The Drunkards Character, Section 34
§ 34.
NEither is it strange that they should be so jocund,Drun…ards i…sensible of their … and da… ger, because ignorant. confident, and secure, that they should neither be sensible of their present condition, nor afraid of future Iudgments, for, for what the eye seeth not, the heart rueth not; security makes worldlings merry, and therefore are they secure because are they ignorant.
A dunse, wee know, seldome makes doubts, yea, a foole, saith Salomon, boasteth, and is confident. Pro. 14. 16. and by a foole, in all his Proverbs, hee meanes the naturall man.
As the Spyder which kills men, cures Apes: so ignorance doth wonderfully profit nature, which is the greatest bane to grace that can bee, it is a vaile or curtaine to hide away their sinnes: our knowledge, saith one of the learned, doth but shew us our ignorance; and wisdome, saith another, is but one of mans greatest miseries, unlesse it be as well able to conquer, as to decerne; the next to being free from miseries, is not to be sensible of them. Erasmus could spie out a great priviledge in a blockish condition, Fooles, saith hee, being free from ambition, enuy, shame, and feare, are neither troubled in conscience, nor masserated with cares; and beasts, we see, are not ashamed of their deeds. Where is no reason at all, there is no sinne; where no use of reason, no apprehension of sinne; and where is no apprehension of sinne, there can be no shame.
Blind men never blush, neither are these men ashamed or afraid of any thing, because for want of bringing their lives to the rule of Gods word, they perceive not when they doe well, when ill: the timber not brought to the Rule, may easily appeare straight, when yet it is not: nay, because they see not their owne soules, they are ignorant that they have any, and as little care for them, as they know them: they beare that rich treasure in their bodies (as a Toade doth a pretious stone in her head) and know it not.
What's the reason a worldling can strut it under an unsupportable masse of Oathes,Why they are so jocund and confident. blasphemies, thefts, murthers, drunkennesse, whoredomes and other such like sinnes, yea, can easily swallow these spiders, with Mithridates, and digest them too, their stomackes being accustomed unto them, when one that is regenerate shrinkes under the burthen of wandering thoughts, and want of proficiency▪ It is this, the one is in his element, the state of nature; the other taken forth; now a fifth in the river is not afraid of drowning. Yea, let a man dive under whole tunnes of water in the Sea, he feeles not any weight it hath, because the water is in it's proper place; and no element doth weigh downe, in it's owne place; but take the same man forth, and lay but one vessell upon his shoulders, he feeles it a great burthen, and very weighty: so every small sinne to a holy man, who is in the state of Regeneration, hath a tender conscience, and weigheth his sinne by the ballance of the Sanctuary, is of great weight; but to a naturall man, who hath a brawny conscience, is plunged over head and eares in sensuallity, and weigheth his sinne by the ballance of his owne carnall reason, it is a light thing not worth the regarding; yea, so long as they remaine in this estate they are dead in sin, Eph. 2. 1. Rev. 3. 1. Now lay a mountaine upon a dead man hee feeles not once the weight.
Well then may these doe much evill to others, but small hope is there that others should doe good upon them, or reforme them from this sinne of swearing; no, it is an evill which, for insolencie and grouth, scornes to be slaine either by tongue or pen; but, like the Princes of Middian, it calls for Gideon himselfe, even the power of the magistrate to fall thereon.