were but Bugbears, and God did threaten more than he could perform: If I caft my Eye upon God's truth, and veracity, I fee how Sin would make him a Liar, changeable, unfaithful, inconftant to himself: If I take a view of his Justice, I see how Sin would dash and abolish it; for in that it makes the Sinner hope for impunity, when he hath affronted his Maker, as much as he can, what doth it, but enervate God's Righteousness, shake off God's Government,and prompt the Sinner to refift, and fight with him, whofe Eyes are like flames of Fire, and whofe Feet are as Brafs glowing in a Furnace; and that fuch a continual contempt of the Almighty, fhould juftly,and deservedly pull down perpetual torments is a thing not at all contrary to reason: Nay, for ought I fee, the Sinner makes nothing of Eternal Damnation while he lives here; the loss of 50 or 100 l. fhall fright him more, than Everlasting Banishment from the gracious Prefence of Almighty God,whereby he tacitly confeffes,that the Punishment is very flight and inconfiderable ; and what wrong doth God do him, in inflicting a Punishment upon him, which,by his own acknowledgment,is so trivial, and fo flight,that he'l fooner endure it, than the loss of a Friend or Relation; nay, many times wishes for it in his common Difcourfe, as if it were fome pleasure to see Eternal Flames about his Ears; and thô this may be called Inadvertency, yet is it fuch an Inadvertency, as will make the Sinner blush one day, and clear the Almighty, who inflicts no more upon him than a Flea-bite, for it seems he makes no more of it, either in his thoughts or expreffions.

How

How foon would Confideration of fuch Arguments as these undeceive the worldly Wretch, that talks he knows not what, when he finds fault with God's dooming careless, wilful, obftinate Sinners, to unquenchable Fire? But it's want of Confideration makes his Difcourse fo loose, and wanton, It's this makes him embrace every little Conjecture about the fhortnefs of Hell Torments, before the folid Arguments, that evince an Eternity of God's Difpleasure againft ftubborn Sinners: It's this makes him prefer a May-be, before a real known Truth; and the Man that makes fport with Eternal Mifery, fhall be more acceptable Company to him, than the gravest and most judicious Divine, whofe Reasons he cannot anfwer.

Alas! did the Drunkard, when he comes to himself again, Smite upon his Thigh, and fay, What have I done? How odious is this Vice I indulge my felf in? How like a Beaft do I live? How unworthy of that Reafon which the wife Creator hath bestowed upon me? How unworthy of those Mercies I daily enjoy? How would many of the fober Heathens have fcorned a Temptation to fuch a Sin: What a ftrange Creature would fuch a Man as Zeno, the Heathen Philofopher, have taken me to be, had he feen me fo difordered, who reproved Antigonus fo fharply for this excefs? What follies and extravagancies doth it involve me in? How do I prostitute, and expose my self to the contempt and fcorn of Men that know me? How can I

Hear

hear the Apostle proteft, that no Drunkard shall enter into the Kingdom of God, and go on! Will not God take an account one day, and examine how I have spent my time; and can I spend it worse, than by exceeding irrational Creatures in fenfuality? What Brute but a Swine, would diforder it felf, as I do my Body? What can I plead in excufe of fo foul a Crime? Shall I plead Natural Inclination, when nothing is a greater Difgrace to my Nature than this Sin? Shall I fay, I am tempted to it, when my yielding to the Temptation argues the greater weakness and pufillanimity Shall I pretend Custom, when I cannot look upon the picture of a drunken Man without deteftation? And can I act that folly, which I cannot but abhor in Portraiture? How ridiculous does even my drunken Companion feem to me, if either Sicknefs, or fome other Accident, hath for a certain time kept me fober? To fee a Creature endowed with a Soul, which Devils envy, transformed into a strange Spectacle, a Mad-man, rather than a Chriftian; his Face pale, his Eyes fwelled, his Body reeling, his Mouth railing, flandering, and abufing both God and his Neighbour; his Refolutions defperate, his Intentions evil, his fenfual Appetite lawless and ungovernable; his Defires lafcivious and unclean, his Actions disorderly, &c. To fee fo difmal a fight, makes me admire, when my Reafon is clear, how it's poffible for Men to be fo wicked and foolish, and yet do I wilfully fall into that, the odiousness whereof moves my Anger, and my Wonder? How far greater is the

Glory

Glory of the Rechabites than of the Sodomites? And had not I better be commended with the abftemious Demofthenes, Diocles, Polemon, and the Carthaginians of old, than reproached with the loose and intemperate Anacreon, Melanthon, Heraclides, Tiberius, and fuch Monsters of Mankind, who valued themselves upon their exceffive Draughts, and rejoyced in Drink more, than in the most vertuous Qualifications? Is this ronouncing the Devil and all his Works, as I vowed to do in Baptifm? Is this adorning the Gospel of my Saviour, as my Profeffion requires? If I fear not Hell-Fire, Why do not I fear impoverishing of my self and Family? How do I difpofe my felf for all manner of Sin, by this Enormity? What Crime is there that I am not fit for, when my Reafon is overwhelmed with Drink? How do I imbezzel the Gifts of God, when I abuse his Creatures thus? How do I pervert the end of God's Bounty, when I make that to ruin and deftroy my Nature, which was intended to preferve it? What difficulty is there in leaving fo grofs a Vice, which threatens fo much Mifchief and mifery: Need People be exhorted to provide for their own fafety? Need they advice or council to do good to themfelves? Is it fuch a Pleasure, to make a Pond of my Body? Is it fuch a Pleasure, to be laughed at by all Men that maintain Sobriety? What hurt hath God ever done me, that I should thus wilfully affront him? How foon might I vanquish this Sin, if I would in good earnest resolve to be allured by my old Companions no more? And why fhould they

be dearer to me, than my God, my Soul, and a good Confcience? Will thefe Companions fave me, when I come to die? Will it not be far more comfortable to have none of this Load to burthen and opprefs my Soul? What if God should ftrike me dead in a drunken Fit? Doth not Dives, his calling for a drop of Water to cool his burning Tongue, affright me? How do I prepare for Diseases by this Vice? And if there were no Hell, no Judgment to come, how fhould the Difafters, which attend this Sin, difcourage me? What if I fhould drop down in fuch a pofture, and awake in Hell: Lord! if neither the Plagues, which wait upon the offence in thisWorld, nor the terror of that which is to come, can diffuade me; how justly may God pour out all the Vials of his Wrath upon me? How juftly may he plunge me into the Red Sea of his Indignation, and leave me to the rage and malice of the Devil, whose voice and fuggeftions I do now obey.

Did the Sot but blow thofe fparks of Reason he hath left into fuch Confiderations as these, how horrid, how naufeous, would the Sin appear? But want of Confideration makes him transform the Image of God, into the Image of a Beaft, and makes him drink away the Poor's Relief, and his own Estate: This makes him a Thief, for he robs the Poor; and fometimes his own Family, of that fuftenance and fupport he owes them, as he is a Man, and pretends to be a Chriftian: This is it makes him laugh, when he fhould wish for Rivers of Tears, and for a Fountain of Water, to deplore the fadness of his Con