Readability (1-3): 2
Length: 284 pgs
Author: Ralph Venning
This is not a book for everyone, but for those who have grown to love the depth and warmth of the Puritans I highly recommend it. It’s not that the book is highly technical, nor is the language completely alien to ours (I think the Puritan Paperback version has been gently edited). This book can require discipline simply because like most of the Puritans the extent of the treatment is so thorough that you may get lost in the subtle arguments. However, if you are up to the challenge, this book is deeply soul nourishing. I am always thankful for an author who can help me see the bane of my soul more clearly and inversely appreciate my Savior more truly.
…as God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy, and always holy, so sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful (Genesis 6.5). In my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing (Romans 7.18). As in God there is no evil, so in sin there is no good. God is the chiefest of goods and sin is the chiefest of evils. As no good can be compared with God for goodness, so no evil can be compared with sin for evil.
In short, sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love…
To comment on this briefly, it is as if sinners should say to God in the day of judgment, Lord have mercy upon us! Have mercy upon you! says God. No, I will have no mercy on you. There was a time when you might have had mercy without judgment, but now you will have judgment without mercy. Depart! Depart! If they should then beg and say, Lord, if we must depart, let it be from thy throne of judgment but not from thee. No, says the Lord, depart from me; depart from my presence in which is joy. Depart and go to Hell. Lord, they say, seeing we must be gone, bless us before we go so that thy blessing may be upon us. Oh no, says God, go with a curse; depart, ye cursed. Oh Lord, if we must go from thee, let us not go into the place of torment, but appoint some place, if not of pleasure, then of ease. No, depart into fire, burning and tormenting flames. Oh Lord, if into fire, let it be only for a little while; let the fire soon be out or us soon out of it, for who can dwell in everlasting burnings? No, neither you nor the fire shall know an end; be gone into everlasting fire. Lord, then let it be long before we go there. No, depart immediately; the sentence shall be immediately put in execution. Ah! Lord! let us at least have good company who will pity us though they cannot help us. No, you shall have none but tormenting devils; those whom you obeyed when they were tempters you shall be with as tormentors. What misery sin has brought on man! to bring him to hear this dreadful doom!
By this we see that no wicked man cares for sin’s wages. Surely that work cannot be good for which the wages are so bad that no man cares to receive them…
Sin promises like a God but pays like a devil.
To be merciful to sin is to be cruel to yourself…
No Other Boast 