Captives bound in chains made free

1. False repentance is a strengthening of false hopes, and many times the more the sinner is troubled for his sin, the faster he is bound in his sinful captive state; the more tears do fall from thine eyes, the faster are thy fetters locked upon thy Soul, because as true repentance maketh way for a well-grounded peace of conscience, and for solid comfort, so a false and counterfeit repentance afterwards makes the sinner more secure, and doth strengthen his mistake concerning his spiritual condition, he hath sinned▪ and he hath sorrowed, and now he thinketh all is well; and the Devil hath him faster in his hold than he had before.

1. False repentance is a strengthning of false hopes, and many times the more the sinner is troubled for his sin, the faster he is bound in his sinful captive state; the more tears do fall from thine eyes, the faster are thy fetters lockt upon thy Soul, because as true repentance maketh way for a well-grounded peace of conscience, and for solid comfort, so a false and counterfeit repentance afterwards makes the sinner more secure, and doth strengthen his mistake concerning his spiritual condition, he hath sinned▪ and he hath sorrowed, and now he thinketh all is well; and the Devil hath him faster in his hold than he had before.

2. Terrors of Conscience for sin, though great and grievous, in so much that thou art restless and weary of thy life, are no argument that of a captive thou art made free. Hast thou ever been so much troubled as was Cain? or hast thou ever been so filled with amazing horrors ⟨p. 97⟩as was Judas? and yet these were captives to the Devil still, and are bound in chains of sin, and guilt, and punishment, to this day, and so shall be for ever; and who have greater terrors, reprovings and reproaches from their own consciences, than the damned in Hell? and these terrors in thy soul and conscience, might be the fore-runners and beginning of those hellish horrors thou shalt be filled with in another world.