Aig. 3. It is a sin by which thou greatly wrongest and abusest thine own body. The body is the souTs instrument ; it is as the tools are to a skilful artificer; this lust both dulls and spoils it, so that it is utterly unfit for any service of him that made it. Thy body is a curi- ous piece, not made by a word of command, as other creatures, but by a word of counsel ; " I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and •' curiously wrought," saith the Psalmist, Psal. cxxxix. 14. or as the vulgar, Actipictus sum, Painted as with needle-work of divers colours, like a garment richly embroidered. Look how many members, so many wonders ! There are miracles enough, saith one, betwixt head and foot to fill a volume. There is, saith another, such curious work- manship in the eye, that upon the first sight of it, some Atheists have been forced to acknowledge a God ; especially that fifth muscle in the eye is wonderful, whereby, (as a learned * author observes) man dif- fereth from all other creatures, who have but four ; one to turn the eye downward, a second to hold it forward, a third to move it to the right-hand, a fourth to the left ; but none to turn it upward as a man hath. Now, judge in thyself; Did God frame such a curious piece, and enliven it with a soul, which is a spark, a ray of his own light, whose motions are so quick, various, and indefatigable, whose flights of reason are so transcendent ; did God, thinkest thou, send down this curious peace, the top and glory of the creation, the indej? and epitome of the whole world, Eccl. xii. 2. did God, I say, send down this picture of his own perfection, to be but as a strainer for meats and drinks, a spunge to suck in wine and beer ? Or canst thou answer for the abuse and destruction of it ? By this excess thou fillest it with in- numerable diseases, under which it languisheth ; and at last thy life, like a lamp, is extinguished, being drowned with too much oil. -f ' In-
* finite diseases are begotten by it, (saith Zanchius) ; hence comes apo-
* plexies, gouts, palsies, sudden death, trembling of the hands and
* legs;' herein they bring Cain's curse upon themselves, saith Am- brose : Drunkenness slays more than a sword. Oh ! what a terri- ble thing will it be to consider upon a death-bed, that these pangs
* Columb. cle re Anat.
f Infinites morborum genera inde nascuntur apoplexa, parali/ses, arthrideSi &c.. Ille 0pti?)ius medicus sibi, qui niodicus cibu Aug.
OF THE SIN OF DRUNKENNESS. 501
and aches are the fruits of thy intemperance and excess ! " Who hath " woe ? Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath " babbUng? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness " of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek " mixed wine," Prov. xxiii. 20, 30. By this enumeration and man- ner of 'mierrogation,he seems tomakfeit a difficult thingto recount the miseries that drunkenness loads the outward man with ; for look as vermin abound where there is store of corn, so do diseases in the bo- dies of drunkards, where crudities do so abound. Now, methinks, if thou hast no regard to thy poor soul, or the glory of God, yet such a sensible argument as this, from thy body, should move thee.
Arg". 4. Drunkenness wastes and scatters thine estate, poverty at- tends excess; the drunkard shall be clothed with rags, and brought to a morsel of bread. Solomon hath read thy fortune, Prov. xxi. 17. " He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich ;"" luxury and beggary are seldom far asunder. When Diogenes heard a drunkard's house cried to be sold ; ' I thought (quoth he) it would not be long * e'er he vomited up his house also."* The Hebrew word u;"iv and the Greek word aauria, which signifies luxury ; the former is com- pounded of two words, which signify. Thou shalt he poor ; and the latter signifies the losing of the possession of that good which is in our hand. " The drunkard and the glutton shall surely come to " poverty," Prov. xxiii. 21. In the Hebrew it is, he shall be disin- herited or dispossessed. It doth not only dispossess a man of his rea- son, which is a rich and fair inheritance given to him by God, but it also dispossesses him of his estate: It wastes all that either the provident care of thy progenitors, or the blessing of God upon thine own industry, hath obtained for thee. And how will this sting like an adder, when thou shalt consider it.'' Apicus the Roman, hearing that there were seven hundred crowns only remaining of a fair estate that his father had left him, fell into a deep melancholy, and fearing want, hanged himself, saith Seneca. And not to mention the mise- ries and sorrows they bring hereby upon their families, drinking the tears, yea, the blood of their wives and children : Oh ! what an ao. count will they give to God, when the reckoning day comes ! Be^ lieve it, sirs, there is not a shilling of your estates, but God will reckon with you for the expence thereof. If you have spent it upon your lusts, whilst the necessity of your families, or the poor, called upon you for it ; I should be loth to have your account to make, for a thousand times more than ever you possessed. O woful ex- pence, that is followed with such dreadful reckonings !
Arg. 5. Consider what vile and ignominious characters the Spirit of God hath put upon the subjects of this sin. The scripture every where notes them for infamous, and most abominable persons. When Eli supposed Hannah to be drunken, " Count not thine hand- " maid a daughter of Belial,'' said she, 1 Sam. i. 16. Now, a son or daughter of Belial is, in scripture-language, the vilest of men
S02 A SOBER CONSIDERATION
or women. So Psal. Ixix. 12. " They that sit in the gate, speak *' against me, and I am the song of drunkards," i. e. of the basest and vilest of men, as the opposition plainly shews ; for they are opposed to them that sit in the gate, that is honourable persons. The Lord would have his people shun the society of such as a pest, not to eat with them, 1 Cor. v. 11. Yea, the scripture brands them with atheism ; they are such as have lost the sense and expectation of the day of judgment; mind not another world, nor do they look for the coming of the Lord, Mat. xxiv. 27, 28. He saith the Lord delayeth his coming, and then falls a drinking with the drunkard. The thoughts of that day will make them leave their cups, or their cups will drown the thoughts of such a day. And will not all the contempt, shame and infamy which the Spirit of God hath poured on the head of this sin cause thee to abhor it ? Do not all godly, yea, moral persons, abhor the drunkard ? Oh ! methinks the shame that attends it, should be as a fence to keep thee from it.