A64834:334
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 It further appears that sin is an unpleasing thing, and that which sinners are ashamed of, that they dare not look into their actions, nor call themselves to an account: 'Tis as troublesome a thing to sinners to look into themselves, and to examine their lives, as 'tis for men that go backward in their estates, to look into their books; and cast up their accounts, Jer. 8.5.6. Why is this people backsl•dden with a perpetual backsliding, (and never look behind them, nor within ⟨p. 152⟩them) no man said (so much, or little as) what have I done? They care not to be alone, least the thoughts of their sins should stare them in the face; they study divisions and pastimes, and run into company, least their sins (like Ghosts and Devils) should haunt and lay hold of them; and when these are over, they sleep away the rest of their time, they cannot endure to be at home, least (a worse thing then a scolding woman) an upbraiding Conscience should fall upon them, they can afford no leisure to think how they have idled and sinned away, and thereby worse then lost so much of their time, Amos 6.3.-6. we read of persons on whose hands time lay heavy, and as a burden, and therefore studied Arts and Methods of laying it aside, that they may put the thoughts of the evil day far from them, sometimes by lying on their beds, and being weary of that, they stretch themselves upon their Couches, and then they fall to eating and drinking, and so rise up to play and dance, &c. what doth all this speak, but an unwillingness to have any sense of sin, or but to look on its picture, 'tis so hellish a thing.
2 It further appears that sin is an unpleasing thing, and that which sinners are asham'd of, that they dare not look into their actions, nor call themselves to an account: 'Tis as troublesome a thing to sinners to look into themselves, and to examine their lives, as 'tis for men that go backward in their estates, to look into their books; and cast up their accounts, Jer. 8.5.6. Why is this people backsl•dden with a perpetual backslding, (and never look behind them, nor within