'438 CHRISTIAN ?vIORALITY, viz. DERM. 7kRY. subject,_ and bids us mark the particular effects of it: Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things, Prov. xxiii. 33. That is, says a learned paraphrast * upon the text, " thy thoughts will not only grow confused, and all things appear to thee .otherwise than they are ; but lustful and adulterous de- sires will be stirred up, which thou canst not rule; and thy mouth being without a bridle, will break forth into unseemly, nay, filthy, scurrilous, or, perhaps, blasphe- mous language, without respect to God or man." Yea, thou shalt be, saith the wise man, as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast, ver. 34. that is, " Thou wilt sottishly run thyself into the extremest hazards, without any appre- hensions of danger, being no more able to direct thy course than a pilot who snores when a ship is tossed in the midst of the sea ; no more able to take notice of the peril thou art in, than he that falls asleep on the top of a mast, where he was set to keep the watch." They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not, When I shall awake, I will seek it yet again, ver. 35. It is as if the wise man had said, "That to complete thy misery, thou shalt not only be mocked, and abused, and beaten, but thou shalt be as senseless as if no harm had befallen thee And no sooner wilt thou open thine eyes, but thou wilt stupidly seek an occasion to be drunk, and be beaten again," My friends, have ye never seen a drunkard make that odious figure, in which Solomon represents him ? You find human .nature is constant to itself : It appears now in Britain, just as it is described in the days of old at Jerusalem in all its vicious excesses. There is a great degree of likeness between our forefathers intemperance, and their children of late posterity. One would think one such .a spectacle as this, or the mere report of it, with an assurance of the truth, should be enough to for- bid our lips the excess of liquor, and to set a guard upon ourselves in the hour of temptation. Not only those who overwhelm themselves with strong .drink, and forget reason and themselves, but those that *Bishop Patrick.
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