The Drunkards Character, Section 60
§ 60.
THere be three things which usually succeede one another in the Church;The Plague hath wrought … or n… reformation. great blessings, great sinnes, great punishments; yea, a fourth was wont to follow in former ages, namely, great sorrow of heart, great lamentation and woe, and upon the necke of that, great favour and mercy. As in the booke of Iudges, and elsewhere, what a continued circle doe we finde, of Peace, Sinnes, Iudgements, Repentance, Deliverances: the conversation of Gods people with the wicked, tainted them with sinne, their sinnes drew on judgments, the smart of the judgment moved them to repentance, upon their repentance followed speedy deliverance, and upon their peace and deliverance they sinned againe; thus it was ever, and in every age of the world, but in this her decrepit and doting age, in which Religion is become contemptible, and wherein it is a shame to be strict and holy, in the service of God. But now let God send never so many and great Iudgments, one upon the neck of another, as Sword, Famine, Pestilence, yea, one pestilence after another; yet no repentance, no reformation. Witnesse these two yeares sicknesse together, and the yeere 1625. for of so many millions of notorious sinners as were in this land; how many, or where are any, who from thence hitherto have left off their drinking, swearing, whoreing, prophaning of the Lord's day, cheating, &c. can you name tenne, yea or two of a thousand, which you partly know? No certainely, for hee that was a drunkard before, is a drunkard still; hee that was a swearer before, is a swearer still; hee that was filthy before, is filthy still, &c. though such a Judgement in a different age, would have caused an universall repentance and reformation, as the like (onelyonly threatned, not executed) did in the Ninivites. Ionas 3.
But what doe I speake of their repentance and reformation;Yea, many are the wor…e. when they will scoffe at, jeere and persecute any, that shal but refuse to run with them to the same excesse of ryot? What doe I speake of their being the better, when they are much the worse for this judgement? for they are not onelyonly the same they were, drunk every day, and scoff… at those who will not; nor only sweare and blaspheme, as frequently as speake; nor only whore, quarrell, and the like (when thousands dye in a weeke, as formerly they have done) but much more abundant, if they have where withall; for, as some have noted, the Tavernes and Ale-shops (of which too many are the Thrones of Sathan) were never so thwackt, as in those times, when the streets were almost empty, especially those houses which had newly, or lately beene visited; and which was worth the observing, each house, if not each company, had musick aurium tenus up to the eares; so the Fidlers fasted not; what ever the poore did: yea, many poore snakes, that at other times never dranke better than Whey, could now swim in Wine.
I have my selfe seene,The Tavernes fnilest, when …e … are emptiest. when the Bills were at the highest, even Bearers, who had little respite from carrying dead Corpses to their graves, and many other of the like ranke, go reeling in the streets. Neither were men ever so impudent and audacious in roaring and declaring their sinnes in the open streets, as then. Thus they declared their sinnes as Sodome.
Neither hath this lingring visitation either found or made them better, it is no rare thing to see men, newly recovered of the Plague (at least when the sword of the destroying Angell hath newly swept away the greatest part of their families, and they have but newly taken breath from those noysome roomes where they have been a long time pent up, grow more vicious and insolent, more abominably licentious and wicked then they were before, so little are they moved with this grievous judgement.