A64834:382
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.
4 The law witnesseth against sin as exceeding ⟨p. 174⟩sinful in its being become as a Schoolmaster to us, Gal. 3.24. We should scarce ever have looked to Christ, had not the law whipped and lashed us, like a severe Schoolmaster, for this (not to exclude others) is, as I conceive, much the meaning of this Text, viz. that the law kept us in awe and bondage, by its severity, until Christ came: Compare this Text with Ch. 4:1, 2, 3. The heir, as he is a Child or Babe, differs nothing from a servant, but is under Tutors and Governors; so we (saith the Apostle) were in bondage, &c. To be under Tutors, is all one as to be under a Schoolmaster, and that's to be in a condition of bondage: Many go to School with an ill will, for they go to the Ferula, to the Rod, to the Whip, to bondage, to fear and torment; the law doth nothing but frown on us, puts us hard tasks, and lasheth us for non-performance, till Christ come, and till we come to Christ, as the Egyptians did the Israelites, Exod. 5.14. The law is the state of bondage and fear; the very children are all subject to bondage through fear of death, Hebr. 2.14, 15. This also argues the sinfulness of sin, that it made the law such a dread and terror to us (as it is to all) till Christ come, who is the end of the law for righteousness, Rom. 10.4. and so takes off the Schoolmasters terribleness, by taking us into the university of an higher and better state, viz. that of believing in him for righteousness, by which we come to have a ⟨p. 175⟩spirit not of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind, as S. Paul speaks, 2 Tim. 1.7.
4 The law witnesseth against sin as exceeding ⟨p. 174⟩sinful in its being become as a Schoolmaster to us,