Evil

The wisest men in all times have bewailed the great amount of human misery which we see with our eyes before we pass into eternity—diseases, death, want, our own errors, by which we bring harm and punishment on ourselves, hostile men, unfaithfulness on the part of those with whom we are closely connected, banishment, abuse, desertion, miserable children, public and domestic strife, wars, murder, and devastation. And since such things appear to befall good and bad without distinction, many wise men have inquired whether there were any providence, or whether accident brings everything to pass independent of a divine purpose. But we in the Church know that the first and principal cause of human woe is this: that on account of sin man is made subject to death and other calamity, which is so much more vehement in the Church, because the devil, from the hatred toward God, makes fearful assaults on the Church and strives to destroy it utterly.

Sin is the greatest evil in all the world; it is the only thing God abhors, and that brought Jesus Christ to the cross, that damns souls, that shuts heaven, and that has laid the foundations of hell! Oh! It is the pricking thorn in my eye, the deadly arrow in my side, the two-edged sword that has wounded my conscience, and slain my comforts, and separated between God and my soul. Oh! Sin is that which has hindered my prayers, and embittered my mercies, and put a sting into all my crosses; and therefore I can’t but disapprove of it, and disallow of it, and condemn it to death, indeed, to hell, from whence it came.

Thorns will not prick of themselves, but when they are grasped in a man’s hand they prick deep. So this world and the things thereof are all good, and were all made by God for the benefit of his creatures, if our immoderate affection did not make them hurtful, which indeed embitters every sweet unto us. This is the root of all evil. When once a man’s heart is set upon the world, how does he set light by God, and the peace of his conscience, to attain his ends!