reverence that is due to the government, by this single vice of drunkenness; that hath befallen armies in having their quarters beaten up, their towns surprised, their forts betrayed, and the whole discipline which should preserve them dissolved by the pernicious excess of drink in the generals and principal officers; that hath befallen private families, in the quarrels, breach of friendship, and murders, which have had no other original or foundation, but drunkenness; men could not but conclude, that it is a sin that God is wonderfully offended with, and a Scourge that he chastises all those with who are delighted in it, and would abhor both it and them proportionably; and that they can have no peace with God or man, who do not labour with all their faculties to drive it out and keep it out of their families, their towns, and countries, with the same vigilance and severity as they use against the most devouring plague and pestilence that sweeps all before it.

It is too great an indulgence to this wickedness, it may be in some who are not guilty of it, and an evidence that they do not abhor it enough, to say that the natural temper and constitution of men is so different that wine works different effects in them; and that it

hath such an insinuation into many, that it can as hardly be shut out as flattery can, and infuses its poison so subtilly that it hath wrought its effects before it be discerned or suspected, and therefore could very hardly be prevented; that the same excess which is visible in some men to the loss of their reason and other faculties, is not discernible in others, nor makes the least impression upon them; that it never produces any mischievous effect in many, and so cannot be, at least in the same degree, sinful in all men; and, lastly, that it is a part of conversation from which men cannot retire rudely; and they who are once entered into it, especially if it be with persons superior to themselves, and upon whom they have some dependence, can very hardly refuse to submit to the laws they prescribe for the present, or withdraw from that excess which they do not like, nor must presume to censure or contradict. It is great pity that our Saviour nor his disciples had not the foresight to discern these distinctions and casual obligations, that they might not so positively have shut out all transgressors, who may have so reasonable excuses for the excesses they commit, from any hope of salvation; but it is much more pity, that any men, who pretend to pay sub

mission and obedience to his injunctions, and to believe and give credit to his dictates, should delude themselves and others with such vain and impious imaginations, and hope to avoid a judgment that is so unavoidably pronounced, by such weak excuses as cannot absolve men from the most trivial and lightest trespasses. Cannot be that wisely declines walking upon the ice for fear of falling, though possibly it might carry him sooner to his journey's end, as wisely forbear drinking more wine than is necessary, for fear of being drunk and the

ill consequences thereof? Is there any

man so intemperate as to drink to an excess, when his physician assures him it will increase his fever, though he hath a better excuse then from his thirst, or improve some other disease, the strength whereof already threatens him with death? Can we be temperate that we may live a month the longer, which at best we cannot be sure of; and will not the fear of eternal death make any impression upon us? There is not in the whole catalogue of vices to which mankind is liable, any one (swearing only excepted) that hath not more benefit as well as pleasure for its excuse and reward: the revengeful and malicious person finds

some ease and advantage from having brought some signal misfortune upon his enemy; others will be more wary how they displease and provoke him: the covetous man is a great gainer by his pursuit, and is able, if he were willing, to do much good with what he hath gotten ill: the lustful person finds ease, by having quenched or rather allayed a fire that burned him, and which a sudden reflection or sharp animadversion could not extinguish. The drunkard only hath none of these pretences for his excess, none of these deceitful pleasures in the exercise of it; no man was ever drunk to quench his thirst, or found other delight in it than in becoming less a man than God hath made him; which must be a horrible deformity, and disguise him from the knowledge of God. They who can perform the office of strong beasts, in carrying more drink than others can, should be put to carry it the same way they do, which would be much more innocent; and their strength doth but deceive them, and decays to all noble purposes, when it seems exalted in that base and servile work. Besides, it may be the guilt of his weak companion, who falls sooner under his hand, is inferior, how penal soever, to his who triumphs in his brutish unwound

ed conquest, and believes he is less drunk, because he is not so much dead. They who apply their power and quality to the propagation of this unmanly and unruly license, and draw men from obeying or considering Heaven, to please them, are fit to be degraded from that qualification they so dishonourably prostitute, and to be demned to that conversation they so much affect; and they, who out of modesty andgood manners, out of gratitude and obedience, are disposed to submit to those commands, ought well to consider, that they do at the same time renounce their Christian liberty, and enter into a servitude which hath no bounds or limits: for with what security or reason can he refuse to perform the lowest and the basest office that man shall require him, upon whose command he hath been content to be drunk? That he is not a pander, that he is not an assassinator, that he is not a rebel, is not to be imputed to any restraint in or from his own con science, but to the temper and constitutio, of his patron, which doth not invite him those debaucheries; for to say that honou and the law make those much more pena" than the other, so that his commands can more easily be disputed and contradicted in

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