A77976:347
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.
CHAP. XXXII.
Ninthly, Sin is a greater Evil to man than Affliction, because it breaks the Union between God and the Soul.
Ninthly, Sin is a greater Evil to man than Affliction, because it breaks the Ʋnion between God and the Soul.
Ninthly, Sin is a greater evil than Affliction in this, In that it is the very thing that breaks the Union between God and the Soul: It is that doth it, and no Affliction doth it. Now Brethren, this I confess might seem to be less than that of Hatred, and might have come before it; but now I bring it in here, That it breaks the Union between God and the Soul, Isa. 59. 2. Your Sins have separated between you and your God! We are to know, The Souls of men are capable of a very near and high Union between God and them; the more spiritual any thing is, the more power hath it to Unite, and the more near the Union: As thus, The beams of the Sun because they be very spiritual, they can Unite a thousand of them into one Point as it were; but grosser things cannot so Unite themselves together. So Brethren, God being a Spirit, and our Souls being Spirits, they come to be capable of a most near Communion one with another. And the Souls of men are nearer a glorious Union with God, in this regard more near than any Creature but the Angels. Because the Object of ⟨p. 283⟩mans Understanding is not any particular truth, but Veritas, truth in general, truth it self in the whole latitude is the Object of mans Understanding. So the Object of mans Will, Is not this good, or that good in particular; but Bonitas, good in general, in the full latitude of it. It is not so with other Creatures, they have their Objects in some particular thing, in such a limit and compass, and they can work no further, nor higher. But it is otherwise with mans Soul, God hath made man in such a kind, that the Object of his Soul should be Truth and Goodness in the full latitude, in the infiniteness of it, take it in the utmost extent that can be, yet still it is the Object of the Soul of man. Now hence it is that the Soul of man is of such a wonderful large extent, even capable of God himself, of enjoyment of Union and Communion with God himself, which otherwise could not be. No other Creature hath to do with infiniteness, nor can have to do with it but men and Angels, and upon that ground, because God hath made them of such a nature so large that their Faculties should be of so large a nature. Now hence it is that man being capable of the enjoyment of God in such a glorious manner: We have these Expressions in Scripture, He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit: