A64834:659
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.
SIN, THE PLAGUE of PLAGUES; OR Sinful Sin the worst of Evils. › 2. Take heed of sins of Commission.
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.
At the last (saith he) there will come a day, when all mankind shall be summoned naked (without difference or degrees) before the same Tribunal; when the Crowns of Kings and shackles of Prisoners; when the Robes of Princes, and the rags of Beggars; when the Gallants Bravery, the Peasants Russet, the Statists Policy, the Courtiers Luxury, and the Scholars Curiosity, shall be all laid aside; when all men shall be reduced to an equal Plea, and without respect of persons, shall be doomed according to their works. Then those Punctoes and Formalities, Cuts and Fashions, Distances and Complements (which are now the darling-sins of the upper end of the world) shall be proved to have been nothing else, but well-acted vanities. Then the Pride, Luxury, Riot, Swaggerings, interlarded and complemental Oaths, nice and quaint Lasciviousness, new-invented Courtings, and Adorations of Beauty (the so much studied and admired sins of the Gallantry of the world) shall be pronounced out of the mouth of God himself, to have been nothing else but glittering abominations. Then the adulterating of Wares, the counterfeiting of Lights, the double Weight and false Measures, the courteous Equivocations of men greedy of gain (which are now almost woven into the very Art of Trading) shall be pronounced nothing else but Mysteries of iniquity and self-deceivings. Then the curious subtleties of more choice Wits, the knotty Questions and vain strife of words, the disputes of Reason, ⟨image 184⟩the variety of Reading, the very Circle of general and Secular Learning (pursued with so much eagerness by the more ingenious Spirits of the world) shall be all pronounced but the thin Cob-webs, and vanishing Delicacies of a better tempered Profaneness.
At the last (saith he) there will come a day, when all mankind shall be summon'd naked (without difference or degrees) before the same Tribunal; when the Crowns of Kings and shackles of Prisoners; when the Robes of Princes, and the rags of Beggars; when the Gallants Bravery, the Peasants Russet, the Statists Policy, the Courtiers Luxury, and the Scholars Curiosity, shall be all laid aside; when all men shall be reduced to an equal Plea, and without respect of persons, shall be doomed according to their works. Then those Punctoes and Formalities, Cuts and Fashions, Distances and Complements (which are now the darling-sins of the upper end of the world) shall be proved to have been nothing else, but well-acted vanities. Then the Pride, Luxury, Riot, Swaggerings, interlarded and complemental Oaths, nice and quaint Lasciviousness, new-invented Courtings, and Adorations of Beauty (the so much studied and admired sins of the Gallantry of the world) shall be pronounced out of the mouth of God himself, to have been nothing else but glittering abominations. Then the adulterating of Wares, the counterfeiting of Lights, the double Weight and false Measures, the courteous Equivocations of men greedy of gain (which are now almost woven into the very Art of Trading) shall be pronounced nothing else but Mysteries of iniquity and self-deceivings. Then the curious subtleties of more choice Wits, the knotty Questions and vain strife of words, the disputes of Reason,