A sovereign antidote, or, A precious mithridate for recovery of souls twice dead in sin, and buried in the grave of long custome, to the life of grace. With hopeful means (God blessing the same) to prevent that three-fold (and worse than Ægyptian) plague of the heart; drunkenness, swearing, and profaneness. Wherein is a sweet composition of severity and mercy: of indignation against sin, of compassion and commiseration to the sinner; with such Christian moderation, as may argue zeal without malice; and a desire to win souls, no will to gall them. By R. Younge of Roxwell in Essex.

The Blemish of Government, the Shame of Religion, the Dis∣grace of Mankind; or a Charge drawn up against Drunkards, and presented to his Majesty, in the name of all the sober Party in the three Nations. Humbly craving, that they may be kept alone by themselves from in∣fecting others; compelled to work and earn what they consume: And that none may be suffered to sell Drink, who shall either Swear, or be Drunk them∣selves, or suffer Others within their Wals.

1. BRANCH of the Charge.

THat as the Basilisk is chief of Serpents: so of sinners, the Drunkard is chief. That Drunkenness is of sins the Queen: as the Gowt is of diseases: even the root of all evil, the rot of all good. A sin which turns a man wholly into sin. That all sins, all beast-like, all ser∣pentine qualities meet in a Drunkard, as rivers in the sea: and that it were far better to be a Toad, or a Serpent, then a Drunkard. That the Drunkard is like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness. That he wholly dedicates, re∣signs, surrenders, and gives himself up to serve sin and Satan. That his only employment is to drink, drab, quarrel, swear, curse, scoff, slander and seduce: as if to sin were his Trade, and he could do nothing else; like the Devil, who was a sinner from the beginning, a sinner to the end. That these sons of Belial, are all for the belly: for to drink God out of their hearts, health out of their bodies, wit out of their heads, strength out of their joynts, all the money out of their purses, all the drink out of the Brewers barrels, wife and children out of doors, the house out at windows, the Land out of quiet, plenty out of the Nation, is all their business. In vvhich their swinish swilling, they resemble so many frogs in a puddle, or water-snakes in a pond: for their vvhole exercise, yea, Religion, is to drink; they even drown themselves on the dry land. That they drink more spirits in one night, then their flesh and brains be worth. That more is thrown out of one swines nose, and mouth, and guts, then vvould maintain five sufficient families.

2. Br. That it is not to be imagined, vvhat all the Drunkards in one Shire or County do devour, and vvorse then throvv away in one year: vvhen it hath been knovvn (if vve may give credit to Authours, and the Oaths of others) that two and thirty in one cluster have made themselves drunk; that six and thirty have drank themselves dead in the place, vvith carovvsing of healths; that at one Supper, one and forty have killed themselves, vvith striving for the conquest: that two have drank each of them a peck at a draught: that four men have drank four gallons of vvine at a sitting: that one man hath drank two gallons of vvine; and two more, three gallons of vvine a piece at a time: that one Drunkard in a fevv hours, drank four gallons of vvine: that four ancient men drank as many cups of vvine at one sitting, as they had lived years, vvhich vvas in all three hundred cups of vvine amongst four men: and lastly, that three women came into a Tavern in Fleet-street (vvhen I vvas a boy, take it upon Claptons Oath and credit, vvho drevv the Wine) and drank forty nine quarts of Sack; tvvo of them sixteen a piece, & the third to get the victo∣ry, seventeen quarts of Sack. Which being so, vvhat may the many millions of

these ding-thrifty dearth-makers consume in a year in all the three Nations? It is much to be feared, that as we turn the sanctuary of life into the shambles of death: so God may send a famine after such a satiety, and pestilence after famine. Or rather, that our Land, which hath been so long sick of this disease, and so often surfeted of this sin, should spue us all out who are the Inhabitants.

Nor need it seem incredible, that common drunkards should drink thus: for they can disgorge themselves at pleasure, by only putting their finger to their throat; and they will vomit, as if they were so many live Whales spuing up the Ocean: which done, they can drink a fresh.

Or if not so, yet custome hath made it to pass through them, as through a tunnel, or streiner; whereby it comes out again as sheer wine as it went in, as hath been observed.

Nor hath the richest Sherry or old Canary any more operation with them, than a cup of six hath with me. And no marvel! for, if Physick be taken too oft, it will not work like Physick: but nature entertains it as a friend, not as a Physician. Yea, poyson by a familiar use becomes natural food. As Aristotle (in an example of a Maid, who used to pick spiders off the walls and eat them,) makes plain.

3. Br. That as Drunkards have lost the prerogative of their Creation, and are changed (with Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 4.16.) from men into beasts, so they turn the sanctuary of life into the shambles of death: yea, thousands (when they have made up the measure of their wickedness) are taken away in Gods just wrath in their drink; (as it were with the weapo•• in their bellies) it fa∣ring with them as it did with that Pope, whom the Devil is said to have slain in the very instant of his Adultery, and carry him quick to hell, being sudden∣ly struck with death, as if the execution were no less intended to the soul, than to the body.

That by the Law of God in both Testaments; He that will not labour, should not eat, Gen. 3.19. Pro. 20.4. 2 Thes. 3.10. because he robs the Common-wealth of that which is altogether as profitable as land, or treasure. But Drunkards are not only lazie get-nothings, but they are also riotous spend-alls; and yet these drunken drones, these gut-mongers, these Quagmirists, like vagrants and vermine, do nothing all their life-long that may tend to any good, as is storied of Margites, and yet devour more of the fat of the Land, than would plenti∣fully maintain those millions of poor in the Nation that are ready to fami••h. A thing not fit to be suffered in any Christian Commo••-wealth: yea, far sitter they were stoned to death, as by the Law of God they ought, Deut. 21.20, 21. since this might bring them to repentance; whereas now they spend their days in mirth, and suddenly they go down into hell, Job 21.13. Drunkards being those swine whom the legion carries headlong into the Sea, or pit of perdition.

4. Br. That every hour seems a day, and every day a month to a drunkard, that is not spent in a Tap-house; yea, they seem to have nailed their ears to the door of some Tavern or Tap-house, and to have agreed with Satan, Master, it is good being here. That where ever the Drunkards house is, his dwelling is at the Ale-house, except all his money be spent, and then if his wife will fetch him home with a lanthorn, and his men with a barrow, he comes vvith as much sence as Michals image had.

That the pot is no sooner from their lips, but they are melancholy, and their hearts as heavy, as if a milstone lay upon it. Or rather they are vexed like Saul, with an evil spirit, which nothing will drive away but drink and Tobacco. They so wound their consciences with all kind of prodigious wickedness, and so exceedingly provoke God, that they are rackt in conscience, and tortured with the very flashes of bell-fire. That they drink to the end only, that they may forget God, his threats & judgments; that they may drown conscience, and put off all thoughts of death and hell; and to hearten and harden themselves against all the messages of God, and threats of the Law: which is no other in mitigating the pangs of conscience, than as a saddle of gold to a galled-horse, or a draught of poison to quench a mans thirst. That if they might have their wills, none should refuse to be drunk unpunished, or be drunk unrewarded at the common charge. As how will they boast what they drank, and how many they conquered at such a meeting, making it their only glory. That the ut∣most of a Drunkards honesty is good-fellowship: that temperance and sobriety with them is nothing but humour and singularity; and that they drink not for strength or need, but for lust and pride; to shew how full of Satan they are, and how near to swine.

That though these swinish swill-bowls make their gullet their god, and sa∣crifice more to their god-belly, than those Babylo••ians did to their god Bel, Bel and the Drago••, v. 3. yet they will say, yea swear, that they drink not for love of drink; though they love it above health, wealth, credit, child, wife, life, hea∣ven, salvation, All. They no more care for wine, than Esau did for his pottage, for which he sold his birthright, Isa. 56.12.

5. Br. That Drunkards are the Devils capti••es, at his command, and ready to do his will; and that he rules over, and works in them his pleasure, 2 Tim. 2.26. Eph. 2.2. that he enters into them, and puts it into their hearts what he will have them to do, Joh. 13.2. Acts 5.3. 1 Chron. 21.1. opens their mouths, speaks in and by them, Gen. 3.1, to 6. stretcheth out their hands, and they act as he will have them, Act. 12.1, 2. Rev. 1.10. he being their father, Gen. 3.15. Joh. 8.44. their king, Joh. 12.31. & 14.30. and their god, 2 Cor. 4.4. Eph. 2.2. And which is worst of all, that drunkenness not only dulls and dams up the head and spirits with mud, but it beastiates the heart, and (being worse than the sting of an Asp) poysoneth the very soul and reason of a man, whereby the faculties and organs of repentance and resolution are so corrupted and capti∣vated, that it makes men utterly uncapable of returning, unless God should work a greater miracle upon them, than was the creating of the whole world. Whence Austin compares it to the very pit of hell, out of which (when a man is once fallen into) there is no hope of redemption.

That Drunkenness is like some desperate plague, which knows no cure. As what saies Basil, Shall we speak to drunkards? we had as good speak to liveless stones, or senceless plants, or witless beasts, as to them; for they no more believe the threats of Gods Word, than if some Impostor had spoken them. They will fear nothing, till they be in hell-fire; resembling the Sodomites, who would take no warning, though they were all struck blind; but persisted in their course, untill they felt fire and brimstone about their ears, Gen. 19.11.

That there is no Washing these Black-moors white, no charming of these deaf

Adders; blind men never blush; fools are never troubled in conscience, nei∣ther are beasts ever ashamed of their deeds.

That a man shall never hear of an habituated, infatuated, incorrigible, cau∣terized Drunkard, that is reclaimed with age.

6. Br. That as at first, and before custom in sin hath hardened these Drunk∣ards, they suffer themselves to be transformed from men into swine; as Elpe∣nor was transformed by Circes into a hog; so by degrees they are of swine transformed again into Devils, as Cadmus and his wife were into serpents, as palpably appears by their tempting to sin, and drawing to perdition.

That these Age its for the Devil, Drunkards, practise nothing but the Art of d••baunching men; that to turn others into beasts, they will make themselves devils, wherein they have a notable dexterity, as it is admirable how they will wind men in, and draw men on by drinking first a health to such a man, then to such a woman my mistress, then to every ones mistress; then to some Lord or Lady; their Master, their Magistrate, their Captain, Commander, &c. and never cease, until their brains, their wits, their tongues, their eyes, their feet, their sense, and all their members fa••l them: that they will drink until they vomit up their shame again, like a filthy dog, or lie wallowing in their beastli∣ness like a bru••ish swine. That they think nothing too much either to do or spend, that they may make a sober man a drunkard, or to drink another drunkard under the table; which is to brag how far they are become the Devils chil∣dren: that in case they can make a sober and religious man exceed his bounds, they will sing and rejoyce, as in the division of a spoil; and boast that they have d••eached sobriety, and blinded the light; and ever after be a snuffing of this tape••, Psal. 13.4. But what a barbarous, graceless, and unchristian-like practice is this, to make it their glory, pastime, and delight, to see God dishonour∣ed, his Spirit grieved, his Name blasphemed, his creatures abused, themselves and their friends souls damned. Doubtless such men have climbed the highest step of the ladder of wickedness; as thinking their own sins will not press them deep enough into hell, except they load themselves with other mens; which is Devil-like indeed! whose aim it hath ever been, seeing he must of necessity be wretched, not to be wretched alone.

That as they make these healths serve as a pulley, or shooing-horn to draw men on to drink more, then else they would or should do: so a health being once begun, they will be sure that every one present shall pledge the same, in the same manner and measure, be they thirsty, or not thirsty, willing, or not wil∣ling, able, or unable: be it against their stomacks, healths, natures, judgments, hearts and consciences, which do utterly abhor, and secretly condemn the same. That in case a man will not for company grievously sin against God, wrong his own body, destroy his soul, and wilfully leap into hell-fire with them; they will hate him worse then the hang-man; and will sooner adventure their blood in the field, upon refusing or crossing their healths, then in the cause and quarrel of their Countrey.

7. Br. How they are so pernicious, that to damn their own souls, is the least part of their mischief; and that they draw vengeance upon thousands, by sedu∣cing some, and giving ill example to others. That one Drunkard makes a multi∣tude, being like the bramble, Judg. 9.15. which first set it self on fire, and then

fired all the Wood. Or like a malicious man sick of the plague, that runs into the throng to disperse his infection: whose mischief out-weighs all penalty. And this shews, that they not only partake of the Devils nature, but that they are very Devils in the likeness of men: and that the very wickedness of one that feareth God, is far better than the good intreaty of a Drunkard.

That with sweet words they will tole men on to destruction, as we tole beasts with fodder to the slaughter-house: And that to take away all suspicion, they will so mollifie the stiffness of a mans prejudice, so temper and fit him to their own mold, that once to suspect them, requires the spirit of discerning. And that withal, they so confirm the profession of their love with oaths, protesta∣tions, and promises, that you would think, Jonathans love to David nothing to it. That these pernicious seducers, devils in the shape of men, have learned to handle a man so sweetly, that one would think it a pleasure to be seduced.

But little do they think, how they advance their own damnations, when the bloud of so many souls, as they have drawn away, will be required at their hands! For know this thou tempter, that thou dost not more increase other mens wickedness on earth, (whether by perswasion, or pro••ocation, or example) than their wickedness shall increase thy damnation in hell, Luke 16.27, 28. Non fratres dilexit, sed seipsum respexit. And this let me say to the horrour of their consciences, that make merchandize of souls; that it is a question when such an one comes to hell, whether Judas himself would change torments with him.

8. Br. That the Drunkard is so pleasing a murtherer, that he tickles a man to death, and makes him (like Solomons fool) die laughing. Whence it is, that many who hate their other enemies (yea, and their friends too) embrace this enemy, because he kisseth when he betrayeth. And indeed, what fence for a pistol charged with the bullet of friendship? Hence it is also, that thousands have confest at the Gallows, I had never come to this, but for such and such a Drun∣kard. For commonly the Drunkards progress is, from luxury to beggery, from beg∣gery to thievery, from the Tavern to Tyburn, from the Ale-house to the Gallows. Briefly, That these Bawds and Panders of vice breathe nothing but infection, and study nothing but their own, and other mens destruction. That the Drun∣kard is like Julian, who never did a man a good turn, but it was to damn his soul. That his proffers are like the Fowlers shrap, when he casts meat to birds, which is not out of pity to relieve, but out of treachery to ens••are them. Or like traps we set for vermine, seeming charitable, when they intend to kill, Jer. 5.26. And thou mayest answer these cursed tempters, who delight in the murther of souls, as the woman of Endor did Saul, 1 Sam. 28. Wherefore seekest thou to take me in a snare, to cause me to die? ver. 9.

That he is another Absalom, who made a feast for Amnon, whom he meant to kill. And there is no subtilty like that which deceives a man, and hath thanks for the labour. For as our Saviour saith, Blessed is the man that is not offended at their scoffs, Mat. 11.6. So blessed is the man that is not taken with their wiles. For herein alone consists the difference, He whom the Lord loves, shall be delivered from their meretricious allurements, Eccles. 7.26. And he whom the Lord abhors, shall fall into their snares, Pro. 22.14.

9. Br. That Taverns and Tap-houses are the drinking-schools where they

learn this their skill, and are trained up in this trade of tempting. For Satan does not work them to this heighth of impiety all at once, but by degrees: When custom of sin hath deaded all remorse for sin; as it is admirable how the soul that takes delight in lewdness, is gained upon by custom. They grow up in sin, as worldlings grow in wealth and honour. They wax worse and worse, saies the Apostle, 2 Tim. 3.13. they go first over shoes, then over boots, then over shoulders; and at length over head and ears in sin, as some do in debt. Now these Tap-houses are their meeting places, where they hear the Devils le∣ctures read; the shops and markets where Satan drives his trade; the schools where they take their degrees: these are the Guild-hals where all sorts of sin∣ners gather together, as the humours do in the stomach before an Ague sit; and where is projected all the wickedness that breaks forth in the Nation, as our reverend Judges do find in their several Circuits.

That these Taverns and Ale-houses (or rather hell-houses) are the fountains and well-heads from whence spring all our miseries and mischiefs: these are the Nurs••ries of all riot, excess and idleness, making our Land another Sodom, and furnishing yearly our Jayls and Gallowses. Here they sit all day in troops, doing that in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 which we have seen boys do in sport; stand on their head, and shake their heels against heaven; where, even to hear how the Name of the Lord Jesus is pierced, and God's Name blasphemed, would make a dumb man speak, a dead man almost to quake.

10. Br. That it were endless to repeat their vain babling, scurrilous jesting, wicked talking, impious swearing and cursing: that when the drink hath once bit them, and set their tongues at liberty, their hearts come up as easily as some of their drink; yea, their limitless tongues do then clatter like so many win∣dows loose in the wind, and you may as soon perswade a stone to speak, as them to be silent: it faring with their clappers as with a sick mans pulse, which al∣ways beats, but ever out of order. That one Drunkard hath tongue enough for twenty men; for let but three of them be in a room, they will make a noise, as if all the thirty Bels in Antwerp steeple were rung at once: or do but pass by the door, you would think your self in the Land of Parrats. That it is the pro∣perty of a drunkard to disgorge his bosom with his stomack, to empty his mind with his maw: His tongue resembles Bacchus his Liber pater, and goes like the sayl of a Wind-mill: For as a great gale of wind whirleth the sayls about, so abundance of drink whirleth his tongue about, and keeps it in continual motion. Now he rayls, now he scoffs, now he lies, now he slanders, now he seduces; talks bawdy, swears, bans, foams, and cannot be quiet, till his tongue be wormed. So that from the beginning to the end, he belcheth forth no∣thing, but what is as far from truth, piety, reason, modesty; as that the Moon came down from heaven to visit Mahomet: As oh! the beastliness which burns in their unchaste and impure minds, that smoaks out at their polluted mouths! A man would think, that even the Devil himself should blush, to hear his child so talk. How doth his mouth run over with falshoods against both Ma∣gistrates, Ministers, and Christians: what speaks he less then whoredoms, adul∣teries, incests at every word; yea, hear two or three of them talk, you would change the Lycaotians language, and say. Devils are come up in the likeness of Men.

11. Br. That at these places men learn to contemn Authority, as Boyes grown tall and stubborn, contemn the rod; here it is that they utter swelling and proud words against such as are in dignity, as St. Peter, and St. Jude have it. They set their mouths against Heaven, and their tongues walk through the Earth, Psalm 73.9. So that many a good Minister and Christian may say vvith holy David, I became a song of the drunkards, Psal. 69.12. And in case any of them have wit, here they vvill shew it in scoffing at Religion, and flou∣ting at holiness. From whence it is that we have so many Atheists, and so few Christians amongst us (notwithstanding our so much means of grace) and that the Magistracy and Ministry are so wofully contemned by all sorts of people.

That these tippling Tap-houses are the common Quagmires of all filthiness, where too many drawing their patrimonies through their throats, exhaus•• and lavish out their substance, and lay plots and devices how to get more. For hence they fall, either to open courses of violence, or secret mischief, till at last the Jayl prepares them for the Gibbet; for likely they sing through a Red Lattice, before they cry through a Grate.

12. Br. I speak not of all, I know the calling to be good, and that there are good of that calling; (and these will thank me, because vvhat I have said, makes for their honour and profit too:) but sure I am too many of these drinking houses are the very dens and shops, yea, the thrones of Satan; very sinks of sin, which like so many Common-shores, refuse not to welcome and incourage any, in the most loathsome polutions they are able to invent, and put in pra∣ctice: as did you but hear, and see, and smell, and know what is done in these Taverns and Ale-houses, you would wonder that the earth should bear the houses, or the Sun endure to look upon them. That lest they should not in all this, do homage enough to Satan, they not seldom drink their healths upon their knees, as the Heathen-witches and Sorcerers (of whom these have learn∣ed it) used to do, when they offered drink-offerings to Beelzeoub the Prince of Devils, and other their Devil-gods.

That these godless Ale-drapers, and other sellers of drink, in entertaining into their houses, and complying with those Traytors against God, and in suf∣fering so much impiety to rest within their walls, do make themselves guilty of all, by suffering the same, and that a fearful curse hangs over their heads, so long as they remain such. For if one sin of theft, or perjury, is enough to rot the rafters, to grinde the stones, to level the walls and roof of any house vvith the ground; as it is Zech. 5.4. What are the oaths, the lies, the thefts, the whoredoms, the murthers, the damnable drunkenness, the numberless, and name∣less abominations that are committed there. For these Ale-house-keepers are accessary to the drunkards sin, and have a fearful account to give for their tolerating such, since they might, and ought to redress it: so that their gain is most unjust, and all they have is by the sins of the people; as Diogenes said of the st••umpe•• P••rine.

13. Br. That of all seducing drunkards, these drink-sellers are the chief: their ••hole life being nought else but a vicissitude of devouring and venting, and their whole study, how to tole in customers, and then egg them on to drink: For as if drinking and tempting were their trade; they are alwayes guzling within doors, or else tempting at the door, where they spend their vacant hours,

watching for a companion, as a spider would watch for a poor fly; or as the whorish woman in the Proverbs, laid wait for the young novice, until with her great craft, and flattering lips, she had caused him to yeeld, Prov. 7.6, to 24. Though when he sees a Drunkard, if he but hold up his finger, the other fol∣lows him into his Borough, just like a fool to the stocks, and as an Ox to the slaughter-house, having no power to withstand the temptation. So in he goes, and there continues as one bewitch'd, or conjur'd with a spell; out of which he returns not, until he hath emptied his purse of money, and his head of rea∣son: while, in the mean time, his poor wife, children and servants want bread.

That did Sellers of drink aim at the glory of God, and good of others, as they ought, 1 Cor. 10.31. there would not be an hundredth part of the drunkards, beggars, brawls, and famished-families there are: whereas now thousands do in sheer drink, spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs. As be they poor labouring men, that must dearly earn it before they have it, these Ale-house-keepers, these vice-breeders, these so••l-murtherers, will make them drink away as much in a day, as they can get in a week; spend twelve pence, sooner then earn two-pence, as St. Ambrose observes.

That thousands of these Labouring men may be found in the very Suburbs of this City, that drink the very blood of their wives and children, who are near famished, to satisfie the Drunkards throat, or gut, wherein they are worse then Infidel••, or Cannibals, 1 Tim. 5.8. who again are justly met withall: For as if God would pay them in their own coyn, how often shall you see vermine suck∣ing the Drunkards blood, as fast as he the others.

14. Br. That these Drunkards and Al••-drapers are always laying their heads together, plotting and consulting how to charm and tame their poor wives, (for the Drunkard and his wife agree like the harp and the harrow) which if maids did but hear, they would rather make choice of an Ape-carrier, or a Jakes-farmers servant, than of one that will be drawn to the Ale-house. For let them take this for a Rule, He that is a tame devil abroad, will be a roaring devil at home; and he that hath begun to be a Drunkard, will ever be a Drun∣kard. True, they will promise a maid fair, and bind themselves by an hundred oaths and pro••••stations; and she (when love hath blinded and besotted her) will believe them; yea, promise her self the victory, not doubting but she shall reclaim him from his evil company; but not one of a thousand, scarce one of ten thousand that ever finds it so, but the contrary. For let Drunkards promise, yea, and purpose what they will; Experience shews, that they mend as sowre Ale does in Summer; or as a dead hedg, which the longer it stands is the rottener. And how should it be other, when they cannot go the length of a street, but they must pass by perhaps an hundred Ale-houses, where they shall be called in. And all the while they are in the drinking-school, they are bound by their law of good fellowship to be pouring in at their mouths, or whiff∣ing out at their noses: one serving as a shooing-horn to the other; which makes them like rats-ban'd Rats, drink and vent, vent and drink, S••llengers round, and the same again. Oh that a maids fore-wit were but so good as her after-wi••! then the Drunkard should never have wife more to make a slave of, nor wives such cause to curse Ale-house-keepers, as now they have. And indeed, if I may speak my thoughts, or what reason propounds to me, Drun∣kards

are such children and fools (to what Governours of families ought to be) that a rod is fitter for them than a wife. But of this by the way only, that maids may not so miserably cast away themselves; for they had better be bu∣ried alive, than so married, as most poor mens wives can inform them.

15. Br. That to speak to these Demetriuses, that get their wealth by drinking; yea, by helping to consume their drink, and that live only by sin, and the sins of the people, were to speed as Paul did at Ephesus, after some one of them had told the rest of their occupation. Yea, to expect amendment from such, in a manner were to expect amendment from a Witch, who hath already given her soul to the devil. That to what hath been spoken of Drunkards and Drink∣sellers in the particular cases of drinking and tempting, might be added seventy times seven more of the like abominations. For the Drunkard is like some pu∣trid grave, the deeper you dig, the fuller you shall find him both of stench and horror: Or like Hercules's monster, wherein were fresh heads still arising one after the cutting off of another. But there needs no more then this taste, to make any wise man (or any that love their own souls) to detest and beware these Bawds and panders of vice, that breathe nothing but infection, and study nothing but their own, and other mens destruction. These Brokers of villany, whose very acquaintance is destruction: As how can they be other then dan∣gerously infectious, and desperately wicked, whose very mercies are cruelty?

16. Br. That I have unmasked their faces, is to infa••uate their purpose: that I have inveighed and declaimed against Drunkenness, is to keep men sober; For vices true picture, makes us vice detest.

O that I had Dehortation answerable to my detestation of it! Only here is a discovery how Drunkards tempt; if you will see directions how to avoid their temptations, read my Sovereign Antidote against the contagion of evil company. Only take notice for the present, that the best way to avoid evil, is to shun the occasions: Do not only shun Drunkenness, but the means to come to it; and to avoid hurt, keep thy self out of shot; come not in drunken company, nor to drink∣ing places: As for their love and friendship, consider but whose Factors they are, and thou wilt surely hate them. Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.

That (by the blessing of God) our children, and childrens children may loath drunkenness, and love sobriety; let this be fixed to some place conveni∣ent in every house, for all to read. The Persians, Parthians, Spartans, and Lacedemonians did the like, and found it exceeding efficacious: And Ana∣charsis holds it the most effectual means to that end.