A64834:433
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.
3. The infection of sin is (tantum non) almost incurable ('tis to us impossible, and only possible with God, and that at a costly rate, by the blood of Christ, to cure this plague, and cleanse us of it) 'tis very hard to be cured, because 'tis within us, and dwelleth in us, Rom. 7.17.20. an ulcer in the flesh is more easily cured then one in the lungs; a disease that's inward cannot be so well reached; yea, 'tis not only in us, but 'tis riveted in us, 'tis gotten into the flesh and spirit, as if it were one with us, as the Leopards spots and the Ethiopians blackness. There was a leprosy so inveterate, that though they scraped the house round about and within, and threw out the dust, though they took other stones and mortar, yet it returned again, Levit. 14. When distempers become as it were natural, and are in the constitution, they are hard to be cured; 'tis ⟨p. 203⟩not easy obliterating that which is written with a pen of Iron, and the point of a Diamond; 'tis difficult to soften an heart of stone. Beside, this filthiness hath had long possession, even time out of mind: it pleads prescription, so long a Custom is become a Law, and as another Nature, Jer. 13.23. yea, to show how hard 'tis to be cured and rooted out, we may observe, that very forcible means have bin used for the cleansing of it, yet it hath not been done: God poured out a whole flood of water, which washed away most sinners; yet sin (as I may say) kept above water, and was found alive and strong after the flood. When God sent fire and brimstone (Hell, as an Ancient calls it) from Heaven on that Centre of sin, Sodom, &c. yet sin got out with Lot and his daughters. Fire and water are very cleansing and purifying things; yet these you see have not done it. When others sinned, the Earth swallowed them up, yet sin remained, it did not dye; the same sins are still in the world after all these judgments. Even in the Saints themselves, with all the forces that Faith can make, 'tis very hardly kept under, but the flesh will be lusting against the spirit, and when their affections do not cleave to sin; yet sin will cleave to their affection, and it makes them cry out as burdened with St. Paul, Wretch that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death! the victory is by Christ Jesus; 'tis death kills sin. And yet,