A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Fifthly, and Lastly, If there be so Use 5 great Evil and Danger in little Sins, this then should teach us,¹ not to make light of any Sin. Load every Sin with its due Weight, give every Sin its proper Aggravations, and then certainly you will see no Reason to account any of them to be small or little. To help you in this, take briefly these Directions.

Fifthly, and Lastly, If there be so Ʋse 5 great Evil and Danger in little Sins, this then should teach us,¹ not to make light of any Sin. Load every Sin with its due Weight, give every Sin its proper Aggravations, and then certainly you will see no Reason to account any of them to be small or little. To help you in this, take briefly these Directions.

1. 1We should take heed of making light of any Sin.

First, Pray earnestly for a wise and an understanding Heart, and for a soft and tender Conscience. Some Sins so Counterfeit an harmless appearance, and look so innocently, that a Man had need of much spiritual Wisdom, to know how to distinguish between Good and Evil, and to put a difference between those things, that differ as much as Heaven and Hell do: Now this ariseth from that great blindness and ignorance that is in Mens minds, whereby they cannot discern that great evil and mischief that lurks under small Sins, but are apt to account every thing that is not scandalous and grossly wicked to be but an indifferent matter: And as their Minds are thus blinded, so their Hearts are hardened, that what they see and know to be sinful, yet they will dare to venture upon it: Whence is it else that the generality of the World live in the Commission of those that they call little Sins, but because their Hearts are hardened, and their Consciences seared, that those Sins that are great enough to Damn them, yet are not great enough to trouble them. A tender Conscience is like the Apple of a mans Eye, the least dust