A64833:131
Venning's remains, or, Christ's school consisting of four classes of Christians, I. babes, II.…
Venning's remains, or, 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 by Ralph Venning and fitted by him for the press before his death.
London: printed for John Hancock senior and junior, 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.
This then is the sight and sense of sin which Babes have leading them to Repentance, viz. of one or other particular sin; of sin in the fruit, more than in the root; of sinful lives more than of sinful hearts; though this also come on by degrees afterward. The deceitfulness ⟨p. 82⟩and desperate wickedness of the heart was a thing that the many were not much convinced of, Jer. 17.9. No, nor the Disciples in Christs own time, for our Saviour tells them that they were without understanding in this point, Matth. 15.15,—20. And the Apostle cautions the Hebrew-Babes to take heed lest there be an evil heart of unbelief or any root of bitterness in them, more than they were aware of: Few Babes know what's latent in their hearts. Peter tells Christ upon occasion that he was a sinner, yet would not believe that his heart was so sinful, as Christ told him he would find it to be. They are generally (as carnal and) like other men in this, who know they sin, yet scarce know whence it comes ([Greek or Hebrew];) and therefore commonly charge it more upon the Devil than upon themselves, and upon his temptations, rather than their own corrupt natures, if not on God himself, see Jam. 1.13, 14, 15.
This then is the sight and sense of sin which Babes have leading them to Repentance, viz. of one or other particular sin; of sin in the fruit, more than in the root; of sinful lives more than of sinful hearts; though this also come on by degrees afterward. The deceitfulness ⟨p. 82⟩and desperate wickedness of the heart was a thing that the many were not much convinced of, Jer. 17.9. No, nor the Disciples in Christs own time, for our Saviour tells them that they were without understanding in this point, Matth. 15.15,—20. And the Apostle cautions the Hebrew-Babes to take heed lest there be an evil heart of unbelief or any root of bitterness in them, more than they were aware of: Few Babes know what's latent in their hearts. Peter tells Christ upon occasion that he was a sinner, yet would not believe that his heart was so sinful, as Christ told him he would find it to be. They are generally (as carnal and) like other men in this, who know they sin, yet scarce know whence it comes (;) and therefore commonly charge it more upon the Devil than upon themselves, and upon his temptations, rather than their own corrupt natures, if not en God himself, see