The Drunkards Character, Section 9 – Section 12
§ 9.
4 OR (that I may passe to the fourthThey subvert reason and prove cruell to themselves. particular formerly propounded) that lunatick man, mentioned, Math. 17. 15. 16. whom all the Disciples could not cure, untill the Master himselfe came; and to that mad man they are very like. For as hee being fore vexed, fell oftentimes into the fire, and oftentimes into the water: so these being robbed of their strength and senses by drinke, are frequently subject to all fearefull accidents, and miserable mishaps, which often fall out by reason thereof. As some being drunke, fall into the fire, and are burned; as I could instance in a Gentleman of worth, that rising to make water, could finde no fitter place to do… it in, then the chimney; where, being a few live embers, hee fell downe, and not being able to rise againe, had his belly puckerd together like a sachell, before the Chamberlaine could come to helpe him; whereupon, being in great torture, hee dranke off twenty two double jugs of beare, and so dyed, roaring and crying that he was damned, for breaking his vow which he had made of reformation: some againe fall into the water, and are drowned, as is commonly seene: againe, some fall and batter their faces, bruise their bodies, breake their armes, their legs, and many breake their necks, in the very act of drunkennesse, whose cases are desperate: others are wounded, beaten, and many times murthered, as often times they stab and murther others: but this is notably described by Salomon, Proverbs, 23. 29. to 36.
Indeed drunkennesse is nothing else, nor hath ever beene reputed amongst the wise and learned, then a voluntary madnesse, a temporary forfeiture of the wits, worse then frenzie, in that the one is violent, the other voluntary; that, the evill of punishment; but this, the evill of sinne.
The wine, which of it selfe is a good creature of God, and, being moderately taken, of excellent use; becomes to them which use it to surfeir, as the water of the river Gallus in Phrygia, which maketh all those mad that drinke of it: other vices doe but alter and distract the understanding, whereas this utterly subverteth the same, and astonieth the body: even wrath makes a man a beast, but drunkennesse makes a man mad, and if so, how odious is this sinne! For if it be a hatefull thing for a man to wound his owne flesh, and willfully to maime the members of his body; how abominable is it to wound the mind it selfe, and to offer violence unto our reason and understanding! If it be a crime to offer violence against the subjects; then surely to lay violent hands upon the King himselfe, and to pull him out of his Regall throne, must needs bee condemned as an outragious wickednesse.
Or lastly, suppose them men, they are but like that man spoken of, Marke: 5. 2. to 6. who being possest of the Divell, lived amongst the graves, and cut himselfe with stones; for they love none but base company, base places, and base courses; and what other doe their frequent and horrible oathes, but cut them deeper then those stones did him? It's true, hee may seeme to be in a better condition: as first, he may have a name to live, but indeed he is dead, as S. Iohn speakes. Secondly, he may have the appearance of a man, but indeed he is a beast, as Ieremy speakes. Thirdly, he may be thought a sound man, but indeed he is Demoniacall, obsessed, or rather, possessed with a Devill, yea, many Devills, and more miserable then such an one, because it is a Devill of his owne chosing, as Basil speakes. And certainely, if every raygning sin be a Devill, as S. Austin holds; much more, if the heart of a Reprobate containes so many Devills, as unchast thoughts, as St. Gregory affirmes; every true Drunkard is posiest with more Devills then Mary Magdalen was, and good reason; for, as our Saviour intimates, the Devill can find no such rest in dry places, Math. 12. 43.
Indeed this may seeme, to some ignoramusses, a big word: but let mee tell you, the corporall possession of evill Spirits is not so rare, as the spirituall is rife, no naturall man is free; one hath the spirit of error, 1 Tim. 4. 1. another the spirit of fornication, ose. 4. 12. another the spirit of blasphemy, Revel. 2. 9. and 13. 1. 5. 6. another the spirit of falsehood, Math. 24. 11. another the spirit of feare, 2 Tim. 1. 7. another the spirit of slumber, Rom. 11. 8. another the spiof giddinesse, Esay, 29. 9. to 15. another the spirit of pride, all have the spirit of the world, 1 Cor. 2. 12.
Yea, let me assure you from Gods word, that all yee who are not changed in the image of your minds, Eph. 4. 23. 24 Rom. 12. 2. who have not yet felt the power of godlinesse, 2 Tim. 3. 5. are as truly, though spiritually, carryed by evill spirits into the deeps of your knowne wickednesse, as ever the Gadarean hogs were carried by them downe the precipice into the Sea.
Alas! the Devill hath more then one way to possesse men: hee keepes possession in some by his Tenants, as by drunkennesse, swearing, whoredome, &c. in others actually and immediately by himselfe; yet hee rather choseth to possesse men by these his tenants, then by himselfe, that so hee may not carry them against their wills as hee did that man in the Gospell, into the fire and water, so using violence to their bodies (all those forced and violent motions which they performe, who are really possest, being the Devills owne sins) but rather desireth to carry them willingly, and drive them, as free horses, that neede only the shaking of the hand, to the Taverne, to the stewes, to this or that evill company; and therefore hee desired not to possesse Iobs body, because his intent was to draw Iob himselfe to blaspheme God.
So that wicked men, although their bodies are free usually from this posses. five power of Sathan, yet Sathan hath a farre greater power in the voluntary motions of their bodies and soules, even such a power, as that they shall be agents in what they doe, and as guilty of the sinne as himselfe, when he makes them abuse their eyes to wantonnesse, their mouthes to filthinesse, and makes their feete swift to shed blood: so that as Paul being guided by the good spirit of God, could say, I live not, but Christ lives in me, Gal. 2. 20. so may they, we live not, but the Devill lives in us, for he is their god, 2 Cor. 4. 4. and their Prince, Iohn, 14. 30. and workes in them his pleasure, Eph. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 26.
Now this possession of soule and body together, is the more fearefull, and yet the more ordinary, neither doe men marvell or wonder thereat, because it is not discerned.
§ 10.
5 BUt fiftly, that Drunkards are possest with as many Devills as raigning sinnes, is not all; their condition being yet worse, for in effect they are turned Devills.
In the former place you saw men transformed into beasts; prye more narrowly into them,They transforme themselves into the condition of evill Angells. and you shall see those beasts transformed againe into Devills, in the delight they take in sinne, in their mischievous tempting others to sinne: for surely if want of reason makes a beast, abuse of reason this way makes a Devill; and admit man hath some advantage above beasts, it is a miserable advantage that onelyonly makes us apt to evill, yea, the worst of evills, and capable of an hell: small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts, that they make us worse then the worst of beasts.
But of their acting the Devills part and their severall slights in seducing and enforcing others to sinne, in drawing others to perdition: expect more, Section the 75. &c. OnelyOnly this for the present let the Drunkard know, that except he doe repent and amend, there is not the most lothsome and despicable creature that crawles upon the earth, which he shall not once enuy, and wish to have beene, rather then what he is; which should have been my next theame: but of this when I come to the punishment of Drunkards, Swearers, and Seducers, Section. 30. to 34. and 44. and 119. to 143.
And so much of the person in generall, and a part: now take a generall view of the sinne, before I come to particulars, and see how the Learned in all ages, both Christians and Heathens, have censured this vice, and judged of this sinne, though indeed the odiousnesse of it is beyond all expression: neither have I dehortation answerable to my detestation of it, onelyonly what cannot be spoken (your meditation supplying the defect of my speech) may be implyed as under a curtaine; which was the Painters shift in deliniating the picture of Venus, and the wont of Timanthes; who, in each picture hee drew, occasioned more to be understood, then was painted.
§ 11.
THe Learned of all ages have concluded;what the learned say of this sin. yea, drunkennesse it selfe (if it could speake, as it can take away speech) would confesse, that it is a flattering Devill, a sweet poyson, a voluntary madnesse, an invited enemy, the author of outrages, quarrells, debates, murthers, the nurse of fury, the mistris of pride, the fountaine of all vice, the originall of all diseases, and bane of the soule: that it is a fire; whose flame, is lust; whose sparkes, are oathes, and evill words; whose smoake, is pride, and infamy; whose ashes, are diseases and poverty; and whose end, is hell.
That it is a sinne which cracks mens credits, consumes their estates, distempers their constitutions, dulls their spirits, infatuates their senses, intoxicateth their braines, stupefies and besots their understandings, perverteth their wills, troubleth reason, overthroweth the judgment, infeebleth the memory, corrupteth all the affections, excludeth counsell, and without Gods infinite mercy, and their sound repentance, damnes the soule.
That it is a bewitching sweete in the mouth, which turnes to deadly poyson in the heart, the revealer of secrets, the ship wrack of chastity, the shame of honesty, the ruine of good manners, the thiefe of time, the disgrace of mankind; a sinne which makes man an abomination to the Lord, odious to the Angells, scorned of men, abandoned of all good society, and above all, makes men subjects and vassalls to Sathan: a sinne of all others the most spreading, most infectious, most incurable, most inexcusable, a sinne which makes no difference of times, places, persons, &c.
A sinne which is against the lawes of God, of grace, of nature, and of all nations, against sense and reason; a sinne, which brings wrath and judgment upon the whole land; a sinne, which is a griefe to friends, a ruine to families, which separates from the society and company of Gods Saints on earth, excludes and shuts them out of the Kingdome of Heaven, as Plutarch, Solon, Pittacus. Boetius, St. Austin, St. Ierom, St. Chrysoftome, and others stile and define it.
That it is of sinnes, the queene; as the goute is of diseases, even the most prodigall, wastfull, unthrifty, unprofitable, unnaturall, unseemely, insatiable, unreasonable sinne; the most base, brutish, beastly, foule, filthy, odious, execrable, detestable, horrible, abominable state, disturbing, heathenish, infernall, prodigious, damnable, gracelesse, and shamefull sinne of all others, as some of our Moderne writers render it.
In fine, it is a sinne odious and lothsome in any; but in us, who have so much light, so many lawes of God and man against it, most unsufferable: but as it was once observed, that Philosophy was taught in Athens, but practised in Sparta: so now temperance and sobriety is taught in England, but practised in Spaine and Turky.
§ 12.
ANd as it is a most grievous andDrunkennesse both a matchlesse sin in it selfe, and the cause of all other sins matchlesse sinne in it selfe; so it is the cause of all other sinnes, a monster with many heads, the roote of all evill, the incendiary of all vice, the Magazine of all misery, the mother and metropolis of all mischiefe. As tell mee, was there ever any sinne committed which wine hath not beene an occasion of? for notwithstanding wine doth first serve and obey the drinker, yet by little and little mixing it selfe with the blood in the veynes, it doth rule over him, and, like Saules evill and controlling spirit, makes him it's vassall, whereby, like the Centurions servant, he no sooner heares the word from Sathan, doe this, but instantly hee doth it, whether it be to the committing of adultery, with Holofernes; inces…, with Lot; murther, with Alexander, Cambyses, and Philopater: one of which, in his drinke, slew his deare and faithfull friend Clytus, who was his chiefe Captaine in all his exployts (though it so troubled him being sober, that he would have made away himselfe) the second, his onelyonly Sonne; the third, his deare father and mother: or treason, with him that confest to King Pyrrhus upon his arraignment, all this wee did and spake against thee, and much more should have done, had not the wine failed us: or blasphemy, with Belshazzar and his Princes, Dan. 5. 23. and what not? for even to rehearse the severall examples which history affords, and experience hath made knowne, were endlesse. Some examples I have given you, and he is a very young man and unobservant, that cannot adde forty out of his owne experience.
And doe not our reverend Judges, in their severall circuits finde by experience, that few brawles, murthers, manslaughters, rapes &c. are committed, which arise not from this roote of drunkennesse. And indeed as in Justice, all vertues are couched together summarily, as Aristottle affirmes: so in drunkennesse, all vices are lapt up together as it were in a bundle, for it is a confluence or collection of all the rest: and as he said of old, prove a man to be ingratefull, and you prove him naught all over; so prove one to bee a Drunkard, and you prove him guilty of every thing that is evill, reprobate to all that is good: for what sinne is it which a drunken man will sticke to commit, when wee reade that Cyrillus his Sonne being drunke, slew his Father, and his Mother great with child, hurt his two Sisters, and defloured one of them, as St. Austin affirmes: when another being tempted by the Devill (as Philip Lonicer witnesseth) to commit some crime or other, putting him to his choice either of Drunkennesse, Adultery, or Murther; he chosing the first, in his drunkennesse he abused the wife of him in whose house he was, and her husband comming in the whilst, he slew him; and so in chosing that one, he committed all three: which being rightly considered, me thinkes a man had neede to be drunke before hand, that shall admit of more wine then enough; that shall for one houres mad mirth, hazard a whole age of griefe and shame, together with his displeasure, that is able to destroy both body and soule in Hell.