Remains of that reverend and learned divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in…Remaines of that reverend and learned divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in…

Fourthly, sin is the greatest evil, if you consider ¹the medicine that must come to heal it, Christ must lay down his glory for a time, he must abase himself, he must come from heaven to earth, he must take our nature upon him, and humble himself unto a cursed death, before sin can be healed, now put them altogether: sin is ⟨p. 210⟩evil by nature: Again it is evil, because it deprives us of the greatest good, both within us, and without us, it is the cause of all diseases, shame, and reproach; such an evil that nothing will heal, but the blood of Christ: look upon sin thus clothed, and it will appear the greatest evil: Make conscience therefore of little sins, for they bring great evils; though the sands of the Seas be but little, yet a many heaped together, make a great burden; so sin though but in an idle word, thought, or behaviour, seem to be but a little sin, yet lay many of them together, and they will break the soul, and make it barren, and unfit to good; if a man owe but little debts, yet if they be many, if he look and cast them up in the total, he will find himself presently to be but a bankrupt; so it is with sin, what though the sin be but a little sin, yet give this a little vent, put it to action, and this sin will prove a great sin; give once consent, and in time it will be a reigning sin: and when it is thus, then it turns the soul into evil, sets it on a rage, imprisons it, makes it to obey, and to be a slave to Satan, now what greater evil can there be then sin: thus much for the first means to get the Judgement rectified, which will see sin, so as to humble it.

Fourthly, sinne is the greatest evill, if you consider ¹the medicine that must come to heale it, Christ must lay downe his glory for a time, hee must abase himselfe, hee must come from heaven to earth, he must take our nature upon him, and humble himselfe unto a cursed death, before sinne can be healed, now put them altogether: sinne is ⟨p. 210⟩evill by nature: Againe it is evill, because it deprives us of the greatest good, both within us, and without us, it is the cause of all diseases, shame, and reproach; such an evill that nothing will heale, but the blood of Christ: looke upon sinne thus cloathed, and it will appeare the greatest evill: Make conscience therefore of little sinnes, for they bring great evils; though the sands of the Seas be but little, yet a many heaped together, make a great burthen; so sinne though but in an idle word, thought, or behaviour, seeme to be but a little sinne, yet lay many of them together, and they will breake the soule, and make it barren, and unfit to good; if a man owe but little debts, yet if they be many, if he looke and cast them up in the totall, hee will finde himselfe presently to bee but a bankerupt; so it is with sinne, what though the sinne be but a little sinne, yet give this a little vent, put it to action, and this sinne will proove a great sinne; give once consent, and in time it will be a raigning sinne: and when it is thus, then it turnes the soule into evill, sets it on a rage, imprisons it, makes it to obey, and to be a slave to Sathan, now what greater evill can there bee then sinne: thus much for the first meanes to get the Iudgement rectified, which will see sinne, so as to humble it.