The Christian in Complete Armour

Use 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickedness of mans nature is, which is so hard to be known, because it can never be seen at once, it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the stream of actual sin (that is visible, and may seem little) but in the spring that ⟨p. 257⟩uncessantly feeds this, but here is a glass that will give us the shape of our hearts truly like themselves. Seest thou the monstrous pitch and height of wickedness that is in the devil, all this there is in the heart of every man, there is no less wickedness potentially in the tamest sinner on earth, then in the devils themselves, and that one day thou whoever thou art wilt show to purpose, if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace, thou art not yet fledged, thy wings are not grown to make thee a flying Dragon▪ but thou art of the same brood, the seed of this serpent is in thee, and the devil begets a child like himself; thou yet standest in a soil not so proper for the ripening of sin, which will not come to its fullness till transplanted unto hell. Thou who art here so maidenly and modest, as to blush at some sins out of shame, and forbear the acting of others out of fear: when there thou shalt see thy case as desperate as the devil doth his, then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stuffed, with the same malice that he doth. The Indians have a conceit that when they die, they shall be transformed into the deformed likeness of the devil, therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and the devil; sin makes the wicked like him before they come there, but indeed they will come to their countenance more fully there, when those flames shall wash off that paint, which here hides their complexion. The Saints in heaven shall be like the Angels in their alacrity, love and constancy to serve God, and the damned like the devils in sin as well as punishment. This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottome a sinner, and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself. It is easy to run down a person whose life is wicked, and convince him of the evil of his actions, and make him confess what he doth is evil; but here is the thicket we lose him in, he will say, 'tis true, I am overseen, I do what I should not, God forgive me: but my heart is good. Thy heart good, sinner?

Ʋse 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickednesse of mans nature is, which is so hard to be known, because it can never be seen at once, it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the streame of actual sinne (that is visible, and may seem little) but in the spring that