A09466:157
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he may discern it, and persevere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set down in the page following.A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he maie discerne it, and perseuere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set downe in the page following.
London: printed by R. Robinson for T. Gubbin, 1590
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
XXVII.
The slumbering & dead conscience is much ⟨p. 60⟩like to the good conscience pacified, & many1 through ignorance take the one for the other. But they may be severed and discerned thus. First, let the believing Christian examine himself, whether his conscience was afflicted with the sense of Gods judgements, and pressed down with the burden of his sin before he came to that quietness: for then he may be in good hope, that it was the Spirit of God who brought that peace, because God hath promised fThat he will dwell with the humble and contrite, to revive and quicken them. But if he have always had that peace from the beginning of his days, he may easily deceive himself, by taking the numbness and security of a defiled conscience for true peace of conscience. Secondly, let him search from whence this3 peace of his conscience proceedeth. gFor if it come from any thing else but from the certainty of the remission of sin, it is no true peace: as many, flattering themselves in sin, and dreaming of a pardon, are thereupon quieted, and the Devil is ready enough to put this into their minds: but this can be no true peace. Thirdly, let him examine himself, if he have a care to keep a good conscience: which if he have, he ⟨p. 61⟩