ftice and falfe Judgment; fubmit to Pillage, Plunder and Rapine; or paílively tremble under Oppreffion, Beggary, and arbitrary Power; to establish their giddy Dominions. But fure no Nation was ever yet fo drunk, fo infatuated, fo forgetful, fo perverted, fo diffolute, as to fuffer a fober People to be harrafs'd, aggriev'd, or punish'd in this exorbitant Manner!

II. GLUTTONY, in the next Place, is a most unmanly Vice, and worse than Brutal; a deadly, short liv'd Sin; a Suicide, a SelfPoifoner; and commonly either eats its own Corruption, or drinks its own Confufion, by the Indigeftion. It furfeits Nature, and feeds all Diseases that defie the Difpenfatory. It makes a Man good for nothing but WormsMeat, without a Cure. The Pharmacopoeia it felf fails in this Point. It produces Dulness of Spirit, Sloth of Soul, and Weariness of Body, as long as it furvives. Heaviness of Mind, Lewdness of Will, and Depravation of Judg. ment, are its direful Concomitants, or curfed Hangers-on. Lechery, Lazinefs and Debauchery, are its dreadful Effects; till at laft it finks into the Diffolution of all Virtues, Moral or Divine; and prefently drops into Prodigality, Beggary, and the Bill of Mortality; for nothing elfe can stop the Glutton's Mouth, or fill his Belly. He never has any Reason to complain of being fick of the Register; for he very rarely lives fo long as to do that, or long enough to think Old Age a Burden. He is a meer Belly-God, a Slave to his own Carcafe, infatiable in his Luft, unfatisfy'd in his Appetite, and unfanctify'd in his Defires. The whole World is hardly big enough to

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please his Palate, or fufficient to stuff his ungodly Guts. It can fcarce afford, upon ranfacking a Country, Wines rich enough; Ragou's favoury enough; or Sawtes provoking enough for his vitiated Gufto; till he is fuddenly lopt off the Ground, like a Mushroom, to be laid up in his own delicate Pickle in the Grave. This generally proves the fad Cataftrophe of the gluttonous Gormondizer! To fay nothing of the feveral great Eaters, or Epicures of this Age in reality; The comical Story of Cambles, the famous Gormandizer, is worth the Reading, for the Ridicule of it; but scarce worthy of Credit, for eating up his own Wife one Night by mistake, in the fabulous Romance. But, and if fuch voracious Stomachs in Deed, happen to be occafion'd by any Diftemper of the Wolf, Worms, or worse Things (by Report) bred in the Body; they do not fall under our Reflection, but require our greatest Compaffion for their unfortunate Infirmities. Natural Corruptions may be_to blame only, for fuch monstrous Productions: But thefe are very rare, or uncommon Accidents, againft the Will, as well as Preternatural. Nature her felf is fometimes faulty in fuch crude Indigeftions, and Indifpofitions. How.. ever, in fhort, the Drunkard and the Glutton may both fhake Hands together for ruining themselves, as fworn Brothers of Iniquity.

III. LUXURY, in fine, is the fouleft of Vices, and finks a Perfon downright into the very Dregs of Filth and Dirt, or Jakes of Uncleannefs. He that falls into this deep Ditch of Impurity, will hardly ever after be got out again with Honour; and either recoyer his former Healthfulness, regain his pri

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ftine Beauty, or wash off the indelible Stains of that Pollution. It defiles beyond the Power of Art, Counsel or Purgation. No Catharticks will ever be able to carry off the fick Plethory, but what are divine and religious to the last Degree, by very mortifying Medicines. 'Tis certain, nothing would fooner purge off this fordid Sin, than Fafting and Prayer. Idleness, High-feeding, and ill Company, have often expos'd People to irrecoverable Pit-falls, or pufh'd them headlong into fatal Abyffes. The intimate Familiarity of a strange Woman, cafily worsts the strongest Samfon, and prefently puts out his Eyes in the Struggle. Her Charms are as deftructive as the fabulous Hyana's Looks, or the Voice of the Sirens. They betray with Beauty, kill with Kindness, and poifon with Pleafure. If a Man does not either stop his Ears, fhut his Eyes, or tie himself up to the Main-Maft, as Ulyffes wifely did, by report, from following their Inchant ments, he is fure to be drawn into the Danger, or loft in the Deftruction of unlawful Love; either Ship-wreck'd, or drown'd for ever in the Gulph of Lewdnefs. Carnal Pleafures, in common, among luftful, licentious, or luxurious Admirers, are only the Perverters of humane Reafon, as well as the Betrayers of all Men's Frailties, Follies, and Infirmities, with Shame of Countenance, and Confufion of Face. The lafcivious Delights of the Flesh, are the falfeft Joys; the After-Sorrows of Life, the bitter-Sweets of Liberty, the greatest Bubbles of future Happiness, the very Blinds of a rational Judgment, the fatal Destroyers of good Health, and fitter for the habitual Practice of Man Tygers, wild Ara

bians, or bloody Cannibals, than civiliz'd Chriftians. But however, all these Disgraces arise from Intemperance, as their Fountain, and the overflowing Source of Infelicity, among incorrigible Wine-Bibbers, or unreformed Gluttons. WHEREFORE the great Business of Kings and Princes, without doubt, and I fpeak it with the profoundest Submission imaginable, is, neither to follow strange Women, nor exceffive Drinking; neither to addict themfelves intemperately to Wine nor Wantonnefs; for fear of forgetting their Royal Dignity, or neglecting their regal Office, which confifts in a due Execution of Judgment and Mercy; in an equal, impartial, and diligent Diftribution of gracious Rewards, to be conferr'd upon the Good, and grievous Punishments to be inflicted upon the Bad; in preferring the loyal, faithful, and obedient Subject, to Honour and Glory in the Government; and difcarding the difloyal Traytor or Rebel, with the greatest Contempt, Ignominy and Disgrace, for his Anarchical Principles, and Practices, tending to the utter Diffolution of humane Society it felf, as well as the Abolition of a lawful and a right establish'd Monarchy. However, this wife King, hinted at in the Proverbs, does always behave fo fingularly well and virtuously in the Government of his Lufts, and the Conduct of his Paffions; that he will never forget himself fo far, as at any Time to eat the Bread of Wickednefs, and drink the Wine of Violence, Prov. Chap. IV. Ver. 17; having no Delight in Cruelty, no Injoyment in Oppreffion, and no Satisfaction in Revenge.

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BUT my Design here, is not to dictate to the higher Powers, with fo vain and unpardonable a Prefumption; nor fo much to tell them their Duty, as what is abfolutely incumbent upon their Inferiours; and highly convenient, as well as advifeable, for the ordinary Welfare of the lower Part of Mankind, in this Point of common Prudence and Sobriety; according to that fevere Satyr and Reprimand in Proverbs, Chap. XXIII. Ver. 20, 21. not amongst Wine-Bibbers; amongst riotous Eaters of Flesh: For the Drunkard and the Glutton Shall come to Poverty; and Drowsiness (hall cloath a Man with Rags. Infomuch, that if it was no Sin to be guilty of either ill Habit; yet it would always prove the greatest Punishment upon it felf, by a moft terrible and rueful After-Reckoning.

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HOW often do we find the Peace of a Nation broke-in upon by Drunkennefs, to the great Disturbance of City, Town and Country, fometimes in their ungovernable Revellings, and unruly Riots? It proceeds alfo now and then farther to worse Mischiefs, of Murder, Sedition or Rebellion. An Infurrection occafion'd by the Madness and Fury of it, has more than once difcompos'd the Quiet of a whole Kingdom, from a very fmall Beginning, or a trifling Provocation. An immoderate Drinking-Bout may inflame the Mind, breed ill Blood in a Neighbourhood, and peradventure fet a whole Parish together by the Ears, It creates moft of the private Quarrels, and fudden Tragedies that happen in Publick Houses; which often coft them their Credit, Custom and Trade. But a drunken Constable in his Office, after all, is the verieft

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