A64834:145
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.
1 God hideth his face; and this follows on the separation, as 'tis express, Is. 59.2. Your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sin hath hid his face from you, or (as the Margin reads it) have made him hide his face ⟨p. 63⟩from you; his face which makes heaven, a smile whereof, or the lifting up the light of which countenance upon us, refresheth us, more then corn, wine, and oil, Psa. 4.6, 7. yea, his loving kindness is better then life; we had better have parted with this then that: Mans sin is expressed by this, that he turns his back to God; and not the face; and his punishment by this, that God turns his back to him, and not the face; God carries it not like a friend, but a stranger: And indeed this hiding of his face is significative of many more miseries then I can now stay to instance in.
1 God hideth his face; and this follows on the separation, as 'tis express, Is. 59.2. Your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sin hath hid his face from you, or (as the Margin reads it) have made him hide his face ⟨p. 63⟩from you; his face which makes heaven, a smile whereof, or the lifting up the light of which countenance upon us, refresheth us, more then corn, wine, and oyl, Psa. 4.6, 7. yea, his loving kindness is better then life; we had better have parted with this then that: Mans sin is exprest by this, that he turns his back to God; and not the face; and his punishment by this, that God turns his back to him, and not the face; God carries it not like a friend, but a stranger: And indeed this hiding of his face is significative of many more miseries then I can now stay to instance in.
2 Another, and no less misery hereupon is, that God hears not his prayers, as it follows in that fore-mentioned Text, Is. 59.2. and so it attends the hiding of Gods face, Is. 1.15. God is a God hearing prayers, but sin shuts out our shouting, and the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, and he calls them no better then howlings,