Chapter VI. That the worm of Conscience ought here to be felt, and by little and little extinguished; and not to be cherished and nourished to immortality

That therefore we may return to the Voice we spoke of above, whilst there is a way open thither, whither his Salvation shews us, who with so great piety and compassion calls back thither Prevaricators. Nor in the mean time let it be irksome to feel the bitings of the internal Worm, nor let a dangerous sowerness of mind, or a pernicious softness prevail with us to dissemble our present trouble. Then the Worm is best felt, when there is also a possible capacity of choaking it. Therefore let it bite now, that it may die, and by little and little cease to bite. In the mean time by biting, let it gnaw upon putrefaction, that gnawing upon it, it may consume it, and it self altogether with it be consumed, and not be nourished to immortality. Their worm, says he, shall not die, and their fire shall not be put out, Isa. 66. Who shall be able to endure from the face of those bitings? For at present many little Consolations do mitigate the torture of the reprehending Conscience. God is good, not suffering us to be tempted above our strength; nor does he suffer this worm to molest and vex us beyond all measure, especially in the beginnings of our Conversion he supples our wounds with the Oil of Mercy; that neither the quantity of our Disease, nor the difficulty of its Cure may be further made known to us than is expedient; but rather a certain facility seems to smile upon us, which afterwards vanishes away; when now to him that has his senses exercised, a strong Combat is given, that he may overcome, and learn that Wisdom is powerful over all. In the mean time, he that hears the Voice of the Lord, Return to your heart O ye Prevaricators, and finds so many obscenities in his inward Bed-chamber, he's very busy in searching every corner, and being very curious, he seeks by what passage all this filth flowed in, and without any great difficulty the hole, yea the holes are manifest unto him. But neither is this consideration cause of a little grief unto him, when that through his own windows death is found to have entred. For that the curiosity of the eyes seems to have let in much filth, the itching of the ears much, and much also the pleasure of Smelling, Tasting, and Touching. For as for spiritual vices, (of which are made mention above) he being carnal, hardly yet examines them as they are. Whence it comes to pass that he has less sense, or none at all, of those things which are more grievous; nor is he bitten so much with the remembrance of Pride and Envy, as with the remembrance of certain flagitious and facinorous acts.