Ralph Venning

thumb|Ralph Venning Ralph Venning (1621–1673) was an English preacher. Quotes All the beauty of the world, 'tis but skin deep. "The Triumph of Assurance", Orthodox Paradoxes, Or, A Believer Clearing Truth by Seeming Contradictions (1647), p. 41. Compare: "Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep", Mathew Henry, Commentaries. Genesis iii. He accounts himself lesse then the least of all mercies; and yet he looks on the greatest as his due. "The Triumph of Assurance", Orthodox Paradoxes, Or, A Believer Clearing Truth by Seeming Contradictions (1647), p. 48-49. They spare the rod, and spoyle the child. Mysteries and Revelations, p. 5. (1649). Compare: "There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God, Than from theyr children to spare the rod." John Skelton, Magnyfycence, line 1954. Courteous reader, 'tis said of scripture that it is deep enough for an elephant to swim in, and yet shallow enough for a lamb to wade through. From the late 1640s, in Ian Green, Print and Protestantism in Early Modern England (2002), p. 101. The Sinfulness of Sin The Sinfulness of Sin, Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (Puritan Paperbacks), first published 1669, Original Title: The Plague of Plagues, 0-85151-647-5 Sin is anti-will to God's will; it sets itself to oppose preaching, prayer, and all the institutions of God. Confession of sin and repentance gives glory to God (Joshua 7:19) and sin endeavors to obstruct and hinder this. One of the first evidences of man's sinfulness and misery by it, was that he could not endure, but hid himself from the voice and face of God (Genesis 3:8). What is sin but a departure from God? And what is the doom of sinners but departure from God? Depart from us is the cry of sinners to God. Depart from me will be the cry of God to sinners. Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917) Quotes reported in C. N. Douglas, Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical (1917) As a Christian should do no injuries to others, so he should forgive the injuries that others do to him. It is to be like God, who is a good-giving God, and a sin-forgiving God. I have read of a glass kept in an idol temple in Smyrna that would make beautiful things appear deformed, and deformed things appear beautiful; carnal sense is such a glass to wicked men, it makes heavenly things which are beautiful to appear deformed, and earthly things which are deformed to appear beautiful. Late repentance is seldom true, but true repentance is never too late. Success at first doth many times undo men at last. The Hebrews have a saying that God is more delighted in adverbs than in nouns; it is not so much the matter that is done, but the matter how it is done, that God minds. Not how much, but how well! It is the well-doing that meets with a well-done. Let us therefore serve God, not nominally or verbally, but adverbially. To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is true, is to prefer thyself above the truth. Virtue and vice are both prophets; the first, of certain good; the second, of pain or else of penitence. Worldly riches are like nuts; many clothes are torn in getting them, many a tooth broke in cracking them, but never a belly filled with eating them. External links Category:Christian leaders Category:1673 deaths Category:People from England