Holy living in which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every virute, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations : together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion occasians [sic], and furnished for all necessities / by Jer. Taylor.

Evil consequents to drunkenness.

* 1.1The evils and sad consequents of drunken∣nesse (the consideration of which are as so many arguments to avoid the sin) are to this sense reckoned by the writers of holy Scri∣pture, and other wise personages of the world. 1. It causeth woes and mischief, wounds and sorrow, sin and shame * 1.2; it maketh bitterness of spirit, brawling and quarrelling, it increaseth rage and lesseneth strength, it maketh red eyes, and a loose and babling tongue. 2. It particularly ministers to lust, and yet disables the body; so that in effect it makes man wanton as a Satyr, and impotent as age: And Solomon in enumera∣ting the evils of this vice adds this to the ac∣count: Thine eyes shall behold strange wo∣men;* 1.3 and thy heart shall utter perverse things: as if the drunkard were only desire, and then impatient, muttering and enjoying like an Eunuch imbracing a woman. 3. It besots and hinders the actions of the understanding, making a man brutish in his passions,* 1.4 and a fool in his reason; and differs nothing from madnesse, but that it is voluntary, and so is an equal evil in nature, and a worse in manners. 4. It takes off all the guards, and lets loose the reins of all those evils to which a man is by his nature, or by his evil customs inclined; and from which he is restrained by reason and severe principles. Drunkennesse calls off the Watch-men from their towers, and then all the evils that can

proceed from a loose heart, and an untied tongue, and a dissolute spirit, and an un∣guarded, unlimited will, all that we may put upon the accounts of drunkenness. 5. It ex∣tinguisheth and quenches the Spirit of God, for no man can be filled with the Spirit of God and with wine at the same time;* 1.5 And therefore aint Paul makes them exclusive of each other.* 1.6 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the Spirit: And since Josephs ••up was put into Ben••amins sack, no man had a divining goblet. 6. It opens all the Sanctuaries of Nature, and dis∣covers the nakednsse of the soul, all its weaknesses and follies; it multiplies sins and discovers them;* 1.7 it makes a man uncapable of being a private friend, or a publick Coun∣s••ller. 7. it taketh a mans soul into slavery and imprisonment more than any vice what∣soever, because it disa••mes a man of all his reason and his wisdom, whereby he might be cared, and therefore commonly grows it upon him with age: a drunkard being still more a fool and lesse a man. I need not adde any sad examples, since all story and all ages have too many of them. Amnon was slaine by hih brother Absalom when he was warm and high with wine. Simon the High Priest and two of his sons were slain by their brother at a drunken feast. Holofernes was drunk when Judith slew him:* 1.8 and all the great things that Daniel spake of Alexander were drow∣ned with a surfeit of one nights intempe∣rance:

and the drunkenness of Noah and Lot are upon record to eternal ages, that in those early instances, and righteous persons, and lesse criminal drunkenness then is that of Christians in this period of the world, God might show that very great evils are prepared to punish this vice; no lesse then shame, and slavery, and incest, the first upon Noah, the second upon one of his sons, and the third in the person of Lot.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Prov 23 29. Ecclu••. ••1, 20.
• * 1.2

  Malta f••∣cium ••••i cua p••st••a fal••ios p••u∣det. Senec.
• * 1.3

  Prov 23.33
• * 1.4

  Insanioe comes est i••a••••ont••le••nelis eb••iuas.PlutarchCo••pus onustumHeste••••is vi••••s animum queque praeg••avatH••••at.Ebrie••as est v••lunta••ia insania.Senec.
• * 1.5

  Ephes. •• 18.
• * 1.6

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉:〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Homer.
• * 1.7

  Prov 31 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ph••iem
• * 1.8

  Alexa∣di•••• in••empera∣tia ••••bendi & ille Herculanus ac fatalis seybus perdedit.