A64834:82
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 In a Moral sense, for
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.
Sin hath made the heart of man deceitful, and desperately wicked, Jerem. 17.9. and its hardened in impenitency through the deceitfulness of sin, Hebr. 3.12, 13. yea, though thereby man do nothing but undo himself, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. 2.5. It makes man obstinate, that he will not be saved, but will be damned; you will not come to me that you may have life, Joh. 5.40. As for the Word of the Lord, we will not hearken, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, Jerem. 44.16, 17. and 'tis out of the abundance of folly and madness that is in mens hearts (and bound up there) that they thus speak, not only vain thoughts and words, but villainous ones bubble and break forth from this corrupt fountain, which sets the tongue on fire of hell, that the devil could not broach and belch out more horrid blasphemies against God, then the tongues and hearts of sinful men. It hath defiled and spoiled mans memory and conscience also; his memory, how treacherous is it as ⟨p. 33⟩to good, but alas too tenacious as to evil! The conscience is become an evil conscience, and in many a seared conscience: Thus all over, without and within is man defiled and polluted, of which I may speak yet more in another place, only at present a little more largely, to show how sin hath almost put out mans eyes, and even extinguished the Candle of the Lord; how it hath dimmed and benighted mans leading faculty, the understanding, which should show a man the difference between good and evil, and guide him in the way wherein he should walk, but is now too often an ignis fatuus, that leads men into bogs and ditches, into errors and immoralities.
Sin hath made the heart of man deceitful, and desperately wicked, Jerem. 17.9. and its hardned in impenitency through the deceitfulness of sin,