Whatever cares or troubles providence involves any good man in, in the honest and painful pursuit of his civil calling, he may in a great measure relieve his burdened spirit under them, by the com- fortable testimony of his own conscience, and his free addresses to God in prayer. These will sweetly support him under his other en- tanglements and perplexities in the world. But the course you take, does not only strike away these props from under your minds ; but doubles and trebles the burden upon them. Were men but once acquainted with that relief and cheerfulness of spirit, which a good conscience, and a spiritual address to God in prayer, afford in the midst of troubles, they would run to their closets, rather than to taverns and ale-houses, to divert and cure their troubles. I leave it therefore before your own reason to consider, what weight and validity there is in this second excuse for drunkenness.
Excuse III. Others plead they are drawn into this sin by pleasui'e and delight, whose charms are too strong for them to resist.
In this, as in all the former, I resolve to make you your own judges.
THE REASONABLENESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATION. 50d
Give me leave but to state the questions right, and let your own reason ireely determine them. And what fairer dealing can men that exercise reason expect ? And let the first (question be this :
Quest. 1. Whether the pleasures of temperance do not far excel those of intemperance ? If they do, then this your plea is vain and irrational : For you foolishly choose a lesser pleasure, and refuse a greater and sweeter one. And that you do so in this case, no wise man can deny or doubt.
For temperate drinking refreshes the body, and no way burdens it, as excessive drinking doth : xVnd that which burdens nature, can never be equally pleasant with that which yields nothing but due refreshment. Temperance doth noi vitiate, but raiseth the pure and ordinate appetite of nature to its just pitch and height ; in which tem- per, and at which height, it is most capable of the sweetest pleasure from the creature. As the strings of a lute give us the sweetest and most delicious notes, when they are not let down too low, but are all fixed at their due height.
Temperance gives us the most pleasing enjoyment of the good things of this life, still leaving the mind free, and fit for the more spiritual and sweet enjoyments of a better and more excellent life; which excess never did or can do.
Moreover, temperance maintains the manly grace and majesty of the countenance, but excess totally disguises it. It draws the lines of drunkards faces into a form much like those ridiculous Dutch pictures, which some set upon their chimney-pieces, to move laughter in those that behold them.
Now, by the vote of universal reason, that pleasure which refresh- eth the body, but no way burdens it, which raises the ordinate and unvitiated appetites of nature, to its just pitch, and due height, which gives nature the sweetest refreshment, leaving it always fitter and freer for higher and better pleasures, which maintains the manly grace and majesty of the countenance, and makes not a wise man look like a fool or an antic, must needs be better than the lower and flatter pleasures of a burdened body, and vitiated palate, which draw after them so great a train of present mischiefs (which temperance avoids) besides far heavier, and more durable ones in the life to come.
Quest. 2. But if the present pleasures of temperance were in some respect inferior to those of excess,) which I have proved they neither are, nor can be ;) I demand, in the second place, whether the loss of your honour and health, your time and estate, your present peace and future hopes, do not make such sensitive pleasures base and inferior, compared with those of temperance and sobriety ? Do you, in good earnest, think a glass or two above what satisfies and re- freshes nature, can recompense for all that shame, sickness, poverty, and guilt that follows it ! If you think so, sin hath turned you into brutes, and made you utterly incapable of all arguments and manly considerations, to reduce and recover you.
510 THE REASONABLENESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATION,
Eocaise IV. You say, you would not haunt taverns and ale-hou9e» as you do, but that you are drawn in by company and business, which you cannot well resist or avoid, and should you do so, it would be to your loss ; and besides that, you should be branded for fanatics.
I deny not, but there is a snare in vain company ; yet give me leave to propound a few plain and easy questions to your reason.
Quest. 1. Why must the importunity of good fellows (as you call them) be an irresistible temptation to you, and deprive you of all pow- er to deny them, whilst you discern the snares and mischiefs they draw you into.'^ This seems to be a thing unaccountable to reason. Suppose you were allowed to spend the longest summer's day in the highest gratification of all your senses together, or successively one after another, upon condition that you would endure the torments of the rack till that day twelvemonth came about again ; do you think the importunity of all your intimates in the world, would prevail with you to accept the pleasures of a day under such a condition as this .? And yet what are the torments of a year upon the rack, to the tor- ments of hell for ever and ever ? Or to come lower : Suppose one of those lewd companions not worth a groat, if every man had his own, should request you to lend him an hundred pound upon his own se- curity, could you find no power (think you) to deny him, especially if the loss of that hundred pound would certainly ruin you ? If you would deny him (as I doubt not but in such a case you would) tell me then, why you should notfind power to deny him, when he asks a far greater matter than an hundred pound, even the peace, purity, and safety of your souls, as well as the health of your bodies, and honour of your names ? Why then should you be so easy and flexible when they ask the latter, and so stiff and unpersuadable to the former ?
Quest. 2. You say, you have business, and concerns in trade, to dis- patch in such places and companies, and this draws you into the snares of excess. I will not deny but men may lawfully transact their busi- ness in such places, and there may be a conveniency, and sometimes a necessity for it : But that is not the case. The question referred to the determination of your reason, is this. Why drunkenness must ac- company business ? And whether a man be not more fit to transact his business, and drive bargains of the greatest value, whilst his body and mind are cool, sober and temperate, than when his reason is be- clouded and deposed by drunkenness ? How many men have undone themselves, their wives and children, by drunken bargains ?