N01322:24
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 misery of all that are addicted to it, is discovered from the word of God. / By Increase Mather, D.D.Wo to drunkards. Two sermons testifying against the sin of drunkenness: wherein the wofulness of that evil, and the misery of all that are addicted to it, is discovered from the word of God. / By Increase Mather, D.D.
Boston: printed by Timothy Green, 1712
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.
Answ. There is a Twofold Drunkenness: (1.) A Drunkenness which is Metaphorical & Spiritual, Isa. 51.21. O thou that art drunken, but not with wine. The Jews were in such a case, as Drunken men are wont to be in, by reason of the Wine of Divine Judgment that was given to them. And one may be Drunken with ⟨p. 4⟩Error and Spiritual Delusion; therefore is it said concerning Mystical Babylon, that is Rome, That the Inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her Fornication, Rev. 17.2. Antichristian Corrupt Doctrines do as it were intoxicate & inebriate the Souls of them that do imbibe or embrace them: they become Drunkard-like, vertiginous thereby. Also one may be Drunk with Security, Isa. 29.9, 10. They are drunken but not with wine, they stagger but not with strong drink: for the Lord hath poured cut upon them the spirit of deep Sleep. Delusion and Security had made them as it were dead Drunk. Some think that that is the Drunkenness which the Text speaketh of; for Pride and Security are wont to go together, the one being the cause of the other. Woe to the Drunkards, that is (say some) to those that are secure in their Sins, & settled upon their Lees in an evil course. No doubt but that this is implied, & partly intended here, but that is not the only nor the principal Evil here aimed at. Therefore, (2.) Drunkenness is taken in a Literal, Proper sense: There is Corporal as well as Spiritual Drunkenness, a Drunkenness which not so much the Soul as the Body is the subject of; and that is it which the Prophet here denounceth Judgment for: Therefore in the latter end of ••is Verse he speaketh of being overcome with w••e. The Valleys near S•m•ria abounded with ⟨p. 5⟩fruitful Vines, whence they had store of Wine, and they abused that Creature to great Intemperance. When men abuse their Bodies by immoderate drinking, that's the Sin the Text Condemns. Now further; there is, 1. Drunkenness in the sight of GOD, that is, when a man doth drink more wine, or of any other inebriating drink, than the Rule alloweth of: