me

Let the righteous fmite me, for that is a benefit; and let him reprove Pf. 141. 5. and it shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head, but Incline not mine heart to evill,that I should commit wicked works With men that commit iniquity;and let me not eate of their delicates, nor drink neither. It is a good obfervation of Cardinal Bellarm. here, ubique nocet converfatio malorum, fed nusquam magis, quam in conviviis,& compotationibus.

This is no new danger, but a disease of former ages, infecti oufly tranfmitted by imitation to our times, and in them grown epidemical.

Saint Ambrofe defcribeth a furfetting and drunken meale, pri- De Helia mo minoribus poculis velut velitari pugnâ praluditur; verum hac & Jenin. non eft fobrietatis fpes, fed bibendi disciplina; ubi res calore caperit, pofcunt majoribus poculis, certant pocula cum ferculis,

Deinde procedente potu longius contentiones diversa, & magna certamina quis bibendo præcellat.

Nota gravis fi quis fe excufet.

6.13

All you that call God Father, and do defire either the honour of his name, or the coming of his Kingdom, or the fulfilling of his will; make conscience of this great fin, call it no longer goodfellowship:for St. Ambr. faith,vocatis ut amicos emittitis inimicos. Ibid.c.14 Vacas ad jucunditatem, cogis ad mortem; invitas ad prandium, efferre vis ad fepulturam; vina prætendis,venena suffundis.

Say to him that temptech thee to drink drunk, vade rétro me Sathana, get thee be hind me Satan; the Kingdom of God is not meate nor drink,God fhall finde thee out, thou haft his woe upon thee, and thou shalt see anon how he will punish thee.

2. Ad quid ut videant nuditatem. It is the bift of brave drunkards, how long they have fat at it, how many pots and pottles they have fwallowed, how many they have made drunk ; this is thy nakedneffe.

Litterally drunkenneffe doth make men do things uncomly: fome ufe this lewd practife to make way for their luft, fome to take advantages otherwise.

Modefty cannot utter what unclean provocations do arise from drunkennefle, what lewd and unchafte actions are done, what profane and filthy words are fpoken. Noah himself full of wine,doth lie uncovered in his tent and fheweth his nakednes

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Ibid:c. 18.

St. Ambrofe complaineth of women That full of wine did come immodeftly into the street finging and dancing, irritantes in se juvenum libidines.

Calum impuro contaminatur aspectu, terra turpi faltatione polluitur, aer obfcenis cantibus verberatur.

O the miferable ftate of man in whom fin reigneth, he is not only tempted to do evil, horrible and fhameful evil, to drink drunk, but to be his neighbours devil to draw him into evill by making him drunk, and alfo this propter malum, even to discover the nakedneffe of his brother.

:

Some (hew themselves in their pots like lyons furious and quarrelsome others are dull and heavy, only serving for whetftones to sharpen the wits of the company others drowfie and fleepy others talkative, every man in his humour, all in their nakedneffe. To do evil that good may come of it, is an heinous fin,for God needs not Satans help. But to do evil our selves to draw others into evil for fo evil an end, this doth make fin out of measure finful.

1. Take nakedneffe literally,for the difcovering of thofe parts which modesty doth hide out of fight: fo after the tranfgreffion the man and woman faw that they were naked, and they were afhamed, being but themselves alone in the garden, and they fowed fig-leavs together to hide their nakedneffe from each o thers fight; fo much remained in them, that having left primas fapientia, they yet retained fecundas modeftia, and could not for hame behold each others nakedneffe.

The Apostle faith, Thefe members of the body which we think to Cor, 12. be leffe honourable, upon these we beftow more abundant honour, And our uncomely parts have more abundant come lineffe. The honer here meant is the decent hiding of their nakedneffe,and the deft covering of our shame.

23.

Where the Apostle doth declare the care that is in the natural body; the comely parts which need no hiding from fight, do cover the uncomely parts from fight.

Therefore they that uncover nakedneffe do fhew themselves to be no members of the body: fo that fuch drunkards as give ftrong drink to their neighhour, to this end to difcover ther kednefle, declare themselves to be no parts of the body the Church, Surely,

Surely much nakedneffe is discovered in many drunken meetings, and no marvel when men and women, having laid afide reason and temperance, religion and the fear of God, if they then turn beafts, and do thofe things that are uncomely.

2. Take this nakedneffe in a fpiritual fenfe, then St. Ambrofe will tell you,Lib.de Noe &Arca c. 30, Omnis impius quoniam ipfe devius difciplina eft,aliorum lapfus pro fui erroris folatio accipit, quod confortes invenerit culpa.

Then is the feafon for the Cofener to invade the purfe of his neighbour,for the cunning infidiator to take advantage of words to find out the infirmitits of his brother, that he may keep him in aw thereby. I cannot dive fo deep into this mystery of iniquity as to declare all;and again, I fear to go farre in it, leaft r might teach the ignorant finner more cunning then he had before.

This I dare fay that it is not love that maintaineth drunken ac quaintance; for true love is a coverer of nakedneffe: if literal, you may fee it in Sem and Japhet: if spiritual, you may hear it from the Apostle, love covereth a multitude of fins. And out of that love,David weeps for them that keep not the law.

It becomes them best in my text, who know not God, but were abominable, and to every good work rebrobare, to make men drunk to make them fport; but these things must not be fo much as named amongst thoie that call God our father, that come to Church, that hear the word, that offer themselves to be guests at the Lords boord.

Bur I remember the wife man faith, Rods be for the backs of fools. What greater folly then to fell our inheritance in heaven for strong drink? a worse bargain then Efans, and an harder penny-worth. The rods for this are,

2. Pana peccati, the punishment of fin. 1.Thou art filled with shame for glory.

2. It shall be thine own case; for thou also shalt drink, and thy nakedneffe difcovered.

3. The avenger hall do thee right is the Lord; The Cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee.

4. Shameful fpewing shall be thy glory.

5. The violence of Lebanon fball cover thee and the fpoil of beaft's.

I

Ifa. 45.7.

I may refolve all these particulars to this total, that God will take the punishment of this fin into his own hand, and fhall turn his Cup unto them, and they fhall do him right therein. But for our better direction in this paffage, let me observe,

1. Who will punish this finne; God himself.

2. How he will punish.

3. Why he will punish.

1. Who will punish this drunkennesse.

It is the Lord; Is it not he whofe glory the Babylonians bave given to their idols, yea in the pride of their heart affumed it to themselves? is it not he whofe People they perfecute and deftroy cruelly? whofe goods they gather greedily? whose fruits of the earth they abufe to furfet and drunkennelle? it is for fuch as thefe that God faith,

I form the light and create darknesse, I make peace and create evil: Ithe Lord do all these things.

God hath ever declared himself an enemy to this fin; you may fee it clearly in the firft example of it in Noah, upon whom God Jaid two great punishments, which fhow how much that fin-offended him.

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1. That his own fon fhould expofe him to shame.

2. That this fault (hould be kept in eternal Record in the li ving book of the Holy Word,

You may fee it in Lots example, wherein God would have it

appear.

1. How ftrong liquor may prevail against a strong brain.
2. How easily a good man, and one that feareth God may be
overtaken with it by temptation.

3. How horribly he may offend in it.

4.How temptation may relapse him into it, and in the fins which follow it.

5.God would have us fee his juft indignation against this fin in the punishment of it;

In both thefe, the first we read of tranfgreffing in wine, God doth declare his judgments upon this fin of drunkennesse.

1. Because this fin doth much deface the image of our Maker in us, which is chiefly ftamped in our fpiritual and intellectual part. For let reafon once fail, and man ceafeth to be himself,

for

the time, and becometh like to a brute beast.

2. Because Gods love is violated by drunkenneffe; do you re. member how fharply God punished old Eli the Prieft of the Lord, for not reproving his ungodly fons, to whom he said,Thou honourest thy fons more then me. The drunkard loveth his strong 15am. z. drink above the Lord; therefore he threatneth them,

29.

Awake ye drunkards, and weep, and howle all ye drinkers of Joel 1.5. Wine, because if the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. Obferve it the he biddeth drunk: ds awake,both because drunkenneffe doth beget drowfineffe; quia vigilando dormiunt, for they fay and do they know not what, and he showeth them that as foundly as they fleep,they fhat not fleep out his judgment, but fhall feel the ftorme thereof; it is a contrary courfe that God holdeth with them that love and ferve him; for he biddeth them,

Come my People enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thy felf as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpaft.

There is a queftion in the cafes of confcience in the Canon Law, Utrum ebrietas excufet à peccato, Whether drunkenneffe may excuse from fin; we have many examples of men in their drink, fome speaking profanely and lewdly to the dishonour of God fwearing and blafpheming: others depraving and flandering their neighbours: others furioufly fmiting and hurting,fome killing; their excufe is,alas they were not themselves, and their drunkennefle is the excuse of their fault.

I find it favourably judged in the Canonifts, Excufat ebrietas non à toto fed à tanto, it excufeth not altogether, but in part. Some go further, and fearch whether the drunkenneffe be a common disease of the Party, and that he ufeth in his drink to behave himself fo: and in that cafe being found culpable, he is adjudged to be irregular; but if a man be by the temptation of fuch whom he taketh to be his friends overtaken with drink, who is known to be one that ufeth not to commit that fault, the law doth favour fuch a one. Others refolve it thus, Ebrius eft irregularis ut ei imputantur ad pœnam omnia que (e

quantur.

I find in this example that God doth threaten to visit these
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Ifa.26.20

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