A guide to godliness or a Treatise of a Christian life showing the dutiesA guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties

A third cause of peace to an ill conscience, is carnal security, which doth not take away the guilt and punishment of sin, but only serveth as the devils cradle, to rock us asleep, that we may have no sense and feeling of it. Whereof it fareth with us, as with men sick of dangerous diseases, whose sleep bringeth not health, but a cessation of pain, through the binding up of the senses, who, after they are awakened, do feel themselves more sick then before. And as it bringeth us asleep in sin, so the devil and our corrupt flesh do by it lull conscience a sleep also, lest being disquieted, it should disquiet us, and waken us with clamour and crying: And intending to sack the city of our souls, he maketh the Watch man drunk with this poisonous and intoxicating cup, that he may not sound the alarm, nor give us any warning to prepare for resistance. Now this security being continued and increased, groweth at last to hardness of heart, in the highest and worst degree, which neglecteth and contemneth all means whereby it might be softened, and to a reprobate sense, carrying men on in the course of sinning with greediness and delight. And when they are come to this pass, their consciences also increase in their carnal peace, their deep sleep causing a lethargy, and their lethargy death. Such consciences, from a sleepy numbness, fall into a dead palsy, having no sense of sin or smart; unto which they grow, by often quenching the good motions of the Spirit, speaking unto them in the ministry of the Word, and by customable committing of known sins, without repentance or remorse. For as festering sores, not cleansed by salves and corrosives, quickly gangrene, and running from part to part, destroy the whole body; so if we do not cleanse our sores of sin, by renewing our faith and repentance, they will corrupt the whole man, even conscience it self, and make it become dead and senseless. Such are the consciences of those, of whom the Apostle speaketh, who departing from the faith, and speaking lies in hypocrisy, have