N00124:47
Woe to drunkards. Two sermons testifying against the sin of drunkennessWo to drunkards. Two sermons testifying against the sin of drunkenness
Woe to drunkards. Two sermons testifying against the sin of drunkenness: wherein the woefulness of that evil, and the mystery of all that are addicted to it, is discovered from the word of God. / Preached by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]Wo to drunkards. Two sermons testifying against the sin of drunkenness: wherein the wofulness of that evil, and the mistery of all that are addicted to it, is discovered from the word of God. / Preached by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]
printed by Marmaduke Johnson. 1673., 1673
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.
USE I. If Drunkenness be such an Evil as hath been 1expressed, then the contrary is to be affirmed, concerning that Christian godly Sobriety which the Scripture requireth, even that it is a very necessary and profitable Virtue. There is a Moral Sobriety which is not saving, and yet even that is lovely and commendable: therefore it is said concerning the young man in the Gospel, who having been put in mind of the Commandments by Christ, and told that he should keep them, replied, All these have I observed from my youth, it is said, that then, Jesus beholding him, loved him, Mark 10.20,21. which showeth that Morality is a lovely thing, and well consistent with Christianity. Some among the Heathen have been notable Moralists, such as Cato, Seneca, Aristides, &c. And although we must not say that their Morality saved them, yet it was not altogether unprofitable to them, for God did therefore reward them with many outward blessings, and they did thereby escape many temporal Judgements, which otherwise would have befallen them: And they had more quietness in their own spirits, then otherwise would have been, being freed from those stinging Accusations of Conscience, which more profane sinners, that usually have an Hell in their Consciences, are daily tormented with. Moreover, their punishment in another world will not be so great, as of those that have been of a vicious Conversation; for they shall chiefly be punished at the day of judgement, who have walked after the flesh, 2 Pet.2.10. ⟨p. 16⟩and so have all Drunkards done. But then there is a Christian Sobriety, even that grace of Sobriety, which the Scripture speaketh of, and which differs as much from that Moral Sobriety that some Heathens excelled in, as the Sun painted on the wall cometh short of the real Sun in the Firmament, the one being only a common, the other a special grace of the Spirit. Christian Sobriety doth proceed from such Principles, as no mere Moralist was ever acquainted with, sc. From a Principle of Love to Christ, when a man out of sincere love to Christ, and desire to be like him, doth endeavour to walk even as he walked, that's Christianity, that's an Evidence of the grace of Sobriety. See