The Governance of Virtue, Part 2 · Section 19
Against feastyng, glotony, and dronkennes.
TO auoyde feasting, glotony and dronkennes▪ set these holy scriptures euer before the eyes of thy mynde.
Sentences out of the olde Testament.
WYne make folke lecherous and dronkenship causeth braw…ing and chyding Who so hath a pleasure in them shall not be wise.
He that loueth banketes, shalbe brought▪ Pro. 20to pouerty. Whoso deliteth in wine and de licious meates shall not be riche.
Accompany not with riotous drinkersPro. 33. and eaters, for such shal come to pouerty, and such sluggish slepers shal go all to rag ged. Where is wo? Where is wailing? where is stryfe? where are trappes layde? where are wounds without a cause? wher are bloudy eies? Do not al these thinges chawnce vntounto them, that sit alway at the wyne, and geue their mindes wholly to gulling and glossing.
Wo be to you that rise vp early to geueEsay. 5 your selues to dronkennes, and set al your mindes so on drinking, that ye syt sweating therat vntill it be nyght. The harpe, the Lute, the Tabour, the droumslade, the trumpet, the shalme, and plenty of wyne are at their feastes: but the workes of the Lord do ye not behold, neither consider ye the workes of his hand.
Woo be vntounto you that are stronge to drinke wyne, and are mighty to auaunce dronkennes.
Fornication, wyne and dronkennes,Ose. 5. take away the hart.
Thorow feasting many hauehave died, but heEccle. 23 that eateth in meane shal prolong his life.
Examples out of the olde Testament.
Adam and Eue by satisfiyng their gred… Ge. ….appetite in eating the forbidden fruit, dyd not only transgresse the commaundement of god, but also throw both themselues, and al their posteritie into euerlasting dā pnation, if we had not bene redemed by Christ.
The stinking Sodomits by geuing thē Eze, 16selues to inordinate eating and drinking, fel vntounto vnnatural lusts, and so most miserably perished.
Thorow dronkennes, Lot committedGen. 9. incest with his owne doughters.
The people of Israell geuing their mindExod. 32 vntounto bancketting, fell into Idolatry.
Holofernes that moste Ualeant captainIudith. 13 being dronken, was slain of a woman.
☞ Sentences out of the new Testament.
Take heede that your hart be not ouerwhelmedLuc. 21. with feasting and dronkenship.
Let vsus walke honestly, as in the dayeRom. 13 tyme: not in banketting and dronkennns, not in chambring and wantonnes, nor in strife and enuiyng: but put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ. And make not prouision for the flesh to fulfil the lustes therof.
Banketeing add dronkennes are theGal. 5 workes of the flesh.
Be not dronken with wine wherin isEphe. 5 lechery, but ye be filled with the spirit.
It is a good thing that the hart be establishedHeb. 13 with grace, and not with meates, which hauehave not profited them: they hauehave had their pastime in them.
Dronkardes shall not inherite the kingdom1. Cor, 6 of God.
Be ye sober and watch, for your aduersary 1. Pet. 5the Deuill goeth about like roaryng Lion, sekyng whom he may deuour: whō see that ye resist, being strong in fayth.
Examples out of the newe Testament.
Herod geuing his mynd to banketting,Mat. 14. graunted that the holy man Iohn Baptist shoulde bee beheaded at the desire of his whorishe doughter.
That euill seruaunte, which sayth in hisMa. 24 hart, my Lord wyll be long a commyng, and so begin to smite his felowes, yea and to eate and drynk with the dronken: The same seruauntes lord shall come in a day when hee loketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not ware of, and shal hew him in peces, and geue him his porcion wt the Hipocrites, there shall be weping and gnashyng of teath.
The rich gloton that fared so daintelyLuke. 16. eueryevery day, was cast downe into hel, and most greuously punished,