Your prefent Situation is caleulated to correct these bad confequences of evil Society. Probably no other opportunity, certainly no better, will present itfelf to you, for fetting your Souls in order, and turning to the Lord with all your hearts. I fhall therefore, in compliance with my duty and your neceffities, make fome obfervations on those Vices of Society, which have removed you from comfort to diftrefs, from tranquillity to defpair.

Need I mention as the first of these, and the root of numerous Evils, the Vice of Drunkennefs? Seduced into the commiffion of this Vice by Society, too many continue to practice it, till inevitable ruia purfues

*No effectual reform will be made in our prifons, till the root of thefe evils be cut off; which, from the closest observation, I am convinced is THE VICE OF DRUNKENNESS."

Howard on the Lazaretto's, &c. p. 234.

purfues all their footfteps. Your families-how fhall I mention them?without being partakers of your crimes, are partakers of your miffortunes. Drowned by the repetition of Intemperance, is every feeling of your nature. You are neither fenfible of the filent forrow of the innocent partner of your cares, nor the more clamorous Grief of your imploring Offspring. All are involved in one common ruin. Your daily occupations no longer intereft you. Their failure cuts off the fupply of your Intemperance, and in one fatal moment you commit a crime, which for ever involves you in mifery. Too juft a reprefentation is this picture of many of your lives. Look upon it, and fhrink at its deformity. Think not, as too many do, to excuse your faults by pleading that they were committed in a flate of Intoxication. The law of God, as well as man, confiders this as an Aggravation of the

the Offence and a celebrated Lawgiver once enacted that "he "who committed a crime, when drunk, fhould receive a double "punishment, one for the crime "itfelf, and the other for the drunk"ennefs which prompted him to " commit it.

Surely, in this affembly, there must be fome, I would to God I could not add, many, who have too much occafion to grieve at the recollection of having fo freely indulged themselves in the practice of this Vice. Was the Enjoyment of good company your Intention? Miferably have you been deceived. For, "Who hath woe? Who hath forrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath bablings? Who hath wounds without caufe? Who hath redness of Eyes? They that tarry long at the wine" t-with the com

panions

* Blackstone's Com. B. 4. C. 2. § 3.

† Pro. xxiii. 29.

panions of their Intemperance. Health, too, departs from the poifoned cup, and a mind as degenerate, as the body is feeble, crowns the banquet of the drunkard. In fuch a courfe of living, how can any of the duties of a reasonable nature be performed with propriety? How can the Maker of Man, and Author of the Universe, be adored as he ought? How can we comfort and affift our neighbour? How can we respect or reverence ourselves? Drunkenness, therefore, is a Vice which unfits us for living in this world, and takes away all hopes, all rational hopes, of the other.

On this foundation, how many other offences are built? Offences, like fo many steps, leading gradually to deftruction. Yet how can we wonder at these confequences, when the reafon of a man is lulled afleep, all traces of Inftruction and Chriftian Information are eradicated, and H

the

the propenfities of mere animal nature alone are fuffered to prevail? Then be no longer deceived-call your ways to remembrance-and while you are fhut out from Society, correct thofe Vices which you learned in it from your profligate companions. Correct that contempt which you have too long indulged For the Worship and Service of Almighty God. Think with horror on the profane language you have ufed, when, inflamed with wine, religion and things facred have been the Subjects of your converfation. What fhall we fay to the habitual Swearer ? to him who never mentions God without blafpheming his name? Or how fhall we hear the meek and holy Jefus called upon as a Spectator of riot, and witness to a Lie? How fhall we bear that lewd and obfcene difcourfe which is too common where drunkenness abounds. In your prefent Situation, offences of this nature cannot but

ftrike