A64834:100
Sin, the Plague of Plagues
Sin, the plague of plagues, or, Sinful sin the worst of evils a treatise of sins trial and arraignment, wherein sin is accused for being, proved to be, and condemned for being exceeding sinful : and that 1. as against God, his nature, attributes, works, will, law, image, people, glory and existence, 2. as against man, his good and welfare of body and soul, in this life, and that to come : with the use and improvement to be made of this doctrine, that men may not be damned, but saved, &c. : being the substance of many sermons preached many years ago in Southwark / by Ralph Venning ...Sin, the plague of plagues, or, Sinful sin the worst of evils a treatise of sins tryal and arraignment, wherein sin is accused for being, proved to be, and condemned for being exceeding sinful : and that 1. as against God, his nature, attributes, works, will, law, image, people, glory and existence, 2. as against man, his good and welfare of body and soul, in this life, and that to come : with the use and improvement to be made of this doctrine, that men may not be damned, but saved, &c. : being the substance of many sermons preached many years ago in Southwark / by Ralph Venning ...
London: printed for John Hancock, 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
SIN, THE PLAGUE of PLAGUES; OR Sinful Sin the worst of Evils. › 2 In a Moral sense, for
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3 That cannot be our happiness, which is not so much as a token of the love of God: If you had all the Cattle on a thousand hills, and never so many thousand bags of gold in your Chest, though all the beauty and honour in the world centred in you, yet I must tell you what a very wise man hath told me, Eccl. 9.1. Man knows not love by prosperity, no more then hatred by adversity. Indeed the world is not (as great and good as 'tis, or 'twas) 'tis not good enough for a Love-token: God sent his Son (and never any thing but him, and what's in him) for a Love-token: Well then, upon the whole we conclude, that seeing happiness is of an higher nature then the Creation, and is not in less then God himself, that man is a fool in seeking it elsewhere, and that sin is very pernicious to man, in making him such a fool. But
3 That cannot be our happiness, which is not so much as a token of the love of God: If you had all the Cattel on a thousand hills, and never so many thousand bags of gold in your Chest, though all the beauty and honor in the world centr'd in you, yet I must tell you what a very wise man hath told me, Eccl. 9.1. Man knows not love by prosperity, no more then hatred by adversity. Indeed the world is not (as great and good as 'tis, or 'twas) 'tis not good enough for a Love-token: God sent his Son (and never any thing but him, and what's in him) for a Love-token: Well then, upon the whole we conclude, that seeing happiness is of an higher nature then the Creation, and is not in less then God himself, that man is a fool in seeking it elsewhere, and that sin is very pernicious to man, in making him such a fool. But
2 Mans folly appears to be great, 2not only in relation to his end and happiness, in his mistaking that, but in relation to the means and way leading to happiness, in mistaking this also: The enjoyment of God is our happiness; Religion, viz. right worshipping and serving God is the