A64834:452
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. We may and ought to (not only choose suffering, and not sin, but) rejoice in suffering, and that with all j•y, and (in the highest degree) glory in tribulation; but sin is matter of shame and grief, not of joy. James 1 2. account it all joy, not simply joy, or a little joy, but all joy, matter, of glory, when you fa•l into divers ⟨p. 216⟩temptations, that is, tribulations, as Saint Paul speaks Rom. 5.3. they were temptations for trial of faith, and the trial thereof is the furnace of affliction, Isa. 48.10. with 1 Pet. 1.6.7. Now if any glory in their sin, and pride themselves in that as a glory, they glory in their shame, Phil. 3.19. yea, if we do but fall into sin, 'tis matter of grief and shame: so that suffering is as far to be preferred before sin, as joy is before grief, and glory is beyond shame; to which this also may be added, That God himself takes pleasure, joy and delight in the trials of good men; for though he delight not to grieve the children of men, yet, Job 9.23. he laughs at the trial of the innocent; and in this sense many understand that Text. God laughs not at them as at the wicked, by way of derision and scorn, but by way of pleasure: just as a Commander in War rejoiceth when he puts a Party, of whose valour and skill he is confident, upon some dangerous service: though he knows that some of them must bleed, and perhaps dye for it, yet it pleaseth him to see such engaged in it. Thus God laughs at the trial of the innocent, for he sees they are men that will bide a trial; as the excellent Expositor on the Book of Job expresseth it, with much more to this effect. God took pleasure in the sufferings of Christ (as Christ himself also did) and so he doth in the sufferings of his people, as he did in Jobs, of whom God makes his boast to the Devils face, that he still held fast his integrity, though he were afflicted by the Devil, who moved God against him to destroy him without a cause,