The Drunkards Character, Section 44 – Section 46
§ 44.
BUt: O how just a punishment were famine, It is Gods u…speakable mercy that wee have not a famine, or that the land d…th not spue out ber inhabitants for this sin.after such a satiety; and pestilence, after famine, for such as turne the Sanctuary of life, into the shambles of death? O Lord it is thy unspeakeable mercy, that our land, which hath beene so long sicke of this drunken disease, and so often surfitted of this sinne, doth not spue us all out which are the inhabitants. The Lord of most glorious Majesty and infinite purity, sees all, heares all, knowes all, and yet behold we live; nay, the Lord still causes Heaven, Earth, Sea, Land, all Creatures to waite upon us, and bring us in all due provision; nay, he hath not long since abounded even in that blessing and graine which hath bene most abused to drunkennesse; here is patience, here is mercy, here is bounty. O that we could stay here, and suffer our selves to lose our selves, in the meditation and admiration of this wonderfullnesse!
But what's the reason? God will not punish the righteous with the wicked, But Drvn kards are reserved u…to the great day.Gen. 18. 25. he knoweth how to deliver the godly, and to reserve the wicked, these brute beasts, who walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse, and count it pleasure to riot, unto the great day to be punished, 2 Peter, 2. 9. 13. whose judgement is not farre off, and whose dam…ation sleepeth not, ver. 3. For as surely as the word of God pronounceth many a woe unto them, as, woe to Drunkards, saith I saith, that are mighty to drinke wine, and un…o them that are strong to powre in stro…g drinke, that continue drinking till the wine doth inflame them. Woe, saith Habakuk, unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke till hee be drunken. Woe, saith Solomon, to them that tarry long at the wine, to them that goe and seeke mixt wine. Woe to his body, which is a temporall woe; woe to his soule, which is a spirituall woe; woe to both body and soule, which is an eternall woe: howle ye Drunkards, saith Ioel, weepe yee, saith St. Iames, Isaiah, 5. 22. Habakuk, 2. 15. Ioel. 1. 5. Iames, 5. 1. 5 Yea, which of Gods Servants hath not a woe in his mouth to throw at this sinne? so every tittle of this word shall be accomplished, God will one day hold the cup of vengance to their lips, and bid them drinke their fills.
Yea,The judgments of God …pirituall, temporall, and eternall, which in Scripture are threat ned against Drunkards. as Drunkards are Sathans eldest Sonnes, so they shall have a double portion of vengance: whereas riot in the forenoone hath beene merry, in the afternoone drunke, at night gone to bed starke mad, in the morning of their resurrection it shall rise sober into everlasting sorrow: they finde not the beginning and progresse so sweete, as the farewell of i… shall be bitter; for as sure as God is in Heaven, if they forsake not their swilling (which they are no more able to doe, then they are able to eate a rocke, the Devill hath so besotted them) they shall once pay deare for it, even in a bed of urquenchable flames.
I speake not of the many temporall judgments, which God brings upon them even in this life, though to mention them alone were omni-sufficient, if they thirsted not after their owne ruine: as I could tell them from L…vit. the 26. and Dent. the 28. that all curses threatned, all temporall plagues and judgments which befall men in this life, are inflicted upon them for sinne and disobedience.
But I speake of those torments which are both into…lerable and interminable; which can neither be indured, nor avoided, when once entred into.
If, I say, you persevere in this your brutish sensuallity, and will needs, Dives like, drinke here without thirst; you shall thirst hereafter without drinke; yea, though that fire be hot, the thirst great, and a drop of water be but a little; yet in this hot fire, and great thirst, that little drop shall be denied you, Luke, 16.
For know this, that without repentence, Paul will be found a true Prophet, who saith, that no Drunkard shall ever enter into the kingdome of Heaven. 1 Cor. 6. 9. 10. And Isaiab no lesse, who saith, that Hell enlargeth it selfe for Drunkards, and openeth her mouth without measure, that all those may descend into it, who follow drunkennesse, and preferre the pleasing of their palats, before the saving of their soules, Isaiah, 5. 11. 14. for as they shall be excluded and shut out of Heaven, so they shall be for evermore damned body and soule in Hell; Christ shall say unto them at the great day of accounts, depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the Devill and his Angells. Math. 25. 41.
As they make their belly their god, and their shame their glory, so damnation shall bee their end, Phil. 3. 19. yea, their end is a damnation without end; it is heauy and miserable, that their end is damnation; but it is worse and more miserable, that their damnation is without end: wickednesse hath but a time, but the punishment of wickednesse is beyond all time.
Neither is the extremity of the paine inferiour to the Perpetuity of it, for the paines and sufferings of the damned, are ten thousand times more then can be immagined by any heart, as deepe as the Sea, and can be rather indured, then expressed; it is a death never to be painted to the life, no pen nor pencill, nor art, nor heart can comprehend it.
Yea, if all the land were paper, and all the water inke, every plant a pen, and every other creature a ready writer; yet they could not set downe the least peece of the great paines of Hell fire. For should we first burne off one hand, then another, after that each arme, and so all the parts of the body, it were intollerable; yet it is nothing to the burning of body and soule in Hell: should we indure ten thousand yeares torments in Hell, it were much; but nothing to eternity: should we suffer one paine, it were enough; but if we come there, our paines shall be even for number and kindes infinitely various; as our pleasures have bene here: every sense and member, every power and faculty both of soule and body, shall have their severall objects of wretchednesse, and that without intermission, or end, or ease, or patience to indure it.
§ 45.
NEither let drunkards ever hope to escape this punishment,Yet if they can repent and leave their si…, God is very ready to forgive. except in due time they for sake this sinne; for if every transgression, without repentance, deserves the wages of death eternall, as a just recompence of reward, Heb. 2. 2. Rom. 6. 23. how much more this accursed and damnable sinne of drunkennesse, which both causeth, and is attended upon by almost all other sinnes, as hath beene shewed.
And yet if thou canst, after all this, but truly repent, and lay hold upon Christ by a lively faith, which ever manifesteth it selfe by the fruits of a godly life and conversation; know withall, that though thy sinnes have beene never so many for multitude, never so great for magnitude, God is very ready to forgive them; and this I can assure thee of, yea, I can shew thee thy pardon, from the great King of Heaven, for all that is past, the tenour whereofis, Let the wicked for sake his way, and the unrighteous his owne imaginations, and let him returne to the Lord, and hee will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isai. 55. 7. and againe, Ezec. 18. if the wicked will turne from all his sinnes which he hath committed, and keepe all my statutes, and doe that which is lawfull and right, he shall surely … ve, and not die; all his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not bee once mentioned unto him; but in his righteousnesse that he hath done hee shall live, because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall save his soule alive ver. 21. 22. 23. 27. 28. other the like places you have, oel, 2. 12. 13. 14.
Yea, I can shew thee this very case in a president 1 Cor. 6. 10. 11. where we reade of certaine Corinthians that had bin given to this sinne of drunkennesse; who, upon their repentance, were both washed, sanctified, and justified. And St. Ambrose tells of one, that being a spectacle of drunkennesse, proved after his conversion, a patterne of sobriety. Yea, know this that Gods mercy is greater than thy sin, what ever it be; thou canst not be so infinite in sinning, as hee is infinite in pardoning, if thou repent; let us change our sins God will change his sentence; God is more mercifull, saith Nazianzen, then man can be sinfull, if hee bee sorrowfull; none can bee so bad, as God is good; the Seed of the woman is able to bruse this Serpents head; wherefore, if you preferre not hell to heaven, abandon this vice.
But withall know, that if it shall come to passe, that the drunkard (when he heareth the words of this curse, namely these threatnings before rehearsed) shall Pharaoh like, harden his heart, and blesse himself in his wickednesse, saying, I shall have peace, although I walk according to the stub. bornnesse of mine owne heart, thus adding drunkennesse to thirst; the Lord will not be mercifull to that man, but then his wrath and jealousie shall smoak against him, and every curse that is written in his Law, shal light upon him; and the Lord shall put out his name from under heaven, as himselfe speakes, Deutero. 29. 19, 20. which chapter, together with the former, I wish thee to read, if thou wilt know thy selfe, and foreknow thy judgement.
§ 46
I But will some Titormus say, (being, it may be,4. Excuses which drunkards usually make taken away. stronger to drink, and taler to tipple, then Milo himself was to eat, who devoured a whole Oxe at a meale) I was never so gone yet, but I knew the way home, I could tell what I did, what I said &c. (for if a drunkard can but put his singer just into the flame of the candle, without playing, hit I misse I, (which is their tryall of the victory,If they can bare their drink they are no drunkards though hee spue whole fish-ponds, he is held a sober man) Yea, no man ever saw mee so much as wheele in the streets; I am therefore no drunkard, neither doe these threatnings appertaine to me; as desperate is the cause which admits no colour of defence: but what answers the Prophet? woe unto them that are mighty to drinke wine, men of strength, to mingle strong drinke, Isa. 5. 22. and Salomon that divine Orator answers, (whose answer is also ours) they that tar…y long at the wine, they that go to seek mixt wine, they are the parties, to whom this woe belongs, they are to bee ranked with drunkards. Yea, the abuse may bee committed many wayes, as vice is manifold, vertue vniforme; drink then is not only abused when it turnes up a mans heeles, and makes the house runne round; but when it steales away the affections so far, that a man cannot make too much hast to it, take too much paines for it, spend too much time at it, and money in it.
Believe it, if a man drink too much for his purse, too much for his calling and occasions, too much for his health and quiet of body and mind, Salomon cals him a drunkard.
A man hath no more reason, nor warrant to drown his time, his estate, his liver, his stomack, &c. then his wits and braines: and in cases of this nature, things are rather measured by the intention and affection of the doer, then by the issue and event. Why should not a man be deemed a drunkard, for his inordinate affection to drinke, as well as an adulterer, for the like affection to his neighbours wife. Sinne as sinne, in it's owne colours and nature, is neither desired nor desirable; but onelyonly as it is disguised, and offers it selfe to the understanding and will in the likenesse and habit of goodnesse.
Alasse if none be drunke, but such as have lost their leggs, tongues, senses, that by tumbling in their owne vomit and sleeping in a guzell; what should Salomon speake of quarrells, bablings &c. such bee as dead asso many withered plants, and doe what you will to them, they lye like Iupiters logg, and neither answer, nor stirre again: it is your mannerly, sober, methodicall drunkard, that drinkes by the hower, and can tell the clock, that drinkes by measure and by rule; first, so much Ale; then such a quantity of Beere; then of Sack; then of Rhenish; then back again from Wine to Ale, to Beere, till the reynes bee cleansed, the liver cooled, the stomack set upright, and heat and moysture brought to a just and an even temper; wherefore though it be somewhat to keep a mans senses, yet it is not sufficient; a man may not be drunk, and yet not bee sober.