Chapter LX: Part IV: Directions for governing the Taste and Appetite (3)

Thou disposest thyself to almost every sin.[440] Drunkenness breaketh every one of the commandments, by disposing men to break them all. It disableth them to the duties of the first commandment above all, viz. to know God, and believe, and trust, and love him: it utterly unfitteth men for the holy worship required in the second commandment, as I have showed: he that hateth the guilt of former sin, in his worshippers, hateth present wickedness much more. Prov. xxi. 27, "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind." Idolatry, and wantonness, and excess in eating and drinking, usually dispose to one another. See 1 Cor. x. 7. Sacrifices of mirth and joviality, and gluttony and drunkenness, are fit for idols and devils, but unfit for God! And therefore commonly we find that it is the drunkards and riotous people in every town, that are the great enemies to the preaching of the gospel, and to all holy exercises, and to all that fear God, and will not be as mad as they: when there is a sacrifice to be offered to Bacchus, and any merry meeting where potting and feasting, and dancing and roaring, is to be the game, there it is that the ministers and servants of Christ are slandered, and scorned, and railed at.[441] There it is that hellish reproach of godliness, like the devil's cannons, are let fly without control (though through God's mercy they have more powder than bullet, and do little execution). There it is that the devil sitteth as president in his council, plotting what to do against the people and ways of Christ. And though it be drunken, sottish counsel, it is the fitter for his business; for it is a brutish thunderbolt that he hath to cast; a senseless, furious work that he hath to do; and no other instruments will serve his turn. He hath a plot to blow up the reputation and honour of serious godliness; but he that setteth fire to his train must withal blow up himself: and none is so fit for this work as a drunkard or a sensual sot: few others will venture to cast their own souls into the fire of hell, that they may procure a little stinking breath to be blown into the faces of the godly; few others would set their own houses on fire, that they may trouble God's servants by the smoke. Their very work is to do as those in Dan. iii. to cast the servants of Christ into those flames, which must devour those that cast them in, and must scarce touch a thread of the garments, or a hair of the head, of those for whom it was prepared:[442] and who would do this, that knew what he did, and were well in his wits? must he not be first made drunk that doth it? Also drunkenness disposeth you to swearing, and blaspheming, and perjury, and speaking contemptuously and unreverently of God, and to speak profanely and jestingly of the Scripture: and thus "fools make a mock of sin," Prov. xiv. 9. You are good for none of the holy exercises of the Lord's day: that is the day that you must defile with your filthy sin; the day in which God sendeth abroad his gracious invitations, and the devil his wicked incitations; in which God giveth most of his grace, and the devil infecteth most with sin; in which God is best served by his sincere ones, and the devil is most served by his impious ones.[443] And you dispose yourselves to sin against your governors: you have no hold of tongue or action when you are drunken. How many in their drunkenness have reproached and abused father and mother; and spoken treason against their king, or reviled magistrates and superiors; and perhaps attempted and done mischief as well as spoken it! If you are superiors, how unfit are you to judge or govern! Is it not lawful for any to appeal from you, as the woman did from Philip drunk to Philip sober? You will be apter to abuse your inferiors than well to govern them. Also drunkenness destroyeth civility, justice, and charity. It inflameth the mind with anger and rage; it teacheth the tongue to curse, and rail, and slander; it makes you unfaithful, and uncapable of keeping any secret, and ready to betray your chiefest friend, as being master neither of your mind, or tongue, or actions. Drunkenness hath made men commit many thousand murders; it hath caused many to murder themselves, and their nearest relations; many have been drowned by falling into the water, or broke their necks with falling from their horses, or died suddenly by the suffocation of nature. It draweth men to idleness, and taketh them off their lawful calling: it maketh a multitude of thieves, by breeding necessity, and imboldening to villany. It is a principal cause of lust and filthiness, and the great maintainer of whoredoms; and taketh away all shame, and fear, and wit, which should restrain men from this or any sin: what sin is it that a drunken man may not commit? no thanks to him that he forbeareth the greatest wickedness! Cities and kingdoms have been betrayed by drunkenness; many a drunken garrison hath let in the enemy. There is no confidence to be put in a drunken man; nor any mischief that he is secure from.

12. Lastly, Thou sinnest not alone, but temptest others with thee to perdition. It is the great crime of Jeroboam that he made Israel to sin. The judgment of God determineth those men to death, that not only do wickedness, "but have pleasure in them that do it," Rom. i. 32. And is not this thy case? Art thou not Satan's instrument to tempt others with thee to waste their time, and neglect their souls, and abuse God and his creatures? Yea, some of you glory in your shame, that you have drunk down your companions, and carried it away (the honour of a sponge or a tub, which can drink up or hold liquor as well as you). And what is that man worthy of, that would thus transform himself and others into such monsters of iniquity?

IV. Next let us hear the drunkard's excuses (for even drunkenness will pretend to reason, and men will not make themselves mad without an argument to justify it). I. Saith the tippler, I take no more than doth me good: you allow a man to eat as much as doth him good, and why not to drink as much? No man is fitter to judge this than I, for I am sure I feel it do me good.

_Answ._ What good dost thou mean, man? Doth it fit thee for holy thoughts, or words, or deeds? Doth it help thee to live well, or fit thee to die well? Art thou sure that it tendeth to the health of thy body? Thou canst not so say without the imputation of folly or self-conceitedness, when all the wise physicians in the world do hold the contrary. No, it doth as gluttony doth; it pleaseth thee in the drinking, but it filleth thy body with crudities and phlegm, and prepareth for many mortal sicknesses: it maketh thy body like grounds after a flood, that are covered with stinking slime; or like fenny lands that are drowned in water, and bear no fruit; or like grounds that have too much rain, that are dissolved to dirt, but are unfit for use. It maketh thee like a leaking ship, that must be pumped and emptied, or it will sink; if thou have not vomits or purges to empty thee, thou wilt quickly drown or suffocate thy life. As Basil saith, a drunkard is like a ship in a tempest, when all the goods are cast overboard to disburden it lest it sink. Physicians must pump thee, or disburden thee, or thou wilt be drowned; and all will not serve if thou hold on to fill it up again; for intemperance maketh most diseases uncurable. An historian speaketh of two physicians that differed in their prognostics about a patient; one forsook him as uncurable; the other undertook him as certainly curable; but when he came to his remedies, he prescribed him so strict abstinence as he would not undergo: and so they agreed in the issue; when one judged him uncurable because intemperate, and the other curable if he would be temperate. Thou that feelest the drink do thee good, dost little think how the devil hath a design in it, not only to have thy soul, but to have it quickly; that the mud-walls of thy body being washed down may not hold it long. And I must tell thee that thou hast cause to value a good physician for greater reasons than thy life, and art more beholden to him than many others; even that he may help to keep thy soul out of hell a little longer, to see "if God will give thee repentance," that thou "mayst escape out of the snare of the devil, who taketh thee captive at his will," 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. As Ælian writeth of king Antigonus, that having great respect for Zeno the philosopher, he once met him when he was in drink, and embracing him, urged him to ask of him what he would, and bound himself with many oaths to give it him. Zeno thanked him, and the request he made to him was, that he would go home and vomit. To tell him that he more needed to be disburdened of his drink, than he himself did need his gifts. The truth is, the good that thou feelest the drink do thee is but the present pleasing of thy appetite, and tickling thy fantasy by the exhilarating vapours: and so the glutton, and the whoremonger, and every sensual wretch will say, that he feeleth it do him good; but God bless all sober men from such a good. So the gamester feeleth the sport do him good; but perhaps he is quickly made a beggar by it. It is reason and faith, and not thy appetite or present feeling, that must tell thee what and how much doth thee good.

_Object._ II. But I have heard some physicians say, that it is wholesome to be drunk sometimes.

_Answ._ None but some sot, that had first drank away his own understanding. I have known physicians that have been drunkards themselves, and they have been apt to plead for their own vice; but they quickly killed themselves, and all their skill could not save their lives from the effects of their own bestiality; even as the knowledge and doctrine of a wicked preacher will not save his soul, if he live contrary to his profession. And what if the vomiting of a drunkard did him some good with all the harm? Are there not easier, safer, lawfuller means enough to do the same good without the harm? He is a brute himself, and not a physician, that knoweth no better remedy than this. But thy conscience telleth thee, this is but a false excuse.

_Object._ III. But I wrong nobody in my drink; the hurt is my own.

_Answ._ No thanks to thee if thou wrong nobody: but read over the former aggravations, and then justify thyself in this if thou canst. It seems thou makest nothing of wronging God by disobedience. But suppose it be no one's hurt but thy own: dost thou hate thyself? is thy own hurt nothing to thee? what! dost make nothing of the damning of thy own soul? whom wilt thou love if thou hate thyself? It is the aggravation of this sin, as well as fornication, 1 Cor. vi. 18, that it is against your own bodies, and much more as against your own souls.

_Object._ IV. But I was but merry, I was not drunken.

_Answ._ It were well for you if God would stand to your names and definitions, and take none for a sinner that taketh not himself for one. There are several degrees of drunkenness short of the highest degree. And if your reason was not disturbed, yet the excess of drink only, and tippling, and gulosity, will prove a greater sin than you suppose.

_Object._ V. But I drink but a little; but my head is weak and a little overturneth it.

_Answ._ If you know that beforehand, you are the more unexcusable, that will not avoid that measure which you know you cannot bear. If you knew that less poison will kill you than another, you would be the more fearful of it, and not the less.

_Object._ VI. But I have a thirst upon me, and I take no more than will quench it.

_Answ._ So the whoremonger saith, he hath a lust upon him, and he taketh no more than will quench it. And the malicious man that beateth you or undoes you, may say, that he hath a passion upon him, and he taketh no more revenge on you than satisfieth it. But if you add drunkenness to thirst, read your doom again, Deut. xxix. 19. If it be a natural, moderate thirst, moderation will satisfy it; if it be a diseased thirst, as in a fever or dropsy, the physician must direct you in the cure; and small drink is fitter for a thirst than strong: but if it be the thirst of a drunkard's raging appetite, that hath been used to be pleased, and therefore is loth to be denied, you had best quench it upon better and cheaper terms, than the displeasing God and damning your souls; lest you find it more troublesome in the flames of hell, to want a drop of water for your tongues, than it would have been to have bridled a beastly appetite.[444] And lest you then cry out as Lysimachus, when thirst forced him to yield to the Scythians for a little drink, _Quam brevis voluptatis gratia, quantum felicitatis amisi_! For how short a pleasure did I lose so great felicity! Take heed of reasoning your souls into impenitence.

_Quest._ I. Is it not lawful to drink when we are thirsty, and know of no harm that it is like to do us, seeing thirst telleth us what the stomach needeth?

_Answ._ A beast may do so, that hath no higher faculty to guide him. And a man may take in the consideration of his thirst to guide his reason in judging of the due quantity and time; but not otherwise. A man must never drink to please his appetite, either against reason, or without it. And no man must so captivate his reason to sense, as to think that his appetite is his principal rule or guide herein; nor be so brutish as to know no otherwise what doth him good or hurt, but by his present feeling; sometimes true reason may tell a man, that thirst is a sign that drink is needful to his health, and then he may take it. Sometimes (and commonly with blockish people) pleasing a thirst may hurt their health, and they are so foolish that they do not know it; either because they are ignorant of such things, or because their appetite maketh them unwilling to believe it, till they feel it; and because they judge only by the present effects: so a man may kill himself with drinking cold drink in a heat, in some fevers, in a dropsy, a cough, cachexy, &c. And excess doth insensibly vitiate the blood, and heap up matter of many diseases which are incurable, before the sot will believe that drinking when he was thirsty did him any harm. If really it will do no harm, you may drink when you are thirsty (because it will do good). But if it will quench natural heat and hinder concoction, and breed diseases through unseasonableness, or ill quality, or excess, it is neither your thirst, nor your sottish ignorance of the hurt, that will excuse you from the sin, or prevent the coughs, stone, gout, cholic, swellings, palsies, agues, fevers, or death, which it will bring.

_Quest._ II. Is it not lawful to drink a health sometimes when it would be ill-taken to refuse it, or to be uncovered while others drink it?

_Answ._ Distinguish between, 1. Drinking measurably as you need it, and unmeasurably when you need it not. 2. Between the foreseen effects; and doing it ordinarily, or when it will do hurt, or extraordinarily, when it will more prevent hurt. And so I conclude,

1. It is unlawful to drink more than is good for your health, by the provocation of other men.

2. It is unlawful to do that which tempteth and encourageth others to drink too much. And so doth the custom of pledging healths, especially when it is taken for a crime to deny it.

3. Therefore the ordinary pledging or drinking of such healths is unlawful, because it is the scandalous hardening of others in their sin unto their ruin.

4. But if we fall in among such furious beasts as would stab a man if he did not drink a health, it is lawful to do it to save one's life, as it is to give a thief my purse; because it is a sin not simply evil of itself to drink that cup, but by accident, which a greater accident may preponderate.

5. Therefore any other accident beside the saving of your life, which will really preponderate the hurtful accident, may make it lawful; as possibly in some cases and companies the offence given by denying it may be such as will do more hurt far, than yielding would do. (As if a malignant company would lay one's loyalty to the king upon it, &c.)

6. Christian prudence therefore (without carnal compliance) must be always the present decider of the case, by comparing the good and evil effects.

7. To be bare when others lay the honour of the king or superiors upon it, is a ceremony that on the aforesaid reason may be complied with.

8. When to avoid a greater evil we are extraordinarily put on any such ceremony, it is meet that we join such words (where we have liberty) as may prevent the scandal, or hardening any present in sin.

9. And it is a duty to avoid the company which will put us upon such inconveniences, as far as our calling will allow us.

V. But because it is the drunkard's heart or will that needs persuasion, more than his understanding needs direction, I shall before the directions yet endeavour his fuller conviction, if he will but read, and consider soberly, (if ever he be sober,) these following questions, and not leave them till he answer them to the satisfaction of his own conscience.

_Quest._ I. Dost thou know that thou art a man? and what a man is? Dost thou know that reason differenceth him from a beast that is ruled by appetite and hath no reason? If thou do, let thy reason do its office, and do not drown it, or set the beast above it.

_Quest._ II. Dost thou believe that there is a God that is the Governor of the world, or not? If not, tell me how thou camest to be a man? And how came thy tongue and palate to taste thy drink or meat, any more than thy finger? Look on thy finger and on thy tongue, and thou canst see no reason why one should taste and not the other? If thou live in the midst of such a world, which he hath made and daily governeth, and yet believest not that there is a God, thou art so much worse already than drunk or mad, that it is no wonder if thou be a drunkard. But if thou do believe indeed that there is a God, hear further, thou stupid beast, and tremble! Is he the Governor of heaven and earth, and is he not worthy to be the Governor of thee? Is all the world at his disposal, and is he not worthy to dispose of thy throat and appetite? Are crowns, and kingdoms, heaven, and hell, at his disposal and will, and is he not worthy to be master of thy cup and company? wilt thou say to him by thy practice, go rule sun and moon, and rule all the world, except my appetite and my cup?

_Quest._ III. Dost thou verily believe that God is present with thee, and seeth and heareth all that is done and said among you? If not, thou believest not that he is God! For he that is absent, and ignorant, and is not infinite, omnipresent, and omniscient, is not God; and if God be not there, thou art not there thyself; for what can uphold thee, and continue thy life, and breath, and being? But if thou believe that God is present, darest thou drink on, and darest thou before him waste thy time, in prating over a pot with thy companions?

_Quest._ IV. Tell me, dost thou believe that the holy Scripture is true? If thou do not, no wonder if thou be a drunkard.[445] But if thou do, remember that then it is true, that "drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. vi. 10. And then mark what the Scripture saith, Isa. xxi. 1, "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim." Hab. ii. 15, "Woe to him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunk also." Isa. v. 11, "Woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink, that continue till night till wine inflame them: and the harp, and the viol, and the tabret, and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands." Ver. 22, "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink." Prov. xxxi. 4-6, "It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted: give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts." See Amos vi. 6. Luke xxi. 34, "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Rom. xiii. 13, 14, "Not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy the lusts thereof." Prov. xx. 1, "Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. xxiii. 29-32, "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things: yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast." Hos. iv. 11, "Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart." Joel i. 5, "Awake, ye drunkards, and weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine," &c. If thou do indeed believe the word of God, why do not such passages make thee tremble?

_Quest._ V. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thyself when thou art drunk, or joinest thyself with drunkards? What abundance of other sins thou art liable to? And in what peril thou art of some present judgment of God? Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee tremble. To think that even a Noah that was drunken but once, is recorded to his shame for a warning unto others. How horrid a crime even Lot fell into by the temptations of drunkenness! How Uriah was made drunk by a David to have hid his sin! 2 Sam. xi. 13. How David's son Amnon, in God's just revenge, was murdered by his brother Absalom's command, when "his heart was merry with wine," 2 Sam. xiii. 28. How Nabal was stricken dead by God after his drunkenness, 1 Sam. xxv. 36-38. How king Elah was murdered as he was drinking himself drunk, 1 Sam. xvi. 9. And how the terrible hand appeared writing upon the wall to king Belshazzar in his carousing, to signify the loss of his kingdoms, and that very night he was also slain, Dan. v. 1, 30. Thou seest God spareth not kings themselves, that one would think might be allowed more pleasure: and will he spare thee? Prov. xxxi. 4, 5, "It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink;" and is it then for thee? Mark the dreadful fruits of it even to the greatest. Hos. vii. 3-5, "They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies: they are all adulterers as an oven heated--In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners." Thou seest that be they great or small, both soul and body are cast by tippling and drunkenness into greater danger, than thou art in at sea in a raging tempest. Thou puttest thyself in the way of the vengeance of God, and art not like to escape it long.

_Quest._ VI. Didst thou ever measure thy sin by that strange kind of punishment commanded by God against incorrigible gluttons and drunkards? Deut. xxi. 18-21, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place; 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. And all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put away evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." Surely gluttony and drunkenness are heinous crimes, when a man's own father and mother were bound to bring him to the magistrate to be put to death, if he will not be reformed by their own correction. And you see here that youth is no excuse for it, though now it is thought excusable in them.

_Quest._ VII. Dost thou think thy drink is too good to leave at God's command? Or dost thou think that God doth grudge thee the sweetness of it? or rather that he forbids it thee for thy good, that thou mayst escape the hurt. And tell me, Dost thou love God better than thy drink and pleasure, or dost thou not? If not, thy own conscience must needs tell thee, (if thou have a conscience not quite seared,) that there is no hope of thy salvation in that state: but if thou say, thou dost, will God, or any wise man, believe thee, that thou lovest him better, and wilt not be so far ruled by him, nor leave so small a matter for his sake? 1 John v. 3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." So 2 John 6.

_Quest._ VIII. Dost thou remember that thy carcass must lie rotting in the grave, and how loathsome a thing it must shortly be? And canst thou make so great a matter of the present satisfying of so vile a body, and dung the earth at so dear a rate?

_Quest._ IX. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost? If so, what would become of thy estate? It would be a mad world if all were drunkards. Wouldst thou have thy wife a drunkard? If she were, thou wouldst scarce be confident of her chastity. Wouldst thou have thy servants drunkards? If they were, they might set thy house on fire: and they would do thee little work, or do it so as it were better be undone. Thy house would be a bedlam if all were drunkards; and much worse than bedlam; for there are some wise men to govern and correct the mad ones. But if thou like it not in wife, and children, and servants, why dost thou continue it thyself? Art thou not nearest to thyself? Dost thou love any others better than thyself? Hadst thou rather thy own soul were damned than theirs? or canst thou more easily endure it? I have wondered sometimes to observe some drunkards very severe against the same sin in their children, and very desirous to have them sober! But the reason is, because the sobriety of their children is no trouble to them, nor puts them to deny the pleasure of their appetites, as their own sobriety must do.

_Quest._ X. Wouldst thou have thy physician drunk when he should cure thee of thy sickness? or thy lawyer drunk when he should plead thy cause? or the judge when he should judge it? If not, why wilt thou be drunken when thou shouldst serve thy God and mind the business of thy soul? If thou wouldst not have thy servant be potting in an ale-house when he should be about thy work, wilt thou sit potting and prating there, when thou hast a thousand fold greater work to do for thy everlasting happiness?

_Quest._ XI. If one do but lame or spoil thy beast, and make him unfit for thy service, wouldst thou be pleased with it? And wilt thou unfit thyself for the service of God, as if thy work were of less concernment than thy beast's?

_Quest._ XII. Would it please you if your servants poured all that drink in the channel? If not, I have before proved to thee that it should displease thee more to pour it into thy belly: for thou wilt find at last that it will hurt thee more.

_Quest._ XIII. What relish hath thy pleasant liquor the next day? Will it then be any sweeter than wholesome abstinence? All the delight is suddenly gone: there is nothing left but the slime in thy guts, and the ulcer in thy conscience, which cannot be cured by all thy treasure, nor palliated long by all thy pleasure. And canst thou value much so short delights? As all thy sweet and merry cups are now no sweeter than if they had been wormwood; so all the rest will quickly come to the same end and relish. As Plato said of his slender supper, compared to a rich man's feast, Yours seemeth better to-night, but mine will be better to-morrow; so thy conscience telleth thee that temperance and holy obedience will be better to-morrow, and better to eternity, though gluttony and drunkenness seem better now.

_Quest._ XIV. Dost thou consider how dear thou payest for hell? and buyest damnation at a harder rate than salvation might be attained at? What shame doth it cost thee! What sickness is it like to cost thee! What painful vomitings or worse dost thou undergo! How much dost thou suffer in thy estate! And is hell worth all this ado?

_Quest._ XV. Dost thou not think in thy heart, that sober, temperate, godly men do live a more quiet and comfortable life than thou, as well as an honester and safer life? If thou do think so, why wilt thou not imitate them? It is as free for thee to choose as them. If thou think they do not, consider, that as they have none of thy forbidden cups, so they have none of thy thirst or desire after them. Abstinence is sweeter much to them.[446] They have none of thy sour belchings, or vomitings, nor shame, nor danger, nor thy reckoning to pay. They have none of thy gripes of conscience, and terrors under the guilt of such a sin. They live in the love of God and the forethoughts of heaven, while thou art in the alehouse. And dost thou not think in thy conscience, that to a heart that is suited and sanctified thereto, it is not a sweeter thing to live in the love of God, than in the love of thy sensuality? Darest thou say (whatever thou thinkest) that God, and heaven, and holiness are not so lovely and fit to be delighted in, as a cup of wine or ale? Sure thou darest not say so! If it were for no more than the different aspects of death and eternity to them and to thee, I account thy life in the midst of thy pleasures incomparably more sad than theirs. They look at death as at the time of hope, and the day of their deliverance, as the assizes are to the innocent or pardoned man: but thou lookest on death with terror, as the end of all thy mirth, as the guilty malefactor thinketh on the assizes; or else with senselessness or presumption, which is worse. They look unto eternity as their endless, unspeakable felicity; and thou darest scarce seriously think of it, without the delusory ease of unbelief or of false hopes: thou darest not seriously look beyond death, unless through the devil's cheating spectacles. I tell thee, a sober, godly man would not have thy merry life (as thou accountest it) one day, for all thy wealth, or for any worldly gain: he had rather lie in jail, or sit in the stocks that while, than drink and swagger with thee. Keep thy merriment to thyself, for no wise man or good man will be thy partner. If thou wert their enemy, they would not wish thee so much misery as thou choosest. As the story goeth of a confessor, that hearing many confess the sin of drunkenness, would needs try himself what pleasure was in it: and having vomited and slept it out, the next drunkard that came to him in confession, he appointed him for penance to be drunk again, and told him, he need no sharper penance.

_Quest._ XVI. How cometh it to pass that thy very pride doth not cure thy drunkenness?[447] Pride is so natural and deep-rooted a sin, that I dare say thou hast not overcome it, if thou have not overcome thy sensuality. And is thy credit no more worth with thee? wilt thou for a cup of drink be made the talk of the country, the scorn of the town, the sport and laughing-game of boys, and the pity of sober persons? If thou be a great man among them, and they dare not speak it to thy face, and thou hearest not what they say of thee, yet in private they make bold with thy name, to talk of thee as of a filthy beast. Canst thou think that sober men do honour thee? What honour may accidentally be due to thee from thy place, is another matter; but thou takest a course to keep them from honouring thee for thy worth, and dost thy worst to bring thy rank and place into contempt. It is said that in Spain a drunkard is not allowed for a witness against any man: and sure he is not a credible person. Regard thy reputation if thou carest not for thy soul.

_Quest._ XVII. Dost thou not love the flesh itself which thou so much pamperest? If thou do, why wilt thou drown it, and choke it up with phlegm and filth? Ask physicians whether drunkenness be wholesome. Mark how many drunkards live to be old: _Ennius podagricus_, is a proverb. The sickness is longer than the sweetness of thy cup. If thou fearest not hell, fear the consumption, gout, or dropsy.

_Quest._ XVIII. Why shouldst thou not take more pleasure in the company of thy family, and in the company of people fearing God, that worship him in truth of heart, and will do their best to help to save thee? Canst thou give any reason for it, why such company should not be more pleasant to thee than thy pot companions? and why it should not be pleasanter to talk of the way to heaven, and the pardon of sin, and the love of Christ, and of eternal happiness, than to prate a deal of idle nonsense in an alehouse? There is no reason for it but thy filthy mind, that is suitable to vanity and sin, and unsuitable to all that is wise and holy.

_Quest._ XIX. What if thou shouldst die in a drunken fit? Wouldst thou not thyself take thy case to be desperate or dangerous? Why, it may be so for aught thou knowest; it hath been the case of many a one. But if it be not so, yet to die a drunkard is as certain damnation, as to die in drunkenness. If the guilt of the sin be on thee, it is all one when it was committed, whether lately or long ago; for unpardoned sin is most sure damnation; and it is certainly unpardoned, till it be truly repented of; and it is not repented of if it be not forsaken: and then bethink thee how thou wilt review these days, and what thoughts thou wilt then have of thy cups and company!

_Quest._ XX. Art thou willing to part with thy sin, or art thou not? Speak, man; art thou willing? If thou be not willing, bear witness against thyself that thou dost not repent of it, and that thou art not forgiven it; and therefore that thou art at present a slave of the devil, and if thou die so, as sure to be damned as thou art alive. Bear witness that thou wast not kept from grace, and consequently from heaven, against thy will, but by thy wilful refusal of it; and that it was not because thou couldst not be saved, that thou goest to hell, but because thou wouldst not. Sure even now thou canst not have the face to deny any of this, if thou confess that thou art not willing to amend. Take thy will in sin, if God's will must be violated, which tendered thee mercy, and commanded thee to accept it; but be sure that God will have his will in punishing thee.

But I suppose thou wilt say, that thou art willing to amend and leave thy sin, but thou canst not do it because flesh is frail, and company is tempting, and God giveth thee not grace; willing thou art, but yet unable. But stay a little! God will not so let thee carry it, and smooth over thy wickedness with a lie. Thy meaning, if thou speak out, is not that thou art willing, presently and heartily willing, to forsake thy sin, but only that thou wouldst be willing, if the drink and the devil did not tempt thee. And so thou wilt be willing to love God and be saved, when nothing shall tempt thee to the contrary! And wouldst thou thank thy wife for such a willingness to forsake adultery, when nobody will tempt her to it? or thy servant to do thy work, when he hath nothing to tempt him to idleness or neglect? Judge by this what thanks thou deservest of God for such a willingness. But dally not with God, and mock not thy conscience, but speak to the question, Art thou willing to give over thy company and tippling, from this day forward, or art thou not? Take heed what thou sayest. If thou say, No, God may say, Nay, to all thy cries for mercy in the day of thy misery and distress; but if still thou say that thou art willing, but not able, I will convince thee of thy falsehood.

_Quest._ I. Tell me then, what force is used to make thee sin against thy will? Wast thou carried to the alehouse, or didst thou go thyself? Wast thou gagged and drenched? Was it poured down thy throat by violence; or didst thou take the cup and pour it down thyself? Who was the man that held open thy mouth and poured it in? Nay, if it had been thus, it had not been thy sin; for no will, no sin. Or did they set a sword or pistol to thy breast, and so force thee to it? If they had, that had not proved thee unwilling, but only that they forced thee to be willing; and their force is no excuse: for God threatened hell, and thou shouldst have feared that most.

_Quest._ II. Didst thou love the drink, or loathe it when thou wast drinking it? Didst thou love it against thy will, when love and willingness are all one?

_Quest._ III. Wilt thou forbear the next time till thou art carried to it, and till it is forcibly poured down with a horn? If not, confess it is thy will.

_Quest._ IV. Couldst thou not forbear, if the judge or the king stood by? And canst thou not forbear when God stands by? If thou wilt thou canst.

_Quest._ V. Couldst thou not forbear, if thou wert sure to be put to death for it? if the law hanged all drunkards, and the hangman were at thy back? Surely thou couldst. And canst thou not then forbear if thou wilt, when God hath made it worse than hanging, and when death is coming to fetch thee to execution?

_Quest._ VI. Couldst thou not forbear it in sickness, if thy physician required it, and told thee, if thou drink, it will be thy death? I doubt not but thou couldst: if not, thou art very unworthy to live, that canst not deny thyself a cup of drink for the saving of thy life. And thou art as unworthy to be saved, if thou wilt not do that to save thy soul, which thou wouldst do to save thy present life.

_Quest._ VII. Yea, couldst thou not forbear if it were to save the life of thy wife, or child, or friend, or neighbour? If thou knewest that forbearing thy forbidden cup would save the life of any one of them, couldst thou not, nay, wouldst thou not do it? If not, thou tellest the world what a husband, what a father, what a friend, and what a neighbour thou art, that wouldst not forbear a cup of drink to save a friend or neighbour's life. I should think thee an unworthy friend, if thou wouldst not do that much at thy friend's request, though there were no such necessity lay upon it. If this be so, I will never take a drunkard for my friend; for he would not forbear a cup of drink for my sake, no, not if it were to save my life. If thou say, God forbid, I would do more than that, why then didst thou say, Thou canst not forbear? Mark how thy tongue reproves thy falsehood. And canst thou not do that for thy own soul, which thou couldst do for the life, or at the request of a friend or neighbour?

_Quest._ VIII. Couldst thou not forbear if it were to get a lordship or a kingdom? yea, to save thy own estate, if it were all in danger, and this would save it? I doubt not but thou couldst. Why then dost thou say thou canst not do it?

_Quest._ IX. If thou wert certain that thou wast to die to-morrow, wouldst thou be drunk to-night? Or if thou wert sure to die within this week or month, wouldst thou be drunk ere then? I do not believe thou wouldst: fear would so long shut thy mouth. Thou seest then that thou canst forbear if thou wert but willing, and wert but awaked out of thy stupidity and folly.

_Quest._ X. What if thou wert sure that there were an ounce of arsenic or other such poison in the cup? couldst thou not then forbear it? Yes, no doubt of it: it is plain therefore that thou speakest falsely, when thou sayst that thou canst not. And is not God's wrath and curse in thy cup much worse than poison?

_Quest._ XI. What if thou sawest the devil standing by thee and offering thee the cup, and persuading thee to drink it, couldst thou not then forbear? Yes, no doubt of it: and is he not as certainly there tempting thee, as if thou sawest him? Well, the matter is proved against thee to thy own conscience, that if thou wilt forbear, thou canst.

_Quest._ XII. But yet if thou canst not, bethink thee whether thou canst better bear the pains of hell? For God is not in jest with thee in his threatenings. If thy thirst be harder to bear than hell, then choose that which is easiest to thee: but remember hereafter that thou hadst thy choice.

Yet, art thou willing to let go thy sin? (for I am sure thou art able so far as thou art willing). I will take thy case to be as it is; that is, that thou hast some half, uneffectual willingness, or lazy wish which will not conquer a temptation; and that thou art sometimes in a little better mood than at other times, and that thou lovest thy sin, and therefore wouldst not leave it if thou couldst choose, but thou lovest not hell, and therefore hast some thoughts of parting with thy cups against thy will, for fear of punishment. These wishes and purposes will never save thee: it must be a renewed nature, loving God, and hating the sin, that must make thee capable of salvation. But yet in the mean time it is necessary that thou forbear thy sin, though it be but through fear; for thou canst not expect else that the Holy Ghost should renew thy nature. Therefore I will give thee directions how to forbear thy sin most surely and easily, if thou be but willing, and withal to promote thy willingness itself with the performance.

_Practical Directions against Tippling and Drunkenness._

_Direct._ I. Write over thy bed and thy chamber door, where thou mayst read it every morning before thou goest forth, some text of holy Scripture that is fit to be thy memorandum: as 1 Cor. vi. 10, "Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God;" and Rom. viii. 13, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live:" and read it before thou goest out of thy doors.

_Direct._ II. Also fall down on thy knees to God, and earnestly beg of him to keep thee that day from temptations, and ill company, and from all thy fleshly desires and excess; and especially that he would renew thy nature, and give thee a hatred of the sin.

_Direct._ III. Keep thyself in the constant employments of thy calling, and spend not one quarter of an hour in idleness, and allow not leisure to thy thoughts, so much as to think of thy drink and pleasures; much less to thy body to follow it. God hath commanded thee, whoever thou art, to labour six days, and in the sweat of thy brows to eat thy bread, and hath forbidden idleness and negligence in thy calling: avoid this, and it will help thee much.

_Direct._ IV. Reckon not upon long life, but think how quickly death will come, and that for aught thou knowest thou mayst die that day; and how dreadful a case it would prove to thee, to be found among tipplers, or to die before thou art truly converted. Think of this before thou goest out of thy doors; and think of it as thou art going to the alehouse: look on the cup and the grave together: the dust of those bones will be wholesome spice to thee. Remember when thou seest the wine, or ale, how unlike it is to that black and loathsome liquor which thy blood and humours will be turned into when thou art dead. Remember that the hand that taketh the cup, must shortly be scattered bones and dust; and the mouth that drinketh it down, must shortly be an ugly hole; and the palate, and stomach, and brain that are delighted by it, must shortly be stinking puddle: and that the graves of drunkards are the field or garden of the devil, where corpses are sowed to rise at the resurrection to be fuel for hell.

_Direct._ V. When thou art tempted to the alehouse, call up thy reason, and remember that there is a God that seeth thee, and will judge thee, and that thou hast an endless life of joy or torment shortly to possess, and that thou hast sinned thus too long already, and that without sound repentance thy case is desperate, and that thou art far from true repentance while thou goest on in sin. Ask thyself, Have I not sinned long enough already? Have I not long enough abused mercy? Shall I make my case remediless, and cast away all hope? Doth not God stand by, and see and hear all? Am I not stepping by death into an endless world? Think of these things, and use thy reason, if thou be a man, and hast reason to use.

_Direct._ VI. Exercise thyself daily in repenting for what is past; and that will preserve thee for the time to come. Confess thy former sin to God with sorrow, and beg forgiveness of it with tears and groans. If thou make light of all that is past, thou art prepared to commit more. Think as thou goest about thy work, how grievously thou hast sinned against thy knowledge and conscience; in the sight of God; against all his mercies; and how obstinately thou hast gone on, and how unthankfully thou hast rejected mercy, and neglected Christ, and refused grace. Think what had become of thee, if thou hadst died in this case; and how exceedingly thou art beholden to the patience of God, that he cut thee not off, and cast thee not into hell, and that he hath provided and offered thee a Saviour, and is yet willing to pardon and accept thee through his Son, if thou wilt but resolvedly return, and live in faith and holiness. These penitent thoughts and exercises will kill thy sin and cure thee. Fast and humble thyself for what thou hast done already: as the holy apostle saith, 1 Pet. iv. 1-5, "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 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, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead."

_Direct._ VII. Keep from the place and company: Eph. v. 7, 11, "Be not partakers with them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Thou canst not deny but thou art able to do this if thou wilt. Canst thou not stay at home and come not near them? If thou be willing to escape, run not into the snare.

_Direct._ VIII. Stop at the first cup: be not drawn on by little and little: as the sluggard saith, Yet a little more sleep; so the drunkard saith, Yet a little more drink; I will take but one cup more. Understand thy due measure, that thou mayst know what is excess: to an ordinary healthful body, that doth not very much labour and sweat, a quart in a day is enough; to cold and phlegmatic persons it is too much: the old rule was, _Prima ad sitim, secunda ad hilaritatem, tertia ad voluptatem, quarta ad insaniam_: The first cup is for thirst, the second for mirth, the third for sensual pleasure, the fourth for madness. Especially you that have drunk too much so long, should rather drink less than other men: your souls require it for penitence and for prevention; your bodies require it, to cure the crudities already heaped up.