Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi; Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis; atque futura; Et vini bonitas; et quælibet altera causa.[174] which has been rendered into English:-- If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons we should drink: Good wine, a friend, or being dry, Or lest we should be by-and-by, Or any other reason why. Plenty of voices were raised against the current vice. By far the most powerful warning was uttered by the Rev. Dr. William Assheton, Fellow of Brasenose,[175] who opens his discourse thus fearlessly:-- Their Majesties, being sensible that as Righteousness exalteth a nation, so sin is a reproach to any people; and being desirous to reform the lives and manners of all their subjects, have commanded the clergy to Preach frequently against those particular sins and vices which are most prevailing in this realm--viz. against Blasphemy, Swearing, Cursing, Perjury, Drunkenness, and Prophanation of the Lord’s day. He reminds that the Act of Parliament calls the sin of drunkenness ‘odious and loathsom.’ He urges:-- The known ends of drink are these: the digestion of our meat, chearfulness and refreshment of our spirits, and the preserving of health. And whilst it contributes to those ends, so far Drinking is regular and moderate; but when it destroys them, ‘tis irregular and sinful. When therefore wine or any other drink is taken in such excess that by overloading nature it hinders digestion, drowns and suffocates the spirits, disorders the faculties, hinders the free use of reason, and thereby makes men unfit for business, and indisposeth them either for civil or religious duties, then its use is irregular and immoderate, and consequently sinful. He refers to Isaiah v. 11, 22, Prov. xxiii. 29, Luke xxi. 34, Rom. xiii. 13. He dilates on the sad consequence of excess to soul, body, estate, and good name. He asks:-- What sin is so heinous which a man intoxicated may not commit? The reason is plainly this: _Erranti terminus nullus_. An intemperate man is under no conduct: he is neither under God’s keeping, nor his own. He hath quenched God’s Spirit, whilst he inflamed his own. And again:-- When fancy is rampant, and sensual inclinations are let loose, you little know what advantage the devil can make of such a juncture.... Wine, if immoderately taken, is very Poyson, which, though it destroys not immediately, yet kills as sure as the rankest dose that was ever presented by Italian hand.