A64811:96
Christ's school consisting of four classes of Christians
Christ's school consisting of four classes of Christians : I. Babes, II. Little children, III. Young men, IV. Fathers : with their several characteristical differences and attainments : also the doctrines proper to be taught to each of them : being the substance of many sermons preached many years ago in Southwark / by Ralph Venning.Christ's school consisting of four classes of Christians : I. Babes, II. Little children, III. Young men, IV. Fathers : with their several characteristical differences and attainments : also the doctrines proper to be taught to each of them : being the substance of many sermons preach'd many years ago in Southwark / by Ralph Venning.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1675
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.
1. There are some Christians or persons in Christ which are not men in Christ, but only Babes: They have the Spirit of Christ (in a measure) or else they could not be his, Rom. 8.9. Yet though they have the Spirit, they are nt• spiritual (in any high degree). Though in Christ Jesus, (for else they were not new-born, or new creatures, 2 Cor. 5.17.) yet they are but Babes in Christ, and as (the very next degree to) carnal: they cry rather than speak, their voice is inarticulate and not distinct, 1 Cor. 13.11. They have the Image of God upon them, but not perfectly stamped and visible to every eye: 'Tis but (as I may say) God manifest in the Flesh, under a veil and darkly; Christ is not (perfectly) formed in them, Gal. 4.19. You may see some Prints and similitudes, but the several features are not clearly discernible. They are translated from death to life, they are no Abortives; nor are they still-born: they have the beginning of life, and they do but begin to live. There is joy in Heaven that this Manchild ⟨p. 62⟩is born, though he be not yet grown up, no nor throughly washed and cleansed from his pollution. He is yet but in swaddling clothes and in a Manger, if I may allude to what was said of Christ, when he was a Babe. As the life, so the image is imperfect; you can say there's the Image of a man, but who 'tis like (whether like its Father) you can hardly tell; yet this you can say 'tis not the Devils or the Sinners image; and God knows that 'tis his Image: and Christ knows it to be the Fathers Image, for 'tis born not of the Flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Will of God. They should not have the name of Babes, if they had not the Fathers Image, though it be not so legible to standers by, as that of the spiritual man is. The Babe is a Christian in the smallest Print, but the spiritual man is one in Capital and Golden Letters.
1. There are some Christians or persons in Christ which are not men in Christ, but only Babes: They have the Spirit of Christ (in a measure) or else they could not be his,