H [...]W unaccountably, O Unadvise Neighbours, And how much [...] our Sorrow, and our Horror, is tha [...] Observation of the Sacred Scriptur [...] verified, The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil When to get so Little Money as is to be got [...] it, so Much Evil is committed, as we hear & se [...] that some of you commit upon the Miserabl [...] INDIANS!

'Tis well known that the Indians which yet re [...]main in the Land, now to better purpose possesse [...] and occupied by the English, in the room of the Twenty Nations of the Indians that once covered it, were utterly destitute of all Intoxicating Li [...]quors, before the Arrival of the English hither. The Soveraign God, who hath provided for our Support in our Frailty, Liquid Cordials and Re [...]freshments of all sorts, besides, Wines on the Lee, well refined, furnished Them with nothing bu [...] Water out of the Brook, and this to be handed unto their mouths, not in Glasses, but in Clam [...] Shells. But, as Drunkenness is most rare, in some Coun­ [...]eys [Page 4] that most abound with a variety of the Richest Wines, wherewi [...]h men are easily Drunk, [...], on the other side, there are none that Rave [...]ore [...]fter Strong Drink, than the people of those Countreys that have it from far brought unto [...]hem; and perhaps the Ravingest after it, of any Wretches under the cope of Heaven, are our A­ [...]erican Salvages. They will Sell and Pawn all [...]hey have in the world for Strong Drink; they [...]ever can tell when they have enough, but keep [...]uzling until they have Drunk themselves down; [...]nd when they Awake, whatever it have cost [...]hem, they say, I will seek it yet again. That which now gives inexpressible pain to all Good Men among us, is, That there are some Ill Men [...]mong the English in all corners of the Land, [...]ho to obtain a little bit of Money, do fit this [...]icious, drunken, so [...]tish Humour of the Indians, [...]nd Sell them the Drink, by which they cannot [...]ut think the Salvages will make themselves Drunk; and sometimes they take Advantage of the Humour which the Salvages are in, to Scrue them into Bargains full of cruel Oppression and Ex [...]ortion, which afterwards throw them into the extreamest Inconveniencies. I dare not Relate, how many Tuns of Strong Drink, I am credibly informed, have been brought and spent among the Indians, within a few months even in One Little Island.

It seems none of the wholesome Laws, Enact­ed in the several Provinces & Colonies against this [Page 5] Wickekness, are enough to Restrain from th [...] [...] perpetration of it, some that have the Fear neither of God, nor man; The Wicked Hun­ [...] after a Little Silver, makes many break thr [...] all Restraints. Who can think of this Impiety, without falling down in some Anguish before the Lord, and crying out, Oh! This people have Sinned a great Sin! But it is possible, that when the Sinful People, who Consider not what they do, in this Great Sin, have some Considerations livelily Laid before them, the Good Spirit of God ac­companying thereof, may cause them to say, I have done Iniquity, I will do no more! and may keep others from falling into the like Iniquity. Now, Syrs, Let these Expostulations find some Entertainment with you: Oh, Hearken to me, that God may Hearken to you.

It is the Endeavour of every Godly man, and it is a Quality inseparable from real Godliness, To do what may be done, for the Hindring of Sin in other men: And then to Lament and Bewayl the Sin that can't be Hindred. The man who does not Labour to Suppress and Prevent Sin in those that are about him, and who does not Be­wayl the Sin that he can't prevent, is most cer­tainly an Unconverted and an Unsancti­fied Man, and an Enemy of God. I pray then, what will you judge of your selves, O ye Au­thors of the Indian Drunkenness? The Drunkenness whereby those forlorn Creatures do stumble into such horrible Pits of Sin, so far is it from its being [Page 6] [...]our Grief, that you make it your Gain; and you [...]re so far from doing all you can to Save them [...]rom their Sin, that you do what you can to [...]are them in it. Monstrous Impiety! It is plain, That if you dare go on in this Impiety, you are [...]et in the Gall of Bitterness, and the Bond of Ini­ [...]uity; & if you Dy in this Unregenerate State, [...] had been Good for you, that you had never been Born.

The man who does make himself Drunk, does make himself a Beast, yea, worse than a Beast, [...]or a Beast ordinarily will not be Drunk. But when a man will pass on to make others Drunk, [...]e does the part of a very Devil. The Devils, [...]hat are never Drunk themselves, never Show [...]hemselves more Devils, than when they push men on to Drunkenness. To Assist and Excite O­ [...]hers unto such a Sin, truly it looks very Diaboli­ [...]al. If you plead, That you don't compel the [...]ndians to Drink, 'tis answer enough unto the [...]ea, That you Permit them, you Invite them, [...]nd you know that if you Sell your Drink to [...]hem, they will be Drunk with it, and, they Buy it with that Intention. You must therefore know, That there is An having Fellowship with the Sins of other men, [Eph 5.11.] And, [1 Tim. [...]5.22.] A being partaker of other mens Sins; by which you may contract an infinite Guilt unto your selves. When you supply the Indians, with the Drink, wherewith you are sensible, they will immediately Debauch themselves, You have a criminal Fellowship with the Sins of their Drunkenness, you are [Page 7] criminal partakers of the Sins whereinto they wi [...] be betray'd by their Drunkenness. The Gospe [...] of God, commands you, [ Tit. 2.12.] To Liv [...] Soberly; And that commandment requires yo [...] to promote Sobriety, among your Neighbours the Indians as well as others. The Gospel of Go [...] Instructs you, [Gal 5.23.] The Fruit of the Spi [...]rit is Temperance: And that Instruction direct [...] you, to help your N [...]ighbours to be Temperate the Indians as well as others. The Gospel cauti [...]ons you, [Eph. 5 18.] Be not Drunk; and th [...] Caution Forbids your being an Instrument o [...] Drunkenness unto others, & even unto the Indians.

Drunkenness is indeed a Complicated Sin. If on [...] should Enquire, which of the Ten Precepts in th [...] Law of God, are violated by Drunkenness, we ma [...] say, All the Ten, as well as the Third. And in [...]deed, it not only unfits men to keep all the Law of God, but also Inclines men to Break them all. If the Indians Transgress all the Laws of God by being Drunk, Then You, O unhappy Drink sel­lers, are also Transgressors of all those Laws, in the Drunkenness of the Indians, whereto you have so directly contributed. And, for the English to do thus unto the Indians, is a Fault that has its peculiar Aggravations.

Our Christian Profession obliges us, yea, and it has been our m [...]st Explicit Profession in these our American Settlements, To Civilize and Christianize the Salvages. And is this the Christianity that you Teach them, Syrs? Even the Drunkenness. [Page 8] which they never Learn't or Saw, till you, pre­ [...]entled Christians, Taught it unto them? They were Salvages before; some few Rational men [...]mong them, do bitterly complain of it, that by the Drunkenness got in among them, they are made yet more Salvages: A Drunken Indian, what is he but a very Centaur? I pray, What are you then that make them so? If our Lord Jesus Christ could say, Wo to you, that make a man twofold more the Child of Hell, Think of it, Syrs; The Indians were the Children of Hell before; but by their Drunkenness, they are twofold more so; for we are expresly told, Drunkards shall not [...]nherit the Kingdom of God. Now, what a dread­ [...]ul symptom of your own Exclusion from that Kingdom do you procure unto your selves, and whose Children will you declare your selves at [...]ast, by the Assistance that you give unto the Drunkenness of those that are thereby confirmed in their having the Devil for their Father? Wo [...]o you, that make Indians twofold more the Children of Hell! Satan had a Strong Hold of these doleful Tawnies before; but by the Drunkenness, where­in you by your Strong Drink support them, there is no small Strength added thereunto, he holds them in the faster Chains of Darkness. Truly, Syrs, I will deal Freely with you, and you are a sort of Offenders, with whom the Sharpest Re­bukes, can't be said to deal Harshly: no Freedome is to be counted Harshness. One well says, To Complement Vice is next to Worshipping of the Devil! [Page 9] This miscarriage of yours must not be Comple­mented; The best that can be said of it, is, That you do no little Service for the Devil in what you do.

There are Numberless Mischiefs, that unavoid­ably follow upon the Drunkenness, wherein the Indians, by your means confound themselves; E­ven all the Woes of Drunkenness. There is what is as bad as Rats bane in the Drink that you Sell unto them; There's Death in the pot! They are Spoilt for all Employment and Business; and they that would not work before, now cannot work: their Drunkenness has made them Good for nothing. Their Health is Lost; and they often perish by other Disasters in their Drunkenness, consuting the Lying Proverb, A Drunken man gets no harm. Especially, when they are Drown­ed in Strong Drink, their Drink very frequently proves the occasion of their Drowning in the Wa­ter. Yea, some of them have been Tragically Burnt to Death, going from the Tortures of one Fire to another. And more than all This; 'Tis an usual thing for their Drunkenness to put them upon Bloody Quarrels, and those have sometimes issued in Bloody Murders. There may be a fear­ful Cry of Blood against you, beyond what you are aware, for the Drink that you have Sold. The paltry bit of Money that you have taken for a bottel of Rum, or a pot of Cyder, may be the price of Blood! Fearful to be spoken! All these Mischiefs Ly at your Door, Ye Miserables, who Sell unto them the Drink, that will certainly o­pen [Page 10] the Door to these Mischiefs: You are Acce [...]sary to them All. Can you think of it, withou [...] some Astonishment?

But there is, what is yet more Astonishing, The Glorious Gospel of God is made wof [...]lly Un [...]successful among the Indians, especially by thi [...] Vice of Drunkenness getting in so much among them. The Gospel, which forbids Drunkenes [...] under the dreadfullest penalties imaginable, how can it be welcome unto a Generation of Drunk [...]ards! There have been, and yet are Churches a­mong our Indians; and, Peantamapang, as they call themselves, or, men professing Religion; and, if I mistake not, there are at this Time, above Thirty Assemblies of Indians, (tho' small ones) in one of our Provinces, that meet for the Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is the Lamen­tation of all Vertuous men, who behold it, and even of the Indians themselves, That the Evan­gelical Work is in extream Danger of coming to nothing: The Good O [...]der in their Churches is Languishing; The Christian Religion it self is like to be lost among them: That Great Work, which has been the Glory of New England, and which already too much comes too Little, is like e're long utterly to Expire and Vanish; and in­deed the Decayes that have already prevailed up­on it, are Deplorable. Yea, I tremble to write, what I have lately Read, That some Old men a­mong the Indians, affirm, that when they were Heathens, many of them were not such great [Page 11] Villians, as they are since they were Christians. Now, You Sellers of Drink to these Indians are the cause of all this Wretchedness 'Tis the concurrent sense of all who have any knowledge of the Indian Affayrs, That except a stop can be given unto your Ungodly Trade of Selling Drink unto the Indians, a Flood of Drunkenness, is like to Swallow up all that is good among them. And [...]hose Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who are carrying unto the Indians, the Tidings of that Great Saviour, are Sighing, That they Labour in vain, and spend their strength for nought, because [...]et them do what they can, Strong Drink does undo it all again; and there are [But whose Mi­nisters are those, think you?] those that by Selling Drink unto these wild Creatures, do so deprave them, and stupify them, and b [...]uiti [...]y them, 'tis im­possible so much as to bestow a little Cicuration upon them, and reduce them from any part of their Barbarous Wildnes [...]. Now, if the Blessed Apostle, when he saw a Sorcerer withstand the passage and progress of the Word of God, could Set his Eyes on him, and say, [Act. 13.10.] O full of all mischief, thou Child of the Devil, thou Enemy of all Righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord? Certainly, the Servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, obstructed by your means in their Service to Him, and the Success of His Word, may say to such a Drink-Seller, O thou doer of unknown mischief, by bewitching the poor Indians against all Good by the Word of God; Why [Page 12] dost thou so much gratify the Devil, and show thy Enmity to all Righteousness, by making it impossible for the Indians to leave their old Indian Tracks, or to learn the right ways of the Lord? Even the French Missionaries cry, Shame, upon you, as Acosta long since did also upon his own Country-men; and they who Teach Idolatry to the Indians, are Scan­dalized at it, that you Teach them Drunkenness: Both of them indeed are Damnable; but your part is far more inexcusable than Theirs; They Think, that they Save the Souls of the Pagans, you know that you Damn them.

Can you now without some consternation Re­flect upon the Scandal that you give? For a man to have the Blood of Souls to answer for; truly, 'tis a Tremendous Thing! Has that man himself any Interest in a CHRIST, or can he hope for it, who does what he can to keep others, Without Christ, and Without Hope? Did that man ever consent, that the Lord should Reign over himself, who does what he can, that the Lord may not Reign over others? Or will not the Lord in His just Vengeance Destroy those Enemies who thus would not have him to Reign? Is any one Sin yet pardoned unto that man, who does what he can, to keep others from seeking after the pardon of their Sin, and plunge them into more Sin? Is not that man yet under the formidable Wrath of God, who does what he can to keep others with that Wrath abiding on them, and from seeking to be delivered from the Wrath to come? Can that man [Page 13] preserve his own Soul, from the Hands of Satan, who does what he can to betray the Souls of o­thers into the Hands of the fierce Destroyer? Shall [...]e go to Heaven himself, who does what he can [...]o keep others out of Heaven? To make Indians Drunk, is to do all of This; & to Sell them Drink, as they are known to be disposed, is to make them Drunk. The Souls of these Drunken Indians, will go down into the place of Torment; but whither will they go, think ye, and how horribly shall they be Tormented, that have brought them thither? That there is indeed a place of Torment in ( Hades or) the Invisible World, for Ungodly men, is a thing visible, even to the Natural Conscience of e­very man. We see Ill men unjustly inflict most intolerable Torments on Good men; and if there be a just God, as we are sure there is, Reason & Con­science will say, there are as insufferable Torments to be suffered by those Ill men, in another world. The Indians do by Drunkenness prepare themselves for a worse portion of those Torments, [...]han would otherwise have been Dispensed unto them from the infinite Vengeance of God: And you, by helping them to the Fuel of their Drunkenness, do but make your selves a Fuel [...]or those very Fires of the Divine Indignation in Hell, wherein They shall be ever making Satisfaction unto the Justice of Heaven. Will you then throw your selves into those Everlasting Torments, where the Roar­ing Indians being made your Companions, will upbraid you. 'Tis you English men, that have brought us hither!

[Page 14]But what Gains do you propose unto your selves by this Desperate Action? A few Pennies, or Shillings. The Souls, the Immortal Souls of the Indians, and you own Souls, into the Bargain, may then Cry out upo [...] you, A Goodly price are we valued at, of them! I beseec [...] you, Sirs, Don't set such a contemptible Price, upon [...] Precious and Immortal SOUL! Which if a man d [...] lose, he is a sad Looser, though he have gained the who [...] World. And yet, I must also tell you, That even thos [...] little Gains, which you make by this vile Trade, wil [...] have a secret, but a speedy, Blast upon them: You' [...] suddenly find, That you have gain'd nothing at all, bu [...] put all into a Bag with Holes. If it be (and that ma [...] is more an Atheist, than the very Devil that Articled a­gainst Job of old, who will not grant, that it is) Th [...] Blessing of God on the work of mens Hands, by which thei [...] Substance is increased: you must Expect little Increas [...] from the Trade of Selling Drink to the Indians; for yo [...] cannot expect the Blessing of God on the work of you [...] Hands; It would be a Blasphemy for you to Ask or Look for His Blessing. It may be, you take Advantage from the Insatiable Thirst of the Indians after Strong Drink t [...] Squeeze Rich Penn'oths out of them. This does bu [...] add unto your Iniquity; For that man is an Oppresso [...] in his Dea [...]ings, who does not conform to these two Golden Rules of Charity in them. First, To Deal b [...] others as I would have them Deal by me; And, Next, T [...] a [...]m at the Good of those with whom I Deal, as well as at m [...] own. Wherefore, you do but Cheat the Indians, whe [...] you find the Madness of their Lust, layes them ope [...] unto your Tricks upon them, and then play upon them with such Tricks, as cause them, when they come unt [...] themselves, even to Tear their own Hair for Madnes [...] Go write then, at the Foot of your unlawful Gains those two Texts for the Summ Total of them: [1 Thes. [Page 15] 4 6.] Let no man go beyond, and defraud his Brother in any matter, for God is the Avenger of all such. And, [Jer. 17.11.] He that gets Riches, and not by Right, shall leave them in the midst of his Days, and at his End shall be a Fool. Inexcusable is your Blindness, if you don't See, or, your Hardness if Seeing it, you are not Mov'd with [...]t, That a wonderful Blast, and Curse from God, ha's been upon the Estates, that have been advanced by In­dian Drunkeness. While the Preachers of Truth un [...]o the Indians, have been Rema [...]kably Blessed in their Estates, the Sellers of Drink unto them, have been as Remark­ably Blasted. A strange Punishment ha's been upon [...]hose Workers of Iniquity; and the Treasures which they have gotten by their Iniquity, have been meer Treasures of Snow, very strangely Melted under the Burning Anger of God.

And if the Holy God should be provoked, [which who fears not?] again to let the Indians be Intoxicated [...]nto the Fury of making another War upon us, as the [...]niquity of your Coveteousness will doubtless be one of the principal Provocations, that procure so dire a Calamity, [...]o you will be sure of no little Share in that Calamity. Be sure your Sin will find you out, as that of your Brethren [...]n the East, has done Them, and their Trading Houses; [...]he Objects on whom you have Sinn'd, may be the Agents [...]y whom you shall be Plagued; and God may give you Blood to Drink in Revenge of the Drink with which [...]ou have poisoned and ruined the Souls of them, that He will now Commission to be the Executioners of His Wrath upon you, even, a Wrath unto the uttermost.

These are some of the Faithful Admonitions, which [...] the Name and Fear of God, were to be set before [...]ou. And for the Conclusion of them, I Admonish [...]ou to meditate on that awful Word of God, in

Being then at length terrified, by the terrible Wo, which you have incurred, by Selling the Indi­ans Drink, and putting your Bottle unto them, to make them Drunk, that you may get their Money, or their Peltry, or perhaps their Corn from them, I hope, you will even mingle your Tears with your Drink, for what you have done. I hope you will Fly to the Mercy of God, in the Blood of the Lo [...]d Jesus Christ, that your Bloody Sin may [...]e forgiven. I hope, you will Resolve to For [...]bear the Detestable Trade for the Time to come and believe that there will be nothing Lost by Despising & Detesting the Gains of such a Trade.

The little that a Righteous man enjoys, with the peace of his own Conscience, will be far bette [...] than all the Riches of all the wicked men, tha [...] have gone to Enrich themselves, by Debauch [...]ing the Thirsty Salvages, who are never bette [...] pleased than in adding Drunkenness unto their Thirst.