A64834:13
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.
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.
As to the Book I have but a few things to say; this Treatise was began, and almost finished, before the late Sore and great Plague began; and therefore (though for a memorial of it) I have taken ⟨image 4⟩occasion to give it a Name or Title from thence, yet it is not calculated particularly thereunto; but with a more general aspect upon the universal mischief, that Sin hath done mankind, as to Soul and Body, Time and Eternity, it being the root of all evil, Corporal, Spiritual, and Eternal, only in relation to that sweeping Besom of destruction, and the dreadful fire from heaven or hell, and in several senses from both, which since consumed the habitations, as the Plague did the Inhabitants before (both which I fear are (alas!) but too much forgotten) we should consider the operation of Gods hand lifted up, to lay it to heart, to confess our sin, and give him glory: For though God in the midst of judgment remembered mercy, yet we in the midst of mercy should remember judgment, both hands being to lead us to repentance; else, though the Plague be over and gone, and that fire burns no longer, yet if the plague of our hearts, and not fiery lusts (if our sins) continue, we are far from health and safety: If after such deliverances as these, we sin, as if we ⟨image 4⟩were delivered to do nothing else; or to speak as Ezra doth, Ch. 9.13, 14. and after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that God hath punished us less then our iniquities have deserved, and hath given us such deliverance as this, should we again break his Commandments, and join in affinity with the people of (with such and the like as our former) abominations? would not he be angry with us, till he have consumed us; so that there be none (as hitherto through mercy there hath been) remnant, and escaping, but the fire of his wrath may burn to (and we burn in) the lowermost hell! Oh, let us hear and fear, and do no more so wickedly, Deut. 13.11. for sin is so notoriously, more then excessively and intolerably evil, that as 'tis at present the reproach, 'twill be (hereafter) the ruin of any people who repent not: And what is impenitency? but a treasuring up of, and growing rich in sin and wrath together, Rom. 2.4.-9. and what is that but to be abundantly damned!