The Drunkards Character, Section 106
§ 106.
ANd so I have showne how Drunkards doe intise, The ground of all their tempting and enforceing to …ane.how they would enforce to sinne, what they doe, with their tongues; what they would doe, with their …ands, if they were not manacled by the Law; and prooved that the cause of all is, they cannot have our company in sin. But one thing, of no lesse consequence, is behind, namely, the cause of this cause, which followes; for before I speake of their drawing to perdition, and desire of community in the burning Lake, I will make the way cleare, by giving you the Originall ground of all.
The maine ground or reason why drunkards (and indeed all naturall men) hate and persecute the Religious,Drunkards children of the Devill and partake of his nature. and none else, is, the one are the seede of the Serpent, children of the Devill, and partake of his nature, I Iohn, 3. 8. 10. 12. 14. Acts, 13. 10. Iohn, 6. 70. and 8. 44. and 14. 30. and 16. 11. Math. 13. 38. 39. 2. Co…. 4. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 26. Gen. 3. 15. and 5. 3. Eph. 2. 1. to the end, and 5. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 22. Rom. 5. 12. 18. Titus, 33. to 8. 1. Peter, 2. 9. 10. 25. Iohn 3. 3. 5. 6.
And the other, children of God,Those whom they hate and persecute the children of God and partake of the Divine nature. and members of Christ, and partake of the divine nature, 2 Cor. 6. 18. Gal. 3. 26. Iohn, 1. 12. 13. and 3. 5. &c. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Iames, 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 15. Rom. 8. 9. 16. 17. 29. 1. Cor. 6. 19. and 12. 27. Ep…sians, 5. 30 This is the cause upon which indeede all the former reasons and causes doe depend, as the lesser wheeles in a clocke depend on the great one; or as the branches of a Tree depend on the stock and roote, and spring from it, as the Arteries of mans body do from the Heart, and Veynes from the Liver: for in reason, if it be so, they must needs be very contrary; and if contrary, no marvell they should so ill agree; for there can be no amity, where there is no sympathy, no reconciling of Turkes and Christians, no neighbourhood, no alliance, no conjunction is able to make the cursed seed of the Serpent, and the blessed seede of the Woman ever agree, since God and the Devill are everlastingly falne out; one blood, one belly, one house, one education, could never make Cain and Abel accord, Iacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael at one; yea, though they be Man and Wife, Parent and Child, yet, if they be not like, they will not like: and indeed, what is the Father, or Mother, or Brother of our flesh, to the Father &c. of of our spirits? Can there be such a parrity betweene the Parent and the Child, the Husband and Wife, as ther is a disparity betweene God and Sathan? no certainely, the corporall sympathy is nothing, in comparison of the spirituall antipathy, which is between the two natures, Divilish, and Divine.
If Athens and Sparta could never agree, Vertue and vice can never accord.for that the one was addicted to serve Minerva, the other Mars, being each of them Heathens: there must needs bee a greater enmity betweene a regenerate man, and him that is wholly carnall: for what fellowship, as the Apostle speaks, can there be betweene righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse; what communion betweene light and darknesse; and what concord betweene Christ and Beliall; and what peace between the Believer and the Infidel? 2 Cor. 6. 14. 15. and wherein doe these godlesse persons, drunkards, (though they live in our Church) differ from infidels? onelyonly in name.
An enemy may be reconciled, enmity cannot. A vicious person may bee made vertuous, but vice and vertue can never accord; these are so diametrically opposite, that the two Poles shall sooner meet, then these be reconciled. A wicked man, saith Salomon, is abomination to the just; and he that is upright in his way, is abomination to the wicked, Prov. 29. 27. and S. Iames witnesseth, that the amity of the world, is the enmity of God, and that whosoever with bee a friend of the world, maketh himselfe the enemy of God, lames 4. 4.
Michael and the Dragon cannot agree in one heaven; nor …ehemiah and Sanballat in one City; nor the cleane and the Leprous in one Campe; nor the Arke and Dagon in one house; nor God and Idols in one Temple; nor Iohn and Cerinth…s in one Bath; nor Isaac and Ishmael in one family; nor Iacob and Esau in one wombe. In vaine then shall any man attempt, to make an agreement betwixt a wicked and a godly man; except the one, of wicked becomes godly, or the other, of godly becomes wicked: for there is such an enmity, or mutuall malevolence between person and person. That as the fish Lexus, is poyson to man, and man to him: so these can no way brooke one another.
Yea, that cannot properly bee said to ridd this enmity out of them, which rids them out of the world, death it selfe: for what wee reade of those two Birds, Aegitbalus and Achanthus, namely, that they so hate one another living, that being dead their bloods will not mix, but presently separates: and that which is recorded of Florus and Anthus; Polynices and Etheocles, viz. that the two former being killed, their bloods would not bee mixed; the two latter being burnt together, their ashes instantly parted; is truly verified in this enmity and antipathy, which is in the seed of the Serpent, against the seed of the Woman; for it is so deadly and mortall, that dureing life it is altogether irreconcileable, and after death, they part and separate as farre asunder, as is hell from heaven, Ma…. 25. 32. 41. and 10. 16.