Stephen Charnock (1628 - 1680) was an eminent English Puritan and Nonconformist who was widely regarded as one of the best minds in the history of Christianity. He served for a time as co-pastor with the equally skillful Thomas Watson who had also been ousted by the infamous Act of Uniformity in 1662, wherein some two thousand Puritan pastors refused to adhere to the mandates of the State Church and were thus ejected from its government.

Charnock was decidedly Calvinistic in doctrine, and his treatise, The Existence And Attributes Of God, clearly reflect this. This work is considered by many to be the best work ever written on the subject, and it should be noted that a great deal of his success in this regard can be traced to the fact that this profound treatise was written in the latter part of his life and ministry. Additionally, he was expert in Latin and the biblical languages.

Charnock's Complete Works, now out of print, encompassed nine volumes, and he is quoted extensively by Spurgeon, Pink, Gill, Edwards, Haldane, Moody, and many others. His biographer says of him - "In a word, for weight of matter, for energy of thought, for copiousness of improving reflection, for grandeur and force of illustration, and for accuracy and felicitousness of expression, Charnock is equaled by few, and surpassed by none of the writers of the age to which he belonged."

Stephen Charnock's magnum opus, The Existence And Attributes Of God, is published in hardcover by Baker Books.

"God does hate His elect in some sense before their actual reconciliation. God was placable before Christ, appeased by Christ. But until there be such conditions which God has appointed in the creature, he has no interest in this reconciliation of God, and whatever person he be in whom the condition is not found, he remains under the wrath of God, and therefore in some sense under God's hatred." Works, Vol III

"Christ's offering was of such infinite value that it perfectly purchased the taking away of sin, both in the guilt, filth, and power, and was a sufficient price for all the grace believers should need for their perfect sanctification to the end of the world. There was the satisfaction of His blood for the removal of our guilt, and a treasure of merit for the supply of our grace." Works, Vol V

"As the devil charged God with a lie; so, had no punishment been inflicted, God would have condemned himself, and declared Satan, instead of a lying tempter, to be the truest counsellor. He had exposed himself to contempt, and advanced the credit of his enemy, and so set up the devil as God instead of himself. It concerned God therefore to manifest himself true, and the devil a liar, and acquaint the world, that not himself, but the evil spirit, was their deceiver; and that he meant as he spoke." Works, Vol II

"The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God, though not to men." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Existence Of God

"The nature of God is the foundation of worship; the will of God is the rule of worship; the matter and manner is to be performed according to the will of God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"God is a spirit... Before, Christ spake of the Father personally, the first person in the blessed Trinity; now he speaks of God essentially: the word Father is personal, the word God essential." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"Since we are dead in sin, a spiritual light and flame in the heart suitable to the nature of the object of our worship, cannot be raised in us without the operation of supernatural grace... such a worship God must have, whereby he is acknowledged to be the true sanctifier and quickener of the soul." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"Every creature, even the highest creature, is infinitely short of the perfection of God; for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited; it is but a spark from the sun, a drop from the ocean; but God is unboundedly perfect, in the highest manner, without any limitation; and therefore above spirits, angels, the highest creatures that were made by him: an infinite sublimity, a pure act, to which nothing can be added, from which nothing can be taken." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"The divine efficacies are signified -- by his eyes and ears, we understand his omniscience; by his face, the manifestation of his favour; by his mouth, the revelation of his will; by his nostrils, the acceptation of our prayers; by his bowels, the tenderness of his compassion; by his heart, the sincerity of his affections; by his hand, the strength of his power; by his feet, the ubiquity of his presence." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"The image of God in man consisted not in what is seen, but in what is not seen; not in the conformation of the members, but rather in the spiritual faculties of the soul; or, most of all, in the holy endowments of those faculties... The image which is restored by redeeming grace, was the image of God by original nature." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"If God be a pure spirit, it is unreasonable to frame any image or picture of God... our hands are as unable to fashion him, as our eyes to see him... those that think to draw God by a stroke of a pencil, or form him by the engravings of art, are more stupid than the statues themselves." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"God inhabits inaccessible light; as it is impossible for the eye of man to see him, it is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls, and carve him out of wood. None knows him but himself, none can describe him but himself. Can we even draw a figure of our own souls, and express that part of ourselves, wherein we are most like to God?" The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"Suppose we could make such an image of God as might perfectly represent him; yet since God hath prohibited it, shall we be wiser than God?" The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"When men fancy God like themselves in their corporeal nature, they will soon make a progress, and ascribe to him their corrupt nature; and while they clothe him with their bodies, invest him also in the infirmities of them." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"The nature of God is as much wronged by unworthy images, erected in the fancy, as by statues carved out of stone or metals: one as well as the other is a deserting of our true spouse, and committing adultery; one with a material image, and the other with a carnal notion of God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"If God be a spirit, he is active and communicative... What cannot so great a spirit do for us? What cannot so great a spirit work in us? God, being a spirit above all spirits, can pierce into the centre of all spirits; make his way into the most secret recesses; stamp what he pleases. It is no more to him to turn our spirits than to make a wilderness become waters, and speak a chaos into a beautiful frame of heaven and earth. He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies; he can fix in us what motions, frames, inclinations he pleases; he can come and settle in our hearts with all his treasures." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"As God is a Father of spirits, we may go to him for the welfare of our spirits; he being a spirit, is as able to repair our spirits as he was to create them." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"Who ever heard of a weary angel?" The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"We have no correspondence with angels. The influence they have upon us, the protection they afford us, is secret and undiscerned; but God, the highest spirit, offers HIMSELF to us in his Son." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"God had no rest from the creation till he had made man; and man can have no rest in the creation till he rests in God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"If God be a spirit, let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual... Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us. As grace in our spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God, so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded devil. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes, and spiritual sins divest us of the image of God for the image of Satan... Let us, therefore, behave ourselves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On God's Being A Spirit

"Some attributes require a condition to make the acts of them necessary; as it is at God's liberty, whether he will create a rational creature, or no; but when he decrees to make either angel or man, it is necessary, from the perfection of his nature, to make them righteous. It is at God's liberty whether he will speak to man, or no; but if he doth, it is impossible for him to speak that which is false, because of his infinite perfection of veracity. It is at his liberty whether he will permit a creature to sin; but if he sees good to suffer it, it is impossible but that he should detest that creature that goes cross to his righteous nature." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Though God hath crowned the angels with an unspotted sanctity, and placed them in a habitation of glory, yet, as illustrious as they are, they have an unworthiness in their own nature to appear before the throne of so holy a God; their holiness grows dim and pale in his presence. It is but a weak shadow of that Divine purity, whose light is so glorious, that it makes them cover their faces out of weakness to behold it, and cover their feet out of shame in themselves." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The holiness of God is so absolutely peculiar to him, that it can no more be expressed in creatures, than his omnipotence, whereby they may be able to create a world; or his omniscience, whereby they may be capable of knowing all things, and knowing God as he knows himself." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"A love of holiness cannot be without a hatred of everything that is contrary to it. As God necessarily loves himself, so he must necessarily hate everything that is against himself: and as he loves himself for his own excellency and holiness, he must necessarily detest whatsoever is repugnant to his holiness, because of the evil of it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Every act of sin is a spiritual adultery, denying God to be the chief good, and giving that prerogative by that act to some vile thing." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God indeed may be reconciled to the sinner, but never to the sin." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Not all the vials of judgments, that have, or shall be poured out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against the rebellious devils, nor the groans of the damned creatures, give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin, as the wrath of God let loose upon his Son. Never did Divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely, than at the time of our Saviour's countenance was most marred in the midst of his dying groans... Holiness drew the veil between God's countenance and our Saviour's soul. Justice indeed gave the stroke, but holiness ordered it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"One that had been from eternity; had laid the foundations of the world; had been the object of the Divine delight: he that was God blessed forever, become a curse; he who was blessed by angels, and by whom God blessed the world, must be seized with horror; the Son of eternity must bleed to death! When did ever sin appear so irreconcilable to God? Where did God ever break out so furiously in his detestation of iniquity?" The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The holiness of God in his hatred of sin appears in our justification... Our justification is not by the imperfect works of creatures, but by an exact and infinite righteousness, as great as that of the Deity which had been offended: it being the righteousness of a Divine person, upon which account it is called the righteousness of God; not only in regard of God's appointing it, and God's accepting it, but as it is a righteousness of that person that was God, and is God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"To be desirous to know the reason of all God's proceedings in the matter of sin, is to second the ambition of Adam, to be as wise as God, and know the reason of his actings equally with himself... It is certain that God made man upright; and when man sinned in paradise, God was active in sustaining the substantial nature and act of the sinner while he was sinning, though not in supporting the sinfulness of the act: he was permissive in suffering it: he was negative in withholding that grace which might certainly have prevented his crime, and consequently his ruin; though he withheld nothing that was sufficient for his resistance of that temptation wherewith he was assaulted." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God could, if he would, savingly enlighten the minds of all men in the world, and quicken their hearts with a new life by an invincible grace; but in not doing it, there is no positive act of God, but a cessation of action... God did not pass by any without the consideration of sin; so that this act of God is not repugnant to his holiness, but conformable to his justice." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"As no action could be sinful, if God had not forbidden it; so no sin could be committed, if God did not will to give way to it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God wills good by a positive decree, because he hath decreed to effect it. He wills evil by a private decree, because he hath decreed not to give that grace which would certainly prevent it. God doth not will sin simply, for that were to approve it, but he wills it, in order to that good his wisdom will bring forth from it. He wills not sin for itself, but for the event... Infinite wisdom can be under no error or mistake: to will sin as sin, would be an unanswerable blemish on God; but to will to suffer it in order to good, is the glory of his wisdom; it could never have peeped up its head, unless there had been some decree of God concerning it. And there had been no decree of God concerning it, had he not intended to bring good and glory out of it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God wills the permission of sin. He doth not positively will sin, but he positively wills to permit it. And though he doth not approve of sin, yet he approves of that act of his will, whereby he permits it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"As God acts nothing in time, but what he decreed from eternity, so he permits nothing in time but what he decreed from eternity to permit... This act of permission is not a mere and naked permission, but such an one as is attended with a certainty of the event." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Since the entrance of the first sin into the world by Adam, God is more a hinderer than a permitter of it. If he hath permitted that which he could have prevented, he prevents a world more, that he might, if he pleased, permit: the hedges about sin are larger than the outlets; they are but a few streams that glide about the world, in comparison of that mighty torrent he dams up both in men and devils... If God did not limit sin, as he doth the sea, and put bars to the waves of the heart, as well as those of the waters, and say of them -- Hitherto you shall go, and no further -- man hath such a furious ocean in him, as would overflow the banks; and where it makes a breach in one place, it would in a thousand, if God should suffer it to act according to its impetuous current." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God's holiness is slighted in depending upon our imperfect services to bear us out before the tribunal of God... Not to speak of many among the Romanists who have the same notion, thinking to make satisfaction to God by erecting an hospital, or endowing a church, as if this injured perfection could be contented with the dregs of their purses, and the offering of an unjust mammon, more likely to mind God of the injury they have done him, than contribute to the appeasing of God... What is all this but a villifying of the holiness of the Divine nature, as though it would be well enough contented with our impurities and imperfections, because they look like a righteousness in our estimation.?" The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"It is a blasphemy against this attribute [holiness], to pretend that anything so imperfect, so daubed, as the best of our services are, can answer to that which is infinitely perfect, and be a ground of demanding eternal life... Rude and foolish notions of the Divine purity are clearly evidenced by any confidence in any righteousness of our own, though never so splendid... alas! the best duties in the most gracious persons in this life, are but as the steams of a spiced dung-hill, a composition of myrrh and froth, since there are swarms of corruptions in their nature, and secret sins that they need a cleansing from." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"To charge the law with rigidness, either in language or practice, is the highest contempt of God's holiness; for it is an implicit wish, that God were as defiled, polluted, disorderly, as our corrupted selves." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The Romanists divide sins into venial and mortal --  mortal, are those which deserve eternal death; venial, the lighter sort of sins, which rather deserve to be pardoned than punished; or if punished, not with an eternal, but temporal punishment. This opinion hath no foundation in, but is contrary to, Scripture. How can any sin be in its own nature venial, when the due wages of every sin is death (Rom. vi. 23)? And he who continues not in every thing that the law commands, falls under a curse (Gal. iii. 10). It is a mean thought of the holiness and majesty of God to imagine, that any sin which is against an infinite majesty, and as infinite a purity both in the nature of God and the law of God, should not be considered as infinitely heinous. All sins are transgressions of the eternal law, and in every one the infinite holiness of God is some way slighted." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The devil is not more fallen from the rectitude of his nature and likeness to God, than we are; and that we are not in the same condition with those apostate spirits, is not from anything in our nature, but from the mediation of Christ, upon which account God hath indulged in us a continuance of some remainders of that which Satan is wholly deprived of." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"A hatred of unrighteousness, and consequently a will to punish it, is as essential to God as a love of righteousness. Since he is not as an heathen idol, but hath eyes to see, and purity to hate every iniquity, he will have an infinite justice to punish whatsoever is against infinite holiness." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The punishment, therefore, inflicted on the wicked, shall be, in some respect, as great as the rewards bestowed upon the righteous." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The holiness of God will right itself of the wrongs done to it, and scatter the profaners of it at the greatest distance from him, which is the greatest punishment that can be inflicted; to be removed far from the Fountain of Life is the worst of deaths." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God so hated sin, that when it was but imputed to his Son, without any commission of it, he would bring a hell upon his soul." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God cannot but be holy, and therefore cannot but be just, because injustice is a part of unholiness." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"There must be a reparation made of the honor of God's holiness; by ourselves it could not be without condemnation; by another it could not be without a sufficiency in the person: no creature could do it. All the creatures being of a finite nature, could not make a compensation for the disparagements of Infinite Holiness... It must, therefore, be such a compensation as might be commensurate to the holiness of the Divine nature and the Divine law, which could not be wrought by any, but Him that was possessed of a Godhead to give efficacy and exact congruity to it... The punishment due to sin is translated to that person for the righting Divine holiness, and the righteousness of that Person is communicated to the sinner for the pardon of the offending creature... There was therefore a necessity of such a way to manifest his purity, and yet to bring forth his mercy: that mercy might not alway sigh for the destruction of the creature, and that holiness might not mourn for the neglect of its honor." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"That righteousness which God hath set fort for justification, is not our own, but a righteousness which is of god, of God's appointing, and of God's performing; appointed by the Father, who is God, and performed by the Son, who is one with the Father; a righteousness surmounting that of all the glorious angels, since it is an immutable one which can never fail, an everlasting righteousness; a righteousness wherein the holiness of God can acquiesce, as considered in itself, because it is a righteousness of one equal with God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Those that never had a sense of their own vileness, were always destitute of a sense of God's holiness." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"Purity is the flash of his [God's] revenging sword." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"It is not the pattern of angels, or archangels, that our Saviour, or his apostle, proposeth for our imitation; but the original of all purity, God himself; the same that created us, to be imitated by us." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"As in abstinence from intemperate courses, not because the holiness of God in his law hath prescribed it, but because the health of our bodies, or some noble contentments of life, require it; then it is is not God's holiness that is our rule, but our own security, conveniency, or something else which we make a God to ourselves." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"As the law is the transcript, so Christ is the image of his holiness: the glory of God is too dazzling to be beheld by us: the acute eye of an angel is too weak to look upon that bright sun without covering his face: we are much too weak to take our measures from that purity which is infinite in his nature. But he hath made his Son like us, that by the imitation of him in that temper, and shadow of human flesh, we may arrive to a resemblance of him." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"It was the honor of the human nature of our Saviour, not only to be united to the Deity, but to be sanctified by it." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"No greater glory can be, than to be a conspicuous and visible image of the invisible, and holy, and blessed God... We are not so beautiful by being the work of God, as by having a stamp of God upon us." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"The creature must be stripped of his unrighteousness, or God of his purity, before they can come together." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"We cannot be satisfied with the likeness of God at the resurrection, unless we have a righteousness wherewith to behold his face. It is a vain imagination in any to think that heaven can be a place of happiness to him, in whose eye the beauty of holiness which fills and adorns it, is an unlovely thing; or that any can have a satisfaction in that Divine purity which is loathsome to him in the imitations of it... Holiness fits us for communion with God." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"God makes not the creature so powerful as he might, but he delights to make the creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be; beginning it in this world, and ripening it in the other. It is from him we must expect it, and from him that we must beg it, and draw arguments from the holiness of his nature, to move him to work holiness in our spirits; we cannot have a stronger plea... Let us also go to God, to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted. As we cannot attain it, so we cannot maintain it without him. God gave it Adam, and he lost; when God gives it us, we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving grace; the channel will be without a stream, if the fountain doth not constantly supply them. Let us apply ourselves to him for holiness, as he is a God glorious in holiness; by this we honor God, and advantage ourselves." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Holiness Of God

"A fool is one that hath lost his wisdom, and right notion of God and divine things which were communicated to man by creation; one dead in sin, yet one not so much void of rational faculties as of grace in those faculties, not one that wants reason, but abuses his reason." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Existence Of God

"The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God, though not to men." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Existence Of God

"There is something of a secret atheism in all, which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives, not an utter disowning of the being of a God, but a denial or doubting of some of the rights of his nature." The Existence And Attributes Of God, On The Existence Of God