alone ;" so, tliis man is joined to his cups, ' let liim alone/ let liim drown liimself in liquor till he scorch himself in fire. How many woes hath God pronouced against this sin, Isa. xxviii. 1., " Wo to the drunkards of Ephraim !" Joel i. 5., " Howl ye drink- ers of wine !" Dnuikenness excludes a per- son from heaven, 1 Cor. vi. 10., " Drunk- ards shall not inherit the kingdom of God :" a man cannot go to heaven reeling. King Solomon makes an oration full of invectives against this sin, Prov. xxiii. 29, 30., " Who hath wo ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath bahbling ? Who hath redness of eyes ? they that tarry long at the wine. Who hath con- tentions ?" Drink when abused, breeds quar- rels, itcauseth duels. 'Who hath babbling?' When one is in drink, his tongue runs, he will reveal any secrets of his friend. ' Who hath redness of eyes ?' Redness of eyes comes sometimes from weeping, but too often from drinking ; and what is the issue ? v. 32. At last, the wine bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder. The wine smiles in the glass, but stings in the conscience. Drunkenness is a sin against all the ten commandments. 1. Drunkenness casts off the true God, Hos. iv. 11., " Wine takes away the heart:" it takes the heart off from God. 2. It makes the belly a god, Phil. iii. 19. To this the drunkard pours drink-offerings ; there is a breach of the second commandment. 3. The drunkard in his cups takes God's name in vain by his oaths. 4 The drunk- ard makes no difference of day ; he is sel- dom sober on a sabbath ; he on that day worships Bacchus. 5. The drunkard ho- nours neither his natural fjithcr nor the magistrate his civil father ; he will be in- temperate though the laws of the land for- bid it. 6. Tlie drunkard commits murder. Alexander killed his frieud Clytus when he was drunk, for whom he would have given half his kingdom when he was sober. 7. The drunkard's wine proves lust. Austin calls wine fomentum libidbiis, — the inflamer of lust. Nwiquam ego ebrium castum putavi ; I never did believe a drunken man to be chaste, saith Hierom. 8. The drunkard is a thief; he spends that money upon his drunken lust, which should have been given ! to charitable uses ; so he robs the poor, i 9. The drunkard is a slanderer ; he cares
not, when he is on the ale-bench, how he doth defame and belie others : when he hath taken his full cups, he is now fit to take a false oath. 10. The drunkard sins a- gainst the tenth commandment ; for he co- vets to get another's estate, by circumven- tion and extortion, that he may be the bet- ter able to follow his drunken trade. Thus he sins against the ten commandments.
If this sin of drunkenness be not reform- ed, I pray God, the sword be not made drunk with blood. And whereas some will go to shift off this sin from themselves, that they are no drunkards, because they liaA^e not drunk away their reason and senses, — they ai"e not so far gone in drink that they cannot go, — he is a drunkard in the scrip- ture-sense who is " mighty to drink wine," Isa. V. 22. He is a drunkard, saith Solo- mon, that tarries long at the wine, Prov. xxiii. 30. He who sits at it from morning to night, — that drinks away his precious time, though he doth not drink away his reason, — he is a drunkard that drinks more than doth him good, and that, though he be not himself drunk, yet he makes another drunk, Hab. ii. 15., " Woe to him that gives his neighbour diink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunk- en !" Oh, I beseech you, be not in this like the serpent, lovers of wine ! This I fear is one cause why the word preached doth so little good to many in this city, they drink away sermons; they do as the hunted deer when it is wounded runs to the water and drinks ; so, when they have been at a ser- mon, and the arrows of reproof hath wound- ed their conscience, they run presently, and drink away those convictions ; they steep the sermon in wine The tavern-l)ell doth more hurt than the sermon-bell doth good. Tlius you have seen wherein we should not be like serpents.
2. Wherein we should be like the ser- pent, and that is in prudence and wisdom: " be ye Avise as serpents." The serpent is a most prudent creature, therefore the devil made use of the serpent to deceive our first parents, because it was such a subtle crea- ture. Gen. iii. 1., " The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field." There is a natural wisdom and subtilty in every part of the serpent, and we should labour
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to imitate them, and be " wise as ser- pents."