evil words which corrupt good manners, turpiloquium, multiloquium, vaniloquium falfiloquium; and where be the good names of men more foully handled then upon the ale- bench, when a drunken Senate meeteth? And to conclude,it difhonoureth Parents: for the laws of the Church, and the laws of the Common wealth do forbid it, and defigne punishment for it. Yet this fin is the Diana of our Ephefis, and if all the Preachers of England do cry it down in Pulpits, the Court of good fellowship will cry ic up again; though we fhew you the fcrowl of God, and open all the folds of it, and read it to you. written within and without, with nothing but lamentations, mourning and wo against this fin: though we bind the finners in this kind by the power given to us by Chrift, faying, Whosoever fias yee retain, they are retained, yet do men run headlong into this in without fear or wit. But when fin is once grown into fashion, we may stretch out our hands all the day long against it, and fpend our ftrength in vain, yet I will not defpair of a bleffing upon our faithful la bours against it; and thus much I will undertake to do, as the Apostle faith, I will yet fhew you a more excellent way. I will yet fhew you approved remedies against this finne,and there is no time of the year unfealonable for the foul to take Phyfick. Remed11. Take Davids Phyfick; I have kept thy word in Remedia. my beart that I might not finne against thee; for that word will answer the temptation, as Iofeph did, How then shall I do this great wickednefe and fo fin against my God? Remember the fearful threatnings of wo and judgement against this finne: Remember the day of judgment wherein every man muft give account to God of him. felf, and of all his ways; remember the bitternelle of the latter end thereof; all this is clearly denounced in the word of God; Remember that it is a fearful thing to full into the hands of the li ving God, for our God is even a confuming fire. 2. Remedy is a conftant Practife of mortification; for they that humble their fouls with fafting, and chaften their bodies, and bring them in fubjection,that watch and pray, and call their fins every day to account, and examine their confciences by the law of God, he that doth these things well, fhall foon come to their diet, of whom the Pfalmift fpeaketh, Thon feedeft them with the bread of tears, and giveft them tears to drink in great measure. Then thou wilt go mourning all the day long. 3. Remedy is,withdrawing thy felf from fuch company as use drunkenneffe, from fuch places wherein it is used, as Solomon adviseth. Pfel 80.5. Be not amongft wine-bibbers, amongst riotous eaters of flesh: Prov.23. for the drunkard and the glutton fhall come to poverty, and drowsi- 20.21. neffe fball cloath a man with rags, So Saint Paul chargeth the Co rinthians, II. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man 1 Cor. 5. that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetons, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with fuck a one, no not to eat, Ibis company that corrupts many; there are few that love drunkenneffe fo well, that they will fit down and drink 1Reg.16.9 themselves drunk, as Elab king of Ifrael did,but good fellowship fpoils all, and one pot draweth on another. I 4. Remedy is, Let every man abide in the calling wherein be 1 Cor. 7. was called. God hath given his Angels charge of thee to keep thee 20, in all thy ways;fo it is laid of a drunkard that he is out of the way; for did he exercise himself in his calling, within his way, he could not miscarry. The de fire of the flothful killeth him: for bis hands refuse to la- Pro·21.25. bour, he covetesh greedily all the day long. 5. Remedy is,a confideration of the hunger and thirft which Chrift fuftained on earth for thee, and of the hunger and thirst which Chrift yet in the members doth fuffer. Remember what he hath done for thee;do not waste that unthriftily which would ferve to relieve Jefus Chrift; be hungred to fatisfie thee, do not thou furfet to make him hungry; he thirfted, it was one of the laft words that he fpake on the Croffe, Sisto I thirst; do not thou make thy felf drunk with that which fhould quench his thift, left thy, laft draught be like his vinegar mingled with gall. 6. Remedy is,a confideration that we are required to pray continually, Rr tinually,and in all things to give thanks which holy duty we cannot performe so long as we are in our cups; thefe duties require a found judgment, a cleare understanding, an heart established with grace, as the Apostle faith, Not in gluttony and drunkennesse, not in chambering and wantonnesse, but put ye on the Lord Jesus, and have no care to the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. We were created to glorifie God in our bodies and in our fouls, for they are God's;and therefore whether you eate or drinke; or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. 7. Remedy, confider that we are bidden guefts to the Supper of the Lamb, and the Spirit and the Bride faith come, and let whoRev.22.17.foever heareth fay come, and take of the waters of life freely; we cannot tell when this fupper time is, till Gods meffenger death cometh and telleth us all things are prepared; come now, let not us over-charge our hearts with furfetting and drunkenneffe,leaft that day come upon us unawares; they that are drunk already and full gorged with wine and ftrong drink, have left no roome for the waters of life; vas plenum plus non recipit. Luc.21 34. It is a work for our life on earth to travel and take paines,and to exercise our fouls to godlinefle, and all to get us a ftomach to this Supper of the Lamb; here is meate enough, the fatneffe of Gods houfe; we shall be fed as it were with marrow; here is the hidden Manna for bread; here is Calix inebrians, we shall be made to drink of the rivers of Gods pleasures; for at his right hand are pleasures for evermore. Here are good guests; for many shall come from the East and Mm.8.11. West, and shall fit down with Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. Job. 13. 17. They that come there,let them drink and spare not, but let them keep their ftomachs till then. I conclude this point in the words of our Saviour, If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them 2. They give their neighbour drink, and put their bottle to him, adding heat to heat. Drunkenneffe, as you have heard, is a grievous fin; but this is a degree of fuller unrighteoufneffe to make others drunk. Amongst all the fins that David did commit, nothing fate fo clofe to him, nor left so foul a ftaine upon the honour of his memory, as as did his carriage toward the Hittite Vriah, David did that which was right in the fight of the Lord, and turned from nothing that he commanded him all the dayes of his 1 Reg.15.5. life, fave only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. This excufe of David in all other things wherein through humane frailty he failed often, doth fhew how God paffeth over the fins of the elect, as the Apostle faith, edor, which through infirmity they do commit; but this fpecial notice taken of the matter of Vriah the Hittite, declareth it to have been peccatum prime mag. nitudinis, a sin of the first magnitude, in a veffel of glory, because fo many fins met together in it; to name the most eminent, First, adultery; then the making of Uriah drunk; then the murthering of Uriah. Wherein you fee that this foul fin doth make weight in the burthen of David. The Holy Ghost to declare how foul and hideous a fin drunkenneffe is, hath not spared to leave the dishonour of Gods good fervants upon record, offending therein; as of Noah, who is much to be excuted, because having planted a Vine, and out of the grapes having preffed the firft liquor that we read made of grapes, and not knowing the ftrength thereof, being alfo old, he was overtaken with it once and no more. Surely it was the will of God fo early to let the danger of wine appeare, even at the first drinking thereof, that all fucceeding times might beware. So the example of David, who made Uriah drunk, against whom the matter of Uriah is upon record, for terrour that men fhould feare this great fin of making their neighbours drunk; for that is part of the matter of Uriah the Hittite. brietate, Will you hear the decifion of the canon law in their cafes of conscience concerning this fin, Ille qui procurat ut quis inebri- Summa etur,mortaliter peccat, quia confentit in damnum notabile proximi, Anglica eThis is now the crying fin of our Land, Court, City, Country, all defiled with it; and I must confeffe a truth which the Sunne teeth, not all innocent of it who fhould by authority from God reprove it by the word, aud punish it by the fword: it is a fin in fashion, Yet at the great feast which Affuerus made to his Princes, it is Aud Heft. 1.8. Reaf. 1. And the drinking was by an order, none might compel: for fo the King had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every mans pleasure. Lyran his note is, Nolebat Rex ut in aula fua aliquis uteretur modo incompofito & irrationabili more barbarorum qui nimis importune inducebant homines ad bibendum, 1. It is our duty to stir up one another, and to provoke one another to all Chriftian duties; of thefe, to act fobriety in the moderate ufing of meat and drink, and fasting, in the abstinence from them for a feason. St. Paul, whether ye cate or drink, do all to the glory of God. Chrift, quando jejunatis. To omit this duty is a great fin, to commit the contrary evill is most abominable. This the Prophet fheweth, In that day did Ifa. 22 12 the Lord God of Hofts call unto weeping and mourning,&c. Verf. 13. Reaf, 2. And behold joy and gladnesse, flaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, eating and drinking, Cras moricmur: And it was declared in the eares of the Lord of Hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till ye die. How then thall they appeare before God, who infteed of calling to fafting, call to drinking, and preffe the drinking even to the making of their neighbour drunk? 2. If we contrive against our neighbours life to take it from him, we are murtherers; if against his wife to defile her,we are adulterers; if against his goods to rob him of them, we are theeves; if against his good name, we are false witnesses: confider then what thou doft when thou attempteft thy neighbour to make him drunk; for thou feekeft to perifh his understanding, to rob him of the ufe of reafon, which fhould distinguish him from a brute beaft,to expose him a spectacle of fhame and filthi neffe to all beholders, and to make him a tranfgreffor of the law of God, the Church, and the Common-wealth. Yet they that are thus overtaken, do commonly excuse themfelves, that they have been amongst their friends; but this potfriendship which hath the power to divide a man from himselfe, will scarce prove a glue ftrong enough to unite and knit him to another. The kiffes of fuch friends betray thee, and thou maist say ra ther, Thus was I wounded in the house of my friends. It was Davids Prayer, let it be thine; |