48 quotes
Ralph Venning Quotes
The sharpest, most searching lines from Ralph Venning, drawn straight from the Puritan Paperbacks. Filter by theme, or browse the whole collection.
“Sin, in being contrary to God, is contrary to man, for what crosses God's glory is opposed to man's happiness.”
“Sin is the quintessence of evil; it has made all the evils that there are & is itself worse than all evils it has made. It is so evil that it is impossible to make it good or lovely by all the arts that can be used.”
“None of God's elect die before they are converted.”
“Sin does not please men whether they are full or fasting.”
“To be merciful to [indwelling] sin is to be cruel to yourself.”
“Oh, learn to pity your own soul, for he who sins offends and wrongs God, but also wrongs and destroys his own soul.”
“To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is true, is to prefer thyself above the truth.”
“All the beauty of the world, 'tis but skin deep.”
“He accounts himself lesse then the least of all mercies; and yet he looks on the greatest as his due.”
“They spare the rod, and spoyle the child.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Late repentance is seldom true, but true repentance is never too late.”
“Success at first doth many times undo men at last.”
“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.”
“Sin promises like a God but pays like a Devil.”
“Take notice not only of the mercies of God, but of God in the mercies. Mercies are never so savoury as when they savour a Saviour.”
“Seek that your last days may be your best days, and so you may die in a good old age, which may be best done when you die good in old age, and are such as St. Paul the aged who had finished his course.”
“Virtue and vice are both prophets; the first, of certain good; the second, of pain or else of penitence.”
“That is good which doth good.”
“Sin is a transgression of God's law, which is not only holy and just, as made and given by a holy and just God, but also good.”
“The sinfulness of sin not only appears from, but consists in this, that it is contrary to God. Indeed, it is contrary and enmity itself.”
“Man no sooner begins to live, but he begins to die; and after a few days, which are but as a span, and pass away more swiftly than a weaver's shuttle.”
“Sin has made men worship either (1) a false God, which is idolatry; or (2) God falsely, which is superstition.”
“In this world there is a door of hope, a day, an offer, and means of grace, space for repentance, a Mediator in Heaven a patient God.”
“Give the devil and sin an inch, and they will take a mile!”