Waverings where faith is, are like the tossings of a ship fast at anchor.
— Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)
God’s Power
As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power His mercy would be but feeble pity, His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature.
— Stephen Charnock
Worship
The nature of God is the foundation of worship, the will of God is the rule of worship.
— Stephen Charnock
Holiness of God
If every attribute of the Deity were a distinct member, purity would be the form, the soul, the spirit to animate them. Without holiness, his patience would be an indulgence to sin, his mercy a fondness, his wrath a madness, his power a tyranny, his wisdom an unworthy subtlety. Holiness gives decorum to them all.
— Stephen Charnock
God in Nature
In nature, 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.”
— Stephen Charnock
