others in your abilities to drink; your reafon will quickly make you afhamed of that glory; and prove, as well as affert it to be a mark of bafeft infamy.

Do you think, that Lombard was really honoured, or stigmatized, whom Tiberius Caefar dubbed a knight, for drinking off three gallons of wine at one draught, and firnamed him Tricongius, that is to fay, the three gallon knight, which ftory* Pliny, in his Natural Hiftory, relates to the perpetual infamy of them both? Or think you, it added to the glory of Tiberius himself, who knighted this three gallon (not thrice galJant) knight, to have his name changed among the people, from Tiberius into Biberius; as afterward they did the name of that monster Nero, into Mero?

Gentlemen, I appeal to your own reason, if the vaft continent you have within you for wine and ftrong drink, be really your honour; whether the butt or hogthead, whence you have it, be not, for the fame reason, much more honourable than you? Your reason will plainly give the conclufion.

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But, oh! confider not only what reafon faith, but what God, the fountain of that reason, faith in Isa. v. 22. “Wo to "them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of ftrength to "mingle ftrong drink." Methinks it fhould make you fit in as little eafe upon the tavern, or ale-house bench, as that courtparafite fat at a rich banquet furnished with variety of dainties, and all forts of generous wine; over whofe head, Dionyfius caused an heavy sword to be hanged, with the point downward, by a single hair every moment ready to drop perpendicularly upon it.

Excufe II. As for those that throw themselves into these exceffes, on purpose to delude thofe anxious cares and thoughts, which cruciate and opprefs them, whenever they are sober and folitary: I fhall only propound three plain queftions to the fmall remainders of reafon in them, which yet I prefume fufficient to determine rightly upon them.

Queft. 1. Whether they think that which greatly increaseth want and poverty, be a rational cure and proper remedy of it? And whether a jar of oil be not as fit to quench a flame, as tavern and ale-house scores and reckonings are to buoy up a finking trade, and keep bailiffs from mens doors? Certainly none but a fottifh fool can think it to be otherwife. Your own improvidence, or God's afflictive providence, have brought you into other mens books; and certainly you cannot think, if you

Plin, Nat. Hift, l. 14. c. 22.

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in your wits, that chamberlains bills for fo many bottles of wine, and flaggons of beer, will be accepted by your creditors for good bills, to quit your fcores with them. Were you fober, frugal, and industrious, you would put yourselves thereby into a better way to obtain a bleffing from God, and refpects and forbearance from men, than in the courfe you now take.

Queft. 2. Nor can you, without manifeft impudence, propound fuch a queftion as this to your own reafon, whether the addition of injuftice to profanenefs, be a rational plea or excufe for it? And is not that the very cafe here? Whose money is that you fo lavishly and prodigally wafte, out of your confuming estates? It is either your creditors, or the small remains of your own. Whether the one or the other, methinks that wine and drink fhould not go down very pleafantly, which must be mingled with manifeft injuftice, or with the_tears, and (in a fenfe) the blood of your wives and children. If your reafons can allow these things for lawful excufes, then you are excufed, elfe felf-condemned.

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Queft. 3. I fhall trouble your reafon with the decifion but of one queftion more, and it is briefly and plainly this :

Whether the addition of far greater troubles, or caufes of troubles to the inner man, be a proper expedient to alleviate and ease the loads and burdens of your outward troubles alrea-` dy grown almoft too heavy for you to bear.

I dare venture all that I am worth, upon found reafon's fide, that it will never allow, or comprobate fuch an abfurdity, as the affirmative part of this question draws along with it.

Believe it, firs, all the outward neceffities, cares and fears, which now opprefs you upon the fcore of worldly affairs, (which frame not to your minds) are much more tolerable, and comparatively light and eafy, to the ftings, wounds, and lathes of a guilty confcience: But when all these inward trou bles fhall be fuperadded to your outward troubles, they will, in conjunction, make a burden too heavy for man to bear.

Whatever cares or troubles providence involves any good man in, in the honeft and painful purfuit of his civil calling, he may in a great meafure relieve his burdened fpirit under them, by the comfortable teftimony of his own confcience, and his free addreffes to God in prayer. These will sweetly fupport him under his other entanglements and perplexities in the world. But the courfe you, take, does not only ftrike away these props from under your minds; but doubles and

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Trebles the burden upon them. Were men but once acquaint ed with that relief and chearinefs of spirit, which a good con fcience, and a fpiritual address to God in prayer, afford in the midst of troubles, they would run to their clofets, rather than to taverns and ale-houses, to divert and cure their troubles. I leave it therefore before your own reason to confider, what weight or validity there is in this fecond excufe for drunken, nefs.

Excufe III. Others plead they are drawn into this fin by pleasure and delight, whofe charms are too ftrong for them to refift.

In this, as in all the former, I refolve to make you your own judges. Give me leave but to ftate the questions right, and let your own reafon freely determine them. And what fairer dealing can men that exercise reason expect? And let the first question be this:

Quest. 1. Whether the pleasures of temperance do not far excel thofe of intemperance? If they do, then this your plea is vain and irrational: For you foolishly chufe a leffer pleafure, and refufe a greater and sweeter one. And that And that you do fo in this cafe, no wife man can deny or doubt.

For temperate drinking refreshes the body, and no way burdens it, as exceffive drinking doth: And that which bur dens nature, can never be equally pleasant with that, which yields nothing but due refreshment. Temperance doth not vitiate, but raifeth the pure and ordinate appetite of nature to its just pitch and height; in which temper, and at which height, it is most capable of the sweetest pleasure from the crea ture. As the ftrings of a lute give us the sweetest and most delicious notes, when they are not let down too low, but are all fixed at their due height,

Temperance gives us the moft pleafing enjoyment of the good things of this life, ftill leaving the mind free, and fit for the more fpiritual and sweet enjoyments of a better and more excellent life; which excess never did nor can do.

Moreover, temperance maintains the manly grace and majefty of the countenance, but excess totally disguises it. It draws the lines of drunkards faces into a form much like those ridi culous Dutch pictures, which fome fet upon their chimneypieces, to move laughter in those that behold thein.

Now, by the vote of univerfal reason, that pleasure which refretheth the body, but no way burdens it, which raifes the ordinate and unvitiated appetites of nature, to its juft pitch and due height, which gives nature the sweetest refreshment,

leaving it always fitter and freer for higher and better pleasures, which maintains the manly grace and majefty of the counte nance, and makes not a wife man look like a fool or an antic, muft needs be better than the lower and flatter pleasures of a burdened body, and vitiated palate, which draw after them fo great a train of present mifchiefs (which temperance avoids), befides far heavier, and more durable ones in the life to come,

Quest. 2. But if the prefent pleafures of temperance were in some respect inferior to those of excefs, (which I have proved they neither are, nor can be); I demand, in the second place, whether the loss of your honour and health, your time and estate, your prefent peace and future hopes, do not make fuch fenfitive pleasures bafe and inferior, compared with those of temperance and fobriety? Do you, in good earnest, think a glass or two above what satisfies and refreshes nature, can recompence for all that fhame, ficknefs, poverty, and guilt that follows it? If you think fo, fin bath turned you into brutes, and made you utterly uncapable of all arguments and manly confiderations, to reduce and recover you.

Excufe IV. You fay, you would not haunt taverns and alehouses as you do, but that you are drawn in by company and bufinefs, which you cannot well refift or avoid, and fhould you do fo, it would be to your lofs; and besides that, you should be branded for fanatics.

I deny not, but there is a fnare in vain company; yet give me leave to propound a few plain and eafy queftions to your reafon.

Quest. 1. Why muft the importunity of good fellows (as you call them) be an irrefiftible temptation to you, and deprive you of all power to deny them, whilft you difcern the fnares and mischiefs they draw you into? This seems to be a thing unaccountable to reafon. Suppofe you were allowed to spend the longest fummer's day in the highest gratifications of all your fenfes together, or fucceffively one after another, upon condition that you would endure the torments of the rack till that day twelvemonth came about again; do you think the importunity of all your intimates in the world, would prevail with you to accept the pleasures of a day under fuch a condition as this? And yet what are the torments of a year upon the rack, to the torments of hell for ever and ever? Or to come lower: Suppofe one of those lewd companions not worth a groat, if every man had his own, fhould request you to lend him an hundred pound upon his own fecurity, could you find

no power (think you) to deny him, especially if the lofs of that hundred pound would certainly ruin you? If you would deny him (as I doubt not but in such a cafe you would) tell me then, why you should not find power to deny him, when he asks a far greater matter than an hundred pound, even the peace, purity, and fafety of your fouls, as well as the health of your bodies, and honour of your names? Why then fhould you be fo easy and flexible when they ask the latter, and so stiff and unperfuadable to the former ?

Quest. 2. You fay, you have business, and concerns in trade, to dispatch in fuch places and companies, and this draws you into the fnares of excefs. I will not deny but men may lawfully tranfact their business in such places, and there may be a conveniency, and fometimes a neceflity for it: But that is not the cafe. The question referred to the determination of your reason, is this, Why drunkenness muft accompany business? And whether a man be not more fit to tranfact his business, and drive bargains of the greatest value, whilft his body, and mind are cool, fober, and temperate, than when his reafon is beclouded and depofed by drunkenness? How many men have undone themselves, their wives and children, by drunken bargains?

Befides, I must tell you, that in all such drunken meetings, the devil comes to drive his bargain with you, as well as your other customers. He bids for your fouls, and offers you fuch pleafures as you there find in exchange for them, and is content to make your dying day the time of your delivering them into his poffeffion. How do you like fuch trading as this, gentlemen?

Quest. 3. You fay, fhould you refufe to accompany them, and do as they do, you should be branded for fanatics. I would fain know, whether fuch a plea for drunkenness as this, doth not justly caft the greateft reproach of fanaticism upon yourselves, and fet a mark of true honour upon those men whom the world unjustly ftigmatizes with that title? Gentlemen, I do affure you, the fanatics (as you call them) have reafon to thank you for the honour and juftice you have done them, in acknowledging them to be none of the members of your hellish fociety, but perfons of a more fober and honourable character. And I appeal to your reason, whether it would not be more for your honour, to wear the unjust title of a fanatic, than the just censure of a drunken fot.

Excufe V. You fay, you are obliged in point of loyalty