A20760:212
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common…Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common…
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common sins; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, and bribery. Wherein the greatness and odiousness of these vices is discovered; and the means and remedies, which may either preserve, or wean men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By John Downame Bachelor in Divinity, and preacher of Gods word.Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common sinnes; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkennesse, whoredome, and briberie. Wherein the greatnes and odiousnesse of these vices is discouered; and the meanes and remedies, which may either preserue, or weane men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By Iohn Dovvname Batcheler in Diuinitie, and preacher of Gods word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for William Welby, 1609
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
returned this answer full of witty simplicity; Because (said he) I took it to be poison: for at the last feast I observed that those who drunk of it, were soon after deprived of their understanding and senses. Whereby appeareth the odiousness of this sin: for if it be a hateful thing for a man to wound his ⟨p. 96⟩own flesh, and wilfully to maim the members of his body; how abominable is it to wound the mind it self, and to offer violence against our reason and understanding? If it be a crime to offer violence against the subjects, then surely to lay violent hands upon the King himself, and to pull him out of his regal throne, must needs be condemned as outrageous wickedness.
returned this answere full of wittie simplicitie; Because (said he) I tooke it to bee poison: for at the last feast I obserued that those who drunke of it, were soone after depriued of their vnderstanding and senses. Whereby appeareth the odiousnesse of this sinne: for if it bee a hatefull thing for a man to wound his ⟨p. 96⟩owne flesh, and wilfully to maime the members of his bodie; how abominable is it to wound the minde it selfe, and to offer violence against our reason and vnderstanding? If it be a crime to offer violence against the subiects, then surely to lay violent hands vpon the King himselfe, and to pull him out of his regall throne, must needes be condemned as outragious wickednesse.
And thus the drunkard sinneth against his own soul.1 Neither is he a better friend or less injurious to his body: for first he deformeth it and defaceth that goodly feature, in which it was created; according to that, Vino forma perit, vino corrumpitur aetas: By wine beauty perisheth, and the vigour of age is disabled. Neither is there almost any part of the body which is not disordered and deformed with this vice of drunkenness; their eyes become red, their face is inflamed, their breath noisome, their speech stammering, their bodies staggering, their gestures apish, and all their actions foolish. And hence it was that the Lacedaemonians used to show unto their children their Helots and slaves in the time of their drunkenness, thinking that their ugly deformity both in body and mind would be an effectual argument to make them loth this vice, which even at the first view showed so odious.