The Drunkards Character, Section 13 – Section 15
§ 13.
BUt you have not heard all;Drunkennesse disables and indisposeth men to all good, yea, to all the meanes thereof. for as others observe, it is a queller of all good notions, motions, actions; a sinne which decayes all a mans good parts, and morall vertues; which disables men from all good imployments, either in Church or Common-wealth, making them unprofitable, which otherwise might be serviceable, and indisposeth them to grace and godlinesse, yea, to all the meanes thereof. For as by too much raine (saith St. Austin) the earth is resolved into dirt, and made unfit for tillage: so Drunkards by excessive swilling are altogether so unfitted for the spirituall tyllage, that they can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse, but rather like bogs and marishes, are fit to breed nothing but vermine, frogs, and serpents, that is, all manner of abominable sinnes, and lothsome wickednesse.
More particularly, it keepes them from repenting, Esa. 22. 12. 13. and all saving knowledge, Esa. 28. 7. debarreth them from regeneration, Christs righteousnesse, and that heavenly inheritance, Rom. 13. 13. 14. Gal. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 6. 10. by it the spirit is quenched, Eph. 5. 18. and the body of sinne, with all it's lusts, strengthened, 1 Pet. 2. 11. yea the soule by it is made like a City broken downe and without walls, Pro. 25. 28. besides, it keepes them in finall impenitencie, Esay. 5. 11. 12. Pro. 23. 35.
Neither can that soyle which brings forth this vice (like ground sown with salt) bring forth any other thing which is good,The roo…e of all evill, the rot of all good. I meane, so long as a man is such; as snow can never be made hot, so long as it is snow; yea, where drunkennesse reignes or carries the raynes, there cannot dwell the least good, that heart is empty of all grace: and indeed how should such a worthy princesse as grace is, endure such rogues for her bed-fellowes (so many filthy lusts as are in the Drunkards heart) to lodge with her, yea, as smoake drives Bees from their hive: so drunkennesse drives all the graces from such an heart. And how should the Holy-Ghost (which delights to dwell in the heart of an holy man) but scorne to be an inmate, where drunkennesse is an inhabitant; noysome lusts, and evill cogitations drive him away; if the Divell comes in, the Holy-Ghost will goe out. And therefore the Scripture tells us, that the spirit went from Saul when he sinned, 1 Sam. 16. 14. and so on the contrary, when the Holy Spirit enters into the heart of a man, all sinnes (in some measure) are abandoned; as, when the King comes into the Tower all the prisoners goe out.
The Drunkards heart is like Mare mortuum, The Drunkards heart a Mare Mortuum.for as no fish will live there, so no grace will thrive here: it is the roote of all evill, the rot of all good. Much traveling makes bad way, if one goe but now and then over a Meadow, the grasse will neverthelesse grow, but when it is made a common through-fare, and beaten roade for all passengers, this maketh the path bare: so the frequent custome of sinne in any heart, when there is a perpetuall concourse of all filthinesse, hinders, yea, kills every good motion as fast as it springs up; and this is a sinne which turnes a man wholly into sinne. The Drunkard resembles Vejovis that Heathen god, who could doe no good, but hurt at will: and is like Ahab, who sold himselfe to worke wickednesse; yea worse, if worse can be, for the Drunkard wholely dedicates, resignes, surrenders, and gives himselfe up to serve sinne and Sathan; his whole imployment is onelyonly to drinke, drab, quarrell, sweare, scoffe, slaunder, and seduce; as if to sinne were his trade, and he could doe nothing else; like the Devill, who was a sinner from the beginning, a sinner to the end. To say that sinne were in him, would be improper, for hee is nothing else but sinne in the abstract, as St. Austin speakes, even a very Chaos of sinne bunged up, for as when a man is overcome with anger, we say hee is in heate; and when wee say such a man is in drinke, we imply more then that drinke is in him; yea, when we call a man a Drunkard, we imply more then that he is drunke, or hath beene drunke, for it argues frequency; and lastly, as when Simon Peter told Simon Magus thou art in the gall of bitternesse, and in the bond of iniquity, hee implyed, that not onelyonly these were in him, but hee in them: so both more is implyed, and it is more proper to say of a sotted and sordid Drunkard, hee is sinne, then a sinner; yea, that man of sinne is not fuller of sin, then such an one: so that as Solomon saith, speaking of the vertuous woman, many daughters have done vertuously, but thou surpassest them all; so may I say of a Drunkard, many sinners have done wickedly, but thou surpassest them all.
§ 14.
BUt to roave no longer in generalls,The Drunkard cut up and anatomized. having given you a superficiall view of this Monster, and the summe of that which he makes his onelyonly Summum bonum in a lumpe, or as it were wrapt up: I come now to strip him naked, and turne his inside outward; by acquainting you with such speciall and particular observations, as best deserve our discovery and the worlds notice. In handling whereof, it is not to be expected that I should observe a distinct propriety in referring all particulars to their generall heads, for as much as many of them are coincident one with another.
Neither will I undertake to observe an exact order in his description, seeing hee keepes none at all in his life: my principall care being to paint him really and historically (not poetically) every way as he is; his words, as he speakes them; his deeds, as he acts them, even to the very life, and present him upon the Stage such, as the Spectators may verily thinke they either see him, or the Devill in his likenesse; as Sr. Tho. More concluded touching Erasmus, when he but heard him speake, having never before seene the man.
§ 15.
The first thing I'le fall upon shall be
His body, touching which I will lay open.
1 his outward deformities.
2 HIs inward infirmities.
1 His outward bodily deformitiesHis outward d… formiti. are many, and those odious; as if you observe it.
The Drunkard commonly hath (Vertumnus like) a brasill Nose; a swolne and inflamed Face, beset with goodly Chowles and Rubies, as if it were both rost and sod; swimming, running, glaring, gogle Eyes, bleared, rowling, and red; a Mouth nasty with offensive fumes, alwayes foaming, or driveling; a fevorish Body; a Sicke and giddy Braine; a Mind d spearst; a boy…ing stomacke; rotten Teeth; a stinking Breath; a drumming Eare; a palsied Hand; gouty, staggering Legs, that …aine would goe, but cannot; a drawling, stammering, temulentive Tongue, clambd to the roofe and gumms; in fine (not to speake of his odious gestures, lothsome nastinesse, or beastly behaviour, his belching, hickups, vomittings, his ridiculous postures, and how easily he is knockt downe, whose hamstrings Bacchus hath already cut in two; nor of the unmeasurable grosenesse of such, whose onelyonly element is Ale, especially your Ale-wives, who, like the Germane Froas, are all cheekes to the belly, and all belly to the knees, whose dugs and chins meete without any forceing of either, because you may dayly see such fustilugs walking in the streets, like so many Tunnes, each moving upon two pottle pots) his essentiall parts are so obscured, his Sense so dulled, his Eyes so dazeled, his Face so distorted, his Countenance so deformed, his Ioynts so infeebled, and his whole body and minde so transformed, that hee is become the child of folly, and derision of the world, a laughing stock to fooles, a lothing stock to the Godly, ridiculous to all.
Yea, questionlesse had they a glasse presented them, they could hardly be brought againe to love their owne faces; much more, should they reade a true character of their conditions, would they runne besides their wits, if they had any to lose, or goe and dispatch themselves; as Bupalus did, at the sight of Hipponax his letter; or as Hoc…tratus did, upon view of a booke which Reuchlin writ against him; oras Brotheus did, who being mocked for his deformity, threw himselfe into the fire, and there died: for, Thersites like, many are their bodily deformities, but far more and worse are those of their soules. Whence it was that the Laced & monians used to shew their slaves in the time of their drunkennesse unto their children, thinking that their ugly deformity, both in body and minde, would be an effectuall argument to make them loath this vice, which even at the first view seemed so horrid.
And indeed, how should the Drunkard be other then ugly and deformed; when experience shewes, that intemperance is a great decayer of beauty, and that wine burnes up the radicall moysture, and hastens old age exceedingly.