The Drunkards Character, Section 100
§ 100.
SEventhly,They will flout us out of our faith have our company here in sin & herafter in torment. the maine reason and end wherefore they do all this, and a great deale more, is, that they may discourage us in the way to heaven, flout us out of our faith, and draw us back to the world; that so they may have our company here in sin, and hereafter in torment.
The which that themselves may acknowledge (and a faire print it must bee, that a drunkard can wel read seeing hee weares his eyes in his tongue) much more must proofes be plaine, if they acknowledge this for a truth; I will take leave to expatitate, and where as I have hither to but spoken of them strictly, as drunkards; now I will speake of them more largely, as they are wicked men, seed of the Serpent, and children of the Divell.
First,1 They would have our company in fi…ne. they do it that they may discourage us in the way to heaven, flout us out of our faith, and draw us backe to the World, that so they may have our company here in sinne
As why doth the World cast such a number of blockes in our way, to hinder us, but because in every one that repenteth, shee looseth a limme or member? all these things will drunkards do to the man whom the King of heaven and earth will honour with adoption, conversion, and regeneration: but so long as we remaine in our naturall condition; and vvill pledg them in their finnes, they have no quarrell against us. As Holofernes said to I… deth, feare not in thine heart, for I never hurt any that are willing to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the King of all the earth, Iudeth 11 1. so these drunkards, never molest any, that are content to serve Sathan, the Prince of this world.
As let any experienced Christian tell me, vvhether he was ever scoft at, or molested by drunkards, so long as hee marched under sathans colours: whether they ever hated him, untill Christ had chosen him, Iohn 15. 19. Againe let him tell me, whether hee was not made a by-word of the people, Iob 17. 6. A song of the drunkards, Psal. 69. 12. and generally hated of all. Mat…h. 10. 22. so soone as he became religious and conscionable.
For all wicked men are like the women of Lemnos, vvhat a strait the godly are in,who when they had every one slain their husbands and kinsmen; exiled Hypsiphyle the Kings daughter, for that shee alone saved her Father alive. So that a Christian in respect of his hard straits, betweene Gods Law, on the one side, and the malignant world, on the other; may fitly be compared to the Gibbeonites, who if they made not their peace with Ioshua, must dye by strangers; and if they did make their peace with him, they must dye by neighbours: or to Susanna, who if shee did yeeld unto the two Elders, must lose her chastity, and hazzard her soule; and if shee did not yeeld, shee must loose her life: for we have a Wolfe by the eares, which wee can neither stay nor let go with safety: if we seek to please God by a holy life, wee displease the world, and that will hate and vex us; if we seek to please the world, we displease God, and he will hate and condemne us; for their commands are diametrically contrary, Acts 4. 18. 19.
When our affections, like wild and mad Horses, are violently gallopping to Hell, if the Spirit of God, by repentance (as with a bridle) suddenly gives a jerck and turnes them, yea sets them going as fast the other way, in the more narrow path towards heaven; presently those our companious in the broad way, stand marvelling at us that wee breake off company, and envie to see themselves casheered; and good reason, for the world as you have heard looseth a limme or member in every one that repenteth.
The men of the world thinke it quarrell enough to the children of God, that they will no longer continue miserable with them; if the Gibeonites but turn to Ioshua, then there is quarrell enough for the Amorites against Gibeon; they cannot abide to loose any of their community▪ neither is it otherwise with the head of this hellish complicies, there needs no other cause of his utmost fury, then to see a poore soule strugling to get out of the reach of his tyranny.
That great Dragon, the Divell, and these his subjects, drunkards, make warre, and are wrath with none but the woman, and the remnant of her seed, which keepe the Commandements of God, and have the testimony of Iesus Christ, Revel. 12. 17. The Divell and the World are much like the proscription of the Inquisition, or the Athenian Ostracisme, which throweth out none but the best and worthiest among men.
Nothing is more distastfull to the World, then for a man to seperate and divorce himselfe from her evill society, and wicked customes: It seemeth to them strange, saith Saint Peter, that you runne not with them, to the same excesse of ryot, therefore speak they evill of you, 1 Peter 4. 4. He that refuseth an health, or wil not sweare, hee that cannot conforme to the vices of lewd men, is more taken notice of, then a great Personage; as a blazing Sarre is more gazed upon then the Sunne, because the one is strange, the other common; and he had need bee much more carefull of his actions, then another man; for they will lie in wait to finde faults in him, and let him slip never so little, if it bee not a wonder, it is strange, and all strangers wee observe more strictly, then wee doe those that have dwelt among us.