A guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties wherein it consisteth, the helpes inabling & the reasons parswading vnto it ye impediments hindering ye practise of it, and the best meanes to remoue them whereunto are added diuers prayers and a treatise of carnall securitie by Iohn Douname Batcheler in Diuinitie and minister of Gods Word.

§. 5 That carnall securitie is a most dange∣rous sicknesse of the soule.

But that wee may bee moued to abhor this sinne of carnall securitie with greater hatred, let vs further consider, that it is a most fearefull and pernicious vice, which hath in it all relations of ill, being not only in it selfe exceeding euil, but also the cause of many & grieuous euils. In it selfe it is a disease of the soule most dangerous and desperate, vnlesse it be cured by vnfayned repentance; for there is no disease more perni∣cious to the spirituall Patient, sicke in sinne, then the stone in heart, or if you will an heart of stone; no stone so hard and hardly broken. For though the voyce of the Lord bee so powerfull and full of Maiestie, that it breaketh the Cedars, shaketh the earth and maketh it to tremble; yea, renteth the Rocks, turning them into a standing water, and the Flint it selfe into a Fountaine of waters, as the Psalmist speaketh; yet it moueth not the secure and stonie heart, nor resolueth it into the teares of repentance; and therefore we reade that when the Word of God by the Prophet was so mightie, that it claue insunder the stonie Altar, yet the more hard and stonie heart of Ieroboam, was not at all affected and pierced with it; but notwithstanding all Gods terrible Threatnings he goeth on securely in his sinne. It is (as the Prophet calleth it) that Spirit of deepe sleepe, which closeth vp mens eyes, and de∣priueth

them of the spirituall vse of their senses and vnderstanding, making the Vision and Word of the Lord, as the words of a Booke which is sealed; so as Gods Ministers may complayne of such, as hee doth in the same place, that they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drinke. Neither is it an ordinarie sleepe, but that dangerous Lethargie of the soule, which maketh men as vnfit to all holy duties and spirituall exercises, as death it selfe makes them vnapt and vnable to performe any naturall or morall actions. It is the De∣uils cradle, in which he lulleth men asleepe, so as he may do with them what he pleaseth; that deadly stinging Viper which bringeth them into the deepe slumber of death and destruction; and that Cart of Hell, which in the darke night of Ignorance, carrieth quietly and without noyse, huge multitudes into the Pit of euerlasting death. Fi∣nally, it is that Circes, that Syren, that Witch, which transformeth men into bruit beasts, and depriueth them not onely of all grace, but euen of naturall reason and vnderstanding. It is a seeming peace, more dangerous then any warre; and in outward appearance a quiet calme, but in truth the most perillous tempest, in which many millions of soules doe suffer shipwracke, and sinke into the gulfe of endlesse perdition.

Notes

• Psal. 29. 4, 5. & 114. 8. Num. 20. 11.
• 1. King. 13.
• Esa. 29. 9, 10, 11.
• Nimia securitas mentis tempestas est. Gregor. in Moral.