Ralph Venning

Ralph Venning (c. 1621 – 10 March 1673 or 1674) was an English nonconformist Christian.

Life The son of Francis and Joan Venning, he was born in Devon, perhaps at Kingsteignton, about 1621. He was the first convert of George Hughes, the puritan vicar of Tavistock. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was admitted as a sizar on 1 April 1643, graduated B.A. 1646, and proceeded M.A. 1650.

Venning held a lectureship at St Olave's Church in the parish of Southwark St Olave. in 1654 he was pastor of a gathered church there.

Ejected by the Uniformity Act 1662, Venning became a colleague to Robert Bragge (1627–1704), pastor of an independent congregation at Pewterers' Hall, Lime Street, Fenchurch Street. Mysteries and Revelations (1647; 5th ed. 1657) (a second part of Milke and Honey); 3rd ed. 1658 Things worth thinking on (1665) The Beauty of Holiness (1665) Sin: The Plague of Plagues (published 1669) (Republished as "The Sinfulness of Sin" by Banner of Truth) The Puritans on Loving One Another The Sinfulness of Sin Warning to Backsliders Way to Happiness

Posthumous publications were:

The Dead yet Speaking, or Mr. Venning's Living Sayings (1674), broadsheet Alarm to Unconverted Sinners (1675), broadsheet Venning's Remains, or Christ's School (1675). Preface by John Collins and James Baron.

He was one of the editors of the English Greek Lexicon (1661), the first lexicon of New Testament Greek giving the meanings in English). His farewell sermon at St. Olave's is in A Compleat Collection of Farewell Sermons, 1663; his 'divine sentences' are included in Saints' Memorials, 1674. He prefaced books by William Strong, Jonathan Hanmer, Theophilus Polwhele, and John Goodwin.