The Existence and Attributes of God (2-volume set) E-Book

Stephen Charnock

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A Classic Work on the Nature of God by Stephen Charnock Stephen Charnock was a highly regarded seventeenth-century English Puritan theologian whose writings have continued to influence the church for centuries. He is known for his sophisticated approach to topics such as the existence and attributes of God, the person and work of Christ, and the doctrine of sin.  This ebook, edited by Mark Jones, contains an updated and unabridged edition of Charnock's classic work, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God, written to instruct and encourage Christian pastors, theologians, and laypeople. Jones precedes each discourse with an introductory summary that explains Charnock's general approach. In this clear, modernized presentation of this classic work, readers will experience his skillful exegesis, his influential way with words, his insight into human nature, his concern with the practical implications of who God is, and his Christ-focused approach to theology. - Modernized Language: Archaic punctuation, words, and phrases have been updated for the modern reader - Updated Bibliographic Information: In the footnotes, Charnock's sources have been located and updated with fuller bibliographic information, showing how widely read he was - Chapter Summaries: Each discourse begins with a summary of the chapter to follow - Extensive: Covers Charnock's defense of God's existence and 11 attributes of God  - Includes In-Depth Chapter on the Life of Stephen Charnock by William Symington

Leseprobe

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“God and his infinite excellencies are endlessly engrossing. What wisdom, insight, comfort, and challenge are found in Charnock’s voluminous ruminations! Unpublished in his lifetime, they are amassed here and augmented by Mark Jones’s expert notations. Charnock provides food for the soul, tonic for the intellect, impetus for worship, and biblical conviction for everyday life.”

Robert W. Yarbrough, Professor of New Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

“Nothing purifies the mind and inflames holiness in the heart like meditation on the perfections of God. Charnock’s classic work on the divine attributes, which he wrote the last three years of his life, has never been matched in its profound and practical approach to this rich subject. This work is a treasure of sound theology and humble adoration of God. The author’s exposition on the goodness of God is alone worth the purchase of these volumes; it is unsurpassed in all English literature. Lightly edited for the modern reader and studded with insightful introductions to each discourse, this new edition by Mark Jones will be a great help to all who seek diligently to know the Lord.”

Joel R. Beeke, President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; author, Reformed Preaching; coauthor, Reformed Systematic Theology

“Stephen Charnock’s work on the existence and attributes of God is perhaps the most thorough and detailed contribution to the topic in the post-Reformation period. Charnock’s pastoral instincts, his incisive grasp of scholastic literature, his theological precision, and his sensitivity to the biblical foundations of his subject made this an outstanding contribution to the church of his day. It is a great pleasure to see a complete and updated version in print and accessible to a new readership.”

Robert Letham, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Union School of Theology; author, Systematic Theology

“As a true labor of love and scholarship, Mark Jones offers the church not another reprint but a new edition of Charnock’s best-known work. In this edition, explanatory essays, judicious comments, and expanded citations make Charnock more accessible and intelligible than ever before. As the nineteenth-century introduction notes, compared to many Puritans, Charnock ‘is more theological than any of them, and his theology, too, is more sound than that of some.’ As Jones’s introduction intimates, the same can be true when Charnock is compared to writers in our day. So start a book group and read about the existence and attributes of God with Charnock and his editor as your godly guides.”

Chad Van Dixhoorn, Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary; author, Confessing the Faith and God’s Ambassadors

The Existence and Attributes of God

Volume 1

The Existence and Attributes of God

Updated and Unabridged

Volume 1

Stephen Charnock

Edited by Mark Jones

The Existence and Attributes of God: Updated and Unabridged

Copyright © 2022 by Mark Jones

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

This book is an updated edition of Stephen Charnock’s Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (London, 1682). In this edition, the English has been modernized. See the editor’s introduction for more about what the editor has updated in this new edition.

The editor’s introductions to discourses 5–8 of volume 1 and discourses 9–14 of volume 2 are adapted from Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 62–83. Used by permission of Reformation Heritage Books.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2022

Printed in China

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible, though the English has been modernized by the editor. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-6590-8 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8177-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8175-5 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8176-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Charnock, Stephen, 1628–1680, author. | Jones, Mark, 1980– editor.

Title: The existence and attributes of God : updated and unabridged / Stephen Charnock ; edited by Mark Jones.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021030978 (print) | LCCN 2021030979 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433565908 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433581755 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433581762 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433581779 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: God (Christianity)—Attributes. | God—Proof.

Classification: LCC BT130 .C43 2022 (print) | LCC BT130 (ebook) | DDC 231/.4—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030978

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030979

2022-07-08 12:15:17 PM

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Contents

Volume 1

Editor’s Introduction

Life and Character of Stephen Charnock

William Symington, DD

Discourse 1

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 1

Discourse 1: On God’s Existence

Discourse 2

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 2

Discourse 2: On Practical Atheism

Discourse 3

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 3

Discourse 3: On God’s Being a Spirit

Discourse 4

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 4

Discourse 4: On Spiritual Worship

Discourse 5

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 5

Discourse 5: On the Eternity of God

Discourse 6

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 6

Discourse 6: On the Immutability of God

Discourse 7

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 7

Discourse 7: On God’s Omnipresence

Discourse 8

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 8

Discourse 8: On God’s Knowledge

Volume 2

Discourse 9

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 9

Discourse 9: On the Wisdom of God

Discourse 10

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 10

Discourse 10: On the Power of God

Discourse 11

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 11

Discourse 11: On the Holiness of God

Discourse 12

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 12

Discourse 12: On the Goodness of God

Discourse 13

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 13

Discourse 13: On God’s Dominion

Discourse 14

Editor’s Summary of Discourse 14

Discourse 14: On God’s Patience

General Index

Scripture Index

Editor’s Introduction

Few works of Christian literature stand the test of time and are read by God’s people centuries after their first publication. Books such as Augustine’s Confessions in the patristic era, Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo? in the medieval church, and John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in the Reformation period are the types of works that have shaped theologians and Christian laypersons in significant ways. The Puritans (ca. 1560s–1690s) bequeathed to us some memorable titles, such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. These are the types of works we might describe as “Christian classics,” especially in the Western Protestant tradition. Identifying a classic is not always easy since there is a degree of subjectivity involved and, as is often the case with many books on theology, beauty is in the eye of the beholder—and beholders belong to certain theological traditions. But the volume you hold in your hands now may well deserve the title of a “Christian classic” for those belonging to the broadly Reformed theological tradition.

Stephen Charnock (Charnocke) was an English Puritan theologian from the seventeenth century. Born in 1628 in London, in the parish of St. Katharine Cree, he was admitted in 1642 as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he experienced a conversion. Many distinguished Puritan theologians before him had likewise been converted at Cambridge. He graduated with a BA and MA by 1649 and then ministered in London. By 1650, when Puritanism was experiencing its “heights,” he became a fellow of New College, Oxford. A few years later (1654), he was appointed senior proctor of Oxford University, a position he held until 1656. At Oxford he belonged to a “gathered church” with fellow Puritan stalwarts Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680), Thankful Owen (1620–1681), and Theophilus Gale (1628–1678). His training at Cambridge and Oxford provided him with the intellectual culture and tools that would put him in good stead to preach and write for the church, notwithstanding the turbulent times that would characterize his life henceforth.

After Oxford, in 1656, Charnock went to Dublin, Ireland, where he served various churches, becoming one of the highest-paid clergy in Ireland. He was chaplain to Henry Cromwell, the chief governor of Ireland. While in Ireland, he was granted a bachelor of divinity and was also a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

In 1660, he returned to England, but in the wake of the Restoration and the Act of Uniformity (1662), he had no official pastoral charge for fifteen years. According to Richard Greaves, Charnock supported himself by practicing medicine.1 One can detect a medical background when reading Charnock. He frequently makes reference to medical terms and topics to illustrate a point. After ministering in private, including secret trips to Holland and France, Charnock became copastor in 1675 with the Puritan divine Thomas Watson (ca. 1620–1686), serving a Nonconformist congregation at Crosby Hall in London. In the latter years of his life, he wrote Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (London, 1682; 2nd ed., 1684). He died on July 27, 1680, at the age of fifty-two. He never actually finished this work, completing only fourteen discourses in all. Interestingly, Charnock published nothing during his life except for a sermon in 1676 (“A Discourse of the Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts”).

Charnock is obviously well known for his work on the attributes of God, but his wider corpus, posthumously published, includes some equally impressive discourses, which fill five volumes in James Nichol’s series of standard Puritan divines.2 There are some fairly in-depth treatises, such as his work on regeneration (vol. 3) or even his excellent discussion of divine providence (vol. 1). His writings on the person and work of Christ appear to be an unearthed gold mine of some of the most moving Christological reflections one can find among Puritan authors. The latter discourses of volume 4 and the first several discourses of volume 5 are pastoral masterpieces of Puritan Christology. His writings also look at the doctrine of sin with equally penetrating acuity. One will find few better treatments of the human condition in sin than the section on “practical atheism” in the work before us (discourse 2). Readers would be shortchanging themselves if they pass over the discourse on practical atheism in a rush to get to his discourses on the attributes. With this in mind, the jewel in the crown in Charnock’s Works is indeed his Discourses on God’s attributes.

An Old Book for Our Time

Charnock’s Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God is perhaps the finest, most extensive theological-practical work written in the English language on the doctrine of God.3 In one short biography of Charnock, Erasmus Middleton (1739–1805) calls him “one of the greatest men in the church of Christ, with respect to his depth, clearness, accuracy in true divinity. . . . He was the Author of those unparalleled discourses on the Existence, Attributes, and Providence of God.”4 Augustus Toplady (1740–1778) remarked of this volume, “Perspicuity and depth; metaphysical sublimity and evangelical simplicity; immense learning and plain, but irrefragable reasoning; conspire to render that performance one of the most inestimable productions, that ever did honour to the sanctified judgment and genius of a human being.”5

The English Nonconformist divine Edmund Calamy (1671–1732) gives a moving account of Charnock’s giftings:

Many commended his learning and abilities who had no regard for his piety. . . . He was a very considerable scholar, there being scarcely any part of learning he was unacquainted with. He had a peculiar skill in the original languages of the Old and New Testament. His natural abilities were excellent. He had, what rarely meet, a strong judgment, and a lively imagination. He was a very eminent divine.6

We get a look into some of Charnock’s personality traits from Calamy. Charnock was, like many Puritans, studious and a great lover of a Renaissance-like intellectual culture. He seems to have been a bit shy with new acquaintances but opened up with those he knew well. He chose his friends carefully, determining whether they were suitably worthy enough to take him away from his books, which, as it happened, burned in the 1666 fire of London.7

Most of the major works on God before Charnock were written in Latin—and many remain untranslated even today.8 But Charnock was writing these discourses in a time when the transition from Latin to English was taking place in works on divinity. When one reads him in comparison to the works of his day, as well as those that were published decades before him, it is evident he was working at a high level, even if he wrote chiefly for homiletical purposes. But the truly remarkable thing about this particular work is not only its sophistication but its accessibility. That may be due to the fact that the discourses were meant, in part, to be preached. Many Puritan works that we read today were indeed sermons, but that did not mean that the author did not do substantial editing or revising to prepare the sermon for print. This surely was the case with Charnock’s Discourses.

Richard Muller, with his vast knowledge of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras, has summarized this work by Charnock well:

Also of considerable significance as both a contribution to the English Reformed theology of the seventeenth century and as a codification of doctrine evidencing the broad resources and major opponents of the Reformed position is Charnock’s Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God. . . . [This work] certainly stands as one of the more elaborate and detailed treatises on the subject written in the seventeenth century and . . . partakes of the careful distinctions and definitions that belong to the scholastic theology of the era. It also evidences the exegetical and practical character of the Protestant theology of the era, with consistent references to the texts of Scripture on which its teaching is based and equally consistent attention to the churchly and pious “use” of each doctrinal point. Charnock’s work, remarkable for its grasp of the scholastic materials and for its ability to turn those materials to homiletical use, also invariably turns toward christological and soteriological issues.9

Here Muller hits on some of the key themes in Charnock’s Discourses. Each discourse contains an exegetical commentary on a well-known text suitable to each topic under consideration. Charnock would often choose the locus classicus for each topic, usually in continuity with other Reformed treatments on the same subject (e.g., Ps. 14:1 on God’s existence). This was obviously a standard approach for homiletical discourses on theological doctrines. Indeed, as one quickly notices, Charnock is concerned with the practical implications of who God is, which means practical atheism takes up a major part of his treatment on God’s existence. True, people were beginning to doubt God’s existence at Charnock’s time, but the major threat to the existence of God in the seventeenth century was both the revision of a classical understanding of God and also a failure to live as though the God of the Bible exists—though the latter is obviously not limited to seventeenth-century persons. With that in mind, as a pastor-theologian, Charnock does not fail to live up to his calling as a preacher of Christ. Christ-centered is, at best, a relative term, considering that all Christian theologians would describe themselves that way to some extent. But even in this work on “theology proper,” Charnock does not forget to tie his discourses to Christ.

In light of the above, we may wish to consider why so many have heard of Charnock’s work but, apparently, so few have been able to get through his weighty tome. While we can be thankful for those who have undertaken to reprint this work of Charnock’s in recent decades, there’s something slightly intimidating about holding, for example, a single volume consisting of 1,152 pages from a Puritan theologian. Many might think this was a weighty theological textbook, but in actual fact, as noted, it was a collection of sermons—albeit, not your typical present-day sermon—designed to edify Christian laypeople. We might be surprised to learn that far more technical works on the doctrine of God were available for those studying theology in the academy setting.

Compared to other well-known Puritan divines, such as John Owen (1616–1683) and Richard Baxter (1615–1691), Charnock is actually easier to read. But one has to have read all three to know that. For my own part, Charnock has better turns of phrase than the previous two heavyweights of Puritan theology. He is certainly clearer. And he’s not far off their level of sophistication. Thomas Watson was clear but not as sophisticated as Charnock. Baxter and Owen were sophisticated but not always immediately clear—at least not to the present-day reader. But in Charnock you have the best of both: lucid sophistication. In his writings, he displays remarkable exegetical skill, familiarity with Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians on the Continent, and a beautiful way with words (particularly his metaphors and analogies). He comes across as a Renaissance man par excellence. His insight into human nature is also a major strength of his work. The Puritans excelled particularly in the doctrine of sin, and Charnock is a major reason for that reputation. When all these factors are considered together, there is no doubt that Charnock belongs to the upper echelon of Puritan theologians and that he has been criminally neglected in the secondary literature.

The twentieth century was not a great century for the doctrine of God. Orthodox views were called into question by various theologians from a number of theological traditions, though at times unwittingly, it seems. Even within the Reformed theological tradition, broadly considered, some theologians did not adequately express themselves on certain of the divine attributes, sometimes offering unorthodox views on God’s immutability, for example. Even in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, we are still in a precarious position, though the situation appears to be improving with various efforts in retrieval taking place by students and scholars of the early modern period.

Returning to works like Charnock’s continues the much-needed engagement with ressourcement theology. Charnock was himself, like those Reformed theologians before him and during his time, thoroughly immersed in the wider Christian tradition. He shows continuity with the catholicity of Christian theology and a fairly evenhanded dependence on the patristic, medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation eras. His acquaintance with Roman Catholic scholastic theology is impressive, as is his knowledge of the French Reformed scene of his day. One might be tempted to think Charnock simply regurgitates the proofs for God’s existence handed down to us from Thomas Aquinas, but Charnock expands on the traditional proofs to offer the people he is preaching to even more reasons for placing their trust in God.

Thus, by returning to the writings of Charnock, we are returning not simply to a singular thinker but to a theologian who was widely read in the Christian tradition. A close reading of this work uncovers a whole host of insights that reveal the usefulness of drawing on sources from different ages and theological traditions.

This volume has been edited and made available because of the pressing need within the church for a view of God that is more informed by classical orthodoxy and that, far from being dry, has a powerful, practical application for the lives of Christians who want theology to be the art of living well toward God and man. I can think of no book from the past several hundred years that can help the church today quite as well as Charnock’s Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God.

Editorial Changes

I have made a number of editorial revisions to make Charnock more accessible and readable without compromising his intent. This is always a tricky business. But in the end, it is more important that this book is read not only by theologians and pastors but also by laypersons in the church. I have edited the Discourses with these concerns in mind:

1. Paragraphs and run-on sentences have been shortened. In both the originally published work and later editions, many paragraphs are simply too long and needed shortening to give readers hope that they would actually finish the paragraph, never mind the book. Some sentences were long enough to make the apostle Paul blush. The use of the semicolon was a Puritanesque device, allowing them to write sentences that would constitute paragraphs today. I have tried to shorten a number of sentences.

2. A few subheads have been added to help orient the reader to the major sections of each discourse. All such subheads are my additions, though I have often used Charnock’s roman numerals and sometimes his language in such subheads.

3. To make the structure clearer to readers, I have sought to use consistent numbered levels with the following numbered styles (which mirror Charnock’s, except in a few places where I have corrected them to promote clarity): I. → 1. → (1) → [1] → {1} → <1>. In some cases, I have preserved Charnock’s occasional insertion of a level of points labeled first, second, etc., or Prop. 1, Prop. 2, etc., between these numbered points. I have simplified occurrences of firstly, secondly, etc. to first, second, etc.

4. Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic (which Charnock, like many of his contemporaries, called “Chaldee”), and Latin words and phrases have been translated so that those without a working knowledge of these languages can understand what Charnock is speaking about. Sometimes Charnock provides an English translation—usually after the Latin—but often he does not.

5. Certain archaic words and phrases have been modernized. For example, doth has become does, and thou has become you. This is true both of Charnock’s text and of biblical quotations from the King James Version.

6. Some punctuation has been modernized for the KJV as well, such as adding quotation marks for internal speech or writing and replacing semicolons or colons with commas. In addition, readers should note that Charnock would often lightly edit the biblical text’s grammar to fit the flow of his sentences, rearranging words, omitting intervening text without ellipses, inserting God’s name for pronouns, and sometimes slightly paraphrasing the text. I have allowed those changes largely to stand without adding distracting brackets or moving quotation marks.

7. In biblical quotations, occurrences of Lord that refer to Yahweh (or Jehovah, as Charnock put it) have been set in small caps. Parenthetical biblical citations have also been standardized to the form 3:16 (rather than v. 16) for clarity, and some biblical book abbreviations have been added for consistency. In addition, I have moved some parenthetical biblical references to the end of a quotation, relevant phrase, or relevant sentence.

8. Many scriptural references that need not be in the footnotes have been inserted into the main body of the text. Sometimes Charnock’s erroneous citations have been silently corrected, and some biblical references have been added where biblical quotations lacked a citation.

9. The British spelling has been Americanized (e.g., behaviour changed to behavior, defence to defense, Saviour to Savior). A number of misspellings have been corrected. Some older spellings have also been modernized (e.g., abhorrency changed to abhorrence, indifferency to indifference, moulder to molder, precedency to precedence, uncapable to incapable, burthened to burdened). Phrases with how/which . . . soever constructions have been updated (i.e., however, whichever).

10. Holy Ghost has been replaced with Holy Spirit throughout the book.

11. I have brought consistency of capitalization to terms throughout the book and have taken a modern (i.e., more sparing) approach to capitalization in the whole.

12. The punctuation has been modernized as I saw fit. This includes removing double punctuation (such as ;— or :—), changing a proliferation of semicolons to commas or periods, adding or removing hyphens to follow modern hyphenation patterns, deleting periods in parenthetical or bracketed numbered points (i.e., [6.]), moving semicolons outside an end quotation mark, and adding em dashes (i.e., —) to clarify meaning.

13. In places, I have provided connectors to make grammatical relationships clearer, such as an added so between two clauses or an added that to show parallelism between phrases. I have also inserted language to turn some fragments into sentences, to promote smoother reading. For example, in Charnock’s sentence “No nation but had their temples . . . ,” I have added “There is” to the beginning: “There is no nation but had their temples . . .”

14. Relative pronouns have been modernized: who for that (where a personal pronoun is needed; e.g., he who instead of he that), that for which (where the material is restrictive), and so on.

15. Occurrences of i.e. in the main text have been expanded to that is.

16. I have sometimes added of to Charnock’s gerunds to smooth out his expression for modern readers; for example, where Charnock says, “It is an undeifying or dethroning God,” I have added of after dethroning: “It is an undeifying or dethroning of God.”

17. In some cases, I have repositioned the term only to clarify what term it is intended to modify. And in some such instances, I have changed the term to alone for smoother reading.

18. I have placed editorial comments in brackets in the footnotes where a point of clarification or instruction is merited.

19. I have retained Charnock’s original footnotes, with some minor editing for consistency of presentation (e.g., italicizing titles, separating elements by commas). The footnotes have also been expanded and, where possible, clarified in editorial notes. Some of the citations by Charnock are simply a name (e.g., Muis). His citation method can be extremely frustrating to us in the twenty-first century. Few readers will know who “Muis” is, and so the full name is given (e.g., Siméon Marotte de Muis), sometimes with a comment about which tradition the theologian comes from (e.g., Roman Catholic). In many places, the specific work that Charnock is referencing, which may be ambiguous in the original, has been cited in full. Sometimes it is unclear which work Charnock has in mind from the author, but I have done my best to figure out which work he is citing. For example, Charnock cites, “Fotherby, Atheomastix, p. 64.” I have then added, “[A reference to the Church of England bishop Martin Fotherby (ca. 1560–1620), Atheomastix: Clearing foure Truthes, against Atheists and Infidels [. . .] (London: Nicholas Okes, 1622), 64.].” In another place we have the following citation: “Aquinas.” I have added, “[Charnock cites the medieval scholastic Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Summa theologiae, 1a.2.2.].”

20. At the beginning of each discourse, I have provided a basic chapter summary to introduce the reader to the topic, often with some analysis of the topic that Charnock is discussing.

This massive undertaking has not been possible without the help of a number of uniquely gifted individuals. I want to thank Justin Taylor for suggesting this project to me. I’m humbled to be considered able to do this type of work. Also, David Barshinger’s keen eye for detail has made this project much better than it would have been. I also want to thank Michael Lynch for his help on tracking down bibliographic references that seemed impossible to find. Others who helped in various ways include James Duguid, Riaan Boer, Artur Robert Bagdasaryan, Jonathan Roberts, Darren Exley, Ben Davenport, Benjamin Phillips, Brent Karding, Gideon Rossouw, and Mark Olivero. Finally, I would like to thank my patient (and encouraging) wife, who now wants to call our next pet dog Charnock because of how often she saw me working on these Discourses.

Mark Jones

1  Richard L. Greaves, “Charnock, Stephen (1628–1680),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., 2011), https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5172.

2  See Stephen Charnock, The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, B.D., 5 vols. (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864–1866; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985). Others in Nichol’s series include Thomas Goodwin, Richard Sibbes, David Clarkson, Thomas Brooks, George Swinnock, Henry Smith, and Thomas Adams.

3  Stephen Charnock, Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (London, 1682). It was also published in a few different editions in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries: The Works of the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D., being several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God [. . .]: to which is added his discourse of divine providence (London: Ben Griffin and Tho. Cockeril, 1684); The Works of the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D., being several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God, his discourse of divine providence, and a supplement of several discourses on various divine subjects, 2nd ed. (London: Ben Griffin, John Lawrence, Eliz. Harris, John Nicholson, and Tho. Cockerill, 1699); Discourses upon the existence and attributes of God, abridged from the writings of the late learned and venerable Stephen Charnock, B.D., ed. Griffith Williams (London: W. Smith, [1797]); Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (London: T. Tegg, 1840; H. G. Bohn, 1845; J. Blackwood, 1875); Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (New York: Robert Carter, 1853, 1856). Charnock’s complete Works was first printed in the seventeenth century: The Works of the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D., 2 vols. (London: Ben Griffin and Tho. Cockeril, 1684, 1699).

4  Erasmus Middleton, Biographia Evangelica, or an Historical Account of the Lives and Deaths of the most eminent and evangelical Authors or Preachers both British and Foreign in the several Denominations of Protestants, 4 vols. (London, 1779–1786), 3:443.

5  Augustus Toplady, The Works of Augustus M. Toplady, 6 vols. (London: William Baynes & Son, 1825), 6:58.

6  Edmund Calamy, The Nonconformist’s Memorial: Being an Account of the Ministers, who Were Ejected or Silenced after the Restoration, Particularly by the Act of Uniformity, which Took Place on Bartholomew-day, Aug. 24, 1662 (London: W. Harris, 1775), 1:160.

7  Calamy, Nonconformist’s Memorial, 161.

8  The most similar works I have come across in English in the seventeenth century are John Preston, Life eternall, or, A treatise of the knowledge of the divine essence and attributes, Delivered in XVIII Sermons (London: R[ichard] B[adger], 1631); Thomas Jackson, A treatise of the divine essence and attributes (London: M. F., 1628); and William Bates, The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of mans redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work (London: J. M., 1675).

9  Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725, vol. 3, The Divine Essence and Attributes (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 132.

Life and Character of Stephen Charnock

William Symington, DD

Stephen Charnock, BD, was born in the year 1628, in the parish of St. Katharine Cree, London. His father, Mr. Richard Charnock, practiced as a solicitor in the court of chancery and was descended from a family of some antiquity in Lancashire. Stephen, after a course of preparatory study, entered himself, at an early period of life, a student in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was placed under the immediate tuition of the celebrated Dr. William Sancroft, who became afterward archbishop of Canterbury. Although there is too much reason to fear that colleges seldom prove the spiritual birthplaces of the youth that attend them, it was otherwise in this case. The sovereign Spirit, who works where and how he wills, had determined that this young man, while prosecuting his early studies, should undergo that essential change of heart that, besides yielding an amount of personal comfort, could not fail to exert a salutary influence on all his future inquiries, sanctify whatever learning he might hereafter acquire, and fit him for being eminently useful to thousands of his fellow creatures. To this all-important event we may safely trace the eminence to which, both as a preacher and as a divine, he afterward attained—as he had thus a stimulus to exertion, a motive to vigorous and unremitting application, which could not otherwise have existed.

On his leaving the university, he spent some time in a private family, either as a preceptor1 or for the purpose of qualifying himself the better for discharging the solemn and arduous duties of public life, on which he was about to enter. Soon after this, just as the Civil War broke out in England, he commenced his official labors as a minister of the gospel of peace, somewhere in Southwark. He does not appear to have held this situation long, but short as was his ministry there, it was not altogether without fruit. He who had made the student himself, while yet young, the subject of saving operations was pleased also to give efficacy to the first efforts of the youthful pastor to win souls to Christ. Several individuals in this his first charge were led to own him as their spiritual father. Nor is this a solitary instance of the early ministry of an individual receiving that countenance from on high that has been withheld from the labors of his riper years—a circumstance that is full of encouragement to those who, in the days of youth, are entering with much fear and trembling on service in the Lord’s vineyard. At the time when they may feel impelled to exclaim with most vehemence, “Who is sufficient for these things?” God may cheer them with practical confirmations of the truth, that their sufficiency is of God.

In 1649, Charnock removed from Southwark to Oxford, where, through favor of the Parliamentary visitors, he obtained a fellowship in New College and, not long afterward, in consequence of his own merits, was incorporated master of arts. His singular gifts and unwearied exertions so attracted the notice and gained the approbation of the learned and pious members of the university that in 1652, he was elevated to the dignity of senior proctor—an office that he continued to hold till 1656 and the duties of which he discharged in a way that brought equal honor to himself and benefit to the community.

When the period of his proctorship expired, he went to Ireland, where he resided in the family of Mr. Henry Cromwell, who had been appointed by his father, the Lord Protector,2 to the government of that country. It is remarkable how many of the eminent divines, both of England and Scotland, have spent some part of their time in Ireland, either as chaplains to the army or as refugees from persecuting bigotry. Charnock seems to have gone thither in the capacity of chaplain to the governor, an office that, in his case at least, proved no sinecure. During his residence in Dublin, he appears to have exercised his ministry with great regularity and zeal. He preached, we are told, every Lord’s Day, with much acceptance, to an audience composed of persons of different religious denominations and of opposite grades in society. His talents and worth attracted the members of other churches, and his connection with the family of the governor secured the attendance of persons of rank. By these, his ministrations were greatly esteemed and applauded, and it is hoped that to some of them they were also blessed. But even many who had no respect for his piety and who reaped no saving benefits from his preaching were unable to withhold their admiration of his learning and his gifts. Studying at once to be an “ensample3 to the flock” and to “walk within his house with a perfect heart,” his qualities, both public and private, his appearances, whether in the pulpit or in the domestic circle, commanded the esteem of all who were privileged to form his acquaintance. It is understood that the honorary degree of bachelor in divinity, which he held, was the gift of Trinity College, Dublin, conferred during his residence in that city.

The Restoration of Charles,4 in 1660, put an end to Charnock’s ministry in Ireland and hindered his resuming it elsewhere for a considerable time. That event—leading, as it could not but do, to the reestablishment of arbitrary power—was followed, as a natural consequence, by the ejectment of many of the most godly ministers that ever lived. Among these was the excellent individual of whom we are now speaking. Accordingly, although on his return to England he took up his residence in London, he was not permitted to hold any pastoral charge there. Nevertheless, he continued to prosecute his studies with ardor and occasionally exercised his gifts in a private way for fifteen years, during which time he paid some visits to the Continent, especially to France and Holland.

At length, in 1675, when the restrictions of the government were so far relaxed, he accepted a call from a congregation in Crosby Square, to become copastor with the Rev. Thomas Watson, the ejected minister of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, who, soon after the Act of Uniformity, had collected a church in that place. Mr. Watson was an eminent Presbyterian divine, and the society that he was instrumental in founding became afterward, under the ministry of Dr. Grosvenor,5 one of the most flourishing in the city, in respect both of numbers and of wealth. It may not be uninteresting here to insert a few brief notices respecting the place of worship that this congregation occupied, being the scene of Charnock’s labors during a principal part of his ministry and that in connection with which he closed his official career.

The place in which this humble Presbyterian congregation assembled was a large hall of Crosby House, an ancient mansion on the east side of Bishopgate Street, erected by Sir John Crosby, sheriff and alderman of London, in 1470. After passing through the hands of several occupants—and, among others, those of Richard III, who thought it not unfit for being a royal residence—it became, about the year 1640, the property of Alderman Sir John Langham, a staunch Presbyterian and Loyalist. A calamitous fire afterward so injured the building as to render it unsuitable for a family residence, but the hall, celebrated for its magnificent oaken ceiling, happily escaped the conflagration and was converted into a meetinghouse for Mr. Watson’s congregation, of which the proprietor is supposed to have been a member. The structure, though greatly dilapidated, still exists, and is said to be regarded as one of the most perfect specimens of the domestic architecture of the fifteenth century now remaining in the metropolis. But as an illustration of the vicissitudes such edifices are destined to undergo, it may be stated that Crosby Hall, after having witnessed the splendors of royalty and been consecrated to the solemnities of divine worship, was lately—perhaps it is still—dedicated to the inferior, if not ignoble, uses of a woolpacker.

After saying so much about the building, a word or two respecting the congregation that assembled for years under its vaulted roof may not be deemed inappropriate. It was formed, as we have already said, by the Rev. Thomas Watson, the ejected minister of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook. This took place in 1662, and Charnock was Mr. Watson’s colleague for five years. Mr. Watson was succeeded by the son of an ejected minister, the Rev. Samuel Slater, who discharged the pastoral duties with great ability and faithfulness for twenty-four years and closed his ministry and life with this solemn patriarchal sentence addressed to his people: “I charge you before God that you prepare to meet me at the day of judgment, as my crown of joy, and that not one of you be wanting at the right hand of God.” Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor succeeded Mr. Slater. His singular acumen, graceful utterance, lively imagination, and fervid devotion are said to have secured for the congregation a greater degree of prosperity than it had ever before enjoyed. A pleasing recollection has been preserved of perhaps one of the most touching discourses ever composed, having been delivered by him in this hall, “The Temper of Christ.” In this discourse the Savior is introduced by way of illustrating his command that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,” as giving the apostles directions how they are to proceed in carrying out this requirement. Among other things, he is represented as saying to them:

Go into all nations and offer this salvation as you go. But lest the poor house of Israel should think themselves abandoned to despair, the seed of Abraham, mine ancient friend, as cruel and unkind as they have been, go, make them the first offer of grace; let those who struck the rock drink first of its refreshing streams, and those who drew my blood be welcome to its healing virtue. Tell them that as I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so, if they will be gathered, I will be their shepherd still. Though they despised my tears that I shed over them and imprecated my blood to be upon them, tell them ’twas for their sakes I shed both, that by my tears I might soften their hearts toward God and by my blood I might reconcile God to them. . . . Tell them, you have seen the prints of the nails on my hands and feet and the wounds of the spear in my side, and that those marks of their cruelty are so far from giving me vindictive thoughts that if they will but repent, every wound they have given me speaks in their behalf, pleads with the Father for the remission of their sins, and enables me to bestow it. . . . Nay, if you meet that poor wretch who thrust the spear into my side, tell him there is another way, a better way, of coming at my heart. If he will repent and look on him whom he has pierced and will mourn, I will cherish him in that very bosom he has wounded; he shall find the blood he shed an ample atonement for the sin of shedding it. And tell him from me, he will put me to more pain and displeasure by refusing this offer of my blood than when he first drew it forth.6

In Dr. Grosvenor’s old age, notwithstanding that he was assisted from time to time by eminent divines, the congregation began to decline. After his death, the pastoral charge was held by Dr. Hodge and Mr. Jones successively, but under the ministry of the latter, the church had become so enfeebled that, on the expiration of the lease in 1769, the members agreed to dissolve and were gradually absorbed into other societies.

From this digression we return, only to record the last circumstance necessary to complete this brief sketch. The death of Charnock took place July 27, 1680, when he was in the fifty-third year of his age. The particulars that have come down to us of this event, like those of the other parts of his history, are scanty, yet they warrant us to remark that he died in a frame of mind every way worthy of his excellent character and holy life. He was engaged at the time in delivering to his people, at Crosby Hall, that series of discourses on the existence and attributes of God on which his fame as a writer chiefly rests. The intense interest that he was observed to take in the subjects of which he treated was regarded as an indication that he was nearly approaching that state in which he was to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” Not infrequently was he heard to give utterance to a longing desire for that region for which he gave evidence of his being so well prepared. These circumstances were, naturally enough, looked upon as proofs that his mighty mind, though yet on earth, had begun to “put off its mortality” and was fast ripening for the paradise of God. From his death taking place in the house of Mr. Richard Tymns, in the parish of Whitechapel, London, it may be inferred that his departure was sudden. The body was immediately after taken to the meetinghouse at Crosby Square, which had been so often the scene of his prayers and preaching. From thence, accompanied by a long train of mourners, it was conveyed to St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill, where it was deposited hard by the tower under the belfry. The funeral sermon was preached by his early friend and fellow student at Cambridge, Mr. John Johnson, from these apposite words: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Such is an outline of the facts, as far as they are known, of the life of this great man. There are none, it is true, of those striking occurrences and marvelous incidents in the narrative that attract the notice of the multitude and that are so gratifying to those who are in quest of excitement more than of edification. But let it not be thought that, for this reason, the narrative must be destitute of the materials of personal improvement. If the advantages to be derived from a piece of biography are at all proportioned to the degree in which the character and circumstances of the subject resemble those of the reader, a greater number, at least, may be expected to obtain benefit from a life, the incidents of which are more common, inasmuch as there are but comparatively few, the events of whose history are of an extraordinary and dazzling description. “When a character,” to use the language of a profound judge of human nature, “selected from the ordinary ranks of life, is faithfully and minutely delineated, no effort is requisite to enable us to place ourselves in the same situation; we accompany the subject of the narrative, with an interest undiminished by distance, unimpaired by dissimilarity of circumstances; and, from the efforts by which he surmounted difficulties and vanquished temptations, we derive the most useful practical lessons. He who desires to strengthen his virtue and purify his principles will always prefer the solid to the specious, will be more disposed to contemplate an example of the unostentatious piety and goodness that all men may obtain than of those extraordinary achievements to which few can aspire—nor is it the mark of a superior but rather a vulgar and superficial taste to consider nothing as great or excellent but that which glitters with titles or is elevated by rank.”

Let us endeavor to portray the character of Charnock.

The mental qualities by which he was most distinguished as a man were judgment and imagination. The reasoning faculty, naturally strong, was improved by diligent training and habitual exercise. In tracing the relations and tendencies of things, he greatly excelled; he could compare and contrast with admirable ease and beautiful discrimination; and his deductions, as was to be expected, were usually sound and logical. Judgment was, indeed, the presiding faculty in his, as it ought to be in all minds.

The more weighty qualities of intellect were in him united to a brilliant fancy. By this means he was enabled to adorn the more solid materials of thought with the attractive hues of inventive genius. His fine and teeming imagination, ever under the strict control of reason and virtue, was uniformly turned to the most important purposes. This department of mental phenomena, from the abuses to which it is liable, is apt to be undervalued. Yet were this the proper place, it would not be difficult to show that imagination is one of the noblest faculties with which man has been endowed—a faculty, indeed, the sound and proper use of which is not only necessary to the existence of sympathy and other social affections but also intimately connected with those higher exercises of soul by which men are enabled to realize the things that are not seen and eternal. Charnock’s imagination was under the most cautious and skillful management—the handmaid, not the mistress, of his reason—and, doubtless, it tended in no small degree to free his character from that cold and contracted selfishness that is apt to predominate in those who are deficient in this quality, to impart a generous warmth to his intercourse with others, and to throw over his compositions as an author an animating and delightful glow.

These qualities of mind were associated with habits of intense application and persevering diligence, which alike tended to invigorate his original powers and enabled him to turn them all to the best account. To the original vigor of his powers must be added that which culture supplied. Charnock was a highly educated man. As remarked by the first editors of his works, he was not only “a person of excellent parts, strong reason, great judgment, and curious fancy,” but “of high improvements and general learning, as having been all his days a most diligent and methodical student.” An alumnus of both the English universities, he may be said to have drawn nourishment from each of these generous mothers. He had the reputation of being a general scholar, his acquisitions being by no means limited to the literature of his profession. Not only was his acquaintance with the original languages of Scripture great, but he had made considerable attainments in the study of medicine—indeed, there was scarcely any branch of learning with which he was unacquainted. All his mental powers were thus strengthened and refined by judicious discipline, and, as we shall see presently, he knew well how to devote his treasures, whether original or acquired, to the service of the Redeemer and to consecrate the richest stores of natural genius and educational attainment, by laying them all at the foot of the cross.

But that which gave the finish to Charnock’s intellectual character was not the predominance of any one quality so much as the harmonious and nicely balanced union of all. Acute perception, sound judgment, masculine sense, brilliant imagination, habits of reflection, and a complete mastery over the succession of his thoughts were all combined in that comely order and that due proportion that go to constitute a well-regulated mind. There was, in his case, none of that disproportionate development of any one particular faculty that in some cases serves, like an overpowering glare, to dim, if not almost to quench, the splendor of the rest. The various faculties of his soul, to make use of a figure, rather shone forth like so many glittering stars from the calm and clear firmament of his mind, each supplying its allotted tribute of light and contributing to the serene and solemn luster of the whole. As has been said of another, so may it be said of him—“If it be rare to meet with an individual whose mental faculties are thus admirably balanced, in whom no tyrant faculty usurps dominion over the rest or erects a despotism on the ruins of the intellectual republic, still more rare is it to meet with such a mind in union with the far higher qualities of religious and moral excellence.”

Nor were Charnock’s moral qualities less estimable than his intellectual.

He was a preeminently holy man, distinguished at once by personal purity, social equity, and habitual devotion. Early the subject of saving grace, he was in his own person an excellent example of the harmony of faith with the philosophy of the moral feelings. Strongly he felt that while “not without law to God,” he was nevertheless “under law to Christ.” The motives from which he acted in every department of moral duty were evangelical motives, and so entirely was he imbued with the Spirit, so completely under the power of the gospel, that whatever he did, no matter how humble in the scale of moral duty, he “served the Lord Christ.” The regulating principle of his whole life is embodied in the apostolic injunction “Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. 3:23). The various talents with which he was gifted by the God of nature were all presided over by an enlightened and deep-toned piety, for which he was indebted to the sovereign grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was this that struck the keynote of the intellectual and moral harmony to which we have adverted as a prominent feature in his character. This at once directed each faculty to its proper object and regulated the measure of its exercise. Devotion was the very element in which he lived and breathed and had his being. Devout communion with supreme excellence, the contemplation of celestial themes, and preparation for a higher state of being constituted the truest pleasures of his existence, elevated him far above the control of merely sentient and animal nature, and secured for him an undisturbed repose of mind, which was itself but an antepast7 of what awaited him in the unclouded region of glory. Nor was his devotion transient or occasional merely; it was as habitual as it was deep, extending its plastic and sanctifying influence to every feature of character and every event of life; dictating at once ceaseless efforts for the welfare of man and intensest desires for the glory of God; and securing that rarest perhaps of all combinations, close communion both with the future and the eternal and with the busy and conscientious discharge of the ordinary duties of everyday life.

His natural temper appears to have been reserved, and his manners grave. Regarding the advantages to be derived from general society as insufficient to compensate for the loss of those to be acquired by retirement, he cultivated the acquaintance of few, and these few the more intelligent and godly, with whom, however, putting aside his natural backwardness, he was wont to be perfectly affable and communicative. But his best and most highly cherished companions were his books, of which he had contrived to secure a valuable though select collection. With these he held frequent and familiar intercourse. Great part of his time, indeed, was spent in his study, and when the calls of unavoidable duty compelled him to leave it, so bent was he on redeeming time that, not content with appropriating the hours usually devoted to sleep, he cultivated the habit of thinking while walking along the streets. So successful was he in his efforts of abstraction that, amid the most crowded and attractive scenes, he could withdraw his mind easily from the vanities that solicited his attention and give himself up to close thinking and useful meditation. The productions of his pen and the character of his pulpit services bore ample evidence that the hours of retirement were given neither to frivolous vacuity nor to self-indulgent sloth but to the industrious cultivation of his powers and to conscientious preparation for public duty. He was not content, like many, with the mere reputation of being a recluse; on the contrary, he was set on bringing forth the fruits of a hard student. There was always one day in the week in which he made it to appear that the others were not misspent. His Sabbath ministrations were not the loose vapid effusions of a few hours’ careless preparation but were rather the substantial, well-arranged, well-compacted products of much intense thought and deep cogitation. “Had he been less in his study,” says his editors quaintly, “he would have been less liked in the pulpit.”

To a person of these studious habits it may easily be conceived what distress it must have occasioned to have his library swept away from him. In that dreadful misfortune that befell the metropolis in 1666, ever since known as “the fire of London,” the whole of Charnock’s books were destroyed. The amount of calamity involved in such an occurrence can be estimated aright only by those who know from experience the strength and sacredness of that endearment with which the real student regards those silent but instructive friends which he has drawn around him by slow degrees; with which he has cultivated a long and intimate acquaintance; which are ever at hand with their valuable assistance, counsel, and consolation, when these are needed; which, unlike some less judicious companions, never intrude upon him against his will; and with whose very looks and positions, as they repose in their places around him, he has become so familiarized, that it is no difficult thing for him to call up their appearance when absent or to go directly to them in the dark without the risk of a mistake. Some may be disposed to smile at this love of books. But where is the scholar who will do so? Where is the man of letters who, for a single moment, would place the stately mansions and large estates of the “sons of earth” in comparison with his own well-loaded shelves? Where the student who, on looking round upon the walls of his study, is not conscious of a satisfaction greater and better far than landed proprietor ever felt on surveying his fields and lawns—a satisfaction that almost unconsciously seeks vent in the exclamation “My library! A dukedom large enough!” Such, and such only, can judge what must have been Charnock’s feelings when he found that his much cherished volumes had become a heap of smoldering ashes. The sympathetic regret is only rendered the more intense when it is thought that, in all probability, much valuable manuscript perished in the conflagration.

Charnock excelled as a preacher.

This is an office that, whether as regards its origin, nature, design, or effects, it will be difficult to overrate. The relation in which it stands to the salvation of immortal souls invests it with an interest overwhelmingly momentous. Our former remarks will serve to show how well he of whom we now speak was qualified for acting in this highest of all the capacities in which man is required to serve. His mental and moral endowments, his educational acquirements, his habitual seriousness, his sanctified imagination, and his vigorous faith preeminently fitted him for discharging with ability and effect the duties of a herald of the cross. Of his style of preaching we may form a pretty accurate idea from the writings he has left, which were all transcribed from the notes of his sermons. We hence infer that his discourses, while excelling in solid divinity and argumentative power, were not by any means deficient in their practical bearing, being addressed not more to the understandings than to the hearts of his hearers. “Nothing,” it has been justly remarked, “can be more nervous than his reasoning, nothing more affecting than his applications.” While able to unravel with great acuteness and judgment the intricacies of a nice question in polemics, he could with no less dexterity and skill address himself to the business of the Christian life or to the casuistry of religious experience. Perspicuous plainness, convincing cogency, great wisdom, fearless honesty, and affectionate earnestness are the chief characteristics of his sermons.