A64834:385
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.
If it should be said by any, that though the law be severe to sinners, yet the Gospel is propitious and merciful to them; and therefore sin seems not (now at least) to be so vile a thing as heretofore: ⟨p. 177⟩To this I shall answer, and make it evident;
6 That the Gospel also bears witness, yea, 6and is the greatest and clearest testimony that's born against sin: Though sinners find favour from the Gospel, yet sin finds none: The Gospel is not, in the least, indulgent to the least sin: The whole voice of the Gospel is, these things are written, that ye sin not: The Gospel is the Declaration of the life and death, the design and doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was and is all against sin: The design of Christ was indeed to save sinners, 1 Tim. 1.15. but to destroy sin, Rom. 8.3. 1 Joh. 3.5. with 8. he came to save his people from their sins; he came not to save from the petty and contemptible evils of reproaches and afflictions, &c. but from the great and formidable evil of sin; from the guilt for time past, and the power for time to come; he came to redeem us from all iniquity, Tit. 2.14. And this is the blessing with which he blesseth us, to turn us every one away from every one of our iniquities, Acts 3.26. so that whoever names and calls upon the Name of the Lord (i.e. makes profession of being a Christian) is thereby obliged to depart from iniquity, 2 Tim. 2.19. How •he life and death of our holy and blessed Saviour did witness against sin, I declared before: I shall now treat of the doctrine of he Gospel, which doth so fully comport