338 The Evil of Evils, Or the fafe : examine, how is it ? are not your heart more hard thanbefore ? are you notmore gree- dy upon Sin than before? know then that is a dangerous fign that that affli6lionwas but fent to ripen you for deffruion and eternal mifery though you be efcaped fbr a time, yet theyonly were ripeners to haften you to everlal.iing de- firuCtion. And in thefe things confifts theCurfe of fn; in all evils that befal us. î his is the Third. Fourthly, Sin is the Evil of all Evils, For it is the fhame ofall evils; it is that whichmaks any a f içlion to be a'hale to its : I remember be fore in the opening the nature of Sin as it is a- gain11 our owngood, there I {hewed, Sin was a fhame to the Soul; whether there be afflition or no; but now I am to (hewyou how.(in puts fhame into other evils, not only brings fhame to our felves, but puts a fhame upon the evils' and afflictions that -are or (hall be upon us : As thus, AMalefactor is ffigmatized, is branded; well, there is pain to his body in the branding, and then there is the fhamë that is in thebrand that goeth along with the pain; and therefore it is, that it might be a Noteof perpetual (name and reproach. So in Afili&ions, there is the pain oftheAffliction, and then there is the fhame that is upon men through the afll.i lion. Letmenbe brandLd, and if it be not for their fin, if it be for Righteoufnefs,then their brands are honorable, let thembe ligmatizednever fo much; lettheir Ears be cut of, and brandedwith an s. or any other brand in the cheeks,or foreheads; if it be for
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