YEa to prove them beasts in condition , Other sinners Beasts . though men in shape , were a taske so easie , that it would accrue small credit to an opponent , for each natuall man ( so long as he remaines in his sinnes impen●tent ) is a very beast in condition as Ieremy affirmes , Ier. 10. 14. and St. Peter , 2 Pet. 2. 12. Hee may be so proud as to scorne the comparison ; but it is so , for the wisdome of Heaven puts it upon him , and that which the Prophet in this place wraps up in a short Metaphor , is in other places of Scripture , as it were , illustrated , and unfolded by a continued Allegory ; the selfe same spirit making good that generall charge by many particular instances , as looke but in Gods Dictionary ( who can give most congruous names to natures ) and you shall find , Nero termed a Lyon , 2 Tim. 4. Herod , a Fox , Luk. 13. the Iewish false teachers , Dogs , Phil. 3. Davids persecutors , Bulls of Bason and Vnicornes , Psal. 22. the Egyptian enemies , Dragons , Psal. 74. the Scribes and Pharesies , Serpents and Vipers , Math. 23. the Babil●nian Monarch , a Lyon , with Eagles wings ; the Percian , a Bearc ; the Macedonian , a Leopard , Dan. 7. the enemies of the Church , wild Boares , Psal. 80. greedy Iudges , evening Wolves , Zeph. 3. Schismaticks , Foxes cubs , Canticl. 2. &c.

Or admit the Scriptures were silent herein , wee may evidently see men and women transformed into beasts of all kinds everyday , some into Epicurean Swine , others into barking Dogs , a third sort into cruell Tygers , &c. yea no wildernesse afords so many beasts as some great City : for each covetous Muckworme , is a blind Mole ; every lust full person , a rancke Goate ; the fraudulent man is a Fox ; the busie body , a Squirrell , the Murmurer , a Frog ; the Flatterer , a Spaniell ; the Slanderer , an Aspe ; the Oppressor , a Wolfe ; the Persecutor , a Tyger ; the Church Robber , a wild Boare ; the Seducer a Serpent , yea a Devill ; the Traitor , a Viper , &c. for the time and my breath would faile mee if I should reckon up all kinds of humane beasts , or beastiall men , beasts in the forme of men ; yea it s well if all these brutish conditions meete not in one man ( especially a drunkard ) as rivers in the Sea , for there is not one beastlike , or serpentine quality which every of their natures much more this sinne , would not admit if GOD restrained them not .

EVen such is the power of sinne , that it made God become man , Angells become Devills , Drunkards worse then Beasts . and men become beasts ; but this sinne , this vile and odious sinne of drunkennesse , hath a more superlative power ; for it makes a man worse then any beast which goes upon foure legs . Neither can I finde a sample for him amongst beasts , hee is such a beast that I know not with what beast to match him , such a beast that no other beast will keepe him company ; the neerest to him is the Ierff , a beast in the north parts of Suetia , whose property ( as Gesner , out of Olaus Magnus , relates it ) is when he hath killed his prey , or found someCarkasse , to fal a devouring the same , and never leave feeding untill his belly be puft up , and strouteth like a bag-pipe , and then not being able to hold any more , he goeth presently betweene two narrow trees and straineth out backward what hee hath eaten , and so being made empty , returneth againe to the Carkasse , and filleth himselfe as before , and then straineth it out the second time , and so continueth filling and emptying himselfe untill he hath devoured all ; which being consumed , he hunteth after more , and this is the course of his whole life . Now if the drunkard , whose whole life is little els but a vicissitude of devouring and von●itting , who spends all his time in drinking , and venting , and abominable spewing , so disgorging himselfe when he hath drunke his fil , thereby to be able to drinke the like quantity againe , had but this ill quality and not an hundred more and worse with it , I might well couple these two beasts together ; for in this particular there cannot be devised a more expressive Hieroglyphique of his loathly condition : but alas , this is rather one of the drunkards vertues , for which he lookes to be applauded , and is so by all that keepe him company , so that this comparison falls short by much .

WHerefore in my encounter with this Monster , wherein they equall Beasts . I will neither spend time , nor blot paper with shewing wherein they are equall with beasts ; as that they are onely led by sensuality , that their whole intendment is their bellies , that like hogs they thinke no garden so pleasant as the dunghill , no cleare streame comparable to the mire wherein they wallow , that seeming a heaven to them which to a sober and religious man is little better then an hell ; yea , who thinks it not lesse labour to plow all day , then to pot it , that it is a taske almost invicible , to make them owne those words and behaviours when they are sober , which in their pots they were authors of , that notwithstanding drink hath often made them as sicke as ever was Sea-man , and exposed them to a thousand perills , yet they are never the wiser afterwards , that they have no more conscience nor feare of God , then beasts : yea , tell them of God , their hearts will make reply , as the Cyclops in the Tragedy did with his mouth , when Vlysses told him of God ; I know no other God but my belly : that they are as improvident & without forefight of what will follow , as beasts ; providing no refuge against the evill day , but thinke to beare off the judgments of God with head and shoulders , that like bruite beasts they will beleive nothing but what they are led to by sense , that they consider no more how time passeth away then a beast is able to tell the clocke ; whereupon their departure is commonly so suddaine , that when they looke for a pleasant peale , behold , it is their passing bell , that they are no more ashamed of their deeds then beasts ; yea lesse , for a very Dog , though he cannot blush , will goe away , as if he were ashamed , when he hath done a shrewd turne , and is taken in the manner ; but Drunkards have a meretricious forehead , stupid , and steeled with impudence , shame-proofe , there is not so much blood of grace in their hearts as will serve to make halfe a blush in their cheekes .

If it bee objected that a Drunkard can sometimes speake ; I answere , that is no more then a beast hath done , even a silly Asse , Num. 22. 28.

These and many the like I will passe over , and only shew you wherein they be worse then beasts .

2 DRunkards are worse then beasts , Beasts remaine the same they were crealed , but Drunkards shame their creation . in that beasts remaine the same they were created ; whereas Drunkards subvert natures institution , cease to bee what God made them , reasonable creatures , and suffer themselves to be transformed by drinke into swine , as Elpenor , one of Vlysses companions was turned by Circe into a Hog , so sha●ing their creation : and whereas other sinnes deprive a man of Gods Image , this deprives him of mans , leaving him neither the use of reason nor speech , without which ( but for the name and dimensions of a man ) he is no better then a beast , as the Foole said of his Coulestaffe , when he rid upon it into the water ; as good no horse but for the name of a horse : yea , the Drunkards soule is made a slave to his sense , and whilst this rebells , she that worst may must hold the Candle .

Now a man having lost the use of his soule , is worse then a beast which keeps the use of his instinct ; yea , a man that hath lost his senses , is therein worse then a beast that hath them , as sure as a living Dog is better then a dead Lyon : wherefore in this regard also the Drunkard should have a name inferiour to that of beast , and not be reputed so good .

4 OR ( that I may passe to the fourth They subvert reason and prove cruell to themselves . particular formerly propounded ) that lunatick man , mentioned , Math. 17. 15. 16. whom all the Disciples could not cure , untill the Master himselfe came ; and to that mad man they are very like . For as hee being fore vexed , fell oftentimes into the fire , and oftentimes into the water : so these being robbed of their strength and senses by drinke , are frequently subject to all fearefull accidents , and miserable mishaps , which often fall out by reason thereof . As some being drunke , fall into the fire , and are burned ; as I could instance in a Gentleman of worth , that rising to make water , could finde no fitter place to do● it in , then the chimney ; where , being a few live embers , hee fell downe , and not being able to rise againe , had his belly puckerd together like a sachell , before the Chamberlaine could come to helpe him ; whereupon , being in great torture , hee dranke off twenty two double jugs of beare , and so dyed , roaring and crying that he was damned , for breaking his vow which he had made of reformation : some againe fall into the water , and are drowned , as is commonly seene : againe , some fall and batter their faces , bruise their bodies , breake their armes , their legs , and many breake their necks , in the very act of drunkennesse , whose cases are desperate : others are wounded , beaten , and many times murthered , as often times they stab and murther others : but this is notably described by Salomon , Proverbs , 23. 29. to 36.

Indeed drunkennesse is nothing else , nor hath ever beene reputed amongst the wise and learned , then a voluntary madnesse , a temporary forfeiture of the wits , worse then frenzie , in that the one is violent , the other voluntary ; that , the evill of punishment ; but this , the evill of sinne .

The wine , which of it selfe is a good creature of God , and , being moderately taken , of excellent use ; becomes to them which use it to surfeir , as the water of the river Gallus in Phrygia , which maketh all those mad that drinke of it : other vices doe but alter and distract the understanding , whereas this utterly subverteth the same , and astonieth the body : even wrath makes a man a beast , but drunkennesse makes a man mad , and if so , how odious is this sinne ! For if it be a hatefull thing for a man to wound his owne flesh , and willfully to maime the members of his body ; how abominable is it to wound the mind it selfe , and to offer violence unto our reason and understanding ! If it be a crime to offer violence against the subjects ; then surely to lay violent hands upon the King himselfe , and to pull him out of his Regall throne , must needs bee condemned as an outragious wickednesse .

Or lastly , suppose them men , they are but like that man spoken of , Marke : 5. 2. to 6. who being possest of the Divell , lived amongst the graves , and cut himselfe with stones ; for they love none but base company , base places , and base courses ; and what other doe their frequent and horrible oathes , but cut them deeper then those stones did him ? It 's true , hee may seeme to be in a better condition : as first , he may have a name to live , but indeed he is dead , as S. Iohn speakes . Secondly , he may have the appearance of a man , but indeed he is a beast , as Ieremy speakes . Thirdly , he may be thought a sound man , but indeed he is Demoniacall , obsessed , or rather , possessed with a Devill , yea , many Devills , and more miserable then such an one , because it is a Devill of his owne chosing , as Basil speakes . And certainely , if every raygning sin be a Devill , as S. Austin holds ; much more , if the heart of a Reprobate containes so many Devills , as unchast thoughts , as St. Gregory affirmes ; every true Drunkard is posiest with more Devills then Mary Magdalen was , and good reason ; for , as our Saviour intimates , the Devill can find no such rest in dry places , Math. 12. 43.