , like dirt in the house of god , to be throwne out , . of which five reasons , . happy if they were kept by themselves , . shame , drunkards would mitigate their owne shame , by discrediting the good , . singularity , a vertue , when vice is in fashion , . sinnes against knowledge and conscience , . open and scandalous sinnes how evill , . to multiply the same sinnes often , , to commit one sin on the neck of another , . how one mans sin may extend it selfe to millions ; yea , after ages , . drunkards not only sin , but make others sin too , . the divell shewes the sweet of sin , but hides the bitter of punishment untill afterward , . custome of sinne , takes away the sense of sinne , . slander , drunkards raise slanders of the godly , . of which seaven reasons , . how apt men are to believe slanders of the godly , and to spread them , . what delight wicked men take in hearing evill of the good , . a slander once raised will scarce ever dye , . how they mitigate their owne shame , by slandering others , . and often prevaile against the good hereby , . the condition of a slanderer set out , . his sinne and punishment , . smiting , god will not leave smiting , untill we smite that , which smites at his honour , . soule , drunkards guilty of soule murther , . . nothing but our soules will satisfie the serpent , and his seed , . covetous man , cares more for his outward estate , then for body or soule , . spirit , saving knowledge not attain'd , without the spirits help , . straite , what a straite , the godly are in , . striking , . subtilty , and wisdome , two different things . . successe , custom of it makes men confident , ▪ suffer , our saviour suffered two and twenty wayes of his● enemies , . suggestion , evill moreready at hand then a good , superlative , some men strive to bee superlative in sinne , . severall examples of superlative sinners , . suspition , ignorance the cause of it . . swearing , the most in excusable sin , . of which reasons , . that of all others the swearer shall bee sure of plagues , . three wayes to make men leave their swearing , . t tale-bearing , the receiver as bad as the tale-bearer , . tempting , sathan the tempter , wicked men his apprentises , or factors under him , . the many wayes that sathan hath to set upon us , . aswell reckon up the motes in the sunne , as all sorts of seducers , . all wicked men resemble the divell in tempting , . how politick they are in tempting , . drunkards , sathans principle agents , in this businesse , . the drunkards chiefe delight is to infect others , . temptations on the right hand the most dangerous , . a wise man will suspect the smooth streame for deepnesse , . they never wound so deadly , as when they stroke us with a silken hand , . to bee a tempter the ●asest office , . their seduceing of others , will adde to the pile of their torments , . how greedy most men are of temptation , . sathan needs but say the word , . or suggest the thought , . the minde of man not capeable of a violation , either from man or sathan , . it will bee a poore plea an other day , to pretend that such and such deceived us , . he whom the lord loves , shall be delivered out of their snares , and he whom the lord hates , shal fall into them , . sathan disturbes not his own , . no greater temptation , then not to be tempted , . theefe , objection of the thiefe upon the crosse answered , . thoughts of wicked men touching the religious , not the same in distresse , as in prosperity , . time , they drink to drive it away , ● if times be bad wee should be more carefull , . tongues , that drunkards use their tongues only a frivolous excuse , . a lewd tongue , a lowd one ; and a lowd tongue , a lewd one , . traduce us , because they cannot otherwise hurt us , . v vertue and vice can never accord , . victory , drunkards in conquering are most overcome , . vice , every vice hath a title given it , and every vertue a disgrace , . violence , when by gentle perswasions they cannot prevaile , they use violence , . w vvicked , nothing will doe good upon a wicked heart , . whereof many examples , ibid. a continual warre , betweene the wicked and the godly in all ages , . watchfulnesse , . we must be watchfull , wise , and valiant if we will not be overcome by their allurements . where 's , the divel much beholding to whores , but farre more to drunkards , . wine , the drunkards high esteeme of it , about making wise , . wine lawfull , if used lawfully . winne , wee should be as zealous and industrious to win soules to god , as they are to sathan , . wisdome , no wicked man a wise man , how wise the drunkard is in his owne conceit , . of which two reasons , . drunkards purblind to worldly wisdome , starke blind to heavenly , . they not alwayes the wisest which know most , . the religious man wiser then the most profound humanist , . or the cunningest politician , . severall misprisions of wisdome , . worldly men account folly wisdome , and wisdom folly , . objection , that the strictest livers , are seldome the wisest men , answered , . witnesse , every invitation to repentance , will bee a witnesse against us , . word to believers is all in all , . words , he would never endure blowes , that cannot concoct evill words , . wee should read their words backward , . world begins with milke , ends with an hammer , . whereas christ keeps back the good wine untill afterwards , ibid. many prefer the worlds favour before gods . worldlings have more peace with . sathan , . . the world , . . themselves , . then gods people , they may satisfie their lusts to the full , . have free scope and liberty to do or say what they please , whereas gods people are restrained in their very thoughts , ibid. whence they thinke themselves more happy in serving the divell , then others in serving of god , . they profit more in sinne , then the godly in grace , . they are penny wise and pound foolish , . but it is otherwise with the godly , ibid. wounds , those prove deepe wounds to weake christians , that would be balm and physick unto abler judgements . z zeale a compounded affection of love and anger , we should be as zealous in good , as they are in evill . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the introduction . drunkards not to be reckoned amongst men other sinners beasts . drunkards worse then beasts . wherein they equall beasts . why so tart . beasts know when they have enough beasts remaine the same they were crealed , but drunkards shame their creation . drunkards deprive themselves of sense and motion . they subvert reason and prove cruell to themselves . they transforme themselves into the condition of evill angells . what the learned say of this sin . drunkennesse both a matchlesse sin in it selfe , and the cause of all other sins drunkennesse disables and indisposeth men to all good , yea , to all the meanes thereof . the roo●e of all evill , the rot of all good . the drunkards heart a mare mortuum . the drunkard cut up and anatomized . his outward d●● formiti . his inward infirmities . an objection answered . the drunkard his own executioner . a●ward pot-valiant will kil and ●lay . drunkennesse the cause of murther . no admonishing a drunkard . drunkennesse the cause of adultery ▪ drunkennes beastiates the soule . drunkennes brings poverty . drunkennesse defames a man. drunke●nesse and ide esse of each other both the cause and effect . idlenesse the most corrupting fly that can blow in any huma●e ●inde . all the drunkards labour is to satisfie his eusts . 〈…〉 one drunkard hath tongueenough for twenty men . drunkennesse discovers all secre●s . his vaine babling , scnrrilo●s je●●ing , 〈◊〉 talking . his cursed and impious swearing , blaspheming &c. drunkards deserve ( like dir● in the house of god ) to be throw●e out . because they bring an ill name upon the gospell , & ● cause the enemy to blaspheme god. because they infect almost all that come neere them because the whole land fares the wo●se for their sakes . to make them looke into themselves . because they contemne all admonition swearing the most 〈◊〉 excusable 〈◊〉 . of which two realons . that of all othe● the swearer shal be sure of plogues . drun●ards i●sensible of their 〈◊〉 and da●ger , because ignorant . why they are so jocund and confident . three wayes to make them leave their swearing . their discourse and behaviour on the alebe●●h . how wise the drunkard is in his 〈◊〉 conceil . of which . reasons . the greatest bowzers pr●ved the greatest buzzards . 〈◊〉 sect ▪ . drunkennesse either fi●des them fools or makes them fooles th●t ●se it . a● objection answered many examples of dri●k bes●●ling me● . that drunkards have shall●w memori●s . as drunkards are purblind to worldly wisdome , so th●y are st●rk blind t● heavenly an unpardon●ble crime , not to drinke as they d●e the utmo●● of a drunkards honesty is good fellowship . he of most reputation that can drinke most . he a rare man now , that forbeares to drinke untill he be thirsty . they devoure whole d●luges of strong d●inke . they devoure whole deluges of strong drinke . it is gods u●speakable mercy that wee have not a famine , or that the land d●th not spue out ber inhabitants for this sin . but drvn kards are reserved u●to the great day . the judgments of god ●pirituall , temporall , and eternall , which in scripture are threat ned against drunkards . yet if they can repent and leave their si● , god is very ready to forgive . . excuses which drunkards usually make taken away . if they can bare their drink they are no drunkards . their alleadging the examples of some ●oly men . they are not drunke with wine . that it is the usuall custome of the place and common practise of the people with who they are couversant and by whom they live . that wee ought not to follow the example either of the greatest number , or of the greatest men , or of the greatest schollers . that no wicked man is a wise man. . the best and holiest men , no certa●ne rule to walk by . . neither is reason as now it is clouded with the mists of originall nor ruption . neither are good and holy intentio●s enough . that onely law and precept must be our rule . vse and application of the for mer do●●ri●e . that drunkards have no faith in the scriptures . wherefore politicall physicke the fi●est for them . no dispossessing of a drunken devill , purpose the drunkard never so oft . commoly such as a mans delights and c●res are in health , such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed . were there any possibility of their leaving it , they would abstaine in the heate of the plague . vvere they not ●eere strangers to themselves , they could be no other then confounded in themselves . security the certaine usher of destruction . the plague hath wrought 〈◊〉 or n● reformation . yea , many are the wor●e . the tavernes fnilest , when ●e 〈◊〉 are emptiest . the difference betweene their practise and the god●es . exhortation to the sober , touching this time of visitation . in all ages the godly alone have mourned for the abominations of their time . so many a● repent shall be singled out for mercy . 〈◊〉 of excessive drinking . to drive away me●ancholy which is increased thereby . to drive away time . . cause is lust . that they drinke not for love of drink is either false , or makes their sinne double cause covetousnesse . cause reputation of good ●ellowship . or pride of wit. is sotrish feare , and base cowardise . the last cause is evill company . the drunkards chief delight is to infect others . a digression proving that all wicked men resemble the divell in tempting to sinn . drawing to perditio ▪ how politick to fit their temptations to every mans hu●our . how sathan guls the rude multitude in giving every vice a title , ●nd each vetue a disgracefull name . many so greedy of ●emptation that satan needs but cast out 〈◊〉 angle . or suggest the thought . the many wayes which sathan hath to set upon us . sathan the great sed●cer , wicked men are apprentises , or factors under him . the devil speakes in and works by them as once he did by the serpent . sathan more me● on earth to fight for him then the trinity which made us . the minde of man not capeable of a viola●ion either from man or sathan . as impossible to rec kon up all sorts of seducers as to tell the moates in the sun. of drunkards who are sathans principall agents in this busines drunkards to turne others into beasts , ●● make them selves di●vells . they practile nothing but the art of debauching men . drinking 〈◊〉 forceing of ●eal●●s their pri●cipall s●r●tageme . their ●ealt●s either great in ●eas●re ●r ●●ny in number . of great ●ealt●s . if t●ei●●ealt●s be 〈◊〉 the liq●●● i● stronger or the number 〈◊〉 . least sathan should want of 〈◊〉 due 〈◊〉 drinke the● 〈◊〉 their k●ees the rise and originall of health d●inking basil ser. de ●●riet . a●gusti● de temp serm. ex●●ples of gods vengance on ●ealt● drinkers . not more forward to drinke healthes then zealous and ●arefull that others pledge the s●●e . how they will i●tise . how they wil inforce how impatient of deniell . their misprision of ●onour and reputation . examples of some that have drunke other mens healthes , and their owne deaths . original of the word pledge . in c●●quering they are ●●st overcome . to bee a ●●●pter ●he basest office ●en have . 〈◊〉 objection answered . to dam●● their owne soules the least part of their mischiefe . what a multitude of drunkards one true drunkard ●akes . if the devill would surrender his place it should be to some good fellow or other . how drunkards swarme in every cor●er . ● . hall. dr●nkards like lulian who never did a man a good ●urn but it was to damn his soule . he who● the lord loves shall be delive●ed fr●m their meretricious allure●e●ts if they 〈◊〉 not sedu●e u● they wil envie and ●ate 〈◊〉 . . h●w drunkard● e●vie the sober and 〈◊〉 . how they wi●● hate them . vvhich hatred is the most bitter and exorbitant of all other● how their envy and ha●red vents it selfe at the ●outh and ha●ds . at their mouthes first by censureing the sober . vv●ereof foure reasons first they judge others by themselves . their ignorance makes them suspicious . their p●ssions and affections make them partiall . they see and look to us not to themselves . how drunhards will raise slanders of the conscionable . how apt others are to believe their slanders , and afterwards to spread them . how pleasant it is to wicked men to ●eare ill of the religious . the manner of their dealing in this case . reasons why they slander us . ever such as scoffe at , and traduce others have greater faults themselves first reason of their raising slanders to divert mens thoughts from minding their villany . by depraving the godly themselves passe for indifferent honest men . drunk●rds censure and slander 〈◊〉 godly to ●acite and stirre up other ● to doe the like . and the multitude like a flock of sheepe if they see but one take a wrong way all the rest will follo● of which many examples . that they may mitigate their owne shamewith our discredit . they iraduce us because they cannot otherwise burt us . a slander once raised will scarce ever dye . yea the slander is increased , the sinne and p●ntsh ment of a slanderer . they must doe what sathan will hnve them the receiver as bad ● as the tale-bearer . they will flout us out of our faith have our company here in sin & herafter in torment . they would have our company in fi●ne . vvhat a strait the godly are in , let us turn openlyprophane theirquarrell is at ● end . sathan disturbs not his own● . no greater t●mptation then not to be tempted . our case would be 〈◊〉 worse 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 peace 〈◊〉 them . . there malice and envi● would breake out at their hands if they were not m●nacled by the law. first they would combine together a●d lay 〈◊〉 p●●●s to destroy u● . they would deliver us up ●nto the magistrat . give de●ilish counsell against 〈◊〉 & cause 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 . ● strike us . ●urt and ma●me us . lastly , drunkards would kill us for being so res●actory . the same prooved by scripture . by experience of former ages . by the experience of our saviour , who suffered twenty two wayes o●ely for his goodness● . but they cannot doe as they would thoug● their punishment shall be the same as if they did it . reasons of their savage disposition . they must doe the workes of their father the devill . that the●r deeds of darknes may not come to l●ght . otherwise they cannot follow their sinnes so freely nor so quietly . vvhat they cannot make good by arguments of reason they would by arguments of steele ●nd iron . their glory and ● edit is e●lipsed . the ground of all their tempting and enforceing to ●●ane . drunkards children of the devill and partake of his nature . those whom they hate and persecute the children of god and partake of the divine nature . vertue and vice can never accord . they can brooke all conditions of men , ●ave practisers of piety . but the religious shall be sure of opposition . not strange that wicked men should a●rees● well they strive t● be sup●rlative in sinne . many examples of monsters and superlative sinners . sathan works men by degrees to this height ofimpiety and not all at once . cu●t●me of sin takes away the ●ense of sin againe , god hath proclaimed an enmity betweene the wicked and the godly , for so long as the world endures . sathan is their king and they must seeke his wealth 〈◊〉 honour all they can and strive to enlarge his kingdome by winning all they can from christ by a continuall w●rre and skirmish . as they have not bene waiting 〈…〉 in any age . they would have our company in torments . no thi●g hut our 〈…〉 the herpen● and is ●eede . good men draw all they can 〈◊〉 heaven , wicked all they can to ●ell . they shall answer for soule-murther . reve. . other reasons why they would have our company in the burning lake . being out of hope themselves they are loth others should fare better then they . they thinke it will be some ease and comfort in misery to have companions . but this will ad to the pile of their torments the devil beholding to whores , but farre more to drunkards for none helpe to people hi● inferanall kingdome like them . vve should be as zealous and industrious to win soules to god. their punishment . a description of the last judgement and of hell . the same further amplified drunkards shal have a double portion of vengeance to other men . the drunkards sinns aggravated by the circumstances . first , the civily righteous have hel for their portion bu● drunkards are notoriously wicked . . his sins are against knowledge and conscience . . he sins not of infirmity but presum●●ously and of set purpose . . his sins are so open and scandalous that the gospel is dishonoured and 〈◊〉 god blasphemed . he commits many sins one in the● eck of another , and multiplies the same sins often . he sins against mercy , the abundance of meanes , and the many warnings , which others never had . the severall wayes whereby god calls to repentance . the same further amplified . even this booke will be a witnesse against them , when their consciences are awakened . and then perhaps the gate of mercy wi●● be sh●t . want of consideration the cause of all impiety & neglect of obedience . . he not onely commits foule crimes , but drawes others into the same sinnes . . they abuse and persecute , not the evill , but the good , who are to god as the apple of his eye . that the use their tongues only a friv●lous excuse . some can better abide ast ake then others ascoffe . ●hat is done to the godly , christ takes as done to himselfe . and well b● may , for their hatred is against god and christ. though they are so blind that they think they love god ●●●hom they wrong a●e their best friends to whom they owe their very lives . by their i●nocency the ●eligious keeps off judgement● f●om them . ● by their prayers . in their 〈◊〉 they will sue to the godly , and desire them a lo●e to pray for them . of which many examples . ●ho count it a sin to cease praying for their greatest enemies . wicked mens thoughts touching the religious , not the same in distresse , as ● prosperity . their ingratitude and great ●olly . their si● is not against the ●fe of body or estate , but agai●st she soules of men . a●objection answered , none ●ut counterseits wil be beaten from christs standard by their scoffes and reproac●es . their intention of soule murther shall be rewarded , as if they ●ed do●e the same actually . . their sin doth not extend it se fe t●● this or th●t person only but to milions , yea , after ages . but the drun kard hath ● shift to evade al this , and what else can be spoken . . he can apply christs passion and gods mercy as a war rant for his li●●ntious●●sse . the hope of an bypocrite is easi●y blowne into him , and as sooneblown out of him . vvicked men are altogether in e●treames either god is so mercifull that they may live how they list , or so just , that be will not pardon them upon their repentance . objection of the thief upon the crosse answered . object . god in mercyis in finitly transcendent . answ. but this makes nothing for such as love their si is , better ●hen their soules . his mercy rejorceth against justice , but destroyeth not his justice . his mercy is a just mercy . and therefore hath equally promised all blessi●gs to thosewhich keepe his commande ments , and threatned all manner of judgements to those that break them vvicked men believe no part of gods word really and in deed . all the promises in tailed to believers and limited with the condition of faith & repentance one part of the covenan● of grace is , that we ● wil for●ake the divell and all his workes , constantly believe , &c. mark. . . object . what it is to be born againe : answ. what to repe● and bel eve , & how we may know whether we have or not . corruption wilmix with our purest devotion . but he can repent when sicknes comes . death may be sudden , and give ● ma● no lea●●e to be sick● . or if death be not sudden repentance is no easie worke , and late repentance is seldome true . or suppose thou offer thy best devotions to god wil be accept of thy dry bones , whē sathan bath suk'd out all the ●arrow . admonition not to defer●e repentance . objection , that most men are of a contrary judgement and practics . vvhere of a double reason . first few men beleeve the whole written word . ignorance is th●cause of all sinne . r●ghtly a ●anknows no more then be practiseth . he that hath saveing knowledge , bath every other grace . ob. that the strictest lovers , are ●eldome the ●sest men ●●swered . worldly men count wisdome felly , and folly wisdo●e . they not alwayes the wise● which know most the religious man wi●er than the b●ma●i●t . several mispr●sions of wisdome . wiser then the most cuuning ●oli●●●●s the c●●ning politician a foole , in . particulars . first , be is without foresight , and never thinkes of the reckoning he is to give . he will not beleeve exce●t his senses say ame● to it . bray him in a morter he will not depart from his folly , viz. his 〈◊〉 . he cares more for a little muck to leave behind him , then for soule or bedy . . hee ca● finde in his heart to goe to he● so his son 〈◊〉 be left rich . h● 〈…〉 trifles before things of greatest worth . worldly men are penny wise and pound ●oolish . but it is otherwise with the godly . iudeed , though the divell makes fooles of them , yet he makes them wise enough to make fooles of any that will trust them ▪ they are wise men in foolish things , and foolish men in wise things . they may be called subtile , persons , but not wise men , except we take the greatest ●olly , for the greatest wisdome . and even such fooles are the voluptio●s . . helpes to saving knowledge first disc●rd●al fi●●hy lusts and affections . get an humble heart . procure the eye of a lively faith . be con●stant in prayer for the spirits helpe . but pray not for knowledge without putting difference for god m●y grant our 〈◊〉 in judgment , objections answered . ●● vse the ● meanes . be s●udious in the scriptures and follow that rule . . go to counsell . the application of what hath beene spoke● admonition , not to make mercy a ●olster for continuing in ●in what small hope of the dr●n kards yeelding . much of him hath beene spoke● , but nothing neere all . the foulenes of this sin , const●ained me to be so bitter . it is more worthy the sword of justice , then the pen of an 〈◊〉 . written rather to keepe men from drunkennesse , then in hope to reclaime any from it . he the soberest and honestest man , which resembles this drunkard least . notes for div a -e 〈◊〉 drunkar●● hath beene too long sick to be recouere●● nothing wil do good upon a wisked ●eart . vvhereof ma●s 〈◊〉 reason once deba●ched is worse then brutishnes the tran●ccendey of the sin of drunken nesse . if any would re●●n quish this sin let ●hem . lay to heart the things delivered . . avoid the causes formerly h●●dled . believe their state dangerous and that there is n● way to ●elp , ●ut by chang to the cou● trary . . be constant and peremptery in their resolution . shame not to confess●t by dislike of it in thy selfe and others . fly evill company . take heede of delayes . omit not to pray for divine assistance . be diligent in hearing . frequent in the use of the lords-supper . meditate what god hath done for thee . meditate on that union we have with christ , &c consider that the lord be●oldeth thee whersoever thou art . often thinke of the day of judgment . 〈…〉 the heinousnesse of this sin , and the evills which accompany it abstaine from drunken co●pany , for all depends upon t●●● . abstaine from drunken places . ad●onition to sellers of drinke , church-wardens , constables &c. ad●●nition to sellers of drinke , church-wardens , constables &c. to keepe ●ut of this 〈◊〉 of the divell and drunkkards . . see the danger and know their ●ime . some men age●ts for christ , others for sathan ; but sathansinstruments have many advantages above gods servents is wining sou●● . an evill suggestion is more ready at hand then a good . we are more prone to evil●●en good . . the world begins with milk , ends with a bammer : christ keeps back the good wine until afterwards . the divell can delude their fancy and judgement of natural men . . forestal them see with prejudice that they shall resolve against being religious . . if gentle perswasions wil no● 〈◊〉 they will comp●d by violence againe , as in getting , so in keeping such ●s they have got . in regard of pleasure . in regard of freedome . in regard of peace , and that with sath●● . vvith the vvorld vvith themselves they think themselves more happy in serving the devill then others in serving of god. they are better proficients then gods people . because ▪ the devill blinds them and 〈◊〉 shewes the sweetnesse of fin hides the thought of punishment . not to ●e overcome by their alurements we must ●e watchful vvise. many objections answered . that others deceive thee , will be a poo●e plea another day . they neverwound so deadly as when they stroak with a silken hand temptations on the right hand the worst . a wise m●n will suspect the smooth streame for deepnesse . valiant . few men but wil sin against god and their owne consciences ratherthen be scoft at . but it is base blood that blushes to doe well . and they are ●ooles who wil be sense 〈◊〉 of their re●i●●io● . of necessity we must 〈◊〉 ●vil spo●● of ●●y 〈◊〉 and wi●ked men ju●ge by con●rar●es . ● of ●●ings of persons . their judgement & practise is quite contrary to gods word . vve should read their words backward . but those prove deep wounds to weake christians which are balme ond physicke unto abler judgments he would never endure blows who cannot con●●ct evill words . vve ought not be drunke to save our lives . death in a good cause shall pleasure , not hurt us . vvhich hath made many preferre it before the greatest pleasure , profit , or honour . but others preferre the worlds favour before gods. vve must refraine their company , and not dispute with them o● we shall not bold out . quest. that it is lawfull 〈◊〉 wi●hdraw our selves from ●hei● soci●ty and ●ow . answ. five reasons of breaking off society with our vicious consor●● . first that they may ●oke into themselves . that we may not be i●fected by them ▪ nor partake of their sins . object . many objections answered . that we may not be infeoffed in their punishments . . because their company will bereave us of much comfort , whichother wise we should enjoy . object . o●j●ction of joy and goodfellowship answered . answ. , that we may be at peace with all : which is not possible ▪ if wee k●ep them company . objections answered . the agreement of wicked men not worthy the name of peace . a d●unkard ca● never love him that is sober and religiou● . a wicked man● love mercenary inconstant and not worth the having . objections answered . change in the vicious were a ra●e ve●tue . even modesty in some is a v●ce . true love and friend ship only among good men . nothing rivi●s hearts so close as religion . object . another ●bjection answered . answ. object . another objection answered . answ. vse of the former reasons . vse . vse . excuses taken away . the touchstone, or, trial of tobacco whether it be good for all constitutions : with a word of advice against immoderate drinking and smoaking : likewise examples of some that have drunk their lives away, and died suddenly : with king jame's [sic] opinion of tobacco, and how it came first into england : also the first original of coffee : to which is added, witty poems about tobacco and coffe [sic] : something about tobacco, written by george withers, the late famous poet ... two broad-sides against tobacco. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing j a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the touchstone, or, trial of tobacco whether it be good for all constitutions : with a word of advice against immoderate drinking and smoaking : likewise examples of some that have drunk their lives away, and died suddenly : with king jame's [sic] opinion of tobacco, and how it came first into england : also the first original of coffee : to which is added, witty poems about tobacco and coffe [sic] : something about tobacco, written by george withers, the late famous poet ... two broad-sides against tobacco. hancock, john, fl. - . hancock, john, fl. - . james i, king of england, - . counterblaste to tobacco. . maynwaringe, everard, - ? thomson, george, fl. - . aimatiasis. selections. . ward, samuel, - . woe to drunkards. . sylvester, josuah, - . tobacco battered, and the pipes shattered. . everard, giles. de herba panacea. english. selections. . wither, george, - . [ ], p. : ill. printed and are to be sold by the several booksellers, london : . dedication signed: j.h. (i.e. john hancock). previously published under title: two broad-sides against tobacco (london : printed for john hancock, ). signatures: [a]⁴ b-k⁴. illustrations: print : woodcut ; full-page. subject: "the picture represents the tobacchonists [sic] armes, and turks coffee-house." woodcut and type flower headpieces; ornamental and criblé initials. reproduction of original in the william andrews clark memorial library, university of california, los angeles. a counterblast to tobacco (p. - ) -- dr. maynwaring's serious cautions against tobacco, collected out of his treatise of the scurvy, (p. ) -- preservation of health in the choice of drinks, and regular drinking / transcribed verbatim out of doctor maynwaring's treatise of long life -- another collection against tobacco-smoking / written by ... george thompson, in his book of preservation of the bloud -- woe to drunkards : a sermon / preached many years since by mr. samuel ward --tobacco battered and the pipes shattered ... / collected out of the famous poems of joshua sylvester, gent. -- a broad-side against coffee, or, the marriage of the turk -- collection ... taken out of that book of dr. everard's, entituled, the vertue of tobacco -- a postscript, by way of apology. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng tobacco habit -- great britain -- early works to . tobacco -- physiological effect -- early works to . tobacco -- poetry -- early works to . smoking in art -- early works to . coffee habit -- great britain -- early works to . coffee -- poetry -- early works to . alcoholism -- great britain -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the touchstone or , trial of tobacco whether it be good for all constitutions . with a word of advice against immoderate drinking and smoaking . likewise examples of some that have drunk their lives away , and died suddenly . with king jame's opinion of tobacco , and how it came first into england . also the first original of coffee . to which is added witty poems about tobacco and coffe ; something about tobacco , written by george withers , the late famous poet. the picture represents the tobacchonists armes , and turks coffee-house . coffee , a kind of turkish renegade , has late a match with christian water made ; a coachman was the first ( here ) coffee made , and ever since the rest drove on the trade ; me no good engalash ? and sure enough , he plaid the quack to salve his stygian stuff ; ver boon for de stomach , de cough , de ptisick , and i believe him , for it looks like physick london , printed and are to be sold by the several booksellers . . to all taverns , inns , victualling-houses , ale-houses , coffee-houses , strong-water-shops , tobacconists-shops , in england , scotland or ireland . gentle readers , here is presented to you a brief , learned , and a very seasonable treatise for the age we live in : it was many years since penned by king james of happy and blessed memory , entituled , a counterblast to tobacco ; it it here verbatim , faithfully transcribed out of the large and learned volume of his other works in folio , which are rare and scarce to be had for money , and of too great a price for the common sort of tobacco-smokers to purchase : it is granted , the thing may be good , and physical , and healthful , being moderately and but seldom taken ; but for men to take ten or twenty pipes in a day in all companies , morning , noon and night , before and presently after meals ; this is a strange way of taking physick . now the king understanding the evil custom of taking tobacco , or , as we now call it , smoking a pipe , was grown to a great head , he seems to be very much insensed at it , and discovers how it first came into england , and its first original ; and how that it was used much amongst the savage indians , to cure lewes venerea , a disease among them : his majesty wisely fore-seeing the evil consequences that would follow , by such immoderate sucking in the foul smoke of this indian weed , and he being the physician of the body politick , doth by many strong and excellent arguments , disswade his subjects from imitating the practise of the heathen indians , in drinking this noxious fume . it was in his time but a novelty , and practised but a little , except amongst the nobility , gentry , or great ones : but now what is more frequently used in every ale-house and coffee-house , besides great inns and taverns in london , and all the three kingdoms over . whereas if men were so wise for their own good , both in body , soul , and estate , as to handle a good book , either of divinity , or of morality , half so often as they do the pipe of smoke , it would be better for them in all respects , more precious time and money would be saved . i shall detain you no longer from a more learned epistle and treatise of the matter in hand : and as king solomon , who was the wisest of kings , saith in his book of ecclesiastes , that where the word of a king is , there is power ; so i say , if what our famous king james hath written , be not of power sufficient to divert all english men , &c. from this evil and hurtful custom ; it is here seconded , and backed home , by the words and advice of an able and learned doctor of physick now living ; it being so sutable to the purpose , was thought fit to be added to this counterblast . and that it may not be said ( as the common proverb is ) to be only one doctors opinion , i have thought fit to add another , collected out of a treatise of the bloud , written by that learned physician dr. george thompson , who agreeth with the former against smoking tobacco , as dangerous . i apprehend , that what hath been spoken against drinking tobacco , may much more be said against immoderate drinking of wine , ale , beer , or any strong liquors , and dishes of coffee , &c. thus hoping thou wilt make a good use of what is here gathered together , and offered for thy good , i rest . a well-wisher to thy health , j. h. to the reader . as every humane body ( dear country-men ) how wholsome soever , is notwithstanding subject , or at least naturally inclined to some sorts of diseases or infirmities : so is here no common-wealth , or body-politick , how well governed or peaceable soever it be , that lacks their own popular errors , and naturally inclined corruptions ; and therefore it is no wonder , although this our country and common-wealth , though peaceable , though wealthy , though long flourishing in both , be amongst the rest , subject to their own natural infirmities . we are of all nations the people most loving , and most reverently obedient to our prince ; yet we are ( as time hath often born witness ) too easie to be seduced to make rebellion upon very slight grounds . our fortunate and oft-proved valour in wars abroad , our hearty and reverent obedience to our princes at home , hath given us a long , and thrice-happy peace ; our peace hath bred wealth : and peace and wealth hath brough forth a general sluggishness , which makes us wallow in all sorts of idle delights , and soft delicacies , the first seeds of the subversion of all great monarchies . our clergy are become negligent and lasie , our nobility and gentry prodigal , and sold to their private delights ; our lawyers covetous , our common people prodigal and curious ; and generally all sorts of people more careful for their private ends , then for their mother the common-wealth . for remedy whereof , it is the king's part ( as the proper physician of his politick body ) to purge it of all those diseases , by medicines meet for the same ; as by a certain mild , and yet just form of government , to maintain the publick quietness , and prevent all occasions of commotion ; by the example of his own person and court , to make us all ashamed of our sluggish delicacy , and to stir us up to the practice again of all honest exercises , and martial shadows of war ; as likewise by his , and his courts moderateness in apparel , to make us ashamed of our prodigality : by his quick admonitions , and careful over-seeing of the clergy , to waken them up again , to be more diligent in their offices : by the sharp tryal , and severe punishment of the partial , covetous , and bribing lawyers , to reform their corruptions : and generally by the example of his own person , and by the due execution of good laws , to reform and abolish piece and piece , these old and evil-grounded abuses : for this will not be opus unius diei , but as every one of these diseases , must from the king receive the one cure proper for it ; so are there some sorts of abuses in common-wealths , that though they be of so base and contemptible a condition , as they are too low for the law to look on , and too mean for a king to interpose his authority , or bend his eye upon ; yet are they corruptions , as well as the greatest of them . so is an ant an animal as well as an elephant ; so is a wren avis , as well as a swan ; and so is a small dint of the tooth-ach a disease , as well as the fearful plague is . but for these base sorts of corruption in common-wealths ; not only the king , or any inferiour magistrate , but quilibet ê populo may serve to be a physician , by discovering and impugning the error , and by perswading reformation thereof . and surely in my opinion , there cannot be a more base , and yet hurtful corruption in a country , then is the vile use ( or rather abuse ) of taking tobacco in this kingdome , which hath moved me shortly to discover the abuses in this following little pamphlet . if any think it a light argument , so it is but a toy that is bestowed upon it . and since the subject is but of smoke , i think the sume of an idle brain , may serve for a sufficient battery against so fumous a feblean enemy . if my grounds be found true , it is all i look for ; but if they carry the force of perswasion with them , it is all i can wish , and more then i can expect . my only care is , my dear country-men may rightly conceive even by this smallest trifle , of the sincerity of my meaning in greater matters , never to spare any pains , that may tend to the procuring of your weale and prosperity . a counterblast to tobacco . that the manifold abuses of this vile custome of tobacco-taking , may the better be espied ; it is fit , that first you enter into consideration both of the first original thereof , and likewise of the reasons of the first entry thereof into this countrey ; for certainly as such customs that have their first institution , either from a godly ; necessary , or honourable ground , and are first brought in by the means of some worthy , vertuous , and great personage ; are ever , and most justly holden in great and reverent estimation and account by all wise , vertuous and temperate spirits : so should it by the contrary , justly bring a great disgrace into that sort of customs , which having their original from base corruption and barbarity , do , in like sort , make their first entry into a country , by an inconsiderate and childish affectation of novelty , as is the true case of the first invention of tobacco-taking , and of the first entry thereof amongst us . for tobacco being a common herb , which ( though under divers names ) grows almost every where , was first found out by some of the barbarous indians to be a preservative , or antidote against the pox , a filthy disease , whereunto these barbarous people are ( as all men know ) very much subject , what through the uncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies , and what through the intemperate heat of their climate . so that as from them , was first brought into christendome , that most detestable disease : so from the likewise was brought this use of tobacco , as a stinking and unsavory antidote , for so corrupted and execrable a malady ; the stinking suffumigation whereof they yet use against that disease , making so one canker or vermine to eat out another . and now , good country-men , let us ( i pray you ) consider what honour or policy can move us to imitate the barbarous and beastly manners of the wild , godless and slavish indians , especially in so vile and stinking a custome . shall we that disdain to imitate the manners of our neighbour france , ( having the stile of the great christian kingdome ) and that cannot endure the spirit of the spaniards ( their king being now comparable in largeness of dominions , to the greatest emperour of turky ; ) shall we , i say , that have been so long civil and wealthy in peace , famous and invincible in war , fortunate in both ; we that have been ever able to aid any of our neighbours ( but never deafed any of their ears with any of our supplications for assistance ; ) shall we , i say , without blushing , abase our selves so far , as to imitate these beastly indians , slaves to the spaniards , refuse to the world , and as yet aliens from the holy covenant of god ? why do we not as well imitate them in walking naked , as they do , in preferring glasses , feathers , and such toys , to gold and precious stones , as they do ? yea , why do we not deny god , and adore the devil , as they do . now to the corrupted baseness of the first use of this tobacco , doth very well agree the foolish and groundless first entry thereof into this kingdom : it is not long since the first entry of this abuse amongst us here , as this present age cannot yet very well remember , both the first author , and the form of the first introduction of it against us . it was neither brought in by king , great conqueror , nor learned doctor of physick . with the report of a great discovery for a conquest , some two or three savage men were brought in , together with this savage custome : but the pity is , the poor , wild , barbarous men died ; but that vile barbarous custome is yet alive , yea in fresh vigour , so as it seems a miracle to me , how a custome springing from so vile a ground , and brought in by a father so generally hated , should be welcomed upon so slender a warrant : for if they that first put it in practice here , had remembred for what respect it was used by them from whence it came ; i am sure they would have been loath to have taken so far the imputation of that disease upon them as they did , by using the cure thereof ; for sanis non est opus medice , and counter-poysons are never used , but where poyson is thought to proceed . but since it is true , that divers customs slightly grounded , and with no better warrant entred in a common-wealth , may yet in the use of them thereafter , prove both necessary and profitable ; it is therefore next to be examined , if there be not a ful sympathy and true proportion between the base ground and foolish entry , and the loathsome and hurtful use of this stinking antidote . i am now therefore heartily to pray you to consider , first upon what false and erroneous grounds you have first built the general good liking thereof ; and next , what sins towards god , and foolish vanities before the world , you commit in the detestable use of it . as for those deceitful grounds , that have specially moved you to take a good and great conceit thereof : i shall content my self to examine here onely four of the principals of them , two founded upon the theorick of a deceivable appearance of reason , and two of them upon the mistaken practick of general experience . first , it is thought by you a sure aphorisme in the physick ; that the brains of all men being naturally cold and wet , all dry and hot things should be good for them , of which nature this stinking suffumigation is , and therefore of good use to them . of this argument both the proposition and assumption are false , and so the conclusion cannot but be void of it self : for as to the proposition , that because the brains are cold and moist , therefore things that are hot and dry are best for them ; it is an inept consequence : for man being compounded of the four complexions ( whose fathers are the four elements ) although there be a mixture of them all , in all the parts of his body , yet must the divers parts of our microcosme , or little world within our selves , be diversly more inclined , some to one , some to another complexion , according to the diversity of their uses ; that of these discords a perfect harmony may be made up for the maintenance of the whole body . the application then of a thing of a contrary nature to any of these parts , is to interrupt them of their due function , and by consequence hurtful to the health of the whole body ; as if a man , because the liver is as the fountain of bloud , and , as it were , an oven to the stomach , would therefore apply and wear close upon his liver and stomach a cake of lead , he might within a very short time ( i hope ) be sustained very good cheap at an ordinary , besides the clearing of his conscience from that deadly fin of gluttony : and as if because the heart is full of vital spirits , and in perpetual motion ; a man would therefore lay a heavy pound stone on his breast , for staying and holding down that wanton palpitation ; i doubt not but his breast would be more bruised with the weight thereof , then the heart would be comforted with such a disagreeable and contrarious cure. and even so is it with the brains ; for if a man because the brains are cold and humide , would therefore use inwardly by smells , or outwardly by application , things of hot and dry quality ; all the gain that he could make thereof , would onely be to put himself in great forwardness for running mad , by over-watching himself ; the coldness and moisture of our brains being the onely ordinary means that procure our sleep and rest . indeed , i do not deny , that when it falls out that any of these , or any part of our body , grows to be distempered , and to tend to an extremity beyond the compass of natures temperate mixture , that in that case cures of contrary qualities to the intemperate inclination of that part being wisely prepared , and discreetly ministred , may be both necessary and helpful for strengthening and assisting nature in the expulsion of her enemies ; for this is the true definition of all profitable physick . but first , these cures ought not to be used , but where there is need of them ; the contrary whereof is daily practiced in this general use of tobacco , by all sorts and complexions of people . and next , i deny the minor of this argument , as i have already said , in regard that this tobacco is not simply of a dry and hot quality , but rather hath a certain venomous faculty joyned with the heat thereof , which makes it have an antipathy against nature , as by the hateful smell thereof doth well appear ; for the nose being the proper organ and convoy of the sence of smelling to the brains , which are the onely fountain of that sence , doth ever serve us for an infallible witness , whether that odour which we smell be healthful or hurtful to the brain , ( except when it falls out that the sence it self is corrupted and abused , through some infirmity and distemper in the brain : ) and that the suffumigation thereof cannot have a drying quality , it needs no further probation , then that it is a smoke , all smoke and vapour being of it self humide , as drawing near to the nature of the air , and easie to be resolved again into water , whereof there needs no other proof but the meteors , which being bred of nothing else but of the vapors and exhalations sucked up by the sun out of the earth , the sea and waters ; yet are the same smoky vapors turned and transformed into rains , snows , dews , hoar-frosts , and such like watry meteors ; as by the contrary , the rainy clouds are often transformed and evaporated in blustering winds . the second argument grounded on a shew of reason , is , that this filthy smoke , as well through the heat and strength thereof , as by a natural force and quality , is able and fit to purge both the head and stomach of rheumes and distillations , as experience teacheth by the spitting , and avoiding flegm , immediately after the taking of it . but the fallacy of this argument may easily appear , by my late proceeding description of the meteors ; for even as the smoky vapours sucked by the sun , and stayed in the lowest and cold region of the air , are there contracted into clouds , and turned into rain , and such other watry meteors ; so this stinking smoke being sucked up by the nose ; and imprisoned in the cold and moist brains , is by their cold and wet faculty turned and cast forth again in watry distillations , and so are you made free , and purged of nothing , but that wherewith you wilfully burdened your selves ; and therefore are you no wiser in taking tobacco for purging you of distillations , then if for preventing the cholick , you would take all kind of windy meats and drinks ; and for preventing of the stone , you would take all kind of meats and drinks that would breed gravel in the kidneys ; and then when you were forced to avoid much wind out of your stomach , and much gravel in your urine , that you should attribute the thank thereof to such nourishments as breed those within you , that behoved either to be expelled by the force of nature , or you to have burst at the broad side , as the proverb is . as for the other two reasons founded upon experience ; the first of which is , that the whole people would not have taken so general a good liking thereof , if they had not by experience found it very soveraign and good for them : for answer thereunto , how easily the minds of any people , wherewith god hath replenished this world , may be drawn to the foolish affectation of any novelty , i leave it to the discreet judgment of any man that is reasonable . do we not daily see , that a man can no sooner bring over from beyond the seas any new form of apparel , but that he cannot be thought a man of spirit , that would not presently imitate the same ; and so from hand to hand it spreads , till it be practised by all ; not for any commodity that is in it , but only because it is come to be the fashion ; for such is the force of that natural self-love in every one of us , and such is the corruption of envy bred in the breast of every one , as we cannot be content , unless we imitate every thing that our fellows do , and so prove our selves capable of every thing whereof they are capable , like apes , counterfeiting the manners of others to our own destruction . for let one or two of the greatest masters of mathematicks in any of the two famous universities , but constantly affirm any clear day , that they see some strange apparition in the skies ; they will , i warrant you , be seconded by the greatest part of the students in that profession ; so loath will they be , to be thought inferiour to their fellows either in depth of knowledge or sharpness of sight : and therefore the general good liking , and embracing of this foolish custome , doth but onely proceed from that affectation of novelty and popular error , whereof i have already spoken . and the other argument drawn from a mistaken experience , is but the more particular probation of this general , because it is alledge to be found true by proof , that by the taking of tobacco , divers , and very many , do find themselves cured of divers diseases , as on the other part no man ever received harm thereby . in this argument , there is first a great mistaking , and next a monstrous absurdity ; for is not a very great mistaking , to take non causam proeausa ; as they say in the logicks ; because peradventure when a sick man hath had his disease at the heighth , he hath at that instant taken tabacco , and afterward his disease taking the natural course of declining , and consequently the patient of recovering his health , o then the tobacco forsooth was the worker of that miracle ! beside that , it is a thing well known to all physicians , that the apprehension and conceit of the patient hath by wakening and uniting the vital spirits , and so strengthening nature , a great power and vertue to cure divers diseases : for an evident proof of mistaking in the like case , i pray what foolish boy , what silly wench , what old doting wife , or ignorant country clown , is not physician for the tooth-ach , for the cholick , and divers such common diseases ; yea , will not every man you meet withall teach you a sundry cure for the fame , and swear by that mean , either himself , or some of his nearest kindsmen and friends was cured ; and yet , i hope , no man is so foolish as to believe them : and all these toys do onely proceed from the mistaking non causam pro causa , as i have already said ; and so if a man chance to recover one of any disease after he hath taken tobacco , that must have the thanks of all : but by the contrary , if a man smoke himself to death with it ( as many have done ) o then some other disease must bear the blame for that fault ! so do old harlots thank their harlotry for their many years , that custom being healthful ( say they ) ad purgandos renes , but never have mind how many die of the pox in the flower of their youth : and so do old drunkards think they prolong their days by their swine-like diet , but never remember how many die drowned in drink before they be half old . and what greater absurdity can there be then to say , that one cure shall serve for divers , nay contrarious sorts of diseases . it is an undoubted ground among all physicians , that there is almost no sort , either of nourishment or medicine , that hath not some thing in it disagreeable to some part of mans body , because , as i have already said , the nature of the temperature of every part is so different from another , that according to the old proverb , that which is good for the head is evil for the neck and the shoulders : for even as a strong enemy that invades a town or fortress , although in his siege thereof he do belay and compass it round about , yet he makes his breach and entry at some one or few special parts thereof , which he hath tryed and found to be weakest and least able to resist : so sickness doth make her particular assault upon such part or parts of our body as are weakest and easiest to be overcome by that sort of disease which then doth assail us , although all the rest of the body , by sympathy , feel it self to be as it were belaid and besieged by the affliction of that special part , the grief and smart thereof being by the sence of feeling dispersed through all the rest of the members ; and therefore the skilful physician presses by such cures to purge and strengthen that part which is afflicted , as are onely fit for that sort of disease , and do best agree with the nature of that infirm part ; which being abused to a disease of another nature , would prove as hurtful to the one , as helpful for the other ; yea , not onely will a skilful and wary physician be careful to use no cure , but that which is fit for that sort of disease ; but he will also consider all other circumstances , and make the remedies sutable thereunto , as the temperature of the clime , where the patient is , the constitution of the planets , the time of the moon , the season of the year , the age and complexion of the patient , the present state of his body in strength or weakness : for one cure must not ever be used for the self same disease but according to the varying of any of the aforesaid circumstances , that sort of remedy must be used which is fittest for the same : where by the contrary in this case , such is the miraculous omnipotency of our strong-tasted tobacco , as it cures all sorts of diseases ( which never any drug could do before ) in all persons , and at all times . it cures all manner of distillations , either in head or stomach ( if you believe their axioms ) although in very deed is do both corrupt the brain , and , by causing over quick digestion , fill the stomach full of crudities . it cures the gout in the feet , and ( which is miraculous ) in that very instant when the smoke thereof , as light , flyes up into the head , the vertue thereof , as heavy , runs down to the little toe : it helps all sorts of agues ; it makes a man sober , that was drunk ; it refreshes a weary man , and yet makes a man hungry ; being taken when they go to bed , it makes one sleep soundly ; and yet being taken when a man is sleepy and drowsie , it will , as they say , awaken his brain , and quicken his understanding ; as for curing of the pox , it serves for that use , but among the pocky indian slaves . here in england it is refined , and will not deign to cure here any other then cleanly and gentlemanly diseases . o omnipotent power of tobacco ! and if it could by the smoke thereof chase out devils , as he smoke of tobias fish did ( which , i am sure , could smell no stronger ) it would serve for a precious relict , both for the superstitious priests , and the insolent puritans , to cast out devils withall . admitting then , and not confessing , that the use thereof were healthful for some sorts of diseases , should it be used for all sicknesses ? should it be used by all men ? should it be used at all times ? yea , should it be used by able , young , strong , healthful men ? medicine hath that vertue , that it never leaves a man in that state wherein it finds him ; it makes a sick man whole , but a whole man sick : and as medicine helps nature , being taken at time of necessity ; so being ever and continually used , it doth but weaken , weary , and wear nature . what speak i of medicine ? nay , let a man every hour of the day , or as oft as many in this country use to take tobacco ; let a man , i say , but take as oft the best sorts of nourishments , in meat and drink , that can be devised , he shall , with the continual use thereof , weaken both his head and his stomach , all his members shall become feeble , his spirits dull , and in the end , as a drowsie , lasie belly-god , he shall ●vanish in a lethargy . and from this weakness it preceeds , that many in this kingdom have had such a continual use of taking this unsavory smoke , as now they are not able to forbear the same , no more then an old drunkard can abide to be long sober , without falling into an incurable weakness , and evil constitution ; for their continual custom hath made to them habitum , alteram naturam : so to those that , from their birth , have been continually nourished upon poyson , and things venemous , wholesome meats are onely poysonable . thus having , as i trust , sufficiently answered the most principal arguments that are used in defence of this vile custome . it rests onely to inform you , what sins and vanities you commit in the filthy abuse thereof : first , are you not guilty of sinful and shameful lust , ( for lust may be as well in any of the sences as in feeling ) that although you be troubled with no disease , but in perfect health , yet can you neither be merry at an ordinary , nor lascivious in the stews , if you lack tobacco to provoke your apetite to any of those sorts of recreation ; lusting after it as the children of israel did in the wilderness after quails . secondly , it is as you use , or rather abuse it , a branch of the sin of drunkenness , which is the root of all sins ; for as the onely delight that drunkards take in wine , is in the strength of the tast , and the force of the some thereof that mounts up to the brain ; for no drunkards love any weak or sweet drink ; so are not those ( i mean the strong heat and fume ) the only qualities that make tobacco so delectable to all the lovers of it ? and as no man likes strong heady drink the first day ( because nemo repente fit turpissimus ) but by custom is piece and piece allured , while , in the end , a drunkard will have as great a thrist to be drunk , as a sober man to quench his thirst with a draught , when he hath need of it . so is not this the very case of all the great takers of tobacco , which therefore they themselves do attribute to a bewitching quality in it ? thirdly , is it not the greatest sin of all , that you , the people of all sorts of this kingdom , who are created and ordained by god , to bestow both your persons and goods for the maintainance both of the honour and safety of your king and common-wealth , should disable your selves in both ? in your persons , having by this continual vile custom brought your selves to this shameful imbecillity , that you are not able to ride or walk the journey of a jews sabbath , but you must have reeky coal brought you from the next poor house to kindle your tobacco with ; whereas he cannot be thought able for any service in the wars , that cannot endure oftentimes the want of meat , drink and sleep , much more then must he endure the want of tobacco : in the times of the many glorious and victorious battles fought by this nation , there was no word of tobacco ; but now if it were time of wars , and that you were to make some sudden cavalcado upon your enemies ; if any of you should seek leisure to stay behind his fellow for taking of tobacco , for my part , i should never be sorry for any evil chance that might befall him : to take a custome in any thing that cannot be left again , is most harmful to the people of any land. mollities and delicacy were the rack and overthrow , first of the persian , and next of the roman empire . and this very custom of taking tobacco ( whereof our present purpose is ) is even at this day accompted so effeminate among the indians themselves , as in the market they will offer no price for a slave to be sold , whom they find to be a great tobacco-taker . now how you are by this custome disabed in your goods , let the gentry of this land bear witness , some of them bestowing three , some four hundred pounds a year upon this precious stink , which , i am sure , might be bestowed upon many far better uses . i read indeed of a knavish courtier , who for abusing the favour of the emperour alexander severus , his master , by taking bribes to intercede for sundry persons in his masters ear ( for whom he never once opened his mouth ) was justly choked with smoke , with this doom , fumo pereat quifummum vendidit . but of so many smoke-buyers as are at this present in this kingdom , i never read nor heard . and for the vanities committed in this filthy custome , is it not both great vanity and uncleanness , that at the table , a place of respect , of cleanliness , of modesty , men should not be ashamed to sit tossing of tobacco-pipes , and puffing of the smoke of tobacco one to another , making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale athwart the dishes , and infect the air , when very often men that abhor it are at their repast : surely smoke becomes a kitchin far better then a dining-chamber , and yet it makes a kitchin also oftentimes in the inward parts of men , soyling and infecting them with an unctious and oylie kind of soot , as hath been found in some great tobacco-takers , that after their death were opened : and not onely meat-time , but no other time nor action is exempted from the publique use of this uncivil trick ; so as if the wives of diep list to contest with this nation for good manners , their worst manners would in all reason be found at least not so dishonest ( as ours are ) in this point , the publick use whereof at all times , and in all places , hath now so far prevailed , as divers men very sound both in judgment and complexion , have been at last forced to take it also , without desire , partly because they were ashamed to seem singular , ( like the two philosophers that were forced to duck themselves in that rain-water , and so became fools as well as the rest of the people ) and partly to be as one that was content to eat garlick ( which he did not love ) that he might not be troubled with the smell of it in the breath of his fellows . and is it not a great vanity that a man cannot heartily welcome his friend now , but straight they must be in hand with tobacco : no , it is become in place of a cure , a point of good fellowship ; and he that will refuse to take a pipe of tobacco among his fellows ( though by his own election he would rather smell the savor of a sink ) is accompted peevish , and no good company ; even as they do with tipling in the cold eastern-countries , yea the mistriss cannot in a more mannerly kind entertain her servant , then by giving him out of her fair hand a pipe of tobacco ; but herein is not only a great vanity , but a great contempt of god's good gifts , that the sweetness of mans breath being a good gift of god , should be wilfully corrupted by this stinking smoke , wherein i must confess it hath too strong of vertue , and so that which is an ornament of nature , and can neither by any artifice be at the first acquired , nor once lost be recovered again , shall be filthily corrupted with an incurable stink , which vile quality is as directly contrary to that wrong opinion which is holden of the wholesomeness thereof , as the venome of putrifaction is contrary to the vertue preservative . moreover , which is a great iniquity , and against all humanity , the husband shall not be ashamed to reduce thereby his delicate , wholesome , and clean-complexion'd wife to that extremity , that either she must also corrupt her sweet breath therewith , or else resolve to live in a perpetual stinking torment . have you not reason then to be ashamed , and to forbear this filthy novelty , so basely grounded , so foolishly received , and so grosly mistaken in the right use thereof : in your abuse thereof sinning against god , harming your selves both in persons and goods , and raking also thereby the marks and notes of vanity upon you ; by the custome thereof , making your selves to be wondered at by all forreign civil nations , and by all strangers that come among you , to be scorned and contempted ; a custome loathsome to the eye , hateful to the nose , harmful to the brain , dangerous to the lungs , and in the black stinking fume thereof , nearest resembling the horrible stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomless . dr. maynwaring's serious cautions against tobacco , collected out of his treatise of the scurvy , page . another grand procuring and promoting cause of the scurvy is , tobacco ; not taken notice of by any i meet with in print . and here we may charge much of the frequency , and the unwonted phaenomena , or symptomatical appearance of this disease , upon the late custome of taking tobacco . many wonder that the scurvy should so much abound now in most places , and become so common and obvious now to every eye , that was so rarely taken notice of in former times , notwithstanding some of its procuring causes were very antique . but we need not wonder so much , if we consider the manner of living in former ages , compared with our own ; new customes and diets beget new diseases , or modifie the old so , as they seem to be new , in their unwonted manner , or frequency of appearance . the scurvy being altered and differenced now from what it was in ancient times ; that the phaenomena or symptomes of the disease in the syndrome and concurrence , is not exact alike with the description of the ancients ; which hath caused a doubt , and it is held by some physicians , that the scurvy is a new disease : but it is the old scurvy dressed in a new garb , which by new procuring causes , and additional complications , is become more depravel , more frequent , and more enlarged : few persons but harbour this unwelcome guest . as an additional procurer of the scurvy , tobacco comes now to be examined , since whose general use the scurvy hath much increased , and is become the most epidemical . that this plant is injurious and destructive to nature , and consequently an introducer of the scurvy will appear , if we consider the effects that supervene and follow the taking of it . the consequents or effects may be divided into two sorts ; first , such as accompany or supervene the first use of it . secondly , such as follow the long and constant use of it . symptoms arising upon the first and unaccustomed use of smoking it , are vomiting , giddiness , fainting , drunkenness sleepiness , depravation of the sences , and such like as follow upon the taking of some kind of poysons . effects upon the accustomed familiar use of it , are , salivation , drawing a flux of moisture to the mouth , and drayning the body ; heat , dryness , lassitude and weariness of the spirits , a dulness and indisposition of mind after ; apt to sleep , a filthy unsavory tast in the mouth , a check to to the stomach or appetite . the latent and more secret effects wrought in the body by the constant smoking of tobacco , are ; the inducing a scorbutick disposition , and promoting it where it is already radicated . and this is procured these wayes : first , by depressing the spirits , and alienating them from their genuine propriety and purity . secondly , by vitiating the stomach , and depraving the palate . thirdly , by exhausting the dulcid good juyce of the body , leaving behind and procuring the remainder more viscous , acrid and sharpe . fourthly , by prejudicing and weakening the lungs and vital parts . that it hath a property to depress and clog the spirits , is apparent by its narcotick vertue , causing a dulness , heaviness , lassitude , and disposing to sleep after the use of it . that it alienates the spirits , is concluded from its virulent nature , and discord with our nature , and that is argued from the symptoms that attend the first use . that it is noxious to the stomach ( the first grand laboratory of the body ) is rational to assert ; for as tobacco affects the mouth with an ill stinking tast , so the stomach also goes not free , but is tainted with it , which is communicated to the food received . now considering the nature of tobacco , as it is hot and dry , acrid , salt , biting , purgative , or rather virulent , altogether medicinal , and not alimental ; and this constantly to impregnate and tincture our nutimental success with these properties and qualities , we cannot otherwise expect by length of time and daily use , but that it will shew its power and vertue to change and alter our bodies ; since it is not nutritive , but medicinal , estranged , and at a great distance from the nature of our bodies , not fit to nourish , but to alter and produce some notable effects . so great a sympathy there is between the stomach and mouth , that the one is not affected , but the other is drawn into consent ; if the stomach be foul , the mouth hath an ill relish ; and if the mouth distasts any thing , the stomach nauseates at it . now this great harmony and consent between these two , ariseth upon this accompt ; the mouth is appointed by nature the stomachs taster , to judge and discern what is fit and agreeable for the stomach to receive ; and therefore the same membrane which invests the mouth , and is the instrument of tasting , does also line the stomach , so that hereby what is pleasant and acceptable in the mouth , is gratefully received into the stomach ; now by this affinity and sympathy , you may rationally conclude , that vitiating of the tast by tobacco and tainting the mouth with its stinking scent , must of necessity communicate the same to the stomach , which takes physick every time you take tobacco , does mix with and infect the chile of the stomach , and is conveyed with it into all parts of the body ; and having so great a medicinal power , must needs alter and change the body , according to the properties it is endowed with , by the constant use , and daily reception of it . now tobacco being of an accrimonious , hot , dry , &c. nature , does pervert and change the balsamick juyces of the body into a more sharpe and fiery temper , and alienate them , whereby they are not so amicable and fit for nutrition , as many scorbutick tobacconists do evidence upon examination , and their constitution changed by the evil use of this plant ; and it is very reasonable to expect it , and impute such alterations to the use thereof , since they are the proper effects of such a cause ; the more remarkable discovery , and frequency of the scurvy , may well and justly be imputed to tobacco , since of latter years that tobacco hath been in use , and in those countries where tobacco is much taken , it doth abound most . although i discommend the use of tobacco by smoking it , as an injurious custome , yet i highly applaud it , as very medicinal , being rightly used . i remember about fifteen years since , a patient of mine in derby-shire fell into a great paroxysm of an asthma , almost to suffocation , i exhibited a dose of the sirrup of tobacco , which gave him present help , and within a few hours was relieved , that he could draw his breath with much ease and freedome : and about a year after , at maxfield in cheshire , i cured a gentlewoman of an ulcer in ano of seven years standing , chiefly with the ointment of tobacco ; and although other things were used , yet i ascribe most of the cure to that unguent . and in many other cases tobacco is of good use , which i have experienced ; but smoking of it i find to be hurtful , if it be customary . i shall not be so strict and severe against the use of it , as to forbid all persons the smoking it upon any score whatever ; for that which may be used at certain times as medicinal , upon just occasions requiring in some persons , may prove very bad and pernicious upon the constant and general use ; and this is the case of tobacco . tobacconists , whom custome hath ensnared , and brought them to delight in it , are willing to be perswaded and deluded , that it is good and wholesome , at least harmless ; the pretences which they urge in defence of it , are such as these : some plead for it , and use it after meat , as a help to digestion , and therefore take it as a good remedy against a bad stomach and weak digestion . to this i answer , they are much mistaken herein , not distinguishing between digestion , and precipitation of meat out of the stomach ; digestion is not performed but in due time , by retexture , alteration , fermentation , and volatization of meat , and till then , is not fit to pass out of the digestive-office , which requires some hours more or less , according to the nature of the food received , of facil or difficil digestion ; now that which provokes the stomach to a distribution of semi-digested chyle , and unloading it self before digestion be finished and perfected , offers great injury to the body ; and this is the case of tobacco ( by its lavative stimulating properties ) which error committed in the first digestive-office is not corrected , nor the damage recompenced by the accuteness and strong elaborations of the subsequent digestions ; and for this reason in part , the scurvy is procured hereby . some take tobacco for refreshment after labour , and divertisement of serious thoughts , being tired with business , study and musing . true it is , tobacco puts a suspension upon serious thoughts , and gives a relaxation for a time in some persons ; others contemplate , and run over their business with more delight , by the help and during the taking of a pipe : but both these persons though seemingly delighted and refreshed for a short time , yet afterwards the spirits are lassated and tired , and are more flat , dull and somnolent , when the pipe is out ; this was but a cheat , the spirits were not truly refreshed , invigorated and reinforced ; as wine does enliven and make brisk the spirits , by affording and communicating an additional supply ; but by the fume of tobacco the spirits are a little inebriated and agitated by an other motion then their own , which is a seeming refreshment , and short , not real , substantial and lasting . others plead for tobacco , and take it as a remedy against rheume , because a great dryer and exhauster of superfluous moisture . to evince the error of this opinion , consider what is the cause whereby rheumes and crude moisture in the body do abound ; and then you will plainly see , whether smoking tobacco be a proper or likely remedy to prevent or oppose it . phlegm and superfluous moisture does arise and abound in the body , from a deficiency and debility of the digestions , as also impediment or impotency of the expulsive faculty , that the remainders after digestion be not transmitted by the common ductures . now this fume of tobacco gives no roboration , adds no strength to the digestive faculties , having no symbolical qualities to comply with , and assist them , is very plain . also that separation and expulsion of superfluous moisture by this fume , is not promoted and transmitted through the more commodious ductures and passages appointed by nature for emission ; onely a salivation by the mouth is procured , which brings no advantage , but detriment ; for this flux of moisture doth not arise as critical , from the impulsion of nature , separating and protruding ; but from a promiscuous attraction of fluid moisture , ( by vertue of its acrimonious heat ) as well the landable , util succus , as the degenerated and superfluous ; so that constantly draining the body of this dulcid serosity , must cause many inconveniencies through the want of it , in as much as it is very serviceable to the body , in the integrity of its nature , but being alienated , is then reduced or vented by better means , nature concurring with the medicine : but admit this did attract only excrementitious moisture ( which it does not ) yet considering it vitiates the stomach , and impregnates the chyle , with its evil properties , 't is much better to forbear then to use it ; that benefit would not recompence this injury . and further , that which is a preventing or curative remedy of superfluous moisture , rheume , or phlegmatique matter , applies à priori to the digestions , the springs from whence such effects do arise ; not à posteriori to the producted matter , which this fume seems to pump out , but does not stop the leak , is therefore no radical medicine ; and they that smoke tobacco upon this accompt as a great dryer , and exhauster of superfluous moisture , are much deceived in the expected benefit ; it onely brings a current of moisture , which ought to be expended otherwise , but it abates nothing in the fountain or springs ; rather augments , and makes an overflow , ( for the reasons aforesaid ) as tobacconists do evidence by their much spitting . object . some may say , i never took tobacco , and yet i have the symptomes of the scurvy as bad as any that have taken it . answ . this may be so , from other great procuring causes ; and yet tobacco notwithstanding may be one great procurer in other persons . the scurvy does not require all the procuring causes to concur in its production , but sometimes one , and sometimes another is able to do it ; and although you take no tobacco , yet perhaps your parents did , or theirs ; and it is sufficient to make you fare the worse ; bad customes and abusive living extends farther then the person so offending : it is transmitted to their off-spring , as in another work i have noted in these words . but yet the crime were less , if onely to themselves the prejudice did extend , but also to posterity their diseases are propagated ; the children having impressed upon them , and radicated in the principals of their nature , the seminal power and productive vertue of inordinate and intemperate living of their genitors and progenitors , that the children may bear witness to the following age , the vice and folly of their parents and predecessors , recorded and characterised in them , &c. hereby you may understand , that evil customes ( as of smoking tobacco ) do not injure onely the person doing so , but the generation after them are prejudiced : and , here by the way , we may take notice of the many rickity children in this latter age , since the use of tobacco , which disease was not known , before the frequent use of it . tobacco does enervate and debilitate the faculties , that we may rationally expect the children from this generation to be scorbutick , rickity , and more feeble then formerly . amurath the fourth of that name , grand seignior of the turkish empire , put forth his edict againgst the smoking of tobacco , and made it a capital crime for any that should so use it ; the reason of this severe prohibition was , that it did render his people infertile : i shall not urge the inconvenience of . tobacco so far , but this i may assext , that it causeth an infirm generation , by debilitating the parents , and rendering them scorbutick , which impressions are carried in semine to their children , and makes a diseased issue . and i observed in virginia , being some time in that colony , that the planters who had lived long there , being great smokers , were of a withered decayed countenance , and very scorbutick , being exhausted by this imoderate fume ; nor are they long-lived , but do shorten their dayes by the intemperate use of tobacco and brandy . king james , that learned philosophical prince of this nation , wisely considering the nature of this plant , and having a good stoxastick head to foresee the inconveniencies that would arise to his people , by the ill custome of smoking it , he being the great physcian of the body politick , does excellently dehort his subjects ( being tender of their future welfare ) from this noxious fume , and writes an invective against it ; whose oratory and solid arguments were enough to have broken the neck of this custome , had they any regard to his kindness , or sense of their own good , and of their posterity . i might have enlarged my self upon this subject , and run over most scorbutick symptomes , shewing how they are either first procured or aggravated by this fume : but from what hath been said already , it plainly appears , that tobacco is a great procurer and promoter of the scurvy , in as much as many scorbutick symptomes are the proper effects of smoking tobacco , as lassitude , dulness , somnolency , spitting , ill tast in the mouth , &c. and although some few persons either by the strength of nature , do strongly resist the bad impressions it sets upon several parts of the body , or by the peculiarity of nature is less offensive and hurtful to some , or brings some particular benefit ( amongst its many ill properties ) that makes it seemingly good ; yet insensibly and by time it damageth all ; and those few good effects in some few persons are not of validity to give it a general approbation and use , and free it from the censure of a great procurer of the scurvy , but may be justly reckoned in that catalogue . preservation of health in the choice of drinks , and regular drinking . drink for necessity , not for bad fellowship ; especially soon after meat , which hinders the due fermentation of the stomach , and washeth down before digestion be finished : but after the first concoction , if you have a hot stomach , a dry or costive body , you may drink more freely then others : or if thirst importunes you at any time , to satisfie with a moderate draught is better then to forbear . accustom youth and strong stomachs to small drink , but stronger drink , and wine , to the infirm and aged : it chears the spirits , quickens the appetite , and helps digestion , moderately taken : but being used in excess , disturbs the course of nature , and procures many diseases : for corpulent gross and fat bodies , thin , hungry , abstersive penetrating wines are best , as white-wine , rhenish , and such like . for lean thin bodies ; black , red and yellow wines , sweet , full bodied and fragrant , are more fit and agreeable ; as malaga , muscadel , tent , alicant and such like . for drink , whether it be wholsomer warmed than cold , is much controverted ; some stifly contending for the one , and some for the other : i shall rather chuse the middle way , with limitation and distinction , then impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health , the observations of the one or the other . there are three sorts of persons , one cannot drink cold beer , the other cannot drink warm , the third , either : you that cannot drink cold beer , to you it is hurtful , cools the stomach , and checks it much : therefore keep to warm drink as a wholsome custome : you that cannot drink warm beer , that is , find no refreshment , nor thirst satified by it , you may drink it cold , nor is it injurious to you : you that are indifferent and can drink either , drink yours cold , or warmed , as the company does , since your stomach makes no choice . that warm drink is no bad custom , but agreeable to nature in the generality ; first , because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the body , and similia similibus conservantur , every thing is preserved by its like , and destroyed by its contrary . secondly , though i do not hold it the principal agent in digestion , yet it does excite , is auxiliary , and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion , ut signum & causa . thirdly , omne frigus per se , & proviribus destruit ; cold in its own nature , and according to the graduation of its power , extinguisheth natural heat , and is destructive ; but per accidens , and as it is in gradu remisso , it may contemperate , allay , and refresh , where heat abounds , and is exalted . therefore as there is variety of palates and stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of meats and drinks , which to others are utterly disgustful , disagreeing and injurious , though good in themselves : so is it in drink warmed or cold ; what one finds a benefit in , the other receives a prejudice ; at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment , under such a qualification ; because of the various natures , particular appetitions , and idiosyncratical properties of several bodies , one thing will not agree with all : therefore he that cannot drink warm , let him take it cold , and it is well to him ; but he that drinks it warm , does better . and this is to be understood in winter , when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the spirits of the liquor in a torpid inactivity ; which by a gentle warmth are unfettered , volatile and brisk ; whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the stomachs fermenting heat being so prepared , then to be made so by it . there are three sorts of drinkers : one drinks to satisfie nature , and to support his body ; without which he cannot well subsist , and requires it as recessary to his being . another drinks a degree beyond this man , and takes a larger dose , with this intention , to exhilarate and chear his mind , to banish cares and trouble , and help him to sleep the better ; and these two are lawful drinkers . a third drinks neither for the good of the body , or the mind , but to stupifie and drown both ; by exceeding the former bounds , and running into excess , frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by nature ; converting this support of life and health , making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death . many such there are , who drink not to satifie nature , but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination ; and when there is a reluctancy against it : as drunkards , that pour in liquor , not for love of the drink , or that nature requires it by thirst , but onely to maintain the mad frollick , and keep the company from breaking up . some to excuse this intemperance , hold it as good physick to be drunk once a moneth , and plead for that liberty as a wholsome custome , and quote the authority of a famous physician for it . whether this opinion be allowable , and to be admitted in the due regiment for preservation of health , is fit to be examined . it is a canon established upon good reason ; that every thing exceeding its just bounds , and golden mediocrity , is hurtful to nature . the best of things are not excepted in this general rule ; but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion . the supports of life may prove the procurers of death , if not qualified and made wholsome by this corrective . meat and drink is no longer sustenance , but a load and overcharge , if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person ; and then they are not , what they are properly in themselves , and by the appointment of nature , the preservatives of life and health ; but the causes of sickness , and consequently of death . drink was not appointed man , to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties , but to supply , nourish , and strengthen them . drink exceeding its measure , is no longer a refreshment , to irrigate and water the thirsty body , but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers . it puts a man out of the state of health , and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind , that we may look upon the man , as going out of the world , because he is already gone out of himself , and strangely metamorphosed from what he was . i never knew sickness or a disease , to be good preventing physick ; and to be drunk , is no other then an unsound state , and the whole body out of frame by this great change . what difference is there between sickness and drunkenness ? truly i cannot distinguish them otherwise then as genus and species : drunkenness being a raging disease , denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses , by its procatarctick or procuring cause , drink . that drunkenness is a disease or sickness , will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a disease , and is far distant from a state of health : for as health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind ; and sickness , when the functions are not performed , or weakly and depravedly : then ebriety may properly be said to be a disease or sickness , because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs , of an acute and great disease : for , during the time of drunkenness , and some time after , few of the faculties perform rightly , but very depravedly and preternatually : if we examine the intellectual faculties , we shall find the reason gone , the memory lost or much abated , and the will strangely perverted : if we look into the sensitive faculties , they are disordered , and their functions impedited , or performed very deficiently : the eyes do not see well , nor the ears hear well , nor the palate remifh , &c. the speech faulters and is imperfect ; the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates ; his legs fail : indeed if we look through the whole man , we shall see all the faculties depraved , and their functions either not executed , or very disorderly and with much deficiency . now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses , we judge a man not likely to live long ; and that it is very hard he should recover ; the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness , and prognosticate a bad event : here is nothing appears salutary ; but from head to foot , the disease is prevalent in every part ; which being collated , the syndrom is lethal , and judgment to be given so . surely then drunkenness is a very great disease for the time , but because it is not usually mortal , nor lasts long ; therefore it it slighted , and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self . but now the question may be asked ; why is not drunkenness usually mortal ? since the same signs in other diseases are accounted mortal , and the event proves if so . to which i answer ; all the hopes we have that a man drunk should live , is ; first , from common experience that it is not deadly : secondly , from the nature of the primitive or procuring cause , strong drink or wine ; which although it rage , and strangely discompose the man for a time , yet it lasts not long , nor is mortal . the inebriating spirits of the liquor , flowing in so fast , and joyning with the spirits of mans body , make so high a tide , that overflows all the banks and bounds of order : for , the spirits of mans body , those agents in each faculty , act smoothly , regularly and constantly , with a moderate supply ; but being overcharged , and forced out of their natural course , and exercise of their duty , by the large addition of furious spirits ; spurs the functions into strange disorders , as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution ; but yet it proves not mortal . and this , first , because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature , and therefore not so deadly injurious , as that which is not so familiar or noxious . secondly , because they are very volatile , light , and active ; nature therefore does much sooner recover her self , transpires and sends forth the overplus received ; then if the morbifick matter were more ponderous and fixed ; the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing : as an over-charge of meat , bread , fruit , or such like substances not spirituous ; but dull and heavy ( comparativè ) is of more difficult digestion , and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties , having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist nature , nor of so liquid a fine substance , of quicker and easier digestion : so that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous , then those peracute distempers arising from liquors . so likewise those bad symptoms in other diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal ( then the like arising from drunkenness ) because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes ; or such as by time are radicated in the body ; or from the defection of some principal part : but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness , as it is suddenly raised , so commonly it soon falls , depending upon benign causes , and a spiritucus matter , that layes not so great an oppression ; but inebriates the spirits , that they act very disorderly and unwontedly ; or by the soporiferous vertue , stupefies them for a time , untill they recover their agility again . but all this while , i do not see , that to be drunk once a moneth , should prove good physick : all i think that can be said in this behalf , is ; that by overcharging the stomach , vomiting is procured ; and so carries off something that was lodged there , which might breed diseases . this is a bad excuse for good fellows , and a poor plea for drunkenness : for the gaining of one supposed benefit ( which might be obtained otherwise ) you introduce twenty inconveniences by it . i do not like the preventing of one disease that may be , by procuring of one at the present certainly , and many hereafter most probably : and if the disease feared , or may be , could be prevented no otherwise , but by this drunken means ; then that might tollerate and allow it : but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards , then by overcharging with strong drink , and making the man to unman himself ; the evil consequents of which are many , the benefit hoped for , but pretended ; or if any , but very small and inconsiderable . and although , as i said before , the drunken fit is not mortal , and the danger perhaps not great for the present ; yet those drunken bouts being repeated ; the relicts do accumulate , debilitate nature , and lay the foundation of many chronick diseases . nor can it be expected otherwise ; but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally , that the functions within also , and their motions are strangely disordered : for , the outward madness and unwonted actions , proceed from the internal impulses , and disordered motions of the faculties : which general disturbance and discomposure ( being frequent ) must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humance nature ; and consequently ruine the fabrick of mans body . the ill effects , and more eminent products of ebriety , are ; first , a changing of the natural tone of the stomach , and alienating the digestive faculty ; that instead of a good transmutation of food , a degenerate chyle is produced . common experience tells , that after a drunken debauch , the stomach loseth its appetite , and acuteness of digestion ; as belching , thirst , disrelish , nauseating , do certainly testifie : yet to support nature , and continue the custom of eating , some-food is received ; but we cannot expect from such a stomach that a good digestion should follow : and it is some dayes before the stomach recover its eucrasy , and perform its office well : and if these miscarriages happen but seldom , the injury is the less , and sooner recompenced ; but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices , the stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity . secondly , an unwholsome corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow : or a degenerate macilency , and a decayed consumptive constitution . great drinkers that continue it long , few of them escape , but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body : for , if the stomach discharge not its office aright ; the subsequent digestions will also be defective . so great a consent and dependance is there upon the stomach ; that other parts cannot perform their duty , if this leading principal part be perverted and debauched : nor can it be expected otherwise ; for , from this laboratory and prime office of digestion , all the parts must receive their supply ; which being not suteable , but depraved , are drawn into debauchery also , and a degenerate state ; and the whole body fed with a vitious alimentary succus . now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery , happens upon this score . as there are different properties and conditions of bodies ; so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various : one puffs up , fills , and grows hydropical ; another pines away , and falls consumptive , from excess in drinking ; and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts : for , in some persons , although the stomach be vitiated , yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great , from the integrity and vigor of those parts destinated to such offices ; that they act strenuously , though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate ; and therefore do keep the body plump and full , although the juyces be foul , and of a depraved nature . others è contra , whose parts are not so firm and vigorous ; that will not act upon any score , but with their proper object ; does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter , but receiving it with a nice reluctance , transmits it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture , or emunctory : and from hence the body is frustrated of nutrition , and falls away : so that the pouring in of much liquor ( although it be good in sua natura ) does not beget much aliment , but washeth through the body , and is not assimilated . but here some may object and think ; that washing of the body through with good liquor , should cleanse the body , and make it fit for nourishment , and be like good physick for a foul body . but the effect proves the contrary ; and it is but reason it should be so : for , suppose the liquor ( whether wine , or other ) be pure and good ; yet when the spirit is drawn off from it , the remainder is but dead , flat , thick , and a muddy flegm . as we find in the destillation of wine , or other liquors ; so it is in mans body : the spirit is drawn off first , and all the parts of mans body are ready receivers , and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener , freely and readily : but the remainder , of greatest proportion ; that heavy , dull , phlegmy part , and of a narcotick quality ; lies long fluctuating upon the digestions , and passeth but slowly ; turns sowr , and vitiates the crases of the parts : so that this great inundation , and supposed washing of the body , does but drown the faculties , stupefie or choak the spirits , and defile all the parts ; not purifie and cleanse . and although the more subtile and thinner portion , passeth away in some persons pretty freely by vrine ; yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind , and clogs in the percolation . a third injury , and common , manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking , is ; an imbecillity of the nerves ; which is procured from the disorderly motions of the animal spirits ; being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong liquors : which vibration being frequent , begets a habit , and causeth a trepidation of members . transcribed verbatim out of doctor maynwaring's treatise of long life . that it may not be said to be onely one doctors opinion , here is added another collection against tobacco-smoking , written by the learned doctor george thompson , in his book of preservation of the bloud . a bove all , i much condemn the common abuse of tobacco ; out of which , no other symptomes , than a scorbutical venome is accidentally sucked . agreeable to which judgment of mine , is that of the legitimate artist doctor maynwaring , who marks where tobacco is much taken , the scurvy doth most abound : i wish those who are too forward to condemn chymical preparations , ordered by true philosophers , would reflect upon themselves and others , as yet ignorant of pyrotomy , how that they are too forward in rushing into this science ; indirectly making use of a retort with a receiver , i mean a pipe , and the mouth for the reduction of this plant into salt and sulphur , proving not a little injurious to them . if they were conscious how subtil an enemy it is , how hardly to be dealt withall , in a moderate sense ; how insinuating , tempting , deluding ; how disagreeing to nature , as is manifest at first taking it , pretending an evacuation onely of a superfluous moisture , when it also generates the same ; how it wrongs the ventricle ; by reason of a continuity of its membrane , with that of the mouth ; how it taints the nutricious juyce ; how it dozes the brain , impairing its faculties , especially the memory : they would quickly commit this herb to the hand of those that know what belongs to the right management and improvement thereof . i confess it hath a dowry bestowed upon it , which may make it very acceptable to all ingenious artists , for inward and outward uses ; yet as the matter is handled indiscreetly , i know nothing introduced into this nation hath discovered it self more apparently hurtful , in aggravating and graduating this scorbutical evil among us then tobacco . i am not ignorant what some object , that there are those who taking an extraordinary quantity of tobacco , have lived a to great age , as sixty or seventy years . . that multitudes not taking this fume , are yet notwithstanding over run with the scurvy . . that some have protested , they have received certain benefit by this plant , when other remedies prescribed by able physitians have been invalid to relieve them . . that there are places where man , woman and child , take in this smoke , none of these sad effects appearing . as to the first , i answer , one swallow makes no summer ; i reckon this among raro contingentia : i have known one very intemperate in dier , live to the fore-mentioned age ; but doubtless had he regulated himself according to the rules of mediocrity , he might have doubled that age . innate strength of body doth carry a man sometimes through that , without any great damage , which destroys another . . i do not affirm , that this vegetable is the sole co-adjuvant cause of the scurvy , it being certain there are many promoters thereof . besides , yet granted that your great compotators , ventricolae , gormandizers , who have as the grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lazy panches , little else to do but to take tobacco , to pass away the time ; filling pipe after pipe , as fast as possible they can exhaust it , are commonly incident to this feral malady . hereupon this very same specifick disease may be diffused and communicated to others , by expiration or ffluvium , sent out of a body infected therewith ; so that it seems rare to me , that the wife should be exempted from this cacoettick sickness , if the husband be afflicted therewith ; or the husband be free , if the wife be vexed : doubtless some peoples breath doth exceedingly taint the air , to the great annoyance of others . . i condemn not medicinal appropriation and application of this drug , for i knòw it to be of excellent vertue : there is great difference , inter dictum secundum quid & dictum simpliciter , between the censure of any thing as absolutely evil , and the indirect practise of it : moreover , what is one man's meat , may be anothers poyson . . the generality of smoking it in some places , without those ill effects we find , doth not at all frustrate my assertion : for i have observed a more moderate course of life in diet , the goodness of the air , with an hereditary custome , hath in great measure ballanced the nocument or inconveniences , which otherwise they would have contracted by excess thereof ; neither are these numerous tobacconists acquitted from this evil , as it appears by those frequent eruptions in the skin , whereby a greater mischief is prevented within , they being only efflorescences of a scorbutical pravity . there are , as i apprehend , two principal reasons to be given , why this weed hath captivated so many thousands in such sort , that they become meer slaves to it . one is , the seeming delight it affords in the present taking thereof , inducing a pleasing bewitching melancholy , exceedingly affecting their fancies , so that they could wish with him in the poet , hic furor , ô superi , sit mihi perpetuus , o that i might alwayes thus melancholize ; not considering though the prologue be chearful , the epilogue is often sad ; though the spirits are as it were titillated , and charmed into a sweet complacency for a short space ; yet afterward a dulness , gloominess , seizes upon them ; indeed , how can it be otherwise , seeing they are but forcibly lulled into this secure placid condition , by that which is as far remote from the vitals , as the beams of the sun are from a black cloud . i find in this smoke , a stinking , retunding , condensing opiatelike sulphur , and an acrid salt , profligating , extimulating , so that by the bridling much of the one , and the excessive spurring of the other ; the spirits , like a free metalsome horse , are quite tired out at last : it is impossible that the frequent insinuations of this subtil fume , making shew of affinity , but quite of another tribe with the animals , should not at length ( let a body be never so strong , and custom how ever prevalent ) either pervert or subvert his well constituted frame . another reason ( observable only by those that are true gnosticks of themselves ) why tobacco is so highly set by , and hath so many followers ; is its meretricious kisses , given to those that embrace it : oftentimes secretly wounding them mortally , yet are they not throughly sensible who gave them the stroke . i have taken notice of very temperate persons in other things , who , for diversion , have indulged their genious , ad hilaritatem , continuing for urbanitysake in company they liked , longer then ordinary , have so closely pursued this pernicious art of sucking in the smoke of this herb , that never any chymist was more solicitous , in greater hast to fetch his matters over the helm by distillation : behold what the event was ! the next morning i have heard complaints come from them , that their brains were something stupid , dozed , their stomach nauseous , being thirsty , also feaverish : all this they attribute to their transgressing limits of sobriety in drinking , or to the sophisticated adulterated liquors , not finding the least fault with the extravagant use of tobacco , which above all did them the most hurt privately : something i can speak experimentally to this purpose , for having been wedded to it many years past , supposing i had got an antidote against hypochondriack melancholy with an apophlegmatism , to discharge crude matter ; i applauded it in all company , without advertency at that time , how false and treacherous it was , which afterward perceiving , i withdrew my self from the use thereof by degrees , at length was altogether divorced from it . praevisa spicula levius feriunt ; could we see the poysoned arrows that are shot from this plant , questionless we would indeavour to avoid them , that they might less intoxicate us . latet anguis in herba ; we are suddenly surprized by this serpentine plant , before we are aware ; thus that which we take for an antidote , becomes meer poyson to us , supplanting and clancularly confounding the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or good government of this republick , consisting in the strength and goodness of a seminal archeus , vigorous ferments , the just constitution and harmony of every part . needs must then indigestions , crudities , degeneration and illegitimation of the nutricious juyce follow , promoting causes and products of the great poyson of the scurvy . my advice therefore to any immoderate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a fumesucker , is , that he would , as he tenders the salvation of body and soul , wean himself by degrees from excess herein ; if so , doubtless he will find if the scurvy infest him much , an abatement of the tedious symptoms therefore . such as are so accustomed to tobacco , that they cannot forbear it , let what can be said against it ; so that neither the good and solid perswasions of a great , wise , and learned king , nor the wholsome and rational arguments of two able and skilful physicians , will be of force to prevail with them : my advice to such is , while they take it , to meditate on this poem following , by which they may be able to make this double spiritual use of it , viz. i. to see the vanity of the world. ii. the mortality of mankind . which , i think , is the best use can be made of it and the pipe , &c. the indian weed withered quite , green at noon , cut down at night ; shews thy decay , all flesh is hay : thus think , then drink tobacco . the pipe that is so lilly-white , shews thee to be a mortal wight , and even such gone with a touch : thus think , then drink tobacco . and when the smoke ascends on high , think thou behold'st the vanity of worldly stuff , gone with a puff : thus think , then drink tobacco . and when the pipe grows foul within , think on thy souldefil'd with sin , and then the fire it doth require : thus think , then drink tobacco . the ashes that are left behind may serve to put thee still in mind , that unto dust return thou must : thus think , then drink tobacco . answered by george withers thus , thus think , drink no tobacco . woe to drunkards : a sermon preached many years since by mr. samuel ward , preacher of ipswich . prov . . verse , . to whom is woe ? to whom is sorrow ? to whom is strife ? &c. in the end it will bite like a serpent , and sting like a cockatrice . seer , art thou also blind ? watchman , art thou also drunk , or asleep ? or hath a spirit of slumber put out thine eyes ? up to thy watch-tower , what descriest thou ? ah lord ! what end or number is there of the vanities which mine eyes are weary of beholding ? but what seest thou ? i see men walking like the tops of trees shaken with the wind , like masts of ships reeling on the tempestuous seas . drunkenness , i mean , that hateful night-bird ; which was wont to wait for the twilight , to seek nooks and corners , to avoid the howting and wonderment of boys and girls ; now as if it were some eaglet to dare the sun-light , to fly abroad at high noon in every street , in open markets and fairs , without fear or shame , without controul or punishment , to the disgrace of the nation , the out-facing of magistracy and ministry , the utter undoing ( without timely prevention ) of health and wealth , piety and vertue , town and countrey , church and common-wealth . and doest thou like a dumb dog hold thy peace at these things , dost thou with solomon's sluggard fold thine hands in thy bosome , and give thy self to ease and drowsmess , while the envious man causeth the noisomest and baseth of weeds to over-run the choisest eden of god ? up and arise , lift up thy voice , spare not , and cry aloud ? what shall i cry ? cry , woe and woe again unto the crown of pride , the drunkards of ephraim . take up a parable , and tell them how it stingeth like the cockatrice ; declare unto them the deadly poyson of this odious sin . shew them also the soveragin antidote and cure of it , in the cup that was drunk off by him , that was able to overcome it : cause them to behold the brasen serpent , and be healed . and what though some of these deaf adders will not be charmed nor cured , yea though few or none of this swinish herd of habitual drunkards , accustomed to wallow in their mire ; yea , deeply and irrecoverably plunged by legions of devils into the dead sea of their filthiness ; what if not one of them will be washed , and made clean , but turn again to their vomit , and trample the pearls of all admonition under feet ; yea , turn again , and rend their reprovers with scoffs and scorns , making jests and songs on their alebench : yet may some young ones be deterred , and some novices reclaimed , some parents and magistrates awakened to prevent and suppress the spreading of this gangrene : and god have his work in such as belong to his grace . and what is impossible to the work of his grace ? go to then now ye drunkards , listen not what i , or any ordinary hedge-priest ( as you style us ) but that most wise and experienced royal preacher hath to say unto you . and because you are a dull and thick eared generation , he first deals with you by way of question , a figure of force and impression . to whom is woe ? &c. you use to say , woe be to hypocrites . it 's true , woe be to such and all other witting and willing sinners ; but there are no kind-of offenders on whom woe doth so palpably inevitably attend as to you drunkards . you promise your selves mirth , pleasure , and jollity in your cups ; but for one drop of your mad mirth , be sure of gallons , and tuns of woe , gall , wormwood , and bitterness here and hereafter . other sinners shall taste of the cup , but you shall drink off the dregs of god's wrath and displeasure . to whom is strife : you talk of good fellowship and friendship , but wine is a rager and tumultuous make-bate , and sets you a quarreling , and medling . when wit 's out of the head and strength out of the body , it thrusts even cowards and dastards , unfenced and unarmed , into needless frayes and combats . and then to whom are wounds , broken heads , blue eyes , maimed limbs ? you have a drunken by-word , drunkards take no harm ; but how many are the mishaps and untimely misfortunes that betide such , which though they feel not in drink , they carry as marks and brands to their grave . you pretend you drink healths , and for health ; but to whom are all kind of diseases , infirmities , deformities , pearled faces , palsies , dropfies , head-aches ? if not to drunkards . upon these premises , he forcibly infers his sober and serious advise . look upon these woful effects and evils of drunkenness , and look not upon the wine ; look upon the blue . wounds , upon the red eyes it causeth , and look not on the red colour when it sparkleth in the cup. if there were no worse then these , yet would no wise man be overtaken with wine : as if he should say , what see you in the cup or drink , that countervaileth these dreggs that lie in the bottom . behold , this is the sugar , you are to look for , and the tang it leaves behind . woe and alas , sorrow and strife , shame , poverty and diseases ; these are enough to make it odious , but that which followeth withall , will make it hideous and fearful . for solomon duely considering that he speaks to men past shame and grace , senseless of blowes , and therefore much more of reasons and words , insisteth not upon these party woes ; which they , bewitched and besotted with the love of wine , will easily over-see and over-leap : but sets before their eyes the direful end and fruit , the black and poyfonful tail of this sin . in the end it stingeth like the serpent , it biteth like the cockatrice , ( or adder ) faith our new translation . all interpreters agree , that he means some most virulent serpent , whose poyson is present and deadly . all the woes he hath mentioned before , were but as the sting of some emmet , waspe , or nettle , in comparison of this cockatrice which is even unto death ; death speedy , death painful , and woful death , and that as naturally and inevitably , as opium procureth sleep , as hellebore purgeth , or any poyson killeth . three forked is this sting , and three fold is the death it procureth to all that are strung therewith . the first is , the death of grace ; the second is , of the body : the third is , of soul and body eternal . all sin is the poyson wherewithall the old serpent and red dragon envenomes the soul of man , but no sin ( except it be that which is unto death ) so mortal as this , which though not ever unpardonably , yet for the most part is also irrecoverably and inevitably unto death . seest thou one bitten with any other snake , there is hope and help : as the father said of his son , when he had information of his gaming , of his prodigality , yea , of his whoring : but when he heard that he was poysoned with drunkenness , he gave him for dead , his case for desperate and forlorn . age and experience often cures the other ; but this encreaseth with years , and parteth not till death . whoring is a deep ditch , yet some few shall a man see return and lay hold on the wayes of life , one of a thousand , but scarce one drunkard of ten thousand . one ambrose mentions , and one have i known ; and but one of all that ever i knew or heard of . often have i been asked , and often have i enquired , but never could meet with an instance , save one or two at the most . i speak of drunkards , not of one drunken ; of such who rarely and casually have noah-like been surprised , over-taken at unawares : but if once a custome , ever necessity . wine takes away the heart , and spoils the brain , overthrows the faculties and organs of repentance and resolution . and is it not just with god , that he who will put out his natural light , should have his spiritual extinguished ? he that will deprive himself of reason , should lose also the guide and pilot of reason , god's spirit and grace : he that will wittingly and willingly make himself an habitation of unclean spirits , should not dispossess them at his own pleasure ? most aptly therefore is it translated by tremelius hamorrbois , which gesner confounds with the dipsas , or thirsty serpent , whose poyson breedeth such thirst , drought , and inflamation ; like that of ratsbane , that they never leave drinking , till they burst and die withall . would it not grieve and pitty and christian-soul , to see a towardly hopeful young man , well natured , well nurtured , stung with this cockatrice , bewailing his own case , crying out against the baseness of the sin , inveighing against-company , melting under the perswasions of friends ; yea , protesting against all enticements , vow , covenant , and seriously indent with himself and his friends for the relinquishing of it : and yet if he meet with a companion that holds but up his finger , he follows him as a fool to the stocks , and as an oxe to the slaughter-house , having no power to withstand the temptation ; but in he goes with him to the tipling-house , not considering that the chambers are the chambers of death , and the guests , the guests of death ; and there he continues as one bewitched , or conjured in a spell ; out of which he returns not , till he hath emptied his purse of money , his head of reason , and his heart of all his former seeming grace . there his eyes behold the strange woman , his heart speaketh perverse things , becoming heartless , as one ( saith solomon ) in the heart of the sea , resolving to continue , and return to his vomit , whatsoever it cost him , to make it his daily work . i was sick , and knew it not : i was struck , and felt it not ; when i awake , i will seek it still . and why indeed ( without a miracle ) should any expect that one stung with this viper should shake it off , and ever recover of it again . yea , so far are they from recovering themselves , that they infect and become contagious and pestilent to all they come near . the dragon infusing his venome , and assimulating his elses to himself in no sin so much as in this , that it becomes as good as meat and drink to them , to spend their wit and money to compass ale-house after ale-house ; yea , town after town , to transform others with their circean-cups , till they have made them bruits and swine , worse then themselves . the adulterer and usurer desire to enjoy their sin alone ; but the chiefest pastime of a drunkard is to heat and overcome others with wine , that he may discover their nakedness and glory in their foyl and folly . in a word , excess of wine , and the spirit of grace are opposites ; the former expels the latter out of the heart , as smoke doth bees out of the hive : and makes the man a meer slave and prey to satan and his snares ; when , by this poyson , he hath put out his eyes , and spoyled him of his strength , he useth him as the philistins did sampson , leads him in a string whither he pleaseth , like a very drudge , scorn , and make-sport to himself and his imps ; makes him grind in the mill of all kind of sins and vices . and that i take to be the reason why drunkenness is not specially prohibited in any one of the ten commandments , because it is not the single breach of any one , but in effect the violation of all and every one : it is no one sin , but all sins , because it is the in-let and sluce to all other sins . the devil having moistened , and steeped him in his liquor ; shapes him like soft clay , into what mould he pleaseth : having shaken off his rudder and pilot , dashes his soul upon what rocks , sands , and syrts he listeth , and that with as much ease as a man may push down his body with the least thrust of his hand or finger . he that in his right wits , and sober mood , seems religious , modest , chast , courteous , secret ; in his drunken fits , swears , blasphemes , rages , strikes , talks filthily , blabs all secrets , commits folly , knows no difference of persons or sexes , becomes wholly at satans command , as a dead organ , to be enacted at his will and pleasure . oh that god would be pleased to open the eyes of some drunkard , to see what a dunghill and carrion his soul becomes , and how loathsome effects follow upon thy spiritual death , and sting of this cockatrice , which is the fountain of the other two following , temporal and eternal death ! and well may it be , that some such as are altogether fearless and careless of the former death , will yet tremble , and be moved with that which i shall in the second place tell them . among all other sins that are , none brings forth bodily death so frequently as this , none so ordinarily slays in the act of sin as this . and what can be more horrible then to die in the act of a sin , without the act of repentance ? i pronounce no definitive sentence of damnation upon any particular so dying , but what door of hope or comfort is left to their friends behind of their salvation ? the whore-master he hopes to have a space and time to repent in age , though sometimes it pleaseth god that death strikes cozbi and zimri napping , as the devil is said to slay one of the popes in the instant of his adultery , and carry him quick to hell. the swearer and blasphemer hath commonly space , though seldom grace , to repent and amend : and some rare examples stories afford , of some taken with oaths and blasphemies in their mouths . the thief and oppossor may live , and repent , and make restitution , as zacheus : though i have seen one slain right-out with the timber he stole half an hour before ; and heard of one that having stoln a sheep , and laying it down upon a stone to rest him , was grin'd and hang'd with the strugling of it about his neck . but these are extraordinary and rare cases : god sometimes practising marshal-law , and doing present execution , left fools shall say in their hearts , there were no god , or judgment : but conniving and deferring the most , that men might expect a judge coming , and a solemn day of judgment to come . but this sin of drunkenness is so odious to him , that he makes it self justice , judge and executioner , slaying the ungodly with misfortune , bringing them to untimely shameful ends , in brutish and beastial manner , often in their own vomit and ordure ; sending them sottish , sleeping , and senseless to hell , not leaving them either time , or reason , or grace to repent , and cry so much as lord have mercy upon us . were there ( as in some cities of italy ) an office kept , or a record and register by every coroner in shires and counties , of such dismal events which god hath avenged this sin withall , what a volume would it have made within these few years in this our nation ? how terrible a threater of god's judgments against drunkards , such as might make their hearts to bleed and relent , if not their ears to tingle , to hear of a taste of some few such noted and remarkable examples of god's justice , as have come within the compass of mine own notice , and certain knowledge ; i think i should offend to conceal them from the world , whom they may happily keep from being the like to others , themselves . an ale-wife in kesgrave , near to ipswich , who would needs force three serving-men ( that had been drinking in her house , and were taking their leaves ) to stay and drink the three ou ts first , that is , wit out of the head , money out of the purse , ale out of the pot ; as she was coming towards them with the pot in her hand , was suddenly taken speechless and sick , her tongue swoln in her mouth , never recovered speech , the third day after died . this sir anthony felton , the next gentleman and justice , with divers others eve-witnesses of her in sickness related to me ; whereupon i went to the house with two or three witnesses , and inquired the truth of it . two servants of a brewer in ipswich , drinking for a rumpe of a turkie , strugling in their drink for it , fell into a scading caldron backwards : whereof the one died presently , the other lingringly and painfully since my coming to ipswich . anno . a miller in bromeswell , coming home drunk from woodbridge ( as he oft did ) would needs go and swim in the milpond : his wife and servants knowing he could not swim , disswaded him , once by intreaty got him out of the water , but in he would needs go again , and there was drowned : i was at the house to inquire of this , and found it to be true . in barnewell , near to cambridge , one at the sign of the plough , a lusty young man , with two of his neighbours , and one woman in their company , agreed to drink a barrel of strong beer ; they drank up the vessel , three of them dyed within twenty four hours , the fourth hardly escaped after great sickness . this i have under a justice of peace his hand near dwelling , besides the common same . a butcher in hastingfield hearing the minister inveigh against drunkenness , being at his cups in the ale-house , fell a jesting and scoffing at the minister and his sermons : and as he was drinking , the drink , or something in the cup , quackled him , stuck so in his throat , that he could get it neither up nor down , but strangled him presently . at tillingham in dengy hundred in essex , three young men meeting to drink strong waters , fell by degrees to half pints : one fell dead in the room , and the other prevented by company coming in , escaped not without much sickness . at bungey in norfolk , three coming out of an ale-house in a very dark evening , swore , they thought it was not darker in hell it self : one of them fell off the bridge into the water , and was drowned ; the second fell off his horse , the third sleeping on the ground by the rivers-side , was frozen to death : this have i often heard , but have no certain ground for the truth of it it . a bayliff of hadly , upon the lords-day , being drunk at melford , would needs get upon his mare , to ride through the street , affirming ( as the report goes ) that his mare would carry him to the devil ; his mare casts him off , and broke his neck instantly . reported by sundry sufficient witnesses . company drinking in an ale-house at harwith in the night , over against one master russels , and by him out of his window once or twice willed to depart ; at length he came down , and took one of them , and made as if he would carry him to prison , who drawing his knife , fled from him , and was three days after taken out of the sea with the knife in his hand . related to me by master russel himself , mayor of the town . at tenby in pembrokeshire , a drunkard being exceeding drunk , broke himself all to pieces off an high and steep rock , in a most fearful manner ; and yet the occasion and circumstances of his fall were so ridiculous , as i think not fit to relate , lest , in so serious a judgment , i should move laughter to the reader . a glasier in chancery-lane in london , noted formerly for profession , fell to a common course of drinking , whereof being oft by his wife and many christian friends admonished , yet presuming much of god's mercy to himself , continued therein , till , upon a time , having surcharged his stomach with drink , he fell a vomiting , broke a vein , lay two days in extreme pain of body , and distress of mind , till in the end recovering a little comfort , he died : both these examples related to me by a gentleman of worth upon his own knowledge . four sundry instances of drunkards wallowing and tumbling in their drink , slain by carts ; i forbear to mention , because such examples are so common and ordinary . a yeoman's son in northamptonshire , who being drunk at wellingborough on a market-day , would needs ride his horse in a bravery over the plowed-lands , fell from his horse , and brake his neck : reported to me by a kinsman of his own . a knight notoriously given to drunkenness , carrying sometime payls of drink into the open field , to make people drunk withall ; being upon a time drinking with company , a woman comes in , delivering him a ring with this posie , drink and die ; saying to him , this is for you ; which he took and wore , and within a week after came to his end by drinking : reported by sundry , and justified by a minister dwelling within a mile of the place . two examples have i known of children that murthered their own mothers in drink ; and one notorious drunkard that attempted to kill his father ; of which being hindred , he fired his barn , and was afterward executed : one of these formerly in print . at a tavern in breadstreet in london , certain gentlemen drinking healths to their lords , on whom they had dependance ; one desperate wretch steps to the tables end , lays hold on a pottle-pot full of canary-sack , swears a deep oath ; what will none here drink a health to my noble lord and master ? and so setting the pottle-pot to his mouth , drinks it off to the bottom ; was not able to rise up , or to speak when he had done , but fell into a deep snoaring sleep , and being removed , laid aside , and covered by one of the servants of the house , attending the time of the drinking , was within the space of two hours irrecoverably dead : witnessed at the time of the printing hereof by the same servant that stood by him in the act , and helpt to remove him . in dengy hundred , near mauldon , about the beginning of his majesties reign , there fell out an extraordinary judgment upon five or six that plotted a solemn drinking at one of their houses , laid in beer for the once , drunk healths in a strange manner , and died thereof within a few weeks , some sooner , and some later : witnessed to me by one that was with one of them on his death-bed , to demand a debt , and often spoken of by master heydon , late preacher of mauldon , in the hearing of many : the particular circumstances were exceeding remarkable , but having not sufficient proof for the particulars , i will not report them . one of aylesham in norfolk , a notorious drunkard , drowned in a shallow brook of water , with his horse by him . whilest this was at the presse , a man eighty five years old , or thereabout , in suffolk , overtaken with wine , ( though never in all his life before , as he himself said a little before his fall , seeming to bewail his present condition , and others that knew him so say of him ) yet going down a pair of stairs ( against the perswasion of a woman sitting by him in his chamber ) fell , and was so dangerously hurt , as he died soon after , not being able to speak from the time of his fall to his death . the names of the parties thus punished , i forbear for the kindreds sake yet living . if conscionable ministers of all places of the land would give notice of such judgments , as come within the compass of their certain knowledge , it might be a great means to suppress this sin , which reigns every where to the scandal of our nation , and high displeasure of almighty god. these may suffice for a tast of god's judgments : easie were it to abound in sundry particular casualties , and fearful examples of this nature . drunkard , that which hath befaln any one of these , may befal thee , if thou wilt dally with this cockatrice ; what ever leagues thou makest with death , and dispensations thou givest thy self from the like . some of these were young , some were rich , some thought themselves as wise thou ; none of them ever looked for such ignominious ends , more then thou , who ever thou art : if thou hatest such ends , god give thee grace to decline such courses . if thou beeft yet insensate with wine , void of wit and fear , i know not what further to mind thee of , but of that third , and worst sting of all the rest , which will ever be gnawing , and never dying : which if thou wilt not fear here ; sure thou art to feel there , when the red dragon hath gotten thee into his den , and shalt fill thy soul with the gall of scorpions , where thou shalt yell and howl for a drop of water to cool thy tongue withall , and shalt be denied so small a refreshing , and have no other liquor to allay thy thirst , but that which the lake of brimstone shall afford thee . and that worthily , for that thou wouldest incur the wrath of the lamb for so base and sordid a sin as drunkenness , of which thou mayest think as venially and slightly as thou wilt . but paul that knew the danger of it , gives thee fair warning , and bids thee not deceive thy self , expresly and by name mentioning it among the mortal sins , excluding from the kingdom of heaven . and the prophet esay tells thee , that for it hell hath enlarged it self , opened its mouth wide , and without measure ; and therefore shall the multitude and their pomp , and the jollyest among them descend into it . consider this , you that are strong to pour in drink , that love to drink sorrow and care away : and be you well assured , that there you shall drink enough for all , having for every drop of your former bousings , vials , yea , whole seas of god's wrath , never to be exhaust . now then i appeal from your selves in drink , to your selves in your sober fits . reason a little the case , and tell me calmly , would you for your own , or any mans pleasure , to gratifie friend or companion , if you knew there had been a toad in the wine-pot ( as twice i have known happened to the death of drinkers ) or did you think that some caesar borgia , or brasutus had tempered the cup ; or did you see but a spider in the glass , would you , or durst you carouse it off ? and are you so simple to fear the poyson that can kill the body , and not that which killeth the soul and body ever ; yea , for ever and ever , and if it were possible for more then for ever , for evermore ? oh thou vain fellow , what tellest thou me of friendship , or good fellowship , wilt thou account him thy friend , or good fellow , that draws thee into his company , that he may poyson thee ? and never thinks he hath given thee right entertainment , or shewed thee kindness enough , till he hath killed thy soul with his kindness , and with beer made thy body a carkass fit for the biere , a laughing and loathing-stock , not to boys and girls alone , but to men and angels . why rather sayest thou not to such , what have i to do with you , ye sons of belial , ye poysonful generation of vipers , that hunt for the precious life of a man ? oh but there are few good wits , or great spirits now a-days , but will pot it a little for company . what hear i ? oh base and low-spirited times , if that were true ! if we were faln into such lees of time foretold of by seneca , in which all were so drowned in the dregs of vices , that it should be vertue and honour to bear most drink . but thanks be to god , who hath reserved many thousands of men , and without all comparison more witty and valorous then such pot-wits , and spirits of the buttery , who never bared their knees to drink health , nor ever needed to whet their wits with wine ; or arm their courage with pot-harness . and if it were so , yet if no such wits or spirits shall ever enter into heaven without repentance , let my spirit never come and enter into their paradise ; ever abhor to partake of their bruitish pleasures , lest i partake of their endless woes . if young cyrus could refuse to drink wine , and tell aftyages , he thought it to be poyson ; for he saw it metamorphose men into beasts and carcases : what would he have said , if he had known that which we may know , that the wine of drunkards is the wine of sodom and gomorrah ; their grapes , the grapes of gall ; their clusters , the clusters of bitterness , the juyce of dragons , and the venome of asps . in which words , moses is a full commentary upon solomon , largely expressing that he speaks here more briefly , it stings like the serpent , and bites like the cockatrice : to the which i may not unfitly add that of pauls , and think i ought to write of such with more passion and compassion , then he did of the christians in his time , which sure were not such monsters as ours in the shapes of christians , whose god is their belly , ( whom they serve with drink-offerings ) whose glory is their shame , and whose end is damnation . what then , take we pleasure in thundering out hell against drunkards ? is there nothing but death and damnation to drunkards ? nothing else to them , so continuing , so dying . but what is there no help nor hope , no amulet , antidote or triacle , are there no presidents found of recovery ? ambrose , i temember , tells of one , that having been a spectacle of drunkenness , proved after his conversion a pattern of sobriety . and i my self must confess , that one have i known yet living , who having drunk out his bodily eyes , had his spiritual eyes opened , proved diligent in hearing and practising . though the pit be deep , miry and narrow , like that dungeon into which jeremy was put ; yet if it please god to let down the cords of his divine mercy , and cause the party to lay hold thereon , it is possible they may escape the snares of death . there is even for the most debauched drunkard that ever was , a soveraign medicine , a rich triacle , of force enough to cure and recover his disease , to obtain his pardon , and to furnish him with strength to overcome this deadly poyson , fatal to the most : and though we may well say of it , as men out of experience do of quartane agues , that it is the disgrace of all moral physick , of all reproofs , counsels and admonitions ; yet is there a salve for this sore ; there came one from heaven that trode the winepress of his fathers fierceness , drunk of a cup tempered with the bitterness of god's wrath , and the devils malice , that he might heal even such as have drunk deepest of the sweet cup of sin. and let all such know , that in all the former discovery of this poyson , i have only aimed to cause them feel their sting , and that they might with earnest eyes behold the brasen serpent , and seriously repair to him for mercy and grace , who is perfectly able to eject even this kind , which so rarely and hardly is thrown out where once he gets possession . this seed of the woman is able to bruise this serpents head . oh that they would listen to the gracious offers of christ ! if once there be wrought in thy soul a spiritual thirst after mercy , as the thirsty land hath after rain , a longing appetite after the water that comes out of the rock , after the blood that was shed for thee ; then let him that is athirst come , let him drink of the water of life without any money ; of which if thou hast took but one true and thorow draught , thou wilt never long after thy old puddle waters of sin any more . easie will it be for thee after thou hast tasted of the bread and wine in thy father's house , ever to loath the husks and swill thou wert wont to follow after with greediness . the lord christ will bring thee into his mothers house , cause thee to drink of his spiced wine , of the new wine of the pomegranate : yea , he will bring thee into his cellar , spread his banner of love over thee , stay thee with flagons , fill thee with his love , till thou beest sick and overcome with the sweetness of his consolations . in other drink there is excess , but here can be no danger . the devil hath his invitation , come , let us drink ; and christ hath his inebriamini , beye filled with the spirit . here is a fountain set open , and proclamation made . and if it were possible for the bruitishest drunkard in the world to know who it is that offereth , and what kind of water he offereth ; he would ask , and god would give it frankly without money ; he should drink liberally , be satisfied , and out of his belly should sally springs of the water of life , quenching and extinguishing all his inordinate longings ofter stoln water of sin and death . all this while , little hope have i to work upon many drunkards , especially by a sermon read ( of less life and force in god's ordinance , and in its own nature , then preached , ) my first drift is , to stir up the spirits of parents and masters , who in all places complain of this evil , robbing them of good servants , and dutiful children , by all care and industry to prevent it in their domestical education , by carrying a watchful and restraining hand over them . parents , if you love either soul or body , thrift or piety , look to keep them from this infection . lay all the bars of your authority , cautions , threats and charges for the avoyding of this epidemical pestilence . if any of them be bitten of this cockatrice , sleep not , rest not , till you have cured them of it ; if you love their health , husbandry , grace , their present or future lives . dead are they while they live , if they live in this sin. mothers , lay about you as bathsheba , with all entreaties , what my son , my son of my loves and delights , wine is not for you , &c. my next hope is , to arouse and awaken the vigilancy of all faithful pastors and teachers . i speak not to such stars as this dragon hath swept down from heaven with its tayl : for of such the prophets , the fathers of the primitive , yea , all ages complain of . i hate and abhor to mention this abomination : to alter the proverb , as drunk as a beggar , to a gentleman is odious ; but to a man of god , to an angel , how harsh and hellish a sound it is in a christians ears ? i speak therefore to sober watchmen , watch , and be sober , and labour to keep your charges sober and watchful , that they may be so found of him , that comes like a thief in the night . two means have you of great vertue for the quelling of this serpent , zealous preaching and praying against it . it 's an old received antidote , that mans spittle , especially fasting spittle , is mortal to serpents . saint donatus is famous in story for spitting upon a dragon , that kept an high-way , and devoured many passengers . this have i made good observation of , that where god hath raised up zealous preachers , in such towns this serpent hath no nestling , no stabling or denning . if this will not do , augustine enforceth another , which i conceive god's and man's laws allow us upon the reason he gives : if paul ( saith he ) forbid to eat with such our common bread , in our own private houses , how much more the lord's body in church-assemblies : if in our times , this were strictly observed , the serpent would soon languish and vanish . in the time of an epidemical disease , such as the sweating or neezing sickness , a wise physician would leave the study of all other diseases , to find out the cure of the present raging evil. if chrysostome were now alive , the bent of all his homilies , or at least one part of them , should be spent to cry drown drunkenness , as he did swearing in antioch : never desisting to reprove it , till ( if not the fear of god , yet ) his imporunity made them weary of the fin . such anakims and zanzummims , as the spiritual sword will not work upon , i turn them over to the secular arm , with a signification of the dangerous and contagious spreading of this poyson in the veins and bowels of the common-wealth . in the church and christ his name also , intreating them to carry a more vigilant eye over the dens and burrows of this cockatrice , superfluous , blind , and clandestiné ale-houses i mean , the very pest-houses of the nation ? which i could wish had all for their fign , a picture of some hideous serpent , or a pair of them , as the best hieroglyphick of the genius of the place , to warn passengers to shun and avoid the danger of them . who sees and knows not , that some one needless ale-house in a countrey-town , un does all the rest of the houses in it , eating up the thrift and fruit of their labours ; the ill manner of sundry places , being there to meet in some one night of the week , and spend what they they have gathered and spared all the days of the same before , to the prejudice of their poor wives and children at home ; and upon the lords day ( after evening prayers ) there to quench and drown all the good lessons they have heard that day at church . if this go on , what shall become of us in time ? if woe be to single drunkards , is not a national woe to be feared and expected of a nation over-run with drunkenness ? had we no other sin reigning but this ( which cannot reign alone ) will not god justly spue us out of his mouth for this alone ? we read of whole countreys wasted , dispeopled by serpents . pliny tells us of the amyclae , lycophron of salamis ; herodotus of the neuri , utterly depopulate and made unhabitable by them . verily , if these cockatrices multiply and get head amongst us a while longer , as they have of late begun , where snall the people have sober servants to till their lands , or children to hold and enjoy them . they speak of drayning fens ; but if this evil be not stopped , we shall all shortly be drowned with it . i wish the magistracy , gentry , and yeomanry , would take it to serious consideration , how to deal with this serpent , before he grow too strong and fierce for them . it is past the egge already , and much at that pass , of which augustine complains of in his time , that he scarce knew what remedy to advise , but thought it required the meeting of a general council . the best course i think of , is , if the great persons would first begin through reformation in their own families , banish the spirits of their butteries , abandon that foolish and vitious custom , as ambrose and basil calls it , of drinking healths , and making that a sacrifice to god for the health of others , which is rather a sacrifice to the devil , and a bane of their own . i remember well sigismund the emperor's grave answer , wherein there concurred excellent wisdom and wit ( seldom meeting in one saying ) which he gave before the council of constance , to such as proposed a reformation of the church to begin with the franciseans and minorites . you will never do any good ( saith he ) unless you begin with the majorites first . sure , till it be out of fashion and grace in gentlemens tables , butteries and cellars , hardly shall you perswade the countrey-man to lay it down , who , as in fashions , so in vices , will ever be the ape of the gentry . if this help not , i shall then conclude it to be such an evil as is only by soveraign power , and the king's hand curable . and verily next under the word of god , which is omnipotent , how potent and wonder-working is the word of a king ? when both meet as the sun , and some good star in a benigne conjunction ; what enemy shall stand before the sword of god and gideon ? what vice so predominant which these subdue not ? if the lion roar , what beast of the forest shall not tremble and hide their head ? have we not a noble experiment hereof yet fresh in our memory , and worthy never to die , in the timely and speedy suppression of that impudent abomination of womens mannish habit , threatning the confusion of sexes , and ruine of modesty ? the same royal hand , and care the church and common-wealth implores for the vanquishing of this poyson , no less pernicious , more spreading and prevailing . take us these little foxes was wont to be the suit of the church , for they gnabble our grapes , and hurt our tender branches : but now it is become more serious . take us these serpents , lest they destroy our vines , vine-dressers , vineyards and all : this hath ever been royal game . how famous in the story of diodorus siculus , is the royal munificence of ptolomy king of egypt for provision of nets , and maintenance of huntsmen , for the taking and destroying of serpents , noxious and noisome to his countrey . the like of philip in aristotle , and of attilius regulus in aulus gellius . the embleme mentioned at large by plutarch , engraven on hercules shield ; what is it but a symbol of the divine honor due to princes following their herculean labours , in subduing the like hidraes , too mighty for any inferior person to take in hand ? it is their honor to tread upon basilisks , and trample dragons under their feet , solomon thinks it not unworthy his pen to discourse their danger . a royal and eloquent oration is happily and worthily preserved in the large volume of ancient writings , with this title , oratio magnifici & pacifici edgari regis habita ad dunstanum archiep. episcopos , &c. the main scope whereof is , to excite the clergies care and devotion for the suppressing of this vice , for the common good . undertakers of difficult plots promise themselves speed and effect , if once they interest the king , and make him party . and what more generally beneficial can be devised or proposed then this , with more honour and less charge to be effected , if it shall please his majesty but to make trial of the strength of his temporal and spiritual arms ? for the effecting of it , if this help not , what have we else remaining , but wishes and prayers to cast out this kind withall . god help us . to him i commend the success of these labors , and the vanquishing of this cockatrice . tobacco battered , and the pipes shattered ( about their ears , that id'ly idolize so base and barbarous a weed : or , at least-wise over-love so loathsome vanity . ) collected out of the famous poems of joshua sylvester , gent. what-ever god created , first was good , and good for man , while man uprightly stood : but , falling angels causing man to fall , his foul contagion con-corrupted all his fellow-creatures for his sin accurst , and for his sake transformed from the first ; till god and man , man's leprie to re-cure , by death kill'd death , re-making all things pure . but to the pure , not to the still prophane , who spider-like turns blessing into bane ; usurping ( right-less , thank-less , need-less ) here , in wanton , wilful , wastful , lustful chear , earths plenteous crop , which god hath onely given unto his own ( heirs both of earth and heaven ) who only ( rightly ) may with praise and prayer , enjoy th' increase of earth , of sea , of air , fowl , fish and flesh , gems , mettals , cattel , plants , and namely ( that which now no angle wants ) indian tobacco , when due cause requires , not the dry dropsie of phantastick squires . none therefore deem that i am now to learn , ( however dim i many things discern ) reason and season to distinguish fit , th' use of a thing , from the abuse of it ; drinking , from drunking , saccharum cum sacco , and taking of , from taking all tobacco . yet out of high disdain and indignation of that stern tyrant's strangest usurpation , once demi-captive to his puffing pride , ( as millions are too-wilful foolifi'd ) needs must i band against the needless use of don tobacco , and his foul abuse ; which ( though in inde it be an herb indeed ) in europe is no better then a weed , which to their idols pagans sacrifice , and christians ( here ) do well-nigh idolize : which taking , heathens to the devils bow their bodies , christians even their souls do vow ; yet th' heathen have , with th' ill , some good withall , sith their con-native , 't is non-natural : but see the nature of abounding sin , which more abounding , punishment doth win ; for knowing servants wilful arrogance , then silly strangers savage ignorance , for what to them is meat , and med'cinable , is turn'd tous a plague intolerable . two smoky engins , in this latter age , ( satan's short circuit ; the more sharp his rage ) have been invented by too-wanton wit , or rather vented from th' infernal pit ; guns and tobacco-pipes , with fire and smoke , ( at least ) a third part of mankind to choke , ( which , happily , th' apocalyps fold-told ) yet of the two , we may ( think i ) be bold in some respect , to think the last the worst , ( however , both in their effects accurst , ) for guns shoot from-ward , only at their foen , tobacco-pipes home-ward , into their own , ( when for the touch-hole firing the wrong end into our selves the poysons force we send ; ) those in the field , in brave and hostile manner , these , cowardly , under a covert banner ; those with defiance , in a threatful terror , these with affiance , in a wilful error , those , ( though loud-roaring , goaring-deep ) quick-ridding ; these , stilly stealing , longer languors breeding , those , full of pain ( perhaps ) and fell despight , these with false pleasure , and a seem-delight , ( as cats with mice , spiders with flyes ) full rife , pipe-playing , dallying and deluding life . who would not wonder in these sunny-days , ( so bright illightned with the gofpel's rays ) whence so much smoke and deadly vapors come , to dim and dam so much of christendom ; but we must ponder too , these days are those , wherein the devil was to be let lose , and yawning broad-gate of that black abyss to be set ope , whose bottom boundless is , that satan , destin'd evermore to dwell in smoky fornace of that darksom cell , in smoke and darkness might inure and train his own deer minions , while they here remain ; as roguing gipsies tan their little elves , to make them tan'd and ugly like themselves . then in despight , who ever dare say nay , tobacconists keep on your course ; you may , if you continue in your smoky ure , the better far hells sulphury smoke endure ; and herein ( as in all your other evil ) grow nearer still , and liker to the devil , save that the devil ( if he could revoke ) would fly from filthy , and unhealthy smoke ; wherein ( cast out of heav'n for hellish-pride ) unwilling he , and forced , doth abide ; which herein worse than he ( the worst of ill ) you long for , lust for , lye for , die for , still ; for as the salamander lives in fire , you live in smoke , and without smoke expire . should it be question'd ( as right well it may ) whether discovery of america , that new-found world , have yielded to our old more hurt or good , till fuller answer should decide the doubt , and quite determine it , thus for the present might we answer fit ; that , thereby we have ( rightly understood ) both given and taken greater hurt then good : and that on both sides , both for christians , it had been better , and for indians , that only good men to their coast had come , or that the evil had still staid at home ; for , what our people have brought thence to us , is like the head-piece of a polypus , wherein is ( quoted by sage plutarch's quill ) a pest'lence great good , and great pest'lence ill . we had from them , first to augment our stocks , two grand diseases , scurvy and the pocks ; then two great cordials ( for a counterpoize ) gold and tobacco ; both which , many wayes , have done more mischief , then the former twain ; and all together-brought more loss then gain . but true it is , we had this trash of theirs , only in barter for our broken wares ; ours for the most part carried out but sin , and , for the most part , brought but vengeance in ; their fraight was sloth , lust , avarice and drink , ( a burden able with the weight to sink the hugest carrak ; yea , those hallowed twelve spain's great apostles-even to over-whelve ) they carried sloth , and brought home scurvy skin ; they carried lust , and brought home pox within : they carried avarice , and gold they got ; they carried bacchus , and tobacco brought : alas poor indians ! that , but english none , could put them down in their own trade alone ! that none but english ( more alas ! more strange ! ) could justifie their pittiful exchange . of all the plants that tellus bosom yields , in groves , glades , gardens , marshes , mountains , fields : none so pernicious to mans life is known , as is tobacco , saving hemp alone , betwixt which two there seems great sympathy , to ruinate poor adam's progeny ; for in them both a strangling vertue note , and both of them do work upon the throat ; the one , within it ; and without the other ; and th' one prepareth work unto the tother : for there do meet ( i mean at gaile and gallows ) more of these beastly , base tobacco-fellows , then else to any prophane haunt do use , ( excepting still the play-house and the stews ) sith 't is their common lot ( so double-choaked ) just bacon-like to be hang'd up and smoked ; a destiny as proper to befall to moral swine , as to swine natural . if there be any herb in any place , most opposite to god's good herb of grace , 't is doubtless this ; and this doth plainly prove it , that , for the most , most graceless men do love it ; or rather doat most on this wither'd weed , themselves as wither'd , in all gracious deed : 't is strange to see , ( and unto me a wonder ) when the prodigious strànge abuse we ponder of this unruly , rusty vegetal , from modern symmists jesu critical , ( carping at us , and casting in our dish not crimes , but crums , as eating flesh for fish ; ) w' hear in this case , no conscience-cases holier , but , like to like , the devil with the collier . for a tobacconist ( i dare aver ) is first of all a rank idolater as any of the ignatian hierachy ; next as conformed to their foppery of burning day-light , and good night at noon , setting up candles to enlight the sun ; and last the kingdom of new babylon , stands in a dark and smoky region , so full of such variety of smokes , that there-with-all , all piety it choaks . for there is first of all the smoke of ignorance , the smoke of error , smoke of arrogance , the smoke of merit super-er'gatory , the smoke of pardons , smoke of purgatory , the smoke of censing , smoke of thurifying of images , of satans fury flying , the smoke of stews ( from smoking thence they come , as horrid hot , as torrid sodom some ) then smoke of powder-treason , pistol knives , to blow up kingdoms , and blow out kings lives : and lastly too , tobacco's smoky mists , which ( coming from iberian baalists ) no small addition of adustion fit , bring to the smoke of the unbottom'd pit yerst opened , first ( as openeth st. john ) by their abaddon and apollyon . but sith they are contented to admire what they dislike not , if they not desire ; ( for , with good reason , may we ghess that they who swallow camels , swallow gnatlings may ; ) 't is ground enough for us in this dispute , their vanities thus obvious to refute ( their vanities , mysterious mists of rome , which have so long besmoked christendom . ) and for the rest , it shall suffice to say , tobacconing is but a smoky play ; strong arguments against so weak a thing , were needless , or unsuitable , to bring ; in this behalf there needs no more be done , sith of it self the same will vanish soon ; t' evaporate this smoke , it is enough , but with a breath the same aside to puffe . now , my first puff , shall but repel th' ill savour of place and persons ( of debaucht behaviour ) where 't is most frequent ; second , shew i will , how little good it doth ; third , how great ill : 't is vented most in taverns , tipling-cotts , to ruffians , roarers , tipsy-tosty-pots , whose custom is , between the pipe and pot , ( th' one cold and moist , th' other dry and hot ; ) to skirmish so ( like sword-and-dagger-fight , ) that 't is not easie to determine right , which of their weapons hath the conquest got over their wits , the pipe or else the pot ; yet 't is apparent , and by proof express , both stab and wound the brain with drunkenness ; for even the derivation of the name , seems to allude , and to include the same : tobacco , as Τω Βακχω , one would say , to bacchus ( cup-god ) dedicated ay . and for conclusion of this point , observe the places which to these abuses serve ; how-ever of themselves noysome enough , are much more loathsome with the stench and stuff , extracted from their limbeckt lips and nose , so that the houses , common haunts of those , are liker hell than heav'n , for hell hath smoke , impenitent tobacconists to choak ; though never dead , there shall they have their fill ; in heav'n is none , but light and glory still . next , multitudes them daily , hourly , drawn in this black sea of smoke , tost up and down in this vast ocean , of such latitude , that europe only cannot it include ; but out it rushes , over-runs the whole , and reaches well-nigh round , from pole to pole among the moors , turks , tartars , persians , and other ethnicks full of ignorance of god and good ; and , if we shall look home , to view ( and rew ) the state of christendom ; upon this point , we may this riddle bring ; the subject hath more subjects then the king : for don tocacco hath an ampler reign , than don philippo , the great king of spain , ( in whose dominions , for the most it grows , ) nay , shall i say ( o horror to suppose ! ) heathenish tobacco ( almost every where ) in christendom ( christ's outward kingdom here ) hath more disciples than christ hath , i fear , more suits , more service ( bodies , souls , and good ) than christ that bought us with his pretious bloud : o great tobacco , greater then great can , great turk , great tartar , or great tamerlan ! with vulturs wings thou hast ( and swifter yet then an hungarian ague , english sweat ) through all degrees flown , far , nigh , up and down , from court to cart , from count to country-clown ; not scorning scullions , coblers , colliers , jakes-farmers , fidlers , ostlers , oysterers , rogues , gipsies , players , pandars , punks , and all , what common scums in common-sewers fall ; for all as vassals at thy beck are bent , and breath by thee , as their new element : which well may prove thy monarchy the greater , yet prove not thee to be a whit the better ; but rather worse , for hells wide-open road is easiest found , and by the most still trod , which , even the heathen had the light to know , by arguments , as many times they show . here may we also gather ( for a need ) whether tobacco be a herb or weed ; and whether the excessive use be fit , or good or bad , by those that favour it ; weeds , wild and wicked , mostly entertain it ; herbs , wholsome herbs , and holy minds disdain it . if then tobacconing be good , how is 't , that lewdest , loosest , basest , foolishest ; the most unthrifty , most intemperate , most vitious , most debaucht , most desperate , pursue it most : the wisest , and the best , abhor it , shun it , flee it as the pest , or piercing poyson of a dracons whisk , or deadly eye-shot of a basilisk if wisdom baulk it , must it not be folly ? if vertue hate it , is it not unholy ? if men of worth , and minds right generous , discard it , scorn it , is 't not scandalous ? and ( to conclude ) is it not , to the devil , most pleasing , pleasing so ( most ) the most evil ? my second puff , is proof , how little good this smoke hath done ( that ever hear i cou'd : ) for first , there 's none that takes tobacco most , most usually , most earnestly , can boast , that the excessive and continual use of this dry-suck-at ever did produce him any good , civil or natural , or moral good , or artificial ; unless perhaps , they will alledge , it draws away the ill , which still it self doth cause ; which course ( me-thinks ) i cannot liken better , then to a userers kindness to his debter ; who under shew of lending , still subtracts the debters own , and then his own exacts , till , at the last , he utterly confound him , or leave him worse , and weaker then he found him . next , if the custom of tobacconing yield th' users any good in any thing , either they have it , or they hope it prest , ( by proof and practice , taking still the best : ) for , none but fools will them to ought beslave , whence benefit they neither hope nor have . therefore yet farther ( as a questionist ) i must enquire of my tobacconist , why if a christian ( as some sometimes seem ) believing god , waiting all good from him ; and unto him all good again referring , why ( to eschew th' ungodly's graceless erring ) why pray they not not ? why praise they not his name for hoped good , and good had by this same ? as all men do , or ought to do for all , the gifts and goods that from his goodness fall ; is 't not , because they neither hope nor have , good ( hence ) to thank god for , nor farther crave : but as they had it from the heathen first , so heathenishly they use it still accurst ; and ( as some jest of jisters ) this is more , ungodly meat , both after and before . lastly , if all delights of all mankind be vanity , vexation of the mind , all under sun , must not tobacco bee , of vanities , the vainest vanity ? if solomon , the wisest earthly prince that ever was before , or hath been since ; knowing all plants , and then perusing all , from cedar to the hysop on the — wall ; in none of all professeth , that — he sound a firm content , or consolation found : can we suppose , that any shallowing , can find much good in oft tobacconing ? my third and last puff points at the great evil , this noysome vapor works ( through wily devil ) if we may judge ; if knowledge may be had , by their effects , how things be good or bad : doubtless , th' effects of this pernitious weed be many bad , scarce any good indeed ; nor doth a man scarce any good contain , but of this evil justly may complain ; as thereby made in every part the worse , in body , soul , in credit , and in purse . a broad-side against coffee : or , the marriage of the turk . coffee , a kind of turkish renegade , has late a match with christian water made ; at first between them happen'd a demur , yet joyn'd they were , but not without great stir ; for both so cold were , and so faintly meet , the turkish hymen in his turbant swet . coffee was cold as earth , water as thames , and stood in need of recommending flames ; for each of them steers a contrary course , and of themselves they sue out a divorce . coffee so brown as berry does appear , too swarthy for a nymph so fair , so clear : and yet his sails he did for england hoist , though cold and dry , to court the cold and moist ; if there be ought we can , as love admit ; 't is a hot love , and lasteth but a fit . for this indeed the cause is of their stay , new castle's bowels warmer are than they . the melting nymph distills her self to do 't , whilst the slave coffee must be beaten to 't : incorporate him close as close may be , pause but a while , and he is none of he ; which for a truth , and not a story tells , no faith is to be kept with infidels . sure he suspects , and shuns her as a whore , and loves , and kills , like the venetian moor ; bold asian brat ! with speed our consines flee ; water , though common , is too good for thee . sure coffee's vext he has the breeches lost , for she 's above , and he lies undermost ; what shall i add but this ? ( and sure 't is right ) the groom is heavy , ' cause the bride is light . this canting coffe has his crew inricht , and both the water and the men bewitcht . a coachman was the first ( here ) coffee made , and ever since the rest drive on the trade ; me no good engalash ! and sure enough , he plaid the quack to salve his stygian stuff ; ver boon for de stomach , de cough , de ptisick , and i believe him , for it looks like physick . coffee a crust is charkt into a coal , the smell and taste of the mock china bowl ; where huff and puff , they labor out their lungs , lest dives-like they should bewail their tongues . and yet they tell ye that it will not burn , though on the jury blisters you return : whose furious heat does make the water rise , and still through the alembicks of your eyes , dread and desire , ye fall to 't snap by snap , as hungry dogs do scalding porrige lap . but to cure drunkards it has got great fame ; posset or porrige , will 't not do the same ? confusion huddles all into one scene , like noah's ark , the clean and the unclean . but now , alas ! the drench has credit got , and he 's no gentleman that drinks it not ; that such a dwarf should rise to such a stature ! but custom is but a remove from nature . a little dish , and a large coffee-house , what is it , but a mountain and a mouse ? mens humana novitatis avidissima . i have heard it is good for one thing ( and that falls out too often ) when men are so drunk with wine , beer or ale , or brandy , that they are unfit to manage their imployment ; then a dish of hot coffee is a present remedy to settle their heads . no doubt , but a dish of broth , or beer , will work the same cure , if it be drank as hot . this short collection should more properly have taken place next to what was collected out of the other doctors , but it came not to my sight , till it was too late : and because it agrees with what is mentioned in the first epistle , that it is a strange way of taking tobacco , as physick , just before , and presently after meals ; i thought fit to put it in here . and if any are so wise as to be convinced by what hath been written , that immoderate smoking of tobacco is hurtful for them , they were best to leave it gradnally ; for that is most safe , for such as have been accustomed long to it ; or else it is good to chew the leafe in the mouth ; or as some do , smoke a pipe with other ingredients , as rosemary , bitony , or mints : this collection was taken out of that book of dr. everard's , entituled , the vertue of tobacco . young men especially must take great care how they suck in this smoke , for the custome and too much use of it , brings their brains out of order , and makes them to be over-hot , so that they lose their good temper , and are beyond the bounds of their health , and that sacred anchor is lost irrecoverably . for the nourishment of young men requires a gentle moisture , to strengthen them , and to make their bodies grow to their just perfection . especially for those that are cholerick , whose brains cannot endure excess of heat , for the native heat would be oppressed by the accidental heat . see gallen his comment , in lib. de vict . salub . also this smoke doth vehemently move the stomach to nauseat , and to vomit , ( as daily experience teacheth us ) namely , by cleaving to the inward parts , and so offending the peculiar juyces contain'd in the stomach , and the mesentary ; it destroys their ordinary operations . for in thrusting forth the matter from the stomach it cannot be , but also something must be cast out , wherein the force of nature resides ; and also , because when nature is doing her office , she sends the nourishment into the habit of the body , as to the circumference , but all disturbing and purgative things draw the juyces & spirits to the center . wherefore nature is wonderfully tired with these contrary motions , for she can endure nothing less then two contrary motions at the same time . wherefore it is a most bitter enemy to the stomachs of very many men , especially if they use to take it presently after supper or dinner . and in this respect it is mischievous to the bodies of all sound men , according to hippocrates his rule . . aphoris . . it is troublesome to purge those that are in good health . for frequent use of purging medicaments will soon make a man old ; for the sorces are broken by the resolving of the solid parts , by an hypercatharsis of all nutrimental juyce . by these things mentioned , it is easie to collect , that the smoke of tobacco shortneth mens days . for being that our native heat is like to a flame , which continually feeds upon natural moisture , as a lamp lighted , drinks up the oyl by its heat ; it follows necessarily , that for want of food , life must needs fly away quickly , when the proper subject of life is dissipated and consumed : for with that moisture , the imbred heat fails also , and death succeeds . you understand therefore ( that are tobacconists ) that the sooty fumes of tobacco , wherein you are wallowing ( as it were ) in the deepest mire , are of great force to shorten your days . galen speaking of opening medicaments , asserts , that by the frequent use of them , the solid parts of the body are dried , and that the blood grows gross and clotted , which being burned in the reins , breed the stone . the same thing may be truly maintained concerning tobacco , which many use too frequently , and more then any do use those kind of opening medicaments ; for this is more hot and dry then they are , and therefore is more forcible to hurt sound and well-tempered bodies . take warning therefore you that love tobacco , that you do not exceed in using too much of it , and enslave your selves to this fuliginous smoke , by hunting after it , and making a god of it . the goods of the body , are beauty , strength , and sound health . the most grave author plutarch , commending the last as the best of all , affirmed most gravely and learnedly , that health is the most divine , and the most excellent property of the body , and a most precious thing . there is nothing in this world better ; nothing more to be desired , and nothing can be found to be more pleasant . without this ( as hippocrates faith ) there is no pleasure or fruit of any other things . this is it , which in this life fills all perfection : without this no man could ever be said to be happy : this far exceeds the greatest honours , treasures , and riches . tobacconist's arms in a turkish coffee house a postscript by way of apology . honest reader , this intended porch being so impolished , and so rude a draught , i have judged it more fit to make a back-door , then a fore : neither durst i presume to set it in the forefront , for i count it but as an over-plus sheet ; however it may serve for wast paper to wrap up the learned collections , or else to light a pipe of tobacco , and will make as good smoke : it lies at thy mercy , to use or to abuse as thou pleasest . for my part , i pretend to no great learning , yet am a lover of it , and a well-wisher to it : neither am i worthy to carry the books after these learned authors , out of whose works i have made this collection ; therefore i make this humble apologetical postscript . i know for my labour of reviving this noble counterblast , &c. i can expect no better , but to be counterblasted by the black and foul mouths of many tobacconists , and common tobacco-smokers ; for endeavoring to pull down their great diana , which they labour demetrius like to cry up , because of the much gain it brings them . if i meet with reproaches and scorns , it is no more then i expected from them , and i value it not : neither is it any news or wonder ; for we live in the last dayes , and as the apostle peter fore-told many hundred years since , in pet. . . that in the last dayes should come scoffers , walking after their own lusts . to such king solomon propounds a , question , which they can hardly be able to answer , in prov. . how long ye simple ones will ye love sumplicity ? and ye scorners delight in scorning , and fools hate knowledge ? there have been many such in all age , of the world , as it may easily be instanced . before i conclude , i thought it not amiss , or improper , to say something briefly against excessive drinking of healths , and drunkenness , which calls to remembrance , amongst other , of his majesties noble and gracious acts , since his restuaration , wherein he hath had merciful respect to the lives , estates , souls and bodies of his good subjects , and therein gone beyond his predecessors . i shall but name to his perpetual honour these three , viz. in the first place , his act of oblivion , passing by all that was done against him or his father , excepting only those that were his royal fathers judges . in the next place , he was pleased to publish a proclamation to all his loving subjects , against that sinful custom of drinking his health , his majesty wisely considering how apt many would be to fall into that evil extreme , doth in that proclamation , rebuke such as can express their love him in no better way , then drinking his health . in the next place , i cannot but take notice , and mention , to his majesties renown , his late gracious declaration , for liberty and indulgence to tender consciences , that could not in all things conform to the ceremonies and discipline of the church of england , by law established : this by the way . but now to speak a little more against drinking healths , which is to our purpose in hand . there was many years since a book published , by mr. william prynne , against drinking of healths , entituled , healths sickness , but not now to be had , or seldom thought of ; he shews the greatness of that sin , and the dangerous consequence of it both to the souls and bodies of men. there is another large treatise published by mr. robert younge , entituled , the drunkard's character : also a sermon preached long since by doctor robert harris , called the drunkard's cup , out of isaiah . from the . to the . verse . and a sermon published many years since , preached at pauls cross , by doctor abraham gibson , entituled , the lands mourning for vain swearing ; out of these words , because of oaths the land mourns . and now the land may mourn , not only for vain swearing , but for vain drinking of healths and drunkenness . after his majesties restauration , there was , i remember , a great feast , at which time there was a health drank for his majesty , and when it came to the turn of an able learned grave minister there present , he utterly disliked and refused it : answering , that he would pray for his majesties heath . and if all that are well-wishers to his majesties health , would obey his proclamation against that vice , in leaving off drinking , either of the kings health , or any others , & leave of swearing and prophaning the sabbath ; and would constantly , earnestly , and heartily pray for his majesties health , according as the apostle st. paul exhorts timothy , tim. . . that supplication and prayer be made for kings , and all that are in authority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . i say , then we should be in hopes to see better times , and better trading : the generality cry out of their want of trading , and of the sins of the rulers ; but our chief work and duty is to look more narrowly at home , and to find out the plague of our own hearts . who smites upon his thigh ? who saith , what have i done ? we are apt to forget the late dreadful judgments of god ; as that of the destroying-sword , the sad destroying pestilence , when from the th of december , , to the th of december , . there died of all diseases , and of the plague ; and in one week , which i find to be the greatest of all , was in september . , there died of the plague in london and liberties , of all diseases that one week . can london ever forget those sad and lamentable consuming flames , that brake forth the second of september , ? the ruinous heaps on acres within , and acres without the old line , the ghastly walls of parish-churches , and stately houses and halls , with the royal exchange , and as it was computed thirteen thousand and two hundred houses , with a vast deal of goods , houshold-stuff , and rich commodities ; and , i think , book-sellers may easily remember the many ware-houses of good books of all sorts , then turned to ashes , at st. faiths church , and in other places about the city . there was a book published by mr. thomas brooks , dedicated to sir william turner lord mayor ( who deserved much love and honour , for being so great a furtherer of building the city and royal exchange , that lay long in ruins ) entituled , london's lamentations , being a serious discourse of the late fiery dispensation , that turned our renowned city into a ruinous heap . in the second part , or application of that book , page . is shewed , that the burning of london was a national judgment , and that god in smiting london , did smite england round : and what sins bring desolating judgments upon persons and places ? intemperance and drunkenness is one sin , and that we are to see the hand of the lord in that dreadful fire , and to take heed of those sins that bring the fiery rod , with the several lessons and duties we are to learn by it . we may easily see that the lord will not suffer us to be forgetful of his great judgments , by the several fresh remembrances he hath given us , by sad fires in divers places since , in and near the city . not long after the dreadful fire , there was a merchants great house , almost finished , in mincing lane , burned and quite defaced ; after that , two great fires brake forth in southwark at several times and places : another at the savoy , which did much harm ; another at the corner of st. bartholomew lane , a herald painter's house , mr. francis nowers himself , his child and nurse was burned . another in white-chappel , and several persons burned there . another sad fire was in or near thames street , which burned to the ground a great sugar-baker's house , with many thousand pounds worth of sugar , belonging to several partners ; it began september the second , the lords-day , . and now last whit-sunday morning , at st. katherines near tower-hill , brake forth a very grievous lamentable fire , which , as it is reported , consumed above one hundred dwelling-houses , and divers ships , and some people were burned and killed by it . after that , another great fire that consumed about a dozen houses , and part of sir paul pindar's house , without bishopsgate , in june , . a few dayys after brake forth another fire , which burned several houses in crutched friers . one at camomile-street : at the swan at holborn-bridge : a brick house in grub-street . we may do well to take that counsel of our saviour to the impotent man that he had cured , and had been at the pool of bothsaida , who had an infirmity thirty eight years , john . . christ bid him go and sin no more , least a worse thing befal him ; it was old mr. wheatlyes text of banbury , after it was burned : read the . of leviticus , how greatly the lord threatned the people of israel , if they were disobedient to him ; he threatens great judgments , and to make their cities wast , and the land desolate ; and in the verses , , , . it is four times threatned , that he will punish them seven times more for their iniquities . god hath shot three arrows against us , and how easily can he shoot a fourth sore arrow , that of the famine , unless we turn from our sins by true repentance . it is to be feared , that after all that hath or can be said to reclaim men from their evil courses , and excesses in drinking , that they will be swayed by custome , which is a second nature ; and it will be found as difficult for them to be temperate in smoking , and drinking , and feasting , as it is for the blackmore to change his skin , or the leopard his spots . so that they will rather say , as he that being advised by his physician to leave of his evil courses , or else he would loose his sight , answered , tum valeat lumen amicum , then farewel sweet light. to such it may be said , as solomon saith , rejoyce o young man in thy youth , walk in the sight of thine eyes , and let thy heart chear thee ; but remember that for all these things god will bring thee to judgment . we all know , that sin is the fore-runner of all plagues and calamities , that ever came upon any people or nation under heaven ; it is the plague of plagues : what provoked god to drown the old world , but sin ? what caused god to rain down fire and brimstone on sodom and gomorrah , but their sins of pride , idleness , and fulness of bread ? and whilst abraham interceded for sodom , had there been but ten righteous persons found amongst them , god would have spared them for their sakes . thus i have spoken against sin in general , as that which draws down judgments upon our heads : i will only lay a few scriptures before you , touching the lord's anger against sin , which he cannot indure to behold without great indignation : for it is only sin that makes a separation between god and our souls ; and i desire the reader to turn to them at his leisure , and to make the best use and application of them , hosea . , , . isaiah . , , . isaiah . , , . genesis . . chap . . . . . . chap. . . . . . . prov. . . . that sea-man that being ingaged in a ship , and sees it in danger to sink or to be cast away ; is but an ill and unworthy sea-man that will not put to his helping hand to save her . and are not all english-men engaged in the ship of the kingdom , or common-wealth of england ? and is it not in a storm , compassed with enemies without , and within molested and assaulted with the most dangerous enemies of all ; over-laden with our grand enemies , sins of all sorts ? is it not the part of an honest true english-man to help to save this ship , by lightening its burden , and casting these bad commodities over-board ? i mean its sins , that by so doing , we may engage god , the lord of hosts on our side , and then , si deus nobiscum cuis contranos : did but england's sins weigh lighter then her enemies sins , then we were more likely to be victorious and conquerors over all our forreign enemies . doth not england match any of her enemies in sins and provocations , namely drunkenness ? doth it come behind the dutch , dane , or swede , which are counted the highest drinkers in the world , of the highest form , and so for swearing most horrible oaths , and scoffing at religion and piety . within ten days since i began this collection or postscript i was an eye and ear-witness , that a swaggering blade rapt out this oath , god damn me , about a trifle in a scoffing frolick , saying , he had got a presbyterian band on he thought . another man on whitson-eve i saw so sadly drunk , he could neither go nor stand , but sate down on a door-stone , i asked him , where he had been ? he would give no other answer but this , that he was troubled with the megromes . so i and others about him left him , and know not what became of him : these two were in the heart of the city , near the exchange . after i had seen king james his counterblast against tobacco , and taken a liking to it : i did at the first intend only to get that printed alone , but afterwards meeting with these pertinent , sutable , and profitable directions , for the preservation of long , life , both against tobacco , and intemperate drinking ; published in the works of that learned physician doctor maynwaring , now living : i thought it not amiss to joyn them together , and likewise to add a good old sermon at the latter end , preached , in or near the time of king james , by a famous learned divine , mr. samuel ward then preacher of ipswich , printed . it is but brief , and the best i know of in print against the sin of drunkenness and health-drinking , wherein are discovered divers sad examples of many that have been notorious drinkers or drunkards , called woe to drunkards , that have kill'd themselves by drinking immoderately . in the last place i shall but commend to the reader a few good useful books , viz. mr thomas brook's londons lamentations , also his book called precious remedies against satan's devices , and his twenty two sermons on ephes . . . of the unsearchable riches of christ , his cabinet of jewels , his closet prayer , and a profitable and very delightsome book of good counsel for all young persons , called his apples of gold for young men and women &c. mr. thomas watson's new treatise , entituled , the mischief of sin , it brings a person low , on psal . . . mr. ralph venning's book , called sin the plague of plagues , or sinful sin the worst of evils , on rom. . . these books do set forth sin in its own proper colours ; it is compared in scripture to filthy rags , and to a menstruous cloth ; and i think it cannot be called by so bad a name as it is . also lately published mr. robert perrot's new book called englands sole , and soveraign way of being saved . mr. calamie's godly mans ark , which i think is a useful and seasonable book these stormy times : now we are pursued by enemies on all sides , outward and inward , it 's good to get into an ark , or city of refuge : these are sold at the three bibles in popes head alley , where the best and newest short-hand books , and books of divinity are to be had : also history , husbandry astronomy , mathematicks , arithmetick , law , sea , physick , the best poetry , school books , &c. five books of the learned doctor maynwarings . . his preservation of health , and prolongation of life . . his treatise of the sourvy , shewing , that tobacco is a procuring cause . . the rise and progress of physick historically , chromologically and philosophically illustrated , shewing , the abuse of medicines &c. . his treatise of consumptions , demonstrating their nature and cure. . the ancient and modern practice of physick examined , stated and compared . the true elixir proprietatis of van helmont , paracelsus & crollius , with a book of its use and vertue , highly commended by mr. lilly. as for other books of vain idle romances , lascivious and vitious poetry and drollery , which are worse then the smoke of tobacco , and more fit for the fire to make smoke of , then for the study ; i wish the lovers of them to take notice of this one passage about such , in mr. philip goodwin's mystery of drunkenness , printed for francis tyton ; it is in page . satan sends out his books as baits , by which many are cunningly caught , with the venome of which so many are poysoned . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e aphorism . tutela sanitatis . amurath his counter blast to tobacco . ' primum crater ad sitim pertinere , secundum ad hilaritatem , tertium ad voluptatem , quartum ad insaniam dixit apuleius . omne nimiun naturae est inimicum . a cacotrophy , or atrophy . quicquid recipitur , recipitur per modum recipientis . ax. notes for div a -e esay . esay . , . esay . . joel . . hab . james . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . basil . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a charito & tanquam chena hash , veche siphgnoni iaphresh ; novissimo tanquam serpens mordebis , regulas punget montinur & mercerus ; tanquam haemorihois vel dissas , tremelius . cor. . . esay . . deut. . .