Sin Stigmatized, Part 1 · Section 100
§ 100.
SEventhly, They will flout us out of our faith have our company here in ſin & herafter in t…rment.the maine reaſon and end wherefore they do all this, and a great deale more, is, that they may diſcourage us in the way to heaven, flout us out of our faith, and draw us back to the world; that ſo they may have our company here in ſin, and hereafter in torment.
The which that themſelves may acknowledge (and a faire print it muſt bee, that a drunkard can wel read ſeeing hee weares his eyes in his tongue) much more muſt proofes be plaine, if they acknowledge this for a truth; I will take leave to expatiate, and whereas I have hitherto but ſpoken of them ſtrictly, as drunkards; now I will ſpeake of them more largely, as they are wicked men, ſeed of the Serpent, and children of the Divell.
Firſt, 1 They would have our company in finne.they do it that they may diſcourage us in the way to heaven, flout us out of our faith, and draw us backe to the World, that ſo they may have our company here in ſinne
As why doth the World caſt ſuch a number of blockes in our way, to hinder us, but becauſe in every one that repenteth, ſhee looſeth a limme or member? all theſe things will drunkards do to the man whom the King of heaven and earth will honour with adoption, converſion, and regeneration: but ſo long as we remaine in our naturall condition; and vvill pledg them in their ſinnes, they have no quarrell againſt us. As Holofernes ſaid to Indeth, feare not in thine heart, for I never hurt any that are willing to ſerve Nebuchadnezzar, the King of all the earth, Iudeth 11 1. ſo theſe drunkards, never moleſt any, that are content to ſerve Sathan, the Prince of this world.
As let any experienced Chriſtian tell me, vvhether he was ever ſcoft at, or moleſted by drunkards, ſo long as hee marched under ſathans colours: whether they ever hated him, untill Chriſt had choſen him, Iohn 15.19. Againe let him tell me, whether hee was not made a by-word of the people, Iob 17.6. A ſong of the drunkards, Pſal. 69.12. and generally hated of all. Matth. 10.22. ſo ſoone as he became religious and conſcionable.
For all wicked men are like the women of Lemnos, VVhat a ſtrait the godly are in.who when they had every one ſlain their husbands and kinſmen; exiled Hypſiphyle the Kings daughter, for that ſhee alone ſaved her Father alive. So that a Chriſtian in reſpect of his hard ſtraits, betweene Gods Law, on the one ſide, and the malignant world, on the other; may fitly be compared to the Gibbeonites, who if they made not their peace with Ioſhua, muſt dye by ſtrangers; and if they did make their peace with him, they muſt dye by neighbours: or to Suſanna, who if ſhee did yeeld unto the two Elders, muſt loſe her chaſtity, and hazzard her ſoule; and if ſhee did not yeeld, ſhee muſt looſe her life: for we have a Wolfe by the eares, which wee can neither ſtay nor let go with ſafety: if we ſeek to pleaſe God by a holy life, wee diſpleaſe the world, and that will hate and vex us; if we ſeek to pleaſe the world, we diſpleaſe God, and he will hate and condemne us; for their commands are diametrically contrary, Acts 4.18.19.
When our affections, like wild and mad Horſes, are violently gallopping to Hell, if the Spirit of God, by repentance (as with a bridle) ſuddenly gives a jerck and turnes them, yea ſets them going as faſt the other way, in the more narrow path towards heaven; preſently thoſe our companions in the broad way, ſtand marvelling at us that wee breake off company, and envie to ſee themſelves caſheered; and good reaſon, for the world as you have heard looſeth a limme or member in every one that repenteth.
The men of the world thinke it quarrell enough to the children of God, that they will no longer continue miſerable with them; if the Gibeonites but turn to Ioſhua, then there is quarrell enough for the Amorites againſt Gibeon; they cannot abide to looſe any of their community; neither is it otherwiſe with the head of this helliſh complicies, there needs no other cauſe of his utmoſt fury, then to ſee a poore ſoule ſtrugling to get out of the reach of his tyranny.
That great Dragon, the Divell, and theſe his ſubjects, drunkards, make warre, and are wrath with none but the woman, and the remnant of her ſeed, which keepe the Commandements of God, and have the teſtimony of Ieſus Chriſt, Revel. 12.17. The Divell and the World are much like the proſcription of the Inquiſition, or the Athenian Oſtraciſme, which throweth out none but the beſt and worthieſt among men.
Nothing is more diſtaſtfull to the World, then for a man to ſeperate and divorce himſelfe from her evill ſociety, and wicked cuſtomes: It ſeemeth to them ſtrange, ſaith Saint Peter, that you runne not with them, to the ſame exceſſe of ryot, therefore ſpeak they evill of you, 1 Peter 4.4. He that refuſeth an health, or wil not ſweare, hee that cannot conforme to the vices of lewd men, is more taken notice of, then a great Perſonage; as a blazing Sarre is more gazed upon then the Sunne, becauſe the one is ſtrange, the other common; and he had need bee much more carefull of his actions, then another man; for they will lie in wait to finde faults in him, and let him ſlip never ſo little, if it bee not a wonder, it is ſtrange, and all ſtrangers wee obſerve more ſtrictly, then wee doe thoſe that have dwelt among us.