Stephen Charnock Quotes

“God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world that we are unable to do anything of ourselves at first towards our recovery without a superior principle.”

“Does not God command thee to come to Christ? and is not thy delay a greater act of disobedience than the complaint of thy sinfulness can be of humility?”

“The spirit of man never riseth to its original glory, till it be carried up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy.”

“And man must acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator, and act in subserviency to his glory, as other creatures act in subserviency to his good.”

“Sinners may plead for grace upon the account of God's glory, viz., the glory God will have by it.”

“As when a physician comes into an house where many are sick, and cures one that is desperate, it is an encouragement to the rest to rely upon his skill.”

“Our hearts, like lute-strings, are changed with every change of weather, with every appearance of a temptation; scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a settled abode.”

“He loved thee when thou hadst razed out in a great measure his image and picture which he had set in thy soul, will he hate thee now since he has restored that image, and drawn it with fresh colours?”

“A rebellion is always a desire of imposing laws and conditions upon those against whom the rebellion is raised.”

“The church shall in the end prove victorious against all its adversaries, or providence must miss of its aim.”

“No; dunghill sinners take heaven by violence, while the proud pharisees lose it by their own righteousness.”

“If he made thee to differ from others in the enjoyment of his mercy, do thou also differ from others in the sounding of his praise.”

“It is some strength to polish a rough stone taken out of the quarry, and hew it into the statue of a great prince; but more to make this statue a living man.”

“The want of a true notion of God's justice makes some men slight him; and the want of a true apprehension of his goodness makes others too servile in their approaches to him.”

“I fill heaven and earth; not a part of me fills one place and another part of me fills another, but I, God, fill heaven and earth, I am whole God filling the heaven and whole God filling the earth.”

“What was there in thy former life, but misery, to move God to shew mercy to thee?”

“No creature but is bounded in place, either circumscribed as body or determined as spirit to be in one space, so as not to be in another at the same time ; to leave a place where they were, and possess a place where they were not.”

“Though aggravating circumstances be never so many, yet he will multiply his mercies as fast as thou canst the sins thou hast committed.”

“So when temptations assault thee, and the devil with all his black legions besets thee round, thou art not in a worse condition than at the first, when all thy sins did not only besiege thee, but possess thee.”

“Many entertain a doctrine for the person's sake, rather than a person for the doctrine's sake, and believe a thmg because it comes from a man they esteem, as if his lips were more canonical than Scripture.”

“For such black spots which mercy wears upon its face, makes it appear more beautiful.”

“If part of his merits be enough to save ten thousand damned souls in hell, if they had applied it, is it not enough to satisfy God for thy sins, which are far less?”

“He justified thee when thou wert ungodly, and will he cast thee off since he hath been at such pains about thee, and written in thee a counterpart of his own divine nature in the work of grace?”

“It is ordinary with man to charge God in his complaints in the time of affliction.”

“Hast thou not load enough already? but wilt thou add unbelief, which is as black as all thy other sins put together?”

“Was not Christ charged with as great sins as thine can be when he was upon the cross?”

“If God be infinite and eternal, he merits an honour and comportment from his creatures suited to the unlimited perfection of his nature, and the duration of his being.”

“For by raising any soul from a death in sin, God doth evidence the particular value of Christ's blood for that soul, as he did, in raising Christ, evidence the general fulness of that satisfaction.”

“The church is compared to an olive tree, Hosea ziv. 6, in respect of beauty, ' his beauty shall be as the olive tree.' It is so also in respect of victory.”

“Man is lord of the creation; nothing below him can be fit for his converse, nothing above him ofiers itself to his converse but God.”