The Odious Condition of a Drunkard, Postscript – Imprimatur
POSTSCRIPT.
THE Spartans and Lacedemonians, uſed to ſhew their Slaves in their drunkenneſs unto their children, thinking that their ugly deformity both in body and minde, would be an effectual argument to make them loath this vice, which even at the firſt view ſeemed ſo horrid. The Perſians and Parthians alſo, to the ſame end kept alwayes in their houſes the like ugly, and deformed deſcriptions lively painted out; and found it by experience, the moſt operative and effectuall courſe to keep theirs from exceſſe. And nothing, as Anacharſis holds, will ſooner reclaime a man from Drunkenneſſe, then the ſeeing and remembring of a drunkards odious condition, and beaſtly behaviour.
Would we then that are Chriſtians have our children and ſervants decline this bewitching, beſotting, infectious, and incurable ſinne; this waſtefull, inſatiable, unreaſonable, unnaturall ſinne; this baſe, brutiſh, atheiſticall, execrable, prodigious, and infernall ſinne; this tranſcendent ſin, which is the cauſe of all other ſins; yea a confluence or collection of every ſinne; even turning a man wholly into ſinne: this ſinne that is the Funerall of all a mans good parts, and indiſpoſeth him to all grace and godlineſſe; yea to all the means thereof? … uſe we them, and that often, to read over in our families, this deſcription of a drunkard: and for ought we know, ours and after generations, may by Gods bleſſing, be leſs inamored with this loathſome, and worſe then beaſtly abomination.
FINIS.
Imprimatur
John Downam.
End of the text · Richard Younge, The Odious Condition of a Drunkard (1649)