Ralph Venning

Ralph Venning (1621–1673) was an English preacher.

Sourced

• All the beauty of the world, ’t is 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 thent he least of all mercies; and yet he lookes 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.

Attributed

• 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.