The Great Gain of Godliness by Thomas Watson

"A secure sinner thinks all is well, because all is in peace. He hears others speak of a 'spirit of bondage', and the terrors they have felt for sin, yet he thanks God that he never knew what trouble of spirit meant; he thinks his conscience is good because it is quiet. When the devil keeps the palace 'all is in peace' (Luke 11:21). The Philosopher [Aristotle] says, one great sign of an earthquake is excessive calmness of air. Ungrounded peace presages an earthquake of conscience." p. 23

"To be holiest in evil times is an indication of the truth of grace. To profess religion when the times favour it is no great matter. Almost all will court the Gospel Queen when she is hung with jewels. But to own the ways of God when they are decried and maligned, to love a persectued truth, this evidences a vital principle of goodness. Dead fish swim down the stream, living fish swim against it. To swim against the common stream of evil shows grace to be alive...Let us keep up the vigour of our zeal in degenerate times...Sin is never the better because it is in fashion, nor will this plea hold at the last day, that we did as the most. God will say, Seeing you sinned with the multitude, you shall go to hell with the multitude. Oh, let us keep pure among the dregs; let us be like fish that retain their freshness in salt waters; and as the lamp which shone in the smoking furnace (Gen. 15:17).

...Let all this make us maintain the power of holiness in the worst times. Though others wonder we do not sin after the rate that they do, yet remember, it is better to go to heaven with a few than to hell in the crowd."