A64834:321
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.
2 That wicked men themselves are witnesses of, 2and against the sinfulness of sin, that it is an ugly, shameful, and an abominable thing, that which they are ashamed to own. Let us hear some of the Heathens speak their sense of it; Cicero tells ⟨p. 144⟩us, he thought not that man worthy the name of a man, that spent one day in the pleasures of the flesh; yea, he faith further, that after death, he thinks there's no greater torments then sin: and another speaks after this manner, that he thought it one of the greatest torments that men should have in another life, to be bound to the sins they most delighted in in this life: Socrates would die rather then consent to a sin of injustice; and one of them saith, Socrates was not unhappy in being put to death, but they unhappy that put him to death; he suffered, but they sinned: another hath a saying of mens living in pleasure, (much like that of S. Paul concerning the wanton widow, 1 Tim. 5.6. she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives) [Greek or Hebrew] their reason of these things said by them concerning sin, was, because sin degraded man, and was a degeneration, that such live the life of a beast, and not of a man, which is a life of reason and virtue: whence Plotinus saith, the pleasures of the body do so interrupt the happiness of the soul, that 'tis the souls happiness to despise the bodies pleasures: Sin (say the Stoics) is the worst kind of suffering, and he is the only miserable man that is wicked; the greatest punishment of sinners is sin. Seneca. I could produce many more to this purpose, but I shall not take in the witness only of these, or such other brave, magnanimous, and well-bred Heathens, but the very Herd of wicked men, the very dregs of them shall give in testimony (will they, nill they) by their thoughts, words or works, and sad experiences, that sin is an ugly, because sinful thing.
2 That wicked men themselves are witnesses of, 2and against the sinfulness of sin, that it is an ugly, shameful, and an abominable thing, that which they are ashamed to own. Let us hear some of the Heathens speak their sense of it; Cicero tells