We come to the end of this vast study on sin today. When I was a young Christian, one of my teachers told us that it was not necessary to read so many books, but to read good books. Better still, to find good chapters in books because all men may error. This section is a powerful conclusion and fits the bill for both. Venning's book is now on my short list of favorite books. Wouldn't you know it, that it would be about a plague! Gifted men teaching eternal truths - God has done us much good.

This is a review of The Plague of Plagues by Ralph Venning with study questions added to turn them into lessons. These lessons are part of a wider study on Sanctification which has as its goal the fulfillment of Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. I’ve set these studies up in a specific order so that all may easily build on the foundation of Christ with the finest materials - gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor 3:10-13). God has gifted the Church with amazing evangelists, pastors, and teachers to help us in this building project (Eph 4:11-16). I invite you to study along with me. You can see an overview of the complete study on Sanctification here. To go to the start of this current series click here. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

(2) Take heed of being partners in other men’s sins when they are committed, as co-helpers of them:
(a) As instruments to execute others’ sinful designs or commands. Thus Doeg was, in executing the priests (1 Samuel 22). So are any others who serve the lusts of men. All persons who are to be obeyed, such as father and mother, are to be obeyed in the Lord (Ephesians 6.1). Whosoever’s will is left undone, God’s will should be done, and never left undone to fulfil that of another or our own.
They who put unrighteous decrees into execution are under the same woe with them who decree them; for without the execution the decree would do no harm to them against whom it was made (Isaiah 10:1,3).
Those who put wicked commands into practice and execution are wicked, and are partners in the wickedness of those who command wickedness (I Kings 12.30).
(b) As confederates with others. Though the sin is not committed by you who are confederates, yet your being such makes you partakers of their sin. The counsellors and combiners are judged equally with the practisers (Psalm 83.3-9). ‘Blessed are they who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly’ (Psalm 1.1). And the prophet says, The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand’—not simply the word of the Lord came to me, or the Lord spake to me, but he spake with a strong hand! why? ‘Say ye not, a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, a confederacy’ (Isaiah 8.11,12). The men of the league and association fare, because they sin, alike (Psalm 2, with Acts 4.26-28).
(c) As consenters, giving your consent to other’s sin; whereas if you had denied it, perhaps they would not have sinned, when thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers’ (Psalm 50.18). An adulterer is a thief, for he steals water from another’s cistern, and to consent with him is to be a partaker. Therefore, ‘If sinners entice thee, consent thou not’ (Proverbs 1.10); enter your dissent and do not let your soul have anything to do with their secrets.
Consent may be signified by complying actions. Paul speaks of this as being once his own case: he consented to the death of the martyr Stephen, and witnesses both that he stood by and that he kept the raiment of those who slew him (Acts 22.20).[1] In the same way, many consent to the sin of others by standing guard and watching the door; in this way they do not only wink at, but encourage and embolden others to sin.
Consent may be given by silent connivance, when we see people about to sin and do not witness against it. Silence, we say, gives consent. So it does often, though not always; for it may be the case that it would only be to throw pearls before swine to speak to some scorners. Some speak too gently, as if it were a matter of no great consequence, but will not put forth the power they have to prevent sin. Pilate seemed to witness against the Jews when they cried out for the crucifying of Christ Jesus, and washed his hands to testify his innocence (Matthew 27.24). Yet because he did not put forth his power, he is reckoned among the number of them who killed him (Acts 4.27).
Consent may be given openly and notoriously by word of mouth. Saul, afterwards Paul, gave his voice (Acts 26.10); his vote went with the rest, and he gave it with a voice, a loud voice. If anyone brings false doctrine, and a man bids him Godspeed, this man is partaker of his evil deeds (2 John 10,11). When men say, as Jehoshaphat did to Ahab, ‘I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war’ (2 Chronicles 18.3); when we thus give consent, it is notorious.
(3) Do not be accessory to other men’s sins after they are committed. You may be guilty of this in many ways, but I shall name only four.
(a) In not grieving for other men’s sins. All sin is against God, and for that reason he who truly grieves for his own sin will grieve for other men’s too. It was the great commendation of Lot that his righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites; it was a torment, a kind of hell to him (2 Peter 2.7). David could not prevent men sinning and therefore he grieved for it, so much so that his eyes ran down with rivers of tears (Psalm 119.136). And this made the prophet Jeremiah wish his eyes fountains, that he might weep day and night. All these people were remembered by the Lord in mercy, when others were rewarded with misery. There is scarcely another way like this, to be kept from partaking in the ruin of sinners. God will set a mark on his weeping and mourning people, and as for the rest, they will be found as accessories if not principals in wickedness, and judged accordingly (Ezekiel 9.4-6). Oh, that there were more crying persons, when there are so many crying sins! They who grieve not and mourn not are guilty, as the apostle tells us (1 Corinthians 5.1,2); but by mourning they were cleared of this matter (2 Corinthians 7:11).
(b) By concealing that which we ought to reveal and make known. This may be easily proved from Scripture: ‘If a soul sin, and hear a voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity’ (Leviticus 5.1). ‘Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and betrayeth it not’, which he ought to do (Proverbs 29.24). Yet again, ‘If thy brother, the son of thy mother or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers . . . thou shalt not consent unto him’ (Deuteronomy 13.6,8). Is that enough? No! ‘nor hearken unto him’. Is that enough? No! ‘neither shall thine eye pity him’. Is that enough? No! ‘neither shalt thou spare’. Is that enough? No! ‘neither shalt thou conceal him’. Is that enough? No ‘thou shalt surely kill him (by revealing him to the judges); thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death.’ But you will say, is this not un-natural? what! betray a brother, one from the same womb, the son of my mother? Indeed more, my own soul Indeed more, my wife, and most of all, my friend! No matter! for all that, thou shalt not conceal him. To conceal such a sinner would be to partake of his sin (2 John 10,11).[2] These spirits, these soul-stealers, must not be concealed, lest the receiver and be reckoned as bad as the thief.
(c) In not separating from other men when God calls you to it. Remember Lot’s wife, who was loth to withdraw, and was turned into a pillar of salt— to season us, as one of the fathers said. There are people with whom we should not eat (1 Corinthians 5.11). To join in communion with known sinners is the greatest testimony you can give, either that they are saints or that you are sinners; you bear a false witness for them and a true witness against yourselves, when the apostle had reckoned up a whole troop of sinners, of whom self-love led the van, and a form of godliness brought up the rear, he adds, ‘from such turn away’ (2 Timothy 3.5). You may hear a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins’ (Revelation 18.4). Be not therefore unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6.14).
(d) If instead of reproving other men’s sins, we approve of them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them’ (Ephesians 5.11). Not to reprove them, but instead to have fellowship with them, is to approve. Besides this, we declare our approbation when we take pleasure in the actions or the actors. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so’ (Jeremiah 5.31); they love to have it so, that is to say, they set their seal to it, to approve and confirm what the prophets and priests do. Of the same import is the statement, ‘who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them’ (Romans 1.32). Men are said to help on the afflictions of God’s people and to approve them by saying, Hal Ha! we would have it so (Ezekiel 25.3; 26.2). To take pleasure in such things as others do is to be accessories, as if we had done them ourselves, when the apostle Paul tells of other men’s sins he does it with weeping (Philippians 3.18), and so frees himself from the least degree of approbation. But when men laugh at, take pleasure in, and make sport of other men’s sins, it is, by construction, an approbation of them. Approbation of other men’s sins is also to be inferred when men flatter others and speak peace to them in their evil ways. That is, when men say ‘Peace’ where God says there is none, that is, to the wicked. God and man will curse him who says to the wicked, Thou art righteous (Proverbs 24.24). ‘Because they have seduced (flattered) my people, saying, Peace, and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar, and they sewed pillows under their elbows; therefore, God says, will I pull down the wall, and will tear your pillows and kerchiefs’ (Ezekiel 13.10,14,18,20,21). And the reason given is, because they made the heart of the righteous sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way verse 22). There is a woe against such people.
Approbation is also declared when men defend and excuse the sins of others, as if they were retained like lawyers and had their fee. They who justify the wicked are equally an abomination with them who condemn the righteous (Proverbs 24.17). Some are so wicked that they defend other men’s wickedness—not only like lawyers but like soldiers—by sword and force of arms; as was done for the man who had abused the Levite’s concubine (Judges 17.15).[3] But to plead for other men’s sins is to be as guilty as are they who commit them.
I might add many more things, but I will forbear, because I have been somewhat lengthy on this subject. But I was more willing to do this, because it is a thing too seldom treated and too little taken notice of and laid to heart, that is, the share that we too often have in the sins of other men.
CONCLUSION
As I come to the close of the whole matter I would wish with my soul that there might never be an occasion for me or any other to preach on this subject again. Shall I now entreat you to consider what has been said, and to think what an abominable and ugly thing sin is? It is the worst of evils, worse than the worst of words can express. I have shown you how it is contrary to God and man. For proof of this I have brought witness from Heaven, Earth and Hell. I have shown you how dearly it cost Christ Jesus who died for it, and how dearly it will cost you, if you live and die in it. Therefore stand in awe and sin not. Lay up the word of God’s command, promise and threatening, that you may not sin against him. Take heed of sinning, for at once you sin against God and your own selves.
I have entered into your closets and your hearts, to tell you of your secret sins. I have told you of, and warned you against, the sins of your lips and of your life. I have told you of your shop—and calling—sins, that you might beware. And what shall I say or do more for you? I have preached to you, prayed and wept for you. I have shown you the way of repentance, faith and holiness. And were I to die for you, I hope I should not account my life dear to me, that I might save your souls by losing it. Let me again, then, entreat, beseech and beg you for God’s sake and for your souls’ sake not to sin. These things are written, that ye sin not. But ‘hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God … but if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eyes shall weep sore, and run down with tears’ (Jeremiah 13.15-17). If you do not hear, you make this to be sad work for me and others who teach you, but, alas, much sadder for yourselves! You make us weep on earth, but you, if you do not repent, will weep in Hell. I beseech you therefore, learn what the grace of God teaches you, to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2.11,12), or as it is in Luke 1.75, ‘Serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life.’ Having therefore these promises (which according to Peter are the greatest and most precious) let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ (2 Corinthians 7.1).
Shall we commend holiness in those who are dead, and yet not like holiness in ourselves while we are alive? Holiness is the beauty of earth and Heaven, without which we cannot live well on earth, nor shall ever live in Heaven. Certainly they who jeer and scoff at holiness and rejoice that they are none of the holy ones, might as well make bonfires, ring the bells and give thanks that they shall never be saved. For if they are not holy, saved they cannot be. As one puts it, they who shall be in Heaven will be in no danger of being derided for the sake of piety, for those who deride will not be admitted there. As for the wicked, God will turn them into Hell, and all the nations (all them of any nation) that forget God (Psalm 9.17).
Poor soul, think a little, indeed, think much of the great day of your account and God’s judgment. Though you put it far from you, yet it will surely come, and woe unto you, if it ever takes you unawares and as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5.3,4).
Seeing this may be, and that will be, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversations and godlinesses! For it is plural in the Greek (2 Peter 3.10,11). What more shall I say? I will close the whole matter with what was long since excellently spoken by a great Doctor in our Israel, which is worthy to be written in the hearts of all men and often to be before their eyes and in their thoughts.
At the last, he says, there will come a day when all mankind shall be summoned naked (without differences 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’ finery, the peasants’ home-spun, the statesmen’s policy, the courtiers’ luxury and the scholars’ learning shall all be laid aside; when all men shall be reduced to an equal plea, and without respect of persons shall be judged according to their works. Then those punctilios and formalities, cuts and fashions, distances and compliments 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, sophisticated and quaint lasciviousness, newly- 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, 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 cobwebs and vanishing delicacies of a better-tempered profaneness.
Lastly, then, the poor despised profession of the power of godliness, a trembling at the word of God, a scrupulous and conscientious forbearance not only of oaths but of idle words, a tenderness and aptness to bleed at the touch of any sin, a boldness to withstand the corruptions of the times, a conscience of but the appearance of evil, a walking humbly and mournfully before God, an heroic resolution to be strict and circumspect, to walk in an exact and geometrical holiness in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, which the world esteems and scorns as the peevishness of a few silly impolitic men, shall in good earnest from the mouth of God himself be declared to have been the true and narrow way which leads to salvation; and the enemies thereof shall then, when it is too late, be driven to that desperate and shameful confession: ‘we fools counted their life madness, and their end to have been without honour. And now they are reckoned among the saints and have their portion with the Almighty!’
‘Consider what hath been said, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things’ (2 Timothy 2.7).
THE END.
Questions & Notes
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Consent may be signified by complying actions. Paul speaks of this as being once his own case: he consented to the death of the martyr Stephen, and witnesses both that he _________ _________ and that he kept the raiment of those who slew him (Acts 22.20). ↑
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To _________ such a sinner would be to partake of his sin (2 John 10,11). ↑
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Some are so wicked that they defend other men’s wickedness—not only like _________ but like soldiers—by sword and force of arms; as was done for the man who had abused the Levite’s concubine (Judges 17.15). ↑
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