Envy – Thomas Brooks

It is the justice of envy to torment the envious. Therefore, shun it as you would poison in your food, or a serpent in the way. A man were better off having a serpent tumbling up and down in his bowels, than to have envy gnawing in his soul.

Envy is as pernicious a wickedness, as it is a foolish and a groundless wickedness. Envy is . . .
a scourge to scourge the soul;
a serpent to sting the soul;
a poison to swell the soul;
a saw to saw the soul;
a moth that corrupts the soul,
a canker that eats up the soul.
Therefore flee from envy, as you would flee from the most cruel and destroying adversary!

To be envious, because God is bountiful to others; to frown, because God smiles upon others; to be bitter, because God is sweet in his dealings with others; and to sigh, because God multiplies favors and blessings upon others; what is this but to turn others’ good into our own hurt, others’ glory and mercy into our own punishment and torment?