Shall a silly passenger

On Distrusting God's Wisdom in Providence: 

"Shall a silly passenger, that understands not the use of a compass, be angry that the skillful pilot will not steer the vessel according to his pleasure? 

Stephen Charnock

Were They as Great as

  That blood that hath cleansed so many from sin, and from such multitudes of sin, in their several capacities, can cleanse you from 𝘢𝘭𝘭 your sins, were they as great as all those jointly that have been cleansed by it from the beginning of the world.

—Stephen Charnock, 3:531

Holy Ends

 God hath 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in permitting sin, while man hath 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in committing it.

—Puritan Stephen Charnock, A Discourse on Divine Providence, Works 1:18

 God hath 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in permitting sin,

while man hath 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in committing it.

—Puritan Stephen Charnock, A Discourse on Divine Providence, Works 1:18

CHRIST IS A BETTER PROMISE

 God can no more condemn a believing soul when he looks upon Christ, than he can drown the world against his promise when he looks on the rainbow.

—Puritan Stephen Charnock, Works 3:489

The Blood Cleanses

 That blood that hath cleansed so many from sin, and from such multitudes of sin, in their several capacities, can cleanse you from 𝘢𝘭𝘭 your sins, were they as great as all those jointly that have been cleansed by it from the beginning of the world.

—Stephen Charnock, 3:531

A notion of God commensurate

 

If we could have thoughts of him, as high and excellent as his nature; our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature. All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every created species is finite; it cannot therefore represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him, who is greater than our words, vaster than our understandings. No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God, as can give us a clear view of him.  Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellence, and point us to those excellences in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellences which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we draw our lessons being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being. --Charnock

WITHOUT EXCUSE

Stephen Charnock lists ten attributes of God that may be recognized by the light of Nature:

1. the power of God, in creating a world out of nothing
2. the wisdom of God, in the order, variety, and beauty of creation
3.  the goodness of God, in the provision God makes for His creatures
4.  the immutability of God, for if He were mutable, He would lack the perfection of the sun and heavenly bodies, “wherein no change hath been observed”
5. His eternity, for He must exist before what is made in time
6.  the omniscience of God, since as the Creator He must necessarily know everything He has made
7.  the sovereignty of God, “in the obedience his creatures pay to him, in observing their several orders, and moving in the spheres wherein he set them”
8.  the spirituality of God, insofar as God is not visible, “and the more spiritual any creature in the world is, the more pure it is”
9.  the sufficiency ofGod, for He gave all creatures a beginning, and so their being was not necessary, which means God was in no need of them
10.  His majesty, seen in the glory of the heavens
All of these attributes of God may be known by sinful man by observation of the natural world.

Charnock, The Knowledge of God, in Works, 4:115; cited from Beeke, Jones, A Puritan Theology, p. 17.

While the gospel may not reach every individual person in their lifetime, everyone is without excuse for sinning against the light God did give them in these four books.

“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:19-21).

PROPER WORSHIP

"When we believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our worship, then we put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him."

-Stephen Charnock

WITHOUT THE HEART

"Without the heart it is no worship. It is a stage play. It is an acting of a part without being that person, really. It is playing the hypocrite."

STEPEHEN CHARNOCK

GOD IS ETERNAL

"Since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving." - Stephen Charnock

DUSKY COLORS

God often lays the sum of His amazing providences in very dismal afflictions; as the limner first puts on the dusky colors, on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty.--Stephen Charnock

UNBELIEF WAS THE FIRST

Unbelief was the first sin, and pride was the first-born of it.

-- Stephen Charnock

We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us.

-- Stephen Charnock