Stephen Charnock Quotes

In natures, we see God, as it were, like the sun in a picture; in the law, as the sun in a cloud; in Christ we see Him in His beams; He being 'the brightness of His glory, and the exact image of His person.

A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant.

Paul was so much taken with Christ, that nothing sweeter than Jesus could drop from his lips and pen.

Works make not the heart good, but a good heart makes the works good.

Regeneration is a spiritual change; conversion is a spiritual motion.

How comfortable it is to have One, day and night, before the throne to control the charge of our enemy, and the despondencies of our souls.

God knows all that is done in the most secret caverns of the heart. No place is deprived of his presence.

Since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving.

Pride is self contending with God for preeminence.

All worship is shot wrong that is not directed to, and conducted by, the thoughts of the power of God, whose assistance we need.

Self is the great antichrist and anti-God in the world, that sets up itself above all else.

What a curious workmanship is that of the eye, which is in the body, as the sun in the world; set in the head as in a watch-tower, having the softest nerves for receiving the greater multitude of spirits necessary for the act of vision!

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.

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.

It is the black work of an ungodly man or an atheist, that God is not in all his thoughts. What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with reverence and delight? A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.

Since therefore all things are ordered in subserviency to the good of man, they are so ordered by Him that made both man and them.

How worthy it is to remember former benefits when we come to beg for new.

Let us not satisfy ourselves with a knowledge of God in the mass; a glance upon a picture never directs you to the discerning the worth and art of it.

Our ignorance of God is too great, because our estimations of God are too little.

Let us look upon a crucified Christ, the remedy of all our miseries. His cross hath procured a crown, his passion hath expiated our transgressions. His death hath disarmed the law, his blood hath washed a believer's soul. This death is the destruction of our enemies, the spring of our happiness, and the eternal testimony of divine love.

Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons.

We may be truly said to worship God, though we lack perfection; but we cannot be said to worship Him if we lack sincerity.

Did not God know what would be created by him, before it was created by him? Did he create he knew not what, and knew not beforehand what he should create? Was he ignorant before he acted, and in his acting, what his operation would tend to? Or did he not know the nature of things, and the ends of them, till he had produced them, and saw them in being ? Creatures must be known by God before they were made, and not known because they were made; he knew them to make them, and did not make them to know them. By the same reason that he knew what creatures should be before they were, he knew still what creatures shall be before they are.

The little time that remains between this moment and our death, should quicken our diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable eternity of God.

Had it been published by a voice from heaven, that twelve poor men, taken out of boats and creeks, without any help of learning, should conquer the world to the cross, it might have been thought an illusion against all reason of men; yet we know it was undertaken and accomplished by them.

A proud faith is as much a contradiction as a humble devil.

Accustom yourself to serious meditation every morning. Fresh airing our souls in heaven will engender in us a purer spirit and nobler thoughts. A morning seasoning will secure us for all the day.

Assurance is the fruit that grows out of the root of faith.

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.

Without the heart it's not worship, it's a stage play.

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

This little member can behold the earth, and in a moment view things as high as heaven.

Man's wisdom detracts from the glory of God, who is more honoured by the simplicity of the gospel, than luxuriance of wit.

All the prayers in the Scripture you will find to be reasoning with God, not a multitude of words heaped together.

Frequently renew settled and holy resolutions. A soldier unresolved to fight may be easily defeated ... The weakness of our graces, the strength of our temptations, and the diligence of our spiritual enemies, require strong resolutions.