This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Many free resources as well as our complete mail-order catalogue containing classic and contemporary Puritan Reformed books, CDs and much more at great discounts are on the web at www.swrb.com. We could also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6L 3T5. If you do not have a web connection, Please request a free printed catalogue. If you do have a web connection and would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to add swrb.com or swrb at swrb.com with the word add in the subject line. Swrb's email list is a double opt-in list. So once you've sent us your email address, you will be asked by email to confirm you want to join our list using the email address you have supplied. Your email information will be kept confidential and you can easily remove yourself from our email list by simply emailing us at swrb at swrb.com with the word remove in the subject line. Once you are on our email list you will be alerted to all the new free reformation resources, free MP3s, free electronic books and texts etc. SWRB makes available on the web as well as at times to our best discounts and super specials. We also encourage you to reproduce this audio resource and to pass it on to your friends but we only authorize this as long as the full contents of the message including the header and trailer is not altered in any way and as long as the audio file or cassette is given away for free. Thank you again for listening to this SWRB reading, and remember that Isaiah 26, 3 states, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. 2 Corinthians 13, 11 concludes, Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace. And the God of love and peace shall be with you. Welcome to a reading of Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock, Volume 1, Life and Character of Charnock, by William Symington. Stephen Charnock, B.D., was born in the year 1628 in the parish of St. Catherine Cree, London. His father, Mr. Richard Charner, practised 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 Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he was placed under the immediate tuition of the celebrated Dr. William Sancroft, who became afterwards 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 worketh where and how he wills, had determined that this young man, while prosecuting his early studies, should undergo that essential change of heart which, 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 afterwards 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 preceptor 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 labours as a minister of the Gospel of Peace, somewhere in Suffolk. 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 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 his first charge were led to own him as their spiritual father. Nor is this a solitary instance in the early ministry of an individual receiving countenance from an high which has been withheld from the labours of his worker years. A circumstance 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 limits, who is sufficient for these things, God may cheer them with practical confirmations of the truth, that their sufficiency is of God. In 1649 Charlotte will move from Southwark to Oxford, where through favour of the parliamentary visitors, he obtained a fellowship in New College, and not long afterwards, in consequence of his own merits, was incorporated Master of Arts. His singular gifts and unwary 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 which he continued to hold till 1656, and the duties of which he discharged in a way which brought equal honour 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 Protector, 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. Charlock seems to have gone thither in the capacity of chaplain to the governor, an office which, in his case at least, proved no sinner cure. 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 so blessed. but even many who had no respect for his piety, and who reaped no saving benefit from his preaching, were unable to withhold their admiration of his learning and his gifts, standing at once to be an ensemble to the block, and to walk within his house with a perfect heart. His qualities, both public and private, his appearances, whether in the pub pulpit or the domestic circle commanded the esteem of all who were privileged to form his acquaintance. It is understood that the honorary degree of Bachelor of Divinity which he held was a gift of Trinity College Dublin conferred during his residence in that city. The restoration of Charles in 1660 put an end to Charnock's ministry in Ireland and hindered his resuming in elsewhere for a considerable time. That event leading, as it could not but do, to a re-establishment of ardery power, was followed as a natural consequence by the ejection of many of the most godly ministers that ever lived. Among these was Hexer Indemidua 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 ardour, and occasionally exercised his gifts in a private way for 15 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 a co-pastor with the Reverend Thomas Watson, the ejected minister of St. Stephen's Warbrook, who, soon after the act of uniformity, had collected the church in that place. Mr. Watson was an eminent Presbyterian divine, and the society which he was instrumental in founding became afterwards, under the ministry of Dr. Grosvenor, one of the most flourishing in the city, in respect of both numbers and of wealth. It may not be uninteresting here to insert a few brief notices respecting the place of worship which this congregation occupied, being a scene of Sharnock's labours 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 afterwards 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 meeting house 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 15th 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 being consecrated to the solemnities of divine worship, was lately Perhaps it is still dedicated to the inferior, if not a noble, uses of a wool packer. After saying so much about the building, word or two respecting the congregation which assembled for years under its vaulted roofs may not be deemed inappropriate. It was formed, as we have already said, by the Reverend Thomas Watson, the ejected minister of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. This took place in 1662. and Charlotte was Mr. Watson's colleague for five years. Mr. Watson was succeeded by the son of an ejected minister, the Reverend Samuel Slater, who discharged the pastoral duties with great ability and faithfulness for 24 years and closed his ministry in 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 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 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 on the temper of Christ. In this discourse the Saviour is introduced by well illustrating his own 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 the nations and offer His salvation if 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 them struck the rock, drink first of its refreshing streams, and they that drew my blood be welcomed 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, which I shed over them, and imprecated my blood to be upon them, tell them, for their sakes I shed both. That both 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 upon 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 that thrust a spear into my side, tell him there is another way, a better way of coming at my heart. If he will repent, and look upon 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. In Dr. Grove in his 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 in other societies. From this digression we return. only to record the last circumstance necessary to complete this brief sketch. The death of Shana took place July the 27th, 1618, when he was in his 53rd year of his age. The particulars that have come down to us on this event, like those of the other parts of his history, are scanty, Yet they weren't asked to remark that he died in a frame of mind every way worthy of its 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 which 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 unfrequently was he heard to give afference 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 unearthed, 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 Thames, in the parish of Whitmore Chapel, London, it may be inferred that his departure was sudden. The body was immediately after taken to the meeting-house 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 marvellous incidents in the narrative which attract the notice of the multitude, of which 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 proportion to the degree in which the character and circumstances of the subject resemble those of the reader, a great number, at least, must 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, which derive the most 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 the example of the unostentatious piety and goodness which all men may obtain than of those extraordinary achievements to which few can aspire. Nor is it the mark of 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. Fetter's endeavour to portray the character of Sarnak. 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 paternal 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 our minds. The more weighted qualities of intellect were in him united to a brilliant fancy. By this means he was unable to adorn the more solid materials of thought with the attractive hues of inventive genius. His fine and teeming imagination, even 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 for 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. Sharnak's imagination was under the most cautious and skillful management, the handmaid, not the mistress of his reason, and helpless, he tended, in no small degree, to free his character from that cold and contracted selfishness which 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. Those qualities of mind were associated with habits of intense application and persevering diligence, which allowed Tender to invigorate his original powers and enable him to turn them all to the best account. To the original vigor of his powers must be added that which culture supplied. Charlotte 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 his 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, and 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 Charlotte's intellectual character was not the predominance of any one quality, so much as the harmonious and nicely balanced union of all. Acute deception, sound judgment, masculine sense, brilliant imagination, habits of reflection, and a complete mastery over the successionary thoughts were all combined in a comely order, and that due proportion which go to constitute a well-regulated mind. There was, in his case, none of that disproportionate development of any one particular faculty, which 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 a calm and clear firmament on his mind, He is supplying us a lot of tribute of light, and contributing to the serene and solemn lustre 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 exerts 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 was Sarnak's moral qualities less estimable than his intellectual. He was a pre-eminently holy man, distinguished at once by personal purity, social equity and habitual devotion. Early the subject was 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. The various talents of which he was gifted by the God of nature were all presided over by an enlightened and deepened, 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, among 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 antipast of what awaited him in the unclouded region of glory. Nor was his devotion transient, or occasional merely. It was 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 intensive desires for the glory of God, and securing that rarest perhaps of all combinations close communion with the future and the eternal, the busy and the conscientious discharge of the ordinary duties of everyday life. His natural temper appears to have been reserved and his manners brave. 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 would want 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. A 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 he had devoted to sleep, he cultivated a habit of thinking while walking along the streets. So successful was he in his efforts of abstraction that, amidst the most crowded and attractive scenes, he could withdraw his mind easily from the vanities which 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 appear that the others were not respect. 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 deeper congitation. Had he been less in his studies, says his fourth editors quaintly, he would have been less liked in the public. 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 which befell the metropolis in 1666, ever since known as the Fire of London, the whole of Charnek'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 an endearment with which the real student regards his silent but instructive friends, which 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 assistants, counsel and consolation, when these are needed, which, unlike some less judicious companions, never intrude upon him against his will. And with these 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. so may be disposed to smile at his 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 around 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 a satisfaction which almost unconsciously seeks vent in the exclamation, my library, I duped him large enough. Such and such only can judge what must have been Charlotte's feelings when he found that his most cherished volumes had become a heap of smouldering 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 which, 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 formal remarks will serve to show how well he, of whom we now speak, was qualified for acting in the highest of all the capacities in which man is required to serve. His mental and moral endowments, his educational requirements, his habitual seriousness, his sanctified imagination, and his vigorous faith pre-emptively 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 of them 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. To this it must be added that his preaching was eminently evangelical, so deeply imbued with gospel truth for his discourses that, like the book of the law of old, they might be said to be sprinkled with blood, even the blood of atonement. The cross was at once the basis on which he rested his doctrinal statements, and the armoury from which he drew his most forcible and pointed appeal to the conscience. His aim seems never once to have been to catch applause to himself by the enticing words of man's wisdom, by arraying his thoughts in a motley garb on an effective and gorgeous style, or by having recourse to the tricks of an inflated and meticulous oratory His sole ambition appears to have been to turn sinners from the error of their ways, and for this end he wisely judged nothing to be so well adapted as holding forth the words of eternal life, in their native simplicity and power, and in a spirit of sincere and ardent devotion. His object was to move his hearers, not towards himself, but towards his master, not to elicit expressions of admiration for the messenger, but to make the message bare and the salvation of those to whom it was delivered. Not to please, so much as to convert his hearers, not to tickle their fancy, but to save the soul from death, and thus to hide a multitude of sins. The character of his preaching, it is true, was adapted to the higher and more intelligent classes. Yet was it not altogether unsuited to those of humbler rank and penchance? He could handle the mysteries of the gospel with great perspicuity and plainness, using his profound learning for the purpose, not of mystifying, but of making things clear so that persons, even in the ordinary walks of life, felt him to be not beyond their capacity. The energy, gravity and earnestness of his manner, especially when young, contributed to render him a great favourite with the public, and accordingly he drew after him large and deeply interested audiences. The circumstance which we can suppose was valued by him not because of the incense which is ministered to a spirit of vanity, but of the opportunity afforded him of winning souls to the Redeemer. When more advanced in life, This kind of popularity, we are told, declined in consequence of his being compelled from an infirmity of memory to read his sermons with the additional disadvantage of requiring to supply defective sight by the use of a glass. But an increasing weight and importance in the matter fully compensated for any deficiency in the manner of his preaching. If the more flighty of his hearers retired, others, among whom were many of his brethren in the ministry, we knew how to prefer solidarity to show, crowded to supply their places. Reckoning it no ordinary privilege to be permitted to sit devoutly at the feet of one so well qualified to initiate them into the knowledge of the deep things of God, they continued to listen to his instructions with as much admiration and profit as ever. It was as a writer, however, that Shana is best known. And this indeed is the only character in which we can now come into contact with him. His works are extensive, but with a single exception, posthumous. The only thing published by himself was a piece on the Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts, which appeared originally in the supplement in the morning exercise at Cripplegate. Yet such was the quantity of manuscript left behind him at his death that two large folio volumes were soon transcribed and published by his friends, Mr. Adams and Mr. Veal, to whom he had committed his papers. The Discourse on Providence was the first published. It appeared in 1680. The Discourses on the Existence and Attributes of God came next in 1682. There followed in succession a treatise on regeneration, reconciliation, the Lord's Supper, etc. A second edition of the whole works in two volumes, folio, came out in 1684, and the third in 1702, no slight proof of the estimation in which they were held. Several of the treatises have appeared from time to time in a separate form, especially those on Divine Providence, on man's enmity to God and on mercy for the chief of sinners. The best edition of Sharnach's works is that published in 1815 in nine volumes, Royal VIII though, with a prefatory dedication and a memoir of the author by the Reverend Edward Parsons of Leeds. All Sharnach's writings are distinguished by sound theology, profound thinking, and lively imagination. They partake of that massive divinity for which the Puritan divines were in general remarkable, and are of course orthodox in their doctrinal statements and reasonings. Everywhere the reader meets with the evidences and fruits of deep thought, of a mind, indeed, of unusual comprehension and energy of grasp, that could penetrate with ease into the very core and fathom of pleasure the profoundest depths of the most obtruse and obscure subjects, while from the rich stores of an exuberant and hallowed fancy he was enabled to throw over his competitions the most attractive ornaments, and to supply spontaneously such illustrations as were necessary to render his meaning more clear, or his lessons more impressive. In a word, for a weight of matter, for energy of thought, for copiousness of improving reflection, for grandeur and force of illustration, and for accuracy and feliciousness of expression, Sarnock is equaled by few, and surpassed by none of the writers of the age to which he belonged. The eulogy pronounced by a competent judge on the treatise on the attributes applies with equal justice to all his other writings, but for security and depth, metaphysical subtlety and evangelical simplicity, immense learning and plain but irrefragable reasoning conspire to render that work one of the most inestimable productions ever did honour to the sanctified judgement and genius of a human being. The correctness of the composition in these works is remarkable, considering that they were not prepared for the press by the author himself. and they must have been originally written amid scenes of distraction and turmoil arising out of the events of the times. The latter circumstances may account for the manly vigor by which they are characterized, but it only renders their accuracy and polish the more wonderful. Refinement of taste and extensive scholarship can alone explain the chasteness, ease and elegance of style so free from all verbosity and clumsiness which marked these productions. There were giants in literature in those days, and Stephen Charnock was not the least of the noble fraternity. Charnock may not have all the brilliancy of Bunyan, nor all the metaphysical acumen and subtle analysis of Howe, nor all the awful earnestness of Baxter, but he is not less argumentative, while he is more theological than any of them, and his theology too is more sound than that of some. He was not, say the original editors of his works, for that modern divinity which is so much in vogue with some, who would be counted the only sound divines, having tasted the old, he did not desire the new, but said the old is better. There is therefore not one of all appearing divines, whose writings can with more safety be recommended to the attention of students of divinity and young ministers. It is one of the happy signs in the times in which we live, that a taste for reading such works is beginning to revive, and we can conceive no better wish for the interest of mankind in general, and of our country in particular, than that the minds of our young divines were thoroughly impregnated with the good old theology could be found in such writings as those which we now take the liberty to introduce and recommend. If a preacher wishes to recommend himself, by the weight of his doctrines, to use the language of Mr. Parsons, he will find in the writings of Shana the great truths of Scripture illustrated and explained in the most lucid and masterly manner. If he wishes to be distinguished by the evangelical strain of his discourses, and by the continual exhibition of Christ in the Crucified, he will here find the characters of Christ and the adaptation of the Gospel to the circumstances and wants of man as a fallen creature invariably kept in view. If he wishes for usefulness in the Church of God, here he has the brightest example of forcible appeals to the conscience and of the most impressive applications of Scripture truth to the various conditions of mankind. And finally, if he reads for his own advantage as a Christian, his mind will be delighted with the inexhaustible variety here provided for the employment of his enlightened faculties and his improvement in every divine attainment. Happy shall we be if what we have written shall, by the blessing of God, through the means of producing and reviving a taste for reading the works of our author, being fully convinced with a former editor that, while talent is respected, or virtue revered, while holiness of conversation, consistency of character, or elevation of mind are considered as worthy of imitation, while uniform and strenuous exertion for the welfare of man is honoured, and constant devotedness to the glory of God admired, The memory of Sarnak should be held in grateful remembrance. Anfield Place, Glasgow, June 1946. To the reader. This long since promised and greatly expected volume of the reverent author upon the divine attributes being transcribed out of his own manuscripts, by the unwary diligence of those worthy persons that undertook it, is now at last come to thy hands. Doubt not that thy reading will pay for thy waiting, and thy satisfaction make full compensation for thy patience. In the epistle before his treatise on providence, it was intimated that his following discourses would not be inferior to that, and we are persuaded that Ere thou hast perused one half of this, thou wilt acknowledge that it was modestly spoken. Enough, assure thyself, thou wilt find here for thy entertainment delight as well as profit. The sublimest variety and rareness in the truths here handled, together with the elegancy of the composure, neatness of the style, and whatever is wont to make any book desirable, will all concur in the recommendation of this. What so high and noble a subject, what so fit for his meditations or thine, as the highest and noblest being, and those transcendently glorious perfections wherewith he is clothed? A mere contemplation of the divine excellencies may afford much pleasure to any man that loves to exercise his reason and is addicted to speculation, but what incomparable sweetness, then, will holy souls find in doing and considering those perfections now, which they are marked fully to behold hereafter, and seeing what manner of God, how wise and powerful, how great and good and holy is he, in whom the covenant interests them, and in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consists. If rich men delight to sum up their vast revenues, to read over their rentals, look upon their hordes, If they bless themselves in their great wealth, or to use the prophet's words, Jeremiah 9.23, glory in their riches, well may believers rejoice and glory in their knowing the Lord, verse 24. 4. And please themselves in seeing how rich they are in having an immensely full and all-sufficient God for their inheritance. Alas! How little do most men know of that deity they profess to serve and own, not as their sovereign only, but their portion. To such this author might say, as Paul to the Athenians, whom you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you, Acts 17.23. These treatises, reader, will inform thee who he is whom thou callest thine, present thee with a view of thy chief good, and make thee value thyself a thousand times more upon thy interest with God than upon all external accomplishments and worldly possessions. Who but delights to hear well of one whom he loves? God is thy love, if thou be a believer, and then cannot but fill thee with delight and ravishment to hear so much spoken in his praise. it is David's desire to dwell in the house of the Lord. That he might there behold his beauty, how much of that beauty, if thou art but capable of seeing it! Behold that there shall be hold in this volume, which was our author's main business, for about three years before he died, to display before his hearers. True indeed, the Lord's glory, as shining forth before his heavenly courtiers above, is unapproachable by mortal men. but what of it is visible in his works, creation, providence, redemption, falls under the cognizance of his inferior subjects here. And this is, in the great measure, presented a view in these discourses. And so much, we may well say, as may, by the help of grace, be effectual to raise thy admiration, attract thy love, provoke thy desires, and enable thee to make some guess of what is yet unseen. And why not, likewise, to clear thy eyes and prepare them for a future sight, as well as turn them away from the contemptible vanities of this present life? Whatever is glorious in this world yet, as the Apostle in another case, hath no glory by reason of the glory that excels through Corinthians 3.10. This excellent glory is the subject of this book. to which all created beauty has but mere shadow and duskiness. If thy eyes be well fixed on this, they will not be easily drawn to wander after other objects. If thy heart be taken with God, it will be mortified to everything that is not God. Thou hast, in this book, not only an excellent subject in the general, but a great variety of matter for the employment of thy understanding as well as enlivening infections, and that too such as thou wilt not find elsewhere. Many excellent things which are out of the road of ordinary preachers and writers, and which may be grateful to the curious, no less than satisfactory to the wise and judicious. It is not there for a book to be played with or slept over, but read with the most intent and serious mind. For though it afford much pleasure for the fancy, it gets much more work for the heart. and have indeed enough in it to busy all the faculties. The dress is complete and decent, yet not garnished nor theatrical. The rhetoric must still be vigorous, such as become a pulpit, and was never borrowed from the stage. The expressions full, clear, apt, and such as are most best suited to the weightiness and spirituality of the truths he delivered. It is plain he was no empty creature, but was more for sense than sound, filled up his words with matter, and chose rather to inform his hearers' minds than to draw any itching ears. Yet we will not say but some little things, a word or a phrase now and then he may have, which no doubt had he lived to transcribe his own sermons he would have altered. If in some lesser matters he differs from thee, is but in such as godly and loving men do frequently, and may, without breach of charity, differ in among themselves. In some things he may differ from us too. It may be we from each other. And where are there any two persons who have in all, especially in the most disputable points of religion, exactly the same sentiments, at least express themselves together in the same terms, but this we must say. that though he treat of many the most obtuse and mysterious doctrines of Christianity, which are the subjects of great debates and controversies in the world, yet we find no one material thing in which he must justly be called heterodox, unless old heresies be of late grown orthodox, and his differing from them must make him faulty, but generally delivers, as in his former pieces, what is most consonant to the faith of this and the other, the best reformed churches. He was not, indeed, for that modern divinity which is so much in vogue with some who would be counted the only sound divines, having tasted the old, he did not desire the new, but said the old is better. Some errors, especially the Socinian, he sets himself industriously against, and cuts the very sinews of them, yet sometimes almost without naming them. In the doctrinal part of several of his discourses they will find the depth of polemical divinity and in his inferences and lents the sweetness of practical. Some things which may exercise a profound scholar and others which may instruct and edify the weakest Christian. Nothing is more nervous than his reasonings and nothing more affecting than his applications. Though he make great use of schoolmen, yet they are certainly more beholden to him than he to them. He adopts their notions, but he refines them too, and improves them, and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were expressed, and dresses them up in his own language, so far as the nature of the matter will permit, and more clear terms are to be found, and so makes them intelligible to world-world capacities, which in their original rudeness were obscured and strange even to learned heads. In a word, he handles the great truths of the gospel with that perspicuity, gravity and majesty which best becomes the oracles of God. And we have reason to believe that no judicious and unbiased reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical treatise the world ever saw in English upon this subject. What Dr. Johnson did, to whom our author gave all due respect, was more brief and in another way. Dr. Creston did worthily upon the attributes of his day, but his discourses likewise are more succinct when this author's are more full and large. But whatever were the mind of God in it, it was not his will that either of these two should live to finish what he had begun. both being taken away when preaching upon this subject. Happy souls, whose last breath was spent in so noble a work, praising God while they had any being, Psalm 146.2. This method is much the same in most of these discourses, both in the doctrinal and practical part, which will make the whole more plain and facile to ordinary readers. He rarely makes objections, and yet frequently answers them by implying them in those propositions he lays down for the clearing up of the truths he asserts. His dexterity is admirable in the applicatory work where he not only brings down the highest doctrines to the lowest capacities, but collects great variety of proper, pertinent, useful, and yet many times unthought of inferences, and that from those truths, which however they afford much matter for inquisition and speculation, it might seem, unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians, to have a more remote influence upon practice. He is not like some school writers, who attenuate and rarify the matter they discourse of to a degree bordering upon annihilation, at least beat it so thin that a puff of breath may blow it away, spin their thread so fine that cloth, when made up, proves useless, solidity dwindles into niceties, and what we thought we had got by their assertions we lose by their distinctions. But if our author had some subtleties and superfine notions in his argumentations, yet he condenses them again and consolidates them into substantial and profitable corollaries in his applications and in them his main business is as to discipline a profane world for its neglect of God and contempt of him in his most adorable and shining perfections so likewise to show how the divine attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves but a grand foundation for all true divine worship and should be the great motives to provoke men to the exercise of faith, and love, and fear, and humility, and all that holy obedience they are called to by the gospel. And this, without periventia, is the great end of all those rich discoveries God hath in his word made of himself to us. " And reader, if these elaborate discourses of this holy man, through the Lord's blessing, become a means of promoting holiness in thee, and to stir thee up to love and live to the God of his praise, Psalm 109 verse 1, we are well assured that his end in preaching them is answered, and so is ours in publishing them. Thine in the Lord, Edward Beale and R. Adams. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay what he never knew.