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A TREATISE

ON THE NATURE, PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES,

INCLUDING

The Wines of the Scriptures

WITH

ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS

TO THE

Mine Question Tee-totally Considered,

BY THE

REV. FRANCIS BEARDSALL,

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION

OF TEMPERANCE.

ALSO,

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF F. B's. CONTINENTAL WINE TOUR.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

"Abstain from all appearance of evil."

TEMPERANCE PLEDGE.-"I abstain from, and discountenance the use
all intoxicating beverages."

< LONDON;

J. PASCO, 90, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

MANCHESTER: W. P. ELLERBY, PRINTER.

MDCCCXXXIX.

of

Soc439110

PREFACE.

THERE is no trait in the character of our beloved country so interesting and divine as her benevolence; in this she stands pre-eminent, exhibiting the true charity of the Gospel, and, like its author, seeking to diffuse her blessings far and wide. England has given birth to many Godlike Institutions, which contemplate, as their end, "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. Christian philanthropy has been called forth to enterprising effort by existing evils, and the antidote has been applied with varying success; but the page of history does not record an instance in which Christian philanthropy has more deeply sympathized with the victims of depravity, more promptly met, or more successfully contended with evil, than in the operations of the Temperance Society; and though America claims the honour of forming the first of these Institutions, yet to England* the praise is due for those improvements and that extension of principle which, in fact, have formed a new Society, designated by the significant term TEE-TOTAL.I

Great and glorious will be the day when this truly scriptural principle shall be universally adopted by the inhabitants of these highly favoured realms. But alas! it is deeply to be deplored, that many, whose professed principles of Christianity, if rightly directed, would make them leaders in this great Moral Reformation, stand opposed; and beclouded by the great delusion, they imagine themselves sanctioned by the Scriptures, and contend most earnestly

* See the Report of the Oak Street Manchester Temperance Society, where the Society was first relieved of the moderation incubus, and where, with all the characteristic firmness of the Oak, the principle has been maintained and propagated in the midst of storm and tempest.

+ A Lancashire provincialism, meaning the final discharge of all intoxicating beverages.

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for the moderate use of inebriating wines, &c. Such opposition, arising, we believe, from the want of correct views on the wine question, has led the author of this treatise to a minute investigation of the subject, and he now yields to the repeated solicitations of the friends of temperance, by giving publicity to the following observations.

For the protection of the moral character of some who do not see it their duty to adopt the principles of Tee-totalism, the author begs to state his convictions that there are, among those who vend and use intoxicating wines, &c., some of "the excellent of the earth," and he feels assured, while he cultivates the charity" which "hopeth all things," that the truly pious have only to be convinced that they labour under a great delusion to induce them to abandon all intoxicating beverages, and unite themselves with the little band who are coming up "to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

The author is aware that many sincere and zealous friends of the temperance cause entertain doubts and fears as to the propriety of attempting to solve the confessed difficulties of the wine question, but he hopes such fears will be dissipated by a careful perusal of the following facts, and that, ere long, we shall all cordially unite in carrying out, more zealously, the ennobling principle of Tee-totalism.

THE WINE QUESTION.

In character with the title of this treatise, the author proposes to answer the following questions :—

1. What is wine?

2. What were the wines of the Ancients?
3. What were the wines of the Scriptures?
4. What are the wines of the Moderns?
5. What is the physical influence of wines?
6. What the moral influence?

7. What are the popular objections to the wine question tee-totally considered?

8. What is the duty of christians in reference to the wine question ?

WHAT IS WINE?

QUESTION I.

It is of the first importance that this inquiry should be fairly met, in order to obviate the difficulties which stand on the threshold of the wine question. The assertion has been repeated, and most obstinately maintained, by men of celebrity, that "the term wine necessarily implies an alcoholic beverage, and consequently, is inapplicable to the unfermented juice of grape," &c. We maintain, in opposition to this assertion, that the unfermented juice of grape, &c., has a legitimate claim to the term wine, and that that term, in strict propriety, can be applied to an intoxicating beverage only in an accommodating sense. We are aware that blind custom, advocated by some learned men, who evidently do not prove all things, has confined its ideas of wine to an alcoholic beverage, and we also know that the excise laws of England recognise this principle; but these facts do not furnish a satisfactory solution of the question, they prove rather the want of correct information on the subject, as will be hereafter shown.

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