A64834:563
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.
As it begins, and is carried on, so Conversion is completed, finished, and perfected in thoughts, it ends there; for when a godly man comes to dye, his chief and last employment is about his thoughts; he hath done with works, he hath made his Will, and concluded all without him, and his speech (it may be) fails him, and then his main work and the conclusion, the shutting up of the whole matter is in his thoughts; so that when he comes into the new world, and continues here, and when he is going into the world to come, his main employment is about and in his thoughts: there he began, and here he ends.
As it begins, and is carried on, so Conversion is compleated, finished, and perfected in thoughts, it ends there; for when a godly man comes to dye, his chief and last employment is about his thoughts; he hath done with works, he hath made his Will, and concluded all without him, and his speech (it may be) fails him, and then his main work and the conclusion, the shutting up of the whole matter is in his thoughts; so that when he comes into the new world, and continues here, and when he is going into the world to come, his main employment is about and in his thoughts: there he began, and here he ends.
7. God keeps an account of, and will call us to account for thoughts, as well as for words and actions: he hath a book of remembrance written for them that think on his Name, I, and for them that think on their sins too, with sinful ⟨p. 282⟩thoughts. There is no thought hid from him, all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do, Heb. 4.13. or as the words may be read, before him, to whom we are to give an account. God knows our thoughts afar off, Psal. 139.2. long before they came out into words or actions,