A64834:340
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 This is a sad and dreadful judgment upon them, worse then any affliction that could befall them; of all judgments this the most terrible, as being the Suburbs of hell it self; to be punished for sin by sin, is the worst of punishments: when God saith of a person or people, he will let them go, they shall take their course, and not be punished, (viz. by bodily and sensible plagues) he punisheth them most and worst of all: To denote the greatness of it, 'tis three times said in Scripture, Rom. 1. that God gave them up, and gave them over; v. 24.26.28. 'Tis no wonder men act the devils part, when they are under the devils doom.
3 This therefore speaks no more in commendation of sin, then a Bedlams going naked and enduring (without feeling) the pricks of pins in his flesh, commends his condition: Is it any part of handsomeness to have a whores sorehead? Shall we make blind men judges of colours, or dead men of the affairs of the living, and their concerns? Who would take the judgment of them that are void of judgment, and given up to a reprobate mind? If men have lost their senses, and will say Snow is black, Honey is bitter, &c. ⟨p. 156⟩shall we believe them? But yet there's none of these but will at one time or another bear witness against sin, and blush at their own impudence: Have you not heard Pharaoh saying, who is the Lord? and yet (hardened as he was) the same Pharaoh saying, I have sinned against the Lord: God hath ways enough to bring them to confession; they who were once so wild, as to call the Saints lives madness, were at last tame enough to call themselves fools for't; we fools counted their lives madness: There is a time coming when all these daring and impudent sinners will sneak and be ashamed; either the grace or the judgment of God will awaken them out of their dead sleep, and then though they dreamt of a feast, they will be hungry, then the mouth will confess, the eyes weep, the cheeks blush, the hands smite on the thigh, the heart bleed and break. Cain feels little till he hear God calling from heaven, and tell him he was accursed, then sin became heavy in its punishment, yea intolerable,