And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess
The sin of drunkenness here dehorted from, is a custom, or habit,
of voluntary excessive drinking of any strong liquor, whereby the
mind is disturbed, and deprived of the use of reason: though wine
is only here mentioned, that being the usual liquor drank in the
eastern countries, yet the same holds good of any other strong
liquor, as of that; nor is drinking wine for necessary use
prohibited, nor for honest delight and lawful pleasure; but
excessive drinking of it, and this voluntary, and with design,
and on purpose; otherwise persons may be overtaken and
intoxicated, through ignorance of the strength of the liquor, and
their own weakness; and it is a custom, or habit of excessive
drinking, for not a single act, but a series of actions, a course
of living in this sin, denominates a man a drunkard; and
generally speaking, excessive drinking deprives persons of the
use of reason, though not always; and such are criminal, who are
mighty to drink wine, and strong to mingle strong drink; as are
also such, who though not guilty of this sin themselves, are the
means of it in others: the sin is very sinful; it is one of the
works of the flesh; it is an abuse of the creature; it is opposed
to walking honestly; for it persons are to be excluded from the
communion of the church; and, without the grace of true
repentance, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven: many things
might be said to dissuade from it; it hurts the mind, memory, and
judgment; deprives of reason, and sets a man below a beast; it
brings diseases on the body, and wastes the estate; it unfits for
business and duty; it opens a door for every sin, and exposes to
shame and danger; and therefore should be carefully avoided, and
especially by professors of religion:
but be filled with the Spirit;
that is, "with the Holy Spirit", as read the Vulgate Latin and
Ethiopic versions; with the gifts and graces of the Spirit: some
have been filled with them in an extraordinary way, as the
apostles on the day of Pentecost; and others in an ordinary
manner, as common believers; and who may be said to be filled
with the Spirit, as with wine, or instead of it, or in opposition
to it, when the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the
Spirit, which is compared to wine, for its antiquity, purity, and
refreshing nature; and they are filled with it, who have a
comfortable sense of it, and a firm persuasion of interest in it,
and are delighted with the views of it, and are as it were
inebriated with it; and they are filled with the Spirit, in whom
his grace is a well of living water, and out of whose belly flow
rivers of it; and who have a large measure of spiritual peace and
joy, expressed in the following manner.