A Treatise of Sin: The Deceitfulness of the Heart Unmasked (Burgess)
A Treatise of Sin: The Deceitfulness of the Heart Unmasked by Anthony Burgess is probably one of the greatest books ever written on the deceitfulness of the human heart. It was first written in 1654 and published as A Treatise of Sin. The book is a masterpiece on the heart’s deceitfulness in sin, and formality and hypocrisy in religion. Anthony Burgess’ work contains 42 sermons that pierce to the depths of the soul in exposing false religion and the worthless props men lean on to justify themselves before God.
Burgess was a master in understanding the heart of man and true and false conversion.
The sermons in A Treatise of Sin: The Deceitfulness of the Heart Unmasked cover such topics as the Heart’s Deceitfulness in the Matter of Repentance, The Woeful Aggravations of the Deceitfulness of Man’s Heart, That All Sins and Transgressions are Damnable Errors, The Ingredients and Aggravations of Presumptuous Sins, Discoveries of Reigning Sin in a Man with its Aggravations, Of Having Only a Name to Live, The Properties of Gross Hypocrisy in the Matters of Religion, and A Discovery of Close Hypocrisy with the Causes of it.
In our day when a mere intellectual assent to the facts of the gospel or repeating the words of a prayer is all that seems necessary for many pastors to proclaim a man saved, this book is desperately needed. Burgess preached against the errors of his day and his book is a cure for those of our day. Anthony Burgess warned, “Oh what a woeful condition is it for a man at the same time to be blessing himself, and God abhorring of him, while thou art saying: Soul take thine ease; God to be commanding the devils to take thy soul, yet in this condition most live.” Sadly, this is also the condition that most in our present day churches live in.