A profound exploration of why sin is worse than any suffering. Burroughs demonstrates that even the smallest sin contains more evil than the greatest affliction.
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Jeremiah Burroughs wrote this searching work to help Christians understand the true nature of sin. His thesis is startling: the smallest sin contains more evil than the greatest affliction. Even the torments of hell, terrible as they are, contain less evil than one sinful thought. This is not hyperbole but sober theological truth, and Burroughs spends the entire book proving it.
The work begins by examining Job 36:21, where Elihu accuses Job of choosing wickedness rather than affliction. Though the accusation was false against Job, it describes what many people actually do every day. They choose sin to avoid suffering, not realizing that in doing so they choose the greater evil to escape the lesser.
Burroughs demonstrates his point from multiple angles. He shows that affliction contains some good while sin contains none. Affliction can be sanctified and used as an instrument of blessing; sin cannot. Affliction comes from God's love; sin never does. Affliction has promises attached to it; sin has only curses.
The examples of the martyrs provide powerful illustration. These servants of God chose the most horrific tortures rather than commit the smallest sin against their consciences. They understood what most people do not: that sin is the true evil, and suffering is comparatively light. Even Christ, who bore the wrath of God for sinners, would never have committed one sin to save the world.
This book is not designed to make readers morbid but to make them wise. When we understand the true evil of sin, we will flee from it as from a serpent. We will stop treating it lightly. We will see our desperate need for Christ, the only remedy for so great an evil.
This modern translation preserves Burroughs's powerful arguments while making them accessible to contemporary readers. For anyone who has grown careless about sin, this book is a needed wake-up call.
Why Choosing Sin Over Suffering Is the Worst Decision
"For this you have chosen rather than affliction" - Job 36:21
These words contain Elihu's false accusation against holy Job, in which he shamefully slandered this man of God. The Lord Himself had given Job a glowing testimonial: that he was perfect and upright, someone who feared God and turned away from evil (Job 1:1). Yet Elihu spoke against him with these charges: that Job chose wickedness over suffering, that he saw less evil in sin than he did in affliction, that his suffering troubled him but his sin did not, that the burden of his affliction weighed on him like a ton of lead while his sin felt lighter than a feather.
Put another way, Elihu accused Job of choosing wickedness rather than affliction. God required Job to give Him glory through humble submission and patience under His mighty hand. Instead, according to Elihu, Job behaved stubbornly and defiantly, refusing to give God the glory of His sovereignty, majesty, holiness, justice, and purity. Elihu claimed Job chose this path rather than accepting God's afflicting hand with contentment.
However we interpret it, this was a serious charge if it had been true. To accuse any soul of choosing wickedness rather than affliction is a grave and weighty accusation.
The doctrinal truth that emerges from these words is this: it is a very evil choice for any soul to choose the smallest sin rather than the greatest suffering. Better to endure the worst affliction than to live under the guilt or power of any sin. Now, it's true that neither sin nor affliction should be chosen. Affliction is an evil in itself, and sin is an evil. But the will aims at what is good, and choice belongs to the will. Therefore, neither one (considered simply as it is in itself) can be chosen. However, when we compare evils, the lesser evil may take on the appearance of good in relation to the greater evil, and so it may sometimes be chosen. The will cannot choose anything except under the appearance of good, whether real or merely perceived. Though affliction is evil in itself, when compared to sin it may appear as good, and that's why it should be chosen over sin.
This is the task before me: to prove this conclusion to you, that any affliction should be chosen over any sin. There is more evil in any sin (even the smallest sin) than in the greatest affliction.
My main goal is to confront people with the evil of their sin and show them just how much evil sin contains. Everyone fears affliction and gets troubled when hardship comes, but where is the person who fears sin, who runs from it like they would from a snake, who is more troubled by sin than by any affliction? That sin contains more evil than affliction: in general terms, I assume everyone grants this. No one would dare deny it. But because people don't see how this is true, they lack convincing arguments to bring this truth home to their souls with real power. However, I hope that before I finish with this point, I will make it clear to everyone's conscience that there is more evil in sin than in affliction. Not only more evil in sin than in outward trouble in the world, but more evil in sin than in all the miseries and torments of hell itself.
Suppose God were to bring any of you to the very edge of that bottomless pit and open it before you. There you would see those damned creatures lying and writhing under the wrath of the infinite God. There you would hear the dreadful and hideous cries and shrieks of those who are under such soul-crushing, soul-destroying torments through the wrath of the Almighty. Yet I say there is more evil in one sinful thought than there is in all those everlasting burnings. And that is what I will work to make clear and prove to every person's conscience: that we will not only see it as a terrible choice to choose sin rather than affliction, but (if it comes to a choice) to choose sin rather than all the tortures and torments of hell.
However easily many of you admit sin into your lives, the truth is this: if it came down to a choice between enduring all the torments that exist in hell for all eternity or committing one sin, I say that if our spirits were as they should be, we would rather be willing to endure all those torments than commit the least sin. And brothers and sisters, don't think this is an exaggeration. Those who come to speak in the name of God don't come to speak in hyperbole, to raise expressions higher than things really are. No, I don't come for that purpose, and I would be taking God's name in vain if I did so. Therefore I dare not raise things beyond what they really are in themselves.
So understand this: whatever I will say to you in this matter, these are not just words or expressions. I speak in the name of God as I would stake it on my own conscience, having to deal between God and you in this great work and in this place to deliver this truth: that there is more evil in the least sin than in all the miseries that a creature could possibly experience, either here or in hell. I hope that if I can make this clear to you, you will then believe that you have not yet understood the sinfulness of sin, that the burden of sin has not yet lain on you to be felt as the burden of sin truly is. Now then, let me fully convince you that there is more evil in the least sin than in any affliction.
The Martyrs' Choice: Torture Over Compromise
First, those servants of God who have been guided by His wisdom to make their choice have preferred the most severe and dreadful afflictions in this world over willingly committing the least sin. Think for a moment about what you've read or heard concerning the martyrs, and consider the hideous and grievous torments they suffered: their bodies boiled in scalding lead, their naked backs laid on hot gridirons, their limbs torn to pieces by horses, their flesh pulled from their bodies with pincers and red-hot burning tongs, their flesh scorched by broiling first on one side and then on the other. Even weak women endured this: having their flesh harrowed with stones and sharp irons, their bodies flayed and then thrown into rivers of freezing ice, and a thousand more tortures that hell and wicked men could devise.
They were content to endure all this, and certainly, if their tormentors could have devised ten thousand times more exquisite torments, they would have been content to endure those as well, and whatever else, rather than act against their consciences in the least sin. They considered this a good choice. When they saw sin against their consciences on one hand and all these torments on the other, they chose to embrace the tortures rather than embrace the sin. For this choice they are renowned in the hearts of the saints to all generations. Indeed, the Holy Spirit testifies that they have a good report (Heb 11). Those who suffered being sawed in two, scourging, and wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, in leather breeches and doublets, and suffered the spoiling of their goods and all they had: these had a good report, and the Holy Spirit commends them for their choice.
Many of you, when it comes down to it, will be more reluctant to lose a penny than to commit a sin, more reluctant to endure the least shame or a nickname than to commit a sin. Are there not many servants here, or children, who will tell a lie (when they have done something wrong) rather than suffer a little shame in the family from their parents, or masters, or fellow servants and children? What a difference there is between your heart and the heart of the martyrs! They could endure all tortures on their bodies that could be devised rather than commit any known sin against their consciences, and yet you will venture to commit a known sin against your conscience rather than be found out in some fault and receive an angry word or a little shame. If it's just to gain two pennies, you will tell a lie and are willing to choose sin rather than endure the least trouble. There's a mighty difference between you and them.
You know how it was with Paul. When he speaks of afflictions, these are his expressions: "light and momentary," "but for a moment," yet "they work an exceeding weight of glory" (2 Cor 4:17). Notice: light afflictions. What were they? You would consider them heavy if they were on you. Blessed Paul (that great vessel to bear the name of God, as great an instrument of God's glory as any in the world except Christ Himself, and yet this Paul) was whipped up and down as if he had been a rogue, put into the stocks, had no clothes to cover his nakedness, had no bread to eat, and was considered the scum of the world. Yet he considers all this merely light. But when he comes to sin, that is heavy: "O wretched man that I am!" (Rom 7:24). He gives a dreadful shriek at sin. See what a difference he makes between affliction and sin, and considers it abundantly more evil to be in sin than in affliction.
And so Christ Himself, who is the wisdom of the Father and therefore could not choose but judge rightly, was content for the sake of poor souls to come and undergo all kinds of affliction, pain, and sorrow, so as to be made a man of sorrows, according as the Scripture speaks. How He was content to have His body whipped and scourged, to be laughed at and scorned, and though He was possessor of heaven and earth, yet He had no house to put His head in. Indeed, He bore the wrath of God for the sin of man, was made a curse for man under the curse of the law, and was under such pain and extremity through the wrath of His Father that He sweat great drops of blood. All this Christ would endure. But if it had been to commit the least sin to save all the world, Christ would never have done it. Though Christ could be content to suffer all kinds of miseries, even the wrath of His Father, yet if it had been to commit the least sin, Christ would have let all the world be damned eternally rather than do that. There is so much evil in it.
Afflictions, taken in their full strength and extent, have no greater evil in them than Christ is capable of. I say, take them in their full strength and extent: certainly there was never any affliction since the world began endured like Christ's, and yet these are no other than Christ, God and man, is capable of. It may stand with the blessedness of His divinity that that person, both God and man, could be under such afflictions. Christ was content with these: He made His soul an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). But sin is so great an evil that Christ is not capable of it. Christ never entertained the least thought of it but cast it off if it came to Him. Therefore, certainly there is more evil in the least sin than there is in the greatest affliction.
The afflictions that Christ endured, though they were not in every way the same as those of the damned in hell, certainly involved the wrath of God as really and truly on Christ as truly as on the damned in hell (as really, though I do not say in every kind or in the same way and manner). Therefore, see: Christ was capable of that evil, of the wrath of the Almighty on His soul, and yet not capable of sin. He was willing to undergo that, and yet not to have the least guilt of sin applied to Him. Therefore, certainly there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.
The Framework: Why Affliction Is Better Than Sin
Now, for further arguments: though this one point alone should be enough to silence everyone in the world and make every soul acknowledge that there is greater evil in the smallest sin than in any affliction, I will expand on this argument at length. It is critically important for stopping people in their course of sin, humbling them for sin, making them resolve against sin, helping them see their miserable condition in sin, and ultimately leading them to see their need for Christ.
First, I will fully demonstrate that affliction is to be chosen rather than sin. First, because there is some good in affliction, but none in sin. Second, because sin has more evil in it than affliction.
First, affliction has some good in it, but sin has none. You know what David says: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted" (Ps 119:71). That's how he spoke of affliction. But when Paul speaks of sin, he says, "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing" (Rom 7:18). It's as if he's saying that as far as he remains unregenerate, in his unregenerate part there is no good at all. He calls sin by the name of flesh. There is no good at all in sin.
First, sin lacks the good of existence or being. Everything that exists contains some good because God exists, and everything that exists derives from God and therefore possesses some good. But sin is a non-entity, a non-being. It represents the absence of being rather than being itself. Here lies a great mystery of evil: something that has no real existence in itself still manages to exert tremendous power to disrupt both heaven and earth. This is truly a profound mystery.
Second, sin lacks the good of causality. In other words, sin is so thoroughly evil that it cannot produce anything good. Afflictions can produce good outcomes. Sin is the kind of evil that cannot be made good or used as an instrument for good. Afflictions, by contrast, can be used as instruments for good.
You might ask, can't God bring good out of sin? Doesn't God actually bring good out of sin? Here's my response. True, God brings good out of sin, but only occasionally, not instrumentally. He may take the occasion to bring good out of a sin that has been committed, but notice this carefully: God never makes sin an instrument for good. An instrument functions with a degree of efficiency, giving some power toward the effect it produces. But God never uses sin this way. God has never made sin an instrument of any good, meaning that sin never has any power or influence in producing the good effects God brings out of it.
Afflictions work differently. God doesn't merely take occasion from afflictions to do His people good; He makes them channels to convey mercies to their souls. Afflictions have an instrumental efficacy in them to do people good. That's why the Holy Spirit says in Hebrews 12 that He disciplines them for their profit, so they might share in His holiness. The greatest good a creature can receive is often conveyed through affliction as an instrument. And in Isaiah 27, we read, "By this the iniquity of Jacob will be purged," that is, by this as an instrument. But sin never works this way. Sin is never sanctified by God to do good to any soul. Afflictions are sanctified by God to do good. Therefore, sin is a greater evil than affliction.
Third, sin has greater evil than affliction in its origin. Sin comes from no good principle, but afflictions arise from good principles. For instance, "Whom he loves he chastens, he chastens every Son whom he receives." Chastisement has a principle of love behind it, but we cannot say that God loves someone and therefore allows them to fall into sin, or that sin is a fruit of His love. It can never be said that God's love is the reason a particular man or woman commits sin. But it can be said that God's love is the reason a particular man or woman is afflicted. Therefore, there is more good in afflictions than there is in sin.
Notice this as well: God often does not afflict a man or woman because He does not love them, but it can never be said that God does not allow a man or woman to sin because He does not love them. Many people go on in prosperous conditions and do not meet with the same afflictions that others face. The reason is that God does not have the same love for them as He does for others. But we cannot say the same about sin. We cannot say that certain people keep themselves from the sins that others wallow in because God does not love them as much as others. That cannot be said. Yet it may be said that some are not afflicted as much as others because God does not love them as well as others. It is a dreadful fruit of God's hatred that He does not afflict them, but it is not a fruit of His hatred to keep them from falling into sin.
Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646) was one of the most beloved Puritan preachers of his generation. Educated at Cambridge, he served as a minister in Norfolk before being suspended for nonconformity. He spent several years in exile in Holland, where he pastored alongside William Bridge in Rotterdam. Returning to England during the Civil War, he became a leading Independent minister in London, preaching to large congregations at Stepney and Cripplegate. He was known for his irenic spirit in an age of controversy, earning the title "the Burroughs who was always for healing." His most famous work, "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment," remains a classic of devotional literature. He died at age 46, worn out by his labors, but left behind a treasury of practical and experimental writings.
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