2. Secondly, Luxury and intemperance bring desolating and de- stroying judgments upon 'places and persons : Joel i. 5, ' Awake, ye drunkards, and weep ; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine ; for it is cut off from your mouth ; ' ver. 19, ' 0 Lord, to thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wil- derness, and the flames have burnt all the trees of the field ; ' ver. 20, ' The beasts of the field cry unto thee ; for the rivers of the water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.' ^ Luxury is a sin that brings both famine and fire upon a people ; it brought the Chaldeans upon the Jews, who by fire and sword laid all waste. The horses of the Chaldeans destroyed their pastures, vines, fio"-trees, pomegranates, &c., which grew in many places of the land, and their soldiers set their houses on fire, and so brought all to ruin. Amos vi. 1, ' Woe to them that are at ease in Zion ; ' ver. 3, ' That put far away the evil day ; ' ver, 4, ' That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall ; ' ver. 5, ' That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David ; ' ver, 6, ' That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments : but they ai-e not grieved for the affliction of Joseph ; ' ver. 7, ' Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed ; ' ver. 8, ' The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces : therefore will I deliver up the city, with all that is therein ; ' ver. 11, ' For, behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts,' Luxury is a sin that forfeits all a man's enjoyments, that turns him out of house and home. Samaria was a very glorious city, and a very strong city, and a very rich city, and a very populous city, and a very ancient city, &c,, and yet luxury and intemperance turned it into ashes, — it brought desolating and destroying judgments upon it. The rich citizens of Samaria were given up to mirth and music, to luxuries and excesses, to riotousness and drunkenness, to feasting and carous- ing, and by these vanities and debaucheries they provoked the Lord to command the Chaldeans to f\ill on and to spoil them of their riches, and to lay their glorious city in ashes. So it was luxury and intem-
1 In ecclesiastical historj- you may road of one drunkard, who, being touched with his Bin, wept himself blind ; but the drunkards of our days are more apt to drink themselves blind tiian to weep themselves blind.
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 65
perance that provoked the Lord to rain hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen. xviii. ; luxury turned those rich and populous cities into ruinous heaps. Ah London ! London ! the luxuries and excesses, the riotousness and drunkenness, the mad feast- ing and carousing that have heen within and without thy walls, that have been within thy great halls, taverns, and other great houses, hath turned thee into ashes, and laid thy glory in the dust. 0 you burnt citizens of London ! what shameful spewing hath been in some of your feasts, as if Sardanapalus, Apicius, and Heliogabalus were still alive ! How often have many of you 230ured into your bodies such intoxicating drinks as hath many times laid you asleep, stripped you of your reason, took away your hearts, robbed you of yourselves, and laid a beast in your room ! Drunkenness is so base, so vile a sin, that it transforms the soul, deforms the body, bereaves the brain, betrays the strength, defiles the affections, and metamorphoseth the whole man ; yea, it unmans the man. Cyrus the Persian monarch being de- manded of his grandfather Astyages why he would drink no wine, answered. For fear lest they give me poison ; for. saith he, yestej-day, when you celebrated your nativity, I judged that somebody had poisoned all the wine they drank, because at the taking away of the cloth not one of all those that were present at the feast arose in his right mind. [Xenophon.] Hath it not been thus with many of you ? If it hath, lay your hands upon your mouths, and say, The Lord is righteous, though he hath laid your houses in ashes. Anacharsis used to say that the first cup of wine was for thirst, the second for nouriishment, the third for mirth, and the fourth for madness ; but what would he have said had he lived within or without the walls of London these last six years? Isa. v. 22; Hab. ii. 17. Ah London! London! were there none within nor without thy walls that were strong to drink, and that gave their neighbour drink, and that put the bottle to them to make them drunk, that they might look on their nakedness? Were there none within nor without thy walls, that with Marcus Antoninus, Darius, Alexander the Great, &c., did boast, and glory, and pride themselves in their great abilities to drink down any that should come into their company ? Were there none within nor with- out thy walls, 0 London ! that cried out. If you take away our liquor, you take away our lives ? Austin brings in the drunkard, saying, Malle se vitam qudm vinum eripi, He had rather lose his life than his wine. And Ambrose speaks of one Theotimus, who being told by his physicians that much quaffing would make him blind, answered then, Vale lumen amicicm, Farewell sweet light, farewell sweet eyes ; if ye will not bear wine, ye are no eyes for me. Were there none within nor without thy walls, 0 London ! that did abuse the good creatures of God so profusely, so prodigally, so prodigiously, as if they had been sent into the world for no other end but thus to abuse themselves, re- proach their Maker, and destroy those choice blessings which God had given for more noble ends, than to be spewed against the walls, for these last six years ? A drunken health, like the conclusion in a syllogism, must not upon any terms be denied, especially in the company of such grandees whose age, whose place, whose office should have taught them better things ; yea, the custom of high drinking hath been these
66 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.