A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

Quest. IX. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost? If so, what would become of thy estate? It would be a mad world if all were drunkards. Wouldst thou have thy wife a drunkard? If she were, thou wouldst scarce be confident of her chastity. Wouldst thou have thy servants drunkards? If they were, they might set thy house on fire: and they would do thee little work, or do it so as it were better be undone. Thy house would be a bedlam if all were drunkards; and much worse than bedlam; for there are some wise men to govern and correct the mad ones. But if thou like it not in wife, and children, and servants, why dost thou continue it thyself? Art thou not nearest to thyself? Dost thou love any others better than thyself? Hadst thou rather thy own soul were damned than theirs? or canst thou more easily endure it? I have wondered sometimes to observe some drunkards very severe against the same sin in their children, and very desirous to have them sober! But the reason is, because the sobriety of their children is no trouble to them, nor puts them to deny the pleasure of their appetites, as their own sobriety must do.

Quest. X. Wouldst thou have thy physician drunk when he should cure thee of thy sickness? or thy lawyer drunk when he should plead thy cause? or the judge when he should judge it? If not, why wilt thou be drunken when thou shouldst serve thy God and mind the business of thy soul? If thou wouldst not have thy servant be potting in an ale-house when he should be about thy work, wilt thou sit potting and prating there, when thou hast a thousand fold greater work to do for thy everlasting happiness?

Quest. XI. If one do but lame or spoil thy beast, and make him unfit for thy service, wouldst thou be pleased with it? And wilt thou unfit thyself for the service of God, as if thy work were of less concernment than thy beast's?

Quest. XII. Would it please you if your servants poured all that drink in the channel? If not, I have before proved to thee that it should displease thee more to pour it into thy belly: for thou wilt find at last that it will hurt thee more.

Quest. XIII. What relish hath thy pleasant liquor the next day? Will it then be any sweeter than wholesome abstinence? All the delight is suddenly gone: there is nothing left but the slime in thy guts, and the ulcer in thy conscience, which cannot be cured by all thy treasure, nor palliated long by all thy pleasure. And canst thou value much so short delights? As all thy sweet and merry cups are now no sweeter than if they had been wormwood; so all the rest will quickly come to the same end and relish. As Plato said of his slender supper, compared to a rich man's feast, Yours seemeth better to-night, but mine will be better to-morrow; so thy conscience telleth thee that temperance and holy obedience will be better to-morrow, and better to eternity, though gluttony and drunkenness seem better now.

Quest. XIV. Dost thou consider how dear thou payest for hell? and buyest damnation at a harder rate than salvation might be attained at? What shame doth it cost thee! What sickness is it like to cost thee! What painful vomitings or worse dost thou undergo! How much dost thou suffer in thy estate! And is hell worth all this ado?

Quest. XV. Dost thou not think in thy heart, that sober, temperate, godly men do live a more quiet and comfortable life than thou, as well as an honester and safer life? If thou do think so, why wilt thou not imitate them? It is as free for thee to choose as them. If thou think they do not, consider, that as they have none of thy forbidden cups, so they have none of thy thirst or desire after them. Abstinence is sweeter much to them.[446] They have none of thy sour belchings, or vomitings, nor shame, nor danger, nor thy reckoning to pay. They have none of thy gripes of conscience, and terrors under the guilt of such a sin. They live in the love of God and the forethoughts of heaven, while thou art in the alehouse. And dost thou not think in thy conscience, that to a heart that is suited and sanctified thereto, it is not a sweeter thing to live in the love of God, than in the love of thy sensuality? Darest thou say (whatever thou thinkest) that God, and heaven, and holiness are not so lovely and fit to be delighted in, as a cup of wine or ale? Sure thou darest not say so! If it were for no more than the different aspects of death and eternity to them and to thee, I account thy life in the midst of thy pleasures incomparably more sad than theirs. They look at death as at the time of hope, and the day of their deliverance, as the assizes are to the innocent or pardoned man: but thou lookest on death with terror, as the end of all thy mirth, as the guilty malefactor thinketh on the assizes; or else with senselessness or presumption, which is worse. They look unto eternity as their endless, unspeakable felicity; and thou darest scarce seriously think of it, without the delusory ease of unbelief or of false hopes: thou darest not seriously look beyond death, unless through the devil's cheating spectacles. I tell thee, a sober, godly man would not have thy merry life (as thou accountest it) one day, for all thy wealth, or for any worldly gain: he had rather lie in jail, or sit in the stocks that while, than drink and swagger with thee. Keep thy merriment to thyself, for no wise man or good man will be thy partner. If thou wert their enemy, they would not wish thee so much misery as thou choosest. As the story goeth of a confessor, that hearing many confess the sin of drunkenness, would needs try himself what pleasure was in it: and having vomited and slept it out, the next drunkard that came to him in confession, he appointed him for penance to be drunk again, and told him, he need no sharper penance.

Quest. XVI. How cometh it to pass that thy very pride doth not cure thy drunkenness?[447] Pride is so natural and deep-rooted a sin, that I dare say thou hast not overcome it, if thou have not overcome thy sensuality. And is thy credit no more worth with thee? wilt thou for a cup of drink be made the talk of the country, the scorn of the town, the sport and laughing-game of boys, and the pity of sober persons? If thou be a great man among them, and they dare not speak it to thy face, and thou hearest not what they say of thee, yet in private they make bold with thy name, to talk of thee as of a filthy beast. Canst thou think that sober men do honour thee? What honour may accidentally be due to thee from thy place, is another matter; but thou takest a course to keep them from honouring thee for thy worth, and dost thy worst to bring thy rank and place into contempt. It is said that in Spain a drunkard is not allowed for a witness against any man: and sure he is not a credible person. Regard thy reputation if thou carest not for thy soul.

Quest. XVII. Dost thou not love the flesh itself which thou so much pamperest? If thou do, why wilt thou drown it, and choke it up with phlegm and filth? Ask physicians whether drunkenness be wholesome. Mark how many drunkards live to be old: Ennius podagricus, is a proverb. The sickness is longer than the sweetness of thy cup. If thou fearest not hell, fear the consumption, gout, or dropsy.

Quest. XVIII. Why shouldst thou not take more pleasure in the company of thy family, and in the company of people fearing God, that worship him in truth of heart, and will do their best to help to save thee? Canst thou give any reason for it, why such company should not be more pleasant to thee than thy pot companions? and why it should not be pleasanter to talk of the way to heaven, and the pardon of sin, and the love of Christ, and of eternal happiness, than to prate a deal of idle nonsense in an alehouse? There is no reason for it but thy filthy mind, that is suitable to vanity and sin, and unsuitable to all that is wise and holy.