_Quest._ V. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thyself when thou art drunk, or joinest thyself with drunkards? What abundance of other sins thou art liable to? And in what peril thou art of some present judgment of God? Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee tremble. To think that even a Noah that was drunken but once, is recorded to his shame for a warning unto others. How horrid a crime even Lot fell into by the temptations of drunkenness! How Uriah was made drunk by a David to have hid his sin! 2 Sam. xi. 13. How David's son Amnon, in God's just revenge, was murdered by his brother Absalom's command, when "his heart was merry with wine," 2 Sam. xiii. 28. How Nabal was stricken dead by God after his drunkenness, 1 Sam. xxv. 36-38. How king Elah was murdered as he was drinking himself drunk, 1 Sam. xvi. 9. And how the terrible hand appeared writing upon the wall to king Belshazzar in his carousing, to signify the loss of his kingdoms, and that very night he was also slain, Dan. v. 1, 30. Thou seest God spareth not kings themselves, that one would think might be allowed more pleasure: and will he spare thee? Prov. xxxi. 4, 5, "It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink;" and is it then for thee? Mark the dreadful fruits of it even to the greatest. Hos. vii. 3-5, "They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies: they are all adulterers as an oven heated--In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners." Thou seest that be they great or small, both soul and body are cast by tippling and drunkenness into greater danger, than thou art in at sea in a raging tempest. Thou puttest thyself in the way of the vengeance of God, and art not like to escape it long.
_Quest._ VI. Didst thou ever measure thy sin by that strange kind of punishment commanded by God against incorrigible gluttons and drunkards? Deut. xxi. 18-21, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put away evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." Surely gluttony and drunkenness are heinous crimes, when a man's own father and mother were bound to bring him to the magistrate to be put to death, if he will not be reformed by their own correction. And you see here that youth is no excuse for it, though now it is thought excusable in them.
_Quest._ VII. Dost thou think thy drink is too good to leave at God's command? Or dost thou think that God doth grudge thee the sweetness of it? or rather that he forbids it thee for thy good, that thou mayst escape the hurt. And tell me, Dost thou love God better than thy drink and pleasure, or dost thou not? If not, thy own conscience must needs tell thee, (if thou have a conscience not quite seared,) that there is no hope of thy salvation in that state: but if thou say, thou dost, will God, or any wise man, believe thee, that thou lovest him better, and wilt not be so far ruled by him, nor leave so small a matter for his sake? 1 John v. 3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." So 2 John 6.
_Quest._ VIII. Dost thou remember that thy carcass must lie rotting in the grave, and how loathsome a thing it must shortly be? And canst thou make so great a matter of the present satisfying of so vile a body, and dung the earth at so dear a rate?