The Drunkards Character, Section 57
§ 57.
IT may be you have not noted it; but it is a very difficult and hard thing,No dispossessing of a drunken Devill, purpose the drunkard never so oft. to name one habituated, infatuated, incorrigible, cauterised Drunkard, that ever was reclamed with age. What said an experienced Gentleman, being informed that his Sonne was given to gaming, whores, prodigality, &c? There is yet hope; age, experience, and want of meanes will cure all these; but when, in the last place, it was added, that he was poysoned with drunkennesse; then hee absolutely▪ gave him for lost and dead, his case for desperately forlorne, and so disinherited him; because this sinne, hee knew, increased with age, and would not part till death.
A Gamester will hold out, so long as his purse lasts: an Adulterer, so long as his loynes last; but a drunkard, so long as his lungs and life lasts. What is noted by Philosophers of every motion, namely, that it is swiftest toward the Center; may fitly bee applyed to every drunkard, and covetous wretch; for as good men grow better and better, so these grow worse and worse, Ier. 9. 3. 2 T…m. 3. 13. they grow in sinne, as worldlings grow in riches and honours. O that we could grow so fast in grace.
Yea, suppose the drunkard hath every day purposes to forsake his sinne; as I have knowne some purpose and strive against this sinne, yea so detest and bewaile it in himselfe, and whomsoever, that it hath been an Hazael in his eyes, and thereupon indent with himselfe and his friends, for the relinquishing of it; and yet if he meete with a companion that holds but up his finger, he followes him, as a foole to the stockes, and as an Oxe to the slaughter-house, having no power to withstand the temptation, but in hee goes with him to the tipling house, and there hee continues as one bewitched or conjured with a spell, out of which he returnes not, till he hath emptied his purse of money, his head of reason, and his heart of al his former seeming grace: so that in purposing he doth but imitate S. George, who is alwayes on horseback, but never rides; or the Ostrich, that hath winges, but cannot fly: he may make a shew of turning, as the doore upon the hinges, but never moves a foot from the post of his olds custom and evill society, unto which hee is fast revited; and so mends as sower Ale doth in Summer; or like a dead hedge, which the longer it stands, is the rottener.
O this is a difficult divel to be cast out; for when a man is once possest with this evill spirit, a drunken divell, it is a miracle if ever hee become his owne man after. This sinne is like a desperate plague, that knows no cure; it may be called the Kings evill of the soule, (as Chrysostome calls the envie of wicked men against the godly) for it cannot bee cured with the Balme of Gilead, nor by any Phisitian there, untill God himselfe sayes to the heart, awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead: for by a long, and desperate custome, they turne delight and infirmity into necessity, and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst, that they will as willingly leave to live, as leave their excessive drinking. As it fares with some sicke Patients, touching their bodies; who think as good be buried, as so much debarred of their appetites: so fares it with these, touching their soules; for use what meanes you will to reclame them, they will reject it.
What saith S. Basil, shall we speake to drunkards, wee had as good round a dead man in the eare? yea, certainly, saith another, he is drunk himselfe, that prophanes reason so, as to urge it to a drunken man; in regard whereof, S. Augustine compares drunkennesse to the pit of hell, into which when a man is once fallen, there is no redemption. Whoring is a deep ditch, yet some few shall a man see returne to lay hold on the wayes of life; one of a thousand; but scarce one drunkard of ten thousand.
Indeed, S. Ambrose mentions one; and another, by a moderne Divine of ours, is confest; and but one a peece, of all that ever they knew, or heard of. I speake of drunkards, not of one drunken (such who rarely, and casually have, Noah like, beene surprised, and overtaken at unawares) but if once a custome, ever a necessity. Drunkennesse beastiates the heart, and spoiles the braine, overthrowes the faculties and organs of repentance, and resolution.
It is a sinne of that nature, that it hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings. Yea the Holy Ghost, by the Prophet Hosea tells us, that it takes away the heart, Hosea 4. 11. And we find it too true, for commonly it is accompanied w…th finall impenitence, which is the greatest evill that is incident to man in this life, in that it is a certaine forerunner of eternall condemnation: yea, it is much to bee feared,Commoly such as a mans delights and c…res are in health, such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed. that the Lord hath done by them, as by Ieremiah hee threatneth the Babylonians, even given them over to a perpetuall drunkennesse, Ier. 51. 39.
And is it not most just with God; that hee who will put out his naturall light, should have his spirituall extinguished? he that will deprive himselfe of reason, should loose also the guide and pylot of reason, Gods Spirit and Grace? he that will wittingly, and willingly, make himselfe an habitation of uncleane spirits, should not dispossesse them at his owne pleasure? that their deaths should bee answerable to their lives? as commonly such as a mans delights and cares are in health, such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed. Some that have beene used to swearing, have dyed with oathes and curses in their mouthes. Some persecutors have dyed raging, blaspheming, and despiting the Spirit of grace. Some Usurers have died, while in their conceit, they were telling their money, and casting it up after ten in the hundred. Yea, one being used to play at Tables all his life, with great delight, cried out upon his death-bed, size-ace, cater-trey. &c.
I deny not, but God may raise a Lazarus of this kind, though he bee dead in excesse, dead in sense; yea though he be buried, and stinkes againe; thorow long custome in filthines, and breath into his nosthrils againe the breath of life, whereby he may become a living soule; but rarely is it seene that he doth so.