ting them the worft of patterns, and debase their blood even to a level with the rafcally herd: but whoever they be, that do make a fcorn of fobriety, and labour to bring their abomination into reputation, God will make them know to their coft, that their ways are fhameful, and not his; yea, he will be ashamed of them, that were more afhamed of his holiness than of their own beaftlinefs.

O my foul, wilt thou not mourn in fecret for the odious guilt, that fo obtains in public? fhall not rivers of water run down mine eyes for the floods of excess, which fuch multitudes pour down their throats? let them give me leave to bewail, what I cannot cure; and not be angry, if that which makes them fo merry, do make my heart heavy. Nay, let me labour (though in vain) to bring that under the deserved infamy, which will not admit of the offered remedy. For, alas, prescriptions to the drunkards, are even like characters written on the water, that go in and out, almost as faft as the liquor; and it may be too late, to talk to them of reafon, who have thrown it away from them. O how incapable are they of any fober counfels, who indulge to the voracious humour, and worse than brutish exceffes? how little moved, more than a brute, unless to choler, rather than to any better temper? they go on finging and sporting in their clubs, when it would better become them, to be crying for their fins, and doing fomewhat for the fafety of their fouls. But fuch, alas, do I use to see the maddeft upon this diversion and pleasure, who can the worst afford it of any men in the world.

And to what purpose are all the evafions, whereby they would palliate the guilt, and bring themfelves off, with their credit fafe? as, that they are not drunk, fo long as they can but talk tolerable fense; and so keep on their legs, as not to be feen in the beafts pofture, on all four? which indeed, defcribes

describes not so much the fin, as the effect and punishment. But if the brain be disturbed, and the heart overcharged, to unfit them for the fervice of God, they are guilty then of drunkennefs, though not (as they call it) dead drunk. Nay, though they be fuch men of ftrength, as the drink is not strong enough to overthrow, I cannot fay that they bear their liquor well, but indeed very ill, fo to abuse both it and themselves, and fill are covetous of it, and never so easy, as in the drunken places and companies; when they hanker after them, and do but laugh at them, and fhew no manner of zeal and concern for the name of God fo difhonoured, and poor fouls undone by them; what are they then but fome of them? let them plead that it is not for the drink, but for the fake of the company; and call that the good fellowship, which is really but a brotherhood in iniquity: O bleffed God! what a company is that, to have a man at its mercy? what charms in fuch fociety, which is enough even to drive a godly man out of his wit, if he had not the wit, to keep away from them; though fools can rejoice in folly, and the drunken jargon, the confufed din, their fulfome prate, is mufic to fuch ill-tuned fouls; there is nothing grates harfher on his ears, than their accuftomed obfcenity and blafphemy. When these honeft men pour out of the abundance of their lewd hearts, little but fuch filthinefs, as fets all modeft hearers on the rack; and thefe good men fpeak against the Lord fo wickedly, and butcher his glorious name fo unmercifully, that what they count their paradise, must needs be even as the mouth of hell, to any one that fears and loves God. Their choice recreation, cannot chufe but turn to his grievous vexation; and to be imprifoned among them, would be his worst goal, and house of correction.

VOL. I.

N n

Do

Do they hurt none but themfelves, who indeed tempt, harden and grieve, and fadden fo many ? when they diforder their families by unreasonable ftaying out; and after they come late home, inftead of doing them any good in the worfhip of God, are quite paft it, and fit only to torment and plague all about them; yea, whenever they awake into any ferious mood, they cannot but be fenfible, that if they had poured lefs drink down their throats, they fhould have had, not only more money in their purfe, but more honour on their names, more wit in their heads, more health in their bodies; for certain, more grace in their hearts, more peace in their minds, and more hope of falvation for their fouls. And how idly do they think of curing their fadness, with that very thing, which does but ftill add to it, by putting more ftings into confcience, and loading themfelves with the weight of guilt, as well as of drink? O my foul, how far am I from envying that merry life; which is indeed worse than a dog's life? not only for the dreadful rousing, which they will have, out of their fool's paradife, when brought to the heaviest of all their reckonings, yet to come; but even for the prefent uneafinefs and trouble, that it costs them, fo to ferve their mafter; as to overload themselves, and disorder their lives, and craze their bodies, and confront their reafon, and ftrangle their confcience, and lofe all their beft friends; and then to force a pleasure, whofe itch prefently turns to fmart; and the draughts of excefs breed lothfomenefs and pain, inflammation and gravel. Thus do they run a round of fin and forrow, where the devil proves quite too hard for them, coming to beg pleasure at his door; and gives them a fcorpion for fish, and nothing but fore knocks, inftead of all the expected joyful crops; and more cruciates and wearies them, in drudging for him, than if they

had

had been better employed, in the most needful and bleffed work of the Lord.

Are they for driving away the time, which, alas, they could never keep pace with; and which may fly quite too fwift for them, and all be gone, before their great business be done? let them spend never fo little money, yet do they throw away what is infinitely more precious, the only opportunity which they have, to provide for a whole eternity; a few minutes more of which, they may one day beg for, too late. They may count the time fhort, that is spent in fuch meetings, which they would complain of, as very tedious, to be kept in much better. And never should 1 grudge to any, the refreshment of that which makes glad the heart of man, would they not fo immerge and lofe themfelves in it, as quite to take off their appetite from the foul's provifions, and to ftop them in the purfuit of all holy and heavenly comforts. But, alas, they are quite out of their element, any longer than guzzling, and feeding the lufts that war againit their fouls, and burying all that ever looked hopeful upon them; nay, fo fixed and hardened in the debauchery, as to make it their only joy and feftivity; and not only repeat it ftill, as oft as they have op portunity, but (to fhew their vehement inclination, and affection, this way,) go over the exceffes again in conceit; and drefs them out as a new entertainment for the fancy, that the remembrance and the talk of fuch doings may make them gay and merry, even at fuch times as they want the drink and the company. Thus alfo do they take the devil's trade out of his hands, to make fure of others, and poifon all whom they can influence. Indeed, when the tempter has fo befotted them, he may do even what he will with them. For they are ready bent, even for all wickednefs, that have loft the guard and government of themfelves. And then I won

der,

der, why that should pass for the fair excufe of any villany, which is its foul aggravation, that the man did it, when he was in his drink.

Thus, even with God's good creatures, may men fo fill themfelves, as to drive out all real and eternal good from their fouls. And how do bodies here go after the fouls, when they drink fo many healths, till they quite drink away their own, and extinguifh the lamp of life, with that which fhould have kept it in; yea, not only add drunkenness to thirst, but many times murder to drunkenness, and the dear fellowship breaks up in frays and bloodshed. Or going home from the drink, they drop into the water, and fo are doubly drowned. Or after they have broke all fober bounds, ride madly away, and break their necks. Or though they efcape fuch accidents; yet, O how foon will they be fpilt on the ground, as they fpill the drink on their lufts? when fuch hogfheads they make of themselves, wherein to tun up even all that they can get; and facrifice to worse than the Curtian gulf, which is but the more insatiable ftill, for being full fed; and never craves more, than when it has already too much; where one man devours as much, as might ferve for the honeft comfort of all the company. O how can fuch oppreffing of nature, chufe but fend them the fafter to that fad place, whither fo many have already rid poft? where after all the pouring in without measure, they fhall cry out in vain, but for one drop of water. How do they go the way, to drown their fouls in perdition; like wafps lofe their lives by plunging into fweet liquors? and all their antidote against the fearful after-claps, is only to be beafts, as long as they can. O miferable remedy! fo to drink away the thoughts of their approaching mifery!

Need I now go any further? when their own practice fo paints them out, as the children of folly, contemptible