The rich Citizens of Samaria were given up to mirth and music, to ⟨p. 76⟩Luxuries and excesses, to riotousness and drunkenness, to feasting and carousing, and by these vanities and debaucheries, they provoked the Lord to command the Chaldeans to fall on, and to spoil them of their riches, and to lay their glorious City in ashes: So 'twas Luxury and Intemperance that provoked the Lord to rain Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah; Luxury turned those rich and populous 1Cities into ruinous heaps. Ah, London! London! the Luxuries and excesses, the riotousness and drunkenness, the mad feasting and carousing that have been within and without thy Walls, that have been within thy great Halls, Taverns, and other great Houses, hath turned thee into ashes, and laid thy glory in the dust. O you burnt Citizens of London! what shameful spewing hath been in some of your Feasts, as if Sardanapolus, Apicius, and Heliogabalus were still alive! How often have many of you poured into your bodies such intoxicating drinks, as hath many times laid you asleep, stripped you of your reason, took away your hearts, robbed you of your selves, and laid a beast in your room? Drunkenness is so base, so vile a sin, that it transforms the Soul, deforms the body, bereaves the brain, betrays the strength, defiles the affections, and metamorphoseth the whole man; yea, it unmans the man Cyrus the Persian 2Monarch, being demanded of his Grandfather Astyages, why he would drink no wine, answered, For fear lest they give me poison; for (saith he) yesterday when you celebrated your Nativity, I judged that some body had poisoned all the wine they drunk, because at the taking away of the Cloth, not one of all those that were present at the Feast, arose in his right mind. Hath it not been thus with many of you? if it hath, lay your hands upon your mouths, and say, the Lord is righteous, though he hath laid your houses in ashes. Anacharses used to say, that the first cup of wine was for thirst, the second for nourishment, the third for mirth, and the fourth for madness; but what would he have said, had he lived within or without the Walls of London these last six years? Ah, London! London! were there none 3within nor without thy Walls, that were strong to drink, ⟨p. 77⟩and that gave their neighbour drink, and that put the bottle to them to make them drunk, that they might look on their nakedness?
The rich Citizens of Samaria were given up to mirth and musick, to ⟨p. 76⟩Luxuries and excesses, to riotousness and drunkenness, to feasting and carousing, and by these vanities and debaucheries, they provoked the Lord to command the Chaldeans to fall on, and to spoil them of their riches, and to lay their glorious City in ashes: So 'twas Luxury and Intemperance that provoked the Lord to rain Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah; Luxury turned those rich and populous 1Cities into ruinous heaps. Ah, London! London! the Luxuries and excesses, the riotousness and drunkenness, the mad feasting and carousing that have been within and without thy Walls, that have been within thy great Halls, Taverns, and other great Houses, hath turned thee into ashes, and laid thy glory in the dust. O you burnt Citizens of London! what shameful spewing hath been in some of your Feasts, as if Sardanapolus, Apicius, and Heliogabalus were still alive! How often have many of you poured into your bodies such intoxicating drinks, as hath many times laid you asleep, stript you of your reason, took away your hearts, robbed you of your selves, and laid a beast in your room? Drunkenness is so base, so vile a sin, that it transforms the Soul, deforms the body, bereaves the brain, betrays the strength, defiles the affections, and metamorphoseth the whole man; yea, it unmans the man Cyrus the Persian 2Monarch, being demanded of his Grandfather Astyages, why he would drink no wine, answered, For fear lest they give me poyson; for (saith he) yesterday when you celebrated your Nativity, I judged that some body had poysoned all the wine they drunk, because at the taking away of the Cloth, not one of all those that were present at the Feast, arose in his right mind. Hath it not been thus with many of you? if it hath, lay your hands upon your mouths, and say, the Lord is righteous, though he hath laid your houses in ashes. Anacharses used to say, that the first cup of wine was for thirst, the second for nourishment, the third for mirth, and the fourth for madness; but what would he have said, had he lived within or without the Walls of London these last six years? Ah, London! London! were there none 3within nor without thy Walls, that were strong to drink, ⟨p. 77⟩and that gave their neighbour drink, and that put the bottle to them to make them drunk, that they might look on their nakedness?
- 1Gen. 18.
- 2Xenophon.
- 3Isa. 5. 22. Hab. 2. 17.
