Ralph Venning (1621 – 1674)
SIN, THE PLAGUE OF PLAGUES, or
The just vindication of the Law of God, and no less just accusation and condemnation of the sin of man.
SIN, The Plague of Plagues, was first published in 1669, four years after the Great Plague of London. The author wrote: "As to the sinfulness of sin, I have indeed handled it most fully, as it is against man's good and happiness."
‘Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.’ (Romans 7.13)
Being about to treat of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it is not only expedient, but necessary that I preface and premise certain things:
(1) That God made all things very good (Genesis 1:31). They were all endowed with the perfections which were suitable to their several beings, so that none of them could find fault with or complain of God, as if he had owed them any thing or had made them defective.
(2) Yet of these the two most eminent and principal degrees of creatures quickly degenerated. Some of the angels sinned, and kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation (Jude 6). And by giving way to their subtle insinuations, the man Adam, who was a common person, sinned also (Genesis 3). And thus ‘by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned’ (Romans 5.12).
(3) As to the angels that fell, God left them irrecoverable. For God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (2 Peter 2.4), and has reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day (Jude 6). Christ Jesus, the Mediator and Redeemer, took not on him angels, or, as it is in the margin, takes not hold of angels (Hebrews 2.16). But it pleased God to pity man; his saving grace and loving-kindness have appeared to man, and that, in Christ Jesus (Titus 2.11; 3.4). His delight was with the sons of men, the habitable parts of the earth (Proverbs 8.31), and therefore he took on him the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2.16).
(4) This doctrine of God our Saviour, the Gospel-doctrine, supposes that man is a sinner. It is a faithful saying, and worthy of the best and all acceptance and reception, that Christ Jesus came into the world (on this very errand and for this purpose) to save sinners (1 Timothy 1.15). The doctrine of repentance supposes also that man has done amiss (Matthew 9. 13). The doctrine of faith in another for righteousness and hope concludes man to be without righteousness and hope in himself (Ephesians 2.12,13). The end of Christ’s sending the Holy Spirit was that he might, in the first place, convince of sin (John 16.8).
These things being so, beside others which might be considered, it cannot but be extremely useful to let men see what sin is: how prodigiously vile, how deadly mischievous, and therefore how monstrously ugly and odious a thing sin is. Thus a way may be made
(1) For admiring the free and rich grace of God.
(2) For believing in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) For vindicating the holy, just and good law of God, and his condemnation of sinners for breaking it.
(4) For hating sin, and repenting for and from it, thereby taking a holy, just and good revenge on it and ourselves.
(5) That we may love and serve God at a better rate than we ever did in the little and short time of innocence itself.
(6) And, lastly, that this black spot may serve to set off the admirable, incomparable and transcendent beauty of holiness.
