The Soul's Preparation for Christ

Thus it was with Mary Magdalen: & the reason why it is so,¹ is this: because the heart that hath been broken for sin, and burdened with the evil of it, hath now found by woeful experience, that sin is the greatest evil of all others: and therefore (for the preservation of it self) it will hate that sin which separates between God and the Soul, and with which the safety of the soul cannot stand.

Thus it was with Mary Magdalen: & the reason why it is so,¹ is this: because the heart that hath beene broken for sinne, and burdened with the evill of it, hath now found by wofull experience, that sinne is the greatest evill of all others: and therefore (for the preservation of it selfe) it will hate that sinne which separates betweene God and the Soule, and with which the safety of the soule cannot stand.

1. 1Luke 7.38.

Every thing in reason desires the safety and preservation of it self; the soul knows sin to be the greatest enemy, and therefore it is most envenomed with violence against sin, and •aith, Whence come all these miseries? and what is the mint out of which all these plagues ⟨p. 254⟩and Judgements come? Is it not my sin? It is not poverty, it is not sickness, nor disgrace that pincheth me, but my sin first caused all these.

Every thing in reason desires the safety and preservation of it selfe; the soule knowes sinne to be the greatest enemy, and therefore it is most invenomed with violence against sinne, and aith, Whence come all these miseries? and what is the mint out of which all these plagues