the loss of their charter. There was a street in Kome called viciis sobrius, the sober street, because there was never an ale-house in it ; but this, I think, is hard to ,say of any street in London, yea, of any street in England. It is an observation amongst the mariners, that as the sea grows daily shallower and shallower on the shores of Holland and Zealand, so the channel of late waxeth deeper and deeper on the coasts of Kent and Essex. Ah, sirs ! what is more evident than this, that as drunkenness ebbs in Holland, so it flows in England ! Oh, what a deal of ground has this sin got within this few months upon English hearts ! There was a time when drunkards were as rare in England as wolves, but now they are as common as swine. Ah, what staggering, reeling, and shameful spewing is to be found, both among the great ones, the priests, and people of this nation ! The prophet Hosea complained in his time, that the princes, upon their king's day, made him sick with bottles of wine, Hosea vii. 5. This day of their king was either his birthday, and so Pagninus rendereth it here, Die natalis ejus; or his coronation day, and so the Chaldee Paraphrast carrieth it ; or the day wherein their king Jeroboam set up his golden calves at Dan and Bethel, as some others conceive. Now in this day of their king there was such carnal triumphing, and such pampering of the flesh, and such roaring, carousing, and drink- ing of bottles of wine, that the princes drank themselves sick, drown- ing their bodies and souls in bottles and butts of wine. Memorable is the king's late proclamation against all such debauched persons, who, pretending to drink his health, destroy their own by a shameful abusing of the precious creatures of God.i But if the prophet Hosea were now alive in this nation, ah, what cause would he have to com- plain that both high and low, men and women, young and old have given themselves to this beastly sin, that unmans a man, and that besots the soul, and that destroys the body, and that proves a canker- worm to men's estates ! What are most ale-houses but hell-houses, but the devil's houses, in which the name of God is notoriously blas- phemed, religion scorned, the saints derided, the Sabbaths profaned, young ones impoisoned, and old ones hardened, and many thousand families impoverished ? And why, then, should it be almost as easy a task to conquer the West Indies, to overcome the Turk, and to bring down the Pope, as it is to bring down such wretched ale-houses, as are the very nurseries of aU sin, and the synagogues of incarnate devils, and the very sinks of all misery, poverty, and beggary. By these instances it is most clear that it is not holiness, but wickedness that exposes men to the greatest poverty and misery. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Consider that God can make a little with holiness go a great way} A little with holiness shall serve the turn, and then enough is as good as a feast. God can make a handful of meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse, hold out a long while, 1 Kings xvii. 10-17. So Deut. viii. 4, ' Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee,
^ Richard the Third drowned his brother in a butt of sack. If one may credit rela- tions, many have drunk themselves dead within this few months.— [1661, 1662. — G.]
* Mr Foxe in his Acts and Mon., p. 1874, edit. wZ<., speaks of a poor woman, who being threatened that she should have but a little bread one day, and a little water on the next, replied, If you take away my meat, I hope God will take away my hunger, and then it will be all one as if I had meat.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 303
neither did thy foot swell these forty years.' Chap. xxix. 5, ' And I have led you forty years in the wilderness : your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.' Their raiment in forty years time was not the worse for wearing, their gar- ments were not worn out with wearing, in all that time they were not gro'wn old and so unfit to wear. Oh no ; but they were as fresh and strong, and fit for use at the last, as they were when they first came into the wilderness, and this was by a divine power that preserved them from decay. God supplied all the backs and bellies of the Israelites in such state, as if every Israelite had been a prince. When God brings his people into a wilderness condition, he will make their mercies last and hold out as long as their wilderness condition con- tinues. Some of the learned are of opinion, that the garments and shoes of children and young men grew up with their persons ; so that as their stature increased, so their apparel and shoes waxed larger and longer. But I suppose that it is not safe for us to imagine or multiply miracles without necessity "and clear warrant from Scripture ; and, therefore, I shall rather fall in with those worthy men who thus judge — viz., that when any began to outgrow their apparel and shoes, they laid them aside, and took others that were fit for their present stature, and that those which they laid aside were as sound and fresh, and fit for service, as when they first began to use them, and so those they put off were fit for others to put on that were of a less stature ; and thus God lengthened out their mercies in their wilderness condi- tion. So in that Prov. xv. 16, 17, ' Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred there- with.' 1 Chap. xvi. 8, * Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right.' Chap. xvii. 1, 'Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife.' Ps. xxxvii. 16, ' A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked.' Where there is a holy God, and a holy heart, a little of the world will go far. A little will be a sufficiency to him, who with it enjoys that Holy One that is all-sufficiency itself, Phil. iv. 11-20. Though a whole world will never fill nor satisfy an unsanc- tified heart ; yet a little, a very little of the world will satisfy and con- tent a holy heart. There are two things that an unholy heart can never find, it can never find any sweetness in spirituals, nor it can never find any satisfaction in temporals ; but a holy heart always finds the greatest sweetness in spirituals, and is as easily satisfied with the least and meanest of temporals, Esth. v. 9-14. Gen. xxviii. 20, 21, ' And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.' Holy Jacob does not indent with God for costly apparel, or delicate fare ; he does not make a bargain with God to be housed bravely, and fed daintily, and clothed gorge- ously, and lodged easily, and waited on nobly.^ Oh no ; bread to eat