A Way to Prevent the Indignation & judgements of God from coming on a Kingdom, Nation or Family; Commended to the Consciences of all Concerned in the Sight of God, for them to Read, Weigh and Consider in the Fear and Dread of the Lord. First, ALL you Vintners, that sell Wine, that keep Taverns, or such like Houses; and all you Innkeepers, and you that keep Victualling-Houses, Alehouses, Strong-water Shops, etc. see that you never let any Man or Woman have any more Wine, 1 Pet. 4.3, 4, 7. Ale, Strong Drink, Brandy, or Strong-Waters, or other strong Liquors, than what is for their Health and their Good; in that they may praise God for his Good Creatures. For every Creature of God is Good, and aught to be received with Thanksgiving. 1 Timoth. 4.4. But if you do give or let Men or Women have so much Wine, Brandy, strong Liquors, strong Beer or Ale, till they be Drunk, or to make them Drunk; 1. You destroy the good Creatures of God. 2. You Destroy them that have not Power over their Lusts, no more than a Rat or a Swine, who will Drink till they are Drunk. 3. You are a great cause of Ruining them in their Healths & Estates (and their Children and Families in their Livelihoods) in feeding of them in their Lusts, by letting them have more than doth them good Proverb. 23.20, 21. ; which tends to bring God's Judgements upon you, Deutronom. 29.19, 20. to your own Destruction. For many, when they are full of Wine, Beer or Strong Liquors, Rom. 13.13. Ephes. 5.5.6. than they will call for Music, Pipe and Harp, and it may be their Whores also: And so in this, you that suffer or allow such things are Nursers of Debauchery, and Corrupters of Them, Who hath Woe? Who hath Sorrow? Who hath Contentions? Who hath Wounds without Cause? Who hath Redness of Eyes?— They that tarry long at the Wine; they that go to seek mixed Wine.— At the last it biteth like a Serpent, and stingeth like an Adder. See Prov. 23 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. and of your own Families also. And also such Men, when they are full of Wine or Strong Liquors, and have destroyed the Creatures, by taking more than doth them good, than they are got to that height that they are ready to Quarrel and Abuse, or Kill or Destroy one another, & sometimes Kill other People (who do them no Harm) as they are walking or travelling in the Streets or Highways. For when they are overcome by strong liquors, then are they fit and do lie open to all manner of Wickedness. And though you think by selling or letting People have Wine or Strong Liquors more than doth them good, or is for Health, The more they Drink, the more Gain you think it brings you; and the more you vend your Goods, the more Profit you get: Ah poor Sellers! Do not you think, that God with his All-seeing Eye doth behold you and your Actions? And cannot the Lord soon bring a Blasting upon all your Undertake and such Gain and Profits, Prov. 15.3. and whatsoever you have gained by your Covetousness and from the Lusts of others, Job 4.8, 9 through which they do destroy their Estates, Children and Families? Will not this bring Destruction upon you and your unrighteous Gain, which you have gotten by feeding their Lusts? For that Spirit which feeds the Destroying Lusts, must needs be the Destroyer; and the Profit of that will not be Gain to You in the End. For are not you sensible, how many, after they have spent their Estates or part of them, they will Run into your Debts for Wine or strong Liquors, yea, such as you let have more than did or doth them good? For the Drunkard & the Glutton shall come to Poverty, Prov. 23.20, 21. And is not this the cause, that many break by trusting, and other ways, as before mentioned? Trust should be with that which is Trusty, which doth not Waste or Destroy; and such God will bless. And therefore take heed of letting any Man or Woman have any more Wine or strong Liquors, than what is for their Nourishment, health and good. Isaiah 5.11.12, 22. Ch. 28.1, 3. Joel 1.5. See also Deut. 29.19, 20. Whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God— to add Drunkeness unto Thirst the Lord will not spare him but the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousy shall smoke against that Man— and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven. See what a dreadful Woe the Lord pronounced against them, That rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong Drink, that continue until night, till Wine inflame them: then they call for the Harp & the Viol, the Tabret & the Pipe, etc. But such regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands: A sad state! woe unto them that are mighty to Drink Wine, and are Men of strength to mingle strong Drink. And therefore all are to shun such things, all are to be sober, and to mind and fear God, that they may Escape these Woes; as you may see in Isaiah, chap. 5. And therefore all Vintners, and such as sell Wine, with Alehouses, Inns and Victualling-houses, who sell Ale, Brandy & strong Liquors, never let any one have any more than doth them good, and is for their Health (as is said before) so that all may Eat and Drink the good Creatures of God to his Praise and Glory; which Drunkards & Gluttons cannot, nor they who let them have the Creatures of God in Excess or Immoderately, till they are drunk and surfeited; 1 Cor. 10.31. Ephes. 5.18. Rom. 13.13. Gen. 18.19. Prov. 22.6. for such do feed themselves without the Fear of God. Secondly, Let all who go under the Name of Christian Families, train up their Children in the Fear of God, and keep themselves in the Fear of God, that they may keep all their Servants and Families in the Fear of God; out of all Looseness and Wantonness and Vanities and Excess, and from all Drunkenness, Fornication, Whoredom or Uncleanness and unrighteousness, and all Ungodliness; that they may keep out of all those things that displease or dishonour the Lord God. And do not nourish up the Lust of the Eye, nor the Pride of Life, nor the Lust of the Flesh; for if you do, 1 John ●. 16. you nourish up that which is not of God the Father. And therefore to shun all these Evils, and to departed from them, and keeping in the Fear of God; this is the way to bring the Blessing of God upon a Land, Kingdom, Nation or Family. G. F. God will Destroy them which Destroy the Earth, Revel. 11.18. Drunkenness makes a Man worse than a Beast, and makes a Strong Man Weak, and a Wise Man a Fool. This Testimony and Warning was and is Owned and Subscribed to by (many) Vintners and others, concerned in the Trades and Callings beforementioned, who were present at the reading of the Manuscript. LONDON, Printed by John Bringhurst, at the Sign of the Book in Grace-Church-street, 1683.