A77976:294
The Evil of Evils
The eighth book of Mr Jeremiah Burroughs. Being a treatise of the evil of evils, or the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Wherein is showed, 1 There is more evil in the least sin, than there is in the greatest affliction. 2 Sin is most opposite to God. 3 Sin is most opposite to mans good. 4 Sin is opposite to all good in general. 5 Sin is the poison, or evil of all other evils. 6 Sin hath a kind of infiniteness in it. 7 Sin makes a man conformable to the Devil. All these several heads are branched out into very many particulars. / Published by Thomas Goodwin, William Bridge, Sydrach Simpson, William Adderly, [double brace] William Greenhil, Philip Nigh, John Yates.The eighth book of Mr Jeremiah Burroughs. Being a treatise of the evil of evils, or the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Wherein is shewed, 1 There is more evil in the least sin, than there is in the greatest affliction. 2 Sin is most opposite to God. 3 Sin is most opposite to mans good. 4 Sin is opposite to all good in general. 5 Sin is the poyson, or evil of all other evils. 6 Sin hath a kind of infiniteness in it. 7 Sin makes a man conformable to the Devil. All these several heads are branched out into very many particulars. / Published by Thomas Goodwyn, William Bridge, Sydrach Sympson, William Adderly, [double brace] William Greenhil, Philip Nye, John Yates.
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1654
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, more Generally thus, Sin is against Man more than any Affliction. For,
FIrst, more Generally thus, Sin is against Man more than any Affliction. For,
First, Sin makes a man to be evil: no Affliction makes him to be evil but only Sin: I beseech you observe it, a man or woman is not a worse man or woman because afflicted, not worse than they were before; but sin makes the man or the woman to be worse: and there is a great deal in this to show the evil of sin to be beyond the evil of affliction. Take a man that is never so sorely afflicted, suppose the affliction to be as ⟨p. 141⟩grievous as the afflictions of Job, suppose a man scraping off his Sores upon the dunghill as Job did, this Affliction makes him not a worse man than he was before; only it may occasion sin sometimes, and so make him worse: but take Job, considered in his afflictions only, and he was not a worse man than in the greatest prosperity, when the Candle of the Lord shined upon him, and all his parts, only it occasioned some sin in Job, otherwise he had not been the worse; and in conclusion he was not the worse, for as it occasioned some sin, so it stirred up a great deal of grace; as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 8. 8, 9. For neither if we eat, are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse: So I may say of all outward things in the world: If a man have riches, it makes him not the better; if he be in poverty, it makes him not the worse: if he have honour, he is not better; if disgrace, he is not worse, his condition may be worse, but himself not at all the worse: Therefore you shall observe it, that when the Scriptures speaks of Gods people afflicted, yet it speaks of them as most honourable, and in a most excellent condition notwithstanding their afflictions: but when it speaks of some in great prosperity, but wicked, it speaks of them as most contemptible and vile. I will give you an example of each, the most remarkable in all the Book of God.