Arg. 10. That it is a sin out of whose power few, or none are ever rescued and reclaimed. On this account it was that St. Augustine called It the pit of hell. He that is addicted to this sin becomes incurable, saith a * reverend divine ; for seldom or never have I known a drunk- ard reclaimed. And its power to hold the soul in subjection to it, lies in two things especially : (L) As it becomes habitual ; and habits are not easily broken. Be pleased to view an example in the case, Prov. xxiii. 35. " They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was *' not sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I " awake ? I will seek it yet again."" (2.) As it " takes away the " heart," Hos. iv. 11. that is, the understanding, reason, and ingenu- ity of a man, and so makes him incapable of being reclaimed by coun- sel. Upon this account it was that Abigail would not speak less or more to Nabal, until the wine was gone out of him, 1 Sam. xxv. 36, 37. Plainly intimating, that no wholesome counsel can get in until the wine be gone out. When one asked Cleostratus, whether he •were not ashamed to be drunken, he tartly replied, * And are not * you ashamed to admonish a drunkard ?'' Intimating that no wise man would cast away an admonition upon such an one. And it not only renders them incapable of counsel for the time, but by degrees it besots and infatuates them ; which is a very grievous stroke from God upon them, making way to their eternal ruin. So then you see upon the whole what a dangerous gulph the sin of drunkenness is. I beg you, for the Lord's sake, and by all the regard you have to your souls, bodies, and estates, beware of it. O consider these ten argu- ments I have here produced against it. I should have proceeded to answer the several pleas and excuses you have for it ; but I mind brevity, and shall shut up this first caution with a very pertinent and ingenious poem of Mr. George Herbert, in his Temple.
• Ames, de Consc. ;». 159.
THE ART OF PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE LIPS. 305
Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame
When once it is within thee ; but before M ay'st rule it as thou list : and pour the shame
Which it will pour to thee upon the floor.
It is most just to throw that on the ground,
Which would throw me there, if I kept the round.
He that is drunken, may his mother kill,
Lie with his sister : he hath lost the reins ; Is outlawed by himself; all kind of ill
Did with the liquor slide into the veins.
The drunkard forfeits man, and doth divest
All worldly right, save what he has by beast.
Shall I, to please another's wine-sprung mind, Lose all my own ? God has given me a measure
Short of his Can, and body ; must I find A pain in that wherein he finds a pleasure ? Stay at the third glass ; if thou lose thy hold, Then thou art modest, but the wine ^rows bold.
If reason move not gallants quit the room, (All in a shipwreck shift their several v.ay.)
Let not a common ruin thee intomb : Be not a beast in courtesies ; but stay. Stay at the third glass, or forego the place : Wine, above all things, doth God's stamp deface.
A HE second evil I shall deal with is the evil of the tongue, which as St. James saith, is full of deadly poison, oaths, curses, blasphemies; and this poison it scatters up and down the world in all places ; an un- tamed member that none can rule, Jam. iii. 7, 8. The fiercest of beasts have been tamed by man, as the apostle there observes, which is a relic of his old superiority and dominion over them ; but this is an unruly member that none can tame but he that made it ; no beast so fierce and crabbed as this is. It may be, I may be bitten by it for my labour and endeavours to put a restraint upon it : but I shall adventure it. My design is not to dishonour, or exasperate you ; but if my faith- fulness to God and you should accidentally do so, I cannot help that. Friends, Providence oftentimes confines many of you together within the narrow limits of a ship, where you have time enough, and if your hearts were sanctified, many choice advantages of edifying one another. O what transcendent subjects doth Providence daily pre- sent you with, to take up your discourses ! Plow many experiences of extraordinary mercies and preservations have you to relate to one another, and bless the Lord for ! Also, how many works of wonder
S06 THE ART OF PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE LIPS.
do you daily behold, who go down into the deeps ? O what heavenly employment is here for your tongues ! how should they be talking of all his wonders ? How should you call upon each other, as David did, Psal. Ixvi. 16. " Come hither, and I will tell you what God " hath done for my soul,'" at such a time, in such an extremity .? How should you call upon one another to pay " the vows your lips *' have uttered in your distress .?" Thus should one provoke another in this angelic work, as one lively bird sets the whole flock a chirping.
But tell me, Sirs, should a man come aboard you at sea, and ask of you as Christ did of those two disciples going to Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 17. " What manner of communication is this that ye have by the " way .?" O what a sad account would he have from most of you ! It may be he should find one jesting, and another swearing; a third reviling godliness, and the professors of it ; so that it would be a little hell for a serious Christian to be confined to your society. This is not, I am confident, the manner of all. We have a company of more sober seamen, and blessed be God for them ; but surely thus stands the case with most of you. O what stuff is here from persons professing Christianity, and bordering close upon the confines of eternity as you do ?
It is not my purpose to write of all the diseases of the tongue; that would fill a volume, and is inconsistent with my intended brevity. Who can recount the evils of the tongue ? The apostle saith, " It is " a world of iniquity,"" Jam. iii. 6. And if there be a world of sin in one member, who can number the sins of all the members ? Lauren- tius reckons as many sins of the tongue as there are letters in the alphabet. And it is an observable note that one hath upon Rom. iii. 13, 14. That when Paul anatomizeth the natural man there, he insisteth longer upon the organs of speech, than all the other mem- bers; "Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they " have used deceit : the poison of asps is under their lips, their *' mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.""