A64833:77
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
Introduction › Part 3: III. A further continuation of the Praecognita, things to be premised.
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.
10. 'Tis seldom that any of these (unless •he Fathers) be eminent in the exercise of all graces, at least all alike: Though every grace •e seminally and radically in every one, yet they do not spring up and grow in all alike. 'Tis certain the Classis of Babes is not eminent in any grace, no not in them which are their proper Acts, and by which they are denominated; their repentance, desire, and saith is imperfect and weak, though true: The little Children are for Love, and live the less by Faith, because they live by a sensible knowledge of (the love of) the Father. The Young men are strong, viz. in Faith: The Fathers have gone through all these and are filled with assurance and the riches of its joy.
There have been some persons eminent in some special graces, as Abraham for Faith, Job for patience, Moses for meekness, but few that have been eminent in all grace, which argues that there are but few in the uppermost Form (the Classis of Fathers) in the School of Christ, All have grace in some degree, but few have all grace in an high degree. As 'tis in gifts, 'tis in graces also many times, 1 Cor. 12.8,—18,—28. Some excel in one thing and some in another: The highest estate is the Fathers; the next the Young men, and so downward; now the lower the Form, the less and lower is the grace: and I fear that many who pretend high (perhaps so high as to be above all Forms) will be found to be as low as Babes, and that they need to learn their very Alphabet again. But,
There have been some persons eminent in some special graces, as Abraham for Faith, Job for patience, Moses for meekness, but few that have been eminent in all grace, which argues that there are but few in the uppermost Form (the Classis of Fathers) in the School of Christ, All have grace in some degree, but few have all grace in an high degree. As 'tis in gists, 'tis in graces also many times, 1 Cor. 12.8,—18,—28. Some excell in one thing and some in another: The highest estate is the Fathers; the next the Young men, and so downward; now the lower the Form, the less and lower is the grace: and I fear that many who pretend high (perhaps so high as to be above all Forms) will be found to be as low as Babes, and that they need to learn their very Alphabet again. But,