THE SIN AND FOLLY OF Drunkenness CONSIDERED:  

I. What it is.  
II. What is vicious or sinful in Drinking (whether men will call it Drunkenness or no.)  
III. What may be said against it.   
By Edward Buckler of Bradford in Somersetshire, the Author of God All in all.  
London, Printed for Thomas Cockeril at the three Legs in the Poultry, over against the Stock-market, 1682.   

THE SIN and FOLLY OF DRUNKENNESS.  1 PET. V 8. Be sober, be vigilant, etc. 
THE former part of the Chapter is spent in Exhortations To 

1. The Elders,  
2. The Younger,  
3. All. Who are pressed   To 

1. Humility, v. 5, 6.  
2. A Recumbency upon God in all Conditions, v. 7.  
3. Sobriety & Vigilancy in the Text.    
To set on (which is annexed) with this Argument, For your Adversary, etc.  
So the Text hath  
1. An Exhortation to a twofold Duty, viz. 

1. Sobriety.  
2. Vigilancy.    
2. An Argument to enforce, drawn from the Condition of the People of God (indeed of all men) in reference to the Devil, who is described by His 

1. Name, the Devil.  
2. Nature, your Adversary.  
3. Practice, walks about.  
4. Industry, seeking.  
5. Aim, to devour.  
6. A comparatis, like a roaring Lion.    
1. Of the Exhortation, and in that of the first Duty, Be sober. The word sometimes signifies both the Duties that are here pressed, to be sober and vigilant too, as 2 Tim. 4.5. Watch thou in all things; and 1 Pet. 4.7. Watch unto Prayer: and the 1 Thess. 5.8. Let us who are of the day be sober. And if we may at any time limit its signification to Sobriety alone, we seem then to do it with most reason, when another word is added which bids us watch, as there is in the Text.  
Be sober, a duty of the Body as it is opposed unto Drunkenness, and of the Mind, consisting in Moderation; having no Warrant to restrain the Exhortation to any one of these Duties, I shall understand it of both, and from it lay down this Doctrine.  
Doct. Sobriety both in Body and Mind is the Duty of Christians. Of this in two Branches.  
1. Sobriety of the Body is the Duty of Christians. I shall show you, 

1. What it is.  
2. That it is our Duty.    
1. What Sobriety (as to this part of it) is, which I can by no means give you a better account of, than by calling it that Virtue which is opposed to whatever is Vicious or sinful in the matter of Drinking. To show you then 

1. What Drunkenness is; and  
2. What is Vicious, or Sinful in Drinking, (whether men will call it Drunkenness or no) will let you see what it is to be Sober.    
A. (1.) Drunkenness is ordinarily taken for the Privation or Loss of the use of Reason, caused by immoderate and excessive Drinking. But the best way to find out what this Sin is, is to Judge of it by the Scripture, and there  
1. The height of it indeed is, to drink to the loss of Reason and Understanding, that we speak and do we know not what; and are not capable of apprehending what is said or done unto us. Nabal was very drunken, wherefore his Wife told him nothing less or more, until the morning light: In 1. Sam. 25.36. She was a wise woman, and knew that a drunken husband was not capable of being discoursed with, and therefore stayed she till the morning, till his reason returned, for which there was no room till the Wine was gone out of him. v. 37. So Noah, (Gen. 9.2. and Lot, Gen 19.33.)— Multa faciunt ebrij, quorum postea sobrios pudet. Sen.  
2. 'Tis to drink to such a Degree of giddiness that we are not able to stand: so Jer. 25.27. it is made a sign of a drunken man, to fall and to rise no more, i. e. while his fit is upon him.  
3. 'Tis to drink till we reel and stagger, though we fall not: in Ps. 107.27. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man: And Isa. 24.20. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.  
4. 'Tis to drink unto Vomiting. Jer. 25.27. Drink and be drunken, and spew. And Esa. 19.14. As a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.  
5. 'Tis to drink to such an alteration of our deportment, that we fall into an unusual and unbecoming behaviour: 1 Sam. 1.13. Because Hannah's lips moved, and her voice was not heard, Eli thought she had been drunken.  
(2.) What is vicious or sinful in drinking. B.  
1. To drink till we be inflamed, as Esa. 5.11.  
2. To drink excessively, though we can carry it roundly away, when others lie by it, as Esa. 5.22.  
3. To drink beyond the answering those Ends which God hath ordained drink for, which we find in Scripture to be these:  
(1.) To help our weakness and bodily infirmities, as 1 Tim. 5.  
(2) To quench our thirst: Give me I pray thee a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. Judg. 4.19.  
(3) To refresh and cheer up our spirits: so doth Wine make glad the heart of man, Psal. 104.15. Hence Pro. 31.6, 7. In compliance with which, the Jews, when a Person was brought forth to be put to death, gave him to drink some Frankincense in a cup of Wine, that it might stupefy him. Whatsoever is more than this, cometh of evil, condemned by the Apostle under the name of Excess of Wine; i. e. more than enough for any of those ends which God created Wine to serve for.  
(4) To be accessary to the Excess of others, Hab. 2.15. Gen. 19.32.35. Lot's daughters. So then we may not drink to the loss of our Reason, nor till we cannot stand, or not go without reeling and staggering, nor till we vomit, no nor to the alteration of our usual deportment, nor till drink inflame us, nor at all excessively whether it inflame us or no; nor any more than will answer those ends for which drink was ordained, nor by any means be accessary to the Excess of others.  
C (3.) That it is a Sin against.  

1. God.  
2. Our Souls.  
3. Our Bodies.  
4. Our Families.  
5. Our Estates.  
6. Our Neighbours.  
7. The Kingdom.  
8. The Church.   
(1.) Against God, who hath 

1. Commanded Sobriety;  
2. Forbidden the Contrary.    
1. God commands Sobriety. I shall lay before you two or three places of Scripture, where you shall find the command backed with mighty Arguments to set it on. In 1 Thes. 5.8. Let us who are of the day be Sober. One Argument to press it, is, from the sudden coming of Christ to Judgement. The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. v. 2. Would we have our day of Death or Judgement find us in our Cups? Be drawn reasonless or senseless, reeling or vomiting from an Alehouse to Christ's Tribunal? If we would not, let us be Sober. The other Argument is taken from our Privileges, being under the Light of the Gospel, discovering unto us holier Courses, and engaging us to walk in them, v. 5, 6. So 1 Pet. 4.7. The end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore Sober, and Watch unto Prayer: The Argument to press it, is the same with one of the former. The end of all things is at hand; 'tis the last Age of the world, and how long soever that Age may be, yet your end of all things cannot be far off, be ye therefore Sober: the Duties ye have to do, and the preparation ye are to make, will not be done at an Alehouse, nor by a person that is not himself. He must live a Sober man, that would be sure to die so. And the command in 1 Pet. 5.8. backed by an Argument that may fright us into Obedience,— Be Sober, for your Adversary the Devil, etc. If those that have Reason and Grace, have enough to do to preserve themselves from such an enemy, how much in danger shall we be, when we have neither? The Apostles word of Command to Christians, in their Engagements against the Devil is— Stand— And he commendeth to them the whole Armour of God, that having done all they may stand, Eph. 6.13.14. i e. Persevere in their Christian course, stand in a way of Faith, and in a way of Duty: in what posture shall we be for this, when we cannot so much as stand upon our Legs? Instead of arming ourselves against the Devil, we arm the Devil against ourselves, if we lose our Sobriety. See how  
2. God forbids the contrary. Sometimes  
(1.) In most pathetical Expressions, to allure us from it.— Not in rioting and drunkenness, Rom. 13.13. by reading which Scripture St. Augustine is reported to have been converted. Be not drunk with Wine, wherein is excess, Eph. 5.18. Observe the Love and Sweetness that runs through these expressions:— Cast off the works of darkness (amongst which this is a very dark one indeed,) you may instead of it, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ; Be not drunken with Wine; but is there any thing instead of it, wherewith we may be fitted at a better rate? Yes, Be ye filled with the Spirit. And mark what the Love and Kindness of God would insinuate, none but Sober persons can put on Christ, neither will the Spirit of God fill any but Sober hearts. Sometimes, (2) In most terrifying Expressions, to fright us out of it. Such I hope you will judge all those Woes that are directed against it by the Lord in Scripture; as Esa. 5.11.22. and 28.1. Hab. 2.15. If you ask, what these Woes have in the womb of them? I cannot tell, only this we may be sure of, that Vae minantis, a Woe of threatening, when God doth pronounce it, cannot bring forth less than Vae dolentis, a woe of Lamentation, wherever it lights. So against God.  
(2.) Against our own Souls, Drunkenness having a mischievous influence upon them, both (1.) Physically, as they are rational. (2.) Morally, as they are sanable.  
(1) As they are Rational, abating the Excellency, and depriving us of the use of those noble faculties, that the goodness of God hath bestowed upon us, the Act of it turning men into very Beasts, and a Habit of it into Fools. How little of Wisdom, Wit, Judgement, Memory, Intention; how much of Sottishness, Nonsense, Folly, do we ordinarily find in those Brains that are steeped in Ale? In Hosea 4.11. Whoredom and Wine and new Wine take away the heart. The Heart you know is usually put to signify the whole inner man, and all the Powers of it. These drunkenness as to their use and excellency, takes away, and in many persons to such a degree, that they have nothing left but their shapes to prove themselves men. Much according to the Character that Demetrius gives of one of them— Ecce quadratam Statuam, habentem syrma, ventrem, pudenda, et barbam.— We may safely add a little in the Englishing of it— Behold a well made Statue, having a Cloak (if he have not drunk it away) a mouth, a throat, a belly and a beard; a head, a skull, but not a word of any thing within that is worth the naming. We cannot well take a nearer way to soak out of our Souls whatever is ingenious or rational, than to pickle them up in drink, good parts perishing no other way at such a rate, as they do by drowning.  
(2.) As they are sanable. And this it doth as 

1. It is Sin.  
2. It is a great Sin.  
3. Disposing us to other Sins.  
4. Indisposing us to Repentance.    
(1.) It is a sin, a transgression of the Law; in 1 Pet. 5.8. if there were no more— Be sober. It's a work of the flesh, Gal. 5.21. But other things are Sins too; be it so, yet the wages of every Sin is death, Rom 6.23. i e. Hell: but this is  
(2.) A great Sin. So are not all, I mean in comparison with others. You may take the altitude of it in these particulars: viz.  
(1.) 'Tis a Sin against the very Law of Nature as well as against the written Law of God, being amongst those evils in which there is so much evil and deformity, that if there were no external Law at all against it, a rational nature must needs look upon it with abhorrency. So the Schoolmen making several ranks of natural Precepts, place General Precepts in the first, such as are per se nota, as honestum est faciendum, pravum vitandum. Then Particular ones in the second, and amongst those, that, videndum est Temperatè, We must live Soberly. And that instinct and impression of nature, that hath in beasts some similitude with that Law of nature that is in man, doth, we see, engage them to sobriety. Those many Laws made by Pagans against intemperancy, must needs be by Direction from nature, having not the Scripture to be guided by. Now that sin, which doth not only break through all the restraints which are set it by the Law of God, but withal flies in the face of Nature and Reason, and bespeaks a man less obedient to his Principles, than beasts are to theirs, is a great Sin. Some things are Mala quia prohibita: This is prohibitum quia Malum.  
(2.) 'Tis a Sin that defaceth the Image of God in us at a rate beyond all other sins. For whereas we all lost in Adam the gracious qualities of our Souls, by this sin we throw away the natural qualities of our Souls too. The first sin took away our Holiness and Righteousness, this (as if that were not enough) takes away our Reason and Understanding also. But of this already.  
(3.) 'Tis a Sin that is by name set down amongst those Sins, that do exclude us from the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6.10.  
3. It disposeth us to other Sins. I shall (1.) Set down some Sins by name; (2.) Show our disposition to all Sins when we are not Sober.  
1. Some Sins are by name in Scripture set down as the ordinary effects of Drunkenness, viz. ex. gra.  
(1.) Babbling, (Prov. 23.29.) When a swollen Tongue shall be set a running by an intoxicated brain, what loud, lose, impertinent, lewd, idle and ridiculous discourses will it not tumble into? If a man had nothing else to do, and should write down an hours discourse that passeth between half a dozen in this element; and on purpose to discover the virtue of a Tongue when 'tis tiped with Ale, should read it over to them when they were Sober, 'twould clearly be enough to turn their stomaches; such a hotchpotch, a confusion of witless, senseless, reasonless, immodest and unhandsome stuff, as (except published by Authors of the same Character) was never before extant in the world. The Tongue at best is an unruly evil, as James 3.8. and hath need of a bridle to keep it in, as Psal. 39.1. but Drunkenness gives it the rain, and switch and spur, that this free beast knows not where to stay.  
(2.) Brawling and Contention. Strong drink is raging; in Prov. 20.1. and who is it that hath Contention, and wounds without cause, but they that tarry long at the Wine? in Pro. 23.29, 30: And that evil Servant is then said to fall a beating his fellow-servants, when he began to eat and drink with the drunken, in Mat. 24.49. 'Tis an odd method methinks that men use, to drink and be Friends, when had they not drank, they had never fallen out.  
(3.) Whoredom. Prov. 23.31.33. This Sin brought Lot to bed with his own daughters, in Gen. 19.33.35. St. Augustine hath a sad story to this purpose:— Ecce hodie ebrietatem perpessus matrem praegnantem nequiter oppressit, Sororem violare voluit. (Ex A Lap. in Dan. 5.2.) Nunquam putabo Ebrium esse castum, was Hierom's censure, if you could show him a Drunkard, he would presently show you a Whoremonger.  
(4.) Scorn and contempt of God, goodness and good men. David a man after Gods own heart, was the Song of the Drunkards. (Psal. 69.12.)  
(5.) Security under all these and their other Sins; Death and Judgement never troubling their brains at all. Take heed (saith Christ) lest at any time. etc. and so that day come upon you unawares; in Luk. 21.34. These sins (the Spirit of God himself being witness) are the ordinary results of the sin of Drunkenness.  
But secondly, (2.) Our disposition to all Sins whatsoever when we are not sober. This will appear  
1. By some general Considerations.  
2. By a view of all the Commandments of God.  
1. Consider we in general, three Things, viz.  
(1.) The Seeds and principles of all Sins, are in our polluted natures, and as carnal and unregenerate we are capable of committing them. Whatever hath been in any man's practice, is by nature in every man's bosom. As the plot of all diseases lies in the humours of the body, so the seeds of all Sins in the Corruptions of the Soul. None I think will deny, but that every prohibition of any kind of Sin which we have in Scripture, belongs to all, be it Sodomy, Incest, Blasphemy, etc. A sufficient Argument that every man's nature is subject to it.  
(2.) That these Lusts do not actually break out into all the Sins that they are big with, is from some restraint or other that is laid upon us, when by shame, or fear, or natural Conscience, or the like, our corruptions are reined in. If water or any other heavy body doth not at any time move downward, 'tis not because it hath not a natural inclination so to do, but because something or other hinders it.  
(3). Drunkenness throws all these restraints off. Shame is, rei turpiter actae. And what seems unseemly to a man that cannot discern between good and evil? He that being Sober is not ashamed to be drunk, how should he being drunk, be ashamed of any thing? That is, he that being a Man is not ashamed to turn himself into a Swine, how should he being a Swine be ashamed to wallow in the mire? Fear ariseth from the apprehension of some evil likely to fall upon us; there ariseth from too much drink, too thick a vapour to see any such thing. In praelia trudit inermem. 'Twill put a man upon any thing without fear or wit. And as for Conscience, that is, cum scientia, which is no more (if so much) employed in a Drunkard though he be awake, than in a Sober person when he is asleep. 'Tis a practical Syllogism, which a man in that Condition is as good at, as an Ass is to play a Lesson upon the Harp.  
2. View all the Commandments of God, and see which of them it is that a Drunkard is not disposed to transgress. For the  
1. Precept, forbidding us to have any other Gods but one, against which we sin, when what is due to God we bestow upon any thing else: and so the Drink, the Throat, the Belly, the Companions of a Drunkard, are his Gods, these have his Affections, his Time, his Estate; these he sacrificeth to, and serveth and loves with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength. Yea, which is more gross, set up an Idol of what stuff you will, and what will sooner qualify a person for the worship of it, than drink will? In Hosea 4.11. you have the people given to Drunkenness, and see what follows in v. 12, 13.  
2. Precept, forbidding Will-worship and Superstition. Are any in the world more inclined to this than persons of lose, lewd licentious, and drunken principles? Those that care not whether they serve God at all, or not, are not wont to be over-scrupulous, how they serve him. For the  
3. Precept, how many common drunkards do you know in the world, that are not withal common Swearers? Their throat indeed is ordinarily a thoroughfare for Ale and Oaths, where Almighty God, and his very good Creatures are abused by turns. And of this let Experience be Judge. For the  
4. Precept. When persons given to this vice are at Liberty, this day is pitched upon to choose. It is observed in one of our Homilies, that upon the Lord's day the Devil was more served and God more dishonoured than upon all the week besides: which some Synods have taken notice of, and complained against, desiring the Magistrate that Games and Drinking-matches upon that day might be restrained: (Heylin Hist: Sab. part 2. C. 6.)  
5. Precept. Can drunken Superiors or Inferiors discharge the Duties they own one to another? Pray, what Duty is it in Parents, Husbands, Masters, Ministers, Magistrates, Children, Wives, Servants, People that drink doth qualify them for? Yea, what sin as to these Relations, that it is not ready to put them upon? It makes Parents grievous, and Children rebellious, the Husband like a Lion, and the Wife like a Sow, Master's intolerable, Servants useless, Ministers odious, sottish, and able to do no good, and the People as unable to retain any; Magistrates not able to bear the Sword: how should they, when they are not able to bear themselves? And the People under them lost to all good order.  
6. Precept. How many Murders have been committed by men in their Drunkenness? Augustine reports of one that killed his own Father and mortally wounded two of his own Sisters. (A Lap. in Dan. 5.2.) Alexander in a drunken fit killed Clitus his most familiar Friend. As for modern instances of Blood and Ale mingled together, there be but too many.  
7. Precept. How prone we are, being overcome with drink, to be overcome of Lust, you heard before.  
8. Precept, requireth an endeavour by all Just and lawful means to procure, preserve and further the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others, and forbids whatever courses may tend to the contrary. He hat doubts whether Drunkenness be a breach of this Commandment, is hardly Sober. But more of this afterwards.  
9 Precept. I Shall reckon up some of those sins that are against this Commandment, and let any man that is out of his Liquor call to mind, whether he hath not been ordinarily guilty of them when he was in it. viz. Lying, Slandering, Backbiting, Detracting, Whispering, Scoffing, Reviling, rash Censuring, etc. and whatever is injurious to the good name of our Neighbours. And for the  
10. Precept; It forbiddeth all inordinate lustings and motions of the heart; which excess of drink is known to inflame and stir up in us as much as any thing. Add hereunto, that every Precept commanding any Duty, commands withal that we use the means and helps that may further us in it. Drunkenness makes us unfit to use any. And every precept forbidding any sin, forbids withal the means temptations and occasions that may put us upon it; and Drunkenness putteth us under an incapacity of avoiding other means of sinning, and is withal a principal means itself; and so becomes not so much a transgression of this or that particular Precept, as a general violation of the whole Law.—  
So (3.) is Drunkenness a sin that doth dispose us to all other Sins. And  
(4.) Doth indispose us to Repentance. As to the Act of Drunkenness, I think no body will question it; a habit of it puts a person under a very great indisposedness to repent, and turn from his sins unto God. For  
(1.) 'Tis a besotting Sin, as you heard before, abating our Intellectuals at a sad rate, and so rendering us the more uncapable of apprehending what the Word of God doth press us with in order to our Conversion; and when a sottishness is voluntarily contracted, and contracted by so swinish a Sin as this, how Justly may the Lord be provoked never to cure it? But  
(2.) 'Tis a Sin that works us up to an high degree of Security under itself and the rest of our sins, as you also heard from Luke 21.34. And so the Word of God leaves no impression upon us. Eternity of torments in Hell, with all the fire and brimstone that the Scripture speaks of, either come not near our Consciences at all, or if they do, are soon quenched and put out again with a cup of Ale. How many men be there, that the greatest part of their lives have been divided (I will not say equally) between Hearing and Drinking, Sermons and Alehouses, and yet continue to be so to this day! And whence is this, but that they leave all they hear behind them, or are able to drown it presently in the bottom of a Tub. How many times have we heard that Drunkards are by name amongst them that shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? That he that believeth not shall be damned, that repenteth not shall perish, etc. and yet neither Sobriety, nor Faith, nor Repentance, never came seriously into our thoughts? Into so deep a sleep as well of the Mind as of the Body doth this Sin lull us.  
(3.) 'Tis a persevering Sin, having a certain kind of Witchcraft in it, enticing us not to give it over; when we have drunk ourselves asleep, as soon as we awake we will seek it yet again, as Prov. 23.35. The Spirit of God that knows very well our disposition, makes this our Language, in Esa. 56.12. Come, etc. It is a Sin that many Persons go reeling under the guilt of to their very grave, and 'tis grown into an Argument for the Innocency of it, at least as to men's health, that there be more old Drunkards than Physicians. I have read of four old men, that undertook to drink each of them as many boles as they had lived years; and accordingly the youngest of them took off 58. the second 63. the third 87. and the oldest of all 92. (Berclay, Sum: Bon. P. 33.) Those Sins that we are so indisposed to forsake, do mightily indispose us to Repentance, a great part of which Duty is to leave and abhor the Sins we repent of. Judge then if Sobriety be not a Duty that we own to our Souls, and Drunkenness a Sin against them.  
(3.) Against our Bodies, the health and Life of which we are bound to endeavour the preservation of, and to do nothing that may bring diseases or death upon us, unless we would be guilty of self-Murder: Diseases that are the ordinary effects of Drunkenness Physicians tell us are such as these; Crudities, Oppitations; but we need name none in particular, when they tell us that it Strangles Nature, and perverts the whole temperature of the body. How many examples have we of this and that disease contracted by Drunkenness! Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, ad insaniam redactus est, was brought by it to a Frenzy and madness; Lacydes the Philosopher to a Palsy; Agro a King to a mortal Pleurisy; Ennius the Poet to the Gout, etc. And many examples have we of Death in the Pot, I mean of persons slain by their Drunkenness, or in it.  
(1.) By it, Drink and Vengeance being their only executioners. Anacreon the Poet, Dum liberius indulgeret, was choked. Artesilas the Philosopher, cum vinum immoderatè bibisset, obiit. Attila à vino plenus, suffocatus, & subito mortuus est. Promachus the Macedonian drank at such a rate, that Alexander gave him a talon for his labour. Sed triduo tantum supervixit: He died within three days after.  
(2.) In it, as Elah King of Israel, 1 Kings 16.9. Amnon, 2 Sam. 13.28, 29. The Philistines, as Judg. 16.25.30. Three fellows in Germany, after they had taken in their Cups after the brutish manner of that Country, were the next morning found strangled and dead, and so were buried under the Gallows. (Bercley, Sum. Bon. P. 26.) Bonosus a Drunken Emperor hanged himself, of whom it was said, Not a man hanged up but a Barrel, (Theat. 804.) Sobriety is then a Duty that we own (3.) To our Bodies: and  
(4.) Against our Families, every part of them. Ex. gr.  
(1.) Against our Parents. Our Fathers did not beget us, our Mothers did not bear us ten months in their wombs, and twenty in their Arms, to qualify us for an Alehouse; they did not wake for us, and work for us, and care for us, and pray for us, and do those Offices which they would have loathed to do for any others, nor breed us and provide for us, that we should so requite them, to grieve their hearts, and make them weary of their lives, and give them cause to wish that we had never been born. A Sin it is lying so heavy upon the Spirits of Parents, that the Law of God did heretofore in pity provide them a way to be rid of such Children. See Deut. 21.19, 20, 21. An insupportable cross must it needs be that can prevail with parents to seek the death of their Children; yet this it seems was supposed enough to do it, it being better to see them once buried than so often drowned, for when they are in their graves they know the worst of them.  
(2.) Wives, who were very ill-advised if their purpose was not to be married to Men, and not unto Beasts? Doth not Drunkenness waste their goods, as well as our own; make their lives bitter; expose them to Temptations; render our Society at least not desirable? Can we dwell with them according to knowledge, when we have lost our understanding? Pray for them and instruct them when we are not able to speak? govern them when we cannot govern ourselves? give them honour as weaker vessels, when we have degraded ourselves into much weaker? Not to mention those abuses that we are very apt to offer even unto our own flesh, when we have lost our Sobriety.  
(3.) Against our Children, whose food and raiment and education contributes to to make up every drunken reckoning that we have a share in; besides that mighty abomination of Example that we set before them; Children being extremely apt to imitate their Parents. How many have instead of laying up for their Children, drunk up from them what the good Providence of God had bountifully provided, employing all their husbandry in turning whatever they have into Ale, and leaving their Posterity to seek their bread out of desolate places!  
Sobriety is a Duty we own (4.) To our Families; and  
(5.) Against our Estates. He that loveth Wine shall not be rich. (Prov. 21-17.) That perhaps is no great matter, but the drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty; and drowziness shall  a man with rags, in Prov. 23.21. But it is clearly our Duty to be providently careful to get and keep those things that are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature, and suitable to our condition. See Pro. 27.23. ad finem. Now is not daily sacrificing and the offering up of drink-offerings to an insatiable throat, the way to any such thing.  
(6.) Against our Neighbours, to whom in our drunken fits we are very ready to be injurious many ways.  
(1.) To entice them to the same Sin. Men that are of easy and Ductile natures, upon whom there is any probability of prevailing, can hardly follow their callings in quietness for solicitations of this nature. A man going to be drunk is like a man ready to be drowned, who will catch hold of any one that is next him, that if it be possible they may sink together. Drunkards and good Fellows would not so properly be two names of the same persons, were it a Sin that is ordinarily committed by one alone. And that handsomer notion of Company-keeping under which it is wont to pass, would not be a language so easily understood.  
(2.) Whom are not our Tongues in such a case ready to fall upon, in Lies, Railing, Slanders, and what not? I have read of a young man, being invited to an entertainment, spoke very freely against the Bishop, for which being afterwards questioned, made only this reply, That if he should be in the same condition again, he thought he should fall about the ears of the twelve Apostles themselves, in case they came in his way. (Theat. P. 804.) David speaks of some wicked men, that their tongue goeth through the earth. Psal. 73.9. Ours are never fitted to travel at such a rate, as when we are able to move them freely in our mouths; when we are least able to go, they are readiest to run, and to run descant upon whomsoever they please. One is a fool, another a knave; one covetous, another proud, every one is any thing that they please to style him. One broacheth the censure, another swears 'tis true, a third drinks upon it to confirm it. This is the ordinary discipline of an Alehouse, where being sat at Bench, they take upon them to Judge the world.  
(3.) To the soberer sort of people our Debauchedness is a continual offence; we fetch tears from their eyes, and send grief to their hearts, and if we come near them, do even stink in their nostrils. Sobriety is a Duty we own (6.) to our Neighbours.  
(7.) Against the Kingdom, rendering us useless in our several stations for the public good. Drunkenness  
(1.) Positively is the occasion of much evil.  
(2.) Negatively, doth altogether unfit us for the doing of any good.  
(1.) Is the occasion of much evil; I mean of suffering, being itself so great an evil of Sin; calling down the Judgements of God upon a whole Kingdom, and in particular a scarcity of those Creatures which are abused; in Esay 5.11, 12. the Sin, v. 13. the Judgement, in Joel 1.5.10, 11, 12. So we devour the plenty, and swallow down the necessary provisions of a whole Kingdom.  
(2.) It unfits us for the doing of any good, for Counsel, or Action, in Peace, or War, in a private Capacity, or a Public, to make Laws, or to execute, or to keep them. Whether the mind, or the body, the head, or the hand, be to be employed, we have not the use of either to any purpose. If we be Rulers, miserable is the condition of those that be under us; as Eccles. 10.16, 17. Woe, etc. Prov. 31.4, 5. If we be private persons, no man that is wise and good will have any Society with us. Cato the Elder being asked why he rejected the Acquaintance of a Drunkard that did earnestly desire it, Because, saith he, Vivere non possum cum eo, qui melius et subtilius Palato quam Corde sentit. I cannot live with one who hath more Sense in his Throat, than in his Heart, or his Head; who is good at nothing but at Swallowing, and is ever washing down his Brains into his Belly. Sobriety is a Duty we owe.  
(8.) Against the Church, Drunkenness being a Scandal to the Gospel, an Offence to such as desire to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present World. And the Person guilty so odious a member (if he must needs pass for one) that Christians are commanded not to eat with him, 1 Cor. 5, 11. But are enjoined to put away from among themselves such a wicked person, v. 13. You see I hope by this time, that Sobriety is the Duty of Christians.  
See now how little reason men have as to Conscience and Duty, to put it to the Question, whether they be Drunk; To call for Proofs that they are, and urge Arguments that they are not; that they are able to give a man an answer; if they lie in the Highway, are able to hold up their hands if a Cart be like to be driven over them, etc. The question should be, Whether we be Sober? That is our Duty. Whether we have not drunk more than would have answered those Ends which God ordained Drink for? If we have, 'tis no matter, whether the Laws, or Custom of men call it Drunkenness or no; we have made a breach upon Sobriety, and so have failed in a great Duty. It is excessive and needless Drinking that is the Sin, the distemper that ordinarily follows is part of the Punishment. There is not only a Woe to the Drunkards of Ephraim, (Esa. 28.1.) but also a Woe to them that are mighty to drink Wine, etc. (Esa. 5.22.) There be some able to carry Drink at a noble rate, and yet come not behind those in the Sin of Drinking who with a great deal less lie wallowing in their Vomit. I have read of one Aeraclides, who would invite one company to Breakfast, another to Dinner, a third to Supper, quibus omnibus sine interstitio sufficiebat solus, and hold out in this exercise with them all. (Theat. 801.) And of Cleio a woman, who was not only able to out-drink those of her own Sex, but men too; Omnes superavit: She conquered all that she encountered. Ibid. And of Piso, that sat in the Court of Tiberius two days and two nights drinking continually, and never stirred from the place: Of Nivellius Torquatus, who was Knighted by Tiberius for drinking three Gallons of Wine at one draught. And how much soever he drank, was never known at any time to falter with his Tongue, never eased himself by Vomiting: (Hakwell Apol. p. 413.) The Lord Burghly in some precepts to his Son, tells him, That he never heard other commendation ascribed to a Drunkard, than the well bearing of his Drink, which he thinks is fit for a Brewer's Horse, or a Dray-mans' back. Let Christians remember, that it is their Duty not to be Drunk, but to be Sober.  
Condemn we therefore their Practice who are at any time guilty of transgressing the Limits of Sobriety, either in their Persons, or accessary to it in other men: And accessaries we may justly account all these that follow, viz.  
(1.) All keepers of houses of Entertainment, that knowingly suffer it, promote it, get that Employment on purpose for it.  
(1.) That knowingly suffer it: most of which sort of People will let men have as much as they will, scarce any that will not give them more than they ought, provided they pay for it. Qui non vetat peccare, cum possit, jubet.  
(2.) That promote it: who will use twenty devices to draw men on, and amongst the rest, rather be drunk themselves than suffer their Guests to be Sober, to increase their Reckoning.  
(3.) That procure for themselves this Employment of set putpose: which all those must needs be interpreted to do, who are not able to show any other end that may be propounded. The best that can be said is, that 'tis to get a Livelihood in the World; so may Thiefs that rob upon the Highway, so may common Strumpets, that prostitute themselves to every comer, say, 'tis to get their Living. He that wills the end, wills the means; and he that pitches upon a sinful means when many lawful ones are before him, chooseth sin, and in our case makes a Trade of that which I am sure can never be a Calling.  
(2.) All Magistrates that are guilty in either of these three Cases, viz.  
(1.) Of Licensing Alehouses that be needless, which is to make provision for the Sin of Drunkenness, to fulfil the Lusts thereof: and lest Sobriety should be too troublesome a Burden, to provide men of opportunities how and where to be rid of it.  
(2.) Of not Suppressing those that Licence themselves, and of not punishing those that are disorderly, and discountenancing their prosecutors, rendering it (as a godly man long since expressed it) as difficult and hot a Service to put down an Alehouse as to take Flushing.  
(3.) Of not Executing the Laws upon Delinquents in point of Tippling: ten Groats every time, for Tippling in an Ale house, and five Shillings for being drunk, would either make men much the Soberer, or not suffer them to be otherwise at so cheap a rate.  
(3.) All those that encourage the Sin of Drunkenness: and this is done more ways than one, viz.  
(1.) By Commending the Sin itself as very good; in some cases for the Body, but for the mind 'tis Cos Ingenij, the Whetstone of Wit, a raiser of men's Parts, a great contributer to Eloquence, Invention, Ingenuity, and what not? No Wit relishing at any excellent rate, nor at all well dressed, unless it be parboiled in Ale. Possum nil ego Sobrius, bibenti succurrunt mihi quindecim Poetae: said Martial of himself, (L. 11. Epig. 7.) He was no body when he was Sober, but Drunk, at least 15 Poets strong. 
Ennius' ipse Pater nunquam nisi potus ad Arma  
Prosiluit dicenda,— etc.  Theat. 803. Old Ennius never set himself to making of Verses, till he was in his Cups. Foecundi Calices, etc. It makes men eloquent by no allowance. In Proelia trudit inermem. Valiant beyond measure; indeed, effieit egregios, etc. It qualifies men for any thing, I know not how many thousand Leagues beyond Sobriety. If this be true, it doubtless concerns only those men whose Souls are in their Bellies, and whose abilities must be barrelled up for fear of spoiling, and broached when they have occasion to use them.  
(2.) By propounding to and bestowing Rewards upon men for the excellent faculty they have in Drinking. Alexander potandi Vinum Certamen instituit; amongst other worthy exercises, appointed a drinking Match, wherein the Conqueror was to have a Talon, the second man 30 l. and the third 10 l. Mithridates King of Pontus, proemia plus haurientibus proponebat. Tiberius' advanced Piso to the Provostship of the City, and Pomponius to the Presidentship of Syria, for the great gift they had in excessive quaffing: (Hackw. Apolog. 419.) If no such Examples can be found amongst Christians, 'tis so much the better.  
(3.) By countenancing those lewd and debauched persons that are guilty of this Sin, when we give them at least an equal Respect with other men; when we give them as many good words, afford them as much of our Society, report them to be as honest men as any others.  
(4.) All those that engage and provoke others to that Excess which otherwise they would not run into; as by any means to see themselves pledged, to have such Quantities and to such a number drunk up, to look upon it as a Soloecism to make a dry bargain, or to conclude it any where but in an Alehouse, which many times makes it a great question whether there be more of the Beast-market without doors or within: to make drink upon all occasions the common Entertainment one of another, upon no greater reason, as I know, than to make it of Bread, or Money, or good Counsel, or Physic, or a Bed to sleep upon, of either of which we may have as much need as we have of Drink. And above all, this is done by that Heathenish Custom of drinking Health to a dear Friend, a great Person, to the Prince himself, which many Persons think they ought not to refuse upon pain of forfeiting their Allegiance: a most reasonless and ridiculous Practice. What influence hath my drinking upon another man's health? May I not as soon eat, or sleep, or talk, or dig, or thresh, or buy, or sell his Health as drink it? or is he a jot more concerned in the one than in the other? yea if immoderate and needless bibbing be (as it is) a sin, how much more unlawful is it to swear, or curse, or lie, or steal a health to a friend, than 'tis to drink it? I called it a Heathenish Practice, and so it is, and most of the rest but now mentioned. The Pagans had their Arbitrum bibendi, their Master of Misrule at their drunken meetings, whose office it was to give orders how long, and how much every one must drink; they were wont to throw the Die, and to drink according to their Casts, to drink so many Healths as there were Letters in their Mistress' names. (Hakw. Apol. 410.)  
The Drunken Greeks, Deos & Amicos inter pocula salutant, nominatimque appellant evacuato Poculo: Drank whole ones as Healths to their Idols, and to their Friends, making mention of them by name, and having drunk to any one, took care to have a full Cup delivered him; and would be sure to look to his Liquor. The Lacedæmonians, eundem Calicem circumagebant— would have the same Cup go round. (Theat. 800.) You see whose Copy we writ after; not a word of any such Practice in Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, in Christ, Peter, or any Saint of God recorded in Scripture— Declined indeed by all grave and prudent Persons, who will pray for their Friend's Health, but drink only for their own.  
Let us for a Conclusion, study to be Sober. By way of Motive, let me have leave to press you with what we have said already. Consider it then  
(1.) As it is a Duty we own unto God. Doth that nothing prevail with us? who is it that made us, and preserveth us, and giveth us Life, and Breath, and all things? who spares us, and keeps us out of Hell? whose Patience, and Bounty, and goodness do we spend upon every day? Is there no Grace, no Gratitude, no good Nature in us, to comply with the God of all our mercies? or if there be not, is not he that denounceth so many Woes against the contrary Sin, able to bring them all upon our heads? Is he not a consuming fire, a great God and a terrible? And shall we no more regard the Power of his wrath? or do we think to wet ourselves at such a rate, that the flames of Hell shall not take upon us? Whatever it be, if it be a Duty we own to God, we are bound to discharge it. How many more Engagements to such a Duty as this is? we aught to obey should God command us with Abraham to sacrifice an only Son; shall we stick at the sacrifice of a stinking Lust? or with the same Abraham to forsake our native Country? shall we not forsake a nasty Alehouse? In obedience unto God, Daniel would pray though he were thrown in to the Lions; in Rebellion against God, shall we drink though we be thrown into Hell?  
(2.) As a Duty to our own Souls. Let us every one consider what his Soul is worth; that excellent Piece of God's Workmanship, created after his own Image, redeemable by nothing but the blood of his own Son; is this a Soul to be drunk away? To be sent swimming towards the Chambers of Death in a tub of Ale? When the Harbour men ordinarily lie in, an Ale house, and their loading is nothing but Drink, can the end of their Voyage be any thing but destruction? This is a Sin, and every Sin is damnable; this is a great Sin, against the very Law of nature, defacing more of the Image of God in us, than any other Sin that is committable: and when our Trade is in great Sins, our Returns must needs be in a great Damnation. It disposeth us unto other Sins. Now doth the Original Corruption of itself without any help at all, put us (the Lord knows) sufficiently forward to any thing that is evil? have we any need to improve it? to dung it and water it ever and anon, that it may bring forth more fruit unto death? And what are the Sins we are apt to reel into when we are Drunk? are they such Peccadilloes, such small and venial faults, that we should not care how often we put ourselves into the next capacity of committing them? If it be babbling, of every idle word, etc. If it be contention, the Apostle tells us it brings forth Confusion and every evil work, (James 3.) If it be Whoredom and Adultery, God will judge us for it, yea though it be committed no where but in the heart. If it be Contempt and scorn of the People of God, It were better that a Millstone, etc. If it be Security, 'twill bring sudden Destruction upon us, as Travail upon a woman with Child, and we shall not escape. 1 Thes. 5.3.  
But— Pauperis est numerare Pecus: This Sin is too rich to bring the Revenues of it into any Catalogue. What evil is it that Drunkenness doth not dispose us to? shaking off all those restraints that should keep our original Corruption in any order, and putting us into a posture of breaking every one of God's Commandments. And if he that shall break one of the least of these Commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, (Mat. 5.19.) he that shall be made fit to break them all, and shall make himself so, must needs discover an Ambition to be one of the greatest in the Kingdom of Hell. But Repentance will help all this: True; but where shall we have it? Repentance is the gift of God, and he gives it by means, to the use of which this Sin doth mightily indispose us. A belly-ful of Ale and a heart full of penitent tears, seldom meet together. That God can turn us, no body doubts; And such were some of you, but, etc. (1 Cor. 6.11.) is a Gospel Instance that we should not doubt it; but that he who in all his Life had never yet grace enough to civilize him, should at last presume to have enough to save him, is such a hazard, that no man that knows the worth of a Soul would be persuaded to put it upon it for a thousand Worlds.  
Besides, is the use of our Senses, our Understandings, Reason, Judgement, Memory of no value, that we should so often & so easily be persuaded to deprive ourselves of them? Was that Candle of the Lord (as Solomon calls the Intellectual powers of the Soul, Pro. 20.27.) that we should throw Drink upon it to put it out? Are we weary of our Essences as men, that we have a mind to wash ourselves down into a lower Kind? was God's Judgement upon Nebuchadnezar such a Privilege, that we daily go about to inflict it upon ourselves? what harm hath our Reason and our Understanding at any time done us, that we must needs ourselves do execution upon it? have we too much of it when we are sober, that we have any need in the world to abate it by being drunk? At this rate it is that we use a precious Soul, not only prepare it for destruction hereafter, but degrade it from its glory and excellency in the mean time. Consider we Sobriety,  
(3.) As a Duty to our Bodies, which being fearfully and wonderfully made, (Ps. 139.14.) 'tis a fearful and a wonderful Sin to do any thing that may destroy them, and in a manner unmake them again, and render every member useless as to the Services they were appointed. We find in Scripture two glorious Privileges that even our Bodies are capable of. Ex. gr.  
(1.) To be members of Christ, (1 Cor. 6.15.) Now look upon a body with a swollen tongue, clammed to the roof of an unsavoury mouth, a face at once both roasted and sod, eyes ghastly staring in a vertiginous head; reeling to and fro in the streets, lying senseless in the Kennel, or swearing, railing, roaring, raving, brawling in a Tavern; and ask any one that hath any acquaintance at all with the Temperance, Purity, Meekness, and Holiness of Christ, whether this be one of his members, or no, not fit indeed to be a member of Bridewell, or of Bedlam.  
(2.) To be Temples of the Holy Ghost, (1 Cor. 6.19.) Look upon persons in the pickle but now mentioned, and will any man say, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord are these? No, the Temple of God is holy, (1 Cor. 3.17.) and res delicata Spiritus Christi, the Spirit of Christ too delicate and tender for so nasty a habitation. God doubtless will never dwell in us, when no man that loves his Peace or his Stomach will willingly dwell with us. Besides, what delinquency have our bodies been guilty of, that we should impose upon them so severe a Penance as Drunkenness doth amount to? If they do any thing amiss, 'tis at the instance of those Lusts that dwell in our hearts; or if they were indeed faulty, be there no other ways to be revenged upon them but this? Why do we not punish them with Hunger and Thirst, and Cold and Nakedness, and Stripes and Imprisonment? will nothing do the deed but Ale? If we have a mind to ruin these houses of Clay, there be twenty ways, though not fit, yet fit to he pitched upon, than this. Let me allude to and vary that of the Apostle, (Ro. 14.20.) For meat destroy not the work of God. Our Bodies are of Gods making: For drink destroy not the work of God.  
(4.) As a Duty to our Families. If we have Parents, is it our Duty to bring down their Grey Hairs with Sorrow to the Grave? And if they have any sense of Piety, no course of ours will contribute more to it than this. If we have Wives, they have an interest in our Estates, that we should not consume, and in our company that we should not deprive them of. If we have Children, is this all the love we can show them, to undo them by our Practice, and debauch them by our example? Briefly, where is our natural Affection to her that is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, and to them that are little Models of ourselves, if we can take their Livelihood out of their mouths, and their contentment out of their hearts, and swallow it down our Throats?  
(5.) As a Duty to our Estates, which God never gave us to consume upon our Lusts, nor that we should piss them out against a wall; the Poor we have always with us, many that are truly and really and necessarily so, who are able to receive whatever we are able to bestow, without the impairing of our Estates at all; or if this please not, because it is a Duty, and we have a mind to be Poor, and Miserable, and Wretched, and Indebted, and Threadbare, and Ragged, and Lousy, and unable to provide Bread, or Drink, or , or Callings, or a Livelihood for our Children; and to procure all this in a way of Sin: there be yet, I think many ways that are better than this to do it by. Some have voluntarily left their Estates to others; yea, Kings and Emperors their Kingdoms: why do not we rather leave our Estates, than run out of them? Better go from them, and carry our Health, and Wits, and Senses, and Christianity along with us, than carry them and these together to the Tap-head, and there leave them. Crates threw all his Goods into the Sea; were not this better than to throw them into our Guts?  
(6.) As a Duty to our Neighbours. Shall we put ourselves into such a posture, that nothing but a Miracle can keep us from abusing them? 'Tis Paul's Exhortation, Rom. 15.2. Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to Edification. If we please any one by our Excess, we are sure 'tis not for his good, and it doth only aedificare ad Gehennam; if it edify at all, 'tis to the nethermost Hell, by giving him an occasion to practise, or like, or not reprove, or not mourn for what Gods Soul abhors.  
(7.) As a Duty to the Kingdom, the Land of our Nativity, where we have had our Birth, our Breeding, so many good things as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey can well afford us; the welfare whereof we are bound to promote, and to be Serviceable to the concernments of it with all our might; and can we think that this can be done by Drinking? doth not that make us unfit for any thing? I have read that King Antigonus being very drunk, and meeting with Zeno the Philosopher, wished him to command what he would of him, and bound it with an Oath, se prestiturum quicquid postularet. (Theat. 802.) Zeno replied, Abi et Vome; Go your way and spew. To desire any thing else of him, had been to no purpose, being fit for that only. Should a drunkard offer his Service to the Kingdom, and desire an Employment, if Zeno were to give him his Commission, he would dispatch it in a very few words, Abi et Vome; Command him to Vomit, or Sleep, as being fit for nothing else. But though this should be enough to shame us into Sobriety, that otherwise we are good for nothing, there is in our guilt of this Sin an Addition of much more; we are a Plague and a Curse to the whole Nation, by Drinking down the Judgements of God upon it.  
(8.) As a Duty to the Church. Will any body that hath read the Bible, believe us to be Christians? Did Christ ever give us any Licence in his Word, or Encouragement in his Practice for such a course? Doth not the Law curse it, the Gospel condemn it, and all that fear God abhor it? Is it not our Duty, or is this the way to adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour?  
I might easily add many Arguments more; but this shall suffice as to the first Branch of the Point— Sobriety of Body.  
FINIS.