A64834:489
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.
But though God be so patient beyond what we could ask or think, yet he doth sometimes, and will for ever punish sinners that repent not.
2. Therefore I infer, §21that sin being so contrary to God, and against his will and glory, the judgments of God (great, though they be) on sinners (whether here or hereafter) are just: God often punisheth less, never more then iniquity deserves; the greatest sufferings are no more nor less then sin deserves, the worst on this side Hell is mercy, the worst of and in Hell is but justice. For,
- 1The judgment of God on sinners is just.
1. If we consider the Nature of God that judgeth, he is and cannot but be just, shall not the God and Judge of all the Earth do right? Can he do, or will he do wrong? Oh no; he layeth on man no more then is meet, that man might not enter into judgment with God, Job 34.23. Cain could say, his punishment was intolerable, but could not say, it was unjust; though greater then he could bear, yet not greater then he did deserve. God will not argue the case with men merely as a Sovereign, but as a Judge, who proceeds not by Will only, but by Rule: many times over when the judgments of God are spoken of in the Revelations, as Chap. 15.3. & 16.7. 'tis still just, and true, and righteous, though his ways unsearchable, yet true, and just, and righteous; he makes war in righteousness. Death is but sins due wages, Rom. 6.27. therefore 'tis said, their damnation is just,