A64834:99
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.
2 That cannot be our happiness which is below us; the design of Gods making the creatures was, that they should serve us, and not be served by us• God put Adam (collar) to till the earth, not (collar) to worship the earth, and make a God of it, as earthly-minded men do, for covetousness is idolatry: Not only God placed them, but man reckons them below himself; below man; for ⟨p. 43⟩skin for skin, or skin after skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life; (a great truth, though spoken by the Father of lies) by which its evident, that man reckons all below himself; and though old Jacobs life were bound up in the life of young Benjamin, yet he would part with him rather then starve: Now (without further enlargement) 'tis clear as the Sun, that what's inferior to us, cannot be our happiness.
2 That cannot be our happiness which is below us; the design of Gods making the creatures was, that they should serve us, and not be served by us• God put Adam (colere) to till the earth, not (colere) to worship the earth, and make a God of it, as earthly-minded men do, for covetousness is •dolatry: Not only God placed them, but man reckons them below himself; below man; for ⟨p. 43⟩skin for skin, or skin after skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life; (a great truth, though spoken by the Father of lies) by which its evident, that man reckons all below himself; and though old Jacobs life were bound up in the life of young Benjamin, yet he would part with him rather then starve: Now (without further inlargement) 'tis clear as the Sun, that what's inferiour to us, cannot be our happiness.
3 That cannot be our happiness, which is not so much as a token of the love of God: If you had all the Cattle on a thousand hills, and never so many thousand bags of gold in your Chest, though all the beauty and honour in the world centred in you, yet I must tell you what a very wise man hath told me,