OCT i i 1988
BX 9315 .C427 1864 v. 4
Charnock, Stephen, 1628-
1680.
The complete works of
O^-^^U^^ i^U-,*».
NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.
PURITAN PERIOD.
BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,
LINCOLN COLLEGE ; nO.VOEAKT CANON OF WORCESTER ; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINGHAM.
THE
WORKS OF STEPHEN CHARNOCff, B.D.
VOL. IV.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
' Edinburgh.
D. T. K, DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby-
terian Church, Edinburgh.
6fnfral ©Uitor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
STEPHEN CHAMOCE, B.D.
BY THE REV. JAMES M'COSH, LL.D.
PBOFESSOB OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS, QUEEn's COLLEGE, BELFAST.
VOL. IV:
CONTAINING :
DISCOURSES ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD; UNBELIEF;
THE LORD'S SUPPER, &c.
EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : G. HERBERT.
M.DCCC.LXV.
KDINBtTRGn:
PRINTED BT JOHN OHEIG AKD SOW,
OtD PBT6IC OARDF.NS.
CONTENTS.
DISCOURSES.
Page
A DiSCOUBSE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GoD. . JoHN XVII. 3. . 3
A DiSCOUBSE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GoD IN
Christ. ..... John XVII. 3. . 110
A Discourse op Conviction of Sin. . . John XVI. 8, 9. 164
A Discourse of Unbeuef, proving it is the
GREATEST SiN. . . . . JoHN XVI. 9. . 220
A Discourse of the Misery of Unbelievers. John III. 36. . 296
A Discourse shewing who are Unbelievers. John VI. 64. . 348
A Discourse OF THE End of THE Lord's Supper. 1 Cor. XI. 26. . 392
A Discourse of the Subjects of the Lord's
Supper. ..... 1 Cor. XL 28, 29. 427
A Discourse of the Unworthy Receiving of
the Lord's Supper. . . . 1 Cor. XL 27, 29. 472
A Discourse of Self-Examination.
A Discourse of the Knowledge of Christ
Crucified. ....
A Discourse of Christ our Passover.
A Discourse of the Voluntariness of Christ's
Death. .....
A Discourse of the Acceptablenessof Christ's
Death. .....
A Discourse of Obedience. .
2 Cor. XIII. 5. .
483
1 Cor. II. 2. .
494
1 Cor. V. 7. .
, 507
Eph. V. 2.
640
Eph. V. 2.
552
John XV. 14. .
587
DISCOURSES.
A DISCOURSE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. — John XVII. 3.
This chapter contains Christ's last prayer with his disciples, after his fare-
well sermon, which began after Judas his departure, John xiii. 31, and ends
at the end of the 16th chapter. The design of his sermon and that of his
prayer was one and the same; his discourse to them was, that they might
have peace in him, John xvi. 33 ; that they might acquiesce in him for
peace with God ;* that peace of conscience was only to be possessed by the
knowledge and love of Christ. His prayer for them in their hearing was,
that they might have a firm and full joy, ver. 13; that they might have an
antidote against all their fears and troubles they should meet with in the
world, and a strong foundation for their own supplications to God. Zanchy
calls it the foundation of the church from the beginning of the world to the
end of it. It always had, and always will have, its eflScacy for every believer;
it is a copy left upon the earth of what he doth intercede for as an advocate
in heaven. By an inspection into it, we may know what Christ is doing
above ; for it was that his people might have a full joy, a strong cordial in
all afflictions, desertions, temptations.
Some think it to be the same with that prayer in the garden ; but that
opinion hath no firm foundation. f
(1.) The matter of the prayer is difierent. In this, our Saviour prays for
his own glorification, for assistance in his approaching passion, and an un-
loosing afterwards the bands of death by an happy resurrection ; in that, ha
prays for a removal of the cup which was brewed for him.
(2.) The gesture is difierent. In this, he lifts up his eyes to heaven, in
token of a confidence in his Father for the answer of his prayer, with such
confidence as he hath in heaven in his intercession; in the garden, he fell
prostrate upon the earth: Mat. xxvi. 39, 'He fell on his face, and prayed.'
His eyes were towards the earth.
(3.) His company were not the same. In this, his disciples were with
him ; in that, he withdrew from his disciples, taking only three with him,
Mat. xxvi. 37, and presently went aside from them also by himself, ver. 39.
This prayer they all heard, the other they did not, for sleep had possessed
them.
* Ferus. f Gerhard, Harm. cap. clxxx.
4 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
(4.) In this, he prays as Mediator, and pleads the terms of the mediatory-
covenant, which had been agreed upon before his coming into the world ;
in that, he prays more like a man from the stragglings of the flesh, as though
there had been a contest between human nature and his mediatory office.
In the one, he declares his deity ; in the other, evidenceth his humanity, in
the infirmities of the flesh. In this, his soul was free from disturbance ; in
that, * his soul was sorrowful and very heavy, even unto death,' Mat. xxvi.
37, 38. He prayed then as one standing charged with all our sins, which
made him bow his head to the ground ; he prayeth here as one that hath
satisfied for our sins, triumphed over his enemies, and performed his
Father's will : John xvii. 4, ' I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do.' In fine, this prayer in regard of the matter he doth still pursue
in heaven, the other petition he never did afterwards, nor ever shall reassume
into his lips.
If any part of Scripture be to be magnified above another, this seems to
claim the pre-eminence, it being the breathing out of Christ's heart before
his departure, for the comfort of his disciples, and the succeeding church to
the end of the world ; a standing monument of his whole mediatory design,
and his unalterable love.
Ver. 1, 'These words spake Jesus, and lift up his eyes to heaven, and
said. Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also
glorify thee.' Christ first acted with man in the name of God by teaching,*
he now acts with God in the name of man by praying. It is a miraculous
prayer in the person of Christ, who is essentially one with the Father, to
whom he prays ;f personally one with the Son of man, who prays here to the
Father.
Father. Not our Father, as he had taught us to pray, but Father, to shew
that the paternity of the Father to him was in another manner than that to
his people. He was the natural Son of God, believers adopted ones.
Thy Son. In a way of eminency and peculiarity above others ; thy Son
by eternal generation, thy Son in his humanity by the grace of personal
union.
The hour is cotne. The hour of my passion, the hour of thy satisfaction;
the hour of thy expectation, the hour of my victory and thy glory. I am
coming to the last upshot of my humiliation, I have managed an obedience
to thee hitherto with all care and diligence; I am now come to perfect it by
my death, I will not decline the last act of it; decline not thou, Father,
the glorifying of me, while I stand as the butt of all thy wrath for the sins of
men.
Glorify thy Son. Glorify him in his death, by accepting it as the death
of thy Son for the sins of the world; glorify him in his death, by manifest-
ing at that time that I am thy Son. God did so by miraculous testimonies
of his innocency in the time of his passion, by rending of the temple's veil,
obscurity of the sun, quaking of the earth, and the cleaving of the rocks,
which made the centurion that guarded him pronounce him to be ' truly the
Son of God,' Mat. xxvii. 54.
Glorify him in a resuiTection ; glorify thy Son in his deity, by a manifes-
tation of it ; glorify thy Son in his humanity, by conferring new endowments
of honour and immortality upon it. He prays here for a manifestation of
the glory of his deity, which had been obscured, for an addition of glory to
- his humanity, which had not been yet enjoyed, by a resurrection and exalta-
tion of it to the right hnnd of the Father. He prays for a manifestation of
his deity: * Glorify thy Son.' He was the Son of God by eternal genera-
* lUyric. in loo. t Gerhard, Harmon, cap. clxxx.
John X"VII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 5
tion ; it is the glory of his deity therefore which is here desired by him.
Not the essential glory of the Deity, for that could not be interrupted ; not
any addition to it, for, being infinite, he was not capable of it, but a mani-
festation of it ; not simply in itself, but in his humanity, which had been
veiled by the flesh ever since he emptied himself into it. He prays to be
glorified in that state wherein he prays, which was a state of union with the
human nature. His essential glory could suffer no detriment, his manifes-
tative did. As the sins of men are said to dishonour God, not that they
detract from the glory of his essence, which cannot suffer any diminution
by the sins of men, but as they deny and obscure the manifestation of his
glory ; the sun suffers no loss of light in its body by the veil of a thick
cloud, but the brightness of his beams is masked. As the Father was to be
glorified by Christ, so was Christ to be glorified by the Father. Now, the
Father could not be glorified by the Son in a way of addition, but manifes-
tation, causing the glory of God to break out upon the world, which had so
long been obscm-ed by an universal idolatry. He glorified the Father by a
manifestation of his name, ver. 4; and in like manner is glorified by the
Father in the manifestation of his deity.
That Christ prays here for the glory of his deity as well as of his humanity
is evident,* because he prays as mediator and priest, desiring a mediatory
glory ; but he was mediator and priest according to his divine as well as
human nature, and therefore desires that he might be known to the world,
not only to be a just and innocent man, but the eternal Son of God, the
Redeemer of the world, the expiator of sins, and in that work infinitely
delightful to the Father.
Glorify thy Son. Glorify him as thy Son, that as thy Son he may glorify
thee. The Son of God was in the world as a great light in a dark lantern,
clouded and covered with clay, that though the candle burned, it did not
appear, but through some crannies. He desires that this thick mist might
be dispersed, that the glory of his divinity might shine forth in his humanity,
as a candle through polished glass. The gloiy of Christ was to be manifested
to be the Son of God : John i. 14, ' We beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father;' a gloiy in his resurrection, his ascension, in
the" mission of the Spirit, which declared him to be no other than the only
Son of God ; and so verse 22 of this chapter is to be understood, ' The
glory which thougavestme I have given them.' As it is my glory to be the
Son of God, so I have given them this glory, to be the sons of God by adop-
tion, ' that they may be one, as we are one ;' in the same relation of sonship,
though in a different manner.
His petition for this gloiy he urgeth by two arguments :
(1.) One in ver. 1, ' That thy Son also may glorify thee.' The glory of
the Father was concerned in it, whose justice, wisdom, love (and all the
attributes so signally manifested in redemption), had lain under as great a
disguise without the gloiy of Christ, as the deity of the Son did under the
veil of his flesh.
(2.) Another,! taken from the happiness and salvation of the elect, ver. 2,
' As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him.' Unless the humanity had been
glorified by a resurrection, there would have been no assurance that the debt
had been satisfied, and no sure ground of fiiith ; unless he had been exalted
to the right hand of God as an advocate, there had been no security for our
debts. His resurrection was necessary to make men believers for what was
passed, his exaltation was necessary to make them comfortable believers for
* Zanch. de tribus Elohim, part. i. 1. 4. c. 10. t Zanch. ut supra.
6 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
the time to come ; and unless hia divine nature had been manifested in the
mission of the Spirit, and the collation of miraculous gifts, there had been
no foundation for the propagation of the doctrine of redemption, and so that
glorious work had lain wrapped up from human view. The other was neces-
sary as a ground of faith, and this was necessary to the declaration of the
doctrine of faith, and an incentive to the embracing of it. Since he was
shortly to die, and be executed under the notion of a criminal, a blasphemer,
and a wicked man, if he were not raised again, not one would believe in him
as mediator, and so the glory of the Father, and the salvation of the elect,
had sunk with the glory of the Son.
Observe,
1. The inexpressible care of Christ for the comfort of his people before he
went out of the world. He had preached to them, he would pray for them
in their hearing, that their joy might be full. He could not manifest his
care in an higher manner than by using his power with his Father for their
good ; here he gives an assurance of the efficacy of his mediation, the certain
terms wherein he stood with the Father. They might before have ques-
tioned the truth of those things which he had said unto them ; but there was
no room for any doubt, when they find him, a little before his death, assert-
ing the same things to his Father, begging the accomplishment of them.
Howsoever some of them might suspect the declarations of a man, they would
not suspect his appeals to God.
2. The consideration of God's being a Father is the highest ground of
confidence in prayer, and a strong argument to excite the kindness of God
towards us. ' Father, glorify thy Son.' It is a glory Christ hath purchased
for, and given to, every believer, to call God Father : John xx. 17, ' My
Father and your Father;' before his passion it was, ' I go to the Father,'
now ' your Father ' as well as mine. Not our Father, but my Father and
your Father, mine by nature, yours by grace ; yet as really yours by grace,
as mine by nature. Our addresses are to be to God as a Father, since the
relation is real, really purchased, really confirmed. Members should imi-
tate the head, use their privileges, since the Redeemer hath taken our
infirmities that we might partake of his dignity. With what confidence may
a child ask, with what bowels will a father give. Christ had the sense of
his Sonship when he prayed, and we should have the sense of our adoption.
3. The passion of Christ was the determination of God. ' The hour is
come,' the time pitched to a moment, the hour and the work of the hour
agreed on and determined, between the Father and the Son, in an eternal
council ; all the consultations of the Jews against him were successless till
this hour. Times and events are in the hands of God.
4. Christ was a voluntary Redeemer. The hour is come. I am ready to
perform what thou hast enjoined and I have promised. He sought no shelter
from sufi'eriag; he expressed here no sorrow for it, no grief at it ; he looks
beyond the hour of suffering to the hour of glory. We should be voluntary
subjects, and look through the cloud of suffering to the glory of the crown.
6. The full assurance of obtaining what we want must not chill our sup-
plications for it. Who can have greater assurance of supply than our
Redeemer had of assistance in his task, and exaltation after it ? Insured by
the promises to him, backed by the oath of God, that he should be a priest
for ever, of which he had at this time a sense and impression upon his heart,
John xiii. 1, 3, he knew that he should ' depart out of this world unto the
Father;' and ' knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,
that he was come from God, and went to God,' yet he prays for that glory.
Promises are not damps, but incentives and guides, to prayer; they are to
John XVII, 3.] the knowlzdge of god. 7
inflame us, not to cool us. How can we pray in faith without a promise,
which is the ground of faith, since prayer is nothing but a putting promises
in suit ! Precepts command us to pray, and promises direct us what to pray
for, with hopes of success. The promises of a seed to Christ stand firm, yet
he is now in heaven an advocate interceding for it. As Christ, though
assured, hath nothing without asking, so neither can his members. Pro-
mises encourage to put in our claim to them, and not our waiving it. "When
Daniel knew that the term of the church's captivity was near expired, accord-
ing to the promise of God, he buckles more to prayer, Dan. ix. 2, 3.
6. The glory of God must be principally in our minds, and nearest our
hearts in all our suppHcations. Christ prays first for his own glory, but as
a means for the glory of his Father, before he prays particularly for the good
of the church : ' Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee ;' and
only for such a glory for himself, whence the glory of the Father might spring
with a greater brightness upon the Son ; for, by the raising Christ, and
manifesting the glory of his deity, the Father would be glorified in full declara-
tions of himself, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of the
great redemption, as a God that so loved the world as to send his Son into
into it for the redemption of it. ' Hallowed be thy name,' is the first peti-
tion in the Lord's prayer. The glory of God must weigh more in our
thoughts than our private interest : his glory is to be our end in our common
actions, 1 Cor. x. 31, much more in acts of religious worship. If another
end be higher in our hearts, in our prayers, though we pray to God, we
really worship an idol, viz. self; though God be the object, yet he is not the
end. We must seek to God for all blessings, with the same end for which
God gives them ; he gives us the highest for his glory : Eph. i. 6, ' He hath
accepted us in his beloved, to the praise of the glory of his grace.' We
must beg for self subordinately, but for God's glory ultimately. Our Saviour
begged glory for himself, that he might retui-n glory to his Father. To beg
any thing for ourselves principally, is the prayer of some lust, ambition, or
covetousness ; to beg any thing for God's glory is a prayer of grace, like that
of our Saviour's.
7. The glory of the Father and the Son are linked together. The Father
cannot be glorified without the Son, nor the Son without the Father. They
are in conjunction in all the actions of redemption, and therefore in the glory
redounding from it. The Father glorified the Son when he declared him to
be Saviour of the world ; and by this declaration was the Father discovered
to be full of bowels to the world. The sun in the heavens is not glorified
but in his beams, and the beam is not glorified but by the communication of
Ught from the sun ; what glory the sun hath is discovered in the beam, what
glory the beam hath redounds to the sun. The Father was glorified in all
his acts which concerned the glory of Christ ; his wisdom, in finding out so
full and efficacious a remedy; his justice, in his death; his power, in the sus-
tentation of him in his sufl'erings, and his resurrection fi-om the grave ; his
veracity, in every circumstance which had been foretold ; his love and kind-
ness, in the mission of the Spirit, to spread his wings over the world, who
was before confined to the Jews. As the glory of both is linked in itself, it
must be linked in our services ; we must honour both, one as the object of
worship, the other as the medium ; the Father as the rector, Christ as the
ambassador. As the Father is not glorified by Christ, but by fii'st glorifying
Christ, so neither is the Father glorified by us without our glorifying Christ
first by believing. When we glorify Christ as the Son of God, we glorify God
as the Father of Christ ; we cannot glorify the paternity without acknowledg-
ing a fiUation, nor acknowledge a filiation without honouring the paternity.
8 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
8. Christ's prayer being argumentative, teacheth us the manner of our
praying, which should consist of arguments for God's glory and our happi-
ness : not that arguments move God to do that which he is not willing of
himself to do for us (as Christ's pressitig arguments to his Father was not to
inform God of the necessity of what he prayed for), as though the infinitely
wise God needed information, or the infinitely loving God needed persuasion,
but it is for strengthening our faith in him. All the prayers in the Scripture
you will find to be reasoning with God, not a multitude of words heaped
together ; and the design of the promises is to furnish us with a strength of
reason in this case : Dan. ix. 16, ' Now, according to all thy righteousness,
I beseech thee, let thy anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city
Jerusalem.' He pleads God's righteousness in his promise of the set time
of deliverance ; after he had settled his heart in a full belief of the promise
of dehverance, he shews God's own word to him. The arguments you will
find drawn from the covenant in general, or some promise in particular, or
some attribute of God, or the glory of God. All this prayer of Christ is lull
of arguments drawn from several heads ; the first petition is backed by i>ne :
ver. 2, ' As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him,' which is another reason he
urgeth for his sustentation in his passion, and his resurrection and exalta-
tion ; and the sense runs thus : — It is necessary I should be glorified,
since thou hast given me a power to give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given me, which was not given me as an empty title and useless power; give
me therefore such a glory which may make that power I am endowed with
significant for those ends for which it is conferred ; the giving eternal life
was the great end of my coming into the world, which life cannot be had
without the knowledge of thee the true God, and of Jesus Christ as mediator.
The glory of my humanity and the manifestation of my deity are necessary
to the exercise of this power, and the attainment of the end thereof, that
those which thou hast given me may know who I am, that I am a priest and
mediator of thy appointment, thy Son, in whose hands their happiness is
secure, that so they may trust me and believe in me ; and herein, Father,
thou wilt be glorified, for by this they will understand how wise, holy, true,
good, merciful, loving thou art to the sons of men.
Observe,
1. The glory of Christ, and the glory of the Father in and by Christ, is
the security of the glory of the church and every believer. The glory of the
Father is the first link in the chain, upon which all the other benefits Christ
desires for the church do depend. The first reason he presseth for his own
glory is the glory of the Father, the next is the salvation of the elect. As
they are joined in Christ's prayer, they are also knit together in themselves.
It is the glory of God that the whole lower creation, made to set forth his
praise, should not be the triumph of the devil, that he should not boast that
he had frustrated God's design. Is it not the glory of God that his eternal
counsel should have its full accomplishment, that the beauty of his beUeving
creatures should be restored, the honour of God established, and the enemies
of God put to confusion ? This hath the same bottom as the glory of the
Father hath, viz., the glory of Christ. Since this is established, the other
will be completed, and the eternal glory of believers stand as firm as the
glory of the Father. The perseverance of a believer is secured, for if it be
the honour of God to snatch souls out of the devil's hand, it is for his hon-
our to keep them, that they may not be regained by the enemy from whom
they have been delivered.
2. The glory of Christ was necessary for the salvation of beUevers. It is
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. ^
upon this account Christ pleads for it. Had he not been raised, sin had not
been expiated ; had he not ascended, heaven had not been opened ; had he
not been set at the right hand of God, the atonement of sin had not been
secured ; had not the Spirit been sent into the world for the glory of Christ,
the knowledge of this expiation had not been propagated.
3. The infinite love of Christ shines forth in this. A power was given
him. He desires no glory of his Father but what was necessary for the
good of his people, and what he would lay out wholly for their interest.
Christ esteems not any glory but as it is of use to his elect ; and his chiefest
glory consists, not in possessing a power, but in exercising it for their benefit.
Take notice of the love of the Father too ; this power was given by him to
this end, that he should give eternal life to those that were his Father's
donatives. Upon this the salvation of the elect stands firm. The end ot
God's giving authority to Christ, and the end of Christ desiring a glory for
the exercise of that authority, is one and the same ; Christ will not be un-
faithful to his Father, to neglect the end of the power he is entrusted with,
nor will he cross the end of his own petition. What stronger argument can
a believing soul ui-ge in prayer, and embrace as a ground of laith ? Ihe
Father's gift and the Son's request centering in one end, which will be
denied by neither, affords a strong consolation. As the end of the righteous-
ness Adam had was to convey it to his posterity, so the end of the power
Christ hath is to convey righteousness and secure happiness to his spiritual
seed, who hath the immutable strength of the Deity surmounting the weak-
ness and mutability of Adam's humanity, and will be as faithful to his trust
as Adam was false to his.
4. How large and extensive is the kingdom and authority of Christ ! It
is not Hmited to narrow confines. It extends over every creature, over all
flesh, not one exempted ; he hath a throne above the greatest monarchs ; he
is King of kings and Lord of lords. They cannot escape his iron rod who
refuse to subject themselves to his gracious sceptre. All that are fallen
under the power of the devil by sin are now under the dominion of Christ in
grace or justice. All nations are subjected to him, as his inheritance and
possession. Ps. ii. 8.
6. The kingdom of Christ is by a divine authority. Thou hast given him
power : Ps. ii. 8, ' Ask of me and I will give thee.' It is not usurped, but
by an eternal grant, and perpetual. Whatsoever he doth in his kingdom, in
order to the eternal life of believers, is ratified by God the Father, the donor
of this power to him.
6. The whole scene of the government of the world is for the promoting
the eternal life of the elect. All the world is in the hands of Christ. He
hath power over all flesh for this end, to give eternal life to those that God
hath given to him. Every act of his government tends to this end. What
is the end of his power is the true end of the exercise of that power, in every
act of it in the world. It must needs be so by consequence ; and how sweet
will it be at last to see the whole combination ; how unanimously every
providence did conspire to this end, which our ignorant souls cannot now
discern !
7. We see what is the right way to gain eternal life. The power of be-
Btowing it is invested in Christ ; we must have recourse to him not only as
the purchaser, but as the donor, by authority from the Father. We must
believe in him as the purchaser upon the cross, call upon him as the dis-
tributor upon his throne. He had power given to merit it, as he was one
Bent ; he had power given him to confer it, as he was one exalted.
8. One mercy sometimes is a strong plea for the obtaining of another.
10 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
The gift of a power over all flesh is an argument used by Christ for a further
glory. The power would be a fruitless gift ; God would lose the honour of
it, the praise of it, the improvement of it, if Christ were not put into a full
capacity for the exercise of it. How often may we find logic enough in one
mercy to argue for more, with that God who is not willing the honour of his
mercy should be lost, when the desires of his creatures are to glorify him.
To what purpose should God justify and sanctify, if he did not intend to
glorify ? He would else lose the glory of his former mercy, and his people
would lose the comfort of it. If God lays the foundation, it is a strong plea
for his raising the building to its full height.
We come now to the text, ' This is eternal life,' &c.
This is a transition from his prayer, declaring what eternal life was.
Some understand it of the intuitive knowledge of God in heaven ; but it
rather seems to be meant of the knowledge of God here in this state of
1. The reason of the petition evinceth it.* Since thou, Father, hast
designed me to give eternal life, I can never accomplish this unless thou dost
glorify me, because eternal life can only be conferred on those who acknow-
ledge thee, and the mediator thou hast sent. If I be not raised, none can
be rationally induced to believe me to be mediator ; and if I do not ascend
to heaven, the Spirit cannot come into the world, and consequently all
means of manifesting thee in the mediator will be wanting, and the eternal
life I was designed to give be kept from those thou hast designed for it.
2. He declares that those apostles who were then with him had known
that he came out from God, and had believed that God had sent him, ver. 8,
and so had the root of eternal life in them, who yet were without an intuitive
knowledge of God, of a blessed vision, which belongs only to a state of
glory. It must therefore be meant of a knowledge of God by faith in this
world.
But it is the effect for the cause ; the knowledge of God is not formally
eternal life, but the cause of it, and the antecedent means to it. It is not
eternal life in the formality and nature of it, but in the infallibility of causa-
tion ; because if men had the true knowledge of Christ impressed upon them,
it could not be but they must believe in him, and consequently have both a
right to eternal life and the foretaste of it. It is frequent in the Scripture to
put the effect for the cause, as John iii. 19, ' This is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world,' i. e. this is the cause of condemnation.
This knowledge of God is not only a knowledge of God and Christ in the
theory, but such a knowledge which is saving, joined with ardent love to
him, cordial trust in him, as 1 Cor, xiii. 12, ' Then I shall know even as also
I am known,' i. e. I shall love and rejoice, as I am beloved and delighted in
by God. It is not only a knowledge of God in his will, but a knowledge of
God in his nature ; both must go together ; we must know him in his nature,
we must be obedient to his will. The devil hath a greater knowledge of
God's being than any man upon earth, but since he is a rebel to his will, he
is not happy by his knowledge. It must be such a knowledge as leads to
eternal life, and hath a necessary and infallible connection with it, as the
effect with the cause, which is not between a speculative knowledge and sal-
vation. It must be therefore such a knowledge which descends from the
head to the heart, which is light in the mind and heat in the affections ;
such a knowledge of God as includes faith in him.
Two things constitute this knowledge :
^ 1. We must know God, the true God, as the gospel discovers him, in
* Gerhard. Harm. cap. 180.
John XVII. 3. J the knowledge of god. H
opposition to all false gods ; that he is spiritual, just, powerful, merciful,
faithful.
2. We must know God as the Father of Christ ; we must know him in
that relation to Christ, without which knowledge we can have no right con-
ceptions of the economy of redemption, because all proceeds from the Father
through the Son.
That which is the greatest stumbling-block in the text is that clause,
' thee the only true God,' whereby some would exclude the deity of Christ.
Christ prays to the Father, and acknowledgeth him the only true God ; if
the Father therefore, say some, be the only true God, then Christ is not
God, and they tell us that Christ is Dens /actus, Dens constitiUus. But to say
a made God, is as great nonsense as to say an uncreated creature. Both
carry a contradiction in the terms. The Scripture doth frequently and
plainly assert the deity of Christ : no creature can be equal with God. But
Christ was ' in the form of God,' and ' thought it no robbery to be equal
with God,' Philip, ii. 6. He was equal to God in his deity, though inferior to
God in his humanity ; the form of God stooped to the form of a servant,^
but the form of a servant despoiled him of nothing essential to the form ot
God ; he ceased not to be what he was before, when he became in the womb
of the virgin what he was not before. * All things that the Father hath are
mine,' saith Christ, John xvi. 15 ; what is more the Father's than his
essence and deity ? The essence, therefore, and deity of the Father is the
essence and deity of the Son. Austin argues well upon John i. 3, ' All things
were made by him,' by the Word ; therefore, himself was not made, for
nothing can make itself ; and, it is added, ' without him nothing was made.'
Therefore, the Xoyog is not ex rebus factis. He is therefore God, for there is
no medium ; and he is called ' God blessed for ever :' Rom. ix. 5, ' Of whom
as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.'
Where the Greek article 6 is added, which the adversaries of this truth deny
to be added to ^shg when it is attributed to Christ ; and John, as if he had
foreseen what work would be made of this solum against the deity of Christ,
gives us an antidote against it : 1 John v. 20, ' We are in him that is true,
in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal hfe ;' where the
article also is added.
The answer to this is various.
1. Some* understand the word [lovoione, not alone, or only, and so trans-
late it, that they may know thee the one true God ; and the word is often of
that signification.
2. Others say Christ here acknowledgeth the Father the only true God,
because the Father is the fountain of the Deity. In regard of the essence,
there is no prerogative, but only in respect of the persons, which consists
only in order and personality, as the Father is said to beget and the Son
said to be begotten. That may be affirmed in one respect, which cannot in
another ; as Mark xiii. 32, the Son is said not to know the day of judgment,
but the Father ; not the Son of man, but the Son absolutely ; he kntew it
not as man, but he knew it as God.
3. Others say, to omit many other answers, that this particle onhj is put
»to exclude false gods, which is most satisfactory. It excludes none that are
of the same essence, but all that are not. The Son is not excluded from be-
ing God, as Deut. xxxii. 12, ' So the Lord alone did lead them,' Jehovah.
The Son is not excluded by that name Jehovah, for Christ led them, and in
their murmuring they are said to tempt Christ, 1 Cor. x. 9. It was Christ
who is called the angel of the Lord that conducted them, Exod. xxiii. 20,
* Zanch. de trib Eloh. part. 1, lib. 4, cap. 10.
12 ciiarnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
Exod. xxxii. 34, Isa. kiii. 9. The word only^ doth not exclude the Son ;
for then, when it is joined with the Son, it should exclude the Father from
being God. But it is joined with the Son, Isa. xlv. 22, ' Look unto me, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, nd there is none else ;
I have sworn by myself, that unto me every knee sha'l bow, i.nt every tongue
shall swear.' That this is understood of Christ by the best interpreter is
evident, Rom. xiv. 10, 11, where, speaking of the standing of all before the
judgment-seat of Christ, he proves it by this place. 'For as it is written, As I
live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall con-
fess to God.' In Isaiah, it is spoken in opposition to idols, as appears by
the 20th verse ; and according to the apostle's understanding, it was Christ
that spake there, asserting three times there was no God besides him, ver.
21, 22. Shall the Father therefore be excluded from the Deity, because
Christ saith so positively there is no God besides him ? There is no place
to which that in the Romans can refer, but to that in Isaiah.
Again, worship is due only to God : Mat, iv. 10, ' Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' Doth this exclude Christ
from being worshipped, to whom it is due from the angels as well as from
men?
Again, this word only in other cases doth not. exclude, but include, those
that have the same respect with the person spoken of, as Deut. i. 85, 36,
God swears that not one of that generation should see the good land save
Caleb; yet Joshua is not excluded, who manifested the same integrity in the
report of Canaan after they had been to view it.
Again, when Paul saith, he ' determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ,
and him crucified,' 1 Cor. ii. 2, doth he exclude the knowledge of God the
Father, and the knowledge of Christ glorified as well as crucified ? No,
surely.
Again, what is attributed to the Son, the Spirit is not excluded from ;
therefore what is attributed to the Father, neither the Son nor the Spirit are
excluded from. As when it is said. Mat. xi. 27, * None knows the Father
but the Son,' is the Spirit excluded, who ' searcheththe deep things of God,'
and 'knows the things of God'? 1 Cor. ii. 11. And indeed, in common
expression, the word only is not exclusive of any that are in conjunction with
a person we speak of ; as when we speak of a tradesman that usually hath
the choicest commodities of this or that sort, we say he is the only man in
London for such wares ; we exclude not those that are partners with him in
his trade, but all that are not in conjunction with him in it.
4. The scope of the place doth evidence that the Father is called the true
God, in opposition to idols ;\ for when Christ saith all power was given to
him, that he might give eternal life to as many as were given to him, — those
that were given to him were among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, — he
here respects them both. The Gentiles worshipped many gods, the Jews
worshipped one God, but rejected Christ as mediator. Now the knowledge
of bofh is necessary to salvation. In the first clause, he respects the multi-
pHcity of heathen gods; in the other, the Jewish contempt of the mediator.
So then the expression excludes only the heathen idols. In 1 Thes. i. 9,
' How you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,'
God is called the true God in opposition to idols.
5. The deity of Christ is asserted in every verse almost before and after,
and therefore is not excluded in this. He hath ' power over all flesh, to give
eternal life' to them ; too great a power to be entrusted in the hands of a
mere creature, and too great a gift to spring from a mere creature. The one
* Gerhard. Harm, cap 180. t Ibid.
John XVII. 3.1 the knowledge of god. 13
is an infinite power, and cannot be managed by a finite head and hand ; it
requires omniscience to the due exercise of it ; the other is an infinite
happiness, and cannot be bestowed and secured by a finite strength. This
eternal life is the knowledge of God ; there must be a work upon the under-
standing and upon the will to produce this saving knowledge. These two
faculties 'in spiritual things lie open only to the touch of an infinite power.
The power over all creatures extends to their inward motions, thoughts,
turnings of their heart for the good of the elect, which is only the prero-
gative of God, not of a creature. He had a glory with the Father before the
world was, ver. 5 ; not in his humanity before it was in being, therefore in
the deity ; and the glory conferred upon his humanity cannot be managed
without a conjoined divinity.
Again, the knowledge of the Son is made a cause of eternal life, as well
as the knowledge of the Father. It is not to be thought that the knowledge
of any creature should be counted equally necessary to salvation with the
knowledge of God ; if our happiness consist in the knowledge of both, then
both the Father and the Son are of the same nature. The term Father
manifests it ; God was the Father of Christ from eternity ; Christ was with
him before any creature was in being ; if the Father were the eternal
Father, the Son must be an eternal Son.
6. I might offer another consideration of this place, viz., that the true
God may refer to the veracity of God the Father in his covenant with Christ,
and his promises to us (the Syriac seems to carry it this way ; ' To know
thee to be the only God of truth '). A fiducial knowledge is here meant, a
knowledge accompanied with faith and trust in God, the ground whereof is
particularly the veracity and faithfulness of God in his promise ; and the
truth of God in his promise to man is founded upon the truth of God in
performing his covenant with Christ, which Christ insists upon, ver. 4, 5,
where he speaks of his own office performed by him in the manifestation of
God's name, as a work God gave him to do, and claims a glory as due by a
former transaction between them. Or thus, I cannot give eternal life unless
I be glorified : by this thou wilt evidence thyself to be a true sincere God, not
giving me an empty power ; and men's knowing and understanding this,
and thereby knowing me to be thy Christ, sent by thee, will be their way to
eternal life. Or it may be understood of the promises declared by the
prophets of exalting him after the performance of his work upon the earth ; and
by the glorifying of him after he had made himself a sacrifice, God would
declare himself a God of truth in the performance of the covenant made
with him, and the promises published by the prophets, the knowledge whereof
would be a motive to and ground of faith, and so the means of eternal life.
So it is life eternal to know and believe in God as a God of truth in his
promises made to and concerning Christ, not only in his mission but his
exaltation. The word dX'i^9ivog is many times taken so* as dXr,divoi Xoyoi
(Plutarch), and dXridmi (plXoi, true friends, that do not deceive. The Father
so may be said to be the only true God, as he was the person promising
Christ to us, and covenanting with Christ about the work of redemption, and
the person to whom the mission of Christ is ascribed. Christ was the person
promised to us as a Redeemer, and the person covenanting with God the
Father about redemption. Christ now being upon a plea for himself and
his people, that he might be enabled to glorify God, urgeth the declaration
of God's veracity, as the only means whereby eternal life might be conveyed
to men. And since veracity is an essential attribute, neither the Son nor
the Holy Ghost are excluded from being the true God ; but the Father is
* Stephani Thesaurus.
14 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
considered here in a personal transaction, as standing in the present economy.
I will not urge it, because it is an untrodden path, but leave it to considera-
tion, which perhaps it may somewhat deserve.
We may see in the text,
First, The cause or nature of happiness, knowledge, by way of excellency
and exclusion of everything else as the cause of happiness.
Secondly, The object of this knowledge, God and Christ.
1. God : to know him in his nature, perfections, effluxes in and through
Christ ; to know him as one.
2. Christ : to know him as commissioned and sent by God ; in his person
and in his offices.
3. Conjunctly : God and Christ, God in Christ. It is h Bia hoTv, as 2
Pet. i. 2, ' through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,' i. e. through
the knowledge of God in Christ ; and Rom. i. 6, ' grace and apostleship,'
i. e. the grace of apostleship.
Observe,
1. Knowledge of God and Christ is the life and happiness of the soul.
What meat is to the body, that, and more, are divine truths to the soul. In
the clear sight of God as the supreme good, the understanding is satisfied,
the will filled with love, and all the desires of the soul find the centre of
their rest. The vision of God in heaven is the satisfaction of the soul, and
the imperfect knowledge of him here is our imperfect felicity. It is the root
of eternal life, which will spring up in time to mature fruit, to the knowledge
of him above, which is the complete happiness. True happiness ariseth
from truth known and goodness beloved.*
2. Eternal life and happiness consists not in any worldly thing, not in
riches or honours. The soul is a more excellent part of a man than the
body ; the happiness of it must consist in something which is the proper
object of it ; and more excellent in the rank of beings than the understanding
is in the rank of faculties. The operations of that conduce more to felicity
than the actions of sense.
3. The knowledge of Christ is as necessary to happiness as the knowledge
of God. If a man had the knowledge of God in as clear a manner as tlae
angels have, yet without a knowledge of Christ he were as remote from
happiness as the devil. Though the knowledge of Christ be not simply
necessary to the angels who never fell, and so needed not a mediator, yet it
is necessary to us, who are obnoxious to God's wrath, and so need a recon-
ciler, because of the enmity ; a redeemer, because of our slavery ; a refiner,
because of our filthiness ; a mediator, because of our distance to bring us to
God.
4. The true knowledge of Christ is not only a knowledge of his person,
but a knowledge of his commission as sent. It is a material question that
the pharisees asked our Saviour, ' By what authority doest thou these things ?'
though they asked it maliciously, to get advantage against him by his answer.
We could have no comfort if we did not know and consider by what authority
he acted in this great afi'air. Our security in Christ lies in his authority
from God. Faith hath comfort in him as he is the Son of God ; comfort in
him as he is God's commissioner, but higher comfort as he is both joined
together. As being the Son of God, he hath ability; as being sent of God, he
hath authority. He might have been the Son of God without authority to
such a work, had he not been commissioned ; he might have been sent of
God, and commissioned by him, and not have done the work he was ap-
pointed, had he not been the Son of God, and so had an infiniteness of
* Senault.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 15
ability. Christ sets out both these as the ground of faith to us : * Glorify thy
Son,' ver. 1 ; ' whom thou hast sent,' in the text.
Those which I insist upon are.
Bod. I. The knowledge of God, and Christ the mediator, is the necessary
means to eternal life and happiness.
Boct. II. The true and saving knowledge of God is only in and by Christ.
I. For the first. The knowledge of God and Christ the mediator is the
necessary means of eternal life and happiness. It is the knowledge of God
as discovered, not in the creatures, but in the Scripture ; a knowledge of God
through faith in Christ, which is able to make us wise to salvation. The
tree of knowledge in paradise became our death, and the tree of know-
ledge in the gospel becomes our life. The knowledge of God and Christ
doth not only free us from a dark and obscure walk, but is * the light of life,'
John viii. 12. The true knowledge of God and Christ is an effectual and
infallible means of salvation, because upon such knowledge faith doth depend :
Psal. ix. 10, ' They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.' Though
no man can come to Christ unless the Father draw him, yet God draws
every man by the cords of a man, by such means as are proportioned and
fitted to the principles of his nature. Now it is as proper for a man to be
led and drawn by the light of knowledge, as it is for a spark to fly upwards,
or a stone to move downward. The drawing by the Father to Christ
is explained by God's teaching of men, and men's apprehension of that
teaching ; and between men's thus learning of that which God teacheth, and
their coming to Christ, there is an essential connection : John vi. 45, ' Every
one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.'
This knowledge is a certain, full, and persuasive assent to the unity of
God, his nature, his word ; to the mediation of Christ, and God's communi-
cations through him grounded upon a divine light, as plain and evident to
the mind as any natural light is.
I. In general, what kind of knowledge this is.
II. That this is necessary.
III. In what respects it is necessary.
rV. What are the properties of this knowledge, whereby it is distinguished
from other knowledge which is not saving.
V. Use.
I. What kind of knowledge in general this is.
1. There is a speculative knowledge : a study and knowledge of God
upon the same account that men study and desire to know other things that
are excellent and delightful ; as both the contemplation of God in creation,
and the contemplation of God in redemption, afford notions very gustful to
a delicate understanding. Thus a man speculatively knows God and Christ
when he is well skilled in the revelation of God, the history of Christ, the
analogy between the types and predictions of Christ in the Old Testament,
and the accomplishment of them in the New, in the person of Christ. A
knowledge of God by creation many of the wiser sort of heathens had, who
have discoursed excellently of the nature of God : Rom. i. 21, they are said
to * know God.' A knowledge of God by revelation, the Jews had in the
Old Testament, who yet rejected the Son of God ; a knowledge of Christ
many learned men professing Christianity have, who know Christ in the bark
of the letter, not in the sap of the Spirit ; as the Jews knew him under the
veil of types, but were ignorant of his person when he came among them.
This is such a knowledge which men have of a beautiful picture, or a comely
person with whom they have no acquaintance ; or as an astronomer knows
IQ chaenock's works. [John XVII. 8.
the stars without receiving any more special influence from them than other
men, or the inanimate creatures.
(1.) This knowledge is natural. In regard of natural education, whereby
thev suck in and vent those notions rooted in them ; in regard of natural
principles in the soul, which conclude something of God, though nothing of
Christ. There are some fragments of the broken tables of the law in the
hearts of men, whereby they know the being of a God, and something of his
nature, helped by reason and discourse, removing imperfections from him in
their conceptions of him, and comparing him with things that are most
excellent in their apprehensions. But there is no natural knowledge of
Christ ; for all the sparklings of creatures, and all the letters of the law laid
in them and put together, present not a syllable of a mediator. But this
natural, educative, and historical knowledge, is not that here meant. It is
a spiritual knowledge our Saviour intended ; for he intended that which hath
a connection with eternal life, which must have a principle framed by an
higher hand than that of nature. As things visible in themselves cannot be
seen without a visive faculty and eye, and that well tempered, and rightly
disposed for the perception of the object, so neither can God, who is wholly
spiritual, be spiritually known by evangelical revelation, without the cure of
the mind from those films which are upon it by corruption. A spiritual
principle is as necessary to a saving knowledge of God, as a visive faculty is
to the discerning of visible objects.
(2.) This is not enough. A man may know an artificer by the excellency
of his workmanship, without any affection to his person : Eom. i. 21, ' They
glorified him not as God, nor were thankful.' Not one of all those philo-
sophers, as one observes,* though they discoursed of one God, had some
Yioht apprehensions of bis nature, yet ever composed one hymn in the praise
of him ; iln'Ugh there be among their poets some hymns writ in the praise
of their fabulous deities. They pleased themselves barely in those inquiries
and reasonings, without descending to that piety which is the true end of
knowledge ; and though their understandings had some glimmerings of hght,
Iheir wills sunk under their imperious unrighteousness. If a speculative
knowledge were our felicit}^ the devil, who is in the deepest misery, would
be seated in the highest happiness. He knows God, because once he enjoyed
him ; he knew Christ, because he most feared him ; be did profess his
knowledge of him, when scarce any upon earth well understood what he was :
Luke iv. 34, ' I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God ;' yet, not-
withstanding that knowledge, was desirous to continue in the exei'cise of his
government, and the practice of his impieties : ' Let us alone.' His know-
ledge is not his eternal life, but his eternal death. Since, therefore, God is
known in his perfections more by the devils, his professed enemies, than by
any of the sons of men, this knowledge of God, which is the way to eternal
life, is such a discovery which never did nor ever can enter into the hearts
of devils. Speculative knowledge of God, without any further relish, is hke
the knowledge of the nature of meat in the brain of a starved philosopher,
that hath not a bit of bread to put into his stomach. Speculations are often
a torment without affections. No man could find a repose in the knowledge
of God in heaven without love in his will, as well as light in his mind. Light
without heat preserves not a man from chillness and shaking.
(3.) Yet though this speculative knowledge be not saving, it is useful in
the world. It is a promise that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord : Isa. xi. 9, ' They shall not destroy in all my holy mountain, for
* Estius in ^oc. ; 'AVliat they knew naturally, in those things they did corrupt
themselves.'
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 17
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.' Not a saving know-
ledge, because it is of another kind than the knowledge in the mountain of
the Lord, and subjectively, in the earth, the carnal part of the world, as
distinguished from the holy mountain. By such a knowledge in man, God
secures his people from the evil of the world, and justifies his proceedings
in the hearts and consciences of the world. It is also useful to the person
that hath it ; for without this he could never have a saving knowledge ; it
is the foundation of a spiritual : though a speculative might be without a
spiritual, yet a spiritual cannot be without a speculative ; a foundation may
be without a superstnicture, but a superstructure can never be without a
foundation.
2. There is a practical knowledge of God and Christ, which is not onl)
an acquaintance with God, but a laying up his words in our hearts. Job xxii.
21, 22; which is not a floating knowledge in the head, but a knowledge
sinking to the heart ; not a knowledge in the brain, but efiicacious to make
an union with him : 1 John v. 20, * He hath given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true,' where
union follows upon knowledge. The speculations of God may fill the head,
and the heart be empty of a sense of him, and the life barren of an imita-
tion of God. This doth not deserve the name of a knowledge, but in the
apostle's account is truly an ignorance : 1 John ii. 3, 4, ' Hereby we know
that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know
him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him.' Such answer not the end of knowledge ; and it can no more rationally
be called a knowledge of God, since it hath no life and soul in it, than a dead
carcase can be called a man. Such a knowledge, that hath no life in it,
cannot be the means to eternal life : what hath not life cannot convey life.
The devil's knowledge is a dead knowledge, but the knowledge of God in an
angel, joined with obedience to God in his practice, is his eternal life. The
other is knowledge floating in the brain, buoyed up by some corrupt lust
from sinking further. This is wisdom ' entering into the soul,' ' truth in
the hidden parts,' Ps. li. 6 ; not a flourish in the paper, but a letter ; the
knowledge of the object, and an embracing the end of that knowledge. For
though it may be a clear knowledge in the head, yet it is really a deep igno-
rance, a fluttering bubble, because the notion of God is not sucked in for
that end for which it is let out ; it is made known, that it may be melted
into an afiectionate practice, and not lie like a hard lump in the head. Every
man ought to know God in order to his embracing him ; and without this
afiection and love he knows nothing as he ought to know : 1 Cor. viii. 2,
' If any man think that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought
to know.' For a man may have knowledge enough to stuff his head, but if
barred from his heart and afi'ections, it stands but begging in the outward
court for admittance. The thinking of God and Christ with the head, and
embracing Christ with the heart, are two distinct things ; as the seeing a
country in a map, and by travelling over it with our feet, are diflerent kinds
of knowledge. The one is a knowledge of the truth, the other ' an acknow-
ledgment of it as it is after godliness,' Tit. i. 1. When the notion of God
is not only pictured in the head, but the image of God engraven upon the
heart ; when the stamp in the heart is like that in the word, as a counter-
part of a writing : a heart to be his people, as God hath a heart to be our
God : Jer. xxiv. 7, ' I will give them an heart to know me ; they shall be
my people, I will be their God : for they shall return unto me with their
whole heart.' The evangelical promise is not so much to give us an head
(though that is included), as a heart to know God.
VOL. IV. B
18 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
For,
(1.) This is an enlivening knowledge. A spiritual knowledge is always
attended with a spiritual life ; a new man, and such a knowledge as is after
the image of God, go together : Col. iii. 10, ' Having put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.'
As the natural image of God consisted in understanding and will, so the
spiritual image of God by grace consists in a rectifj-ing those faculties ; the
understanding with a spiritual knowledge, and the will with a spiritual bias.
The faculties we have from God as creator by nature, the operation of those
faculties about their proper spiritual objects we have by gi-ace. As the
apostle distinguisheth * the form of godliness ' from ' the power,' 2 Tim. iii.
5, so he doth a form of knowledge from the life of it, Rom. ii. 20, which is
a knowledge in the letter, not in the spirit, verse 29 ; the one is a picture
wherein every limb is painted, the other is quickened and animated with a
divine life. Speculative knowledge is as the light of torches, guiding, not
heating ; this as the sun, which both directs and warms ; a fire felt as well
as seen ; truth known, and truth used as a compass to sail by. When the
knowledge of the nature of God is impressed upon us for imitation, and is,
as the conference of Christ with his disciples, inflaming the heart, Luke
xxiv. 32, and driving away the cold affections towards God ; when righteous-
ness is understood as well as judgment, and that as a path, and a good path,
to walk in ; when we are not only directed to the path, but are pleased with
the goodness of it, and the approving wisdom enters into the heart, and the
knowledge of it becomes pleasant to the soul, Prov. ii. 9, 10 ; when there
is not only a knowledge of God, but a liking to retain it ; a sight of the sun,
and a delight in his beams ; a knowledge of the fire, and approach to its
heat ; a mighty pleasure in God and Christ, as a sweet ointment poured
forth ;* when God is known and embraced as the chief good and ultimate
end ; Christ known and embraced as the way to be at peace with God, and
an honourer of him : such a knowledge as is not only like animal spirits in
the brain, but vital spirits in the heart enabling for action ; not like a cloud
hanging in the air, but distilling in fruitful showers for the assistance of the
earth.
(2.) A likening knowledge. When we know Christ crucified in the con-
quest of our sins by his death, Christ glorified in the elevation of our souls
by his ascension. To know a living God with a dead heart is at best but a
carnal knowledge, a dead knowledge, unsuitable to a living object, which
calls for lively actions. To know Christ crucified, and have no efiicacy of
his death ; to know Christ risen, and lie closed up in the grave of sin ; to
know Christ is ascended, and have creeping afiections upon the earth : this
is a notion of Christ, not a knowledge of him. That is the teaching of
God, when the truth is learned ' as it is in Jesus,' Eph. iv. 21. Powerfully
directive, conforming the soul, as it did the human nature of Christ, to the
will and mind of God, when the understanding is not forced to comply with
the corrupt appetite of the will, but the will conformed to the true notions
of an enlightened understanding. Such a knowledge, which ravisheth the
mind, quickens the prayers, seasons the converse, and fortifies against temp-
tations. Such a knowledge as wraps up the soul in admiration, spirits the
will to operation, allures it to a close union with the truth discovered, till it
be like a leaven working in the will, and shaping the whole man according
to its own mould. The fixing our eye on God by a spiritual knowledge
derives a tincture from him, dyeing our souls into his own likeness ; if the
* By knowledge, the Jews for tlie most part, if not always, un('erstand a practical
knowledge ; and by wisdom, a theoretical. — Jacchiades in Dan. i. 4.
John XYII, 3.] thk knowledge of god. 19
life doth not differ from that of an infidel, the knowledge, though as high as
an angel's, is no more saving than that of a devil.
And if knowledge be not thus,
[1.] It is useless. No knowledge in the world is commendable but as it
is digested into will and reduced into practice. Should the eye direct the
hand and foot, and they never move, what advantage would the body have
by the eye's direction ? It is all one to be blind, and not to have the end
of the visive faculty answered by the motion of the members.
[2.] It is not commensurate to divine revelation. It is not a knowledge
according to the word, if it be not like the word, the instrumental cause of
it ; if it be not ' sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing
asunder of the soul and spirit,' the rational part from compliance with the
corrupt affections of the sensitive, and so a destroyer as well as * discerner
of the sordid thoughts and intents of the heart,' Heb. iv. 12. No material
thing is perfectly known, unless it leave an impression upon those senses
which are requisite for the knowledge of it ; neither is divine truth known,
unless it leave a full and commanding impression upon the mind, the faculty
of knowledge. And because divine things are revealed for their goodness as
well as for their truth, and the truth revealed in order to the apprehension
of their goodness, it is not knowledge suitable to the intent of divine revela-
tion, if the goodness be not swallowed and digested, as well as the truth
chewed.
3. There is an experimental knowledge of God. Speculative knowledge
is a sound of words and thoughts, experimental a sense of them, and God
hath not left the soul without a spiritual relish, any more than he hath left
the body without a tasting palate. And, therefore, one* calls it well gus-
tiis spiritiialis judicii ; it is a witness of the truth in us, 1 John v. 10. There
is a knowledge of Christ after the flesh, an admiration and esteem of him, as
some excellent moralist that hath published eminent precepts for the regula-
tion of human conversation. This is no more a saving knowledge of Christ
than the knowledge of a philosopher's thesis, or Seneca's moral aphorisms,
amount to. It is a putting Christ in the same balance with them. But a
spiritual knowledge of Christ is not only a relish of those precepts, but a
draught of Christ in the soul, a receiving the spiritual emanations of God
and Christ upon the heart. It is to know God in the power of his grace,
and Christ in the virtue of his life, Philip, iii. 10 ; God in the streams of his
love, and Christ in the sweetness of his blood ; when we see him upon the
cross, and taste him in the soul, which is not only a knowledge by the under-
standing, but a knowledge by a spiritual sense, Philip, i. 9.
There is such a knowledge as this. The Scripture expresseth the know-
ledge of God by the acts of sense, as well as by the acts of reason ; for we
have more experience of things by sense than we have by discourse. After
the discourse of anything with all the reason in the world, there must be
recourse to sense to make it plain and evident ; hence ariseth the advantage
of similitudes drawn from sensible objects, which clear what mere reason is
not able to do. We find the knowledge of God set out by the acts of sense ;
as by tasting, 1 Pet. ii. 3, ' If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gra-
cious ;' or relishing. Mat. xvi. 23 ; by smelling, 2 Cor. ii. 14, ' The savour
of his knowledge ;' by feeling, 1 John i. 1 ; often by seeing, which, being
the quickest and most piercing sense, represents things to the understanding
more clearly than bare report. And this kind of knowledge is necessary to
happiness, for without it we can have no clear nor worthy notions of God,
but more likely disparaging ones ; as a man that never saw the stateliness
* Junius.
20 chabnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
of London, or any city like it, cannot mount higher in his conceptions of it
than that it may be a Httle better than the best market town which he hath
seen in his country, but he is not like to have conceits of it according to the
greatness of the place, the magnificence of the buildings, the gallantry of the
people. When once he comes to behold it, he will find his former. concep-
tions of it to be vastly short of the beauty of the place. He would scarce
be convinced of it without a sight. Indeed, this knowledge of God is im-
perfect here because of our present state. But some experience there is
here answering to the vision hereafter, as a map of that which the soul is
travelling to a sight of. This kind of knowledge of God is banished from
the unclean spirits ; they have lost the savour of what they knew of God,
and feel nothing but the power of his wrath.
This differs from a speculative knowledge,
(1.) In the means and manner of knowing ; not in the object. The
object is the same in both God and Christ, the difi'erence lies in the manner
of their apprehension. One is by a common created understanding, the
other is by an understanding given for that peculiar end : 1 John v. 20,
' The Son of God hath given us an understanding, that we may know him
that is true.' One is a conception of God, the other a taste ; one knows
God as a man by human strength, the other knows God as a Christian by.
sense and a divine knowledge ; one is by ' feeling after God,' Acts xvii. 27,
the other is by God's breaking out in divine beams upon the soul, Hke a
* day star arising in the heart,' 2 Peter i. 19. One is by the natural strength
of the understanding, improved by hearing, meditation, discourse ; the
other is the efiect of an infused faith and the Spirit's operation ; one knows
God in the Scripture by reading, the other by relish, and finds something
in his own heart agreeing with it ; what he reads with his eye is drawn by
a divine pencil in the soul. There is a knowledge of a thing without us,
and a knowledge of a thing within us. Men know there is a happy heaven,
and heathens entertained it as an universal notion ; but a believer knows it
in himself by some beamings upon his heart, — Heb. x, 34, ' Knowing in
yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance,' —
which do more powerfully break in upon him in the time of sufierings. So
there is a knowledge of God from reason, nature, report, and a knowledge of
God in ourselves by the workings of his grace. A man may know this or
that meat to be sweet by report, yet not have the knowledge of it by taste ;
the one depends upon the strength of his head to conceive, the other upon
the goodness of the palate to relish it. Though both have the same object,
yet they are not the same knowledge ; he that prays from right principles,
and he that prays from wrong, have the same object of prayer ; both pray to
God, but they differ in the manner of their praying, which makes one
acceptable, the other not, and therefore the object doth not make our prayer
right; so neither doth the object make our knowledge saving. Yet the first
knowledge makes us in a capacity for this, but it is frequently without it ; a
man may know that which he doth not spiritually desire, but he can never
spiritually desire that which he doth not know. As the manner of Adam's
knowing sin before and after his fall was diflerent, so is the manner of know-
ing God. Adam knew sin in the theory before he was guilty (for, knowing
the law, he could not but know what was contrary to the law, and what acts
would violate it), but when he turned offender he knew the power of sin, felt
the evil of that which he did before but understand. A natural man knows
God as Adam did ir'm before his fall, he understands something of his
nature ; but a gracious man feels the influences of God, and finds himsel
under the power of divine grace.
JOQN XVII. 3.] THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 21
(2.) In the clearness of knowing. This is such a knowledge that can
better describe God, from his spiritual illapses into the soul, than the clearest
reasons of men with all their speculative notions. A blind man may know
something of the reasons of colours, but he cannot know them so feelingly
as he that hath eyes in his head. A man may know wine by the sight and
smell, but not so clearly as when he tastes the sweetness, and feels the
cordial warmth of it in his stomach. Speculative knowledge is such a
knowledge as Peter and John had of Christ's resurrection upon the report of
Mary Magdalene, John xx. 2, 3, &c. They saw the linen clothes, and no body
there, which increased their belief and knowledge ; this was a dim-sighted
knowledge to that which Christ gave them by his apparition. When they
could see both his hands and his sides, this was an experimental knowledge ;
and when he pronounced peace to them, this wis a knowledge of interest, an
assurance given that they were interested in the happiness and fruits of his
resurrection. There is an excellency in divine knowledge that cannot be
discovered by the tongues of men or angels ; an experience and spiritual
sensation renders a man more intelligent than all discourses can. As the
natural sense best judgeth of sensible objects, so doth the spiritual sense of
divine. He that hath tasted honey hath a more lively knowledge of it than
the most learned man that never tasted the sweetness, or felt the operations
of it. Nor can any conceive so clearly of the excellency of the sun, by
the discourses of the richest fancies, as by seeing its glory and feeling the
warmth of its beams. A man's own sense will better inform him of the
beauty of the heavens than the elevated reasonings of philosophers. Divine
truth acted upon the heart, and felt in its influence, is more plainly known
than by discourse and reason. I would rather have the feeling which a
sincere soul hath of God, than all the descriptions of him by a notional
apprehension. One is knowledge in the notion, the other in reality ; the
one is the effect of well-educated nature and common grace, the other the
fi-uit of a spiritual eye-salve. Rev. iii. 18, and an inward breathing ; the
one is a shining upon the head, the other a shining into the heart,
2 Cor. iv. 6.
(3.) In regard of the effects. This works the effects which the other is
too weak to produce. A little experimental sense of the majesty of God
brought Job more upon his knees than all the pressing discourses of his
friends, or his own knowledge before his affliction : Job xlii. 5, 6, 'I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see thee ; where-
fore I abhor myself.' A glimpse of God will bring forth more saving fruits
than all the reports of him to the ear, or speculations in the mind. God
and Christ felt, refresh the soul more than the lifeless notions of them. The
inward virtue of bread tasted and digested refresheth the body more than the
colour and figure can delight the eye. The contemplation of meat may
please a philosophical understanding, but the turning it into our nature, the
having it in our body, strengthens and cherisheth the whole man. There is
a pleasure in the historical knowledge of God and Christ, a pleasure in the
meditation of the nature of God, the ends of the coming, passion, and resur-
rection of Christ, the nature of his mediation. But what is this to the
powerful operation in our hearts, and the conveyance of his life into our
souls ? Just as meditation of health by a sick man comes short of the
pleasure of feeling health in his veins, and every member of his body. The
one is like the delight a man takes in seeing a city in a map, the other like
the contentment he takes in seeing the strength of the place, the beauty of
the buildings, the harmony of the government, and the observations he
makes thereupon.
22 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
4. There is a knowledge of interest ; or an interested knowledge of God
and Christ. Experimental knowledge Peter and John had of Christ's resurrec-
tion when Christ appeared to them, interested knowledge when he pro-
nounced peace to them. Though the knowledge of the excellency of God,
and of Christ's going to heaven, is a ground of comfort, yet an interest in
this is the formal part of our felicity. What satisfaction can we have, if we
have no part in God, if Christ went not to heaven /or its ? The devil hath
a knowledge of God in the theory, but a torment from that knowledge in
the reflection. The knowledge of God, without hopes of an interest in him,
is terrifying. While Adam retained his purity, the attributes of God were
cordials to him, he could delight in his goodness, have access to his power,
refresh himself by the faithfulness of God ; innocence and interest see
nothing but what is highly ravishing in God ; but all the divine perfections
which took the part of innocent man, while he continued faithful to the law
of his creation, render God terrible to fallen nature ; there can be no
happy knowledge of God, with a satisfaction to the soul, without a recovery
of his lost interest. That knowledge which renders us as happy as we can
be in this world, is to know God in covenant our God ; to know God as our
Father, Christ as our Mediator ; to know Christ as a surety paying our
debts, and God as a creditor accepting the payment for us ; to know God in
his eternal counsels as a Father ; to know Christ in all his offices as our
perfect Redeemer, settling and securing our happiness upon a stable bottom ;
to know Christ as our Lord, John xx. 28 ; to know God so as to be accepted
by him, and to know Christ so as to be * found in him,' Philip, iii. 8, 9 ; to
know God not only as a pardoning God in his nature, but a pardoning God
to our souls (such a knowledge Godpromisetb, Jer. xxxi. 34, ' They shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest : for I will forgive their
iniquity'), as also a knowledge of him as our Saviour and Redeemer, Isa.
Ix. 16. That is a happy knowledge, when we can say with Paul, ' Christ,
who loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20, when we can feel Christ
dwelling in us by faith, ' the hope of glory,' Col. i. 27. A speculative
knowledge is contemplation, this is fruition ; that elevates us in admiration,
this springs up in affection ; that is like the knowledge of a picture, where
the features of the person are commended by strangers to them, this like the
knowledge of the friend, whose picture it is, and the remembrance of the
sweetness of his disposition, his cordial affections, &c.,| which possesseth
the soul with a more sensible delight than others can take in the comeliness
of the piece.
These four sorts of knowledge are not equally necessary. The speculative
is necessary as b, foundation ; practical, essentialhj necessary ; experimental
and interested, necessary to the comfort of knowledge. The two first are neces-
sary to the being of a Christian ; the two latter, to the well-being. The
two first together, constitute our happiness ; the two latter sweeten our im-
perfect happiness in this world. Indeed, experimental knowledge and inte-
rested are necessary in regard of the matter of the knowledge, though not in
regard of the actual sense and knowledge. We cannot have any initial
happiness, without the influence of God's grace, without a share in his
favour ; but both these may be without the actual sense and perception of
them. Speculative, is knowledge received; practical, knowledge expressed;
experimental, the relish of it ; and interested, the foretaste of happiness. A
speculative knowledge is like that of the queen of Sheba's, at a distance ;
an experimental is like her sight of the order and glory of Solomon's court,
that left no more spirit in her.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 23
II. This knowledge of God is necessary. Eeligion and true grace is called
wisdom, in the Proverbs. Wisdom is the knowledge of the highest things.
No wisdom without the knowledge of truth, therefore no wisdom without the
knowledge of God, the prime truth, the chiefest good, whence all truth and
goodness in other things flow. This is the portal.* No happiness can be
without truth and goodness ; all religion consists of them, all felicity is com-
posed of them : truth to be known, goodness to be embraced, by the crea-
tm-e, else no communication of happiness to it. Knowledge and love fit us
for acquaintance with, and enjoyment of, God. We actually embrace him
by love, after we perceive him fit for our embraces by knowledge. Know-
ledge imprints the similitude and idea of the object upon the understanding ;
love draws out the soul to close with the object so understood. By knowledge,
God conveys himself in his glorious perfections to our view ; by love, we give
up ourselves to him. By knowledge, we see God ; by love, we enjoy him. ^ By
knowledge, we see what is enjoyable, and worthy our affection and fruition ;
by love, we enjoy what we see. Still, remember that this is not to be under-
stood of a common knowledge of God, where the gospel is preached ; it is
such a knowledge which is given by Christ to those he hath a charge of; it
is such a knowledge that is not only the effect of Christ's universal power
over all flesh (for so the general preaching of the gospel is, whereby men
attain a common knowledge) ; but such a knowledge as those only have who
are ' sanctified by faith,' Acts xxvi. 18. He had ' power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life,' i. e. he had power to propagate the gospel among
the Gentiles, that the knowledge of God might be given to those that had
been given him by his Father ; whereby it is manifest that it is a knowledge
different from the common knowledge of the gospel.
1. This was the subject-matter of the ancient gospel promises. This God
promised in the evangelical dispensation, when he would manifest himself in
the riches of his glory, and treasures of his goodness to his creatures : Isa.
xlix. 23, ' Thou shalt know that I am the Lord ;' and the chief happiness of
the church in the confluence of the Gentiles to her, as the foundation of all
religion, is his manifestation to them, and their clear view of that manifesta-
tion : Isa. xix. 21, ' And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyp-
tians shall know the Lord in that day.' It is the peculiar of the gospel :
Hos. vi, 3, ' Then shall we know the Lord.' When the knowledge of God
shall be spread over the world by the great prophet, in the teachings of his
Spirit, then should men have an ardent zeal to increase in the knowledge of
God ; and in this knowledge our spiritual Ufe consists. We shall live in his
sight. How ? By the knowledge of the Lord. By the knowledge of God
in this life, men have foretastes of the life to come. It is by the knowledge
of God in Christ that we see the sword of justice sheathed, which guarded
heaven against us, the bowels of mercy enlarged to open heaven for us.
It discovers God calmed and appeased, gives us delightful views of him, and
a secure and complete happiness.
2. There is no way of conveying happiness can be conceived without this.
Our ignorance must be removed, whereby we may understand God, as well
as our perversity, whereby we may seek him. All sin begins in folly, igno-
rance, and forgetfulness of God : Ps. xiv. 2, ' None that did understand and
seek God.' First, ' The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.' From
that ignorance sprung up corruption and abominable works. What the
psalmist speaks of one, ver. 1, he speaks of all, ver. 2, 3, ' They are all gone
aside,' and the not understanding of God was the root of it, Rom. iii. 11.
* Nulla res, qualiscunque est, intelligi potest, nisi Deus prim intelUgatar, is a maxim
in the schools.
24 charnock's woeks. [John XVII. 3.
The root of our misery must be removed, to plant that of our happiness. Gcd
hath ordered knowledge to be the first step to salvation, so that none s re
saved that come not in by the way of the knowledge of God revealed in the
gospel : 1 Tim. ii. 4, ' Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unio
the knowledge of the truth.' The gospel being nothing else but a manifesta-
tion of God in Christ, a knowledge of this precedes the application of salva-
tion. As the sun doth not make his heat to be known but by his beams,*
so God doth not save according to his ordinary dispensation, but by the
knowledge of himself, though the discovery of himself, in divers ages, hath
been various and by degrees. As the light at the dawn is more obscure than
that which is near the approach of the sun to the horizon, so there was a
more obscure knowledge of God, and the Redeemer, at the time of the first
promise. Adam might not know well what to think of God when he saw
himself expelled paradise, just after a gracious promise of a dehverer. It
was somewhat brighter at the giving the law, when God would give man
some dark shadows and pictures of Christ, and when himself would be knov.u
by his name Jehovah, and the conduct of his angel. It was clearer, in the
times of the prophets, when the chariot of the Sun of righteousness was
approaching to the world, and the light broke out before him ; but a more
glorious discovery, when this Sun did arise and appear in the earth ; yet,
from first to last, every dispensation was made up of some discovery of God,
the manifestation of his name, the declarations and representations of the
Messiah. The knowledge of God and the Redeemer, being the design of God
in every age of the world, is no less necessary now than it was then ; and,
indeed, the knowledge of no other thing can confer a blessedness upon us.
Whatsoever makes another happy, must be greater and better than that which
is made happy ; but, since nothing in the world is better than the soul of
man, all the knowledge of inferior things cannot constitute him blessed. The
knowledge of God and Christ can only fill the insatiable mind, satisfy the
vast desires, and settle the staggering soul.
3. The happiness of God consists in the knowledge of himself, his own
perfections, and delight in them. God is the object of his own happiness. f
The knowledge of God himself is the felicity of God. No being is really
happy without reflection upon, and knowledge of, that happiness. If God
should be happy by the knowledge of anything else but himself, that which
he did contemplate and know would be greater and better than God, because
his happiness would depend upon it. Felicity can never be in anything
inferior. God hath nothing higher and better than himself to contemplate.
This gave him a satisfaction before the world was, and this would still be his
blessedness, if all things should be reduced to the depths of nothing. Since,
therefore, he created the world, to communicate himself and his own happi-
ness to the rational creature, felicity cannot be attained by anything less than
the knowledge of the supreme good according to the creature's measures.
The angels themselves are only blessed in the contemplation of him, and
affection to him. In being encompassed with his bright rays, and having
their affections inflamed by him. Mat. xviii. 10, ' they behold the face of
God.' As God's knowledge and fruition of himself makes up his fehcity, so
the knowledge and fruition of God composeth our happiness.
4. The happiness of heaven, which is the ultimate and complete happiness
of the soul, consists in a knowledge of God. The sight of God is made by
our Saviour the reward of purity of heart : Mat. v. 8, ' The pure in heart
shall see God ;' and to see him as he is, in the glory of the other world,
* Amyraut de I'Evangile, pp. 148, 149,
t Eugul.in. de perenui Philos. lib. iv. cap. 13.
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god. 25
1 John iii. 2, 3, when all the rational faculties shall be satisfied with light,
and the desires replenished with love. The privation of this knowledge is
hell ; the punishment consists in a banishment ' from the presence of the
Lord,' 2 Thess. i. 9. If felicity, in the highest region, consists in a sight
and knowledge of God, the happiness of the soul must consist in the same,
according to the imperfect degrees. If a perfect happiness cannot be without
a perfect knowledge, imperfect cannot be without a partial knowledge. 'When
we are acquainted with him, we are not only at peace, but we can delight
ourselves in the Almighty, and lift up our faces unto God, Job xxii. 21, 26.
Knowledge of God here is the dawn of heaven ; knowledge hereafter, the
meridian of it.
5. This is that the devil endeavours most to hinder. He is the enemy of
man's happiness ; he envies man a better state than himself hath ; his time
is spent in barring the door against it. The course he takes is to bemist the
understanding faculty, ' that the light of the gospel of Christ might not shine
iuto it,' 2 Cor. iv. 4. He put our first parents upon the knowledge of other
things to deprive them of the knowledge of God. He is always pecking at
this seed of knowledge. If he cannot kill it, he will sow some cockle to
choke it. All errors in the mind have the devil's blessing, and knowledge
his curse. His kingdom is a kingdom of darkness. Light is an enemy to
his dominion, and he to light. When the knowledge of God breaks in upon
the heart, the devil falls hke lightning from heaven, as well as at the preach-
ing of the gospel by the disciples, Luke x. 18. It expels his, and introduceth
another empire. This is our happiness, which is the devil's grief. That
must be necessary for us, which God's and our great enemy took all the pains
to stifle.
III. In what respects is this knowledge of God necessary ? We owe
duty to God as we are creatures ; we are unable to perform it as we are
guilty oftenders. We must know God to know our duty ; we must know
Christ to know the way of performing it ; we must know God, therefore, in
the perfections of his nature, and Christ in the sufiiciency of his mediation.
We must know God in his ravishing goodness, his afirighting justice, his
condescending mercy, his adorable wisdom, his unshaken veracity ; we must
know him as ofiended by sin, as pacified by Christ. Without the one, we
shall not be humbled ; without the other, we shall not approach to him. We
must know him in his precepts, else how can we obey him ? in his promises,
else how can we trust him ? We must know Christ in his ofiices, as an
atoning priest, as an instructing prophet, a protecting and governing king.
We must know him in his transaction with his Father, descent to the world,
his return to heaven, in his humiliation on earth, exaltation in heaven ;
we must know him upon the cross and upon the throne, and the ends of
both his states : Philip, iii. 10, ' Know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufierings.' How else can we be ' conformed to his
death,' or have confidence in his hfe ? We must know him in his nature,
without which we cannot have a knowledge either of the truth or efiicacy of
his satisfaction. The truth of it depended upon the reality of his humanity ;
the efficacy upon the strength of his divinity. Without this knowledge, how
can we believe in him ? how can we love him ? how can we perform those
acts which are necessary to our salvation ? This is a knowledge above the
knowledge of nature ; that is too muddy to be a spring of any spiritual
action, raised love or hearty reliance. It is not a knowledge of God by
rational deductions, but spiritual illuminations. The knowledge of God in
the creatures is as the dawn ; the knowledge of God in the Scripture is as
26 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
the day-spring. But what is either dawn or day-spring to a blind eye ?
The day-spring may be in the world, yet not in our hearts ; we cannot work
without light, and though there be the greatest light, we cannot work without
sight.
That which is precedent to eternal life cannot be without the knowledge
of God.
1. Without it there can be no motion towards God, or for God. Without
a natural knowledge of God we can never think of him, or have any natural
motions to him ; without a spiritual knowledge, we cannot perform any
spiritual action. Without knowledge, we cannot act as rational creatures,
because all actions tend to rest. No creature acts for that end that it may
always act, but acts for some end wherein it may acquiesce. That which is
our proper rest must be known, we can never else order our motions to it.
Everything that hath rational or sensitive life must have some kind of know-
ledge, to act suitable to its station in the world, and the nature it is endowed
with. A beast cannot live without some knowledge, by natural instinct,
of the proper food for the maintaining the life of it ; a man cannot act
rationally, though he have the shape and life of a man, without a habit of
first principles which is by nature put into him. So neither can a man act
spiritually without truth put into the heart by grace, as an indwelling and
abiding habit, a truth known, and a truth dwelling in us and abiding with
us for ever, 2 John ver. 2. There are the ' first principles of the oracles of
God,' and of 'the doctrine of Christ' to be known, Heb. v, 12, vi. 1,
before we can go on to a spiritual perfection ; answering in a spiritual
creature to those first principles which are in every man by nature, without
which he cannot act as a rational creature. The apostle implies the neces-
sity of those principles, while he blames them for sticking there without
making a further progress. As knowledge is necessary to the being of any
action, so a various kind of knowledge is necessary to the various kinds of
actions. Natural knowledge is necessary to natural actions, moral know-
ledge to moral actions ; so supernatural knowledge is necessary to super-
natural actions. As the acts are, so must the knowledge be ; supernatural
acts cannot flow from an understanding stufled only with natural principles,
no more than rational acts can be the products of a brutish fancy and
instinct ; that is, as a beast cannot act rationally unless he had the reason
of a man, so a man cannot act spiritually unless he hath the understanding
of a Christian, an understanding given whereby to ' know him that is true,'
who ought to be the proper centre of all our actions, 1 John v. 20. The
whole body is dark if the eye be so. Mat. vi. 22, 23 ; the whole body of a
man's acts are acts of darkness if the mind be blind. As the mind is, so the
nature is ; corruption of nature began in wrong notions received in the mind,
whence those actions sprung which laid Adam and his posterity as low as
hell without the grace of God. There must be then other notions in the
mind, and other principles in the heart, before we can be fit for recovery
out of natural misery. While the eye of the soul remains muddy, all our
perceptions will be tinctured with that corruption ; a suftusion in the eye
will cause a confusion in the acts ; what the eye is to the body, that is the
understanding to the soul. The truth was in Jesus, it must be in us as it
was in him ; not as a loose notion, which would have engendered staggering
motions in the service of God and work of his mediation, but as a rooted
habit, a law in his heart, established as firm in his heart as it was in the
sanction. Since, therefore, all our actions towards God are to be both a
reasonable and a spiritual service, there must be a reasonable and a spiritual
knowledge as the foundation, to raise up action as the building.
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 27
(1.) There can be no worship of God without it. Since God made us
for his own glory, that we might do those things whereby he might be hon-
oured, we must know the excellency of his nature, and what is suitable to
him. It is impossible to glorify him whose honour and greatness we
are wholly ignorant of, Ps. cxix. 25. David was God's servant, had a
desire to serve him, and therefore desires God to * give him understand-
ing, that he might know his testimonies.' Worship is the fruit of knowledge.
God promises to be known of the Egyptians in the time of the gospel, and
then they should do sacrifice and oblation, Isa. xix. 21. The Egyptians
knew there was a God, a supreme God, but they never worshipped him till
they came to know him in the gospel revelation. ' In that day ' he would
be known to them. In what day ? In the day when they should speak
the language of Canaan, ver. 18 ; in the day when he should send them a
Saviour, ver. 20. There is no worship acceptable to God without the know-
ledge of Christ, and access by him. Daniel opened his window, and prayed
to God ' towards the temple,' a type of Christ. He that comes to God
must not only know that he is, but he must know that he is a rewarder,
Heb. xi. 6, not by a natural knowledge, for so the heathens both knew the
being of God and the bounty of God, biit a distinct knowledge of God as a
rewarder and accepter in Christ ; for that the apostle means when, in describ-
ing this way of worship, and giving examples of it, he gives instances of the
faith of the worshippers and their respecting God in Christ.
[1.] Without this knowledge of God we should never worship him in a
right manner. We must know that he is, before we can direct any religious
act to him ; so we must know what he is, before we can direct any religious
act to him in a right manner. If we would worship him out of love, we
must know that he is amiable ; if with fear, we must know that he is power-
ful and just. Whatsoever the principle of the worship is, it must have
knowledge for the foundation. Without a knowledge, we cannot affect him;
without a strong knowledge, we cannot love him ardently. If our love be
low, our worship will be slight, and want that affection which is a necessary
ingredient in it. According to the weakness of our knowledge is the slight-
ness of all our acts towards God. "When we understand not his justice, we
shall presume upon him ; when we are ignorant of his glorious majesty, we
shall be rude with him ; unless we understand his holiness, we shall leap
out of sin to duty ; and the steams of our lusts will be as nimble as the
desires of our souls. If we are ignorant of his excellency, we shall want
humility before him ; if we have not a deep sense of his omnisciency, we
shall be careless in his presence, full of roving thoughts, guilty of vain
babbling, as if he wanted information. Mat. vi. 6, 7. Ignorance renders a
worship false, as well as a zeal erroneous, Rom. x. 2. If we worship God
from custom, and not from knowledge of him, we render him no better a
worship than we should render to the impostor Mahomet, if his religion were
the religion of our country.
[2.] We should be apt to worship some falsity and fancy instead of God.
Such an one that knows not God would be as easily induced to worship some
angel or saint in a glorious apparition, as a man that comes to court to see
the king, and knew him not, might be apt to imagine that some person of
quality he saw richly dressed, and bravely attended, might be the prince.
The heathens, having not the knowledge of God, stamped every great bene-
factor a deity, and adored every one that was highly useful to their country
as a god. Without a knowledge of him, we shall be apt to seize upon any-
thing from which we find assistance as a god ; and, like some heathens,
worship the first thing we meet in a morning: If we know not God, yet
28 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
since we have naturally a notion that there is a God, we shall be apt to have
false conceptions and misrepresentations of him. To worship what we
misconceive, is not to worship the true God, but a god coined and moulded
by our own fancy ; and since false conceptions of God are degradings
and disparagements to him, all worship guided by them is a worship of that
notion and image we have set up in our mind, and not a worship of the true
God. It is at best a worship like that of the Athenian idolaters, a worship
of an ' unknown God,' Acts xvii. 23 ; they knewnot who he was, and they knew
not why they worsbipped him. Certainly, as worship is a flower in the crown
of the Deity, so a worship of him according to his infinite perfections is a debt
we are bound to pay, and therefore bound to know him, that we may give him
his due; otherwise we shall worship, not a Scripture God, but a fancy god, a
god made up by the capricios of our own brains, and modelled according to
our own genius. It is an observable and difficult place, Amos v. 25, ' Have
you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years,
house of Israel ? ' Did they not offer sacrifices to God ? The worship of
Moloch was entertained in the following ages. God denies that they wor-
shipped him all that forty years. What if we^should conjecture tbis as the
reason, because all the while they had notions of God according to the
Egyptian idols ? The adoring the calf was but an imitation of the Egj'ptian
worship ; while they had a false notion of God, likening him to the Egj'ptian
Apis, all the worship they performed to the true God being tainted with this
notion and conceit, was not a worship of God. ' Did you offer to me,' when
you had such ridiculous and unwortLy conceptions, that you could find out
nothing in the whole frame of nature as an image to represent me, but that
of a calf ? It was a sign what unworthy conceits of me did lodge in your
minds, which rendered your worship unacceptable and displeasing to me ;
which conceits were not displaced from their heads by the breaking of the
idol.
[3.] Such an ignorant worship is certainly idolatry. It is not only a
wrong object draws upon men the guilt of idolatrj^ but a right object wor-
shipped in a wrong manner. "When we worship him not suitably to his
perfections, or not accordmg to his command. Lev. xvii. 3, 4, 7. God
commanded that an ox, or lamb, or goat, intended for sacrifice, should be
brought to the door of the tabernacle ; not killed in the camp, or out of it ;
if they did, he would count them guilty of blood, and, verse 7, esteems it
no more tban as a sacrifice offered to devils. The tabernacle being a type
of Christ, Heb. ix. 11, this command signified, that whatsoever was offered
to God out of Christ was of no value to him ; as hateful as murder, and
esteemed by him as if it had been offered to devils.
Since, therefore, nature cannot represent God'" in his brightest apparel
to us, w'e cannot worship God by all our natural knowledge of him ; for as
by nature we rather know what God is not than what he is, so by nature we
may rather tell what worship is not worthy of him than what is. We can-
not then worship God without the knowledge of him. We cannot know him
in Christ, by all the strength of nature, without divine revelation ; and in-
deed it was a natural notion among the heathens, not to receive a form of
worship but what had a stamp of a divine authority ; therefore all those
lawgivers who settled any religion among them, pretended an intimate
acquaintance with some of their esteemed deities, to make tbeir form of
worship entertainable. There is a necessity, therefore, of the knowledge of
God, and of Christ, to present a worship to Gud' acceptable to him.
(2.) No obedience to God, without the knowledge of him. The will of
* Mornse. verit. Kelig. Christian, cap. 20, pp. 388, 390, 391.
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 29
God is the rule of obedience, and Christ is the pattern of obedience. Obedi-
ence to God is an iroitation of God in righteousness and holiness ; we must
therefore know the perfections of God, which we are to imitate, as well as
the law of God, according to which we are to regulate our actions. Obe-
dience therefore is described* to be nothing else but knowledge digested into
will, affections, and practice. The motion of the will cannot be regular
without a touch of the understanding. If the spring of the will's motion be
from the affections and appetite only, it is an erroneous motion in regard of
the order of nature, though to a right object. Now, where there is a defect
in the first concoction, there will be a defect in the second and third : defect
in knowledge will cause an error in practice. Alienation from God's life,
i. e. from an imitation of his life, as well as animation by a living principle
contrary to him, is rooted in the ' blindness of the heart,' Eph. iv. 18 ; and
the reason men take steps from one sin to another, and are fruitful in ini-
quity, is because they know not the Lord, Jer. ix. 3. When men are
ignorant of the true God, they will not want Pharaoh's apology for their
sin : ' Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ?'
Exod. V. 2. The whole mass of vice in the world ariseth from the false
ideas of God, whom men shape according to their depraved fancies ; as the
Ethiopians paint the image of their gods black, according to their own dark
colour. Hence men receive encouragements to all kinds of vice, when they
think God such an one as themselves. There is no truth nor mercy among
the ten tribes, because there was ' no knowledge of God in the land,' Hos.
iv. 1, 2. Had they known the nature of God, they could not have sinned
at such a rate, as if they had passed beyond the limits and censure of any
law.
All obedience ariseth from knowledge. As error in knowledge was the
first deformity of man, and the cause of all the rest, so the knowledge of
God is the first line the Spu'it draws upon the soul, whence, as from the first
matter, all those beautiful graces that appear in every region of the soul are
formed. Every action of obedience, as it must be quickened with grace, so
it must be informed with knowledge. Holiness must be a holiness of truth,
springing up as a branch from truth as a root, Eph. iv. 24. True holiness,
or in the Greek, ' holiness of truth.' As all rebellion against God steams
up from a false conception of him, so goodness and holiness break out of the
womb of a sound notion of him. The mind is first renewed ere the ' new
man is created in righteousness,' Eph. iv. 23, 24. The apostle renders it
impossible for a man to know God and willingly break his commands, and
gives such a pretender to divine knowledge no better term than that of a
liar : 1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith I know him, and keeps not his commands,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him ;' he hath not a grain of a divine habit
of truth resident in his heart. ' Know thou the God of thy fathers, and
serve him with a perfect heart,' is David's directory to Solomon, 1 Chron.
xxviii. 9. No service without knowledge, no sincere service without a
spiritual knowledge of God in covenant. As ignorance of God is the cause
of sin, so the knowledge and sense of him is the best antidote against it.
Men cannot sin freely under an acquaintance with infinite fury. The com-
mon knowledge of God and Christ brings forth some fruits of a sort of
obedience in men, and cleanseth them from the common and barefaced pol-
lutions of the world ; the common knowledge of God hinders many wicked
men from hurting in his holy mountain. What more glorious fruits than
bare appearances would the spiritual knowledge of God and Christ produce
and ripen 'n the world ! 2 Pet. ii. 20. If we know him in the glory of his
* Sibbes's Bruised Reed, p. 241.
80 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 8.
grace, in the amiableness of his nature, what a choice delight should we have
in our approaches to him, and our actions for him ! The more clearly he
is understood, the more he is beloved ; and the more he is beloved, the more
readily he is obeyed. The angels that behold his face run most cheerfully
to perform his errands, Ps. ciii. 20 ; and no doubt but the perfect illumina-
tion of the glorified souls is a partial cause of the steadiness of their wills.
Whatsoever looks like obedience, and is not informed by knowledge, is no
more an act of true obedience than the action of a man in his sleep can be
called a human action, since it is no product of his reason, but a start of
his volatile fancy. Paul's questions were orderly wben he was charged by
Christ, first, ' Who art thou ? ' then, ' What wilt thou have me to do ? '
Let me know whom I am to obey.
(3.) No grace can be without the knowledge of God. Some knowledge
of God may be without grace. The devils are as much filled with one as they
are empty of the other. But it is not conceivable how grace can be without
knowledge. The knowledge of God in the text may be called eternal life,
because all graces, which are the seed of eternal life, grow up from that as a
root. In the change of the soul there is an act of vision before an act of
transfiguration ; the removing the veil before the turning the heart, 1 Cor.
iii. 16. The eye is opened, light darts upon the understanding, and thence
beams upon the will. The glory of God is beheld before the frame of the
heart is changed, 1 Cor. iii. 18. The whole work of grace is therefore called
' liffht,' as the whole state of nature is called * darkness,' 1 Peter ii. 9 ; as
the understanding is the leading faculty, so knowledge, the privilege of the
mind, is the directing principle that leads, and the will follows : the enlight-
enings of the one make men immediately capable of the quickenings of the
other. As the common knowledge of God makes men capable of sin, which
a beast, because of the want of understanding, is not, so the special know-
ledge of God in Christ puts men in a capacity for grace. The philosopher
determines that moral virtues cannot be without intellectual. All divine
motions in the soul are regular : every wheel in the watch moves in due
order ; the faculties are not jumbled together ; the understanding commands,
and the will obeys. Light first discovers, and will embraceth. The new
creation,* as well as the old, begins with dijiat lux, whence all the creatures
were to derive their beauty, and are more excellent and serviceable as they
are endued with a more sparkling light. The knowledge of God and Christ
is the chief ingredient which makes the composition of the inner man. As
without light there could not be a visible world, so without this there cannot
be a spiritual. As the common engrafted notions of God, left in men's
hearts by nature, are the root from which common moral virtues grow, so
the spiritual knowledge of God in the gospel is the root from whence divine
graces branch themselves. No form without matter, no grace without know-
ledge of God. No active principle can be without an object ; God is the
object of grace. Whence the new creation of a man is called a ' translation
from darkness,' Col. i. 13, and renewed men are called * light in the Lord,'
Eph. V. 8 ; w^hen the mind, which was stufied with base and unworthy
opinions of God, is made by the Spirit the candle of the Lord, spreading its
licht through the whole man. All those things which ' pertain to godli-
ness,' whereof grace is not the meanest, are * given through the knowledge
of him,' 2 Peter i. 2, 3. This knowledge of God and Christ, shining upon
the heart of a natural moral man, makes his moral virtues to commence
spiritual graces ; as the more generous and commendable acts of a beast
would cease to be brutish actions, and become human, if he had a rational
* Vines' Impostures.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 31
understanding infused into him. Without the knowledge of God's justice,
we shall not fear him ; without knowledge of his ability and fidelity, we shall
not trust him. Without knowledge of his goodness we shall not seek to him,
and without a knowledge of his majesty we shall not humble ourselves before
him. So that, without the knowledge of God, there will be no grace in the
principle or habit.
As to instance in particular graces.
[1.] Faith cannot be without the knowledge of God and Christ. Without
the knowledge of God, we know not the ultimate object of faith; without the
knowledge of Christ, we know not the immediate object of faith and the way
to come to God. This grace therefore is set in a double seat by divines, in
the understanding and will ; it is properly a consent of the will, which cannot
be without assent in the mind. Knowledge is antecedent to faith in order
of nature : 2 Tim. i. 12, ' 1 know whom I have believed ;' Isa. xliii. 10,
' That you may know and beheve that I am he.' Who can read that doth
not know his letters ? who can believe that understands nothing of the per-
fections of God or offices of Christ ? What image is in the inward sense
was first in the outward organ ; what fiducial frame there is in the will was
first ushered in by assent in the understanding: Heb. xi. 6, ' He that comes
to God must know that he is.' The knowledge of the bare existence of God
will not bring the creature to him ; but the knowledge that he is a rewarder
will, because this knowledge includes an apprehension of some good in the
object known, and so hath a spirit of life in it to quicken the aftections and
elevate the heart, which was before dead to any such motion. That know-
ledge which acquaints a man with no good in the object known will never
excite any motion to it. No man can come to God, who is infinitely above
him, unless he knows him to be infinitely good and ready to receive him.
Who will apply himself to a prince or any other man for help, whom he
thinks to be severe, sour, tyrannical, one more like to scofl' at his misery
than relieve him ? There is, therefore, a necessity of the knowledge of God
as a God of tender bowels, and therefore a necessity of the knowledge of
Christ, in whom only he discovers himself to be a gracious Father. The
spiritual knowledge of him in Christ is as an emission of virtue from the
loadstone, that draws the iron to cleave to it. We must know the goodness
the fountain, and his faithfulness the executor, of promises, and his power
that enables him to be as great and good as his word. We never reasonably
trust a man that we know not fit to be trusted : we cannot trust a God whom
we know not to be the highest goodness. Men by reason know that there is
a God, but it is so dim in the discovery of his perfections that it sees not
light enough to raise it up to any close act of a fiducial dependence on him.
The discovery of God in Christ in the heart sets the whole man a-crying out,
Soul, return to thy rest !
[2.] No desire for God without it. The Israelites' stomachs were never
sharpened for Canaan, but wambling towards Egypt, till they tasted the
grapes of the country. The apprehension of God as true makes us adore
him ; the apprehension of God as good makes us desire him. The more
clearly we know his perfections, the more fervently we shall desire both to
enjoy him and imitate him. How soon will such knowledge bud in desires,
and blossom and flower in good affections ! ' If thou hadst known, thou
wouldst have asked,' John iv. 10 ; if thou hadst a clear knowledge, thou
wouldst have had an eager affection. The clearer the representations, the
more nimble the desires. Doubtful and wavering conceits of the goodness
of a thing keep back the appetite from any motion. If we know not how
full a spring God is, and ready to emit bis streams, how can we thirst for
82 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
his boundless communications to us ? Where there hath been a reUsh there
will be an appetite, 1 Pet. ii. 3 ; desire of the word riseth from a taste that
the Lord is gracious. Knowledge of a thing always precedes our appetite to
it. A toad, not having the knowledge of its own venomous nature and the
excellency of other creatures, can never desire the being stripped of his own or
invested with the other. This desire after God springs not from a bare
speculation, but a strong impression, a spiritual taste ; for a bare speculation
hath no more strength to make a motion in the will than the poetical de-
scriptions of far countries can persuade a potent prince to take a long voyage
for the conquest, or a merchant to venture his stock thither for a trade.
The more distinct and savoury our notions of God and his goodness are, the
more ardent flame will be in our wills. The more distinctly a man conceives
of the excellent relish and wholesomeness of this or that kind of meat, the
more will his appetite be invited to taste of it, especially if before he hath
sensibly enjoyed a satisfaction in it. And indeed, a strong appetite is a great
sign of a spiritual illumination. It is ignorance of God chokes any longing
for him, and makes us either not to desire the enjoyment of him, or beg for
it very faintly. Men that never put up a quick prayer to him, never had
any knowledge of God in them ; and when any of us pray faintly, our know-
ledge of God is not actuated in us. Without some knowledge of God, men
will rather shake ofi" all thoughts of him, all wishes for him, and no more
desire the fruition of him than a blind mole desires to see the light of the
sun. Their language is with those in Job, ' Depart from us,' not Come unto
us. Job sxi. 14. Where there is no knowledge, there can be no fruition ;
and where no desire of knowledge, there can be no desire of enjoyment.
[3.] No love to God without knowledge of him. Though a thing be made
up of delights, and hath an aniiableness interwoven in every part, yet, if it
be not known, it cannot be aliected. We cannot love God ' with all our
hearts,' with the afi'ective part, till we first love him ' with all our minds,'
with om- reason and intelligent part, Mark xii. 30. Love always supposeth
the knowledge of the beloved object, since it is nothing else but j^^'ffctim
judicium de bono amato. Good cannot allure the affections, unless it be
apprehended, and knowledge cannot inflame the affection unless the object
be imagined as good : both must concur to the exciting love. None can
pay a debt of love to anything till he knows it justly deserving and challeng-
ing that love. No man in the world can be beloved by another till some-
thing ba seen in him as lovely, either the wisdom of his head, the sweetness
of his nature, the beauty of his person, or the obligingness of his carriage.
How can we have any elevated affection to God, unless we understand the
amiableness of his nature, the infiniteness of his perfections, and the expres-
sion of them for the good of mankind ? How can it be expected any can
have a heave of afiection to Christ, who understands nothing of those trea-
sures of knowledge, grace, and wisdom wherewith he is replenished, who
knows nothing spiritually and feelingly of the design of his coming, his low
condescension, his yearning compassion, his full goodness, and his sincere
affection ? Without it, we shall value God and Christ no more than a swine
doth a pearl, a child a learned book, or a prince a heap of rubbish, no more
than the Jews did the divinity of our Saviour hid in the weak casket of his
humanity. The beams must be united together in the burning-glass, and
shine directly upon the heart, before the affections will take fire. The daugh-
ters of Jerusalem seemed to scorn him, and reproach the hot affections of the
spouse, as if unworthily placed, or too fond in their exercise, till a glimpse of
knowledge by her description quickened them with some heat of love, which
kindled in them desires of seeking him : Cant. v. 9, ' What is thy beloved
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge: of god. 33
more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us ?' whereupon she
begins a description of his beauty, and then, Cant. vi. 1, they desire to seek
him with her : so soon may a little spiritual knowledge of Christ dropped
into the heart turn a scoffer into an admirer. Had the Jews known Christ
to be the Lord of glory, they had never crucified him, 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; they had
turned adorers instead of murderers. The mind must be spiritually illu-
minated to see God in an evangelical lustre ; it must be filled with astonish-
ing and affecting notions, of God before the heart can have a valuation of
him, and a disesteem for the things of this world. The apostle indeed saith,
1 Peter i. 8, ' Whom having not seen you love,' but he doth not say, ' whom
having not known you love.' There is a knowledge of invisible things by
faith, which takes possession of the heart by the ear, and attracts the affec-
tions. Ignorance of God must be removed before an affection to him will
take place, since it is not only a cause but a part of our enmity to him, Eph.
iv. 18. We may have the knowledge of a scholar without the love of a Chris-
tian, but we cannot have a Christian love without a Chi'istian knowledge and
savoury apprehension of God and Christ. Unless we know the nature of God,
we may love some false thing instead of God; and unless we know the nature
of Christ, the union of his two natures, and the fulness of grace, we can never
love him after a right manner.
[4.] Joy and delight in God. I mean that delight which is a duty, not
that which is only God's dispensation ; an active, not a passive, delight.
Who can delight in music that cannot hear it, or be pleased with the scent
of a rose that cannot smell it ? Who can delight in God that hath no sense
of the goodness of his nature, and the happiness of fruition ? Who can
delight in his ways, who doth not understand him as good and indulgent in
his precepts, as he is sweet and bountiful in his promises ? If we did know
him, we should be as easily drawn to rejoice in him, as by ignorance ws are
induced to run from him. Such charms would be transmitted to our hearts
as would constrain a joy in them, in spite of all other delights in perishing
pleasures. Knowledge of God is a necessary preface to a spiritual joy in
him, Ps. civ. 34. First, by a sweetness tasted in meditation, and then a
delight in God, the object of it; and according to the apprehension we have
of the object, are the degrees of our delight in it. It is all one to a blind
man, be he in a palace richly furnished, or a dungeon hung with cobwebs.
What pleasure can a man ignorant of God's nature and delightful perfections,
and that represents him through some mistaken glass, which imprints un-
worthy notions of God in his mind, what pleasure can such a man take in
approaching to God, or what greater freedom can he have in coming to him,
than a malefactor in being brought before a judge ?
[5.] No repentance without the knowledge of God. The times of ignorance
and impenitence are one and the same. Acts xvii. 30. If there be no right
conception of the nature of God, there can be no sense of the evil of sin, and
the contrariety of our nature to him ;* but when the soul sees God and sees
itself, it will be filled with self-abhorrency. How can we bewail our offences
if we understand not the purity of his holiness, the severity of his justice,
the tenderness of his mercy, the irresistibleness of his pouer, and the iu-
evitableness of his wrath ?
[6.] No fear of God without it. As the justice of God and his anger must
be apprehended before he can be feared slavishly, so the majesty of God and
his goodness must be understood before he can be feared filially. Who can
stand in awe of a majesty he is ignorant of ?f Men, not knowing God's
* Gontraria juxta se posita magis illucescunt. f Barlow on Tim. par. i. p. 29,
VOL. IV.
34 oharnock's works. [John XVII . 3.
nature, have often presumed so much upon his mercy, that they have been
destroyed by his justice ; as some, through ignorance of the true quahty of a
fruit, have found their death where they expected their pleasure.
[7,] No true patience without it. Since true blessedness consists in the
spiritual and affectionate knowledge of God as the supreme good, no man
can be truly content under crosses, who doth not apprehend the goodness
and fulness of God and Christ. All patience not founded upon this bottom
is a brutish stupidity. The apostle lays the courage of the believing Hebrews
upon their spiritual illumination : Heb. x. 82, * After you were illuminated,
you endured a great fight of afflictions.' When their light was great, their
patience was steady ; and they had not only a contentedness under sufferings,
but a joy in them, because they had an experimental sense and knowledge
of God as a rewarder, and had some sweet foretastes of the rich inheritance
be had provided for them : ver. 34, ' You took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and more
enduring substance.' The feeling of Christ, and the tasting his sweetness,
is the best antidote against temptation. He that knows no richer sweetness
than is in the devil's baits, wdll easily be exposed to the danger of them.
Without this knowledge, the slight impressions on men will be like a few
heat drops, dried up by a scorching temptation almost as soon as they fall.
As none of these graces can be without the knowledge of God and
Christ, so
(2.) Without it there can be no acting of any grace. All grace is nothing
else but an imitation of God, a resemblance of God's perfections in the crea-
ture, and the acting of it a representation of the lineaments of his divine
virtues: Eph. v. 1, 'Be ye followers of God, as dear children.' The copy
must be known before it can be imitated. It is a conformity to the image
of Christ, Rom. viii. 29. All grace is summed up in a conformity to God
and Christ ; for it is nothing but a restoration of the divine image, a re-
implantation of that in the soul, which was defaced and lost by Adam. As
the seal leaves the whole print upon the wax, even the least point engraven
upon it, so doth God and Christ upon the heart. Every grace is a member
and part of the "divine image, and answers in some proportion to some imit-
able perfection of God. If we know nothing of the lineaments of God, how
can we make a report of his excellency to the world in our actions ? How
can we express ourselves in any virtue, if we know not the prototype, the
first pattern ? The want of the knowledge of God made all the heathen
virtues trivial things, mere shadows; the knowledge of God and Christ could
only tincture and dye them into divine graces. Humility proceeding from
some sordid humour or by-respects is not a grace, but when it springs from
a knowledge of the condescensions of God, or contrariety to God, or a know-
ledge of the humility of Christ, it is then a grace.
How can we return lively affections to him, if we know not the emanations
of his love ? How should we be at a loss for holiness if we understood
nothing of the holy nature of God, and his hatred to sin ? How would the
consideration of God's justice against sin help us in the exercise of our
justice, in the mortification of our affections to it ; and the knowledge of the
patience of God under affronts received by us make us patient and submis-
sive under strokes inflicted by him ! It is this makes the Christian more
signal in gracious actions towards others. How readily would his love
break out to others in an imitation of God's love to man ! What a tender
and compassionate disposition would be manifested to men if there were an
actuated knowledge of God's mercy and compassion to us ! The considera-
tion of God's veracity would render men faithful in promises ; the perfec-
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 35
tions of God, if more spiritually known, would bring forth more of those
pleasing fruits in the soul. It is impossible an act can be without an
object ; nothing is grace but as it is conversant about God, or hath a respect
to God. There can be no act about an unknown object. There can be no
form without matter, nor any acting of that form but in matter ; no grace
without knowledge, no acting of grace but in knowledge. The frame of
grace is raised upon the infused notions of God ; illumination precedes
renovation of the will. As the right motion of the will supposeth an en-
lightened mind, so the acting of grace in the will implies a present and
actuated knowledge of the object about which it is conversant. There is no
faculty excited in any act but by some object ; that object is not entertained
at first in any power of the soul, but in the understanding, that first pro-
pounds the object as worthy and suitable to be followed by the other powers
of the soul, whose office it is to act. All impressions upon the lower facul-
ties are made by the highest, as all motions depend upon the highest sphere
in the heavens. There must therefore be a distinct knowledge of God.
God abstracted from his perfections, his power, holiness, faithfulness, love,
is not the object about which any grace can be conversant, but God as
revealing himself, clothed with such excellency as suit and answer the crea-
ture's necessities. If I act faith, I must conceive of his power to relieve
me ; if I act faith upon his promise, I must conceive of his faithfulness and
truth to make good his word. We cannot work without light, nor act grace
without the knowledge of God and Christ. If we must be ' perfect as God
is perfect,' we must know the perfection of the copy we are to follow. The
more knowledge we have of God, and of the nature, offices, and communi-
cations of Christ, the more distinct are the actings of grace.
(3.) No growth in grace without it. As the degrees of our knowledge
are, so are the degrees of our grace : Rom. xv. 14, 'You are full of good-
ness, filled, with all knowledge.' 'Growth in grace' is promoted by 'the
knowledge of Jesus Christ,' 2 Peter iii. 18. The one is the root, the other
the branch ; the root may be without the branch, but the branch can never
grow without a root. As the root is strengthened, so are the branches ;
what is in the root is communicated to the branches. If love flames more
vehemently, it is by the addition of the fuel of knowledge : Philip, i. 9, ' That
your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judg-
ment.' Love, which is a grace that adorns us in the world, and is a part
of the glory of heaven, burns hotter as our knowledge is clearer. A firm
and stable knowledge is as necessary to the increase of love as to the being
of love ; 'E'^r/vuGii signifies a clear knowledge. Fruitfulness in every good
work depends upon the increase of the knowledge of God, as the fruit of the
ground upon the dew of heaven : Col. i. 10, ' Being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.' The strength of grace is
promoted by the increase of knowledge : ' A man of knowledge increaseth
strength,' Prov. xxiv. 5. The strengthening the foundation is a strengthen-
ing the building. All graces depend upon the increase of faith, and faith is
the firmer by an increase of knowledge. ' The path of the just,' or his walk
in the ways of God, is expressed by a 'shining' or growing ' light,' Prov.
iv. 18. As there was more truth, so there was more grace by Christ than
by Moses, John i. 17. As there was but obscure truth under the law, bo
there was but weak grace ; when truth shone, grace flourished ; as the plants
renew their strength with the spring's sun. The law made no such dis-
coveries of God as were revealed by Christ. The con mniacation of lhe
greatest knowledge of God was reserved for the hcnour of the great Prophet,
and the full eflusion of grace was reserved for the honour of l.is royalty.
36 charnock's works. [John XYII. 3.
All the declarations by the law could not give so much knowledge of truth
as the gospel, and therefore make no such impression of grace upon the
soul. Truth and grace go hand in hand together, and spur on one another.
Truth excites grace, and grace spurs on to the inquiry after truth. Chrig,
himself had not been full of grace unless he had been full of truth, thoroughly
acquainted with the nature of God and mysteries of his will : John i. 14,
' full of grace and truth.' It is the fulness of his human nature, for he
speaks of the Word as made flesh and dwelling among us. And accordingly,
when he prays for the increase of the disciples' graces, and their progressive
sanctification, he prescribes the means : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them through
thy truth ; thy word is truth.' The word is nothing else but a discovery of
God, which aftbrds motives to holiness, and can strengthen the soul against
all the invasions of the devil, that envies grace, and endeavours to rifle it.
A spiritual knowledge of God would spring up in delightful thtjughts of him,
and those would be as a refreshing influence to all the graces of the new
man.
(4.) No continuance in grace without it. True grace cannot be totally
lost, but it may miserably decay. True grace will decay, and pretended
grace will quite wither without it. As it is impossible any man can close
with God in Christ without a knowledge of him, so it is as impossible that he
can persist in that state without the continuance of that knowledge. Know-
ledge of God is part of the ' anointing of the Spirit, which teacheth the be-
liever all things,' 1 John ii. 27. Grace is the divine lamp in the soul, which
lives and burns by the oil of the Spirit's teaching ; a lamp will out without
oil to feed it, and grace will burn dim without knowledge to supply it. The
apostle owns the knowledge of Christ to be the anchor that keeps us from
being tossed to and fro like children, Eph. iv. 18, 14. Ignorance is the
mother of inconstancy in the ways of God ; the unlearned and unstable go by
couples, 2 Peter iii. 16. Where there is no knowledge of God to ballast,
there is no security against the force of winds and waves. Those that are
unlearned in heavenly wisdom will be unstable in heavenly ways. The want
of root made the temporaries wither : unless we know God, we cannot/oZ/oji;
on to know him, Hosea vi. 3. It is as natural for a saving knowledge ot
God to press on farther as it is for a counterfeit knowledge to draw back.
But an experimental sense will preserve the soul from apostasy : John iv. 14,
* Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,'
i. e. he shall never thirst for anything else ; for this he cannot but thirst,
till he comes to a full fountain. It is not a savoury knowledge of Christ it
it be not attended with a thirst for more. Where there is only a sensitive,
carnal apprehension of God and his truth, there may be some resolutions,
some pangs, but the fit will quickly cease. The silly conceit of a bread and
water from heaven, that should satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst,
which might free them from toil and sweat in the world, made some Jews
with lively affections cry out, John vi. 34, ' Evermoi'e give us this bread.'
Christ by bread meant himself, and by eating he meant faith ; they under-
stood it of earthly bread, and had their aff"ections accordingly ; but when
they understood the truth of the case they ' turned their backs upon him,'
ver. 66. How soon were their affections extinguished, which had nothing
but a carnal apprehension for a foundation ! It is a ' full assurance of
understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God the Father, and
of Christ,' that preserves a soul from seduction by enticing words. Col. ii. 2, 4,
3. No comfort can be without the knowledge of God and Christ. Peace
as well as grace is multiplied by this, 2 Peter i. 2. Acquaintance with God
is the channel through which the blessings of peace flow into our souls, Job
John XYII. 3. J the knowledge of god. 37
xxii. 21, 22, &c. All joy in or from God presupposeth a knowledge of him,
for spiritual joy is seated in the mind, not in the sensitive part of the soul.
All the pleasure that rational creatures have is by an act of their understand-
ing. The light of knowledge begets the light of joy and peace in the heart,
as the light m the body of the sun begets the light and shine in the air. The
assurance of understanding doth arise from the ' acknowledgment of the
mystery of God the Father, and of Christ,' Col. ii. 2 ; because the know-
ledge of those is a means to beget assurance. In the light of God we enjoy
the light of comfort : Ps. xxxvi. 9, ' In thy light we shall see light. There
may be a knowledge of God, and a terror with it. The devils' knowledge
renders them less at ease in themselves than an ignorance would ; though
their knowledge of God be greater than others', yet it is more distasteful to
them ; they have only a knowledge of God in his justice to terrify them, but
no hopes of his mercy to pacify their troubles. Yet without it we can no
more have any fruition of God, than a man whose senses are bound up with
sleep can rejoice in the presence of beautiful pictures. As the operations of
the will depend upon the touch of the understanding, so the comforts of the
soul depend upon the clearness of the understanding contemplating the
object. The best good, though never so near us, cannot be comfortable to
us while we are under the darkness of ignorance ; nor can there be any com-
fort without the knowledge of Christ. There was in Adam no necessity of
the knowledge of Christ, because there was no necessity of his knowledge of
a mediator in his innocent estate. He knew (Jod in his nature, and in his
personal relations, and his works of creation ; but what a misery are we in
without the knowledge of Christ as well as God ! What pleasure can we
have in the apprehensions of an oflended and injured God, unless we know
him in the methods of his reconciliation, which cannot be understood but by
the knowledge of Christ, because no atonement is made by any but him ?
The more any knows of God without Christ, the more he knows of a de-
plorable contrariety to him. "What spark of joy can he have unless he can
see a way of bringing God down to him, or of his ascent to God, unless God
would strip himself of his nature to converse with him, or he be uncloihed
of his corruption to be fit to converse with God ? He sees terror as well as
sweetness, wrath as well as grace. The knowledge of Christ, as receiving
the darts of God's wrath upon himself, to reflect upon the soul the beams of
his grace, must step in before the thoughts of God can be comfortable any
more to us than to devils.
(1.) No comfort in this life. Without godliness there can be no rational
satisfaction, and sensitive comforts deserve not the name of a rational con-
tentment. Godliness and contentment are coupled together by the apostle,
1 Tim. vi. 6. Godliness is nothing but the spiritual and practical know-
ledge of the mysteries of God. Nothing can have any real comfort without
answering and attaining the end of its being. The end ot our creation was not
simply to enjoy the creature, cr satisfy our sense, but to glorify God, to ob-
serve the prints of God's goodness, and return the praise to him. The
world was made for the manifestation of God's goodness ; ' the heavens de-
clare the glory of God ' m-iterially, man is to give God the glory of it form-
ally ; without this, man hath not a pleasure suitable to the end of his crea-
tion. What praise now can any one render to God who knows not the
excellency stamped upon his works, knows not his glory and goodness mani-
fested in redemption ? All praise of God without understanding is not
pleasant to the offerer, and as unwelcome to God as the ;-craping of a lute by
an ignorant hand is to a delicate ear. We are to ' praise God with under-
standing,' Ps. xlvii. 7, i.e. with a knowledge of his nature, his works, hia
38 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
excellencies in him. We lose the comfort of our being by not answering the
end of our creation, and this we cannot do without a knowledge of God and
Christ, and so lose ihe pleasure of those raptures and ecstasies of joy, which
an observation and praise of God fills the soul with in secret. What rise
is there for this, if we are unacquainted with the matter and object of this
praise !
(2.) No pleasure and comfort to one ignorant of God, if he were admitted
into heaven. The happiness of heaven consists in a clear knowledge of God,
and a pure affection to him. It is as impossible for a man remaining igno-
rant of God to take any pleasure in him, were he admitted into the local heaven
where God displays his glory, as for a blind man placed upon a high tower
to relish a delight in the beautiful prospect, so long as he wants eyes to be-
hold it. Such an one would want happiness in the midst of an ocean of it,
as a millstone in the midst of the sea wants moisture in the centre, because
of the thickness and harshness of its parts. He that takes no pleasure in
inquiring after God, and seeing him in the gkss of the gospel, would take
as little or less in seeing him face to face. An unenlightened mind could have
as little delight in heaven, by reason of its ignorance, as an unrenewed will
could, by reason of its impurity. A swine that understands not the delicacies
of a musical air would rather run away affrighted at a loud concert than
diligently listen, and take more satisfaction in a puddle or heap of garbish,
things suited to his sense and nature, than in those objects he hath no con-
ception of.
IV. What are the properties of this knowledge of God and Christ, where-
by it is distinguished from that knowledge, which is not saving and eternal
life.
1. Negatively.
(1.) It is not an immediate knowledge of God and Christ. As we are
acquainted with a man face to face when we see his person, and view his
features ; we have no such knowledge of angels, much less of God. Nay,
the things of the world which are visible to us are not known so much in
their formal nature as by their operations ; we do not immediately know the
sun so much as by his beams enlightening the earth, and quickening and
refreshing the spirits of all creatures. It is more especially true of our
knowledge of God, who is not known immediately in his nature, so much as
by his excellent works of creation, providence, redemption, and the revela-
tion of invisible mysteries in his word. The invisible things of God are
understood, not by immediate speculations about the nature of them, but by
the things that are made, Rom. i. 20.* Those things that are invisible in
God, and that cannot be known or seen with an immediate view, do shine
forth in his works, both in the first forming them and the constant preser-
vation of them, wherein he discovers such marks of an infinite power and
unexpressible goodness, which is the glory of his Godhead, that if they were
represented in a glass they could not be more visible. He is encircled with
that ocean of light through which no mortal eye ever did pierce, or can ap-
proach to : 1 Tim, vi, 16, ' He dwells in light to which no man can
approach ; whom none hath seen, or can see.' It is used to express the
impossibility of an immediate knowledge of God. We see the created light
of the sun overpowers the eyes of our body ; how much more the glori-
ous light of God the eyes of our souls, since he ' clothes himself with light
as with a garment!' Ps. civ. 2. As the sun, though it discovers other
things to us by its light, yet by reason of the greatness of its light hinders
* Amyraut, in loo.
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god. 39
us from an immetliate sight of itself ; so, though God discovers himself in
other things to us by his light, yet it is too immense for us to have an im-
mediate knowledge of God. In his appearance to the Israelites, he was
covered with a cloud, to shew the weakness of our understandings about
divine things ; and how easily is it dazzled at his ineffable brightness !
(2.) Nor is it a comprehensive knowledge. When the psalmist had
floods of precious thoughts of God in the day, the next morning he was as
far from finding him out to perfection as before : Ps. cxxxix. 17, 18, ' When
I awake, I am still with thee,' i. e. I am where I was ; I have made no fur-
ther progress, but am to begin again, so infinite are thy perfections. Moses,
that was dignified with the greatest familiarity with God, could arrive no
higher than the sight of his back parts. A beast, by seeing our actions,
may better comprehend our nature than we comprehend the nature of God.
To know comprehensively is to contain, and the thing contained must be
less than that which contains, and therefore if a creature could comprehend
the essence of God, he would be greater than God. It is infinitely more
difficult for any creature to comprehend the nature and perfections of God,
than it is easy, upon the sight of his works, to acknowledge there is such an
incomprehensible being ; he makes darkness his pavilion and hiding-place.
The comprehensive knowledge of himself is only within himself, and none
can know God as he knows himself, unless he were God ; his name is secret :
Judges xiii. 18.
God is the highest in the rank of beings, the chiefest in the scale of good,
the supreme in the nature of the intelligent ; man is the lowest of intelligent
creatures. How can he that is in the lowest form of reasonable creatures
mount up to the knowledge of the supreme author of all beings ? We are
not able to conceive of God as he is, because our apprehensions take their
first rise from sense and sensible objects. There must needs then be an in-
finite distance between our conceptions of God and his nature, as the con-
ception that a man that never saw the sun hath of the sun, by the light of a
Ciindle which he hath seen, is far inferior to the glorious nature of that
luminary. Christ only knows the Father, and ' he to whom the Son will
reveal him ;' yet upon Christ's revelation no man can know God compre-
hensively ; not for any weakness of revelation, but incapability in the
creature. The ocean hath water enough to fill the biggest vessel, yet it can
give no more to it than the vessel is able to contain.
[1.] We cannot comprehend the creatures that are near to us. Not to
speak of angels, that are creatures of another sphere, whose nature we are
not able to measure, and whose appearances were formidable to the behevers
nnder the Old Testament, we find our reasons twinkle at the sight of a star ;
though we behold its sparklings, we cannot understand fully the nature and
dimensions of it. How are our reasons blocked up by clouds of matter from
piercing into the nature of a stone we tread on ! How are we puzzled to
know the soul of an ant, the forms of beasts and plants ! Is not the acutest
reason too blunt to pierce into their hidden natures ? How are we then able
to ascend into the cabinets of the almighty Creator ! How blind are we in
the nature of our own sonls, which we bear about in our bodies every day,
and feel the operation of in every motion ! How then can we ' by search-
ing find out the Almighty unto perfection ?' If all the wit of the world hath
not been able to content the understanding of man, in the reason of the ebbs
and floods of the sea, the intervals of an ague, the nature of the sun, the at-
tractive virtue of the loadstone, and a thousand other things which nonplus
the reason of man, is it possible to comprehend God ? If we know not the
works of nature, can we think to know the Author of nature ? Are we
40 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
ignorant of the nature of the effects, and shall we think fully to understand
the cause of them, which infinitely surpasseth tbem ? If we know not the
world, which is as a point, it cannot be thought that we can comprehend the
circumference itself.
[2.] In heaven, God shall not be comprehensively known. It is true there
will be a fuller perception of God, and a clearer notion of him in heaven ;
the infinite treasures of wisdom and goodness, which lie hid in God to be ad-
mired, will be then more clearly seen ; yet God can never descend from his
own infiniteness to be gi'asped by a created understanding. For in the
highest pitch of glory the soul is but finite, and therefore still too short to
enclose an infinite being in its understanding, even to an endless eternity.
In heaven, the glorified soul is still but a creature. Heaven glorifies our
natures, but doth not make our being infinite ; and till a creature can mount
to the pitch of a creator, it can never understand the nature of the Deity.
When Moses desired to see God's face, or essence, Exod. xxxiii. 18, that
God might be known to him as the person of a man is known to another by
the discovery of his face, God tells him not, thou sludt not see, or thou
maijest not see, but canst not see my face : verse 20, ' For there shall no
man see my face and live,' i. e. as the Jews expound it,* no created un-
derstanding can attain this. That one perfection of his love which we are
more sensible of, and are exhorted to know the length and breadth of, yet
the apostle tells us in the same breath that it ' passeth knowledge,' Eph. iii.
17, 18, 19 ; and the peace of God, which is an effect of his love, ' passeth
all understanding,' Philip, iv. 7. And though it be said, 1 John iii. 2, that
' we shall see him as he is,' it is most convenient to understand it of the
sight of Christ in his visible human nature at the day of judgment, and not
of the essence of God ; for he speaks of the appearance of God, understand-
ing Christ's appearance, which tlie Scripture frequently speaks of. There
will, indeed, in heaven be a wider enlarging the faculty, and a fuller dis-
covery of the object, greater sparklings of light and glory, enough to satisfy;
yet still the perfections of God will be above our comprehensions ; the un-
derstanding will be dilated and strengthened, a clear light put into it, which
is not any species of God, but a spiritual principle created by God to perfect
the understanding for the contemplation of him.
[3.] The angels, who have had the fullest vision of God since their creation,
cannot know God perfectly ; and that upon the same reason, because they
are creatures. There must be some proportion between the faculty and the
object, but there is none between a finite understanding and an infinite
eesence. They know God in a more excellent manner than other creatures
can do in the world ; they stand before his face, they see the signs of his
glorious presence ; but their contracted understandings cannot comprehend
the essence of God, which hides itself in the secret place of eternity. If
God could be grasped by any finite understanding, though angelical, he were
not infinite. The angels signify as much by the covering their faces before
the throne of the divine Majesty, that the majesty of God is too mysterious
for the most capacious understanding, Isa. vi. 2. And, therefore, it is
generally said that the human nature of Christ, f though being straitly united
to the divine nature, he did behold the divine essence, yet could not com-
prehend it, because the human nature was finite, and a creature.
Nor can we have a comprehensive knowledge of Christ ; the Spirit doth
take of Christ's, to shew to the believers, John xvi. 14, 15 ; but not all of
* Maimon. de Fiindam. legis, cap. i. sec. 10, p. 6, 7.
t WoUeb. compend. lib. i. c. 16. the humanity of Christ did see God «a«, but not
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 41
Christ's, for all the things of Christ cannot be shewn to any man ; as his
divine nature, being infinite and incomprehensible. We know Grod, as we
know the sea ; we behold the vastness of its waters, but we cannot measure
the depths and abysses of it. Yet we may be said truly to see it, as we
may touch a mountain with our hands, but not grasp it in our arms. We
know God to be omnipotent and immense, but we cannot comprehend his
power and immensity. Nor can we know the counsels of God ; we may as
well expect to span the heavens, and enclose the sea in a nut-shell, as to un-
derstand those judgments which are ' past finding out,' Rom. xi, 33. So
that this is not the knowledge God requires of us, or that can be called our
happiness, but that we should know what kind of God he is — merciful, just,
wise, holy, true, — and how those perfections are manifested in Christ. Yet,
because we cannot comprehend him, the more we ought, and the more we
shall, admire him. Our admirations of the brightness of the sun are greater,
by how much the less we can look upon the body of it without winking
and shielding our eyes from the onset of his beams : so should they be of
God.
(3.) Neither is it a perfect knowledge of God in this life, so far as it is
possible for a creature to know him, that is required. Our knowledge of
God in this life is as the knowledge of him in a glass, obscure, and apt to be
dimmed by the steams and breath of our unworthy afi'ections and notions of
him. We cannot arrive to great measures because of the misty cloud upon
our minds, the beam of sin in our eye ; our soul, clogged with a fleshly clay,
cannot ascend to a perfect knowledge of Grod. We are like a man closed up
in a room, where light comes in at some crannies and chinks of the shutters;
and though the sun shine ever so clearly, he cannot behold the glory of it
while he remains thus closed up. While we are in this dungeon of flesh,
clouded with sin, we cannot know the glory of Christ, till we are freed from
that darkness by taking away the shuts and obstacles. We have still thick
scales upon our eyes, and too much of the veil upon our hearts. Paul, that
was ennobled with extraordinary revelations, yet pretended to no higher a
knowledge of him than ' as in a glass,' and that not clear, but ' darkly,'
1 Cor. xiii. 12. The fuller knowledge is reserved for another life. We
must know him here by his name, not by his face ; by his grace, not by his
glory. Who can see so well with sore eyes as when the oigan is healed ?
Christ looks ' through the lattice,' Cant. ii. 9, gives us an imperfect sight
of himself. God ket-ps back much of the knowledge of himself to humble
us for our first curiosity in Adam, our common root, and to whet our long-
ings after another world, wherein we shall know Christ no more by a
stooping faith, but an ascending vision ; when we shall, as it were, with
Thomas, put our hands into his wounds. Yet a periection in the knowledge
of Christ, as well as in grace, must be aimed at in this life. So the apostle
did, Philip, iii. 12 : he ' followed after, if he might apprehend;' and all that
are sincere are thus minded. He did not apprehend all of Christ, but
laboured still in inquiries after him, and tuok greater strides in his journey
to him. Light of knowledge is sown here, but the harvest is above. We
can never totally shake ofi' our ignorance, till we surmount our natural cor-
ruption.
(4.) The knowledge of God and Christ which is saving, differs not from
other knowledge in regard of the object, but the manner of knowing and
the effects of knowledge. One knows by a natural understanding, and
knows God in the Scripture as he would know a thing written in any
other book : the other knowledge is by an understanding opened to take
in more fully what is presented. The shutters which barred cut the
42 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
light are pulled down, whereby the light breaks into the room more clearly :
Luke xxiv. 45, ' Then opened he their understandings.' Two may behold
the same picture, the object is the same ; but one having a more piercing
eye, and exacter judgment, will better discern the lineaments and beauty of
the work, which the other cannot perceive, though he views the same object.
Suppose a beast that knows his master, and the servants that gave him food,
were changed into a man, and endued with a rational soul, he would have
the same object of knowledge ; but he would know them in another manner,
with an understanding given ; whereas he knew them before only by a cus-
tomary sight, a strength of imagination. And another kind of knowledge in
the effects. A child of a year old may know his parents, his father, mother,
and the servants ; but when he grov,'s up, though there be no change of the
object, yet there is in the effects of his knowledge. He knows them with
more reverence, with more rational affections, with expressions of duty. So
the knowledge of God differs in a sound Christian from the knowledge others
have under the preaching of the gospel ; he knows God and Christ in a
clearer manner, with a spiritual eye, and brings forth affectionate and prac-
tical fruits of that knowledge.
2. What this knowledge of God is affirmatively. The world pretends to
know God, but Christ flatly denies it, and appeals to his Father for the truth
of it in his last prayer : John xvii. 25, ' The world hath not known thee, but
I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.' That
part of the world that Christ had preached to and declared the message
from his Father, knew not God; they heard the report of him, they could
not but know the doctrine delivered, but they rejected it, refused the em-
bracing of it, and therefore it was no knowledge of God. He that hath a
true sense of God cannot but love him, trust in him, humble himself before
him, hope in him, resign up himself to him, and bless and praise him for
his manifestation.
The difierence therefore of this knowledge from any other is,
1. In regard of the effects.
2. In regard of the manner of knowing.
1. In regard of the effects.
(1.) It is a transforming knowledge. Such a knowledge which doth
necessarily include a conformity to the object. There is an external mani-
festation of God in the gospel to the ear, an internal manifestation in the
heart. The one is called a report, the other a revelation, Isa. liii. 1. The
common privilege of the gospel is to be heard ; the special, to be manifested
to the saints by a powerful operation in the heart : Col. i. 26, 27, this
' mystery ' is ' made manliest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is
Christ in you the hope of glory.' When Christ is made known in them the
hope of glory, as well as to them ; when the knowledge of God in his
grace, and the history of Christ in his nature, offices, and passion, is turned
into an image and stamp, working the heart into its own form. Such a
manifestation of God spiritually as men have of God naturally : Rom. i. 19,
' That which may be known of God is manliest in them,' as well as shewn
to them ; shewed to them in the creatures, manifest in their consciences ;
notions of God riveted that cannot be blotted out though resisted by
flesh. In the saving knowledge, the notions of God in his gospel discovery,
and of Christ in his mediation, are manifest in the heart, insinuating them-
selves secretly into the inward parts of the soul, and moulding the heart into
the form of the evangelical doctrine. Such a revelation of God and Christ
in a man as changeth the whole frame and model of counsels and counsellors
John XVII. 3.] tue knowledge of god. 43
which before were followed : Gal. i. 16 : When Christ was revealed in him,
he • conferred not with flesh and blood.' The historical knowledge of
Christ is a knowledge of Christ in the purity and misery of his flesh ; the
other is a knowledge of Christ in the renewing of his Spirit. The one is a
knowledge of ihe truth as it is in the doctrine ; the other a knowledge of the
truth as it is in Jesus, a transcribing the copy in the heart. The knowledge
of the one is like a man's sight of a star, he gazeth upon it, but is not
turned into the image and sparkling beauty of that star ; the other is like a
man's knowledge of a virtuous person, whose amiable endowments and car-
riage he admires, and from an admiration proceeds to imitation, and framing
himself according to that pattern. When knowledge creates love, love
delights to draw the picture of the beloved person.
[l.j This change is the proper end of this knowledge, therefore it cannot
be a right knowledge till it doth attuin the end. As the end of the Isi'aelites'
looking upon the brazen serpent was to be changed from wounded to sound
men, from dying to living, the end of the angel's moving the waters in the pool
of Bethesda was to enrich them with an healing virtue for the cure of bodily
distempers ; the end of this motion was not attained unless some cure were
wrought. The forming of Christ in the head, changing the notions in the
mind, is in order to a Christ formed in the heart, changing the inclinations
of the will and the temper of the soul. A renewing in knowledge is in order
to the renewing the image of God : Col. iii. 10, ' Renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created them,' removing the ignorance to remove
the deformity. It is expressed by opening the eyes, but with such a virtue
lodged by it in the heart that attracts it from tlie devil to God : Acts
xxvi. 18, ' To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God.' The motion of the will is the end of
light in the understanding. When the eye is opened to behold the truth,
the next step is a change of false notions of God and religion to true ; after
that, a conversion from Satan the prince of darkness, to God the father of
lights ; then follows justification, sanctification, and the completeness of
happiness. Not only the beginning of this change, but the progress of it
till it arrive to perfection, depends upon our looking on Christ : 2 Cor. iii. 18,
' With open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.' The
glory of God and Christ are beheld and known in the glass of the gospel,
and a divine beauty conveyed, as was to Moses in his converse with God, by
a reflection of his beams, just as the rising sun changeth the air into its own
likeness, and transforms the world from the deformity of darkness to the
beauty of light, or colours laid upon canvass assimilate it to the object whose
picture it is. There is a reflection from the understanding to the will
whereby this change is wrought, and it is by look after look that it is per-
fected to a full resemblance, according to the degrees of spiritual knowledge.
When this knowledge is enUghteninrj, it is the image of God in the mind;
when it is eniiveninf/, it is the image of God in the heart ; a picture of God
and Christ, drawn in the understanding, which enamours the will, and assi-
milates the whole soul to God. The gospel is this glass, which doth not
only represent the object, but alters the complexion of the soul. This trans-
formation is the end of the opening the eye, that the object may be viewed,
and the heart changed thereby. As human knowledge is insignificant unless
it attain the end of knowledge, so is divine, or the knowledge of God. The
Bublimest knowledge of God, therefore, which centres not in this end, is to
no purpose, unless to aggravate our sin and sharpen our misery. This is
not gained by a loose knowledge, as a man knows the sun by his beams ;
44 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
but he hath not the image of the sun in the ball of his eye unless he look
upon the body of it.
[2.] The change of the soul to a perfect glory in heaven depends upon
the perfect knowledge of God and Christ ; and therefore the change here
depends upon this knowledge. This knowledge therefore cannot be a right
knowledge without this, which is the proper efi'ect of it. The vision of
Christ in his glorious state shall then cause likeness to him : 1 John iii. 2,
' We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' We shall see him in
his glory ; we shall, by that view, be transformed into the image of his
glory, as by contemplating his virtues we are here changed into the image
of his grace. The devils and wicked men shall see him in his glory at his
appearance, but not be happy by him, because their knowledge of him doth
not change their devilish complexion. As it is an uncomfortable knowledge
of him then which doth not change the soul into the image of his glory, so
it is a miserable knowledge of him here that doth not alter us into the image
of his grace. The true knowledge of God works the same efl'ects here,
according to its degrees, as it will hereafter. As a perfect sight will draw the
clearest and fullest lineaments of God in the heart, so an imperfect know-
ledge of him here must cause some shadows and imperfect draughts of him
in the soul. It is not else a knowledge of the right stamp.
[3.j Such an effect of the knowledge of Christ is therefore necessary.
Every notion of God and Christ in the mind must spring up into a new
gi-ace in the will, and be as a root of life in the heart ; it will else be but as
a feather in the cap or flower in the hand, which will make a little show
and wither, and leave no prints behind it but those of condemnation. That
knowledge of God which is not beautified with grace, instead of making us
amiable Christians, will render us deformed devils.
Well, then, consider, do we find grace conformable to our knowledge of
God and Christ ? Doth the knowledge of God's holiness in Christ render
our souls holy ? Doth the consideration of his majesty sink us into humi-
lity ? Doth the thoughts of his condescension lay the soul at his feet ?
Doth the knowledge of his power subdue our pride, the knowledge of his love
transform us into love and affection ? Doth grace in our hearts bud forth
from the notions of our head ? It is then such a knowledge of God as
secm-es our happiness. Do we see Christ in the brightness of his divine
nature, and the veil of his human, to admu-e his condescending kindness '}
Do we know him travelling to mount Calvary, in the greatness of his strength,
to spring up sorrow for our sins ? Do we see him wrestling with devils, to
pull the prey of precious souls out of his hand, to rest upon his power ? Do
we know him oflering up to the justice of God the full satisfaction of blood,
and paying the demanded debt to a farthing, to accept of him as a propitia-
tion ? Do we know him wielding a royal sceptre by the will of his Father,
to obey his authority ? Do we know him pierced, and know him raised ?
know him on the cross and on the throne ? in the reproaches of men and
the gloiy of his Father ? to be assimilated to him in the likeness of his
death and the quickenings of his resurrection ? It is then a living know-
ledge, such a knowledge as now buds and blossoms, and will ripen up to
eternal life.
2. It is an affective knowledge. All saving knowledge is full of sense.
The beams of truth in the mind beget a kindly heat in the will. The under-
standing forms motives of fear and love of God, and offers them to the will
to be pursued ; the soul desires to know him more, that it mav love him.
Some, therefore, define divinity to be affective.* All men have some
* Ales.
John XVII. 3,] the knowledge of god. 45
knowledge of God objectively, but it is not formally a divine knowledge,
without the affections of love to him, and delight in him. This saving know-
ledge is a knowledge of a reality in God and Christ. Another may have
clearer notions, know truths in their connections, but a Christian knows
with a more excellent knowledge, because more affective, with a heat as well
as light. What shines upon the head kindles love in the heart. Others have
the same object of knowledge, but it appears not in that amiableness to
them ; there is a difference between a rational and spiritual knowledge, as
there is between the Spirit, the author of the one, and reason, the spring of
the other. Natural knowledge lies sleeping in the head, without jogging the
affections ; spmtual light cannot be without spiritual heat: Luke xxiv. 31, 32,
* Their eyes were opened, and their hearts burned.' The one hath light like
that of a torch; the other influence, as well as hght, like that of the sun.
It is the property of light not only to enlighten, but heat. Some, therefore,
make fire to be nothing else but condensed light, and light to be rarefied
fire. The true light of God is always accompanied with a flame of love,
which clasps about the object. The divine philosopher could say, that
souls, first by a view, and then by a love of the divine beauty, recover their
wings, and fly up to their heavenly country. Have we, therefore, not only
a shine in our heads, but a warmth in our hearts ; not only a beam in our
minds, but a spark in our afiections ? It is then a saving knowledge of God.
Both must go together ; knowledge without affections is stupid, and affec-
tions without knowledge are childish. The diviner the light in the mind,
the warmer will love be in the soul. The clearer and stronger the beams
upon the wall, the stronger will be the reflection. In knowledge, we are
passive in the reception of the divine beams ; by affection, we are active, and
give ourselves to God.
To prove this, consider that,
(1.) All the knowledge we have of God is insignificant to happiness, with-
out suitable affections. God's end is not so much to be known by us, as to
be loved by us, and the discovery of himself is in order to a return of affec-
tions from us : John xiv. 21, ' He that loves me, shall be loved of my Father;'
not he that only knows me. "We cannot suppose that in heaven the blessed
are enriched with a greater light, but that they may be spirited with a
greater love. Love and holiness are the perfection of the soul there, and
contemplation but a means to bring in the heart to him. It is more glo-
rious to love than barely to know. Those that distinguish the orders of
angels, place the seraphim above the cherubim, because they have a more
ardent love, as well as the clearer knowledge. If we want love to others, the
apostle accounts us ignorant of God, because God is love : 1 John iv. 8,
* He that loves not, knows not God, for God is love.' Much more is he ig-
norant of God, that is empty of affection to him, who is more amiable than
any creature. It is one thing to know God, and another to retain God in
our knowledge. One may be said to know God, who can discourse rationally
of God, as those philosophers could, Rom. i. 28 ; but they retain God in
their knowledge, that are inflamed with affection to him, and scorn all things
in comparison of him. Though we may seem to have a clear knowledge, it
cannot be thriving without this, not continuing ; when anything is loved
equally with him, there may soon be a forsaking of him. All the knowledge
a natural man hath of God, is such a sight of the excellency of God and
Christ, and his truths, as a beast hath of a diamond ; he seeth it sparkling,
but knows not its real worth, and therefore hath no satisfaction in it, nor
affection to it.
[1.] Since this knowledge is transforming, it cannot be so without affection.
46 charnock's works. [John XVII. 8.
Without knowleelge of him, we can never affect him ; and without affections,
we can never be like him. We are not changed into his image till we be-
hold his beauty so as to love and adore him. It is not only a beam of his love-
liness, but a ray of his love, that changeth the temper of the soul. Though
the light of the fire attends the heat of it,* yet it is not the light, but the
heat, transforms combustible matter into fire. It was not Christ's know-
ledge of us, but love to us, stooped the divine nature to assume ours ;
nor our knowledge, but faith and love, that elevates us to the divine. As
Christ is a Sun of righteousness, not only shining, but warming, if we be
like him, there must not only be light in our minds, but warmth in our
affections,
[2.] It could be no better than the knowledge of a'devil. If we had as
high a knowledge of God as an angel hath, without affections suitable to the
angelical state, it would be our torment, not our happiness. This saving
knowledge differs from the other, as the knowledge of angels doth from
that of devils. The light in their minds hath sprung out into a constant
affection ever since their creation, and could never see a spark in anything
else to draw them to any dislike of God. The devils have a knowledge of
God, but are as much empty of aftection to him as the angels are of any
hatred of him. The knowledge of the good angels would be their torment,
as well as the knowledge of the devils, if they had not flames of love, as well
as beams of light. That only is true knowledge that acts us to a con-
junction with God.
[3.] The knowledge of any object is to little purpose without a suitable
affection. As a man hath not a right knowledge of sin, unless he feel the
dreadful weight of it, so as to loathe it, — Ezek. xxxvi. 31, ' Then shall you
remember your own evil ways, and shall loathe yourselves for your ini-
quity' ; — nor a light knowledge of the wor.1, unless he doth believe it; nor
a right apprehension of the world unless he counts it contemptible ; so no
man knows God aright unless his heart be set upon him, according to the
worth of the object known, and the savour of the ointments of Christ. It
is impossible a man can have an intellectual spiritual view of God, but he
must see him amiable and worthy of bis choicest affections ; and he cannot
be so injurious to himself and his own sentiments, as not to give his own
apprehensions their due by giving God's amiableness his. He cannot be
said, therefore, to have any sound apprehension of God, who hath not a
choice affection to him, and delight in him. He that doth not praise the
skill of an artist in his workmanship, discovers either his ignorance or his
envy. As a faith without works hath no better a title from the apostle than
a dead faith, James ii. 20, so a knowledge without love is no better than a
dead, stupid knowledge, a knowledge buried in the grave of earthly affec-
tions. No man can be so stripped of affection to himself, as to neglect that
good which he doth really know. No man can imagine that another appre-
hends that as excellent, with which there is not a full closure of his affec-
tions. If Moses had not slighted the treasures of Egypt for the reproach
of Christ, he had not testified any ti-ue knowledge and esteem of him,
Heb. xi. 26.
Well, then, can that man be said to know God to be clothed with majesty,
before whom angels cover their faces, and mountains tremble, who hath no
fear to offend him ? Doth he know God to be a consuming fire, and himself
but stubble, that bath no dread of God ? Doth he know the mercy of God,
who hath no care to please him, but presumes upon his goodness ? Can he
* Fatal Doom, or Charms of Divine Love, p 9, changed.
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god. 47
be said to know God's holiness, that hath no sense of his own uncleanness ?
Doth that man know Christ to be a blessed Redeemer, who doth not fall at
his feet ? Doth he know him groaning upon the cross for sin, and bruised
for it, who lets that sin live with welcome in his soul, which grieved and
bruised him ? If knowledge in the head doth not work spiritual affections
in the heart, it can never be put upon the account of a saving knowledge ;
it is not really knowledge, but only a pretence to it.
(2.) Without affection, we answer not the end of the knowledge of God.
The revelation of God is made to us for our imitation, he is discovered as
the chiefest good and the exactest pattern. The sum of the law consists in
love, and the end of the gospel manifestation is to engage our love. Christ
is not represented only as a dying man, but as God-man dying for the sins
of the world, suffering in our stead, and therefore to raise our affections, not
to content our curiosity. Faith and love must join hands, 1 Tim. i. 14.
The gospel, which is a representation of God in Christ, is said to be worthy,
not of observation, but of acceptation, ver. 15, and worthy of observation in
order to acceptation. The knowledge of a law is to raise a love to it, Ps.
cxix. 97 ; the knowledge of the law-giver ought not to do less. As we know
not righteousness till the law be in our hearts, — Isa. li. 7, ' Ye that know
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law,' — so we know not God
till he be in our affections.
(3.) Our knowledge of God ought to be conformable to his knowledge of
ns. God's knowledge of his people is attended with affection. He is not
said in Scripture language to know, unless he love : Amos iii. 2, ' You only
have I known of all the families of the earth.' There is a great difference
between God's knowledge of omniscience, and his knowledge of affection.
"With the first he knows all creatures, with the other his people. As God is
not said to know us without testimonies of his affection to us, so we cannot
be said to know God without leaps of our affections to him.
(4.) Application of ourselves to the knowledge of God without affection
is not agreeable to the nature of our souls. The choice of the will in all
true knowledge treads upon the heel of the act of the understanding, and
men naturally desire the knowledge of that which is true, in order to the
enjoyment of that which is good in it. The end of all the acts of the under-
standing is to cause a motion in the will and affections suitable to the appre-
hension. God hath given us two faculties : understanding, to know the
goodness of a thing, and a will to embrace it. To content one faculty in
contemplation, without contenting the other in embracing what we know, is
to give a half satisfaction to the soul ; it is to separate those two faculties of
understanding and will, which God hath joined. Knowledge is the glory of
the mind both in this and the other world, the object of that is truth ; but
there is another faculty which must have its perfection, that is, the will, the
object whereof is good ; and the content of that faculty hes in embracing the
good apprehended both in this life and the next. This, therefore, must be
gratified as well as the other, and each faculty must have a full rest in a due
object ; the soul else cannot have an entire satisfaction according to the
latitude and capaciousness of its nature. Therefore all abstracted notions of
God, without an influence upon the will, are barren, and not agreeable and
satisfactory to the nature of the soul. It cannot be satisfied with contem-
plation without fruition, and such an intimate fruition as may affect the
whole nature. Now, to have this enjoyment is not only to know God or
think of him, but to embrace him by love, to clasp about God with spiritual
affections, to receive the touches of his goodness every moment. To give
the soul a full satisfaction according to the nature of it, is to have a stamp
48 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
of the nature of God upon our understanding, and a stamp of the goodness
of God upon our wills.
(5.) Without affection, our knowledge of God may have, and will have,
base and corrupt ends. And therefore our knowledge cannot be saving with-
out it. Men may desire to know, out of a natural itch, the relics of Adam,
or out of a desire to enlarge the perfection of their understanding (as the
knowledge of philosophers did tend chiefly to such an end), and may have
no higher aims in endeavouring after the knowledge of God than endeavour-
ing after the knowledge of other things, either natural or moral. Perhaps
this affecting the knowledge of God may arise from pride and ambition ; and
a desire of being esteemed eminent in intellectuals and discourse may make
the pulse of their affections beat strongly to this knowledge, it being natural
to men to be displeased more with being counted fools than being counted
vicious, and to have more natural desires after knowledge than after virtue,
even as Adam had. Nay, men may desire to know God and the truths of
God as a stirrup to some lust, and to foment some cai'nal design, as gain,
which may be promoted by rehgious discourses. But certainly much of the
knowledge of God which is pretended among us, though it may arise out of
an affection to knowledge, yet may be without an affection to the object of
it. As there is a knowledge of God when there is not a ' glorifying of him
as God,' Rom. i. 21, so there may be a desire to know God without any
desire to glorify him. As a man may desire to know sin, to see a man
when he is drunk and to observe his carriage, not out of any design he hath to
loathe that sin, but to make his observations upon the carriage and disposition
of the person while he is under the power of that filthy act, which is but to
satisfy his cariosity ; or he may desire to see a man in the exercise of some
virtue out of the same end, not out of a desire to conform himself to that pattern ;
so a man may desire to know God, and Christ, and the truths of Christ, not
with any intent to have his affections with an exact harmony centre in them,
but to satisfy that natural thirst which he hath for knowledge. And a man
may have a great delight in this knowledge of God, as Isa. Iviii. 2, they did
'delight ^o know God's ways,' and ' delight in approaching' to him, but
(as their fasts were, ver. 4) 'for strife and debate.' And that delight may
arise from a delight in the excellency of the object, as a man delights to
contemplate the nature of the sun and stars more than the nature of a clod
of earth, yet cannot be said to love them, but loves his own act of contem-
plation and knowledge of them. Many thus know God, and are inquisitive
after the knowledge of him, as a curious object of knowledge, not as a
spiritual object of love and delight to bestow the flower of their affections
upon. Such often miss of their intent ; God obscures himself when he is
searched after with such curiosity. And such a knowledge will end in
apostasy, as it began in corruption ; the man will return as a dog to lick up
his vomit, or a swine to wallow in the mire, as those did who had escaped
the pollutions of the world ' through the knowledge of Christ,' 2 Peter
ii. 20-22 ; which knowledge they did probably affect out of curiosity, be-
cause of the novelty of it, the noise it made in the world, or some by-end,
which made them cast it off when it ceased to serve their purpose, and so
at last count Christ and his cross foolishness.
Well, then.
Try your knowledge of God by your affections to him. What strong
desires are there for the enjoyment of God and Christ; what delight in
approaches to him ; what propensities of the heart in spiritual duties ? Do
they spring from affection, or move by the fears and jerks of conscience ?
Doth the knowledge of Christ in his mediation, natures, offices, as the only
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 49
remedy for our lost souls, kindle desires, holy affections, unexpressible
heart-breakings for him, as we find David's heart often flying up upon this
wing ? Is there a love to God rising out of a sense of his love to lost man ?
God cannot be known as an infinite, and unbounded, and outflowing good-
ness without a flight of our affections to him. It is as impossible that a
good spiritually known should not be beloved, as that any good should be
beloved that is not known. Every common witness of God in the works of
creation ' fills the heart with gladness,' Acts xiv. 16, 17, much more every
spiritual witness of God in the work of redemption apprehended by the soul.
If created excellency insinuates itself into our affections, the supereminent
beauty of God must much more when he is seen and known. The spiritual
light which comes from God is for God. In other knowledge, self-love
poiseth the heart, but a saving knowledge conducts the heart to an admira-
tion of God and affection to him. In heaven, a clear vision renders the
beholder full of the most glowing affections. The angels ' always behold
the face of God,' Mat. xviii. 10. Always, as not counting anything else
worthy of a glance, but io obedience to his order. Nothing can be called a
saving knowledge of God which doth not rank all our affections in order to
the object of it.
3. It is an active and expressive knowledge ; it expresseth in the life what
is in the head and heart. A change in the heart engenders aflection, and
affection will break out in action ; love will lay a constraint upon the heart.
We commonly say of a notoriously profane man, though he may have ex-
cellent parts, and a great stock of knowledge, that he is a sot; because his
knowledge is not operative in ways agreeable to it, he acts like the most
ignorant person. He cannot be said to know God to be holy, and the
gospel to be a doctrine according to godliness, who hath not a practice
according to the rules of godliness. To be sensual, is to have nothing of
the Spirit : Jude 19, he hath nothing of the light of the Spirit who is under
the conduct of a corrupted sense. And the apostle intimates it plainly, that
unless men ' awake to righteousness ' and avoid sin, they ' have not the
knowledge of God,' 1 Cor. xv. 34. A bedrid knowledge it is, without affec-
tion proper for it, rather the torment than ornament of the soul. All know-
ledge, without an imitation of God, is but a stupid, sleepy notion. We have
then a full assurance of knowledge, when we are followers of God, 1 Thes.
i. 5, 6. The first principle which is taught by the manifestation of God is
to deny ungodliness : Titus ii. 12, 13, ' The grace of God teacheth us to
deny ungodliness.' As God's knowing us is not a simple view, but a pro-
vident care, so our knowledge of God is not a simple speculation, but a
divine operation of the soul, as well as in the soul. If ' he that commits
sin hath not known God,' 1 John iii. 6, then he that hath known God doth
not commit sin. He flatters not himself in any, arms himself against all,
commenceth an irreconcilable war against the lighter troops as well as the
main body, and stands upon his guard to prevent every invasion. He that
knows Christ, knows that he is worthy of all his service, since he, and none
but he, was crucified for him. He that knows God, knows the necessity of
enjoying him, and will therefore be guided in those ways which tend to the
enjoyment of him. If a man knows a medicine to be excellent for the cure
of such a disease which he labours under, and is sensible of the necessity of
it, he will certainly apply it. As Christ discovered the knowledge of God in
the world, to dissolve the works of the devil in the world ; so when the
knowledge of Christ shines in the heart, it dissolves the works of darkness
and lust in the soul, for it discovers right notions of sin and vanity, and he
VOL. IV. D
50 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
that hath right notions of it cannot affect it. When Noah knew God in his
threatening justice, he obeys God in the building an ark. When Abraham
knew God in the mercy and truth of his promise, he obeys God in offering
his Isaac. The one's knowledge wrought against the reproaches of an un-
believing world, and the other's against the tide of a natural affection : so
powerful is this divine knowledge, where it seizeth upon the heart, to bring
forth the fruits of fear and holiness. Let none of us therefore flatter our-
selves that we have a saving knowledge of God without imitation of him,
that we understand Christ to be a sufficient Saviour without relying on him.
It is a knowledge in the form, and an ignorance in the power. Without an
evangelical obedience, a professing Christian knows no more savingly than a
moral heathen, because he acts no better than such an one.
(1.) This knowledge is life. It is 'the light of life,' John viii. 12; an
active, lively light, by an Hebraism. All lucid bodies in the heavens are
active in their own nature, and direct men in their several spheres of activity
in the world. When the sun riseth, men rise to their daily task ; when the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines forth in the face of Christ
in the heart, there is a resurrection to vital actions. It is ' a well-spring
of life unto him that hath it,' Prov. xvi. 22. If it hath a vitality in it to
convey hfe, it must needs rise up in excellent operations, according to the
measure of it, unless that we can suppose that a divine principle in the
mind should produce nothing else but a dead sleep in all the other parts of
the soul. Life it is, and life is not without activity ; eternal life it is, and
that cannot be without a succession of vital acts to eternity.
(2.) The end of knowledge is not attained without actions suitable to it.
If we have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, there is a stripping
off the rags of the old Adam, a change of ' the former conversation which
was according to deceitful lusts,' Eph. iv. 21, 22; 'but you have not so
learned Christ,' &c. As the word is an engrafted word, so the knowledge of
God is an engrafted knowledge, which is inserted in the stock, to change the
nature of it into that of the graft, and causing the production of fruits from it
according to the nature of the slip joined with it. The Scripture, which is
a discovery of God, is not only a history but a rule. God declares himself
as our Lord and as our pattern ; Christ is manifested as an image of con-
formity as well as a propitiatory offering. Where he is known as a pro-
pitiation for our comfort, he is known as a pattern for our practice. The end
of knowledge is to impress a sound image of the goodness of an object as
well as the truth ; the truth to be eyed, and the goodness to be imitated.
Distinct conceptions of God, and rational discourses of Christ,* glorify him
no more than a painter doth the party whose picture he hath drawn. The
glory of God consists not in a lifeless notion of him, but an active resemblance
of him. A natural man may have some pleasure in knowing the nature of
God, but he cares not for knowing the ways of God : Job xxi. 14, ' We
desire not the knowledge of thy ways ;' he would know him to be merciful,
but not know him to be holy. He is opposite to the truths of God, because
they are repugnant to the delights and interests of the flesh. The Scotists
defined divinity well when they made it practica ; better than Aquinas, who
made it speculativa. Every illumination of the mind is not to speculate, but
to work by ; every notion of God is a direction to some sphere of action.
The end of Christ's knowledge of his Father must be the end of our know-
ledge, both of God and himself. He knows his Father's secrets to reveal
them, and he knows his Father's will to perform it. As we are to pray that
we may do the will of God as the angels do, so we are to know, that we may
* Jackson, vol. iii quar. cap. viii. p. 129,
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 5 1
do the will of God as the angels do it. The incarnation of Christ was for
action ; the divine nature had not attained its end in the business of our re-
demption, without union to the human, as necessary to mediatory acts ; nor
doth our knowledge of God attain its end without union to the will, as neces-
sary to all religious operations. The knowledge of Christ is like the former
prophecies of Christ, which would not have had their eifect without his in-
carnation; nor hath knowledge its effect without (so to speak) an incarnation
of it in our conversation. The end of knowledge is directive ; the proper
effect of knowledge is the observation of the direction, to write aftei the copy,
to work according to the pattern, to do what is agreeable to the perfections
of God, to honour what we see honourable in God, and to disparage none of
those excellencies we profess to know.
(3.) All the knowledge of God and Christ, without action corresponding
thereunto, is no better in the account of God than ignorance, unless it be
accidentally to condemnation. Without obedience, we are trulylgnorant,
though our speculations may be as sublime as those of devils : 1 John ii. 4,
' He that saith, he knows him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar.'
The true knowledge of God doth not only glitter in the understanding, or
glimmer in a profession, but beams out in a vigorous conversation, acting all
things agreeable to the will of God. That knowledge of God which doth not
take root in the heart, and grow up into life and spii'it, is ignorance in the
account of God. Those Gentiles, Kom. i. 21, that are said to know God, are,
ver. 28, said not to know him ; they knew him as rational men, not as obedi-
ent men ; they had a notion of him, without any affection to his service ; they
had high speculations of his excellency, but nothing of his perfections and
his law writ in the tables of their hearts : such a knowledge as geometri-
cians may have by understanding the rules of a science, not such a knowledge
as an artificer may have by the practice of those rules. No doubt but Eli's
sons had a knowledge of God and his law by education, but because it did not
slide into their conversation, they are said not to know the Lord, 1 Sam.
ii. 12. Not to know God, and not to obey him, are one and the same thing in
the account of God at the day of judgment, 2 Thes. i. 8 ; and it is called
ignorance, because men with that knowledge act as if they were wholly
ignorant of the nature and will of God. They behave themselves as men
that never heard of God or Christ would be expected to do. They may be
Christians in knowledge, and pagans in life. True reason in everything
doth naturally tend to practice. He is of no use in a society or common-
wealth who is swallowed up in contemplations, and launcheth not out into a
useful activity. An idle knowledge is of no use for God, and the end of a
man's creation ; it is but a pretence, a mere puff of a fleshly mind. There
is as much difference between such a dormant knowledge, and that wh'ch
riseth up in sprightly motions for God, as between the sun in a siatuc
bravely gilded, and that in the firmament dispersing his influences into all
the comers of the world, and honouring his Creator by his daily race. We
no more know any truth of God, unless we digest it, than a man. knows the
virtue of bread, unless he concocts it, and feels the strength of it in his
limbs. Practice is the evidence of knowledge ; it cannot be rationally con-
cluded that he knows God to be omnipresent, who neglects the duty in secret
required of him, or apprehends him to be just, who in a course of sin denies
it, and presumes upon his mercy. God puts an emphasis upon Josiah's
obedience, as an evidence of his knowledge : Jer. xxii. 16, ' He judged the
cause of the poor and needy ; was not this to know me ? saith the Lord.'
More than ever God said of Solomon, who had his brain better filled, and
his heart more empty. Solomon could discourse excellently of the nature of
52 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
God, and ravish men with his wisdom ; but God never said of that, * "Was
not this to know me ? ' Other knowledge may make us admired among
men ; this only makes us acceptable to God.
(4.) The least saving knowledge of God is of an active nature. The wise
men had but a spark by the discovery of a star, and that put them upon
seeking the King of the Jews, Mat. ii. 1, 2 ; the least star in the heavens,
though it hath not so much light as another, has its influences and regular
motions. Another may discourse better of the nature of God, speak dis-
tinctly of the glory of his attributes and works, discourse of the nature of
sin, give an hundred reasons against it, yet obey not that God he speaks of,
and be a slave to that sin he disputes against ; whereas he that hath the
least spark of the spiritual knowledge of God and Christ, walks more accord-
ing to the nature of God, and demeans himself with more honour to the
perfections of God in his life, than the greatest discourser of him can with
his tongue. He is continually inquiring what purity, fear, love, dependence,
obedience, grief and joy, the holiness, majesty, goodness, mercy, faithfulness,
power, and righteousness of God, calls for at his hands. Such an one hath
a martyral knowledge ; is content to part with anything, with all, for the
glory of that God he knows : the other, that hath a flourishing wit, a loose,
unrooted, floating knowledge, would not part with the least drop of blood in
his body for the honour of that God he pretends to know ; he would east
all the knowledge of God and Christ at his heels, rather than part with any-
thing for him, when Christ and his life come to a contest. But the least
grain of the saving knowledge of God renders a man an habitual martyr.
Well, then, try your knowledge of God by this. As sin is not known
unless it cause grief in the heart, so God is not known unless the knowledge
of him quicken an obedience to him. Where this spiritual knowledge of
God is implanted, and the sweetness of Christ experimented, there will be
a delight in those services which are well pleasing to. him ; a joy in all
motives to him, and a swiftness in all motions for him ; a delight, both in
the service itself, and the object of it.
4. It is an humbhng, self-abasing knowledge.
(1.) It humbleth us before God. To know God without knowing our-
selves, is a fruitless speculation.* The knowledge of ourselves and our own
misery, without the knowledge of God and his mercy, is a miserable vexa-
tion. The end of it is to pay God a glory due to him from his creature.
Pride debaseth the Deity, and snatcheth the crown of glory from God to set
it upon the creature's head ; but this saving knowledge sinks man to the
dust without sinking him to hell ; lays him flat on the earth, thereby to raise
him to heaven. True knowledge, and a melting heart, are inseparable com-
panions ; Christ joins hardness and ignorance together, Mark viii. 17. It
is the nature of other knowledge to pufi" up, 1 Cor. viii. 1 ; of this, to pull
down. The plumes of a proud spirit fall at the appearance of God. He
regards himself as a worm, when he understands the excellency of his
Creator. Without it, it is but a knowledge in conceit, not in reality ; he
knows nothing of God, though he thinks he doth, 1 Cor. viii. 2. Manasseh
had some knowledge of God, no question, by the religious education of his
father Hezekiah ; but it went not for current coin in heaven till he was in
an humbled frame : 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13, * Then Manasseh knew that the
Lord he was God.' It is not a knowledge of God till it make a man shrink
into a sense of his own baseness and nothingness. A bare dogmatical know-
ledge of God advanceth man without a proportionable advancement of God.
It is of the same nature with other knowledge ; that which comes from our
* Dr Prestoa.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 53
own reason is our fondling, it brings forth the fruits of old Adam ; that which
is dropped in by the Spirit brings forth the fruits of the Spirit, renders a
man sensibly obliged, not to his own wit, but God's grace. A rational reve-
lation rather hardens the heart than melts it ;* as a rational conviction is
light without heat. Other knowledge discovers other things, but not a man's
self ; like a dark lantern, which shews us other persons and things, but ob-
scures ourselves from the sight of ourselves ; but the knowledge of God is
such a light whereby a man beholds himself, as well as the way wherein he
is to walk.
[1,] It is such a knowledge as scatters the mist that is upon the heart,
and thereby discovers its filth. The first beam shot into the heart by the
Spirit dai'ts to the very centre, and discovers the nest of filth and poison.
As the beam is shot from God, it reveals his beauty ; as shedding its light
upon the soul, it reveals its deformity. As the beam from the sun, that
conquers the darkness of the night, discovers the glory of the sun, and the
filth of a dunghill at the same time. The sensible discovery of the holiness
of God, and the sufferings of Christ, in the very act, opens the sinfulness of
sin. The majesty of God shews him his vileness, the purity of God his
filthiness, the justice of God his demerit, and the power of God his im-
potence. If the soul knows God in his glory, it sinks down, with Isaiah, at
the very first ray of it, in a sense of its undone condition : Isa. vi. 1, 5,
' Woe is me, for I am undone !' Tl'iOlJ ; I was silent, (Symm.), k/w-Trjjffa,
as if he had attempted to join with the angels in the praise of God at the
sight of him, but was struck down with a sense of his own unworthiness.
* I am a man of polluted lips,' i.e. I am not worthy to praise God ; so power-
ful was one ray to afiect his whole soul with a sense of his sin, and his
miserable estate by it, and stripped him of all conceits of self-worth.f When
the soul hears God in the law, it trembles at the thunder. When it sees
Christ bowing upon the cross, it cannot but bow down under a sense of that
iniquity which caused it. To know Christ savingly, in the first glance, is to
know ourselves to be children of wrath, under the curse of the law, and
liable to the justice of God. To know Christ as mediator, implies our dis-
tance from God ; to know him as reconciler, our enmity ; to know him as
redeemer, our slavery ; to know him as a prophet, our ignorance ; as a
priest, our guilt and weakness ; as an advocate, our inability to manage our
own cause. Every notion of Christ is a light that opens our eyes to advance
faith in God, and humility in ourselves. Every rule is index sui et obliqui,
it shews its own straightness, and the crookedness of anything applied to it.
All the glory of the stars, as well as the darkness of the night, disappears at
the rising of the sun. At the shedding of this beam upon the heart, the
natural glory of a man's own righteousness is obscured, as well as his guilt
and loathsomeness manifested. When the elders saw God in his glory, they
fell upon their faces. Rev. iv. 10. When John Baptist saw Christ, he was
sensible of his own filthiness, and need of washing : Matt. iii. 14, ' I have
need to be baptized of thee ;' an expression not used before by him to any
of the multitude. How is a soul, at the first breaking out of this light upon
him, humbled at the consideration of his unworthy thoughts of God, unsuit-
able to the notions he is now possessed with ! How doth he distaste his
own temper, to be so little affected with a God so transcendcntly worthy of
his highest love ! my soul, why wert thou so base, so vile in thy ap-
prehensions and pursuits, as to cast thyself down to adore such despicable
objects as sin and vanity !
(2.) It is a knowledge that comes from God, and therefore must needs
* Strong. t tirot.
54 charxock's worxs. [John XVII. 3.
humble. It is a beam from him ; it is not therefore to nourish that pride
in the creature which he punished upon the fall with so long a chain of
miseries. It is he ' teacheth the meek his way,' Ps. xxv. 9. He makes
tinners meek by his teaching ; and when they are meek, they are subjects
capable of more knowledge and instructions from him. If the meek are the
subjects of clearer teachings, the effect of this discovery is not to exalt their
pride, but enlarge their humility. Pride cannot naturally flow from anything
that is divine. It is none of God's offspring, but the devil's brat. God,
who hath set us a pattern of humility in his own condescensions, and set us
an example of humility in the person of his Son, can never be the Father of
that which is so contrary to all his designs in the world. Pride is the devil's
fly-blow in the soul.
(3.) The knowledge of God is always attended with a comparison of the
soul with him, if it be saving. There cannot but be some reflection. The
angels, in their knowledge of Christ as their confirmer, cannot but reflect
with humility upon their mutable state by nature, which might have rendered
them by their own folly as sinful and miserable as devils, without the grace
of God, and their confirmation in a happy state by the Son of God. So in
the knowledge of God's excellency, the soul cannot but reflect upon its un-
suitableness to God. It sees God, and falls out with itself. It loves God,
and is angry with itself. It beholds God, and looks upon itself with disdain.
Peter could not receive a look from his master without reflecting upon bis
unworthy carriage, and melting into tears. When a man looks upon the
earth, and the things upon it, he is apt to believe he hath an acute eye ; but
when he looks upon the sun, and finds himself confoimded by the brightness
of its light, he is sensible of the dulness of his eye in comparison of that
lustre which glared upon it. So when we fix our eyes upon ourselves, and
dwell upon the thoughts of any excellency, righteousness, or virtue in us, we
turn self-flatterers, and are apt to imagine that we are some great thing,
above th« sphere of common nature, and the insects of mankind ; but when
we turn our eyes towards heaven, and take a prospect of the holiness, wisdom,
righteousness of God, which ought to be oui- copy to write after, our pride
is dashed out of countenance, our holiness appears sordid, our righteousness
matter of shame, our virtue feeble, our wisdom folly, our actions madness,
and all our excellency a mere senseless shadow. We are then humbled, not
only for our sins, but our services, when we find those duties we are apt to
boast of bear no proportion to the holiness of God. W^hen Paul knew Christ,
he was not only humble in himself, but rejected all confidence in the religious
props he rested on before, Philip, iii. 8. He then beheld himself a dead
man, and his services dead services, when he understood the righteousness
of God manifested in a crucified and raised Christ. One spark of the divinity
of Christ in a miracle brought Peter upon his knees with a self-reflection :
' Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man,' Luke v. 8. It will make
men humble for the sin of others. If we know God spiritually to be great,
excellent, holy, we cannot but with grief behold the sons of men so careless
of his honour, and travailing with a birth of perpetual injuries against so
excellent a majesty ; when we compare his nature with their practices, and
reflect how little he hath deserved such carriages, and how much he hath
deserved the contrary. The angels having the most glittering heads have
also the most affectionate hearts to the glory of that majesty which they
adore, and therefore they rejoice at the conversion of a sinner ; by the same
reason they have, if not their grief, yet their indignation at the abuses God
suffers in the world by wicked men, when they make this judicious comparison.
(4.) The more knowledge any ever had of God, the more humble they
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 55
have been. When Peter grew in the apprehensions of the ends of the death
of Christ, he had no more those aspiring thoughts to thiuk himself fit to
reprove his master, as when he had the first revelation of him to be the Son
of God, Mark viii. 29, 32, Mat. xvi. 13. Young scholars are most proud.
Duarenus* used to say, Those that come to the university the first year are
doctors in their own conceits, the second year licentiates, and the third year
students and learners. Not an apostle outstripped Paul in the knowledge of
God and Christ, nor came up to an equal measure with him ; nor did any
equal him in his humility, who sets himself upon record to the world as the
least of saints, and the chiefest of sinners. Christ, who lay in the bosom of
his Father, became a worm rather than a man, in making himself of no
reputation, Phihp. ii. 7. In conformity to him, the more clear the revela-
tions of God are to our souls, the more voluntary disannulments there are
of ourselves. The angels that have the nearest approach to the deity, and
the richest prospect of his glory, cover their faces with an awe of his majesty,
as if they did acknowledge the imperfection of their understandings, that they
are not more knowing ; and cover their feet too, which are the aflections of
spiritual beings, as if they were ashamed that their love, delight, and zeal
were not more glowing. A great stock of natural knowledge debaseth a man
in his own eyes, because he apprehends his own weakness to get to the top
of that mountain he would reach by his inquiries. Socrates, who was the
most knowing man of his age, was sensible that he knew nothing, because
the more a man knows, the more he finds his own ignorance, and his ina-
bility to shake it off ; and that the things he is ignorant of are more than
those which he seems to grasp in his understanding. Much more doth a
spmtual Christian see, that what he knows of God and Christ is inconceiv-
ably less than what he is ignorant of. The more he knows those objects,
the more he knows his own defects, and his want of conformity to them.
Agur was one of the wisest men of his age, whether he was Solomon, or
some other in the time of Solomon (which is more probable), yet counts him-
self void of wisdom, ' more brutish than any man,' and not having the under-
standing of a man ; as if he were not so wise and knowing as the vulgar sort,
as well as inferior to the more raised sort of mankind, as the words 1^2
lyUD signify, Prov. xxx. 2, 3 ; and he speaks it in reference to the knowledge
he had of God, as appears by verse 4. The more any man sees of God, the
lower he falls in his o^n eyes.
As this knowledge of God makes us more humble before God, so it makes
us more humble and meek to men. This was promised as a fruit of the
Imowledge of God in the gospel. It was this should turn ravenous wolves
into gentle lambs, and render their natures as meek as before they were
cruel : Isa. xi. 6-9, ' The woLf shall dwell with the lamb, the cow and
the bear shall feed together, their young ones shall lie down together, and
the lion shall eat straw like the ox ; for the earth shall be full of the know-
ledge of the Lord.' It is such a knowledge as quells the pride of man, and
the injustice and oppressions and furies engendered by that finaitful principle.
The names whereby they are denominated are names of meekness, lambs,
kids, calves. Cruelty should grow mild, and inflexible tempers melt ;
ravenous dispositions be laid aside ; the nature of man towards God, and
the nature of man towards his neighbour, be changed. The knowledge of
Christ in the gospel pulls up such base affections by the roots, which would
else grow in an ignorant, untilled heart, as weeds in an unmanured field.
If men, therefore, are ready to fall foul upon one another upon every occa-
sion, they have not advanced many steps in the knowledge of God. For
* Walaeus de Sabbat. Orat. in fine ii. p. 225.
56 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
this temper of humility is one effect of this divine light, it being rendered by
the prophet as the cause of such a miraculous change. Where there is not,
therefore, such a visible effect, there is nothing of the cause. The know-
ledge of the Lord can no more be in the soul without humility, than the sun
can be in the heavens without dispersing its light on the earth, nor the
enlightening Spirit without meekness a fruit of it, Gal. v. 22. Wisdom
' changeth the boldness of the face,' Eccles. viii. 1, and spreads a modesty
in the soul ; he is thereby less apt to censure others, and more sparing in
his judging his brother. God hath a perfect knowledge of himself, and is
the highest pattern of humility : ' He humbles himself to behold the things
done in heaven and in earth,' Ps. cxiii. 6 ; much more is it his humiliation
to solicit sinners, to bear patiently their affronts. None knew the Father
but the Son, who humbled himself to the flesh of man, and to death for him.
The angels also that excel in knowledge, as standing before the face of God,
excel also in condescending ministries to men, who are more above the
greatest man in the dignity of their nature, than the greatest man upon the
earth can be above the meanest person by his education and dignity.
Well then, if this be an humbling knowledge, let us try ourselves by it,
whether we are arrived to it or no. He that hath not a melting heart hath
not been under the shinings of this sun. The darkness of pride will be
scattered by the strength and vigour of this light. The saving knowledge of
God and Christ crucified lays a man flat on the ground ; and the knowledge
of God reconciled, and Christ risen, doth both humble and revive. A proud
divine knowledge is as great a contradiction as to say, an humble diabolical
malice.
5. It is a weaning knowledge. It weans a man's heart from all things
below. Clear manifestations of God elevate the soul to God, when ignorance
of him depresseth the heart to one creature or other. The excellency of
God dims the beauty of the creature, and the true knowledge of this excel-
lency sets the creature below God in the heart. It leaves no room for any-
thing else, as the eye that hath gazed upon the sun admits not presently any
other image into it. This divine knowledge disparageth the value of anything
else, it represents sin vile, and the world empty. It is such an inestimable
treasure, that it is not to be put in the balance with anything else. All other
things which carnal men esteem are but thin and airy notions to this know-
ledge ; everything that hath a tincture of flesh and blood, human principles,
fleshly counsels, expire when this wisdom shines in upon the soul : Gal. i. 16,
' I consulted not with flesh and blood ;' nor can any man that hath found this
mine of gold leave it for a mite of brass. When Christ and his sweetness is
discerned and tasted, life is a torment, death a pleasure. Simeon upon his
sight of Christ desires to depart, since his ' eyes had seen God's salvation,'
Luke ii. 29, 30 ; nothing in the world could be worth his desires after a
sight of the Eedeemer. And Paul, who both had and valued the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ, esteems everything in the world no better than
dung, and longs to be dissolved, that he might be in his arms, Philip, iii. 8,
and i. 23. As when the sun appears in the heavens, it doth not only dis-
cover itself, but discloseth all things on the earth ; so when God manifests
himself to the soul, he doth not only give the knowledge of himself, but
shews to us the true nature of other things, that they can bear no proportion
to the excellency of God and Christ, and bestows such a judgment and under-
standing upon us, that we look upon things under other notions and con-
siderations than before we did ; as men have other apprehensions of things
in the light than they had in the darkness of the night. He doth not know
God, that doth not apprehend him to be more excellent than the withering
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god. 57
flowers of any creatm-e whatsoever ; as he doth not love Christ that loves
him not above all creatures ; and he doth not worship God who worships the
creature equal with him, — Rom. i. 25, crasa y.risa\,Ta, worshipped the crea-
ture, juxta creatorem, — so he doth not know God that knows him not to be
excellent above all creatures, and esteem him accordingly.
6. It is a fiducial knowledge, a knowledge of faith : Ps. ix. 10, ' They
that know thy name will trust in thee.' Faith and trust are the concomi-
tants of this knowledge. Such will address to God in all their straits, and
rely upon his truth and goodness. And the spirit of wisdom is joined with
the acknowledgment of Christ, Eph. i. 17. Faith is principally meant by
knowledge in Scripture ; some therefore interpret the knowledge of Christ,
which is eternal life in the text, to be faith. No knowledge, indeed, without
faith can be eternal life, or the next way to it ; and by knowledge (Isa.
liii. 11, ' By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many')
must be understood a believing knowledge, and cannot be understood other-
wise. All that have a general knowledge of Christ, though never so high,
are not justified, for that excellent state the Scripture ascribes only to faith.
His knowledge, objectively, the knowledge of him, faith in him ; and faith is
called knowledge, because it is radically in the understanding, as liberty is,
but it is formally in the will. Not that the understanding is the proper and
sole seat of faith, because faith is Jiducia, trust or reliance, which is not an
act of the mind, but of the will. But faith is in the understanding in regard of
disposition, but in the will in regard of the fiducial apprehension ;* for faith
is not one simple virtue, but compounded of two, knowledge and trust. The
common subject is the heart, the special seat of each part is the understand-
ing and will (yet those two parts cannot be separated but the nature of faith
is destroj'ed), as original righteousness was both in the mind and the will;
and the happiness of heaven, which is but one entire happiness, consists
both in the acts of the understanding in contemplation, and the acts of the will
in the embracing the contemplated object ; but by knowledge or sight in Scrip-
ture is principally meant faith. Abraham saw the day of Christ, John viii. 56,
and with such a sight as sprung up in joy ; he saw it in the promise ; he
knew it by way of energy in the propitiation of Christ, and virtue of his
Spirit ; he had the power of Christ's death in the mortification of his unbe-
lief, before the death was felt by the Son of God upon the cross, and rose to
a new life by the virtue of Christ's resurrection, before Christ laid his head
in the grave. It was certainly a sight of faith ; for the Jews, to whom
Christ spake this, saw him with their bodily eyes, beheld his day, they saw
him personally face to face, and knew him in the flesh, yet were wholly
ignorant both of the excellency of his person and virtue of his offices. It is
one thing to know the nature of God, and another thing to know God in
covenant as our God. Of the Sidonians God said, ' They shall know that
1 am the Lord,' Ezek. xxviii. 22. In a way of justice, they shall know that
I am of a righteous nature. But of his people Israel he saith, ' They shall
know that I am the Lord their God,' ver. 26 ; a God in covenant with them,
in whom they have an interest. It is an interested knowledge ; a relying
upon God in his covenant as theirs, according as the Scriptui-e propounds
him. There is as great a diflerence between the common knowledge of God
in an unbelieving scholar and a believing Christian, as between the know-
ledge that a gardener hath of plants and flowers in his master's garden : he
knows how to dress them, knows the names and the nature of every particu-
lar plant and flower there ; but though the knowledge of the owner of it doth
not extend to all those particularities, yet he knows it to be his, conveyed to
* Rivet, in Isa. liii. 11.
68 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
him, and of right belonging to him, Another man delights in a beautiful
field and garden, pleaseth himself with the variety of the flowers and plea-
sures of the walks ; the owner delights in it upon this account too, loves to
consider the nature of the trees and plants ; but he hath a knowledge of it,
and dehght in it above the other's ; because of his property, he knows the
possession of it, and the commodities arising from it, to be his. This know-
ledge is always with some ghmmerings of hopes that God and Christ are
his, according to the tenor of the covenant. Though there be not a full as-
surance, the title and evidence is not clear to him, and may seem to have
some flaw in it, which he hath not yet overcome, yet all true faith hath some-
thing of comfort and hope with it,Jfor it is wrought by the Spirit as a comforter,
convincing of the sufiiciency as well as the necessity of the righteousness of
Christ, upon which the soul in this saving knowledge flings itself, and fol-
lows this glimmering, till he comes to a greater light, whereby to read his
own interest in Christ, as Paul did : Gal. ii. 20, ' Who loved me, and gave
himself for me.' Afterwards, indeed, there is a knowledge of feeling : 2 Tim.
i. 12, • I know whom I have beheved.' I have known him by faith, and I
know him by feehng ; I knew him to be good before, and therefore I trusted
him ; but since I know whom I have trusted, and have a rich experience of
him.
[1.] There is no saving knowledge without this fiducial act. It properly
follows upon our espousals with God ; it is a knowledge after contract :
Hosea ii. 20, ' I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt
know the Lord ; ' and therefore must be a knowledge of faith. He that
hath no hvely motions hath no life, he must have breath at least ; nor is
there any lively knowledge of the grace of God in Christ without vehement
desires at least after him, and unutterable believing groans. Can any man
know God in his wrath who doth not tremble at it, or any man know God
in his grace that doth not catch hold of it ? He knows him not that thinks
him not excellent enough to be the sole object of his confidence and affiance.
No man that disparageth that which is truly excellent in itself can be said to
know the excellency of that thing. If I set up anything in the world as the
ground of my trust more than God, it is evident that I acknowledge a greater
vu-tue, strength, and power in that than in God and Christ, whom I
refuse, and may well be said not to know and understand the transcendent
goodness of him that I reject. Lay not, therefore, any claim to a know-
ledge of God as almighty, infinite goodness, and tender bowels, if you resign
not up yourselves wholly to him : to his grace to pardon you, to his power
to relieve you, to the death of Christ to mortify sin, and that in his own
way, the way of his precepts, not in ways of our own invention and pre-
sumption. But, alas ! do not many prop up themselves in some earthly
thing, as if there were no God in Israel to be sought unto ; strengthen
themselves in their own righteousness, as if there were no Mediator com-
missioned and sent into the world ? Confidence in any other thing denies
the being of God, or if not that, yet it denies the excellency of God ; if not
that, the goodness of God ; and so implies that there is no knowledge of God
as he is gracious and glorious in himself, because there is no trust in him.
I am sore afraid most of the knowledge of God and Christ we have in this
age is a mere notion of faith, without value, like a ring without the diamond.
He knows best that hath concocted in his heart what he understood in his
head.
[2.] The highest rational knowledge of God cannot profit, without this
knowledge of faith. The general and common knowledge of Christ is but a
knowing after the flesh, not in the power of his Spirit, and can no more
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god.
59
advantage than the Jews' knowing him, or Judas his living with him, did
them or him without beHe\dng. In the Scripture, Christians are not called
kaomng persons, but believers. It is a pleasure to a physician to consider
the nature of a medicine, and pierce into the quality of each ingredient m
it ; but if he be invaded by the disease for which that medicme is proper,
all his knowledge of it and delight in it will be no support to his body,
unless he takes it and joins it in a close contest with the distemper. All
the pleasure he hath had in the search and contemplation of it, and the ex-
perience of the strength of it upon his patients, will not check the malady of
his vitals, or stop the rage of the humour, though his knowledge were as
large as Solomon's, without application of the remedy. Christ is the remedy
for our spiritual diseases, faith is the application. A man is no more a
Christian by knowing the nature of God and Christ in a notional way, or
being able to unfold the mysteries of redemption in generous strains, than a
philosopher, who can discourse accurately of the natm-e of metals and jewels,
can be said to be rich, when he hath never a penny in his purse. The know-
ledge entitles him to a natural wisdom, but the possession to wealth. If he
were a slave in the galleys, the riches of his knowledge would never strike
off the weight of his chains ; one jewel in possession to pay for his redemp-
tion would be of more value than all his philosophy. And just such a per-
son is he that delights in the knowledge of his bags and quantity of gold,
but makes not application of it to his present indigencies ; it is as if he had
none, but were the poorest beggar that craves an alms fi'om door to door.
There is as great a difference between this notional and fiducial knowledge,
as there is between the knowledge of an angel, who comes under the wing oi
Christ for his confirmation in his happy estate, and the knowledge of a devil,
who rejected him as his head, which is thought by some to be the devil's
sin. It is likely by Scripture it was pride, and probably it was pride of this
nature, as I may have occasion to shew in the prosecuting the doctrine of
unbelief. As the angels' knowledge of Christ being proposed as their head
could not have advantaged them without an act of consent to him, and
acceptance of him, answering to faith in us, as well as a knowledge (they
had not else come under his wing as rational creatures by an election and
approbation of him), so neither can our knowledge of him without an accept-
ing of him.
[3.] The clearer a saving knowledge is, the stronger will be our faith and
confidence in God and Christ, and the stronger our faith, the stronger our
knowledge. As the more knowledge a physician hath of the nature of
simples, the more confidently will he apply them ; and the more he finds
their virtue in the application, the surer knowledge of them he arrives unto.
The more we spii-itually understand God, the more we shall trust him on his
own credit ; and this is properly faith. All the attributes of God are the
crutches of faith, the bladders upon which faith swims. "When we know the
strength of them, and are sensible of the sufliciency of them and our own
need, we shall with greater assurance rely upon them, as they are engaged
in his promises : his wisdom, in making promises that he can accomplish;
his faithfulness, in making promises that he will accomplish ; his power, in
being able to make good every tittle of his word. Not an attribute of God
but inspires faith with fresh vigour. And so the more we spiritually and
sensibly know the tenor of Christ's commission, the ends of his death, the
causes and ends of his resurrection and ascension, we shall the more will-
ingly cast our souls upon that security, and di-aw sweetness by faith from
every flower in God's garden. The angels adore the goodness of God more
fervently than we can, and have a greater confidence in that goodness, be-
60 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
cause their apprehensions of it are clearer, and their taste and experience of
it hath been stronger. The brightest needles move quickest, and stick
fastest to the loadstone. The clearer our knowledge, the closer our adher-
ence. He that spiritually knows Grod and Christ, will rest upon Grod's bare
word with more stedfastness than if he had the strongest assurances of all
the princes in the world for a great estate.
7. It is a progressive knowledge, still aiming at more knowledge and
more improvements of it. Though the knowledge of God be at first infused
into us by the inspiration of the Spirit, yet neither that in the head, nor
grace in the heart, have their full strength at their first birth, but attain
their stature gradually. Natural knowledge, which is a common work of
Grod upon men, arrives not at its growth in a moment, but in a tract of time.
He that first found out the inclination of the loadstone to the pole did not
presently apprehend all the virtues of the loadstone, nor was able to sail
about the world by it, though this afterwards grew up from the first inven-
tion. We go up a mountain step by step. Christ doth not perform all the
parts of his prophetical office at once ; there is a further declaration of the
name of God to succeed the first: John xvii. 26, ' I have declared thy name,
and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them.' And the ravishments by the virtue and influences of his second shall
exceed those of the first revelation, for those further declarations are accom-
panied with greater manifestations of affection, and fuller communications of
divine love to the soul. Some things are too bright for the soul at the first
opening of its weak eyes. Men at their first conversion have but glimpses
of things, as the man, Mark viii. 24, who saw 'men as trees walking,' till
Christ put his hand upon his eyes, and made him see objects before him
more distinctly. As the stone from our hearts, so scales from our eyes, fall
ofi" by degrees. No man is so wise but he may be wiser.
(1.) All true knowledge is alluring. The first sight of a mystery is trans-
porting, and also alluring to a further inquiry : Prov. i. 5, ' A wise man will
hear, and will increase learning"; ' he will arise to more sublime thoughts
and discoveries. He will be adding, as in arithmetic, figure to figure, till
he comes to a just sum, deducing one rule from another till he come to the
utmost; as the branch grows from the body of the tree, and one branch from
another. It is the nature of all true knowledge to sharpen the mind for
more. He that hath found a mine will follow the vein till he masters it.
The scholar that hath a taste of any curious learning will not leave the pur-
suit till he hath pierced into the bowels of it, and by turning over books, and
stretching his thoughts, hath increased his stock. It is also the nature of
spiritual knowledge to put an edge upon the appetite, and open the under-
standing wider, that it may be filled with more. The voice of it is that of
the grave, Give, give. The times of the gospel were promised to be inquisi-
tive times : Dan. xii. 4, ' Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased.' A little knowledge of God doth not hush our desires, but awaken
them. The barbarous people, by tasting the fruits of Italy, were not at
rest till they saw and conquered the country. One taste of God and Christ
is to make us cry out, 'Evermore, Lord, give us this bread.' It is to enlarge
our appetite, not to dull and scantle it ; to engage us to make further in-
quiries into ' the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of his inherit-
ance in the saints,' Eph. i. 16. They had a spirit of knowledge ; but the
apostle prays for further perfection in the knowledge of Christ, and a fuller
opening the eyes of their understandings to get into his secret things, and
behold more of his glory. It is as natural for a saving knowledge to press to
further attainments, as it is for a counterfeit knowledge to flag in its pursuit.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 61
(2.) It is utterly impossible that any man can have a saving knowledge of
God who stands at a stay in what he has, without any desires to make a fur-
ther progress. As it is impossible faith or a full assent or consent to the
doctrine of the gospel can be without unutterable groans for the full applica-
tion of the good things promised in it, so it is impossible this saving know-
ledge can be without eager thirsting for a larger communication. He that
seeks not after more light never had any saving glimmerings of any in his
heart : Prov. xv. 14, ' He that hath understanding seeks knowledge, but the
mouth of fools feed on foolishness.' The seeking knowledge is a sign of an
understanding heart ; any man's feeding on foolishness is an evidence that
he understands nothing of the sweetness of a spiritual banquet. That mer-
chant that is sensible of gain will increase his venture and desire richer
commodities ; the understanding heart will venture out for more spiritual
knowledge. As no man hath true grace who doth not make additions, and
rise to the exercise of those graces which are more spiritual, more the delight
of God and the beauty of the soul, so neither hath he any taste of God and
Christ who doth not aspire and travel to more spiritual discoveries of his
glory. There is not only to be a knowledge, but a ' following on to know
the Lord,' Hos. vi. 3 ; a ' following hard after him' to see his glory, Ps.
Ixiii. 2, 8. He never tasted the sweetness of it that is cloyed with it, nor
ever understood the beauty of the prospect, that is not desirous to get up to
the top of the hill to pleasure his eyes with a full view. An acquiescence in
any degree is a sign the knowledge pretended is but a counterfeit, that God
is not the delightful and estimable object of his mind, that there is no expe-
rimental acquaintance with him. Certainly, he that esteems him will desire
to lie at his feet to receive his instructions, and will implore Christ for the
exercise of his prophetical office, which is as truly exercised by his Spirit in
the world, as it was in his person in the days of his flesh.
Fi)st, This principle of saving knowledge is an active principle. If it be
the light of life, a living and lively light, it will by its activity proceed from
strength to strength, from dawn to daylight, from daylight to sunrise, and
from that to the meridian, Prov. iv. 18. The sun in a statue will stand like
a stock, but not the sun in the heavens. If, through the darkness of the
understanding, there is an alienation from the life of God, Eph. iv. 18, then
by an enlightened understanding there is an approach to the life of God.
Can partakers of the life of God stand at a stay ? Can we ever be like God
by ignorance and small measures of knowledge ? God cannot increase in
the knowledge of himself, because the knowledge of himself is, as himself,
infinite ; but that soul that is truly God-like aspires to as high a knowledge
of him as the creature is capable of. He hath no desire to take further steps
in grace, who doth not desire to thrive in the knowledge of Christ, which is
as the dew of grace.
Secondly, There is no conformity to Christ without a thirst after more
knowledge of God. Our Saviour grew in wisdom as he did in stature, Luke
ii. 52 ; not that Christ had any sinful ignorance, but the habits of wisdom
and knowledge infused into his human nature grew up to maturity according
to his natural growth. They are not his members that grow not proportion-
ably to the head, and, being rational members, they must grow in knowledge
as well as in strength. The image of God in the new creature doth partly
consist in knowledge. Col. iii. 10, yet it is not necessary to this conformity
that all should have an equal degree of knowledge. It is probable all in
heaven have not an equal vision of God, since there are different degrees of
glory ; yet the least degree of the vision of God there is with a perfect
conformity, and without the mixture of the least impurity. But there is no
G2 CHARNOCIC'S WORKS. [JOHN XVII. 3.
conformity here to Christ without some knowledge of him. Some grow
according to means and measures, and an ardent thirst for fuller manifesta-
tions of him. Some think that in heaven there will be a constant proficiency
in the knowledge of God ;'^' and why not, since finite is capable of additions
as numbers are of more units, which may be increased by adding, yet none
so great but may be made greater by addition of more to them ?
Thirdly, He can have no desire to enjoy God who doth not desire a clearer
knowledge of him. What desires can he have of fruition, who doth not delight
to know more of him whom he pretends he is willing to enjoy? He hath no
mind to set foot in heaven, nor hath any notions of the happiness of that
place, whose affections are not enlarged to a further prospect of him who is
the sole essential happiness there. Whosoever hath had any taste of hea-
venly pleasure, will endeavour to beautify his understanding with divine
objects, since part of the happiness of heaven consists in a perfection of that
faculty of the mind.
It is then certain that a knowing soul cannot be idle, but inquisitive ; spi-
ritual knowledge is no less attractive than natural. When we come to a little
knowledge in those lower things, we are still aiming at more, as those that
found out new countries were still making more voyages to perfect their
inquiry. It is impossible that any that have tasted the saving knowledge of
God can rest in low measures, but they will be attempting a full discovery.
This progressiveness consists chiefly.
First, In a clearer sight of what was in part known; not so much exten-
sively, in an increase of particular objects, as intensively, in a clearer view
and more spiritual apprehension of what we knew before ; as growth in grace
is not in new graces (for they are all included in the habit of grace first put
into the soul), but in a strength of each particular grace and the actings of
it. As a man that studies the nature of some particular grace, and the
actings of it. As a man that studies the nature of some particular creature,
by his search comes into a sight, not of new objects, but of more reasons of
things, and a clearer inspection into that which was the object of his know-
ledge before. The knowledge in heaven consists not so much in the know-
ing new objects as in knowing with an inexpressible clearness G-od and
Christ, whom we know but in a glass, and that darkly in the world, not in
an addition of new objects, but an accession to the degrees of our knowledge.
Secondly, It is a growth in estimation of the object, and strength of desires
for it. It is a certain rule in spirituals, as it is in naturals, everything when
it moves regularly to its centre moves more swiftly towards the end of its
motion ; so will the motion of the soul be in longings and thirstings after a
more full view of God and Christ, the nearer it comes to salvation. The
' soul breaks for the longings it hath to the judgments of God,' Ps. cxix. 20,
the methods of his wisdom; one desire treads upon another; he desires, and
is covetous for more longings for him ; he longs, and thinks he doth not
long enough. It grows in estimations of him : Ps. cxix. 72, * The law of
thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.' He values it
daily more and more above all the excrements of this earth.
Thirdly, It is not a growth or desire terminating in a notion of God, so
much as the fruits and proper intendments of that notion. It is a mystery
of faith and a mystery of godliness, a mystery to be known and mystery to
be practised. But the growth is in the mystery of faith, in order to a growth
in it as it is a mystery of godliness, to know God for the ends for which he
is revealed, and Christ for the ends for which he was commissioned. It is a
desire for the way of God's precepts, Ps. cxix. 27, 33, not to indulge carnal
* Zanch. in Hos. vi. 3.
I
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 63
affections or an intellective curiosity, but to direct his paths and strengthen
him in his walk. A man in a journey desires not so much the knowledge of
the nature of the soil or of the fruits of the country, as the way of it, to
attain his journey's end. David, having a knowledge of God, and being
ravished with it, desires to be acquainted with the way to the fruition of
that whereof he had some sight ; hence he so often desires God to open
his eye, that he might behold him, and teach him the way that he might
attain to him. He that hath a delightful prospect of excellent buildings
and fruitful grounds which he may have the possession of, would have a
more accurate survey of them. The next step naturally is to desire to
know a way thither : Prov. i. 5, 'A wise man will increase in learning,'
ni^^nn, the word signifies properly the mariner's art or pilot's skill in steer-
ing a ship, or an acuteness in acting. A wise man will hear and increase
in learning, in order to improve what he knows for his direction and steer-
age in his course in the world, which is as a stormy sea, and needs care
and skill.
2. As there is a difference in the effects of this knowledge, so also in the
manner of it.
1. Saving knowledge is distinct. Though gi-ace be not perfect, yet there
is an habit of grace, and all the parts of grace in the soul of a renewed man ;
so, though this knowledge be not perfect, yet there is a distinct view of God
and Christ in all the necessary parts of knowledge. Another may know the
attributes of God, but he sees not the glory of them shining into the heart :
2 Cor. iv. 6, ' To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the
face of Jesus Christ.' It is a distinct view of God's perfections, in their
affecting glory ; of his wisdom, in contriving redemption ; his justice, in
punishing our surety ; his mercy, in bestowing pardon in his beloved one ;
and the beauty of his holiness in all : and of those a believer hath a distinct
apprehension in his mind, and a gracious and distinct impression of them
on his heart. He knows the nature of Christ, his offices, the fruits of his
death, and comforts of his resurrection, the cordials of his intercession, so
orderly as to make use of them in his several exigencies, and have recourse
to each of them by faith in his distinct pressures. It is a shining into the
heart, as the sun upon the world at the creation, whereby Adam had a dis-
tinct view of the creatures then formed ; and in the new creation, this
divine light breaks into the soul, repairs the faculty, whereby there may be
a plain spiritual view of the glory of God, as figured in the appearance of
Christ. An owl sees the light, but not distinctly that or anything by it, not
because there is want of light, but a want of a due disposition and strength in
the eye to discern it. It is a manifestation of God's name, John xvii. 6.
God was more distinctly known by his name Jehovah among the Israelites,
than he had been in the world before, i. e. in the manifestations of his truth
and power in performing the promise of deliverance to them ; so he is known
in Christ in fuller expressions, and more letters of his name, than he was to
the Israelites. The other knowledge is as the sight of a man in his picture ;
this, as the knowledge of a man in his person, whereby his lively disposition
and excellencies are discerned. It is a knowledge by inward manifestation
and irradiation of the soul. The times of ignorance are called night -and
darkness in Scripture ; in the night there is no evidence of the true figures
and colours of things. The time of divine discovery is called day, and light ;
and believers, ' light in the Lord ;' there is a plain appearance of the object
in its excellency manifest to them, whereby they discern things that differ :
the difference between Christ and the world, grace and sin. It differs from
the knowledge of others, as the sight of a ship by an unskilful eye fi-om that
64 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
of the shipwright or pilot, who understands all the parts of the worliman's
skill ; or the sight of a picture by a limner, and one ignorant of the art.
One sees the hidden pieces of art, the other the outward figure and com-
posure. The knowledge of the Christian is the work of the Spirit by special
grace, the other is the work of education and industry. A divine work is
more clear than a human. It is such a knowledge as the apostles had after
the Holy Ghost came upon them, and had dispelled their darkness, scattered
their shadows, and refined their minds, and made them see the counsel of
God in the sufferings of Christ, and behold the bottom of it with a divine
light ; whereas before, their knowledge was confused and feeble, they scarce
knew before he was to die : after his death, they understood his sufierings,
but nothing of the true reason and design of them till the Spirit descended
upon them ; and, therefore, Christ tells them in the time of his life, that
though he ' had been so long with them, they did not know him,' John xiv.
9. Unless the knowledge of God and Christ be thus distinct, it may stuff
the head, but not improve the soul.
2. It is a certain knowledge. Not a guess or imagination, but a real
thing, as if the soul had a perfect demonstration. It is surer than the know-
ledge of the first principles or common notions in man ; surer than the per-
ceptions of sense, or conclusions of reason. The knowledge of things we
have by experience depends upon the deceivable sense, which often needs the
correction of reason ; the knowledge we have by reason is uncertain, because
the mind of man is often prepossessed with crooked notions, which cannot
be the rule to measure straight truths by. Reason is full of uncertainty, and
dubious ; and the more we know by natural reason, the more we doubt.
But this knowledge is more divine than any demonstration,"- because it is
not founded upon humiin reason, but divine and infallible revelation, which
can neitlier deceive nor be deceived. It is by an inward sense and taste,
which reiiders a man more certainly intelligent of what he feels, than all men
in the world can be by a rational discourse without a sense. Truth is inned,
and inlaid in the heart ; there is a plerophory and full assurance of know-
ledge. Col. ii. 2. Other knowledge doth fluctuate, and a man rather sus-
pects that he sees, than see clearly,! which is rather an opinion of God and
Christ than knowledge, such as the philosophers had of natural things,
which they could not assure themselves whether it was clear science or
opinion. But saving knowledge is a solid and certain apprehension of the
object known. Hence, it is called a sight of the glory of God with open
face, 2 Cor. iii. 18, an intellectual and spiritual sight, ' the evidence of things
not seen,' Heb. xi. 1, 'z\%yyj)i\ such a conviction that brings a fulness of
light with it to clear the thing, and make the heart fall down under the
power of it, and nonplusseth all disputes against it. As the Spirit so strongly
convinceth of sin, as to arrest all objections and pleas, banish them out of
the heart of the sinner, so he strongly convinceth of the truth of Grod and
Christ, and chaseth away all the carnal reasonings, as the light of the rising
sun doth darkness before it. It is such an evidence that brings substance
along with it, ' the substance of things hoped for.' It evidenceth God and
Christ, and the things of God and Christ, to be substantial, soHd things, and
not imaginary notions and doubtful opinions. This was promised in the
times of the gospel : Isa. Hi. 6, ' My people shall know my name ; they
shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak ; behold, it is I.' The
repetition of a thing in the Hebrew dialect shews the certainty of the thing
spoken of. They knew God by the prophets ; they should more surely
* 0£i'oT£g5v t) vaffni a'Tooii^ia;,- — Origen.
t Amyrald. Thes. Salmur. part ii. p. 91, thes. xxxvi.
I
John XYIL 3.] the knowledge of god. 65
know liim in the times of the gospel, in the greatness of the delivei-ance he
would work for them. It is clearer than the prophetic visions ; for it is a
sight that is produced by the dawniing of the day, and the arising of the day-
star in the heart, 2 Peter i. 19, which is meant of a knowledge of Christ in
this world, for in heaven the knowledge shall be by the light of the sun. It
is a knowledge here which is the forerunner of a full knowledge in heaven,
as the day-star is of the rising sun. And Christ himself affirms to God this
certainty of knowledge, John xvii. 8, ' They have surely known that I came
out from thee,' which is more than a loose opinion. And, indeed, there is
nothing more sure to an opened understanding than a divine light, though
to an eye sore with sin the light is as imperceptible as the light of the sun
to the eyes of an owl.
(1.) The manner of this knowledge must bear some proportion to the ob-
ject, and the manner of revealing it. As the object excels all other objects,
so the manner of knowing must be different from all other manner of know-
ledge, and therefore more certain in what we know of it, by how much the
objects God and Christ are more excellent and real, the living God, and an
eternal Christ. It is not coined by flesh and blood, nor depends upon the
blindness of reason ; but it is from the Father which is in heaven, as well
as of the Father which is in heaven. Mat. xvi. 17 ; a manifestation from
Christ, John xvii. 6, ' I have manifested thy name ;' a ' sure word ' where-
by it is taught, 2 Peter i. 19, surer than all the maxims of the world. The
object is most real : God, the author of all being, the fountain of nature and
grace ; Christ, the band of the whole creation. The manner of revealing
was most certain ; the manner of knowing must be in some measure suitable
to the object known, and the way of its manifestation : the principles of
faith are more certain than those of any science.
(2.) It is wrought by the enlightening virtue of the Holy Ghost, and
therefore must be most certain. The knowledge of God, as well as faith, is
the gift of God, wrought in the soul by inspiration. God gives not errone-
ous principles to the creature. The debauchery of our reasons was not from
God originally, but from the lasting invasion of sin, and permitted by God
as a judge to continue for our punishment. This teaching is by ' the Spirit of
truth,' John xiv. 17, 1 John ii. 27, who inwardly presents the excellency of
God and Christ to the understanding, as the word doth to the ear, and that
not like a flash of lightning that gives a vanishing light, and after leaves us in
a worse darkness than it found us ; but he abides as a Spirit of truth in all
the darkness of this world, for ' he dwells with you, and shall be in you.'
The instruction will be certain, till the Spirit prove an uncertain teacher.
It is his demonstration, and therefore powerful, 1 Cor. ii. 4, and surer than
any demonstration by reason, by how much the Spirit, the teacher of it, is
above all the reason in the world ; it is ' the Spirit that searcheth the deep
things of God,' 2 Cor. ii. 9, 10, mysteries above the ken of corrupted
reason, and hid in the secret place of the Most High, which are therefore
most precious, and of the greatest reality and value. Since therefore this
knowledge is a fruit of divine teaching, and from an infinitely wise and in-
fallible teacher, the soul of a believer is more assured of the reality of it than
it is of its own life and being. He knows by sense and reason that he lives,
but the knowledge he hath of God and Christ is by the Spirit, a principle
infinitely superior to both the other.
(8.) Saving knowledge is such a knowledge, for kind, as Christ had of God.
The words and declaration of God, which God gave to him, he gave to his
disciples, John xvii. 8. The knowledge Christ as man had of God is com-
VOL. IV. E
6G charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
municated to a believer, in the kind, though not in the same measure. And
herein doth consist partly our conformity to Christ ; the soul is conformed
to Christ in all the parts of it. It consists not in the repair of one faculty,
for that would be but half a resemblance. It would be monstrous for the
will to be conformed to Christ, and the understanding to the devil ; the will
to be acted by grace, and the understanding possessed by nature. It cannot
indeed be supposed in ti e order of natural operations, how the will can have
an holy conformity to Christ, till the understanding hath an intelligent con-
formity to him. As the will is made like the will of Christ, so the mind is
enlightened in a similitude to the mind of Christ ; that as Christ is in the
heart the ground of the hope of glory, so he is in it the guide of the mind :
Philip, ii. 5, ' Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ;'
1 Cor. ii. 16, 'But we have the mind of Christ.' 'The spiritual man
judgeth all things,' because he understands the mind of -.hrist ; because his
mind is informed and enlightened by that Spirit which illuminated the human
mind of Christ. And needs must he judge as Christ did, who hath not only
a knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, but a mind acted by the same Spirit
of Christ, and suited to the mind of Christ, and hath such notions and
piercing insight into the things of God, for the kind, as Christ had. I will
not say that this is the sense of the place, though something of that nature
seems to be included in th»' manner of the apostle's argument, or may be in-
ferred from thence. We ni. y be said to know as Christ doth, as we are said
to be holy as Christ is holy , in regard of likeness, as the light of the stars
and sun are true light, have a likeness one to the other, and are of the same
kind, yet the light in the sun is more full and clear than that in the stars.
As there will at the last day be a glory of the body like to the glorious body
of Christ, Philip, iii. 21 ; and a glory of the soul much more like to the soul
of Christ ; so there is an initial likeness to Christ in each faculty in every
renewed man. Now as Christ's knowledge of God was certain, and the
knowledge of himself was certain, so this saving knowledge of God and
Christ in a true believer is as certain, for the measure of it in this world.
And though there be doubts and waverings in the hearts of believers, yet
they do not respect the object, the nature of God and Christ, and the ends
of his death, but are in regard of the subject, and an interest in those glori-
ous things. Now though this knowledge be imperfect, yet it is certain in
every believer. They know, though it be but in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and
that which they know is certain. There is certainty in star-light as well as
in sun-light, though the light le not so much. ' We see through a glass
darkly.' It is a certain sight, though not clear, because the organ is not
fully fitted for it. Every true believer can say, as those, John vi. 69, ' We
believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Before the light of the knowledge of God broke in savingly upon him, he h"d
doubtful notions of those things, he counted them as shadows, discoursed - *"
them because the rest of the world cid, and because he had been brought up
that way, yet without any savour oi them. He knew not whether he knew
or no, as Paul, whether he was in cr out of the body. But since, he be-
holds such a clearness and reality in the mysteries of the gospel, that he is
more confirmed in the certainty of them than of any in the world. There
is light shot in, which carries its own evidence with it, and is too bright to
be nonplussed by the darkness of reason. The things of God and Christ
are discerned in the head, and realised in the heart.
(3.) It is a firm knowledge. Some have a floating knowledge of God.
Truth in their mind doth dance as the image of the sun or stars in a pail,
according to the motion of the water. Truth and error are like a pair of
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 67
scales, sometimes up and sometimes down. But as true faith, so saving
knowledge, is stedfast like a needle, sticking to the loadstone without
wavering : Col. ii. 5, ' Stedfastness of our faith,' 6rBgi^(x,a, firinamentum fidei,
firmament of faith, as stable as the heaven and heavenly bodies keeping their
constant stations and courses, and admitting nothing heterogeneous into
them. It is but a shadow of knowledge which halts between two opinions.
The knowledge of Christ being admitted upon the highest account frames
the soul into an acquiescence in it. It is ' an unction from the holy one,'
1 John ii. 20, which, as it opens, so it fortifies the understanding. It is an
habit : Heb. v. 14, ' Who by reason of use ;' by reason of habit, in the
Greek. The faculty is firm, and can never be totally vitiated ; though it
may, as the natural taste, be impaired by some diseased humour tincturing
the palate, yet it returns again to its former temper. It is such a know-
ledge that keeps men in a way of righteousness, and prevents them from re-
turning to be swine. It makes them see the mire to loathe it, and the purity
of God to love him. They that are taught of God, depart not from his truth :
Ps. cxix. 102, ' I have not departed from thy judgments : for thou hast
taught me.' The psalmist renders God's teaching him as a reason why he
did not depart from God's judgments. Therefore that knowledge of God,
which is taught by God, is an establishing knowledge, not a volatile, airy
thing, such as children have, which are ' carried away by every wind of
doctrine,' Eph. iv. 14, tossed to and fro between one passion and another,
rather tban between one reason and another ; but a settling ballast, such as
the martyrs had who were slain for the word of God, the divine ?.oyoj, and
tbe testimony they bore to his person and offices, which they held, and held
as an undoubted truth. Rev. v. 9. They held the transcript of God and
Christ imprinted on their hearts fii-m, as a marble doth the letters engraven
on it ; the other sort of knowledge is fading, as easily blotted out as letters
upon sand with the next wind. In the one there is only a taste of ' the
powers of the world to come,' of the death and resurrection of Christ, which
are the powers of the age of the Messiah, which was called by the Jews the
world to come, Heb. vi. 5 ; the other is as a constant sight in the heart, as
firm as a graft in the stock, which becomes one with it ; not only a light of
truth, but a love of truth ; notions spring into the mind, and love stands
ready to set and root them. If any man therefore pretends to a knowledge of
God, and withdraws from him to the things of this world, and the miry ways
of sin, he knew no more of God than a swine doth of the cleansing bath ; he
discovers a greater hatred of God, for whensoever any good is forsaken after
it is pretended to be known, it shews a greater detestation of it and desire of
disunion from it. Whatsoever therefore the pretences of apostates are, they
never knew God, because God is so lovely in all his perfections, that it is
impossible for any soul that knows him not to love him, and cleave to him.
(4.) This saving knowledge of God and Christ is, in all the afiections
which attend it in the soul, uuexpressible. The afiections rising from it are
unexpressible by the soul that feels it ; all words are below the sense, as a
spark is below the brightness of a flame. In common things we find often
a secret power excite a liking or dislike in our mind which we cannot fully
discover to others, either in the greatness of the pleasure or abhorrency
which is in ourselves. The natural afi"ections we have to something admit
of no expression, much less the spiritual aff'ections. A friend that you know
and love dearly, whose virtues you admire, you can never discover so ex-
quisitely in his endowments as that another should admire and love him with
an affection equal to what you bear to him. Who can imagine the depth of
David's sense in his contemplations of God under those spiritual strains he
68 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
clothes himself with in his Psalms, unless he felt the same inward transports
as David did ? "Who can understand the exquisite satisfaction our Saviour
had in his thoughts of his Father, in his addresses to him, and obedience to
his will, unless he could be equal to him in all those ? It is the same thing
in spiritual as in natural knowledge. No man can understand the delight
a scholar takes in his inquiries into some curious learning, but he that hath
had a taste of the same pleasure himself, no more than a man can under-
stand the heat of fire that never felt it. Paul, in his revelations, heard
* words unspeakable ' in their own nature, as well as ' unlawful for him
to utter,' 2 Cor. xii. 4. Nor can any conceive the inward ravishments
of a soul in the meditations of God and Christ, who never had a spiritual
view of the excellency of those ravishing objects.
Use.
I. Information.
1. See the insufficiency of all other knowledge to eternal happiness. Other
sciences are shadows of wisdom ; this a sound wisdom, Prov. iii. 21, referring
to the study of the wisdom of God. All other kind of knowledge delights a
man at present, help him to pass his life with some comfort, but gives not
a drop of balsam at the hour of death for any spiritual wound, or the least
cordial dram for a drooping soul ; whereas this sound wisdom is a treasure
of things new and old, to support under any calamity. It will keep us from
being afraid of sudden fear, or of the desolation of the wicked when it
comes, for the Lord, that is savingly known, shall be our confidence, and
keep our feet from being taken, Prov. iii. 24-26.
(1.) Skill in the aflairs of the world, and arts useful to human societies,
first appeared in the seed of the serpent and the idolatrous generation of the
world. The posterity of Cain, the head of the unbelieving world, are upon
record in Scripture for such inventions. When his generations are reckoned,
there is Jabal who first invented the art of ordering cattle, and Jubal his
brother, the inventor of music, and Tubal Cain, the first artificer in brass and
iron, Gen. iv. 20-22. No such remark set upon the children of Seth,
reckoned. Gen. v. 21, 22; only Enoch's walking with God, and Lamech's
prophecy of INoah, as if he had been the promised seed ; their minds were
taken up with that knowledge which fitted them for a better life. The
knowledge of the Greeks, whence the choicest learning was transmitted to
Europe, was derived from Phoenicia to Egypt, the one the posterity of
Canaan, the other also of Ham, both eminent for idolatry.
(2.) Christ never directed men in the knowledge of any thing but of God.
He never took flesh, nor laid it down, to make us philosophers or artificers,
skilful in the afi'airs of the world or knowing in poUtical concerns, but to
purchase for us the knowledge of the mysteries of heaven and sanctifying
grace ; he was a prophet to manifest the name of God, not the nature of
creatures. He came, not to instruct us in the nature of the elements, the
reason of natural motions, to inform us of the nature of the stars and
heavenly bodies, but the nature of God, the designs and methods of his
grace. The teaching worldly skill was too low for the grandeur of his pro-
phetical office, and should be too low for our choicest consideration, but
only in order to the enlarging our faculties for more clear apprehensions or
illustrations of divine knowledge, to be foundations for spiritual meditations,
and more sensible perception of heavenly truth. Our Saviour knew all the
secrets of nature, the usefulness of human arts to the comfort of the world,
but never recommended any of them as sufficient to happiness. Nor after
his resurrection, in his discourses with the disciples, did he acquaint them
with the curiosities of paradise or the orders of angels, but with the pro-
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 69
phets, concerning himself and ends of his death, and resurrection, and glory
in heaven, Luke xxiv. Had those been sufl&cient or necessary means, the
Scripture had been full of natural demonstrations, it had been a book of
nature, instead of a book of grace. It was not the design of it to render
men scholars, but Christians ; and though there be many excellent sprink-
lings of natural learning in divine writ, they are occasionally set down to
lead us to the understanding the nature of God, and our own duty, the two
states of man, his misery by sin, and his happiness by grace. And there-
fore, to rest in that which God never rested in, Christ never taught or
admired, to rest in that which devils and wicked men are all acquainted with
and are no enemies unto, can never render a soul happy.
(3.) It can never of itself help us to the knowledge of divine things. A
man with treasures of other knowledge.in his head may have, and often have,
hearts insensible of the beauty of God and excellency of Christ. It may
make a man higher, by head and shoulders, than other men, but never
make him like to God. The highest intellectuals, without those saving
apprehensions, are but peacocks' feathers with black feet ; they can no more
purify the soul than the blood of bulls and goats could atone our sins.^ The
understanding the intricacies of nature, and themost ingenious mysteries in
the world, and a connection of all the most useful worldly sciences, cannot
advantage our spiritual and eternal happiness, because the things themselves
which are the objects of that knowledge cannot do it. The knowledge of a
thing cannot do more than the thing known can do. If the bowels of nature
and moral truth were as open to any of us as they are to the highest angel,
nay, had we an understanding of all divine as well as human mysteries,
without this affectionate knowledge it would render us just nothing : 1 Cor.
xiii. 2, ' Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing.' Of no account before God.
A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant. Nicodemus
was none of the lowest sect, a pharisee, nor of the lowest form among
them, a ruler among them, had the knowledge of the law above the vulgar,
yet was ignorant of the design of the Messiah, and the mystery of the new
birth. A man may be excellent in the grammar of the Scripture, yet not
understand the spiritual sense of it. As a man may have so much Latin as
to construe a physician's bill, and tell the names of the plants mentioned
in it, yet understand nothing of the particular virtues of those plants, or
have any pleasure in the contemplation of them, so we may discourse of
God, and the perfections of God,- and the intendments of the great things of
Christ, without a sense of them. Though this be a good preparatory to a
spiritual knowledge, yet it is insufficient of itself without some further addi-
tion. It doth not heal the soul's eye, nor chase away the spiritual darkness.
• In much wisdom is much grief,' Eccles. i. 18. In this wisdom only there
is the choicest pleasure.
(4.) It often hurts and hinders men from the saving knowledge of God
and Christ. The wisest men are not always the disciples of ■■ Christ, but
many times enemies to him ; the most ingenious men have often been the
most malicious and ingenious devils. Natural wisdom is most apt to
count divine wisdom foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 21, 23; a hatred of Christ often
perks up under it. The greatest philosophers in the primitive times were
the sharpest enemies to Christianity, and while they were intent upon
human wisdom, they counted divine revelation no better than a fable, and
scorned to sit at the feet of divine revelation, which agreed not with their
own idolised principles. Unsanctified wisdom is the devil's greatest tool.
70 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, and this creature
is culled out by the devil to be the inptrument of the first seduction of man-
kind. The affectation of a knowledge not due to Adam brought a cloud upon
Adam and his posterity, and separated him from the knowledge of his Creator,
which was to be his sole happiness. The intent poring upon red hot iron,
or other metals, blinds the eye, and hinders it from seeing the sun, or any
thing else by it. Too much intenseness in carnal wisdom dims the eye to
spiritual objects. The common people knew Christ, and thirsted for the
knowledge of him, Mark xii. 37, when the intelligent pharisees were as spi-
ritually blind as bats, and so wicked as to boast of their unbelieving igno-
rance, and set it as a pattern for the people : John vii. 48, 49, ' Have any
of the rulers, or of the pharisees, believed on him ? But this people, who
know not the law, are cursed.' Upon which account it is remarked by the
evangelical historian as a matter of astonishment, that ' a great number of
the priests were obedient to the faith,' Acts vi. 7. It is better to have a
little of that knowledge which conducts to a Redeemer, than much of that
which puffs up, and makes you swell too big for a mediator.
Well, then, let not other knowledge swallow up your pursuits after this.
Other knowledge is useful, a gift of God, but it is the handmaid, not the
mistress. It must not thrust out that which is more noble ; the light of a
candle equals not that of the sun. The angels are not said to bend a look
into natural things, though they exactly know the order of them ; but it is
their employment, as well as their happiness, to stand before God, to view
his face, to inquire into the things of Christ. That which angels most affect,
should be the affecting object of our souls, which differ in their spiritual
nature but little from that of an angel. Other knowledge will die with our
bodies, this will live with our souls ; that vanisheth with our breath, and
this is perfected in glory. That renders us not happy, it doth not satisfy
our curiosity ; it is stone instead of bread ; it strikes not off one link from
the chain of spiritual darkness in us ; it is no fortification against death and
hell. But divine knowledge satisfies our desires, nourishes the soul, is bread
to our hunger, light to our eyes, music to our ears, a cordial to our hearts,
and the womb of it is full of nothing but felicity. In short, it is the light oi
life, spiritual, eternal, the other at best but the light of a natural and
temporary life. Let not, therefore, the itch of our curiosity, wherewith
Adam hath infected us, stop our ears aginst the instructions of God. Let
none of us for a fading delight lose that which is solid and substantial. We
shall be like that person, that while he was busy in contemplating heavenly
bodies, tumbled into a ditch ; and we, while we aim only at skill in other
things, fall into an eternal ignorance of the most lovely and necessary objects.
11. Information. We see here the order of God's working, if knowledge
be a necessary means. First knowledge, then grace ; first knowledge, then
that life which is eternal. No house can possibly be built without a foun-
dation ; the groundwork first, then the superstructure. Illumination leads
the way, and the inclinations of the will follow. God doth not cross the na-
tural order of the faculties in his operations, though he doth their corrup-
tion. He leads men by the cords of a man, by those natural obligations on
him he makes use of in his way of working ; expels darkness, to make
room for light ; opens the understanding, thereby to incline the will ; recti-
fies the prejudicate opinions of God and Christ, his ways and methods.
None can be a priest to offer spiritual sacrifices to God, till he be a prophet
to discern what is fit to offer to him. An approbation of things that are
excellent, and sincerity in the practice, is founded upon knowledge and judg-
ment, Philip, i. 9, 10. The new nature is conveyed by the knowledge of
John XVII. 3. J the knowledge of god. 71
God and Christ, Col. iii. 10. As ignorance and error were the deformity of
the old man, so wisdom and knowledge are the first line in the beauty of the
new. The Cist draught of God is in the mind, and thence terminates in the
will. Nath..jael had a false notion of Christ ; he was possessed with the
opinion of the scribes, the doctors of the law, that no prophet could come
out of Nazareth, John i. 46 ; that the people of that place were contemptible
in the eye of God, because no prophet had risen from thence, since pro-
phecy was first in the church. But Christ acquaints him with something
divine in himself, by telling him his motions, what he did under the fig-
tree, ver. 48, convinced him of the folly of his former notions, discovered to
him the truth of his prophetical office, acquaints him with undeniable argu-
ments for his information ; then his will and acknowledgments orderly fol-
low : ' Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel,'
ver. 49. None are enlivened till they be first enlightened by Christ. He
is not life to any without being light in the mind : John i. 4, ' The life was
the light of men.'
III. Information. The excellency of a true Christian. The best Christian
is the best scholar ; he hath a knowledge in the issue equal to that of the
angels, superior to that of devils, more effectual than that of the greatest
philosopher : Prov. xvii. 27, ' A man of understanding is of an excellent
spirit.' ' The Spirit of the holy God is in him, and light and excellent
wisdom,' as was spoken of Daniel, Dan. v. 11, 14. It is a light flowing
from the fountain of light, a fruit of divine teaching and divine touch ; a
true light, John i. 9 ; more valuable than all the trifling sceptical know-
ledge. in the worU , The meanest believer knows, if not more, yet better than
the brightest stai that fell from heaven. What others see by candle-light, he
sees by the light of the sun ; what is hidden to others is open to him ; what
others have a natural understanding of, he hath a spiritual. Col. i. 9, auviffn
miviMTiKT]. The publicans who heard the excellent discourses of Christ
concerning the nature of the Father, and the design of his coming into the
world, were more excellent than the pharisees, who knew the same divine
revelation, but had no affection stirred in them but that of anger against the
publisher. The spiritually knowing Christian can discern God in his word
better than others can in all his creatures. He practiseth what he knows.
The excellency of a drug lies not so much in its quality, as in the operation
of that quality. We measure the excellency of things, not by the outward
appearance, but the nobleness and usefulness of their effects. The mean-
ness of a Christian doth not so much disparage him, as the excellency of
divine knowledge ennobles him. He hath a soul truly God-like, that knows
God with a conformity to him. The sun shining upon a body, and the body
reflecting the beams of the sun, render it lovely, though low in itself.
The knowledge of a Christian is, by inward and close revelation, attended
with strong and high reflections. Others know the matter of the gospel, a
Christian knows the mystery of the gospel. The strongest natural know-
ledge is not proportionable to divine things, and therefore renders not the
soul as excellent as the spiritual knowledge of God. The one fits men for
converse with man ; the other for communion with God in this and another
world.
IV. Information. How sad is it for men to abuse to wrong ends the
means of knowledge, which in itself is eternal life. As men turn grace mto
wantonness, so they turn knowledge into rebellion ; as men will run many
scores in debt because grace is free, so some will run more eagerly to sin
because they know God is merciful in Christ, and use their knowledge for
an encouragement to sin. This is a monster composed of a Chiistian's
72 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
head, and a swine's heart; an angel's wings, and a serpent's body. This is
like Belshazzar, to quaff healths in the vessels of the temple. To use it
well for gracious ends, is like Solomon, to melt down the gold of Ophir for
the service of God, and work it into vessels for the sanctuary. How many
are there that are angry with the knowledge they have, and the means to
get more, because they cannot be at ease in their sins ? Their lusts are
enraged, while their consciences, are enlightened. The devil's knowledge is
so far .from assuaging his malice, that it increaseth his fury. They know
God as a judge, but regard him not as amiable and worthy to be imitated.
The knowledge many philosophers had in the times of the gospel's shine,
was so far from enabling them, because of their corruptions, to see the beauty
of those discoveries, that they were rather excited to oppose the gospel prin-
ciples with more stoutness of heart, that it, might be truly said of them, as
Isa. xlvii. 10, ' Their wisdom and their knowledge perverted them.' It is
base to turn the means of the knowledge of God into the service of the devil.
It is good when we use them to check us in sin, to w^ean us from it, and ren-
der' God more lovely and desirable to our souls. God's discoveries of him-
self are not that he may be abused, but that he may be loved. He shews
himself in his goodness, which is his glory; the end of goodness is to attract
our affections, not to excite our enmity.
V. Information. If the knowledge of God and Christ be the necessary
means to eternal life, how deplorable is that want of this necessary know-
ledge of God which is among us ! How lamentable are the cataracts bred
in the eye of our understanding by the power of the flesh I JNicodemus*
could not understand the first principles of Christianity, though he had been
educated in the church, studied the law, had an honourable notion of Christ,
was affected with his miracles, and was instructed in the principles of Chris-
tianity by the mouth of truth itself. How great is our blindness in the
things of the kingdom of God ! The knowledge many men have of Christ
is a knowledge of his outside, not of his spiritual nature and excellency, so
as to relish him. The notions of the goodness of God,. and salvation by
Christ, are transporting doctrines ; men are pleased with them as children
are with the pictures in a philosopher's book, without studying or knowing
anything of the inward sweetness and learning in it ; without prying into,
and being savourily affected with, the mysteries of the gospel. They have
a knowledge of God and Christ by report, as men have of a famous prince,
without any acquaintance, and happy familiarity with Mm ; as defective in
this true knowledge as a ploughman is in the principles of astronomy. Most
men's lives are a dream ; they profess rehgion,. account themselves happy in
that profession, content themselves with some self-pleasing fancies and
notions, without distinct inquiries into the truths of heaven. How sad is it
to have eyes, and not know the sun ; to have understandings, and not know
that which is only worthy to be known ; and not see God, who is as visible
by his word and works as the sun by its light ! The irrational creatures
outstrip us in the sense of what concerns the good of their nature ; the crane
and swallow, the ox and ass, are better proficients in the good belonging to
their nature, than corrupted man in what is necessary for his happiness,
Jer. viii. 7, Isa. i. 3.
1. This ignorance is natural. It was the glory of man in his creation
to have the knowledge of God. The goodness of the creatures, which God
beheld in them after they were formed by him, consisted in their natures
and qualities suitable to them. If other creatures had qualities suitable to
their natures, the noblest creature could not be defective. If man had betn
* Daille sur Jean iii.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 73
created with an ignorance of God, he could not have been good, under that
which is the deformity of a rational nature. But since the crack by the fall,
there is not a man that by nature understands God, or knows him to seek
him, God, in his exact search in the world after its pollution, found not a
man but was as ignorant as he was corrupt : Ps. xiv. 2, 3, ' The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that
did understand, and seek God ;' and the result is, that they were ' all gone
aside ; they were altogether become filthy ; not a man that doeth good, no,
not one.' Not a man without blindness in his understanding, as well as
filthiness in his will and practice ; which, lest it should be thought to be
meant only of a particular deluge of .corruption peculiar to that age, the
apostle expounds it as a charge against the whole world, comprehended in
Jews and Gentiles, Rom. iii. 9-11. We are no more born with a saving
knowledge of God in our heads and hearts, than with a skill in philosophy
and mathematics ; no, nor so much, for we bring into the world a faculty
capable of them by ordinary instruction, but uncapable of the other without
special illumination. The eye is born quite blind to spiritual, but purblind
only to natural, knowledge. It is as possible to read the law in tables of
stone after they are pounded to dust, as to read true notions of God and
Christ in lapsed nature. .This is excellently described by the apostle : Eph.
iv. 17, 18, ' Vanity of the mind, darkness in the understanding, and blind-
ness of the heart.' The essential faculties of the rational soul : the mind,
the repository of principles, the faculty whereby we should judge of things
honest or dishonest ; the. understanding, the discursive faculty and the re-
ducer of those principles into practical dictates, — that part whereby we reason
and collect one thing from another, framing conclusions from the principles
in the mind; the heart, i. e. the will, conscience, affections, which were to
apply those principles, draw out those reasonings upon the stage of the life,
all corrupted, — one vain, the other dark, and the third stark blind. And
the most ingenious nations for natural knowledge and civil prudence verify
the apostle's character in their brutish actions.* The Egyptians, that were
men famed for their knowledge, and derived the sciences to the other parts
of the world, were worse than beasts in their worship. The Greeks, who
counted their Athens the eye of the world, were not more refined, when they
adored thirty thousand gods, and some of them infamous for murder and
adultery, and had three hundred and twenty- four several opinions about the
chief good ; and the Romans, eminent for civil prudence, were not much
behind them, when they worshipped a fever, and dignified a strumpet with
the title of the goddess of flowers. A great philosopher among them takes
notice of this ignorance of God in the various notions they have of him.f
If you ask an artificer, a poet, a .philosopher, a Scythian, a Persian, what
God is, you will not, find them all of the same opinion. Even those among
the heathens, who for acts of justice and temperance might put men under
the gospel to the blush, have had a thick darkness upon them in regard of
God. They saw not ' the bright light which is in the clouds,' Job xxx\ai. 21.
The knowledge of God hath been as much out of their ken as those moral
virtues were in their practice. And the proneness of men to idolatry in
former ages, while the most intelligent persons in the nature and ways of
God were living among them, discovers the greatness of men's natural igno-
rance. The posterity of Noah in the world were overspread with it, while
Noah, Shem, and Heber, the father of the Hebrews, were living among them,
from whom they heard other instructions. For Noah died in the fifty-seventh
year of Abraham ; Shem and Heber after Abraham's death ; the one thirty-
* Moulin, Dec. i. serm. 3, pp. 76, 76. f Maximua Tyrius, Dissert, i. sect. 3.
74 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
five, and the other fifty-four years after, as is gathered from Scripture chro-
nology.* This natural ignorance is in all men by nature ; so that Paul had
good reason to say that ' the natural man' (which state we are all in as we
are born) ' receives not the things of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 14. Every man is
born with a veil upon his heart, and spiritual things cannot be discerned by
a faculty spiritually depraved. This is partial in good men ; they have a
light in their minds, but obscure. They know but little of God, nor can
ever know him to the utmost, nor search him out unto perfection, because
he is infinite. And this is in some more, in some less, according to the
acuteness or dulness of their natural capacities, their various diverting
employments and conditions in the world ; or according to the variety of the
means of knowledge, which may be in one place more than in another. Some
parts of the world have not the sun in that beauty and strength as it is in
others. The best Christian heart, in comparison of what it should be, is a
land of darkness, not a fully enlightened Goshen. Since original sin hath
dealt with us as the Philistines^with Samson, put out our eyes, they are
cured but partially in this world ; the perfection is reserved for another.
2. This natural ignorance among men under the gospel is wilful. Many
have no desire to know what they ought to know of God, that their con-
sciences may not press them to do what they know. They hoodwink them-
selves, and close their eyes against the light of the glory of God, that they
might not see the filthy puddle and hideous deformity of their own hearts.
That knowledge which is the ornament of the soul they account the torment
of their conscience ; are wilfully ignorant, that they may be destroyed more
pleasantly, and with less fear. How epidemic is this ! The light shines
upon the head, yet shines into few hearts ; is no more regarded by men than
pearls by a swine. It is a disparagement to be ignorant in a man's proper
art ; not counted so to be defective in this, which is of absolute necessity.
Other ignorance is condemned, and this afiected. ' The world by wisdom
knew not God,' 1 Cor. i. 21. The understanding and natural wisdom is
employed in any vile service, rather than inquiries after God, and with more
delight entertains a natural discovery than a divine revelation.
(1.) Men are commonly contrary to it. The imaginations which lift up
themselves against the knowledge of Christ are the darlings ; a mighty un-
willingness to have them pulled down and razed to the gi-ound, 2 Cor.
X. 5, 6. We have not only an ignorance at our birth, but a stubbornness
joined with it. ' A wild ass's colt ' is the best term the Scripture gives us,
Job xi. 12. The wild ass is the most untamed and unteachable creatm'e.f
No beast is more brutish and ignorant than a child at its birth ; nor any
wild creature kicks more against the tamer than man against the instruc-
tions of his Creator. The natural notions of God men are not willing natu-
rally to cherish ; they would raze out the engraven letters ; but since they
are so deeply impressed as not to be obliterated, they fill the characters with
dirt, keep them by unrighteousness from being legible, that they may be
secure in the practice of their unworthy principles : Rom. i. 28, they ' like
not to retain God in their knowledge.' The beams of an heavenly light are
offensive to men ; like wild beasts, which run from the rising sun into their
dark dens. A deaf ear and a stout heart are evident testimonies of an affec-
tion to darkness and disaffection to light, John iii. 19. There is a natural
' love to a lie : ' 2 Thess. ii. 11, ' For this cause God shall send them strong
delusions, that they shall believe a lie.' When God gives men up to a lie,
be makes no impression of a lie upon them, as he doth of truth and divine
knowledge in the illumination of the Spirit, but gives up a man to himself,
* Vossii Histor. Pelag. lib. iii. part iii. sect. 6, p. 365. t Mercer.
John XVII. 3.J the knowledge of god. 75
withdraws his light, the natural consequence whereof is to run the road of
nature, and believe a lie rather than truth. Since Adam's credulity is the
inheritance of his posterity, they take God for a serpent, and the serpent
for a god, and are as unwilling to receive the sparks of the one as they are
desirous to entertain the deceits of the other. ^Vhosoeve^ hath unworthy
and despicable thoughts of God is averse to any beam that discovers him ;
no man can affect to know that which he doth not value.
(2.) Men are naturally conceited that they know enough of God. There
are two deplorable qualities in man.
First, An incapacity to understand the mysteries of God, by reason of the
dulness of the flesh.
Secondly, An unwillingness to confess his ignorance, by reason of pride
and conceitedness. Man by birth is a headstrong creature ; yet, as vain as
he is, he would be counted wise : Job xi. 12, ' Vain man would be wise,'
and that in the things of heaven. Those that know least of God are trans-
ported with an overweening conceit that they know most, that they know
enough, and more than enough. As in the sight of God's majesty we think
ourselves nothing, so in the ignorance of him we think ourselves more than
we are. When sick men conceit themselves sound, they will wilfully refuse
any remedy which may convey health : John ix. 41, 'Now you say, We see;
therefore your sin remains.' The opinion they had of their knowledge made
them wilfully refuse the cure of their ignorance.
Thirdlt/, Men are commonly negligent of knowledge. If there be not a
sensible contrariety to it, or a foolish conceit that they have no need of it,
though there be a sense of the want of it, yet there is a common negligence
in seeking it, and making due inquiries after God. There is a sleep and a
pleasure in sleeping ; men love to slumber, Isa. Ivi. 10. Those who cannot
endure a darkness in other things, nor acquiesce in a confused knowledge of
them without searching into their causes, and reasons or effects, are well
contented with a weak and languishing knowledge of God, quickly tired in
their pursuits of him. They look up to the sun, and presently take their
eyes off again ; glance at spirituals, and fix to naturals. Where is the man
who hath intent thoughts upon his Maker and Redeemer ? How little or no
time is it that we spend daily in viewing his glories by meditation ! How
many rise and lie down without any reflection upon the Author of their lives
and motions, and upon the Mediator, who purchased those for them after a
forfeiture ! Are not the stupendous works of creation visible, the amazing
works of redemption legible ? Do not sparks of his wisdom rush out of
every creature flying round about us ? and yet we are lazy in the improve-
ment of them to attain a further sight of that God who is the author of
them. Have we not the sun in the firmament of the gospel, but do we cast
our eyes often upon it ? Do not little fancies please us more than substance ?
A prodigious sottishness possesses men, under multiplied motives to endea-
vour after the knowledge of God. How many are there in the world, and in
congregations, that never improve one sermon to advance in the spiritual
knowledge of God ?
(3.) This wilful ignorance, partly from contrariety, conceitedness, and
negligence, is frequent among us. There is among us a common knowledge
of God, which prevents the world from being a shambles, and preserves the
security of his people. It is a guard to the true seed in the world, as the
straw and chafi' is to the grain of corn. Abimelech's natural knowledge of
God restrained his hands from offering violence to Abraham ; but saving
knowledge is a fruit not to be found in every hedge. The levity of men in the
ways of God is an evidence of it : ' like children, carried about with every
76 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
wind of doctrine.' As want of strength makes the bodies, so want of knowledge
makes the minds of children capable of being moulded into any form. The
assent is not fully given to divine revelations. They may have some of the
seed of the word in their affections when they have little in their judgments.
If there were a spiritual knowledge of God and Christ, why should men be
so soon inveigled with error, and fling off the acknowledgment of those
truths, whence they have confessed they have reaped a harvest of comfort ?
What is the reason evil is so often chosen, since our wills naturally are
determined to nothing but under the notion of good, but the blindness of
our mind ? We never choose evil because it is evil, but because we appre-
hend it (o be good. Where the heart is not won to God, the mind is not
enlightened by him. Our little love to him, delight in him, zeal for him,
thoughts of him, testify too many dark clouds between him and our under-
standings. We have no sound sense of his justice if we tremble not
at it, no savour of his holiness if we do not strive to imitate it. What
though we may have a notion of Christ crucified, risen, and ascended! The
mystery of Christ is veiled to our eye if our hearts be sunk into the world
and lust. Our darkness comprehends not the shining light, John i. 5. It
rather stifles the notions of God than is dispersed by them. How soon do we
forget what we seem to know ! Our Saviour laboured to instruct his disciples
during the time of his life in the doctrine of his death ; it leaked out of their
minds, as if they believed nothing of his former declarations till the appear-
ance of his person was. an irrefragable testimony of the truth of his words.
If our knowledge of God were more spiritual, the operations of our souls
would be more heavenly. Whosoever knows him is still flying towards
him. Creeping earth-worms, lukewarm iLaodiceaus, careless Gallios, con-
ceited Pharisees, know little, understand less, and savour nothing of God
and Christ. Our ignorance of God is ioo .great, because our estimations of
God are too little.
To awaken us against a wilful and negligent ignorance, consider,
[l.J It is inconsistent with Christianity. He deserves not the name of a
Christian who wants the necessary, knowledge of a' Christian. He deserves
not the name of a rational and intelligent creature who neglects the em-
ployment of his mind about the most worthy object. Spiritual ignorance
doth as much unchristian a man that hath the name of a Christian, as natu-
ral folly unmans a person who hath the shape of a reasonable creature.
Should we call this a world. if there were no sun, or a man a man that hath
no eyes in his head, nor reason in his mind ? It would be:a shadow of the
world, the ghost of a man. Christianity without knowledge is an appear-
ance and nothing else, like the picture of a man without reason. A true
Christian bewails Adam's loss, endeavours .to repair it, to get a light restored
to his mind, and a beauty to his-soul. He approves of Adam's sin that sits
contented in that darkness Adam brought upon himself and his posterity.
Can that man be counted a follower of Christ, that is, pleased with the plague
of nature, which the light of the sun. comes to scatter , by his beams ? Was
any poor Egyptian at ease in the judicial darkness, were his groans silent,
or his desires weak for the removal of it ? Yet how many souls, capable of
an inheritance of light, sport themselves in the thick fogs of spiritual igno-
rance ! He hath a pagan heart, under a Christian name, that can talk of
the design of the new Adam, and yet be pleased with the predominant dark-
ness and nature of the old. It is against the end of the gospel; the promise
concerning the gospel times is, that ' the earth shall be full of the knowldge
of the Lord,' Isa. xi. 9, not full of the ignorance of God. Light, not dark-
ness, is the glory of a gospel state. The ignorance of the apostles in the
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 77
time of Christ concerning the nature of his mediation, the design and end
of his death, is intolerable now in any that bear the name of Christians.
That was before the death and resurrection of Christ, ours after the clear
manifestation of that which in the time of his life was obscure to his
disciples.
[2. J Ignorance is Satan's tool and chain, whereby he acts men and keeps
them in captivity. He obstructs knowledge, and guides us in rebellion by
ignorance. The knowledge of God opens the secrets of Satan's kingdom, and
reveals the mystery of his government. It is the breaking out of the light
of the glory of God in the gospel that makes him fall from heaven like light-
ning, Luke x. 18. None gratify Satan so much as- ignorant persons. While
this chain is upon the greatest mere moralist, he is as sure under the conduct
of the devil as the profanest wretch. He can be content to let men please
themselves with the shadows of virtue, while he can hold them sui-e by the
chain of darkness. He knows he can lead anywhere those that want eyes to
see their way. The darkness of the mind and the power of Satan are the
same thing : Acts xxvi. 18, ' To turn men from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God.' Whosoever is possessed by the one is not
free from the command of the other ; darkness chains Satan to punishment,
and darkness chains us to Satan. It is the devil's tool whereby he works in
us ; he makes a vast use of it in his motions in the world, and his assaults
of the soul, Eph. vi. 12. He is called ' the ruler of the darkness of this
world,' of the dark ignorant principles of this world. The darkness in the
heart, whether total or partial, is the handle to every operation of his upon
us ; and the thicker, that is, the stronger second he hath to take his part
in all his contests against our spiritual welfare. By our foolish principles,
he makes work in our fiery passions. The more we understand of God's
nature and Christ's offices, the more we shall be able to discern his subtlety,
and prevent or withstand his attempts, Eph. vi. 14, 15, 17.
[3.] Ignorance of God is the cause of all sin in the world. This is the
fountain of all the sin that ever was ; of the first sin, 2 Cor. xi. 3. Those
sins which are against knowledge of a particular precept, are grounded upon
an ignorance of the nature of the Lawgiver. Sin springs from an error of
imperfection in the understanding. If a false judgment be erected, false
orders will be issued ; innumerable evils, determinations in the will and
errors in practice, w^ill be the consequents ; wrong notions of God will give
birth to foul evils. A vertijo or megrim in the head causeth irregular and
unsteady motions in the members. Hence it is that the Scripture gives the
name of folly to sin, and fools to sinners. To forget God is the character
of all wicked men : Ps. 1. 22, ' Consider this, ye that forget God.' Sin
grows from the root of folly. Why do men ' give themselves over to commit
lasciviousness with greediness' ? ' Because of the blindness of their hearts,'
Eph. iv. 18, 19. Why did not the Sadducees believe the resurrection?
Because they 'knew not the scriptures, and the power of God,' Mat.
xxii. 29. Why are men corrupt in their ways ? Because they ' say in their
hearts. There is no- God,' Ps. xiv. 1. Why did the ungrateful Israehtes
provoke God in the wilderness forty years of mercy together ? Because
'they did err in their hearts, and did not know his ways,' Ps. xcv. 10.
Ignorance of the glory of God, the nature of sin, and the necessity of proper
ways of expiation, was the cause of the greatest wickedness that ever was
committed in the face of the sun. The Jews had framed a false notion of
a carnally victorious and triumphant Messiah, that would make them con-
querors of the world, and therefore crucified the Lord of glory. This
fashions men to lust, 1 Peter i. 14. All wickedness flows out like a torrent,
78 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
Hosea iv. 1, 2 (he that doeth evil hath not seen God, 3 John 11), where
there are false conceptions of God, or true notions of him misapplied. The
rootion will be irregular when men imagine a careless God or an impure
God, that he doth not regard our ways, is patient, without anger, threatens
only to scare, will not damn men to everlasting torment for a small crime,
his anger endures not for ever ; what will not a man do by those encourage-
ments upon the invitation of a temptation ? When the Gentiles' imagina-
tions of God became vain, their practices quickly became abominable, Rom.
i. 21, 24. Mistakes of God, and impudence in sin, hold one another by
the hand. When the mind is corrupt and destitute of the truth, then break
out strife, and envy, and railings, and all the black regiment of hell, 1 Tim.
vi. 4, 5. No foundation in blindness for any regular walking. Hence it
is that sins are called works of darkness, but (as some think) never darkness
itself, for by that word in Scripture is signified error and ignorance. That
which hath no being can have no operation, that which is not known can
never move the conscience. If it be not known, it is so far a nonentity, a
thing of no existence ; a man can have no gracious operation, because with-
out knowledge of God he can have no gracious being. It is not so much
the pleasure of sin as the ignorance of God that preserves men's affections
to vile lusts. Were the pleasures of sin, Uke Nebuchadnezzar's furnace,
seven times hotter and more sparkling than they are, they could not detain
them by their channs, if they had a prospect of the goodness, sweetness, and
kindness of God. The beauty of this object would leave in them no spirit
for the other. For when the soul knows God to be the chief good, and
clearly apprehends him under that notion, all the chains of sin and Satan
cannot di-aw him, nor the allm-ements of them woo him totally from him.
But you may as soon cause an ass with his heavy limbs to run a race as
swiftly as a stag, as cause an ipi.orant person to repent and come to Christ.
You may as wtli find reason in a bat, as repentance and faith and spLritual
thirst in an ignorant person. As this is the cause of all sin in the world,
60 the remainders of it is the cause of all the slips in the best of God's
people, which cost them so many sad groans. As a total blindness endangers
a fall into precipices, so a partial blindness exposeth to many stumblings in
the way.
[4.] Wilful ignorance of God is damning. If the knowledge of God be
eternal life, ignorance of God must be eternal death. Mere ignorance de-
stroys as well as disobedience. Vengeance will be rendered on * them that
know not God,' — on heathens that had not a beam of the gospel, as well as
on them ' that obey not the gospel' revealed to them, 2 Thes. i. 7, 8. If
God hides his gospel from a man, it is a sign of a lost estate : 2 Cor. iv. 4,
' If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost;' much more when a man
hides the gospel from himself, which is not only a neglect of God, but a con-
tempt of grace. He affects his own damnation, as he affects darkness that
shuts his eyes against the sun, and refuseth the benefit of the light. If it
be damning where the true notions of God and Christ are not revealed, it is
much more when the revelation of him is rejected or abused. There is so much
of God manifested in his works as renders him in some measure intelligible,
and God hath given them a faculty to know something of him, whereby their
neclect renders them also inexcusable. How could a man be inexcusable
that did not see the sun, if he had a negative inability to see it ? God hath
given as much light to men in his works as is due to an intellectual nature,
and to this end, that men might be inexcusable (for so those words, Rom.
i. 20, so that they are without excuse, might be more to the design of the
apostle rendered), ' that they might be without excuse,' not noting the event of
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge op god. 79
their neglect, but the design of God's manifestation, that if they did neglect
it, they should have no ground for an apology.
But where God hath over and above added out of grace a scriptural
light, and made the glorious manifestations therein plain, and when the
revelation is clearer than that in the creatures, clearer than that in the law,
which was called night, in comparison of the knowledge in the gospel, which
is called day (not that the one was absolutely dark, but in comparison of
the other, as the night is not absolutely dark because there is a star-light,
or some light in the sky, but much short of the light of the day), wilful
ignorance under such opportunities of knowledge renders men more deplor-
able than heathens. Inexcusable is he that hath seen God riding in the
chariot of the gospel, and the Sun of righteousness moving in the hemisphere
of the word, and will not behold that sun by whose light he walks upon the
earth, and performs his daily afl'airs. What can be answered when the
question shall be put. How came you to be ignorant of those things which
have so often been inculcated to you ? ignorant of that God in whom you
live and move ? ignorant of that God that shines in every plant,* every
motion of the heavens, and clothes himself with the robes of yet greater
glory in his word ? There lies as much an obligation upon us to the
knowledge of God, as to universal obedience to God. We are bound to
inquire after him, what he is, what we must do to please him, and how he
will be worshipped. He therefore that is wilfully defective in inquiring
after God, and searching into his will, hath no intent universally to obey
him ; if he had, he would take pains to know him, and what would please
him, which is necessary to a state of salvation. We know what the fate of
those is that have no intention of universal obedience. It speaks the heart
set upon sin, and a fear of coming to be acquainted with anything that may
hinder them from committing it. A man ignorant of God and Christ can
no more recover out of his mortal disease, than a sick man can without the
knowledge of an able physician, and the application of a sovereign remedy.
It is only by the knowledge of Christ that we have justification from our
guilt, Isa. liii. 11. No man can be freed from guilt by ignorance ; to think
to be saved by ignorance is the same as to imagine to live without a know-
ledge of food, and to be happy without acquaintance with the necessary
means of happiness. That which is our sin can never be our apology ; and
being a gross sin, is so far from excusing, that it renders itself more griev-
ous, and the condemnation more terrible. And though it be said that Paul
' obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief,' 1 Tim. i. 13, it
will give no comfort to those that are wilfully ignorant, unless they can
prove that Paul was one of that rank ; he did what he did ignorantly,
because the gospel was never revealed to him till Christ revealed it from
heaven. It is likely he was furious against the Christians by an implicit
faith in the pharisees' determinations, as well as out of a zeal of the law.
By the same reason that any would palliate their ignorance by this, and
imagine a salvation because of that, they may fancy unbelief also to be a
cause of obtaining mercy, which no man that owns the Scripture can have
any pretence to.
To conclude, wilful ignorance of God and Christ under the gospel doth
not procure a single damnation, but one with the most terrible circum-
stances, a condemning sentence with ' God's mock and laughter, turning his
delight and compassions to a pleasure in his vengeance : Prov. i. 23, &c.,
' Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit upon you, I
will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and you
* Qu. 'planet'?— Kd.
80 charnock's works. [John XVII. 8.
refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but you
have set at nought all my counsel ; I also will laugh at your calamity, and
mock when your fear cometh.'
Use II. Is of comfort to those who have this saving knowledge of God.
Is it not an high satisfaction to be in the light, while many others are in
darkness, to have an acquaintance with the Creator and Redeemer, while
others have a familiarity only with the devil ? As he that is ignorant of
God is miserable, though skilled in all natural and moral knowledge, so he
is transcendently happy who knows his Creator, though blockish in all the
arts in the world. If he were possessed with as great a wisdom as Solomon,
he could have no addition to his essential happiness. As the fruition of
Grod in the end is the sole blessedness of a creature, so the knowledge of
God is the sole means to blessedness, without anything else to piece it out.
Christ in the text mentions nothing else in ooncomitancy with it, ' This is
life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent ;' this and nothing else, this without anything besides. Such an
one is in union with the highest truth, he hath a spring of spiritual life
within him, a divine manna that nourisheth his soul to everlasting life. It
is a comfort that God hath fixed the fitness of the soul to enjoy him, not in
a natural strength of the understanding, but in an afiectionate knowledge of
him, a qualification all are capable of. If only wise men, and men eminent
for speculation, were capacitated for eternal life, how few would God have to
know him or enjoy him ! But the meanest man, that hath neither oppor-
tunity nor capacity for an elevated contemplation of God, may attain this
spiritual knowledge and an elevation of afiection to him.
1. Such an one knows more than all the carnal world besides. What
the world knows of God is by a common illumination, as Christ is 'the
light which enhghteneth every man that comes into the world,' and by the
largeness of a natural capacity ; but what a Christian knows of God is by a
divine infusion, strait union, by a particular act of God, making Christ
wisdom to him, 1 Cor. i. 30. He knows him not only by a natural instinct
as the world doth, and as beasts know their proper food and what is con-
venient for them, but by a special revelation, an inshining, a choice favour
not indulged to every one : * To you it is given to know the mj'steries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given,' Mat. xiii. 11, a gift out of
his secret cabinet, not out of his common exchequer. How comfortable was
it to the shepherds to have the revelation of the birth of Christ, which was
concealed from the pharisees and grandees of the Jews ! God darts out a
divine light upon whom he pleaseth, he refresheth babes with his beams,
while he leaves the wise and prudent with their blind eyes in the dark.
Poor fishermen had this privilege, which was denied to the towering philo-
sophers of the world. And almost all the revelations of Christ there were
among the heathens, were communicated to the weaker sex, some women
called sybils, who had a prophetic spirit of those things. Some of their
prophecies are true, though not all true which is inserted in their oracles ;
they knew more than all the rest of the world. The eye is a little member,
but it views at once the whole surface of heaven within its reach ; a little
savinw light from God gives a man a prospect of such glorious things, which
reason cannot reach ; a little spiritual hght, with the constant assistance of the
Spirit, shall behold more of God than the biggest intellect without it, as a
little eye with a multitude of sparkling spirits shall see further and clearer
than a greater without that assistance. Many men of the deepest insight
and quickest parts are furthest from the knowledge of God.
2. It is an evidence of grace to have a transforming, affectionate know-
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god. 81
ledge of God and Christ. No wicked man doth understand, Dan. xii. 10,
i. e. experimentally, affectionately, transformingly. Ignorance is a sign of
gracelessness, spiritual knowledge is a fruit of the Spirit, and a sign of all
the other fruits of it; for it is a covenant mercy, and flows from God's being
our God, and it is a fruit of the grace of God given us in Christ to be
enriched with it, 1 Cor. i. 4, 5. The clearness of the chui'ch's eyes, like the
fish-pools of Heshbon, in the apprehension of spiritual mysteries, is part
of her beauty, in the summary description of it, Cant. vii. 4. The eyes are
the organs of sight, and the instruments of knowledge which convey objects
to the understanding. It is a sign of a man's being in covenant with God, to
have an heart to know him, Jer. xxiv. 7. Heb. viii. 11, ' I will give them
an heart to know me, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God,
I will put my law into their mind.' The great promise of the new covenant
was, that they should know God better than under all the rudiments of the
law ; a knowing God by a law in the heart, as well as by a notion in the
head ; for the law written in the heart is a reason rendered why they should
know God. He speaks not of a knowledge that lies in the common field,
but a know^ledge hedged in, and peculiar to the covenant children of God,
the heirs of heaven, and brethren of one family, not to all that bear the
name of Christians, for it is such a knowledge as is accompanied with sanc-
tification of the heart, Heb. viii. 10, and justification of the person : ver. 12,
' For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities
I wiU remember no more.' Where this knowledge is, it is a sign of the
special favour of God ; since it is a gift only in his power; (God doth not use
so solemnly to promise that which is within our common reach), and is
conveyed by a special act of the Spirit. It being a covenant mercy, it is a
cabinet mercy. Men without it are in the chains of darkness and the devil ;
those that have it are freed from the devil's yoke. What a comfortable thing
is it to be within the arms of the everlasting covenant ! Where covenant
graces are bestowed, all covenant blessings will of right follow.
(3.) What comfort may such have in all kind of atfiictions ? This, like
musk, will perfume the most loathsome dungeon. We have enough if we
have this spiritual knowledge of God, though we want all things else.
Death cannot be dreadful when Christ is known and felt in the power of his
grace. The view of Christ raised the heart of Stephen above fears and
anguish, when stones were ready to break in pieces the case of his body :
Acts vii. 55, 56, ' He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right
hand of God.' This knowledge is the strongest cordial : the sweetness of
this surmounts the bitterness of the other. When the sun is clearly seen,
the high winds do r<arely trouble the mariner. In death, we need the greatest
supports, and what greater than to consider you are going to one you know ?
Though you change your place, yet not your acquaintance ; you pass to a
strange country, but not to new company. And indeed, afiiictions are so
far from being ground of discomforts, that they are rather cordials in the
issue, because they advance us more degrees in this knowledge, which is the
means of eternal life. We often learn more of God under the rod that
strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us ; Ps. cxix. 71, ' It is gcod
for me that I have been afflicted ; that I might learn thy statutes. The law
of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.' If the
sun should perpetually shine in our hemisphere, how could we understand
God's workmanship in those little spangles of the heavens ? Though the
night hide from us the beauty of the sun, yet it discovers the brightness and
motions of the stars. God had not at all been discovered to us without the
VOL. IV. F
82 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
bleeding afflictions of Christ; nor is not fully learned of us without our own.
Daniel was in captivity, when he had the most perspicuous visions of Christ ;
John in exile in Patmos, when he had the revelation of Christ's walk among
the candlesticks, and the methods of God in the affairs of the church. And
Paul mounts up in choicer apprehensions of spiritual objects, as upon eagle's
wings, in his epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, which were
writ when be was in bonds at Rome for Christ, wherein appears an higher
flight, a stronger ardour, a more divine efficacy of Spirit in him. This
spiritual knowledge of God and Christ prepares us for afflictions, comforts
us in them, and is enlarged by them.
(4.) Comfort in the measures and degrees of knowledge. It is eternal life
to know God and Jesus Christ ; Christ regards the quality, not the quantity.
The disciple?, who were present with Christ in this prayer, and of whom he
acquaints his Father that they had known him, bad but little knowledge,
yet it was true and sound, though not in such great measures as afterwards.
Not that this should be encouragement to laziness ; for the small measures
in them before the death of Christ are inexcusable now, under greater means
than they had before the coming of the Spirit upon them after the Redemeer's
death and resurrection. All believers have not the same measure of know-
ledge, yet all have the truth of it ; there are degrees of knowledge, as there
are of grace ; God distributes the knowledge of himself according to the nature
of the several subjects, as the sun doth light to the stars according to their
several capacities. All the apostles, in the time of Christ's being in the
world, had not the same measure and clearness of insight. Peter confesseth
him to be the Son of God when the rest were silent; and none after seems
to have the knowledge of Christ and his mysteries in the same elevation with
Paul, yet all bad a sufficiency of knowledge, both for themselves and others.
Nay, believers themselves have not at all times the same sparkling measures
of light : as the sun shines clearer in some parts of the day than in others,
yet in every part of the day there is light enough for men to perform their
affairs by. Look to the quality of your knowledge, that it be sound, spiritual,
transforming, as well as to the quantity. See what favour attends it, what
affections it engenders ; not what speculations it raiseth. A great heat
with a little light is better than a clear light with an hard fi'ost and be-
numbed limbs. The spiritual eye, as well as the natural, is opened by
degrees. Bless God for what you find ; rest not in twilight, but long for
stronger beams. Look to God for light : Ps. xxxiv. 5, ' They looked to him,
and were lightened.' Look not to Moses and the prophets, but as the
means ; look to Christ, who is the light that enlightens every man that comes
into the world. The more casts of our eye upon him by faith, the fuller of
beams shall we take them off. A look towards him attracts light from him,
a look towards the sun clears all things about us.
(5.) And let me add, that it is the office of Christ in heaven to pity us and
relieve us in our bewailed ignorance. He that prayed thus, and asserts the
knowledge of God and of himself to be eternal life, is ordained by God an
high priest, to ' have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out
of the way,' Heb. v. 1, 2. As he pities bis people under the remainders of
sin, so under tbe remainders of darkness, the cause of the other. It is one
of the greatest troubles of a gracious soul, that he knows no clearer ; and
the mediator's strongest compassions are exercised about that which is his
people's urgent distress. What hath Christ compassions for, but to exert
upon their greatest perplexity ? What use were they for, if the proper ob-
ject of them be neglected ? He hath all his offices to remove the fruits of
our fall. The darkness of the mind was the first, and the cause of all the
John XVII. 3. J the knowledge of god. 83
mischiefs since. If the crazed understanding be not cured, no saving
work can have its full effect. This being the root of our misery, is the first
proper object of our Saviour's compassions. His compassions are his quaU-
fication for every office ; were he not compassionate, his royalty would
rather be a tyranny, his priesthood an empty title, his prophetical ojfice an
idle name. As he pleads against the guilt of sin, which as a priest he hath
expiated ; as he pleads against the power of sin, which as a king he hath
broken : so he pleads against the remaining ignorance of the soul, which as
a prophet he is expelling. As it was his business at the first to declare God,
so it is still his employment more fully to discover him. As he owns the
gift of his Father's power in the text to spread this knowledge, so he pro-
miseth in the same prayer to be faithful in his office : John xvii. 26, ' I have
declared thy name, and will declare it.' He was the light of men, not only
at his incarnation, but before ; no age or period of time was there wherein
he scattered not some illumination in the world. He ' was the light of men,'
John i. 4, and ' lighted every man that came into the world,' ver. 9 ; nor
is less pitiful to men's ignorance, and industrious to remove the continuing
shadows in the hearts of his people, than he was before. As he is the
author of their knowledge as well as their faith, so l^e will be the finisher of
the one as well as the other. He is a Sun of righteousness, and is to do
spiritually what the sun doth naturally, send forth his light to disperse the
darkness, and his influence to heal the barrenness of the soul. The natural
sun, indeed, pierceth by its influence the obscure bowels of the earth, which,
by reason of their thickness, obstruct the entrance of his beams ; but the
Sun of righteousness bestows not his influence without his light. He is first
a prophet to enlighten, before he is a Spirit to quicken, in the first work.
He is the same in the progress ; as we cannot have spiritual life before
light, so we cannot have. an increase of spiritual life without an increase of
spiritual light ; and to this purpose he took our nature, that he might pity
and remove our darkness. Is not this a comfort, to have the glass of his
word below, wherein to see him ; a Spirit within, to wipe and clear our
eyes ; and an high priest above, to exercise his compassions towards us upon
this very account ?
(6.) The saving knowledge of God any have, is an evidence of a future
state, of a happy vision, and an earnest of their arrival to it. Since it is the
means of eternal life, there must be an eternal life, the issue of this know-
ledge. Of what use are means that are without an end? Since nothing can
satisfy the soul here, nor can our souls with a perfect contentment know God
through the grates and lattices of a dark body, with the scales and shades
upon the mind, there must be a time wherein a glorious liberty from prison
shall be conferred, Eom. viii. 21, the shadows fly away, and a contenting
vision be bestowed upon a longing heart ; otherwise the soul could not have
an happy and satisfactory eternal life. Not to have such a knowledge as to
satisfy the full desires, would be half an eternal death ; not answering the
vastness of the power the Father bestowed upon the Son for the conferring
it, nor answering the compassions of the Son to the ignorant in removing the
hindrances. Besides, the more knowledge there is here, the hotter the thirst
for more. As God is the author of those sparks we have, so he is the author
of that heat which ariseth in the soul by those sparks. It cannot be sup-
posed that a God of infinite goodness, who created man for the fruition of
himself, and after he was dead in sin revived him, and planted in him quick
and ardent desires for himself, should do this without designing a full satis-
faction to him, which never any of the choicest spirits had in this world, and
therefore must be in another. Where do you find any blessed soul at rest
8i charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
here ? David is still upon pursuit after a sigbt of the glory of God ; Paul
still reacheth forward to the things before, and breathes after a full appre-
hension, putting up petitions for all whom he had the care of and affection
to, that they might be enriched with all knowledge, understand the riches of
glory, be tilled with all wisdom. Doth it consist with such a watchful, sincere,
and unspotted goodness of God, to raise and continue such inclinations in
his creatures, to encourage and influence them, and never to render them
completely satisfied ? Shall God thus let any soul that hath had a glimpse
of him lie grovelling and panting, without reaching out his hand to lift him
up, and unveiling his face in time to him to behold his glory ? Annihilation
had been better than boundless desires, eternally unsatisfied, and eternally
languishing. The understanding, the noblest faculty, first seized upon by
God, will not always want the noblest contentment in the view of its proper
object. The sun communicates not itself to the air, but by the enlightening
of it. God is the father of glory as well as of grace, and is a father of grace
in order to his being a father of glory. God doth not design to mock his
creatures, or to defeat the desires of his own exciting. It is in point of
knowledge as well as other things that God is our God, Jer. xxiv. 7. He
will one day be our God in the highest perfection of all the fruits of the
covenant, so that ignorance as well as sin and infirmity shall be chased far
from us. The covenant will want its full accomplishment till the dim know-
ledge of God be drowned in a perfect and clear vision. And since the
shadowy light we have is so delightful, how ravishing must that be which
shall discover God in his full glory ! If the earnest be so pleasing, how
dehghtful shall be the full payment, since an earnest is the least part of the
sum contracted for !
(7.) Where God doth communicate the knowledge of himself and his Son,
he will not hide from gracious souls any other knowledge necessary for them
in the world. The giving the greater is an assurance the less shall not be
withheld, which may further them in that which is the principal end. Yea,
he sometimes reveals his secret purposes to them concerning his transactions
in the world. God w^ould not conceal from Abraham his determination con-
cerning Sodom, because he had been acquainted with the grand secret of his
mercy in the Messiah : Gen. xviii. 17, 18, ' Shall I hide from Abraham the
thing which I do, seeing that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
him ? ' Have I manifested my gracious purpose to restore mankind to my
favour, and the means how I will do it, which the heart of man could never
think of, and so many hundred years are to run out before it be accomplished,
and shall I make a difiiculty to acquaint him with my intended judgment
upon Sodom ? God often gives those that know him a sense and sight of
judgments he intends to bring upon a people : ' Who is wise, and he shall
understand those things ? ' Hosea xiv. 9. Both the threatenings and pro-
mises contained in that prophecy.
III. Use. Of exhortation.
1. Try yourselves whether you have the knowledge of God or no; try it
not so much by the notions you have of God and his truth as by the opera-
tions of it, and the draught of the perfections of God in your own souls.
The greatest heads have often had the worst hearts, Christ had not more des-
perate enemies in the whole world than the intelligent pharisees, the Jewish
doctors, who had the law at their fingers' ends. See whether we have a
transcript of God and Christ in our own souls. When we cast our eyes
upon God, let us reflect upon ourselves, and see whether the temper of our
hearts answer the notions in our heads. Can any man say, I know God to
be merciful, and I have an imitation of it; God is holy, and I have a draught
John X'VII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 85
of it; God is omniscient, and I have a deep sense of it in my actions; God
hath a sovereign dominion, and I have an obedient frame; God is true iu
his word, and I have a sincerity answering to divine truth, a faith in his
promises, a fear of his threatenings ; there are some Hneaments in my heart
answering in some measure to the perfections of my Creator ? And can any
man consider Christ as obedient to the will of God, and see a conformity iu
himself to that heavenly image ? I know Christ felt the sting of death for
sin, and I feel the power of that death breaking my sin, and sinful heart ;
Christ had an happy resurrection, and I feel the blessed fruit and induence
of it, in raising my soul to a newness of life. This is only the true know-
ledge of God and Christ, which sinks down in aflfection, and expresseth itself
in imitation. Conclude not of yourselves by some fleshly apprehensions of
Bome pleasing doctrine of Christianity, as notions of the mercy of God, jus-
tification by Christ, freeness of grace. An intent speculation of such things
may force men into a rapture by the strength of a sprightly imagination,
without the inward Hving spirit of him in the heart. This is such a know-
ledge as the crazed fancy of a madman may have of wealth and palaces,
who hath neither a penny in his purse nor a house for his head. The trial
of ourselves is by a thirst for the performing of the will of God, a motion in
his ways, sense of his greatness, embraces of his grace and dictates, and
spiritual affections to himself and his laws. There is as vast a difference be-
tween the knowledge of God in the letter and that in the spirit, as there is
between the statue of an angel with his wings and a real angel in heaven.
A knowledge in the head is as money in the purse, a knowledge in the heart
is as money for our use. Nor let us conclude by the delight we have in
speculations. There is a secret joy in the contemplation of any truth of a lower
size, much more in the speculation of the highest, noblest, and firmest truth.
The notion may be delightful when a conformity is unpleasant. We may
aflect the accomplishment of our minds without any endeavouring to better
our hearts. Speculation is an employment of wit, but the spiritual knowledge
is a conjunction of heart to God and Christ. We may value a meditation of
him when the conformity to him may be of as little esteem with us as the
straw and dirt we tread under our feet. The understanding and will are
two distinct faculties, have distinct operations; the acting of the one doth
not always infer the acting of the other. We may delight to look upon that
we would not feed on, yet true knowledge is always attended with a delight:
' When wisdom enters into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant to thy
soul,' Prov. ii. 10 ; the more innate light there is in the eye, the more the
eye delights in the beams which from without strike upon it ; the more dark-
ness in the eye, the less pleasure in the sunshine. He that loves his lusts,
hates the light which discovers their ugliness ; he that loves God, loves the
light which discovers his beauty. True knowledge is always accompanied
with more ardent desires to know. One ignorant of God desires not to know
him, that he may sin with the less rebuke and perish with the less fear. It
is a sign the soul hath tasted of divine sweetness, when it longs for grea.ter
communications ; it is so far from assuaging, that it quickens the appetite.
Moses was master of the Egyptian learning, but set not up his rest in that.
He had more acquaintance with God than any man in the world ; yet, after
he had been discoursing with God in the mount, he is an earnest petitioner
for more discoveries : Exod. xxxiii. 13, ' I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.'
That is no true knowledge of God that surfeits and clogs the soul. Those
heavy spirits, that are scarce masters of a groan for it, never umlerstood the
excellency of it. Not to desire to know him is to contemn him, and he that
undervalues him never had any understanding of him.
86 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
2. Rest not in a discursive understanding of God. The understanding in
a state of innocency, with its full stock, did not preserve the will from a
destructive obedience to the sensitive appetite, when it was wholly freed from
those ill biasses which make its motions irregular now. Mere knowledge
now cannot be forcible enough to prevail with the will under the power of
those ill habits, which imperiously tyrannise over it. The eye and hand of
a man can never cast a bowl right, which hath a false bias disproportioned
to the aim of him that useth it ; the reason of the caster cannot make it
move, but according to its false bias. Till the wrong inclination of the will
be displaced, it will not come under the guidance of the understanding,
though it were as strongly enlightened as the highest angel. It will move
according to its natural impetus and habit, notwithstanding all that light in
the mind, as self-will acts the devil against Grod, contrary to all the light in
his understanding. No intellectual act, abstractedly considered, can be a
gracious action ; all acts in the understanding receive their gracefulness and
beauty by the termination of them in a God-like act of the will, which is the
proper seat of grace. We come to enjoy God, not only by an act of our
understanding, but by an act of our will. A glorified saint, no, nor the
human nature of Christ, is not happy so much by a prospect of God, as by
an intense affection to him, God stands not so much upon our knowledge
of him, as our delight in him ; and it is no sign of our union with God,
unless affection to him be joined with it. All rational creatures affect know-
ledge in order to some good ; the desires of good are more settled, and are
more the fruits of a natural instinct than desires for knowledge. This, there-
fore, cannot give a complete satisfaction without a taste of his goodness. If
we desire knowledge only for the sake of knowledge, we thw^art the nature
and natural motions of our souls. It is not the perfection of the under-
standing, without the purity of the heart, which brings us to enjoy God,
Mat. V. 8. Impure creatures, with the highest intellectuals, cannot look
upon him. The glory of Christ was to do the will of God ; his knowledge
of him was in order to obey him. Get a fresher experience, therefore, of
every truth of God which you know ; this is the ballast of the soul ; the
other is but a vanishing sound. Improve your knowledge. In knowing God,
we receive only from him ; in loving him, we give ourselves and all that we
have to him, and God bestows himself rather upon them that love him, than
upon those that only know him.* As it is worse to hate God than to be igno-
rant of him, so it is better to love God than merely to understand him. We
may use our speculations to pride, but we cannot make ill use of our holy
affections. By loving, we make a larger progress in a httle time. Love doth
more fii-mly knit us to God than knowledge, for the strength of knowledge
consists in discerning, the strength of love in union. By contemplating God,
we contract, as it were, his infiniteness according to the capacity of our con-
ceptions ; by loving him, we enlarge our minds to the immense latitude of his
divine goodness. By knowing him, we do, as it were, bring him down to us;
by loving him, we hft up ourselves to him. We know only so much as we
can receive and are capable of, but we love not only what we see, but what
we imagine there is of goodness beyond our sight. We see the divine excel-
lency obscurely, but we may love it intensely; we see little, but we may love
much. Knowledge gives us a sight, and love gives us a possession ; we find
him by knowledge, but we enjoy him by love. Let us improve our know-
ledge of him for inflaming our affections to him, that we may be prepared
for the glory of our eternal life. The understanding is but the door of the
* Ficin. lib. i. epist. 116, pp. G63, 664.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 87
heart; to let God and Christ stick there, and not bring them into the heart,
is to give a cold entertainment to that which deserves the best.
3. Prepare, and wait, and long for heaven. We have but a glimpse here
of the excellency of God and beauty of Christ. The church's eyes, though
clear as doves, are ' within her locks,' Cant. iv. 1 ; a fair eye of faith, but
still some obstructions to a full sight. The light now shines in a dark place,
it shall shine there without a spot of darkness ; that which is in part shall
give place to that which is perfect ; the light of God shall dart immediately
upon the soul without reflection from a glass ; all shall meet in the * unity of
the knowledge of the Son of God,' as well as in the 'unity of faith,' Eph.
iv. 13. The motions of the body shall not obstruct the operations of the
soul. There will be light without darkness, knowledge without ignorance,
clearness without dimness ; no turbulent affections shall confound the eye,
nor distractions divert the soul. ' We shall know as we are known,' 1 Cor.
xiii. 12. Every gracious soul is perfectly known by God here, i. e. accepted
by him, but is not fully illuminated by him ; but there will be as perfect an
illumination from him, as there is an acceptation with him. The thick scales
shall for ever fall off from the eye, and the dark veil from the heart, that it
may behold without weakness and winking. As the most excellent object
shall be presented, so it shall be beheld in the most excellent manner; the
spiritual eye shall be fortified, and the divine glory shall be unclouded, and
the pleasure of seeing shall be as great as that of enjoying. The clearest
knowledge here is unconceivably short of that above, as the sight of a sore
eye is of that of an eagle. The chains of spiritual sloth shall be knocked off,
the diversions of worldly objects shall have an eternal remove. Ignorance
within shall perish, and darkness without shall vanish. Here the soul sees
what God is not, there it shall see him as he is to be seen. Surely those
that thirst not for this state, that prepare not themselves for it, that long not
for the passing away of those gloomy shades, that they may satisfy them-
selves with full visions and full aflections, and according to their measures
prepare themselves by diligent inquiries and affectionate motions, never yet
had any taste of the most desirable object.
4. Therefore daily endeavour to increase in the knowledge of God. Our
main work in the world is to increase in the knowledge of sin, that we may
more vehemently detest it ; and the knowledge of God, that we may more
closely embrace him and resign up ourselves to him. Paul, who was advanced
to a higher step in this than any in the world, had taken up a settled reso-
lution to ' know nothing but Christ and him crucified,' as the most excellent
knowledge he could busy himself in, 1 Cor. ii. 2, and would neglect no means
to grow up in the apprehensions of him ' of whom he was apprehended,'
Philip, iii. 12. It is not said we must follow on to know for such a time,
Hos. \'i. 3. No time is fixed, and therefore it must be continually. We
should quicken any divine spark in our souls.* If the first beams of spiritual
light give life, the further increase more abundantly increaseth that life ; it
being eternal life, we are nearest to life when we rise highest in knowledge.
If the mind be opened, it can no more take pleasure in a little knowledge
than the eye of the body can in a little light, by which it delights itself in
any visible object. It can take no pleasure in a little, but as it is a presage
of more approaching. He therefore that saith he knows as much of God and
Christ as can be known, never understood the depth of his own natural igno-
rance, the immensity of God, the dimensions of the love of Christ, and the
nature and unweariedness of the Spirit's teaching. Should all men in the
* A s Jambliclius speaks of Pythagoras, he did ivx^urv^tTv ro S-iTot, Vit. Pytliag.
lib. i. cap. IG.
88 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
world engage in no other study but this of God and Christ, to the world's end,
they would confess that that which they know is unconceivably short of that
which they are ignorant of. It cannot be so great but it is still capable of a
further increase, like a river that is not so big but it may swell higher, and
larger, by the admission of lesser rivulets. There is a ripe age, a manly
stature in understanding, which we must aim at : 1 Cor. xiv. 20, ' Be not
children in understanding.' The apostle, who had the fullest insight into
the nature of God and offices of Christ, puts himself into the number of them
that knew but in part : 1 Cor. xiii. 12, ' I know but in part.' And therefore,
as we desire to be as angels in glory, we should endeavour to imitate the
angels in their acute search into the mysteries of Christ, and wisdom of God
in him ;* they know much, yet desire to know more, 1 Pet. i. 12. The
truth is, as Adam offended in endeavouring to know more than he should,
we offend in neglecting to know so much as we may. Our first parents
would know too much, and their children too little, though there be ' un-
searchable riches of Christ' to be searched into, Eph. iii. 8.
(1.) There can be no growth in grace without an increase in the know-
ledge of God. God is the object of grace, the object must be known before
any act about it can be exercised ; and as the object is cleared, the acts
about it are more vigorous. There may be indeed a knowledge without
grace ; but there can be no increase of grace without an increase of know-
ledge, as the heat of the fire cannot be made more intense without a supply
of fuel. There may be slight affections up and down, rovings, like those of
a ship without ballast tossed by the waves, but making no way. Knowledge
hath faith in its root, and all other graces for its fruit : 2 Peter i. 5-7, ' Add
to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge ;' then follows temperance,
patience, godliness, charity. As the root is strengthened, the branch spreads
itself, and the fruits grow thicker. The knowledge of the word is the en-
trance of life, the means of begetting is the means of nourishing the soul to
eternal life. If the stock decays, the fruits which grow from it cannot
flourish. The increase of it was as much the subject of the apostle's prayer
for the Colossians, as the first fulness of it in them, and that with respect to
their fruitfulness, which depended on it : Col. i. 9, 10, ' We cease not to pray
for you, and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work ;' and as a
means to it he adds, ' increasing in the knowledge of God.'
(2.) It is not likely there can be any other fruit than that of apostasy,
without increasing in the knowledge of God. If knowledge be not improved,
it will decay. ' Evil men wax worse and worse,' 2 Tim. iii. 13. As some
lust is the cause why men desire not the rudiments of knowledge, so some
lust is the cause why men desire not the improvement of knowledge, and
this will be like a thief in the candle of the Lord, making it sweal away, like
a deluge of water extinguishing the fire. If God opens the floodgate of cor-
rupt affections, the flood will quench those sparks which seemed to be spi-
ritual, as well as it did those natural sparks in those the apostle speaks of,
Rom. i. 26. The ground that is bad of itself, when overflowed with salt
waters, is much worse, and cannot bring forth what it did before. A stop in
knowledge, though a man be acquainted with the first principles, is the first
inlet to apostasy, according to the apostle's intimation, Heb. vi. 1, 2. After
he had checked them in the former chapter, for sticking in the first prin-
ciples of Christianitj', and exhorted them in this chapter to proceed further
* Eph. iii. 10, iyx'j'jrTiit lis TO. p>u.6n rr.s Bua; yvuciu;. Clcin. Alcxandr. Bailow on
Tim. part ii. p 61.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 89
in the knowledge of the mysteries of religion, be immediately subjoins the
doctrine of apostasy ; ' For it is impossible for those that were once enlight-
ened, and have tasted the heavenly gift,' &c., ver. 4. If yoa grow not to a
greater maturity in knoAvledge, you are in danger of returning, not only to
your former ignorance, but more corrupt afiections. If they took up their
station in the first principles, they could not pass on to perfection, and this
is an evidence that they were going back, and distasting those first rudi-
ments which they had learned and embraced. This is evident in natural and
civil atfairs : the tree that doth not thrive will soon rot, and the tradesman
that doth not increase his stock will soon be out at heels, and he that doth
not im^Drove his knowledge will prove a spiritual bankrupt. And such a wil-
ful darkness which men bring upon themselves by their perversity, is but
one step from destruction. The plague of darkness upon the Egyptians did
immediately precede the slaying of their first born, and the destruction of
the flower of their miUtia in the Red Sea. Increase, therefore, in the know-
ledge of God is the way to prevent backslidings. Weak bodies soon stumble,
when strong bodies walk and do not faint, but hold out to the last. To in-
crease in affections is to increase in heat and vigour, to increase in spiritual
understanding is to increase in strength, which consists in a compactness
and closeness of the joints, which is the strength, health, and stability of the
body. A river enlarged by the entertainment of many little streams is not
dried up so soon as a small stream.
(3.) Every degree of increased knowledge will be more satisfying and ra-
vishing. As it was in the feast where Christ was, the best wine was reserved
for the end of it, the knowledge of God behind is to that which we have, as
a full draught of precious liquor is to a taste or sip. The clearer our light,
the stronger our comfort. AH doubts arise from the weakness of judgment,
ignorance of the nature of God, the ofiices of Christ, and tenure of the cove-
nant. This is promised : Hosea vi. 3, ' We shall know, we shall follow on
to know the Lord,' i.e. according to the Hebrew idiom, we shall knowingly
follow on after the knowledge of God, or go from knowledge to knowledge.
We shall have his assistance, who is prepared and ready to break out upon
us as a morning light, refreshing and growing stronger every hour, with new
manifestations and a lively heat; and like a former and latter rain, as fresh
showers in the spring to draw out the flowers and beauty of the earth, and
the latter rain in autumn to ripen to an harvest. By rain in Scripture is
signified knowledge: Deut xxxii. 2, ' My doctrine shall drop as the rain.'
The first beam is admirable, it is a marvellous light, 1 Peter ii. 9. It dis-
covers things worthy the search, and is more surprising upon every inquiry.
God and Christ are infinite treasures, inexhaustible fountains, a mine which
upon every search presents with new riches. God always remains intel-
ligible, and upon a faithful search will every day tear off part of the veil from
the heart, and part of the veil from his own face, and send forth richer in-
fluences of life and joy.
Well, then, let us increase in this knowledge.
[1.] Let us endeavour to enlarge our faculty. Eye-salve is to be pro-
cured to make us quick-sighted. Rev. iii, 18. The mouth opened wide is
filled with nourishing food ; the eyes opened are filled with visible objects :
Ps. cxix. 18, ' Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out
of thy law.' He hath an enlightened understanding, but sensible of his im-
jieri'ection, longeth for a greater enlargedness, that he might see more ravish-
ing wonders in God's law. Much more surprising wonders are there in God
the law-maker, and Christ the law-repairer.
[2. J Let us not be puffed up with a vain conceit that we have knowledge
90 oharnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
enough. Let us rather bewail our ignorance than boast of our under-
standing. Sense of indigence is the first step to fulness ; empty souls are
capable of being filled. What we know of God and Christ is infinitely below
what is to be known of them.
[3.1 Let us rise to more spiritual apprehensions. It is hard for us to
have elevated thoughts ; carnal notions are most apt to possess our minds,
and naturally our thoughts of God and Christ are no better in their kind
than Nicodemus's of regeneration, imagining it to be a re-entry into his
mother's womb, John iii. 4 ; or the Samaritan woman, who framed no
higher conceptions of the fountain of living waters than those she had of
her father Jacob's well, John iv. 12. There is a knowledge of Christ after
the flesh, 2 Cor. v. ] 6, carnal conceptions of divine glories ; and there is a
knowledge of Christ after the Spirit, in his spiritual appearances, his spi-
ritual works; a knowledge of Christ, not so much as he was conversant upon
earth, but as reigning in heaven, glorious and prevalent in his intercession.
This was the end of his death, and this should be the aim of our knowledge.
As Christ rose from a low and infirm state to an heavenly glory, to a more
spiritual discovery of himself, so should we keep time with his several states
in our knowledge of him. There is a knowledge of the history of Christ,
and there is a knowledge of the mystery of Christ ; this latter we should
grow in, which is the true manna of the soul. Rise from dull notions to
sprightly and more afiecting apprehensions of God and Christ.
[4.] Let us increase in the knowledge of whole God and whole Christ.
View all the perfections of God. Be not only intent upon some of the
first magnitude, but on those that seem the lesser sparks, which have an
influence one time or other upon the souls and lives of men. He is not
worthy of the name of an astronomer, who gazeth only upon one or two
planets, with a neglect of the rest, which have their particular excellency as
well as the other heavenly bodies. As there is nothing in the heavens, so
there is nothing in God and Christ, but is worthy of our understanding and
consideration, and afibrds matter of instruction and matter of consolation
one time or other. 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.
[5.] Let us fetch the increase of this knowledge from the true principle,
from the word. By the Spirit in the word it was first imprinted ; by the
Spirit in the word it is further enlarged. The improvement of a man in
any science must be fetched from the principles of that science, not from the
principles of another ; no one would study the art of painting to improve
himself in the skill of physic and medicines. Studying the word of God is
the way to increase in the knowledge of God's nature, Christ's offices, and
more spiritual apprehension of them.
6. Exhortation. To those who are void of the spiritual knowledge of
God, labour for it. "What need there be more urged than the title of it in
the text ? It is eternal life, therefore worthy of the most exact diligence.
As the deception which had seized upon the understanding of the first man
was the cause of death, so the light of understanding our Creator and his
immense love in Christ, is the cause of life. Other sciences may be a tree
of knowledge, this is a tree of life. It is a doleful consideration to see men
impertinently spending their time and consuming their strength in the study
of creatures (with a neglect of this), a knowledge wherewith they may descend
to hell with sorrow, rather than that whereby they may ascend to heaven
with joy. This knowledge, as it advanceth our states, so it elevates our
natures. ' A man that understands not is like the beasts that perish,' Ps.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 91
xlix. 20, Divine knowledge is above all the wisdom of corrupted nature,
and renders a man superior to a mere son of Adam. All other knowledge,
though commendable in its kind, if it be not improved for this end, will
degenerate into sensual, if not devilish, James iii. 15. It will either rest in
a more refined sensuality, a life of depraved reason, or fit a man to be a
malicious devil against the interest of Christ. Shall not then eternal death
scare us from our slothful and beloved ignorance? Shall not eternal hfe
allure us to divine wisdom ? Was it the misery of the world ever since
Adam to have a blindness of mind ? And shall any of us rest contented in
that misery, and resolve to be no wiser and happier than the Gentiles, that
were alienated from the life of God through the blindness of their minds ?
God said of hght at the creation, it was good; he was the author of it, it
entered into the composition of all creatures. He doth not say so of dark-
ness ; that is not his creature, but a privation of hght. God never said of
ignorance, or of any thing understood by darkness, It is good. Shall any of
us resolve to persist in that which hath not the least spark of goodness in it,
that hath not the least syllable of God's approbation, that is the foundation
of all the contempt of God in the world ? Who ever knew him but blessed
themselves in that knowledge, were loath to part with it, valued it above the
world ? Who ever knew God clearly but loved him ardently, stuck to him
closely, fell before him humbly, found rest and satisfaction in him ? And
shall not the experiences of those vast numbers who have had a saving
glimpse of him, give us one lift from our heavy ignorance ? Paul was no
blockhead, being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a learned pharisee.
Nor would the high priest and his companions have appointed a dull person
commissioner against the Christians ; yet all the knowledge he had before
his acquaintance with Christ, and all the time and pains he had spent in it,
he counts but loss in comparison of this, Philip, iii. 8. And the best petition
he thought he could put up for the Ephesians was, that they might have ' the
spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of him,' Eph. i. 17.
Motives.
1. Is not the object excellent? Ps. viii. 1, ' How excellent is thy name
in all the earth, who hast set thy glory above the heavens !' Do we conceive
God full of wisdom, goodness, righteousness, tenderness, and compassion ?
Can we imagine such a being, clothed with those unchangeable perfections,
the original of all that goodness which is in any creature, the author of the
beauty of the world ? Can we, I say, pretend to believe there is such a
being, and sit at rest in our ignorance of him ? Shall we pretend to believe
there is a Redeemer, who descended from the throne of majesty to the vale
of misery, took our flesh when he had no need of it, stooped to the infirmi-
ties of our nature, and was full of no other design than a thirst for our wel-
fare, carried himself with all sweetness and tenderness in the world, was the
exact image of his Father ; and have no desire to make more exact in-
quiries after him, that we may understand what he is ? Is not God
the Father of hghts, the supreme truth, the most delectable object both of the
human nature of Christ, the happy angels, and glorified saints ? Is he not
light without darkness, love without unkindness, goodness without evil,
purity without filth, all excellency to please, without a spot to distaste ? Are
not all other things infinitely short of him, more below him than a cab of
dung is below the glory of the sun ? And is it not a sacrilege to steal our
understandings from so excellent an object as the true God, and Jesus
Christ whom he hath sent ? Shall we know creatures and not our Creator ?
Shall we be inquisitive after the nature of plants, beasts, worms, and flies,
and not be acquainted with the excellent author of our souls, who gave us
92 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
o.ir knowing faculties ? In whose service should our rational powers be
employed, but in the discovery of the author of them ? If the object be
more glorious than the whole scheme of nature, the knowledge of this object
must be also excellent, for as actions, so knowledge, is specified from the
object.
(2.) Are not the great works God and Christ have done for us sufficient
allurements ? Are we not his creatures, and shall we not know our Creator ?
Ai'e we not his ofiending creatures, and shall we not know our forbearer ?
May we not be his repaired creatures from the ruins of our fall, and shall
we not know our Redeemer ? Shall we not know that God whose image
we bear, whose mercy we enjoy, in whom we live, move, and retain our
beings ? Shall we not know him by whose death we may live, by whose
blood we may be beautified, by whose resurrection and ascension we may be
dignified ? Shall we be in a capacity to enjoy all those benefits, and be
willingly ignorant of our benefactor ? Without a knowledge of him who
hath atoned our sins, and purchased that heaven we had forfeited, instead
of that hell we had a thousand times deserved, how can we be thankful to
him for what he hath done ? What shame should cover our faces, what
anguish should gnaw our souls, for our spiritual sloth and ingratitude ! Is
not God love — love in all his ways and methods ? And are our hearts
so out of love with him as to neglect inquiries after him ? To what end
doth he extend his open hands, but that we might * seek the Lord ' ? Acts
xvii. 25, 27 ; and is an unthankful ignorance of him a worthy requital ? It
is not enough that we know there is a God and a Redeemer, but we must
know what they are, what they have done, what glories there are in their
natures, in their actions ; that is the import of the text, ' to know the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' Not only to know thy
being, but thy excellency ; not only to know that Christ is sent, but to know
what that Christ is who is sent. Redemption was not for the blessed
angels, yet they ' earnestly desire to look into ' those things, 1 Peter i. 12.
Christ is more a benefactor to us than to them in regard of redemption.
Why then should their industry in searching be more than ours ? It is not
commendable, it is not lawful to be ignorant of him, who darts his heavenly
beams upon our senses in the works of nature, and upon our souls in the
works of grace. No greater injustice, no greater impiety, than to contemn
or neglect the knowledge of that God whose image we are.
(3.) Hereby only we can satisfy our natural thirst for knowledge. The
desire for knowledge is the peculiar property of man. His being rational
difFerenceth him from all creatures. No creature seeks a redemption from
ignorance but man. Brute animals rest contented in their ignorance ; and
for man to rest contented in his, is to be as bad or worse than a beast, to
neglect the proper object of knowledge, to know those things which are as
good as nothing. It is more suitable to the nature of man to take pleasure
in the search after truth, than for mighty men to triumph in the conquests
of countries. There is in man a greater ambition for knowledge than for
anything else. No reproach doth more perplex him than to be counted foolish.
Nor doth any man with any pleasure confess his ignorance, because ignorance
belongs not to the original nature of man. As the nature of the will, by the
law of creation, cannot be satisfied with a flashy and drossy good, till it
mount to that which is pure and refined, and, after the enjojonent of an in-
ferior good, is still putting the question, * Who will shew us any good ?' Ps.
iv. 6, so the nature of the understanding pursues after the causes of things,
and cannot rest till it come to the fountain -cause of all the rest, that hath no
cause of itself. When any good is presented to the will, the next question
JonN XVII. 3.] THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 03
naturally is, Is there no higher good than this ? So when a truth is pre-
sented to the understanding, the next question is, 'Is there no higher truth
than this ? The will can only he satisfied with that good which is not ex-
ceeded by any other, and the understanding with that truth which is not
excelled by any other. By this knowledge we are speaking of, our natural
thirst is delightfully satisfied and increased ; the soul is pleased with what
it attains, and enlarged for what it wants. There is an uncertainty and
doubtfulness in all other knowledge but this. Is there anything we think we
know but may be battered by others' contradictions ? Have we not often
doubtful thoughts of that one day which we thought we clearly knew the day
before ? Do we not often quarrel with ourselves, and call that our dotage
which a few days before we thought our glory ; and question those sentiments
which a few hours before we thought unquestionable, and as certain as the
daily motions of the sun in the heavens ? But here the foundation is un-
shaken : a God there is, and a God of infinite perfections ; a Redeemer there
is, and one of infinite tenderness. The knowledge of him by the word is
certain, like the knowledge of a sunbeam. Here we may drink full draughts
to quench our natural thirst after knowledge, since all things are best and
surest known in their principle ; and the mind of man is restless, like the needle
in the compass, not to be established without a look to the highest truth.
We are here sure of a mine, and the fruit of attaining will recompense the
pains of inquiring. Let us therefore be so generous as to believe this natural
thirst cannot be better satisfied than by knowing God and Christ, the most
amiable objects ; and let us never continue in that ignorance, which, if we
observe our natural desires, we should account our shame ; for if there be
any satisfaction to the soul (which of all creatures under heaven approacheth
in its nature nearest to the nature of God, and seems to be boundless in its
operations), it must be in the understanding that which is infinite ; and that
it is neither heaven nor the company of angels, but God and Christ, who
have an infiniteness to answer the pantings of the soul, and make a full reply
to all its cravings. The satisfaction also consists in the certainty of the
object of this knowledge, there being more sound and convincing reasons for
the being of a God, his goodness, omnipresence, necessity of redemption, a
future state of happiness and misery, than for any afiairs of this world.
(4.) All are bound by the law of nature to know God. There is not an
obligation by the law of nature to know Christ, unless it be as rational
creatures are obliged to know and believe whatsoever God should reveal unto
them ; but there is a formal obligation upon man as a rational creature to
know his Creator. For since all know that there is a God, by whose care
and providence all in this world are ruled, they are obliged by the same law
of nature to inquire after this God, and to endeavour to arrive to the know-
ledge of him.* What nation was there, though never so barbarous, that did
not own even in their idolatry the worship of a God ? For they naturally
knowing that there was a God, did naturally know that that God was to he
worshipped. Since, therefore, the law of nature obligeth us to inquire after
God, he that neglects the knowledge of God sins against the law of nature.
The wrath of God is threatened to be poured out upon them ' that know not
God,' Ps. Ixxix. G ; but the wrath of God is not manifested against any
but those that are transgressors of the law.
(5.) This knowledge is only the perfection of the soul. The more excellent
the object is, the more it doth perfect and strengthen, as w-ell as gi-atify, the
faculties of the soul : Prov. i. 9, it is ' an ornament of grace to the head ;'
* Zanch. torn. ii. lib. iv. pp. 249, 250.
94 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
a greater ornament to the soul than a diadem can be to the head of a
prince. The soul of man being enriched with two faculties whereby he is
distinguished from all other creatures on earth, viz., understanding and will,
his happiness must be placed in the exercise of those two about their proper
object ; the understanding, in knowing God as the object of happiness, and
the will in willing to love him. Truth is the perfection of a rational under-
standing ; the highest truth must then be the highest perfection of it. The mind
of man was not created to determine itself in the contemplation of the lower
things of this world. The sight of the beauty of God is the end of the soul,
and what is the end of a thing is the perfection of it. The end of God in the
creation was to communicate his goodness ; the perfection of a soul, then,
consists in the highest participation of that goodness according to its capacity.
The image of God consists in this knowledge, Col. iii. 10. Every image is
a participation of beams from the original. As darkness is the deformity of
the world, and light the beauty of it, whereby the beauty of everything else
is discovered, so knowledge is the beauty of the understanding, as ignorance
is the deformity. If the knowledge of everything had been the perfection
of man's soul, there would have been implanted notions of those things in
the soul at her original, or they would have been the matter of divine
revelation ; but there is neither of those ; there are not notions implanted ;
the soul could not then be so ignorant of the frame and motion of the body
she dwells in. She knows not by natural, but acquired notions, the several
rooms of the house wherein she resides. How many ages was man ignorant
of the circulation of the blood, the distribution of the chyle through the
vertee lactecB ! Nor are those things the matter of divine revelation in the word.
Christ discovered not a sublimity of natural knowledge, he spake not a sj'llable
of those things, but of the discovery of his Father and himself. The Son of
God had not employed himself in divine discoveries, had not the knowledge
and embracing of him been the ornament and happiness of a reasonable
creature. The most natural notions men bring with them into the world, and
which are most obvious to their first notice, are that of a God, and desires
for happiness ; and the discovery of this, and directions in our aspiring to
and preparations for another state of life after this, was the subject of the
revelation made by Christ. Again, as it is the happiness of God to know
and love himself, because he is the highest truth and goodness, so it is upon
the same account the happiness of a creature to know and love God. If we
could possibly suppose any goodness superior to God, it would be the felicity
of God to know and love that goodness ; he could not settle himself upon
his own perfections, but run out in inquiries after, and afi'ections to, that
goodness superior to his. Certainly the mind of man, being nobler than the
body, ought to be nourished with the choicest food ; the perfection of it cannot
be obtained but by that object which is most perfect in itself, and most
capable to convey perfection to it. God only, as he is the rest of the will,
so he is the only banquet of the mind. The soul being of a divine original,
it being ' given by God,' Eccles. xii. 7, can only be nourished by divine dainties
and converses, as the body doth attain its perfection by things of the same
nature with its own composition. Let us, therefore, out of love to the per-
fection of our minds, pursue after this knowledge. The mind is an active
thing ; it will be busy about something"or other ; pitch it therefore upon the
most excellent and most satisfying object ; employ it not in the picking of
straws, but gathering of pearls. When we employ it about things lower
than God and Christ, without any regard to the adoration and admiration of
them, we degrade our understanding, deprive it of its true end, and thrust
it from that worthy employment allotted to it, which was to survey the works
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 95
of God, read his handwritiBg, and from thence arise to a further knowledge
and admiration of our Creator himself.
(6.) This knowledge is highly delightful. All * knowledge is pleasant to
the soul,' intellectlo est quies intellectus, Prov. ii. 10. The natural desires
for knowledge are strongest, therefore when attained the delight is sweetest.
The more reality any object hath, the more pleasure is in it; spiritual things
are most real, and therefore the delightfulest. Natural knowledge is pleasant.
What a sweetness is there in knowing the secrets of nature, and the pheno-
mena in the world ! The knowledge men have of them, though upon erro-
neous principles, is delightful ; much more would it be so if the knowledge
were exact and grounded upon certain principles of truth. The delights of
learning surpass the delights of sense, and the pleasure of a scholar the plea-
sure of a swine. The heathen philosophers were so ravished with their chips
of natural knowledge, that they sometimes neglected those things which were
necessary for the sustaining their bodies. Now if the views of God in the
dark disguise of his creatures cast the soul into pleasing raptures, the views
of God in the clear glass of Christ must snatch the soul into the third heavens.
The pleasure of carnal knowledge is to that of divine, as the delight of suck-
ing the ivy bush is to that of drinking a sprightly wine. The pleasure is
always answerable to the excellency of the object delighted in; if therefore
a clear demonstration of nature resolves a man into a rapture, much more
must a clear demonstration of God, because, as all righteousness is from God
as the original, so all truth is by derivation from God. If therefore truth in
the streams be a delightful prospect, the bubblings of truth in the fountain
must much more put the soul into a spiritual ecstasy. As it is with a man
born bUnd whose eyes were opened, how would he bless himself to see a
burning lamp gilding the room where it is ? But the sight of the moon walk-
ing in its brightness would enhance his joy, and the sight of the sun in his
noonday glory, obscuring all the lesser lights, would much more pleasure
and astonish him. All ' Hght is sweet,' but ' it is a pleasant thing to behold
the sun,' Eccles. xi. 7 It is more pleasant to behold the sun, than all the
diamonds in the world in conjunction ; so the knowledge of God and Christ
must be much more delicious than the knowledge of all creatures, by how
much they are unconceivably more above them. If there be a gladness upon
the sight of a beam emitted from the sun, what must there be in the views
of the sun itself in its brightest beauty ! Our very meditations of God are
sweet, and resolve in a divine joy : Ps. civ. 34, ' My meditations of him
shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord.' The greater degrees of know-
ledge will bestow a stronger influence of delight upon the soul. There is a
rich perfume in the knowledge of Christ, a 'savour:' 2 Cor. ii. 14, ' The
savour of his knowledge ;' ver. 16, * A savour of Hfe to life,' vital to all the
parts of the soul ; and the more lively the knowledge, the more of pleasure.
That which doth most increase strength, is most cordial to the vital parts of
the body.
[1.] It is a pure delight. All other things have their spots, which allay
the sweetness in the knowledge of them. God is purity without spot, light
without darkness, all excellency to create delight, without any imperfection
to raise disgust. As ignorance and forgetfulness of God will render men at
last absolutely sad, without any mixture of joy, so the knowledge of him
will render men, according to its degrees, as cheerful, as in the highest de-
gree it will hereafter render them happy : it affords a pleasure without froth
or scum.
[2.] It is a full pleasure. Others are but drops, this fills the soul to the
brim, and leaves little or no room for any intruders. The angels, that have
96 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
the vision of God, hanker not after anything the world calls sweetness. The
satisfaction of the mind is proportionable to the excellency of the object
known. God being therefore the fullest object, affords the fullest joy.
[3. J It is a durable delight when all others will wither. Other knowledge
is as a rainbow, pleasant to behold, but quickly vanishing, like the sound of
music in the ear, which pleaseth and expires. The departure of an object
strips the admirer of his real pleasure. Jonah's joy withered with the gourd
wherein it was placed, but the knowledge of God and Christ is attended with
a perpetual delight, since they are objects as durable as they are excellent ;
for where there is a saving knowledge, there is an eternal knot made between
the understanding and the spiritual object, which cannot be dissolved.
[4.] It is a pleasure hke to that which God has, which consists in reflec-
tions upon, and affections to his own nature. God cannot have an infinite
satisfaction in anything besides himself, because nothing is infinite but him-
self. Upon this account let us pursue after this wisdom. The lowest de-
gree is pleasant, joy is fulfilled in the soul upon the manifestations of God
by Christ, John xvii. 18, which mounts to a greater height as we rise in
higher degrees. Upon every fresh discovery, new joys disclose themselves.
The search after God is a greater happiness than the fruition of anything in
the world can be. But when the understanding, the highest faculty, and
God, the chief truth and good, meet together, an unexpressible satisfaction
must be the result of such a meeting. God being infinitely better than all
creatures, the knowledge of him must be infinitely more delightful than the
knowledge of all things besides. And though he cannot be perfectly known,
yet this doth not blast the pleasure, as the heavens are too boundless for our
eye, and the stars too numerous for our account, yet it is pleasant to behold
the one and view the other.
(7.) If we do not labour to know God, we endeavour, as much as in us
lies, to make God lose all the glory of his creation and revelation, because
no creature under the heavens is a capable subject of this but man. All
other creatures, that have sense without understanding, can only perceive
those things which are objects of sense, as colours, odours, &c., but God
being a Spirit, falls not within the limits of sense. Man only was made with
an understanding to know the invisible God. The contempt of this know-
ledge, or the neglect of it, with a preferring the knowledge of everything else
before him, is to deprive him of the glory of his work. All our natural gifts
will not make us immediately serviceable to God, without a spiritual eye.
This knowledge, though in one ignorant of the world, renders him more
capable to pay immediately the glory due to God, than the greatest scholar
with his philosophical wick of oil. A sunbeam reflected from the wall gives
more heat and warmth than a thousand lamps. It makes God a loser in
the glory of his gospel revelation. Knowledge is the basis of all our motions
and affections to God which the gospel enjoins. The wheels were full of
eyes, which some think* refers to the great measure of knowledge God
would afford in the time of the gospel, Ezek. i. 18. When God should
dwell in the world in glorious and majestic representations, the wheels, the
people, should be full of eyes. If we neglect then the knowledge of God, we
hinder him (as to us) both of the end of creation, wherein he hath made
himself legible, and the end of his gospel dispensation, wherein he hath made
himself evident in his Son.
(8.) It is easy to have a knowledge of God and Christ. What difficulty
there is in it, lies not in God, or in the means of revelation, but in ourselves.
As the law might be observed, but for the corruption of our flesh, — Rom.
■" LigUlfoot's Temple, chap, xxxviii. p. 253.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 97
viii. 3, ' The law was weak through the flesh,' — so God might be spiritually
seen, but for the soreness of our eyes. It lies not in the object, but in our
indisposition, in regard of the enmity of our nature, and the unworthy notions
we have naturally of God. No wisdom is less admired and less affected,
men hate wisdom and thereby love death, Prov. viii. 36, there being a dis-
similitude between the natiire of God and the corrupt nature of man. No-
thing so easy to be known as God, though nothing so hard to be searched
out unto perfection. The sun doth visibly offer its beams to every eye that
will open itself, and let him shine upon it. Nothing more easy to be seen
than the sun, yet nothing more hard to be pierced into and fully understood.
If we do not know God, it is not for want of light in him, but for want of will
in us. He hath not so clouded himself in thick darkness, that it is impos-
sible to have some prospect of him. He hath set his footsteps in the crea-
tures, and unveiled his face in the Scriptures ; he hath made himself
intelligible in his works and in his word, and breaks out upon our under-
standings in both. What is knowable of God in order to practice is not closed
up from our sight, we have rich discoveries of his holiness and excellency in his
word, which informs us what our behaviour should be towards him. We
must not apprehend God to be so mean a being as that we can easily satisfy
all our curiosities about him. Know him perfectly we cannot, unless we had
an understanding as infinite as his own ; and indeed we might well be
ashamed of that God, that were so little as to be measured by our finite
capacities. Yet so far as doth conduce to our practice and comfort, God is
as intelligible as anything in this world, and more ; we may know more of
bis original goodness than of the derivative goodness of any creature. His
attributes are as evident to us as the quality of anything we see ; we may as
soon know that God is good, and excellent, and holy, as we may know that the
wall is white or no. We have higher principles of the knowledge of him.
We have sense to view the effects of his goodness, we have reason to draw
conclusions from the excellency of creatures, to inform us of the transcendent
excellency of God ; and we have revelation, which surmounts the other two
principles of sense and reason. What though we cannot know his essence ?
Do we know the essence of any one thing in the world, or can we satisfy
ourselves in all our inquiries about it? His perfections are unfathomable
by us, yet he is obvious to our minds if we will not close our eyes. We
can as easily see the sea when we stand upon the shore, as it is impossible
for us to reach with our eyes the bounds of it. But suppose the knowledge
of God we speak of were very hard, shall the difficulty which whets us in
other things take off our edge in this ? Who can boast of the knowledge of
any one creature ? Yet since the world began men have been peering into
the secrets of them. Multitudes have been busy in the search of natural things,
and the difficulty is less affrighting now than it was before ; shall then the
seeming difficulty of the most satisfying objects close up our desires and en-
deavours in the search of them ? It should rather add spurs to our diligence.
Paul's foresight of what was out of his reach slackened not his desires and
endeavours of attaining, Philip, iii. 12, 13. The knowledge of Christ is
easy ; had it not been so, he would not have so sharply rebuked his disciples
for their ignorance : Mat. xv. 16, ' Are ye yet without understanding ?' Is
be not the subject of the whole Scripture, and, like a golden ore, runs through
every vein in the mine ? He is the centre wherein all the lines of the Scrip-
ture meet ; we can open no part of it but something of Christ strikes upon
our minds, as light in the day upon the opening of our eyes. ' In the volume
of the book it is written of him,' in the first promise, and in the last line of
VOL. IV. a
98 chaenock's woeks. [John XVII. 3.
the Scripture. He is the A Ipha and Omega of all revelations and discoveries ;
it is therefore our own fault if we will be in darkness under a noonday sun.
God desires we should know him ; why doth he else compare himself to so
many objects in the visible world, but that we may have frequent remem-
brances of his excellency ; and ascribe to his incorporeal nature the members
of a man, as arms, ears, &c., which are incompatible with a spiritual being,
but that, knowing ourselves and our own frame, we may rise up to a know-
ledge of him?
(9.) Consider, is not our time spent unprofitably in everything else when
we neglect this ? All other wisdom is perishing, this heavenly wisdom only
endures for ever. Will the skill in trades remain with any man, and be an ad-
vantage to him in another world ? Not but that there must be time spent in
learning and improving your callings for the good of yourselves, families, and
the community ; but not so much as to swallow up the time due to the other.
There is a satisfaction in natural learning ; but what advantage is that in
another world, where worldly wisdom and learned subtleties shall take no
place ? There will be no use of them in eternity, whither we are travelling.
It is the knowledge of God and Christ we shall there be examined about ; we
may have the greatest wisdom of the world, and be w^ithout this saving know-
ledge at the last day, and receive the punishment of devils, instead of the
happiness of Christians. Christ never put up a thanksgiving to his Father
for the learning of the pharisee, or the wisdom of statesmen, but for the re-
velation of himself to the babes of the world. Mat. xi. 25. The knowledge of
a good man only is understanding, Prov. ix. 10. It is a dreadful place against
the wise as well as the mighty men of the earth : 1 Cor. i. 26, ' Not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty.' Prudence and power, abstracted
from divine knowledge, are contemptible in the eyes of God. Here and there
one wise and mighty man marked out for an happy eternity, but not many.
All knowledge below this is but the knowledge of trifles. In other things,
we lose our time for the most part ; by this, we gain an happy eternity.
Other knowledge will not prevent the loss of ourselves ; in this, we find God
and ourselves too. Let us not therefore sell our understandings for nought,
as God complains they did his people, Isa. lii. 3. Other gettings are incon-
siderable to the gain of understanding, Prov. iv. 7. Oh that we could take
as much pains to get this, which is eternal life, as the heathens have taken
for human sciences, which could not secure them from eternal death, and
seek for it with as much industry and as high a value of it as we would for
silver and hidden treasures ! Prov. ii. 4, 5.
There are hindrances of this knowledge, and helps to it.
Hindrances. (1.) Corrupt afi'ections. When the apostle had exhorted
the Ephesians to be ' renewed in the spirit of their minds,' Eph. iv. 23, he
seems to add directions to his exhortation ; and one is, verse 26, to be
watchful over their passions, ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.'
Else they would give place to the devil, who is the great enemy of divine
light, and the ' ruler of the darkness of this world.' Passions are the fumes
of hell, to cloud and obstruct the beams of Christ from shining upon the
mind ; these distract the native force of the soul, and choke all beginnings
of divine meditation. Who can learn anything in the midst of a storm ? A
serenity of mind is a way to know God : Ps. xlvi. 10, • Be still, and know
that I am God.' A turbulent spirit is a bar to it. The soul overcast with
unworthy passions is no more fit for this light, than the sky thronged with
clouds is for the light of the sun, or a foul glass to reflect an image. Light
and inconstant spirits have not the knowledge of God, any more than running
water can receive the force of a sunbeam, which glides away from one after an-
John XVII. 3. J the knowledge of god. 9Q
other, and remains under the power and force of none. You can never set
a stamp upon a floating cork till you take it out of the water. Corrupt
affections warp the understanding to irregular operations.
(2.) Sensuahty. Sensuality, and a want of the Spirit, the great en-
lightener, are inseparable companions : Jude 19, ' Sensual, having not the
Spirit.' A generous knowledge can never grow up in a sensual spirit, any
more than a generous plant can in a marsh always covered with salt water.
An atheist may be said to know God as well as one steeped in sensuality,
which is practical atheism. Those that deny God in their works never
understood him in their mind : 1 Sam. ii. 12, ' The sons of Eli were sons
of BeUal,' and therefore ' knew not the Lord.' This being a familiarity with
hell, can never be a means of acquaintance with God. The way to be heavenly
wise is not to be brutish. Laughter is mad, and sensualists mad men, who
can as well understand God as bedlams can understand sobriety. The more
the soul is sunk in bodily pleasures, the more feeble and unactive it is, the
more languishing and sickly ; the more it soars above them, the more lively
and fresh it appears. The heathen philosophers could therefore prescribe
the soul's abstraction from the body to be necessary to divine knowledge and
meditation. So great a privilege as this is not becoming one that is in a
professed slavery to the flesh. The Jews say that the sensuality of the
seventy that were with Moses, when they saw the vision of God, was the
cause they had not a more perfect sight ; from Exod. xxiv. 11, * They saw
God, and did eat and drink ;' understanding it not of the actions afterwards,
but of the reason why God gave them not such a measure of the Spirit as
Moses (which is signified by laying on his hand), because they were soaked
much in sensual dehghts. Who can see the glory of the sun where all the
windows and gaps, through which the light should peep, are daubed and
stopped with a thick clay ? While we are clogged with the!thick and filthy
mire of base lusts, we cannot behold the glory of God and Christ.
(3.) Carnal conceptions of God. We are naturally apt to frame a notion
of God, according to the complexion of worldly things, or our own passions ;
to think God ' such an one as ourselves,' Ps. 1. 21, hereby erecting an earthly
and vicious deity. The heathen had at first the knowledge of God : Rom.
i. 19, ' God hath shewed it to them;' and they are said to ' know God.' The
true God discovered himself; God would not have discovered a false god to
them. But they not only neglected the improvement of this knowledge, but
mixed the carnal brood of their own opinions and resemblances with it.
And by this mixture of the natural knowledge they had of God, and the
corrupt notions they entertained of what this God was ; by this unnatural
mixture, I say, was produced a monstrous and misshapen image of God in
their minds, and in the world, unworthy of God, and unworthy of a ration;il
soul ; as when some genuine and true principle mixeth with some foul and
carnal conception, the issue is monstrous. Men study to frame such notions
of God as may maintain their pride and wantonness, and feed their lusts,
not satisfy their understandings. Such errors in the head hinder us from
a spiritual sight of God, as a mass of congealed vapours in the head darkens
or tinctures the eye that it cannot rightly discern objects before it. The
head must be pm'ged of that flux of humours which discharge themselves to
that organ, before the blemish it hath occasioned be cured. Erroneous
prepossessions must be displaced before good principles can take root in tie
understanding ; the mind must be unclouded of those mists before it can dis-
cern the most excellent objects.
(4.) Earthliness. A soul steeped in earth cannot attain divine things.
Clogged wings cannot mount into the air. The mud of the earth is a screen
100 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
between the beams of God and eye of the soul. When the mind is covered
with thick clay, it cannot behold the admirable things of the gospel, or re-
ceive any impressions of the Spirit on it, any more than those that work all
the day in deep mines, under ground, can behold the sun. A little of the
world delighted in, will hinder the sight of God. Though the sun be vast,
the heavens large, and the sun dart his beams round about the world, yet
if a small brass farthing be laid upon the eye it cannot see the sun, or the
beams of it which shine round about it. John v. 44, ' How can you beUeve,
that receive honour one of another ?' Ambitious and covetous men are so
possessed with their immoderate desires after honours and riches, that they
cannot much mind natural knowledge, more proportioned to the genius and
gust of their souls, and much less divine. The mind of man cannot at one
and the same time attend several charges ; when the strength is spent one
way, it is languishing another. Earthliness hinders the knowledge of Christ,
and bars out a right estimation of the things of heaven. A man brought up
in a dungeon cannot know the excellency of superior bodies. A worm that
dwells always under the earth may as well see the sun, as a man whose
eyes and mind are in the centre of the earth understand and see God.
Worldly spirits have more of the earth-worm than the man. We must
therefore do as Christ bids the blind man, wash the clay off our eyes in the
pool of Siloam. The more of earth we have, the less capable we are of the
illuminations of heaven ; the centre of the earth is dark and obscure, and is
not penetrated by the light of the sun.
(5.) Pride of reason. When we ' lean to our own understanding,' we
' acknowledge not God,' Prov. iii. 5, 6. The pharisees were the proudest
of all the people (John vii. 49, ' Have any of the pharisees believed on him?'),
and they were the most ignorant of gospel truths ; they would have their
own opinions a rule to all the people. Pride being the devil's sin, cannot be
pleasing to God. He that looks upon himself too much, is like to look up
to heaven too little ; we cannot behold ourselves and heaven together at the
same instant. If God hide spiritual revelations from any, it is from ' the
wise and prudent,.' Mat. xi. 25, 30, i. e. from those that think themselves
wise enough ; and it is dreadful to consider, that it is God's pleasure, and
he hath Christ's thanks for it. They both concur against pride : God will not
open the veil to such, and Christ applauds his Father's proceedings. The
first lesson Christ teacheth in his school, being the doctrine of self-denial,
as a foundation of all other learning, is point blank against this. We enjoy
most of Christ when we feel ourselves empty, and we are like to know most
of Christ when we acknowledge ourselves ignorant. The Laodicean church
conceited she had clear eyes, and therefore knew not her blindness, and
desired no eye-salve. Rev. iii. 17, 18 ; such will be contrary to the apostle's
rule, James i. 19, &c. Quick to speak, and slow to hear, and God never
sets such a divine plant as this in such rocky ground ; they are heights and
fortifications which hinder us from the knowledge of Christ, u4'ai/tara xa/
byQ)oujn,aTa, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.
(6.) Curiosity. Either desiring to know, only that we may know, not
that we may obey, or prying into things too high. Curious inquiries about
things which are not revealed, hinder that knowledge which is saving from
making any great impression. When God discovered his glory to the
Israelites, in giving the law, he ' set bounds to the people,' Exod. xix. 12, 21,
that they might not be too busily inquisitive. The gospel, though more
open and large, hath still its limits : ' It is not for you to know the times
and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,' Acts i. 7.
To desire to know more than God would have us know, is to come short of
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 101
that which otherwise we might be capable of knowing. When Adam would
aspire to a greater measure of knowledge than God would allow him, he fell
thereby into a brutish state. God is to be judge of what is fit to be revealed,
and if we would go further, we entrench upon his wisdom and sovereignty.
There is a wisdom to sobriety, liom. xii. 3. Curious disputes are the same
in spirituals, with the extravagancies of bedlams ; while men think to
strengthen, they crack their brains, as the foolish fly approaching too near
the candle, loseth both its eyes and wings. God makes foolish the wisdom
of this world, turns such aspiring wisdom back into folly. The wise man
compares kaowledge to honey, Prov. xxv. 16, which if eaten in too great a
quantity, provokes vomiting ; instead of pleasing, it weakens and hurts the
stomach. Superfluous inquiries after God are the disease of the soul,* and
are so far from drawing the veil, or making it thinner and more penetrable,
that it thickens it and makes it more obscure.
(7.) Inquiring no further than what hath been imprinted on us by educa-
tion ; or to take truth upon trust from man, to ' have the faith of Christ
in respect of persons,' James ii. 1. Though we may know a spiritual truth,
yet it is not in a spiritual manner ; the object of knowledge is good, but the
manner of knowledge lame, and wants its due rectitude. When we receive
any truth from a human authority, or in respect to a person, we receive it
upon no better an account than we should a fable delivered by the same
hand.f Custom, tradition, and the examples of others, are the rise of the
knowledge many men have of God and Christ. It is true, indeed, we come
to know a star by another's pointing us to it, but afterwards we come to
know it by its own light.
Directions, both for the attainment and improvement of divine knowledge.
1. Prayer. This is a general means for everything we want, but ought to
be more pressed than any, both because of its universal influence, and the
common deplorable neglect or slight performance of it. The knowledge of
God springs not from a natural but a divine light ; it is not an extract of
nature, a branch growing up from the root of our own abilities, but of a
divine original wi'ought by the ' Spirit of wisdom and revelation,' Eph. i. 17 ;
it is not the prize of a quick imagination, but a bended knee ; the apostle
else had not been so earnest a supplicant in this behalf for the Ephesians.
It is not the proper act of our own understanding, but a reception of illapses
and dartings from God.| An hour therefore of sincere prayer may do more
in this case, than the prayerless inquiries of a life longer extended than
Methuselah's. If, therefore, we are to implore the assistance of God in
the works of our daily callings, much more ought we to seek to him for this
treasure, the keys whereof he keeps in his own hands. Now there is a
double act of God in this, which makes prayer more necessary than in any
other case that is not of the like concern. There is to be the unveiling his
face, and the unsealing our eyes ; the removing the clouds from his majesty,
and the darkness from our minds ; a clearing the object, and discharging the
faculty of its blindness. The heathens considered this, when they apprehended
God to be the inteUeclus arjeiis, purifying the phantasmata for our under-
standing. A human understanding, without outward revelation and inward
eye-salve, is and will be a miserable bhnd creature.
(1.) God only can open the mind. A lost eye can never be restored by
a created power, nor the blind understanding opened but by Christ's touch,
Luke iv. 18. The first Adam's sin put out the candle, the second Adam's
grace relights it. There is a faculty, a ' spirit in man,' in miserable fallen
* r7,f "^v^yis toc-rifict Iffri to xaxu; xa) Tri^ii^yui X^Ti7y Ti^i ^toZ. — Bnsil.
f Reynolds. J Fucin. in Diouys. de divin. nomin. cap. xx.
102 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
man, but ' the inspiration of the Almighty gives understanding,' Job xxxii. 8.
Since our understanding is corrupted by sin, and filled with error, it is not
sufficient to understand the things of God -without an internal illumination,
fes well as an external revelation. All our sufiiciency for intellection, as well
as action, is of God. We are ' not sufficient of ourselves to think a good
thought,' 2 Cor. iii. 5. Can we then have quickening apprehensions and
lively thoughts of God without God ? We can no more understand the
gospel without grace, than we can understand God without the gospel ; for
those things in the gospel which may conduct us to him, are foolishness in
the judgment of the most elevated corrupt nature, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Why were
the Israelites, that had seen more miraculous providences of God, ignorant
of him, but because ' God gave them not an heart to perceive ' ? Deut. xxix. 4.
We may indeed by study find a proposition so clear as to engage our assent,
but not without supernatural influence have such a knowledge of God as to
change our souls. We cannot ascend to that which is infinite, without the
power of that infinite ; nor make ourselves like to an infinite being, without
the communication of that infinite strength. If Christ as God had not
opened the disciples' understanding, his teaching them as man would have
been labour in vain, and made as little entrance into their hearts as into
those of the obstinate pharisees, Luke xxiv. 45. He discoursed to them the
true sense of Scripture as man, but imprinted the power of it upon their
hearts as God. There must be an inward light in the eye, the instrument
of sight, as well as in the air, the medium of vision ; and inward air in the
ear, to hear the sound, as well as outward air to produce and convey the
sound. God is not known by us without an operation of God in us. David
evinceth this, who though he had an enlightened mind, pretends not a power
of further enlarging it, but calls upon God for a supernatural virtue : ' Open
my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things.'
(2.) God only can reveal the object. God only can make himself known.
We see not the sun but by the sun ; we see other things by the sun, but we
see not the sun by any other light than its own. True notions of God
spring from grace upon the soul, as light from the sun upon the eyes. And
as the sun, so God and Christ appear most ravishing in their own light. As
none can know God perfectly but himself, so none can make him known to
us but himself. The discovery of himself is his own free act and motion.
What creature is able to force the veil from before his face against his mind?
The first spark and the succceeding additions are from him. Moses had
the fii-st revelation of God from God, and when his heart breathed after
more, he hath recourse to God for satisfaction: Exod. xxxiii. 18, ' I beseech
thee, shew me thy glory.' Christ appropriates this to the Father : Mat.
xi. 25, ' Father, thou hast revealed them.' The title of Father of lights
belongs only to him. What the sun is in regard of natural, that is God in
regard of spiritual light. The disciples own Christ the author of his own
manifestation, in that question wherein they admire the riches of his grace :
John xiv 22, ' How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the
world ?' Light cannot break out without his pleasure, and none can stop
it when he is pleased to dart it. Indeed, all knowledge, under what title
soever, is from God, as well as our being, and the beings of all creatures.
As our faculties are the products of his power, so every endowment of them
is the fruit of his bounty. Other knowledge is from him as an indulgent
Creator, this from him as a merciful Redeemer ; that, by the Spirit brood-
ing over the world by a common work of inspiration (as he brought the
creatures at the first creation into form and beauty), this by a more parti-
cular energy, as a special gift upon the Mediator's account, teaching all
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 103
things necessary to be known of God, and breathing immediately upon the
spirit of man.
If it be, then, God's gift upon both accounts, it must be sought at his
hands. Holy men have always done so. David got most of his divine
learning upon his knees. How often do you find him with his bended knee,
elevated eyes, and strong cries : Ps. cxix., ' Teach me thy statutes,' ' open
mine eyes,' ' give me understanding,' ' teach me thy judgments and know-
ledge,' ' make thy face to shine upon thy servant,' &c. Wisdom is attained
by asking, James i. 5. This course will not want success. God is near to
all that call upon him,' Ps. cxlv. 18, near them in his favour, clearing up
their apprehensions of him, new stamping their minds and hearts. They see
most of a thing who are nearest to it ; prayer brings us before God upon
his throne of grace in his majesty and mercy. It is a leaning upon Christ's
bosom ; and the disciple who enjoyed that familiarity with our Saviour on
earth, knew most of his mind. Prayer will as it were bring down God to
be our instructor, and one hour of God's teaching will be more fruitful than
thousands of years of our own study. One appearance of the sun is better
than a world full of torches. How soon can he flash a strong light upon
our minds, command the scales from our eyes, as soon as he did darkness
from the chaos ; and as easily by a word create a new eye, as well as a
mighty sun ? He is a non-such for instruction : Job xxxvi. 22, * Who
teacheth like him ? ' docet et imperatJ'- None so clearly, none so pleasantly,
none so speedily. But we must earnestly beg it, there must be a cry, a
lifting up the voice, Prov. ii. 3, 5, 6, then shall we ' find the knowledge of
God,' for ' out of his mouth comes understanding.' Our earnestness in
desiring it cannot come near the pleasui-e of God in bestowing it, when he
finds it longed for. And why should not the natural desire for knowledge,
when terminated upon a right object, break forth into as strong prayer, as
our natural desire for happiness ; both appetites seeming to be with an
equal force implanted in man ; desire of felicity as the end, and desire
of knowledge as the means to it ? As our happiness, which is naturally
desired, cannot be attained but from God, so the knowledge, which is the
way to it, cannot come from any spring but the grace of God, who ought
upon this account to be solicited by us. And truly, I think, the great
reason why men come so short in this knowledge, is because they are negli-
gent in this means, and depend upon their own inquiries and search more
than upon God's inspirations.
2. Study the Scripture much. He that would gain knowledge, would pick
out the choicest authors, and turn over the best books. The subject of the
gospel is God, and God manifested in the flesh. The Scriptures ' testify ot
Christ,' John v. 39 ; they are the swaddling-bands wherein he hath been
wrapped up since his first incarnation, as the seed of the woman in the
promise. Other books may dart some light of human knowledge, but this
is a beam of divine. It acquaints us with the most excellent truth, which
makes us both wise and happy. It is the record of our Saviour's declara-
tions of the name of God, which was a principal intent of his coming.
Therein are discovered the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and a wisdom
which none of the princes of this world knew, none of the great conquerors
or learned philosophers. All spiritual discoveries drawn from thence have
the seal and stamp of God upon them, and none else, God hath, as it were,
shut up his Spirit in the gospel. It is ' the ministration of the Spirit,' 2
Cor. iii. 8, i. e. whereby the Spirit, who is lo teach us all things, is conveyed
to the soul. Knowledge built upon any other principle is nothing but a
* Castalio,
104 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
frame of delusions. It is a dangerous thing to think those things of God
which are true, unless we are certain of the truth of them ; and where can
we have a convincing evidence, but from his own revelation ? The gospel
is called the face of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6, ' To give the light of the know-
ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' i. e. as some interpret
it, in the gospel. Indeed, he hath imprinted his own features, and the re-
presentations of God, in the gospel, that as in the Old Testament we may
behold his glorious outgoings in creation and providence, the dehverances of
his people, and punishing his enemies, so in the New we may view his
glorious counsels of redeeming goodness ; as the looking upon the picture
of a friend preserves the memory of his features, and recalls to mind the
memorable actions done by him, and preserves, if not increaseth, the know-
ledge of him. The word is a glass wherein we behold the reflections of
God, James i. 23, and it is perfect, Ps. xix. 7. It discovers as much of the
nature and amiableness of God as can be drawn in lines and letters, and pre-
sents the soul with such attractives in him as turns it fully to him ; as it fol-
lows, ' converting the simple.' If the beauty of the Lord was seen in the
legal sanctuary, Ps. xxvii. 4, much more in the evangelical transcript, so
plain that he that is a student in it, when translated to heaven, may know
God and Christ by what knowledge he had of their lineaments in the word,
as the remembrance of the features in a picture will direct us to know the
person when we meet him. The angels themselves seem to be put oft' to
gather their knowledge of Christ from the flowers of the word as delivered
to the church, and in the church : Eph. iii. 10, ' The wisdom of God is made
known by the church to the principalities in heavenly places.' It is made
known to the church by the word, to angels by the church, so that the
knowledge of the angels is ultimately resolved into the word as the medium
of it. As it is a means to gain it, so it is a means to increase it ; there are
new amazing wonders to be seen in it. Though many diamonds have been
cut out of a rock, yet there are more still for the workman's skill and in-
dustry. While the powers in heaven are instructed by it, the most elevated
understanding on earth cannot be above it. He that looks often into it will
view more by an eye of faith than all the world can by their eyes of reason
in conjunction. By this instrument, we shall behold the greatness, majesty,
loveliness, and love of God, more than any rational discoveries can present
to us ; as a man by an instrument sees the magnitude and glory of the
stars, which an ignorant man thinks to be little sparks of light, like those in
his chimney. The ignorance among us may be charged upon the neglect of
studying this, or the slight reading of it. Some will plead the intricacy of
it for their neglect. Not to say that, as to the main design of it, it is plain
in itself; let such that excuse themselves upon this account consider whether
they are not conscious to themselves that they never spent the tenth part,
nay, perhaps not a dram, of that industry, zeal, and desire in the searching
that hidden mine of spiritual treasures, as they have spent in heaping up
the perishing trifles of this world. I will appeal to those that do make it
their business to inquire into the word, whether they find not themselves to
have more lively apprehensions of God, and feel, and taste divine truths in
another kind of manner, than they experiment in other books. Let the ex-
periences of others move those that neglect it. Manna dropped from heaven
was more relishing in itself than all the meat of the Israelites' cooking ; it
was angels' food. And for the manner of conversing with it, the laying down
rules would be too copious. Consider well what you read ; stay upon the
descriptions you find of God and Christ, dig into them as into a mine ; rest
not till 30U find the satisfying importance of them, till you feel your hearts
John XVII. 3.J the knowledge of god. 105
stir, and rise up in an adoration of him. ' The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him,' Ps. xxv. 14, ' and he will shew them his covenant.'
Consider the inward vu-tue and efficacy of it, as a wise man will the virtue
of the flowers and plants, as well as their beauty and gay clothing. And
while you study the history of the gospel, pray for the revelation of the
Father. Flesh and blood may read it, but the Father only reveals it savingly.
The eye may see the letters, the head may understand the sense, when the
Spirit opens not the heart- to feel the warmth.
3. Entertain with affection every spiritual motion. We can no more pro-
fit in divine knowledge without the breathing of the Spirit, and the dews of
his grace, than the labour of an husbandman can come to any maturity
without the warm irradiations of the sun, and the showers of rain. The
more solemn discoveries of God and Christ to the heart were reserved for
the appearance of the Spirit, upon which account Christ, while in the flesh,
is said but to ' begin to teach,' Acts i. 1. The foundation was laid by
Christ, but the consummation of this discovery, and the last line, was re-
served for the Spirit. Christ declared the name of God, and his own com-
mission, but the Spirit afterwards was to verify and confirm this commission
as authentic in the minds of men. He is therefore called ' the Spirit of
truth,' as testifying the authority of Christ : John xv. 26, ' The Spirit of
truth shall testify of me ;' and also, in regard of his conduct of men into
truth : John xvi. 13, 'The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth.' He
was fu-st to demonstrate to their minds that Christ was authorised by God,
and that his declarations of God were firm, true, and ratified in heaven, and
then to guide them into those truths which were necessary for their comfort
and practice ; to open the secret resolves of eternity concerning the work of
redemption, and draw the curtain from before those mysteries, which the eye
of nature was not able to reach. The first work of the Spirit is that of
knowledge. He communicates himself to our understandings, before he
makes impressions upon our wills, as the sun first enlightens the air before
he warms it (knowledge is that in the mind, which light is in the air). For,
as the Spirit dealt with Christ, so he deals with his members ; he first rests
upon them as a Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, Isa. xi. 2,
3, and acts in that order wherein Christ is presented to us by God, first wis-
dom, then righteousness and sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. Whatsoever,
therefore, the Spirit doth by virtue of his office, must be listened to ; and
every ofier, every motion, he makes for our instruction, must be entertained;
for though God hath appointed many outward instructors, yet there is but
one internal teacher, viz. the Holy Ghost. And there is a resistance of the
Spirit in this work of knowledge, as well as in the work of grace ; and the
resistance lies chiefly here, because the Spirit's first work is to rectify the
judgment in the nature of God, and things belonging to God, and present
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ ; and when this is entertained, he
reflects it upon the will and affections, that the faculties may regularly fol-
low one another in the order of working, and the soul, in turning to God,
may act, and be acted, as a rational creature ; for while he is busy in reduc-
ing the soul to its original constitution and true nature, he would not move
the soul against the primitive order of nature, but in such a manner as its
return and obedience may be regular and becoming a rational creature.
When, therefore, a man refuseth the motions of the Spirit, whereby his mind
may be informed, the Spirit is resisted by him. Every motion is a beam
from heaven : let us take heed of shutting our eyes against it, lest it be
snatched away by the interposition of some dark cloud, and we never enjoy
the Uke again, but lose the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and thereby the
306 chaknook's works. [John XVII. 3.
most excellent wisdom in earth or heaven. If we neglect his motions, we
put a slight upon that person, whereby only God reveals divine things tons:
1 Cor. ii. 10, ' God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit.' We contemn
the only instructor that can acquaint us with God ; ' the things of God
knows no man, but the Spirit of God,' ver. 11, i. e. no man knows them but
by the Spirit. It is exclusive of all men, though the strongest rationalists.
It' we listen not, then, to this Spirit, we shall receive a stronger ignorance
as a reward of our frowardness. Would any man stop his ears, or shut his
doors against an angel sent by God from heaven upon a happy errand ?
Behold in every divine motion a greater than an angel, yea, than all the
illuminated blessed angels in heaven. Since it is, therefore, a beam from
heaven shooting in upon the mind, follow it, and it will direct to a fuller
prospect of light, as when a ray of the sun strikes through a cranny of a
wall, the laying the eye close to the hole will help us to see more, and per-
haps the body of the sun from whence it streamed. If we, therefore, give
way to the motions of the Spirit, it may be with us as with the apostles, who
were dull and ignorant in the time of their master, and, just before the ascen-
sion of Christ, betrayed their ignorance of his design in coming, in proposing
to him the settling of an earthly kingdom, Acts i. 6. But when the Spirit
came upon them, how did he refine their minds, burn up the chafi" of their
grosser conceits ! How noble were their apprehensions of the spirituality of
Christ's kingdom, and their souls filled with divine hght ! So may we, in
our measures, if we wait for the Spirit, and observe his movings upon us.
Let us, therefore, hereby give encouragement to the Spirit to inform us with
delight, who is no less pleased than our Saviour was, when any received his
instructions, and stretched out their souls to catch his gales. More is
learned from such a teacher than from a multitude of ignorant men, if we
were to live for ever with them. The neglect of those motions is the worm
at the root of all our perfections, and continues the blindness of our minds,
and the perversity of our hearts. It concerns us, therefore, to look to this.
4. Labour and long for new hearts. As there is an enmity to God in
lapsed nature, so there is a disrelish of God in the knowledge of him, till the
vitiated palate be cured by the removal of the infectious humour. The dis-
ease of the eye must be removed before we can discern things plainly and
dehghtfuUy. Our natural eye while distempered is made worse by looking
long or often upon an object, and can take no pleasure in the view of any-
thing. That eye that would gaze upon the sun must be sun-like, of the
nature of the sun : the soul must become divine before it can know the
divinity. As no man can act, so no man can understand well divine things
unless he be in a divine state ; and therefore no unconverted person can in
that state have this knowledge. Who can behold that which he turns his
back upon ? He that turns his back upon the sun may see the earth, but
not the sun, in that posture. The knowledge of God, a relation to him as
his people, and a covenant interest in him as their God, were all founded
upon a turning to him with the whole heart : Jer. xxiv. 7, ' For they shall
return unto me with their whole heart;' so Hosea vi. 1, 3. First let us
return to the Lord, then shall we know. It is then that God pours out the
Spirit as a living spring, and gives him to be our tutor and instructor in
divine learning, to ' make known his words ' to us when we * turn at his re-
proof,' Prov. i. 23. Then shall we view everything with a new light, and
see something more in God, his word and ways, than we did before ; as men,
when they begin to study some art, look upon all things in a new manner
and form, according to the rules of that art they are engaged in. An unre-
generate man cannot have lively and quick apprehensions of God, no more
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 107
than a blind man can frame a true and distinct conception of colours and
light, notwithstanding his hearing several discourses about the essential pro-
perties of them. As sense only can perceive visible objects, and reason
rational, so spiritual sense only can perceive spiritual objects. A natural
man can no more judge of spiritual things as spiritual than a beast can
judge of the excellency of moral virtue. Saving knowledge of God, in order
of nature, follows regeneration, though the historical knowledge of God, the
object, precedes it ; for God being the object of religion and conversion
must be known before any act can be exercised about them.
5. Obedience and purity of heart is the way to increase this knowledge.
The freer the eye is from bad humours, the more able it is delightfully to
behold the sun. In a full righteousness God's face is beheld hereafter : Ps.
xvii. 17, ' As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness,' and according
to imperfect measures of righteousness we behold his face here. Our Saviour
makes purity to precede, and the sight of God to follow : Mat. v. 8, ' The
pure in heart shall see God.' The more the heart is purified, the more the
mind is cleared to have an insight into the things of God ; whereas a defiled
heart sends out streams to mud the understanding, as a foul stomach raiseth
vapours to disturb the head. Purity prepares the soul for a more free and
constant residence of the Spirit, the great instructor. He is a dove, and
doves care not for foul and polluted places. As the foul spirit loves a pol-
luted lodging, so doth the Holy Spirit a pure soul. He that fears God is the
subject of God's teaching, Ps. xxv. 12, but to leave off to do good is to leave
ofi' to be wise, Ps. xxxvi. 3. ' Moses hid his face, and was afraid to look
upon God,' Exod. iii. 6, which the Jews understand of a fear of reverence,
and for that cause (they say) he was rewarded with a sight of the similitude
of God, Num. xii. 8, 9 ; and indeed ' the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom,' i. e. the first foundation divine wisdom lays in building her house
in any soul. God required a three days' purification of the Israelites before
he would dispense the law and admit them to a knowledge of his will, and
is not a purity requisite to a knowledge of his nature ? To think to see God,
without purity in the soul, is as if we should imagine we could behold visible
objects without a crystalline humour in the ball of the eye. ' He that doth
God's will shall know the doctrine of Christ,' John vii. 17. As in practical
arts the skill is increased more by working than studying, so is the know-
ledge of God increased by the practice of what we know.* God delights to
be obeyed ; and where he is obeyed, he delights to give greater discoveries of
himself, both to encourage and direct to a further obedience. As Christ by
his obedience had the communications of God to him, so shall we by our
obedience have the communications of Christ to us, which he calls an ' abiding
in his love,' John xv. 10. A purified soul is more capable of divine beams
than a sharp wit. Plato could say that, after a walking with God, or a ro
ev^asTv, a living with him, a certain light breaks out upon us as from fire,
and falls upon our souls.
6. Humility. If grace be given to the humble, the grace of the best
knowledge is not excluded from God's liberality ; we gain it sooner by an
humble contemplation than proud wranghngs. As to obey God we must
deny our wills, so to know him we must deny our reasons ; will must submit
to precept, and reason to revelation. Agur acknowledged himself brutish,
who came behind none of his age, unless Solomon, in understanding, Prov.
xxx. 2. The humble person will quickly be a scholar in this learning, when
a pharisee shall remain as ignorant as he is proud. God reveals himself to
bubes, Mat. xi. 24, not to those that conceit themselves giants. Those that
* TrifirtfiS TU1 ivraXuD lyvaffi; rev S-sai/. — JBaSll.
108 ' charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
hear Christ's voice mnst have the quality of sheep, John x. 4. The meek
God acquaints with his choicest truths: Ps. xxv. 9, 'The meek will he teach
his way.' As God ' knows the proud afar otf,' Ps. cxxxviii, G, so doth the
proud man know God afar off. It is not possible, when God beholds him
at a great distance, that he can behold God. A f)roud scholar and a dove-
like teacher can never accord. God 'humbles himself,' Ps. cxiii. 6; we
must be like him if we would understand him, Christ was meek and lowly ;
he is never like to be a learner who imitates not his master's pattern. Espe-
cially when in this humiliation of Christ the attributes of God shone out
brighter than in creation or general providence. What God required in his
son as a medium for the discovery of himself, he will require in us to make
us capable of a communication of that knowledge. We are never fit to hear
God till we hear with submission. Humility brings us into such a posture,
it takes away the blocks which lie in the way of saving truth ; it drives away
inconsideration, silenceth contradictions against the truth, and stifles curio-
sity. If we will not, therefore, slight God's direction, we must ' be fools
that we may be wise,' 1 Cor. iii. 18. Our dulness doth grieve Christ, but
not so much as our conceitedness. Christ spake in parables to the arrogant
Pharisees, but he repeated his instructions to his humble disciples, though he
reproved them for their dulness. The pride and curiosity of this age sets men
back in the knowledge of God, but it is likely a sharp lance is not far off to
cut the swelling.
7. Heavenly meditation. An heavenly mind hath brighter and more de-
lightful apprehensions of God than all the carnal world. The purer the air
we live in, the more active and strong is the body ; the air of heaven quickens
the understanding and clears the sight. By meditation we enter within the
veil and behold his glory. He meets those that humbly aspire to him ; fre-
quent ascents of the mind to God is the way to attain the manifestations
of him, Exod. xix. 3, When Moses went up to God (which the Jews*
understand of an intellectual ascent, an ascent of meditation), the Lord called
to him out of the mount ; that they understand of his corporeal ascent.
Abstraction is necessary to this best of sciences. If we are thus out of the
body, we may with Paul hear and know things which are unutterable. The
senses of the soul, which are as real and have as real operations about their
proper objects, as the external senses of sight and taste have about sensible
objects, are thus to be exercised ; and when they are so, it makes us capable
of stronger meat and more spiritual knowledge, Heb, v. 14. Without this
we cannot come to a knowledge of God. Who can know the sun if he shuts
his eyes, or understand music if he stop his ears ? and know God if he never
stirs up his understanding about him ? We use the faculties and senses
which are proper for the objects proposed. f If music be presented, we em-
ploy our ears ; if the sun shine, we use our eyes, not our ears ; if we would
know God, we must employ our minds, they can only be conversant about
him. By this ascent of meditation we may see more of God in a moment
than otherwise we can do in an age, as a man may see more of London upon
the top of the Exchange in half a quarter of an hour than he can by going
about in many days, or standing in one street many years. But let our affec-
tions keep an equal pace with our meditations, that the heart may be in-
flamed with a divine love. Endeavour to have a savour of Christ's ointments.
Cant. i. 3 ; we shall then profit more in the knowledge of God in a week,
than, without blowing up our affections, we shall do in many years ; for then
God will communicate himself to us with a more cordial affection than we
can embrace him.
* Alaimon. More, part i. cap, xi, t Maximus Tyrius, dis i. p, 11.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god. 109
8, Communication of what knowledge of God we have upon occasion.
Talents improved increase, Luke xix. 17 ; increase in the act and increase by
a reward. Let not what knowledge you have lie bound up in a rotten napkin
as a useless thing, but venture it, and you will find a quick return. What
knowledge of God we have laid out is lent to God, as well as what we give
out of our purses to the poor, and God is no insolvent or careless debtor
to his own promise : he hath bound himself to pay the less, and so he
will the greater. We gain by imparting, as the husbandman flings his
grain into the ground with hopes of an increasing crop.
9. Aflfect Christian society. Every Christian is a king and priest to
God, and why not also a prophet to his brother ? If a man will con-
verse with divine persons, light will break in upon him as flame from a
sparkling fire. He that would gain knowledge would converse with the
best company. The daughters of Jerusalem were asked by the spouse for
her beloved, when she was upon the pursuit to find him, Cant. v. 8. The
meanest Christian may be of use in this. The lower plants have more of
medicine in them than many taller shrubs ; nay, Apollos has learned more
of Christ from Priscilla than from the apostles themselves. God often
blesseth the weaker above the stronger means, to shew that he is not tied
to any.
Let me conclude all with the speech of a heathen, O qudm contempta
res est homo, nisi supra humana se erexerit 1"^ If we would have life eternal,
the way, by our Saviour's prescription, is to ' know the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.'
* Seneca, Prsefat- ad Natural. Quest.
A DISCOURSE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
IN CHRIST.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. — John XVII. 3.
There were two principal doctrines pitched on at the beginning of this
discourse.
Doctrine I. The knowledge of God and Christ the Mediator is the neces-
sary means to eternal life and happiness.
Doctrine II. The true and saving knowledge of God is only in and by
Christ.
God and Jesus Christ. [Some make an hendiadis here, for ' God in
Christ.' As 2 Peter i. 2, ' Through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,'
i.e. through the knowledge of God in Christ; and, ver. 3, ' hath given us
all things pertaining to life and godliness,' i. e. to a godly life ; and, ver. 4,
who hath ' called us to glory and virtue,' or dta,, ' through glory and virtue,'
i. e. through a glorious power. So Ps. xcvi. 7, ' Give unto the Lord glory
and strength,' i. e. the glory of his strength. Gen. iii. 16, ' I will multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception,' i. e. thy sorrow in thy conception, or of thy
conception. To know God in Christ his ambassador. To know God the
Father in Christ the mediator, the Father being considered here as God, and
Christ as mediator. To know God as Christ hath declared him, as he
speaks, ver. 6, ' I have manifested thy name.'
Since the lapse of human nature, no man that understands his fallen con-
dition can have any knowledge of God from the book of the creatures and
the dictates of nature but what is terrible without a mediator ; and all
notions of God out of Christ are below him, many times unworthy of him,
and foul and undecent in themselves. Christ asserts it, Mat. xi. 27, * All
things are deUvered to me of my Father, and no man knows the Son but the
Father, neither knows any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomso-
ever the Son will reveal him.' All things were first dehvered to Adam in
the creation, viz. the knowledge of God and rectitude of nature, to be by
him transmitted to his posterity. But since Adam so foolishly and wickedly
threw it away for a little pleasure, he rendered himself and his posterity un-
capable to know and enjoy God.* God therefore pitches upon Christ in
* Chemuit. Harm, ex Atlianasio.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. Ill
his secret counsel, and stored up in him all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, to shoot his beams through him upon man, and convey by him
those good things which Adam had made himself by his fall uncapable to
communicate to his posterity. When our Saviour saith universally, all
things are delivered to him, he instanceth in none but the knowledge of God
as the foundation of all those rich communications which men receive from
him, for without the revelation of God the Father to man, man would be
uncapable to partake of those riches intended for him by the mediation and
interposition and furniture of the Son of God ; and therefore, John iii. 35,
when it is said, ' The Father hath given all things into his hand,' it follows,
' He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.' The end why all things
are given into his hand, is to convey to man such a knowledge of God that
men might be induced to believe in Christ, and in God through Christ.
Between the Father and the Son there is a communion of knowledge. None
knows the Son but the Father, none knows the Father but the Son ; none
makes known the Son, and what things he hath delivered into his hand, but
the Father by the Spirit ; and none knows the Father, and his mind and
affections to man, and the relations his nature and perfections bear to him,
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him by the outward
preaching of the word, and the inward illumination of his Spirit. And upon
this Christ makes a general invitation, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; ' that labour under, and are
heavy laden with, your ignorance and darkness in the things of God, as well
as with other miseries, and I will give you such a revelation and knowledge
of the Father wherein you shall find a rest and complacency. Another
place is John xiv. 9, ' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,'
where Philip, in his desiring of Christ to shew him the Father, takes it
for granted that the knowledge of the Father was only to be expected by and
from Christ. Though he discovers his infirmities in his petition, implying
that the Father was to be seen with corporeal eyes, ' Shew us the Father
and it sufficeth us,' Christ answers with a reproof for his ignorance and in-
advertency, ' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' The Son hath
rendered the Father spiritually visible in his person ; his excellency, majesty,
and unexpressible kindness to man, shine forth in Christ as a lively and
clear image, and there is so exact a resemblance and so near a conjunction
that, as he speaks, ver. 7, ' If we know Christ we know the Father also,'
because Christ hath revealed him by his doctrine and word, and the holi-
ness, righteousness,"tenderness of God are made visible in the transaction of
Christ, and God is represented in the person and doctrine of Christ more
clearly than in all the apparitions and evidences of himself to the patriarchs
and prophets.
One place more ; 2 Cor. iv. 4, 6, Christ is said to be the * image of God,'
and that God ' had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Where the apostle expresseth
two things : 1, that Christ is the image of God ; 2, that the knowledge of the
glory of God, or the glorious God, is discovered in the face or person of
Christ. He is the image of God ; he is indeed the essential image of God,
the natural image of God, possessing in one essence with the Father all the
glories and perfections of the Deity. A substantial and permanent image,
not vanishing as that in a glass ; a natural image, as the image of a father
in his son, who hath the lineaments of the father by participation from him,
not as the image of a prince in his coin, which is artificial. Substantial
image of God, not in regard of likeness, for every thing that is like another
is not said to be the image of that thing which it is like, but that which
112 charnock's wobks. [John XVII. 3.
bears a figure impressed by another, and expresseth that whose figure it is,
as one man may be like another, yet is not said to be the image of another,
as a son is said to be the image of his father. Not such an image as man
is, who is rather said to be created according to the image of God than to he
the image of God ; such an image as in creation was hke to God, not one
with God. Christ is such an image of God, as if shining upon the soul in
the gospel, can turn the heart, which man, though the image of God, cannot
perform, Christ is therefore the image of God, as a child is the image of
his father, not in regard of the individual property which the father hath
distinct from the child, and the child from the father, but in respect of the
same substance and nature, derived from the father by generation. Christ
is here called the image of God, not so much, saith Calvin, in relation to
God, as the Father is the exemplar of his beauty and excellency, as in rela-
tion to us, as he represents the Father to us in the perfections of his nature,
as they respect us and our welfare, and renders him visible to the eyes of our
minds. And the Jews did often give this title to the Messiah.* So that in
the sight of Christ we see God, as in the sight of the stamp upon wax we
Bee what is engraven upon the seal, which answers to it in exact proportion.
Christ God-man is the image of God, because the humanity is taken into
personal union with the Son of God. His humanity abstractedly considered
was no more the image of God than Adam was by creation. f And he is so
the image of God, that whosoever hath seen him and known him, hath seen
and known the Father also, which cannot be said of a picture, for he that
sees a picture cannot be said to see the object represented by the picture,
which expresseth only the outward figure, form, and lineaments. But he is
such an image as represents the nature, features, attributes, and inward vir-
tues of God. A picture is but a shadow, but Christ is a substantial image
of God, wherein the divinity dwells bodily, Col. ii. 9.
There is also a discovery of God in the face of Christ. Since the divine
nature falls not under the perceptions of sense, nor can be immediately
known in itself by the understandings of men ; it shines forth and sparkles %
in the face of Christ, and difiuseth itself about the world. By knowing
Christ, who is man, we know God ;§ because the human nature of Christ is
personally assumed by the Son of God. As he that sees the body of a man,
sees the man consisting of soul and body, because the soul and body are
united together and make one composition, though the soul in itself be
invisible ; so he that sees the human nature of Christ is rightly said to see
God, because the human and divine nature are personally united in Christ,
though the divinity itself be invisible ; and indeed, we cannot conceive any
other sight and knowledge of God in heaven, but in Christ. The vision of
Christ in his glorified human nature, is a seeing of God face to face ; so
that whosoever sees Christ with his bodily eyes, or with the eyes of his mind,
sees God; he sees and knows God, not immediately and directly, but
mediately and consequently. As the prophets were said to see the Lord :
1 Kings xxii, 19, Micaiah ' saw the Lord sitting upon his throne ; and Isa.
vi, 1, 'I saw the Lord upon his throne.' They saw not God immediately,
but in those forms wherein ho was pleased to appear as the symbols of his
presence : and as John Baptist saw the Spirit of God, Mat. iii. 16, in the
form of a dove ; not the person of the Holy Ghost, but in the form wherein
he appeared, yet is said to see the Spirit of God ; the Father and the
Son, having one nature and essence, when the Son is known the Father is
known.
* N"?N D"?^.— Grotius in loo. t Bayns on Col. i. 15, pp. 75, 76.
X 'AcT^ava; afii);. — Theod. § Gerhard, Harm, in John xiv. 9, p. 909., Col, i.
John XYII. 3.1 the knowledge of god in christ. 11
1. All the knowledge that any man hath of God, is from and by Christ.
Every man that hath any saving light, hath it derivatively from him ; he is
' the hght that enlightens eveiy man that comes into the world,' John i. 9.
Every man that is enlightened, is enlightened by him. No other light can
expel that darkness which is upon our minds in relation to God, but this
light. What knowledge any man hath of God by reason and natural light,
is by the mediation of Christ, whereby are kept up in men whatsoever gifts
they had by their fall forfeited ; and whatsoever saving knowledge any man
hath of God, is by the special illumination of this true light by the virtue of
his Spu-it. Neither our natural reason is the true light, because it is blind
in spiritual things ; nor the word is the true light, because it cannot make
men savingly intelligent without the shining of this true light upon them.
And this the church expected by the Messiah : Hosea vi. 3, ' Then shall we
know the Lord, at his going forth prepared as the morning;' when he ' shall
come as the rain, as the former and the latter rain ;'* when he shall instil
into us the divine doctrine, and open our hearts as the rain doth the womb
of the earth. We shall then know, when he shall come to teach men the
ways of life, as a Jew expounds it.
2. No man hath, can have, or ever had, any knowledge of God without
Christ : John i. 18, ' No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' "V\Tiich is
asserted by John Baptist against the Jews, who boasted much of Moses his
sight of God, and knowledge of his secrets. No man hath seen God from
the fii-st creation of the world to this day, not a man of all the patriarchs
and prophets ever knew God but by the revelations of Christ. By seeing,
we must not understand a corporeal sight, for no man ever did or can see
God with his bodily eyes, but an inteUectual or spiritual vision, which the
antithesis, ' But he hath revealed him,' manifests. Christ is only capable
to declare to us the nature and counsels of God, because he is his only Son,
had an intimate communion with him ; was, and is continually in bis bosom,
wherein the secrets of God were laid up, and was before the world interested
in his secret counsels, and knew the bottom of all. He hath expounded his
will, unfolded his nature, ' E^rr/riaaro. None else can reveal him, nor can
the revelations of any inferior to him in this privilege challenge a full credit
with any man. Moses himself saw God only in Christ ; he was put in a
hole of the rock, Exod. xxxiii. 22, which, hi the judgment of the ancients,
and some moderns, was a figure of Christ. None can see and know God
but in this rock Jesus ; the name which God then proclaimed is only
declared by Christ : John xvii. 6, ' I have manifested thy name unto the
men which thou gavest me.' And that which we call the light of nature,
and the light of the law, is gathered up and centred in Christ ; as that light
which was in the world before the fourth day of the creation was gathered
and embodied in the sun, and from thence flowed to the world. All the light
was created to be brought into that body, and to flow from thence upon the
several parts of the world, and to be communicated from thence to other
creatures ; so that there is no clear light in the world but from and by the
sun, and no clear light of the knowledge of God but from and by Christ.
Some therefore make the sun a natural type of Christ. As the sun was
created the fourth day of the creation, so Christ was incarnate about the
four thousandth year of the world, the fourth divine day, a thousand years
being as a day in God's sight. All light was only to flow from it ; and indeed
all the light of the knowledge of God that ever was did spring from Christ.
* Where the word which siguiiies the latter rain, mV, signifies also a teacher.
VOL. IV. » H
114 chabnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
Kone ever knew God by his own strength and natural abilities, but as they
were kept up and animated by the mediator.'
And, by the way, we may observe, that the knowledge of God is more
than the knowledge of the will of God. ' He hath declared him.' Christ
declared more than the will of God, as it was a rule of obedience ; he de-
clared God's perfections as a ground of the creature's confidence, as an
incitement to admiration, and a motive to obedience. He declared not only
the will of God, what we are to do ; but the intention of God, what we are
to hope for ; the glory of God, what we are to adore and admire.
In the prosecution of this, we shall shew,
I. What kind of mediums there have been to know God, and how they
come short of this.
II. That the saving knowledge of God is attained only by the knowledge
of Christ.
III. The necessity of this medium.
IV. What knowledge of God is discovered to us by Christ.
V. The Use.
I. What kind of mediums there have been to know God, and how they
come short of this way of knowledge.
1. There is a natural knowledge of God.
(1.) By implanted notion. Some question whether there be any natural
knowledge of God imprinted upon man, or the knowledge of any one thing
naturally planted in him ; but as he grows up (say they) he acquires a know-
ledge of things from the objects of sense, and improvement of them by the
understanding he is endowed with; and making deductions and conclusions
by the help of reason, arrives to an apprehension of things. Yet this know-
ledge of God may be called natural, because, by the view of the visible things
in the world, natural reason frames a certain conclusion that there is a God,
the cause of those excellences he sees in the creatures. But the Scripture
seems to intimate a notion of God in the minds of men : Rom. i. 19, ' That
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shewn it unto
them ;' a notion within, an excitation of it by objects without, that there
is an internal light which doth manifest him, as well as an external evidence
of him by the creatures. But whether this be the import of this scripture
or no, most understand no more by manifest in them, than manifest to them;
yet, since there is a law of nature in men, which is the rule of the excusings
or accusings of the conscience, in regard of which they are said to be ' a law
to themselves,' Rom. ii. 15, ' and the work of the law,' said to be ' written
in their hearts,' the notion of a superior power to which man is account-
able for his actions must be as natural as that, because it is the foundation
of the actings of conscience ; and the superstructure being from an implanted
light, is not like to be without a foundation of the same kind. To what pur-
pose should conscience accuse, if there were not a supreme being under
whose censure such actions did fall ? and since the heathens had a natural
sentiment, that the extravagances they were guilty of were worthy of death,
«Rom. i. 32, they must also have as natural a sentiment that there was a
judge of absolute power to inflict that death upon them, which their ow^n
consciences told them they were worthy of. Since there are, therefore,
natural agitations of conscience raised up by the law of nature within them,
the notion of a God seems to me to be as natural as that law of nature, and
those motions of conscience. And though this was more clear in man at
his creation, and while he remained in the state of innocency, yet it is not
blotted out of the mind of man. Though the notions of God in men are
John XYII. 3. J the knowledge of god in chkist. 115
dimmed by the fumes of their corruption, yet they cannot stifle this inward
ight and impression, any more than the thickest fogs can blot out the sun,
or hinder it from making day. And all the outward objects which we see in
the world, whence we argue that there is a God, seem only to revive and
awaken that implanted notion which lay covered with the rubbish of the fall,
or, upon the first view of things, with what ease doth this sentiment rise up
in our minds ? And nothing is more obvious, nothing more easily enter-
tained, than this, that there is a God, and that this God is a mighty, powerful,
and perfect being ; which evidenceth that there is a spark of it in the mind
of man, which catches the outward flame so quickly upon its approach, as
the snuft' of a candle, not quite extinguished, will snatch and attract the flame
of another which comes near unto it.
(2.) By the creatures. The visible world, and every part of it, is a book,
wherein we may read some syllables of God.*-' The heathens saw God in
heaven, earth, fire, water, plants, and animals ; all creatures being lines
drawn from that centre. Though man hath not the knowledge which Adam
had, since the flaw he contracted upon his understanding, yet there being
some scattered relics of this knowledge, he may, by looking near to the crea-
tures, discern, by his purblind and dim sight, something of the attributes of
God, every creature being a glass which reflects some beams of God upon
his mind ; for no man in his wits can conclude that the world was made by
chance, but by some being more wise than any being in the world can be, or
than all the wisest men in the world put together. We know the courage,
conduct, and power of a general by the sight of his conquests, the skilful-
ness of an artificer by the excellency of his work, and the eloquence of an
orator by reading his speech, though we never saw the faces of any of them.
There are very few attributes but the works of creation and providence dis-
cover in some measure to us ; for ' the invisible things of God from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,' Rom. i. 20. These two
perfections are clearly seen : his infinite power, which discovers also his
eternity ; and his incomprehensible goodness, which is the most signal glory
of the divinity. f The beauty of the world acquaints us with the excellency
of him that erected it, and the order of the world instructs us in the wisdom
of him that composed it. This discovery hath been ever since the creation ;
* from the creation of the world ;' from the time the world and the things
therein were first created. He imprinted some letters of himself upon this,
frame of things, at the first rearing of it, wherein they have been ever since
legible ; you may see by the letter whose print it was, and what skill he had
who made the impression. Thus God brings the creatures successively upon
the stage to Job, and reads a natural history of them ; he sends him to con-
sider the foundations of the earth, the bridled vastness of the sea, &c.. Job
xxxviii.-xl.
[1.] The power of God is evident: in bringing forth a fair world out of
nothing, which manifests an infinite strength ; in packing together all parts
for conveniency of life and motion, in so little a creature as a fly and ant;
in stretching out the heavens like a curtain, laying the beams of his chambers
in the waters ; in setting bounds to the mighty waters, that they turn not
again to cover the earth.
[2.] The ivisdom of God : in the order, variety, and beauty; in the great
resemblances of reason in some little creatures, as the ants and bees, which
could hardly be supposed to have bodies capable of spirits, for managing
* Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quodcunque movctur. — Lucan.
t Amyraut. Paraph.
116 chaenock's wokks. [John XVII. 3.
those tasks they naturally undertake ; in the ordering everything to a par-
ticular and general end ; the subserviency of one creature to another ; the
constant order they observe in their motions, as if they were sensible of a
law, and were rational observers of it. The moon is appointed for seasons,
and the sun knows his going down ; the observation of which drew from the
psalmist that admiration, ' Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom
hast thou made them all,' Ps. civ. 24 — a lecture of the creation.
[3.] The goodness of God. * The earth is full of his riches,' Ps. civ. 24,
full of the goodness of the Lord : in communicating to every creature
various endowments for their usefulness to one another, and furnishing them
■with abilities to attain their ends (every providence is a witness of this attri-
bute. Acts xiv. 17) ; in the plentiful provision he hath made for his crea-
tures ; in causing ' the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service
of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth.' Whosoever was the
cause of the creation, must have understanding, will, and power : under-
standing to contrive, will to resolve, and power to perform. Wisdom is the
product of the understanding, goodness communicates the fruit of the will,
power executes and brings the contrivance and resolve into act.
[4.] The immutability of God may be known by the creatures. Since
every creature, the more subject to change, the more it partakes of imper-
fection, God, the cause of all, must be immutable, otherwise he would want
that perfection which is in the (Sun and heavenly bodies, wherein no change
hath been observed.
[5.] His eternity, which is inseparable from infinite power. He must be
before what was made by him in time.
[6.] His ovmiscience. He must know everything exactly which he hath
made, and nothing in his creatures can be hid from him ; as a workman
knows every part and motion of his work.
[7. J His sovereignty. In the obedience his creatures pay to him, in
observing their several orders, and moving in the spheres wherein he set
them.
[8.] The spirituality of God. Because he is not visible ; and the more
spiritual any creature in the world is, the more pure it is. Besides, if God
were a body, he would be compounded of various parts, and the parts
would be in order of nature before the whole, and God woulc" depend upon
those parts.
[9.J The sufficiency of G-od for himself. Since all creatures had a begin-
ning, God had no need of creating them ; for being from eternity before the
world, he had no more need of it in time than he had before time.
[10.] His majesty. In the glorj- and lustre of the heavens, which are
his throne, Isa. Ix. 1, and a clear looking-glass to represent in their essence,
magnitude, and motion, not only the being but the glory of God, more ma-
jestically than any earthly creature.
From all which may be concluded, the manner how God ought to be wor-
shipped : as a mighty being, clothed with all those perfections as with a
garment ; so that he cannot be represented by the image of any one crea-
ture. For since he hath made all, he cannot be limited by the perfections
of any one, because he is the boundless fountain of the perfections of all.
Nature, therefore, can never teach men to worship God in images, unless
they were able to frame one in which they could gather and store up the
perfections of all creatures ; and that is as impossible for any or all
creatures to perform as to make a God. All this is as intelligible to a
rational creature by nature, as the shining of the sun is visible ; the one is
as evident in the works of creation to our reason as the other is to our
John XYII, 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 117
sense. All this may be known of God by the creation, and it is a true
(though not a full) discovery of God. It is called truth : Rom. i. 18, 25,
' Change the truth of God into a lie.' We may as truly conclude all this
of God, by the prospect of the creation, as a man might conclude the wis-
dom, power, and magnificence of the Romans, by the sight of their pyramids,
theatres, statues, buildings, and other conveniencies in the city for the
people ;* for it is a rational way of arguing, from the excellency of the effect
to the excellency of the cause, and from the perfection of the creature to the
perfection of God. No man can behold the visible world, and take a view
of the excellency of any creature, but must conclude an higher excellency in
God ; because it is impossible for that which is a solitary cause to give that
to another which it doth not possess in itself, in a formal way, or a way of
eminency ; yet, because there is an imperfection in every creature, we must
sift the flour of the creature from this bran, when we would frame any con-
ception of the excellency of God by it. As we know the nature of the sea
by a drop of water from it, yet we imagine the sea a gi'eat mass of those
drops inconceivably vaster than a drop ; so when we conceive of God ac-
cording to any perfection in the creature, we add a purity, spirituality, and
infiniteness to that perfection which we conceive.
(3.) By the nature of our souls. Had God made only man, and one
small place for him to be in, without those ornaments of the world, he
might have arrived to more knowledge of God by his own being, and make,
and glossing upon his own nature, than by anything in the world. The soul
being a spirit, and the noblest of all beings upon the earth, approaching
nearest the nature of God, the contemplation of that renders God more in-
telligible to us than all material things, whose nature is more unlike to the
nature of God. As the sun is more visible through a thin cloud than a thicker
fog and veil which obscures it, there is more of God to be found in the little
central point of the soul than in the large circumference of the world ;t and
a clearer impression of some great and inconceivable being is upon our souls
than upon any creature under heaven ; and whosoever will retire within
himself, cannot but perceive some characters of a supreme being in his own
nature. The soul was Hghted by God, and created according to the image of
God, and is the exactest image of God under heaven. J By considering the
nature of our own souls, we may come to some knowledge of the original
and copy, as we have clearer apprehensions of the sun by the image of it
imprinted upon a glass, or other transparent body, than we can have by any
other creature, though the image of the sun be much less glorious than the
sun itself, whose image it is. The mind of man can pierce every thing ; it
can conceive of angels, descend into the bottom of the deep, ascend to the
battlements of heaven ; it is not confounded by the mists of the air, or
checked by the distance of the heavens. Command your mind to pass from
one end of the world to the other, it will perform the order as soon as it is
given. What is quicker than thought, which can skip from earth to heaven,
from heaven to earth in a moment ! Can there be a greater shadow of the
omnipresence and immensity of God ? The soul hath a memory to register
actions and things done many years ago. It can bring out things new and
old : what higher resemblance of the omniscience of God ? It is not com-
posed of the factious principles of elements. It hath not the dregs of matter
mixed with it ; in this it represents the spirituality of God. It is indefa-
tigable in its motions ; it is never tired in governing the body, — our bodies,
* Ochino Predict, par. ii. predic. ii. p. 5.
t The Boul was therefore called by some philosophers Deus in homine.
♦ T( ayaXf/,a Biou, a Statue of God.
118 chaknock's works. [John XVII. 3.
that are coarse pieces of earth, flag and languish when the soul remains
vigorous ; and this represents the indefatigableness of God's providence. It
can subsist without the body ; it doth not in all its motions depend upon it;
it can reflect upon itself without it, view and please itself in its own perfec-
tions abstracted from the body, which shadows to us the self-sufficiency of
God. Thus, as a landscape or draught of a great house or kingdom repre-
sents all the parts of that land or house, yet in a far less proportion than the
house or territory is in itself; and when we see those models, we do not
conceive the things represented to be of no bigger size than the pictures of
them, but of a far greater proportion ; so we may contemplate God in the
model of our own souls, and since we know that we have understanding and
will, we conclude that God hath understanding and will in a more trans-
cendent manner, still enlarging to infiniteness in him what we observe of
ourselves, when we transfer it to God. Yet though we may have so much
knowledge of God by the creatures and by our souls, how little do we con-
template God ! How far do we come short of this natural knowledge, and
the improvement of it ! How much shorter of the knowledge of God in
Christ, which is infinitely more excellent and glorious ! All the knowledge
drawn from the creatures is insufficient to represent God. The knowledge
of God by nature and creatures is necessary, as a foundation for higher ap-
prehensions, and for turning to God. Men without it would be wholly
brutish, and incapable of instructions in Christianity as an ox or a sheep ;
and though men deserved by sin to be deprived of this natural knowledge,
yet God kept it up as a stock on which in time to engraft other principles in
the discovery of Christ. All nature is incapable of discovering God in a full
manner as he may be known. Nature, like Zaccheus, is of too low a sta-
ture to see God in the length and breadth, height and depth, of his perfec-
tions. The key of man's reason answers not to all the wards in the lock of
those mysteries. The world at best is but a shadow of God, and therefore
cannot discover him in his magnificent and royal virtues, no more than a
shadow can discover the outward beauty, the excellent mien, and the inward
endowments of the person whose shadow it is. All that a shadow will in-
form me of, is whether it be the shadow of a man or brute. It discovers
something of God, not so much of him as to give the soul a full compla-
cency ; the fruit of it is but a thirst without a satisfaction.
[1.] Innocent nature could never have been, in that state, acquainted
with the perfections of God, in such a manner as they are discovered in
Christ.
(1.) Some perfections of God's nature could not have been known. Where
had there been any place for the discovery of patience without a provocation, or
for punitive justice without a transgression, or for pardoning mercy without
an offence ? There had been no occasion for the exercise of any of them,
and therefore we cannot conceive how there could be a manifestation of
them without objects convenient for them to be conversant about. Inno-
cent man was the object of God's goodness, offending man only of his
patience. Innocence is the subject of love, injury of anger. All those glo-
rious eminences of God's nature had lain under a thick veil, impossible to
be discerned by the eye of man. But those attributes were brought upon
the stage by the entrance of sin, which was permitted to enter for the mani-
festation of them in and through Christ : Rom. v. ver. 15, 20, ' The law
entered, that the offence might abound,' to make way for ' the abundance of
grace.' Some attributes of God could not have been discovered by any pro-
ceeding of his, at least in such an height and eminency, but in Christ, as the
wonders of his grace, the loud sounding of his bowels and compassions,
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 119
the purity of his holiness, and the dreadfulness of his justice. His creating
perfections might have been seen by Adam and his posterity, his redeeming
perfections are only displayed in his Son. The world as created was not
capable of giving occasion for the manifestation of those attributes, but the
world as fallen. The not being of the world gave occasion to God to manifest
his glory as a creator, but the lapsed state of the world gave occasion to God
to manifest his glory as a redeemer ; for how could there be mercy shewn, if
man's misery did not need it ? How could there be vindictive justice, if man's
transgression did not deserve it ? How could there be a promise of resto-
ration by the seed of the woman, if man's degeneracy did not want it ?
God had not been known in one letter of his name, as it is set down, Exod.
xxxiv. 6, 7, but in the Kedeemer. Not one tittle of his name there de-
scribed had been known to the sons of men, had they continued in innocency,
nor after the fall, but in and by Christ the mediator. It is in him he dis-
covers himself a God ' merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness, forgiving iniquity, and by no means clearing the guilty,' but exact-
ing satisfaction to his offended justice for sin. As though God was infinitely
happy in himself, yet this happiness could not have been discovered to any
but himself, unless he had made creatures wherein to display his goodness,
and no being could have known him but himself, if there had been no being
besides himself; so without Christ, God had not been known in his redeem-
ing perfections, because there had been no basis for the discovery of them,
they had lain wrapped up in darkness from the creature ; and as they were
a mystery hid from ages till the discovery of Christ, so they had without him
remained hid for ever from the notice of the world. And as those attributes
had not been discovered, so the creature's duty in relation to them could not
have been exercised. God had wanted the manifestative glory of his par-
doning grace, and man had had no occasion to return a thankfulness to God
for it. He could not have humbled himself under God's displeasure, had
there not been an occasion to manifest his anger ; nor could the infinite suf-
ficiency of God for his creature have been known, nor prayers directed to
him by his creatures for relief. Nature could discover no more than what
was imprinted on it by the God of nature ; the world stood in no need of
redemption by virtue of its creation, but by virtue of its transgression and
pollution.
(2.) Some perfections of God's nature could not have been so clearly and
fully known. The creation was but the first draught of God's perfections,
and came much short of the full declaration ; as the first limning of a picture
doth of expressing the features and beauty of the original, till the second and
third di-aught, when the last hand is put, and all the lines completed.
Though there were manifestations of God's power, wisdom, and goodness in
the creation, yet not in such splendour as the occasion of bringing forth
Christ into the world did administer for the illustrating of them. These at-
tributes looked upon the world through a veil and lattice, but were not seen
in their full lustre till the coming of Christ drew the veil, and set them forth
in their richest beauty. Here was infinite power in its strength going forth
like a giant to run its race, God's power over himself manifested, wisdom in
a knot of royal designs, and goodness opening its richest treasures. The
holiness of God could not have been clearly known : while man did not know
what sin was, he could never have strong conceptions of the mighty hatred
of God against it. Man had some understanding of it by God's threatening,
but he could not have such clear notices of it by his commination, as upon
the entrance of sin by the execution, and that upon our Saviour. Nor had
the veracity of God been so evident. It would have been known but in the
120 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
half, or on one side, in the making good his promise upon man's obedience,
but never would have been understood experimentally (which is the clearest
and most infallible way of knowledge) in his threatening, unless sin had in-
vaded the world, and so had given occasion to the manifestation of God's
truth to his word of threatening, as man's persisting in an unerring and un-
spotted obedience would have given only occasion to manifest his truth to
his word of promise. These virtues of God were in the creation hke a lovely
diamond under a piece of Hnen, which emits some sparklings, but is not
discerned in its full lustre till the covering be removed. Christ drew the
veil from them, and manifested them in their fullest glory. The angelical
nature had no prospect of these things we have spoken of, by their stand-
ing before the face of God, but by the discovery of them to the church in
their great head, Eph. iii. 10. And it is likely, from that and other
places, that though they had a notice of the redemption of man by the
first promise of the seed of the woman made to man, and by the glorifying
some of mankind, and the providences of God in the world, yet they
were ignorant of the great ways and methods of it, till they came upon
the stage in the discovery of the Son of God's taking miserable flesh to
die in it ; so incapable is the best created nature to discern the glory of
God without the face of Christ.
(3.) Innocent nature could never arrive to a full knowledge of God's
nature by the attributes discovered in creation, without some further revela-
tion of him. The whole creation was the work of God's hands, but no work
can fully express the nature of the artificer. We may know by a watch, or
clock, or a curious piece of tapestry, that the workman was skilful in his
art, that a more exact piece never came out of any hand ; but by his curiosity
in his work, we cannot give a description of his person and disposition,
without other acquaintance with him. We can know nothing of God by the
creatures, but as they stand in the relation to God as effects to their cause,
and when the cause doth much transcend the effect, the clearest understand-
ing cannot, by the knowledge of the effect, arise to a full knowledge of the
cause. God is infinitely above the fruits of his power in the world ; there-
fore, man in innocence could gain but little knowledge of him by a bare
prospect of them. Nature discovers that there is a God, but not fully what
that God is ; nor doth the creation furnish man wdth a notion of God suit-
able to the excellency and immensity of his natm-e : as a blind man who
hears a discourse of the light and heat of the sun, being brought under the
beams of it striking hot upon his body, feels the warmth and knows there is
such a thing men call the sun, and is sensible of some effects of it, but hath
not a full conception of the enlightening nature of the sun, nor knows what
the body of the sun is, nor what kind of shape it appears in ; and if he should
declare his conception of it, it would be strangely different from the true
nature of the sun, a monstrous mistaken description of it, not suitable to
that planet ; nay, what man is there that sees the sun every day, that is
able to say he fully knows the nature of it by his sight, or the constant in-
fluences which he feels from it ? The conception of God is infinitely more
above innocent reason than the conception of the sun can be above lapsed
natural reason cracked by the fall. Since, therefore, all the creatures cannot
be a ground for man to frame a true and right conception of God, what
Adam had of this nature was more from revelation than contemplation of the
works of God ; and, since Adam was of the species of man, what knowledge
he had of God above what the effect of his power in the world did discover,
he had by revelation from God, since no man hath at any time seen or known
God (taking in the beginning of time, as well as the succession of time), but
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 121
whatever intellectual vision any had of God, was by the declarations of the
Son of God, John i. 18.
[2.] Corrupted nature is less able to know God by the creation, as he
ought to be known, since the fall. Since no natural light was strong enough
to discover the wonders of God, corrupt reason can attain but a faint know-
ledge. The providence of God, after the entrance of sin, displayed some of
his attributes which could not be manifested in an innocent state, viz., his
forbearance and his justice. God did witness his patience and goodness to
men in giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and ' filling their
hearts with food and gladness,' while he ' suffered them to walk in their own
ways,' Acts xiv. 16, 17. And many of the beathens were sensible of this
goodness in some measure, when they observed how much the wickedness of
the world deserved the contrary, though most of them, indeed, ' despised
the riches ' of it, Rom. ii. 3, 4. Now and then, some warning pieces of
judgments were shot off, whereby the world was startled and made sensible
of anger in Grod. He now and then shot his darts into the hearts of some,
otherwise they would scarce have taken notice that there was a God that
judgeth in the earth. But there was nothing in all their observation that
could discover anything of God in Christ, the union of two natures, the doc-
trine of the trinity of persons, which was necessary to the notion of redemp-
tion, because there was to be a person satisfying, and a person to whom the
satisfaction was to be offered, and by whom it was to be received ; one con-
sidered as the rector, the other as the mediator. This transaction was a
' mystery hid in God from the beginning of the world,' Eph. iii. 9, and dis-
covered to the Gentiles in the apostles' time. Col. i. 26, 27, ' Now made
manifest to the saints ;' not before, not a syllable of it communicated to
nature ; it had then been no more a mystery than any other thing that nature
declares. There were, indeed, some confused notions among some of the
prime philosophers of a trinity, and some prophecies among the Sybils ap-
plicable to the Redeemer. The latter might have some glimmerings by
revelation, that thereby way might be made for the easier reception of the
gospel by the Gentiles, when it should set foot in the world. The former,
i. e. the philosophers, had also, from a converse with the Jews, into whose
country some of them had travelled, or from the Jews which occasionally re-
sided among them, or from the Phoenicians, which were the Philistines of
Canaan, a trading people, who, by the neighbourhood of the Jews, might
learn and discover some maxims of their religion ; and there were also some
of them acquainted with some parts of Scripture : nature cannot challenge
anything in this affair. But the strength of their natural light was more
seen in a knowledge of the duty of man to man, than in the seai'ching out
God in the duties we owe to him ; whence there are many discourses extant
of justice, temperance, prudence, and moral virtues, very few of God and
his nature. And though men had by tradition some notice of a redeemer
by the first promise, yet they were not able to conceive anything of the
nature of God thereby, but that he was patient and gracious ; but because
they could not conceive how this work should be effected, they could not dis-
cern those other attributes of holiness, wisdom, mercy, justice, in their
bright beams, till the discovery of Christ in the flesh and upon the cross.
What knowledge men had by tradition from the first promise was quickly
lost among the corraptions of the old world, and though revived in the legal
ceremonies appointed to the Jews, yet they had not conceptions of the great
intendments of them.
The insufficiency of nature is seen,
[1.] In that by nature we cannot know the things of nature perfectly,
122 chaenock's works. [John XYII. 3.
much less the author of nature.* If we know not the nature of the eflfects,
how can we know the nature of the cause, which infinitely excels them ?
There hath been a dimness in the reason of man ever since the fall, in refer-
ence to those things which are before our eyes. We know not the world, of
which we are parts ; we Imow not ourselves, though we daily converse with
ourselves ; we understand not well the nature of our own souls, nor the
reason of our own motions and actions ; how then can nature help us to the
understanding of the greater, when it doth not to the understanding of the
less ? How can we arise by the strength of nature to the understanding of
infinite wisdom and power ? If we are not able to arrive to such a know-
ledge of the creatures by weak nature, so as to give an essential definition
of them ; if the nature of a stone, sound, colour, doth pose us ; if all the
questions put to us about a fly cannot be answered : how much less are we
able to come to the knowledge of Grod, with the strength which is too weak
for the other ? If we are nonplussed by creatures, much more by the
Creator.
[2.] Had nature been able in this affair, or had reason been sufficient to know
God and his counsels concerning us, what need of the mission of the Spirit? It
ishe only ' searcheth the deep things of God ;' ' no man knows the things of
God, but the Spirit of God ;' and the end of his sending is, * that we may
know the things that are freely given us of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 3, &c. All the
reason of the world would never have arrived to the discoveiw of those per-
fections of God, they being infinitely above us, as our notions and thoughts
are above the reach of a beast, which is never able to apprehend the nature
of a man, or understand the language of a man, whereby to come to a know-
ledge of him. Though reason puts us into a capability of entertaining the
discoveries of him, without which neither outward declarations, nor inward
impressions, could work anything upon us any more than upon a man re-
maining out of his wits, yet of itself it is not able to ascend to the conception
of God without the Spirit of God. If men could have redeemed themselves,
what need of the expense of the blood of Christ ? So if men could have
instructed themselves in this great knowledge, what need of the Spirit to lead
us into the secret chambers of God ? Wheresoever, therefore, any man
knows God, and the things freely given him of God, i. e. the things of the
gospel, wherein the excellency and liberality of God most illustriously ap-
pears, it is the gift of the Spirit ; and where any man hath an inward and
spiritual taste of those things, it is the grace of the Spirit in him.
[3.] We find the highest improved nature had strange and unworthy
notions of God, and was ignorant of him. If the Athenians, the famousest
people in the world for learning, and therefore of more refined understand-
ings, confessed their ignorance of God in the inscription of the Qshg uyvusrhg
upon the altar. Acts xvii. 23, how could more clouded nature come within
ken of him ? Though by reasoning they concluded there was a supreme
being who had the superintendency of the world, yet they could not tell what
this God was ; and when the redeeming perfections of God were discoursed
by the apostle to them, they were the subject of the Athenians' scoffs rather
than inquiry, ver. 32. The hidden wisdom of God ' none of the princes
of the world knew,' 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; not the governing princes, though they
were as ignorant as the rest, but the princelike and towering wits of this
world knew it not ; and though God had displayed before their eyes the
wonders of the world, and given them both in the creation, preservation, and
government of the world, a multitude of lessons concerning his nature, which
they might in some measure have discerned by a diligent observation, yet
* Charron trois veritez, lib. i. chap. v. pp. 19, 20, changed.
John XYII. 3. J the knowledge of god in cheist. 123
in the wisdom of God, those lessons of his wisdom in the creation and pro-
vidence, they did not by natural wisdom and the use of their reason know
him, 1 Cor. i. 21. Sometimes their notions of God were rank, and they
framed a misshapen God, modelled according to their own humours, not the
nature of a deity, who could not possibly be of that hue which they repre-
presented him to themselves in. Sometimes they counted him cruel and
unjust, sometimes too fond and indulgent ; some confined him to heaven,
others acknowledged his providence in the greater affairs of the world, but
concluded it unworthy of him to descend to take notice of the fall of a
sparrow or the hairs of the head, and that it was a disturbance of God's
rest to intermeddle with worldly affairs. They stepped out of the way of reason
into the paths of fancy, measured God according to their own imaginations
to accommodate their lusts, and lie more at ease soaking in their sins. It
were endless to tell the monstrous thoughts their corrupt minds had of God,
and the multiplicity of their idols, whereby they ' changed the truth of God
into a lie,' Rom. i. 23-25, whereas they might have discerned, by a reason-
ing from those excellencies they saw in the creatures, that God was an
infinite, eternal, wise, and self-sufficient being. And such monstrous con-
ceptions of God, after the light of the gospel superadded to that of natural
reason, do often flutter in the minds of men among us.
2. There was a knowledge of God by or under the law. Before the giving
the law by Moses, God instructed men by the apparitions of angels, visions
to some prophets, by the holiness of some of his eminent darlings ; under
the law, by figures and representations, which the wisest of them did but
darkly understand, and that by the assistance of some special revelation,
which was successively cleared by the prophets, enlightened in several ages
to that purpose. The moral law was a discovery of God, chiefly in his
sovereignty, holiness, and justice ; he enacts laws as a sovereign, righteous
laws against sin as a holy one, annexeth threatenings and promises as a
judge. In regard of the majesty of God in the discovery, the people were
afraid of death at the promulgation : Exod. xx. 19, ' Let not God speak
with us, lest we die.' And Moses, who was the most familiar person with
God in the world, had not a less fright at the discovery of it : Heb. xii. 21,
' So terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.'
The knowledge of God in the law was too terrible for the minds of men, and
surprised Moses, the friend of God, the interpreter of his will, with an ex-
treme horror. God here manifested the marks of his greatness and his
justice, armed with instruments of punishment for sin. There was not a
mite of his mercy discovered by the law, but to those that kept his com-
mandments, i. e. to those that were without any guilt and crime ; upon which
account the apostle calls the law, the ' ministry of condemnation ' and ' of
death ;' and a killing, not a healing letter ; a sword to cut, not a balsam to
close a wound, 2 Cor. iii. 7-9. Nothing of adoption and justifying grace
pronounced in it. The hohness of God was discovered in his precepts, and
bis justice in his threatenings. There was also a daily prospect of the holi-
ness and justice of God in the sacrifices exacted of man, in the groans, gasp-
ings, and blood of beasts; they saw that sin was neither afi"ected by God, nor
would be suffered to remain unpunished ; and their sight of those attributes
in this ministration was greater than the world could have of them by the
now and then sprinklings of judgments, which, being not often upon the
worst of sinners, staggered the understandings, not only of the heathens,
but of some of the intelligent Israelites, in their conceptions of the nature
of God and his providence. But what was all this to the fuller discovery of
the purity of his nature, and the terror of his wrath in the execution of the
124 oharnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
curses of the law upon the Son of his bosom ? All preceding times were
times of darkness till the coming of Christ ; they were but the shadows of
the night in the figures of the law ; but the morning light was in the rising
of the gospel, Hosea vi. 3. This was a sufficient revelation of God to direct
them to Christ, who could only render God visible and intelligible to man ;
but how insufficient in regard of the corruption of man's nature to imprint
right notions of God ! How often did the Jews warp and wallow in the
sink of idolatry, notwithstanding this revelation of God ! Much less suffi-
cient is the knowledge of God by nature.
This natural, legal, and evangelical knowledge by Christ differ,
(1.) In regard of clearness.
[1.] Natural knowledge was dim. In the creation, God writ himself in
hieroglyphics, in short characters ; in Christ, in a plain and legible hand,
which gave a substantial discovery of God. The power, majesty, and wis-
dom of God appeared in the * heavens, the work of his fingers,' Ps. viii. 3,
in maintaining their influences and conducting their motions. The founda-
tions of the earth, the vastness and rollings of the sea, the habitations of
light, the treasures of snow, floods of rain, the bottles of the clouds, order of
the stars, provision for creatures on the earth, direct us to the knowledge of
a great and glorious being. For upon all those God reads a lecture of him-
self to Job in the latter chapters.* That there is a God, may be seen in the
dust of the earth, as well as in the brightness of the heavens ; but by those
works men saw little else but that there was a God : they could know but
little of his nature, congruous to the state wherein they were. That glow-
worm light could afford us at best but weak and languishing notions of God,
and a relation tto him fit for that miserable condition wherein the fall of
Adam had involved us. And by reason of man's negligence, and not im-
proving a number of those instructions concerning the nature of his virtues,
which the creation furnished them with, and which they might have attained
by a wise observation of that which God had revealed in his creation, pre-
servation, and government of the world, they gave the bridle to their own
imaginations, and knew as little of God by his works, as beasts know of
the nature and reason of a man. The world, therefore, is called by some
(enigma Dei, and indeed the heathens often erred in their interpretation of
it, and could not unriddle God in the creatures, but worshipped the creature
for the Creator.
[2.] Legal knowledge was also dim. Though the temple, with all the
ceremonies attending it, was a clearer representation of the nature and will
of God than the whole frame of the world, yet obscurity was of the nature
of the legal state ; and the glory of God was wrapped up in a cloud of animal
sacrifices, so that Solomon calls the house wherein God then dwelt, ' a
thick darkness,' 1 Kings viii. 12. The law was given with smoke as well as
thunders, obscurity as well as terror, Exod. xx. 18. The Israehtes were
under a cloud, 1 Cor. x. 1, and the mediator of the law had a veil upon his
face, and the glory of God was so enveloped in clouds, that the Israelites
could but dimly discern. There was more of shadows than substance, and
the apostle in the Hebrews gives it no better a title than that of a shadow,
opposing it to Christ the substance. And the gospel is said to be truth
and grace, in opposition to the law, as if there were no truth and grace in
that former dispensation, John i. 17. None, indeed, in comparison of the
clearness of the revelation in the gospel ; though in itself it was a true repre-
sentation of God, as a shadow may be called a true shadow. The law being
composed of shadows could not discover God as the gospel did, which was
* KtKrfiiKa, ipfiyyftara, — Jamhlichus.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 125
made up of substance. Moses then did see his back parts, perhaps in the
figure of a man, but in the gospel God shews himself ' in the face of Christ,'
2 Cor. xiv 7. That did discover the features of God more clearly than
the works of nature ; as the form and beauty of a man may be more
discerned through grates and lattices, to which God's appearance in the law
is likened, Cant. ii. 9, than when covered with a thick veil. Very few of
them could have a ken of the substance for the multitude of shadows. If
we, upon whom the glory of God hath shone in the gospel, are not able to
comment upon every one of those figures, much less could they who never
saw the antitype, and could not conceive the analogy between them.
[3.] The evangelical discovery of God by Christ is clearer. The brightness
of the day dispelled the shadows of the night, and dispersed the clouds
wherewith the sun was masked. As the fulness of the Godhead dwelt per-
sonally in Christ, so the fulness of the divine perfections sparkled in the
actions and sufferings of Christ. The Deity shines out in a clear lustre,
which was seen before only in the dusty clouds of creatures and ceremonies.
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,' Heb. i. 3 : as
the rays of the sun, being the production of the sun, cause us by their lustre
to see and understand more of the beauty and brightness of the sun ; and
the stamp upon the wax informs us what is upon the seal. We see what an
infinite fountain of good God is, and what a dreadful thing sin is, which is a
separation from him ; as by the beams of the sun we understand the beauty
of light, and the horror of darkness. Though it be not discerned in its glory
thi-ough a mist of vapours, yet it may be known to be risen, and some effects
of it are sensible to us. So it was in the creation and the law; but in Christ
those vapours are dissolved, the clouds dispersed, and God appears in the
sweetness and beauty of his nature, as a refreshing light. The creatures
tell us that there is a God, and Christ tells who and what that God is.
So that the clearness of this knowledge consists
(1.) In the clearness of the medium. Nothing in the world can strike
our sense or influence our minds, but by some medium. Though a man hath
the sharpest eye, yet without an enlightened air he can behold nothing. The
clearer the glass through which we look, the clearer discerning we have of
the object we look upon. Christ is the clearest medium. As he is said to
be ' a pohshed shaft in God's quiver,' Isa. xlix. 2, to pierce the heart by his
grace ; so he may be said to be a polished glass in his hand, to represent his
majesty, and reflect the beams of God stronger upon us. The gospel,
therefore, in the judgment of some, is meant by the ' sea of glass,' Rev.
XV. 2, in regard of the transparency of it, through which we see God, and
his perfections. It was the same God, Jehovah, who was known by the
Jews, and under the gospel, but not in the same manner ; they had the
same faculties, but not the same light to discern the object. The faculty
and act of vision is the same by sun-light and star-light ; we have the same
eyes in the day and the night, the same exercise and rollings of the eye ;
but not having the same clearness of the air, we have not that contentment
in the exercise of our eyes. Things appear not so beautiful by candlelight
as in the lustre of the day ; hence Christ is called a ' Sun of righteousness,'
Mai. iv. 2, as manifesting the righteousness of God, diffusing light and
health by his wings or beams, and chasing away by his splendour the dark-
ness of the world, and opening the gloi'ies of heaven to the sons of men,
directing them to the knowledge of God, who before wandered in darkness.
The coming of this light, and the rising of the glory of God upon us, are
126 ' charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
knit together : Isa. Ix. 1, ' Thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen
upon thee.' The glory of God, i. e. the mercy and goodness of God, which
is his glory, say some; the glory rather of all his attributes, which Christ is
the medium to clear up to the minds of men. And indeed there is as great
a difference between the knowledge of God by Christ, and the knowledge of
God by the creatures and the law, as there is between the knowledge of a
man by his footsteps, and the knowledge of him by his image. Christ is
' the image of the invisible God,' Col. i. 15, as a son is the image of his
father, who is a better medium to know a father by, than his footsteps or
his picture. Never an earthly son was so like his father, as Christ is hke
God the Father ; he hath the same essence, the same attributes, the same
operations.
(2.) The nearness of the object. Christ brings God near to us ; he is
Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature. The great comforting promises
in the Old Testament were, that God should dwell among them, Joel
iii. 17, Mai. iii. 1. God was not far from every one of us in the creation,
Acts xvii. 27, in regard of his being, in regard of his goodness, though he
was farfifom us in regard of a satisfactory knowledge of his nature ; as when
a man is at a distance from us in regard of any particular knowledge of him,
yet he is near to us in regard of our knowledge of his existence and species,
that he is a man, though we cannot perceive his shape and features, and
what kind of man he is ; but when he approacheth nearer, he appears
greater, we see his dimensions and discern his age, yet obscurely; but
when he comes close to us, we see him plainly, and by converse with him
we come to know his temper.* Now, this man is one and the same man we
saw at a distance, and we see near ; he hath the same shape, the same
features and disposition, but he appears in a different manner according to
the grcatr.oss of the distance. God was the same in all ages of the world,
but after be departed to a greater distance from man by reason of sin, and
refrained converse with man, there were but small glimmerings of him in
the creatures, and less to be discerned by the distempered eye of man.f He
came nearer in the law, but that representation was obscure, and fitted more
to the carnal conceptions of men ; whence the apostle calls it ' the rudi-
ments and elements of the world,' consisting in sensible representations of
him. Col. ii. 20, Gal. iv. 3. Christ succeeded (in whom God came near to
us, and conversed with us), as a prospective glass, which makes that which
is afar off to seem near at hand, and manifests it in its dimensions ; by him
we can look through the veil, and be informed of the transactions in heaven
between the Father and the Son on our behalf.
(3.) Fulness of the discovery. What was known before is better known ;
the knowledge is better for quality, greater for quantity. For by the light
diffused by Christ in the world, since the ascension of the Redeemer, and
the descent of the Comforter, the simplest believer comprehends more of the
glorious nature of God in his understanding, than the most elevated believer
in the time of the law, either by the figures of the law, or the features of
the creatures could, with the assistances of the most learned doctors of the
one, or philosophers in the other, which our Saviour verifies in the eulogy
he gives of him that is least in the kingdom of God, i. e. in the gospel state,
magnifying him above John Baptist, whom he confesseth, at the same time,
superior to all that went before him, and indeed knew more than all the pro-
phets, yet was inferior to the meanest believer under the New Testament :%
* Castalio Dialog, p. 143.
t \\cr^i'jovin yu^ opfa.Xfx.'oi; ■proXiuioi t^Xid;. — TheodoT. in 1 Cor. iv. 4.
J Mestrezat. sur. 8 Heb. Serm. 4, p. 424, much changed.
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 127
Mat. xi. 11 , ' Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist : notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he.' He indeed saw Christ in the flesh, beheld his
person as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world ; knew him as
the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, come into the world for
the declaration of him : a sight and day which Abraham and the prophets
desired to see, and could not obtain ; yet he saw him not dying, rising,
ascending, pouring out the rich gifts of his Spirit, all which did clear up the
righteous, true, wise, gracious nature of God to the simplest believer, after
the accomplishment of them, more than the knowledge of his incarnation
could to John. He that is least and most ignorant in the kingdom of God,
is greater, i. e. more intelligent than John ; he hath a fuller prospect and a
diviner light ; he knows what John knew, and he knows what John was igno-
rant of : he hath seen and known the performance of those things, whereof
John only knew the beginning. And this full and plain knowledge Christ
promised before his departure : John xvi. 25, * The time comes, when I shall
no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the
Father ;' a promise that receives its full accomplishment in the life to come,
but respects the death, and resurrection, and ascension of Christ, as the time
wherein it was to begin to be of force ; for those things were nothing else but
the declarations of the transactions between the Father and the Son. That
it is meant of a declaration of the Father in this life is evident by the follow-
ing words : ver. 26, ' At that day you shall ask in my name.' Earth is the
place for wants and petitions, heaven for vision and praises. The whole
scope of the doctrine of Christ is to reveal God in his most illustrious per-
fections to man, and in the relation of a gracious Father to him. Christ
speaking in proverbs, is understood by one* of the whole time of the Mosaic
dispensation, wherein Christ was the angel to lead them, and conversed with
them in shadows and figures, but now in the gospel would plainly declare
the Father to them. Natural and legal knowledge is clarified by the gospel,
which is a comment to explain what was before but darkly understood, and
a new revelation to elevate the soul to a greater understanding ; it fortifies
the hght of nature, and frames in us more pure and significant conceptions
of God.
Though there be a clearness of the medium, a nearness of the object, and
a fulness of the discovery, yet,
(1.) We must understand it, not of such a clearness as is possible in its
own nature to be (for there may be a more sensible manifestation of God),
but of such a clearness as the present state in this world is capable of. It^is
so plain that it can only be superseded by the light of glory ; it is the fullest
that we can meet with in this world, till we come to behold him in that light
wherewith he clothes himself as with a garment ; and whatsoever discoveries
many may expect, they must be all built upon this foundation. They are
still but beams issuing out, in this scene of things, from the Lamb, who is
the light of the new Jerusalem in the best estate : Rev. xxi. 23, ' The gloiy
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.' Christ is still the
medium through which the Ught of the glory of God conveys itself to the
understandings of his creatures, and God will never be represented by any
other light than his own. In his own Ught we see him who is the Father
of lights.
(2.) Nor must we understand it of an absolute fulness of the knowledge of
God. For the brightness of his nature is so great, that it cannot be fully
known by a created understanding. The sun cannot be perfectly seen in the
* Ferus in loo.
128 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
brightest day, wlien it traverseth the heavens in its triumphant glories, and
suffers not a vapour to waylay the beams he sends upon the earth ; yet
then he is clearer seen than when the air is clogged with vapours and over-
spread with clouds. This is a comparative clearness more than in the little
print of creatures, or than through the screen of ceremonies ; not such a
clearness as shall be on the top of the mount in the eternal transfiguration
of the soul ; nor ever shall there be an absolute fulness of knowledge of all
that is in God, for to know him as he knows himself, requires an under-
standing as infinite as his own.
(2.) They differ in the certainty. Natural knowledge of God is but con-
jectural. No position was so firm but some wits of the world found out argu-
ments to contradict it. Nor was there wisdom enough in the world to untie
all the knots that were made by others. The whole world of nature lay in
darkness ; it is from that term every man is called that comes to Christ :
1 Pet. ii. 9, ' He hath called us out of darkness ;' and the devil, that is the
ruler of the carnal world, is ' the ruler of the darkness' of it, Eph. vi, 12,
spreading his fogs upon the minds of men. The heathens arrived to the
knowledge of God by rational deductions ; but the most eagle-eyed among
them, who could peer into the secrets of nature, could not reduce their appre-
hensions to any fixedness. They had a vanity in their imaginations and
conceptions of his nature, and as those our Saviour speaks of, though they
agreed in the unity of the Messiah, yet differed about the person. One saith,
Here is Christ ; another. There is Christ ; so these, God is this, and God is
that, according to their particular fancies. They acknowledged him an
admirable being, but rather darkened than unveiled him. Nothing was
satisfactory to the understanding, many of them saw not the creating power
of God ; one fancies the world eternal ; another conceives it to be compacted
by a multitude of atoms, or small particles of dust, meeting together by
chance, and kneading themselves into this frame we call the world. But the
doctrine of faith discovers God in his power : Heb. xi. 3, ' By faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.' It acquaints
us that the world was created by him ; which, indeed, the reason of many
informed them of, but not of the manner of the creation, by his sole word
and will, or by the second person, the essential Word of God. This we know
by Christ, which we could not know by nature : as Heb. i. 2, ' He hath
spoken to us by his Son, by whom also he made the worlds.' But, indeed,
that is not the meaning of Heb. xi. 3, for the word is there ^^^^ciar/ not X&ycr.;
the latter is a title of Christ, not the former ; but it is clear from it, that, by
the knowledge of Christ, we have a certain account of the manner of God's
operations. The Hght of Christ is, as the light of the morning, stable.* It
discovers things to us with as much certainty as the morning hght doth the
nature of the objects we doubted of in the darkness of the night. As the
sense of vision is the most acute and exact sense, and extends further, and
with more assurance, than that of hearing and smelling ; so the knowledge
of faith is the most infallible way of knowledge, it being built upon the reve-
lation of the Son of God, who is the word of God, and the wisdom of God.
It is therefore called ' the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1, ' the sub-
stance of things hoped for.' It is not an imagination or a fancy, but a
demonstration, more firm than any natural demonstration can be. It is a
subsistence in the mind, as sure, and as it were as real, as the subsistence of
the unseen things believed without us : an evidence as if the things not seen
had not a being but by faith. To an unbeliever, God seems not to have that
power, wisdom, holiness, which are really in his nature : the perfections of
* As the word ]123 signifies, as well as prepared, Hos. vi. 3.
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 129
God have no existence in the heart of such a man, so that he is without God,
without the knowledge of God ; an atheist in the world. Faith in Christ
renders God as visible, as he was by the same grace to Moses : Heb. xi. 27,
* By faith he saw him who is invisible.' As the knowledge and faith of the
ancient believers, under the figures of Christ, rendered God and the things
of the New Testament visible to them, according to the measure of the reve-
lation, so doth the knowledge of believers, under the New Testament, repre-
sent God and his perfections in a more certain manner visible to them,
because the way of revelation is firmer : that from God by Moses ; this from
God by his Son. It is truth, because declared by ' the only begotten Son of
God,' John i. 17, 18. And, upon the account of the gi'eater sensibility of
this knowledge under the gospel, it is the promise to the Jews, that ' then
they shall know the Lord,' Jer. xxxi. 4. As though the knowledge of him
in nature, and the knowledge of him under the law, had been a kind of igno-
rance in comparison of this, as it is indeed in regard of the clearness and
certainty of this by Christ.
3. In nature, God is discovered for contemplation; in Christ, God is dis-
covered to be embraced as well as admired. Nature never did, nor ever can,
elevate one heart to a conformity to the holiness of God, because it could
not make known his transcendent hatred of sin, and his rich condescending
grace, as the discovery of Christ doth. If it cannot ken the mysteries of God,
it can never conduct men to a holy compliance with God according to his
nature. There is not a syllable of the naturalness of God's justice, and the
necessity of a satisfaction of infinite value, in the whole book of nature. It
discovers the existence of a God, but not the way of closing with God.
Nature discovers a God of unconceivable excellency, but brings no saving
message from him. It sets out God as a being to be adored, Christ sets out
God as a being to be enjoyed. That presents notions of God to our minds,
this imprints motions to God in our wills. Nature presents God in some of
his creating glory, Christ presents God in his redeeming grace, with his arms
open, his voice encouraging and directing his creatures to a way of fruition.
Nature directs us to the admiration of God, because there is some resem-
blance of God in every creature ; for whatsoever God hath created, he hath
created according to his own idea, and with a print of his own goodness upon
it. He at the first creation pronounced all things good, Gen. i. 31. But
all created goodness is a participation of the divine goodness, and by conse-
quence some kind of conformity to the divinity, and the more excellent any
creature is, the stronger and fuller stamp it hath of the goodness and excel-
lency of God ; the consideration of which would rationally guide the mind
to an acknowledgment of an infinite perfection in the author of them, but is
unable to conduct men to a due compUance with God. Not that they have
any greater insufiiciency in themselves to perform the end for which they
were created, than they had when they were first made ; but because of men's
inability to improve their natural instructions, since the crack of their
rational faculties by the fall. The case is the same with them as with the
law ; the law hath the same virtue and power of direction and making men
happy, as it had in the state of innocence, i.e. in itself; but man by his
lameness, contracted by the fall, was unable to walk the pace of the law, and
enjoy the blessings of it. The law was ' weak through the flesh,' Rom.
viii. 3, not in itself. So the creatures are not unable of themselves to answer
the end of their creation ; but man, by reason of his darkness, is unable to
make an improvement of what the creatures do dictate. Yet I cannot see
that the whole book of nature presents us with that knowledge of God, which
VOL. IV. I
130 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
is necessary for us in the present state wherein we are lapsed ; for they were
created to serve man as innocent, not as an offender ; in which relation he
stands now to God as a judge, and cannot know by all his natural learning,
without revelation, what the nature of God is in this case, and what is neces-
sary for him to do, worthy of God, for his restoration. Such a discovery of
God and the way of compliance with him in such a manner as becomes God,
in this relation, is only known by the revelation Jesus Christ hath made.
Yet there is so much knowledge to be had of God by the creation, as to ren-
der men inexcusable before the divine tribunal. Though they never heard the
sound of the gospel, they will be justly punished at last, not for the neglect
of that which they never heard, but for their contradiction to the voice of
their own consciences, the universal sound of nature, the lessons they might
have learned from the whole creation, especially the heavens, which ' declare
the glory of God ; ' for the thwarting the first principles and notions implanted
in their hearts, and damping those secret motions and touches they had by
a manifestation of his common goodness to 'seek after God,' Acts xvii. 26, 27.
The creation of the world, and the mercies men are indulged with, are that
they might seek the Lord. For there is not a drop of rain or a fruitful
season, jjut is a witness of a God to be sought after. Acts xiv. 16, 17. All
this will render men inexcusable at the last day. All men have such relics
of natural light, more than are due to a fallen nature, as will condemn them
in their own consciences, though there is not enough to render them so in-
telligent of God, as is necessary for their recovery from their lapsed state.
Christ only opens the heavens to let out the beams of God upon mankind,
and opens the heart and understanding to receive them, and reflect them
back upon God in those several duties required at man's hands in his present
broken estate.
The second thing is,
II. That the clear knowledge of God is attained only by Christ. The full
revelation of God was promised to be given out by the Messiah, the grand
prophet God promised, upon the Israelites' desire that God might not speak
immediately to them : Deut. xviii. 16-18, ' The Lord thy God will raise up
uato thee a prophet from the midst of thee, &c. ; to him shall you hearken ;'
intimating thereby, that a higher discovery was to be made by him of tbe mind
(if God. Why else should they be bound to hearken to him more than any
other prophet ? He was to be ' a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind
eyes,' Isa. xlii. 6, 7. God would call them in righteousness, according to
tbe promise he had made to Abraham, and afterwards to the Israelites, of a
great prophet, to take off the veil and darkness in regard of God, and remove
their erroneous conceptions of God, whence he is called ' the light of the
world ;' and ver. 8 seems to intimate, that the majesty of God and his name,
and the incommunicableness of his attributes, were to be the subject of this
discovery: ' I am the Lord, that is my name ; my gloiy will I not give to
another ;' and John xvii., Christ asserts, that he had manifested the name of
his Father, and would further declare it to the sons of men. So that the
spring of all spiritual knowledge is in Christ : he is * made wisdom' to us,
1 Cor. i. 30 ; from him we draw all sorts of spiritual understanding and
revelation ; by him we have the illumination of our minds, as well as the
justification of our persons, the sanctification of our natures, and redemption
from our enemies. He is the mirror that represents to us the perfections of
God, being the brightness of his glory. Every beam whereby God is mani-
fested is shot through him ; as every pardon, whereby the grace of God is
discovered and the soul refreshed, is dispensed through him. The Jews ex-
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 131
pected the discovery of the face of God by the Messiah, and to that purpose
interpreted, Dan. ii. 22, 'He reveals deep and secret things, and the light
dwells with him.' That light is the Messiah dwelling with God, and some
of them call him by the name of light there mentioned, N"i''n:, though the
words seem only to declare that God is the author of all knowledge, and sees
by a clear light whatsoever is done among the sons of men. It is certain,
that whatsoever tends to the glory of God, his sovereignty, wisdom, right-
eousness, grace, is fully revealed by Christ, He hath declared who is the
creator, governor, judge of all; that he is the chief good, the last end, and
revealed all the means whereby we may come to a conjunction with him, and
fruition of him, and exchange our darkness and misery for light and blessed-
ness; and this chiefly by his death, for by that the perfections of God, hid
in the infinite depths of his own essence, were in their rays transmitted to
us. He could not be known, either by creatures or bare Scripture, in such a
manner as he is known in the cross of Christ, wherein his immense good-
ness, profound wisdom, severe justice,'^exact truth, infinite condescension, are
manifested in such a manner, that it is as, or more, impossible to conceive
how God can make an higher discovery of himself, as it was for men and
angels to conceive before, how he should make so rich a discovery of himself
as this is. The cross of Christ was the dissolution of the ignorance of men.
The darkness which had lain upon the land of Egypt (a type of the ignorance
of man by nature, as the Israelites' deliverance typified the redemption by
Christ) was taken off in the morning on the passover day, a type of the death
of Christ.
But take in these propositions, what is to be said about this.
1. Christ was only capacitated for this discovery of God.
(1.) In regard of his intimacy with the Father. Though Moses was a non-
such for converse with God, and spake with him face to face, yet he had not
that intimacy as Christ had, who lay ' in the Father's bosom,' John i. 18,
in the depths of his counsels, the intimate knowledge of his nature, in the
delights of his favour. The secret of the Father is called the bosom of the
Father, wherein he not only was but is ; he is in the bosom of the Father in
heaven, while he is exposed to infirmities below. 'No man hath ascended
into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which
is in heaven,' John iii. 13, i.e. no man hath understood the secret mysteries
of God but Christ. He only knows those counsels, eternal transactions, and
condescensions of God, because he only was interested in them. He hath not
things by revelation, as the prophets and apostles, nor from the law and Scrip-
ture, as other teachers. None of them had seen any but the shadows, and
tasted some ravishments in the visions when they were revealed ; none of
them had been in heaven and seen those things in the fountain, in the counsel
of God. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, acquainted men with many secrets of God,
but they had not seen in heaven the things which they declared to others.
Nor was the full scope and design of those revelations understood by the pro-
phets themselves : 1 Peter i, 11, ' They searched what the Spirit of Christ
did signify.' They were more prophetical instruments than prophetical agents;
the Spirit rather spoke through them than to them. They saw things in
images, heard them in obscure representations, and so delivered them as ob-
scurely as they understood them ; and those that were most familiar with
God, as Moses, had their revelations on earth, not in heaven. But Christ
saw all things in the secret of his Father in their proper form, without dreams
and visions; he had sucked in the truth from the fountain, and drew that
which he taught from the depths of wisdom in the bosom of his Father, which
could not be in the power of any man ; and therefore, John iii. 31, 32, ' He
182 chaknock's woeks. [John XVIL 8.
that comes from above is above all, and what he hath seen and heard that he
testifieth.' Others testify what they have heard ; Christ testifies what he hath
seen as well as heard. He did not only hear and report, but he saw the
things himself ; and in regard of his divine nature is above all teachers, as
well as above all creatures. Was any else ever sealed with the brightness
of God's glory ? Was any else the dew from the womb of the morning ? Did
any else come out of the depths of the fountain and Father of lights ? None
was ever called the angel of God's presence or face but Jesus Christ, Isa.
kiii. 9.
(2.) In regard of his being the medium of the first discovery of God in
the creation. ' All things were made by the Word of God, and without him
was not anything made that was made,' John i. 8, 4 ; and being ' the life of
men,' he was only capable to be ' the light of men.' Christ was the voice of
God, whereby he exerted his power to bring things from nothing into being.
* The Lord said, Let there be light,' Gen. i. 3 ; and oftentimes, ' God said,'
vers. 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, &c, which was not an external sound or voice, but the
essential Word of God, whereby he communicated^his goodness to the world
in creation. A mere voice or outward sound of words could not be an instru-
ment of itself to frame the world to such a beauty. And that the mystery of
the second person lay in that often repetition of God said, in Gen. i., is ob-
vious from John i. 1, which seems to be a comment upon and explanation of
it : * In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God,' so that the story of the creation is deciphered to us by God's
speaking, to signify unto us that eternal Xoyog whereby the Scripture assures
us * God created the world,' Heb. i. 2, who was ' with him when he laid the
foundations of the earth, stretched out the heavens, and digged a place for the
sea,' Prov. viii. 22, &c. He is the wisdom and power of God in creation as
well as redemption. Now, as in the creation the Son communicated to all
creatures some resemblance of God, and the end of the creation being to de-
clare God to the rational creature, it was most proper for the Son of God
to make those farther declarations of him which were necessary, who at first
made the manifestation of God in the frame of the world. As the beautiful
image of reason in the mind, breaking out with the discovery of itself in
speech and words, is fittest to express the inward sense, thoughts, concep-
tions, nature, and posture of the mind, so the essential Word of God clothes
himself with flesh, comes out from God to manifest to us the nature and
thoughts of God. He which is the word of God is fittest to manifest the
nature of God. The word in the mind of a man is insensible to others,
but published with the voice is made sensible, and makes the person know
whose word it is.
2. It was fit a higher knowledge of God should be manifested by Christ
than by other prophets. It had not been for the honour of this prophet, who
was greater than Solomon, greater than Moses, to have no more to discover
of God than what was clearly known before in the church of the Jews ; he
had then been no prophet of note, a prophet without a discovery, a title
without an office. As he is a king in name who hath nothing to govern, so
he is but the echo of a prophet that repeats only what was declared before.
The intimacy of our Lord Jesus with the Father had not appeared, if he had
not something to manifest which was hid from the messengers that went
before. That he might have an excellency above other prophets, and appear
in the world with more eminent prerogatives, there was to be a greater efi'u-
sion of hght.* He had not been a San of righteousness if he had shined no
brighter than an ordinary star. Since his coming was to be glorious, wherein
* Camero, p. 374 ; Col. i. 2.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 133
could the glory of it be, if the greatness of the knowledge of God were not
one excellent prerogative belonging to his incarnation, and in such a measure
that the light that dawned before in the world, either from creatures, law, or
prophets, should be as nothing compared with this sun ? And though what-
soever was known of God by men was known by the mediation and direction
of Christ, to whom, after the fall, God had committed all judgment (whence
the ' Spirit of Christ' is said to ' speak in the holy prophets,' 1 Peter i. 11,
and from him Isaiah received his instructions when he shewed himself to be
sitting upon his throne, Isaiah vi. 1, compared with John xii. 41), yet some
things were reserved hid for the gracing the office of this great prophet, as
the doctrine of the Trinity, and real distinction of the three persons in the
Godhead, the union of the divine and human nature, which were as clearly
revealed by Christ under the New Testament as they had been obscurely
under the Old. Ante adventum Christi sclehatur Bens, Pater ignorabatur.^'
3. The discovery of God was the great end of Christ's appearance upon
the earth, his office. He was to declare things ' hid from the foundation of
the world,' Mat. xiii. 35; to unfold the mysteries and secret counsels of God,
and remove the shades and veils between him and the understandings of men,
and reveal things which God never revealed before. In him who was God's
light we were to see light, Ps. xxxvi. 9. In the Messiah, as the Jews expound
it, or by the grace of God in him, we were to know God with clearness. The
world was a dark chaos till Christ the Sun appeared in it, as the earth was
till light was formed. Christ was not only to make a propitiation for us, but
a manifestation of God to us ; this was the design of his Father in sending
him, John xvii. 6. As the sun hath not light only for himself, but for the
world, so had Christ the knowledge of God in his human nature, not for
himself, but to spread abroad in the world. He came out from ' the bosom
of the Father to declare him,' John i, 18 ; Ig^j/s/cr^a/, to bring to light the
hidden things of God, and comment upon the abstruse excellencies of the
Deity. This was the common opinion of the Jews, that adventu Messice^ res
absconditas et 'profandas apertas fore omnibus, as appears by the Samaritan
woman, John iv. 25, ' When the Messias is come, he will tell us all things.'
' Before him there was no God formed,' Isa. xliii. 10, no right notion of God
formed in the minds of men, no conceptions of his power, wisdom, pardoning
grace, and saving mercy. The knowledge of Christ is urged in Scripture,
not as the ultimate term of our knowledge, but as the medium of our know-
ledge of God ; for the term mediator, and the office of prophet, evidence this.
A mediator is to discover the inclinations and resolutions of the party with
whom we are at variance, in order to the piecing up an agreement ; a
prophet discovers something of the mind and will of God to us. We are
to know Christ, as he is the only person appointed to direct us to the
knowledge of God ; therefore, though Moses and Elias were with him upon
the mount of transfiguration, i. e. though the law and the prophets pointed
to Christ and declared something of God, yet we are ordered by the voice
of God to hear him only, as the great instructor of the world : Mat. xvii. 5,
* This is my beloved Son, in whom I well pleased : hear ye him.' It is
his incommunicable title as mediator, to be our only master: Mat. xxiii. 10,
' One is your master, which is Christ.' He is only the wisdom of God,
as discovering the secrets of heaven to the believer without those clouds
of Levitical rites.
4. The angels have the clearest knowledge of God by Christ, much more
man. The voice of Christ extended to heaven as well as earth, and mani-
fested the greatness of God to angels as well as men. As he was the medium
* Hieron. in Ps. ciii. 1.
134 charnock's works. [John XVII. 8.
of their creation, so he was the medium of the manifestation of God to them,
that from the same hand from which they had their being they might have
their happiness and perfection of their nature. The whole time they had
seen the face of God in heaven, they knew Httle of him as he is known in
Christ, nor could conceive him so admirable as the revelation of him by
Christ represents him. If they had seen in lumine glorice, all that which
may be known of God in lamme graticc, what need they bow down them-
selves (a posture intimating pains, curiosity, and earnestness of inquiry) to-
wards the divine propitiatory, to dive, if they can, to the very bottom of it ?
1 Peter i. 12. It was this way that God would give them a knowledge of
the depths of his wisdom, and his other perfections : Eph. iii. 10, 'To the
intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' It was one end of
God in the manifestation of the riches of his grace to the Gentiles, to enrich
the angelical nature with a greater light, that thereby they might be fur-
nished with more ravishing matter of his praise. Not that the angels are
present at sermons, to understand things they knew not before ; but that by
the effects of God in the world, gathering men into Christ, and framing a
church out of lost mankind, they contemplate the manifold wisdom of God.
God might have communicated this to them by immediate revelation, but he
remits them to gather it from his effects, and to view it in the glass of Christ
and his church. This was the purpose of God, to increase the knowledge
and matter of the angels' praise, when he should pour out his treasures in
Christ upon the world ; not by the church's teaching them, but objectively,
by a sight of those things acted in the church. If they then learn so much
of the excellency of God by the calling of the Gentiles, how much more must
they learn by the contemplation of the Son of God in his incarnation and
passion ? And to this purpose consider 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' And, without con-
troversy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,' &c., seen of, or appeared to the angels.*
It cannot be understood of a simple vision ; so was Abraham, Moses, EHas,
seen of the angels. Every believer is seen of them, since they are minister-
ing spirits to the heirs of salvation ; all the world is seen of them. What
grandeur is there in the mystery of godliness in this regard, that Christ was
seen of angels, if it be meant of a simple vision ? Nor is it meant of the
sight that angels had of him at his resurrection and ascension ; for so he
was seen by the apostles and other disciples, and by the women that came
to the sepulchre. And was this a mystery, for angels to see that which was
obvious to the view of men ? Not seen of angels, that they might be wit-
nesses of his resurrection ; to whom should they be so ? To his disciples ?
Christ in his own person witnessed his resurrection to them. To the world?
Angels were not made apostles by Christ for such a purpose. The apostles
founded the witness they gave of the resurrection of Christ to the world, not
upon the revelation of angels, but upon their own sight and knowledge of
him. He was seen of angels, as he was justified by the Spirit ; declared to
be the Son of God, Redeemer of the world, as he was preached to the Gen-
tiles ; as mediator and reconciler, as he was received up into glory, approved
of by God, settled as an advocate for mankind. Not seen of angels to receive
from him any healing virtue, as the brazen serpent was seen of the Israelites
to extract the venom of the fiery ones, because they had none of that poison
in them ; but seen of angels, as a mediator representing to them a greater
knowledge of God in the mystery of redemption than the beauty and order
of the world, their own glory in heaven, the variety of past providences, the
* Amyraut. Sermon sur cet texte.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 135
former communications of God to the Jewish church, could possibly teach
them. The angels could not behold the essence of God, though they stood
before him in heaven. No finite creature in the most elevated condition can
see that which is infinite. The glorious essence of God is too illustrious for
any creature to behold without being overwhelmed by the brightness of it,
and is so immense that it infinitely surpasseth the angelical understanding.
Hence they are in the vision portrayed with wings to cover their faces as
well as their feet, Isa. vi. 2, as not able to sustain the glorious lustre of his
countenance, as we cover our eyes with our hands when we are invaded with
too dazzUng a light. They must therefore have some other medium of the
knowledge of him than by a direct vision ; this they have by Christ. They
know something of him by the creation of the world, by Scriptures ; they saw
that, after the revolt of mankind, God expressed a care and tenderness towards
the world ; and thereby they know him to be a God of patience, as well as
before they had known him to be a God of justice in the punishment of the
apostate spirits. They saw that God employed them in many messages to the
patriarchs and Israelites, and about the aifairs of the world. They saw him
bear with the idolatry of the Gentiles, and spare those arrows they had de-
served to be shot against them. They might suspect there was some way of
reconciliation intended. They knew the prophecies of a Redeemer, the
promise of the seed of the woman, as well as Adam did by the knowledge of
Scripture, yet the manner and methods of it were reserved as a mystery in
the secret counsels of God. They were not ignorant in general of what God
would do, but the predictions of it being obscure, their knowledge of it must
be of the same nature. They knew the mystery of Christ's incarnation when
it came to be accomplished, and knew then that the design of it was peace
on earth, and the fountain of it good will to men. But all this knowledge
was nothing to that which they had experimentally and clearly, when they
saw the things themselves perfected. When they saw the Son of God re-
maining in his divine nature in heaven, and yet, by an admirable union to
the human nature, manifested in the infirmities of our flesh ; when they
saw him in the divine nature sitting upon a throne of justice, yet exposed to
the sufferings of the cross, injured by men, invaded by devils, deserted by
his Father, heaven and earth in confusion at the groans and death of the
Son of God ; when they saw him justified in the Spirit, raised from death,
ascending up to heaven with that body wherein he had suffered : they learned
more of God and his nature, more of the depths of his wisdom, treasures of
his grace, and power of his wrath, than they had done by all God's actions
in the world, from the foundation of it, in all those four thousand years
wherein they had remained in being.
5. The manner how we have by Christ the knowledge of God will also
evidence it. Not to speak that the naked declaration of Christ is a mani-
festation of God, we have it.
(1.) By way of purchase. The declarations of the name of God are
founded upon the expiation of sin, made by the merit of the death of Christ.
All the knowledge of God we have by reason is not from nature, but is a part of
Christ's purchase. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and is thereupon the light that enlightens every man that comes into
the world. Sin made the veil between God and us, and Christ's sacrifice
removed it. God shone out upon man, till a cloud of iniquity interposed ;
the Sun of righteousness dissolved the cloud, and made the nature of God
visible to us. The propitiation made upon the cross is the cause of the
knowledge of God under the new covenant : Heb. viii. 11, 12, ' AH shall
know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their un-
136 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
righteousnesp, and their sins and their iniquity I will remember no more.'
God smelt so sweet a savour in the blood of his Son that he was appeased,
opened his treasures, sent out his Spirit to acquaint men with his nature,
counsels, and thoughts ; and though the Spirit descended before, in some
sprinklings and dews, yet not in a full shower, till Christ had died, and
carried his perfuming blood to heaven, presented it to God; whereupon the
veil was drawn, the heavens opened, the Spirit poured out upon men, and
that light given to the souls of his people which was necessary for their in-
struction. It was after his death and ascension that he gave gifts to men,
whereby some became apostles, some evangelists, that men might come to a
knowledge of Christ, and by him to a knowledge of God.
(2.) By illumination. Our reason being impaired by sin, and the acuteness
of it dulled by the disease of Adam, the understanding must be renewed,
and reason must be repaired, to know the mysteries of heaven. For as there
must be an eye to discern things visible, so there must be a mind to discern
things spiritual, for ' the natural man receives not the things of God,' 1 Cor.
ii. 14. Though they be propounded (for the word not receiving implies an
ojQfer),* yet such is tlae constitution of corrupt nature in every man, that he
comprehends not the things of the Spirit of God ; and so great is the dispro-
portion between the excellency of the things propounded and the disposition
of the carnal mind, that he judgeth of those things differently from their true
nature ; for the mind is carnal and the things are spiritual, and therefore
there must be a spiritual faculty to enable for the discerning of them.
Christ therefore tells the Pharisees, John v. 37, 38, that they had 'neither
heard his voice, nor seen his shape, and had not his word abiding in them ;'
i.e. they had no knowledge of God, because they believed not. Their por-
ing upon the law and the Scriptures was to as little purpose, till the darkness
of their minds was removed, as a blind man's bending his face to a book till
his eyes be restored. This is the work of Christ : he presents God to the
mind, and fits the mind to take a prospect of God. He offers the object
and prepares the faculty, he flasheth the light and dischargeth the mind of
the films which hinder the reception of it : 1 John v. 20, ' We know that the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true.' He hath given us an understanding,! is not meant of the
natural faculty, which is the gift of God in nature and creation, and which
grace presupposeth, but of an enlightened and purified mind, which is
operative upon the will and heart, and imprints so firmly the glory of God
upon the mind, that the will is carried out to love and fear him ; which com-
pliance of the will with an illuminated understanding is the formal act of our
regeneration. This is given only by Christ, for 'who teacheth like him ?'
Job xxxvi. 22 ; who doth not only present but imprint the object, and of
darkness makes us ' light in the Lord.' Hence Christ is compared to a roe
or a wild goat,j which is a creature not only of an acute sight itself, but
hath that humour in the bowels that expels dulness from the ej'es and
sharpens the sight. So Christ doth not only see the Father, but makes us
see him, when he hath opened our understandings.
III. The third thing is, the necessity of this medium for the knowledge of
God. This hath been evident already. For,
1. The insufiiciency of other mediums shews us the necessity of some
other, and God hath revealed no other but this of Christ, which seems to be
a standing and eternal one, whereby God will transmit his beams upon
* A m yraut. paraphrase in loc. t Mestrezat in loc.
X Cant, ii. 9 i^e^Ko.; (Septuagint), Voss. de Idolat. lib. iii. cap. 58.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 137
glorified souls ; for so it will be in that state of the church in this world,
which is but one remove from that of heaven : Rev. xxi. 23, ' The glory of
God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.'
2. The knowledge of the angels being by this medium evidenceth the
necessity of it. For what is necessary to those unspotted understandings,
is much more necessary for us, who have weaker intellectual eyes.
3. The immense glory of God, and our natural weakness as creatures,
evidence the necessity of it. The glory of God would overwhelm the under-
standing of a creature, there is too great a disproportion between God and
us, his infinite glory would dazzle and stapify us. The weakness of our
sight hinders from a full prospect of the stars, much more from a sight of
the body of the sun, which is more oflensive than delightful to our eyes, both
by its brightness and its heat, if we venture to lift them up without an
instrument fitted for that purpose. If we cannot then gaze upon the sun
with our bodily eyes without being oppressed by its lustre, how can we look
upon God with the eyes of our minds, without being overwhelmed by that
dazzling light wherewith he clothes himself as with a garment, since God is
more transcendently excellent above the capacity of our understandings, than
the sun can be too bright for the eyes of our bodies ? The sun, as glorious
as it is, may be seen and viewed, not only by its efiects, but in a glass or a
vessel of water or a thin cloud ; but we can only see and know God in Christ
his image, and the beam and ' brightness of his glory,' Heb. i. 3. The glory
of God is refracted by Christ, and tempered to our weakness, whereby we
may believingly behold his love without complaints of scantiness, and see his
justice without fear of being consumed by it, and instead of being oppressed
by his light, may be * changed into the same image fi-om glory to glory,'
2 Cor. iii. 18. Christ is the veil through which we may look upon God, as
through a veil we may behold the sun. He that hath seen Christ hath seen
the Father : John xii. 45, * He that sees me seeth him that sent me ;' and
he that knows Christ knoweth the Father, because of the likeness of one to the
other, John xiv. 9. He that spiritually knows the Son knows the Father.
Not he that seeth;Christ corporeally, for then the unbelieving pharisees might
be said to see the Father ; nor he that seeth Christ intellectually, for then
mere Christian notionahsts may be said to see the Father ; but he that sees
Christ spu-itually with a knowledge of faith, knows the Father, for the majesty
and bounty of God shine in Christ as an exact image.*
IV. The fourth thing is, what knowledge of God is discovered to us by
Christ. We do not only know in Christ what we know by creation, but more
than can possibly be known of God by the works of his hands. All his
works in creation are but obscure flashes of his nature in comparison of this.
God hath opened himself abundantly in the sufi'erings and exaltation of
Christ, and done enough to raise himself from those common thoughts and
apprehensions men have of him. He hath spread abroad the ensigns of his
majesty, to clear the minds of men, raise their admirations, and elevate iheir
thoughts and esteem of him. The church, therefore, in the time of the
gospel, is called ' the throne of God,' Jer. iii. 17, and a ' glorious high
throne,' Jer. xvii. 12 (the legal state was called the ' throne of his glory,'
Jer. xiv. 21), because therein, by Christ, he doth, as kings upon the throne,
shew himself in his royalty and magnificence, in the largeness of his bounty,
severities of his justice, lustres of his wisdom, and the honour of his law, in
Christ the head of the church, and this manifestation of God was chiefly in
* Non ut ipse sit pater qui filius ; sed quod a patris similitudine in nullo prorsua
discrejiat filius. — August, tn loc.
138 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
the death of Christ : John xiii. 31, 'Now is the Son of man glorified, and
God is glorified in him.' Now shall there be a manifestation of my good
will to men, and obedience to God, and a manifestation therein of God's love
to mankind and justice against sin.
In Christ, there is,
First, A collection of God's perfections.
Secondly, The harmony of all.
1. All the attributes of God are glorified in Christ. This was the
petition of Christ, John xii. 28, ' Father, glorify thy name. Then came a
voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again,'
I. e. thy attributes and the perfections of thy nature, make them all illustrious
in the work I have undertaken ; which petition God readily assents to, so
much was his heart and delight set to make the brightness of his own nature
appear in this way ; which glorification is not any addition to the essential
glory of God, but the manifesting it and making it known in the riches of it
to the sons of men. Christ added no glory to God's nature by his death
and resurrection, but opened the curtains, and manifested that which had
lain hid from eternity in the infinite depths of his own essence. In this
regard he is called by the name of the ' glory of God' rising upon the world,
Isa. Ix. 1. For Christ is a certificate wherein the world may read how ex-
cellent, wise, bountiful, just, faithful, holy, God is. These are all visible in
him in the noblest manner, so that we cannot deliberately view and con-
sider Christ, but we are presently informed of the glory of the Deity. Since
Christ was so loving, tender, holy, religious, we must conclude the Father is
of the same nature ; he would not send one unlike himself, one that was not
the character of his person, upon such an errand as the discovery of his own
nature to men and angels. God had in several ages of the world pitched
upon particular seasons, to manifest one or other particular property of his
nature : his justice, in drowning the old world and firing Sodom ; his tnith
and power, in freeing the Israelites from the Egyptian chains ; his truth, in
performing a promise which had lain so long dormant ; his power, in quelling
his enemies by the meanest of his creatures; his wisdom," in delivering them
from the Babylonish captivity, by the ordering secondary means for the
attainment of their end. In the creatures, one or other attribute seems to
be more illustrious in one than another : in some appears more^of goodness,
in another more of wisdom, in another more of power, though his glory
shines in all ; as not a star in heaven but sparkles, and discovers not only
itself, but something of the heaven wherein it is placed, yet some with more
lustre than others, according to the portion of light afforded them. But in
Christ all the perfections of God are centred together, as if all the stars
were made one body, and transmitted their light in one beam upon the world ;
or as various streams ghding from several parts and circling large compasses
of ground fall unanimously into the sea, and rest in the bosom of it. In
him sparkle the justice of God in the puishment of sin ; mercy, in laying
foundations of pardon ; bounty, in his love to his creatures ; faithfulness, in
the accomplishment of his promises, and realising the figures of the law ;
wisdom, in framing and managing the gospel design ; holiness, against the
pollutions of the world in the condemnation of sin ; and power, in effecting
what he pleased in his own counsel. Hence it is that God, so often speaking
of his design of redemption, adds often, ' that I may be glorified,' Isa.
xlix. 3, and Ix. 21, &c, as though he had none, or but a retail glory by
creation, but the riches and full sum of it was to be gathered in and laid out
in the work of redemption by Christ. For of some of his attributes we could
have no account by the creation, and of others not so apparently and de-
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 139
lightfuUy as in the transactions of Christ. For as the sun excels all the
stars in discoveries, dispersing his rays in all climates of the earth, so doth
Christ, the Son of the Father's bosom, and the Sun of righteousness, exceed
all creatures in the revelation of the excellencies of God. Christ is the stage
wherein all the attributes of God act their parts : in creation, he was a God of
goodness and power ; in providence, a Grod of wisdom ; in the law, a God of
justice ; in Christ, a God of all, and a God of grace, a Father of mercy.
2. As in Christ all the attributes of God are manifest to man, so they are
manifest in an exact harmony. In Jesus Christ those attributes that seemed
to look with an ill aspect on one another, are mixed together with unex-
pressible sweetness, and knit in an eternal amity. Patience rejoiceth at its
indefatigable waiting, justice triumphantly flourisheth the bloody sword
bathed in the heart of the Redeemer, and mercy as triumphantly kisseth it,
justice glorying and mercy singing at the triumphs of justice, truth holding
both threatenings and promises in conjunction in her bosom ; all caressing
one another, and applauding the designs and accomplishments of manifold
wisdom and infinite power, which removed the seeming contrarieties, and
tied a knot between time and eternity. Christ is ' the first-born of every
creature,' Col. i. 15, or of all creation, <7rds^g xr/Vswj. As the first-born is the
strength of the parent, so is Christ the strength of God. The glories of God
scattered in the creation are gathered into him, all things in heaven and
earth ; the glories of God in the confirmed felicity of angels, and restored
happiness of man. As he gathered angels and men into one family, * all
things in heaven and earth,' Eph. i. 10, so he gathered all the attributes
of God into one sum, to conspire together for the welfare of believers. His
justice made our iniquities meet upon him, that they might not remain upon
us ; wrath passed by us and seized upon him ; wisdom contrived for his
own glory and our good. His truth made good his promises upon our
persons, and his threatenings upon our surety ; he took the curse ofi" from
us to fulfil it on Christ, Gal. iii. 13, that he might be righteous as well as
gracious ' to forgive us our sins ;' 1 John i. 9, the treasures of his goodness
and grace are opened in him, that we might receive 'grace for grace,' John
1. 16 ; more grace from God in redemption than that we forfeited by trans-
gression, more habitual grace for our establishment than Adam had in
paradise for his standing. He is ' made wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica-
tion, and redemption,' the power, wisdom, justice, holiness of God to us ;
goodness, grace, love, righteousness, whatsoever distinction they have in
themselves, meet all in him in their glory and sweetness, combine together,
and sing one and the same note for the happiness of man. All the treasures of
them are laid open in Christ, to be laid out in all the fruits flowing from
them for the eternal welfare of believers. How delightful a knowledge of God
is this which Christ transmits to his people ! How much higher and more
ravishing is this prospect of God than that in the creation ! All variety
with harmony is pleasant ; the choicest music is made up of discords skilfully
fitted to agree with one another, and compose a charming air. This is that
Christ, in whom God hath made all his attributes, which seemed to be iu
debate against man, 'and irreconcilable to one another, to be in league
together for the good of every believing soul, and rendered all their ways
•ways of pleasantness, and all their paths peace.' Let our souls praise
him, let us delight to view him; this is that prophet, let us rejoice in him,
But in particular the patience, wisdom, purity, justice, mercy, power, and
truth of God, with the reasons and depths of them, were manifested in and
by Christ, as well as the nature and excellency of God.
1, The^patience of God. We see the patience of God, as the first attribute,
140 chasnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
coraing to our view after the transgression of man, and the interposition of
Christ. When Christ stepped out of the council of God, forbearance with a
fallen world stepped out to meet him. This is the reason why he did not
dash the world m pieces upon the sin of the first man, and raise another that
should keep his law. Nothing of this glorious perfection had then been
visible. This is the reason why, after forbearance with the first man, and
after multiplied provocations by his posterity, he did not destroy the whole
race of mankind, and turn a defaced world into flames, and make it smoke by the
fire of his justice, as well as he had reai-ed and preserved it by the arm of his
power. He had not then manifested the longsufiering, the unwearied duration of
this attribute, nor answered the end of his patience, which was a discovery
of himself in his Son. By this we come to know why we were not made a
prey to the just wrath of God and the fury of devils ; why the divine revenge
was held back so many ages ; why he ' winked at the times of ignorance'
and corruption, Acts xvii, 30, 31 : even because he had appointed a man to
judge the world, whom he would first send to save the world ; why he suffered
all nations to walk in their own ways, yet left them not without witness in the
dispensations of his providence, viz., that in time he might be known in his
Sou to be ' the living God which made heaven and earth,' Acts xiv. 15-17.
He exercised bis patience upon this account, and would not take the for-
feiture, in expectation of the fulness of time wherein his Son should be mani-
fested to make up the breach, and the glorious design of his patience
manifested in him. For the great ground of it was the discovery of his name,
his loving-kindness in Jesus Christ : Isa. xlviii. 9, ' For my name's sake
will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut
thee not off.' And he bore with an infinite patience the affront of Jews and
Gentiles, till the time came that his Son should be ' set out to be a propi-
tiation ior the remission of sins that M-ere past, through the forbearance of
God,' Rom. iii. 25. He discovered his patience in not pouring down upon
every great sin destroying judgments ; not for want of justice in himself or
lowness of disposition, but for the demonstration of his justice and loving-
kindness together in the sacrifice of his Son, wherein he intended to repre-
sent himself in a glorious manner to the world. His kindness was the end
of his forbearance. He supported himself under the indignities of men, and
deferred the time of the oblation of this sacrifice, that this attribute might be
known, and that he might have a more glorious foundation for the display
of his pardoning mercy, which he intended should follow after, and might
bring forth his grace in its glory to take away the guilt of men's sins, upon
the return of men to him, after the bearing with so many oppositions : 2 Peter
iii. 9, He is ' longsuffering to us, not willing that we should perish.' It is
highly discovered also, since the coming of Christ, that notwithstanding those
repeated indignities offered to his Son by contempt and unbelief, and to him-
self in his Son, yet he keeps the world standing till he hath gathered in the
objects of his eternal grace, and completed his family in his Son, whereby he
hath rendered his long-suffering more clear and admirable than if he had
sustained the rejection of millions of more prophets than ever yet were put
to death or persecuted by the unbelieving world.
2. His love, and goodness, and pardoning mercy. John xiv. 6, 7, * I am
the way, the truth, and the life ; no man comes to the Father but by me.
If you had known me, you should have known my Father also ; and from
henceforth you know him and have seen him.' As I am the way of access
to the Father, so I am the medium of the manifestation of the Father : if
you know me, my love and my heart toward you, you cannot but know my
Father's heart and love too. Though man fell from his finite goodness and
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in chkist. 141
duty to God, yet it is manifest in Christ that the infinite Creator could not
fall from his infinite tenderness. If the manifestation of his goodness was
his end in bringing forth the creatures, it was much more his end in bringing
forth his Son.
(1.) This the creation did not discover. Man might know that God was
bountiful in filling his heart with food and gladness by the creatures, but
did not understand anything of pardoning mercy in God, if sin should enter
upon the world. Had the creation had any inscription of forgiving grace upon
it, why do we not find seme supplications for it from the mouth of Adam after
the fall ? Do we not find his heart as naked of any thoughts of this nature,
as he was of his original righteousness ? He was seized with an hoiTor of
conscience after his sin, but not a groan for pardon ; for how could it enter
into the heart of Adam but by revelation ? The law given him at his creation
spake not a syllable of it ; the voice of that was nothing but death, death :
Gen. ii. 17, 'Thoushalt surely die.' Nothing else could be expected by him
upon his eating the forbidden fruit, nor could he have the least sentiment of
remission till the pronouncing the promise of Christ in the seed of the woman.
The manifestation of Christ in the beginning of the book was the first notice
of any such perfection in the nature of God. That same moment of time
when Christ was given, wrapt up in a promise, did pardoning grace sparkle
out, and not any time before.
In the law which God gave Adam for the rule of obedience, thei'e was no-
thing but strict justice ; and upon God's first inquiry after Adam, there was
no proclamation of pardon by God, nor expectation of it by Adam, but an
examination of matter of fact : ' Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I com-
manded thee that thou shouldst not eat ?' Gen. iii. 11, 12 ; nor any off'er of
Adam falling upon his knees and imploring mercy; but standing upon his
justification, wiping off the dirt from himself to discharge it wholly upon his
wife. The treasures of this were so closely locked up in God, that Adam,
just stepped out of a happy condition (who, though he had lost his righteous-
ness, had not lost his knowledge and memory, as appears by his answer to
God, of what had been done before his fall, and in the time of his fall yet),
could not in the least imagine any mercy ; and therefore the wittiest and most
refined natural knowledge in the heathen, less than Adam had, could not
have any sentiments of it barely from nature, without some traditional
revelation at the least. This attribute could not possibly have exerted itself
without Christ. Power, wisdom, goodness, did shine in the creation, holiness
in the law of nature, justice in the punishment of fallen angels, and expulsion
of man out of paradise ; but this of forgiving mercy, if you respect the first
economy of things, could not be evidenced without Christ ; for, not to speak
of the naturalness of God's justice, whereby he could not, in regard of his
nature, pardon sin without a satisfaction, which is very probable ; but only
that the word of threatening being past for the death of a sinner, a satis-
faction was necessary for the truth of God, honour uf the law, and recovery
of the creature, which could not have been performed by a mere creature,
therefore it was necessary some person above a creature should undertake it,
or else no such thing as pardoning grace, which is one of the greatest glories
of the Deity, could ever have been known either by angels or men, but had re-
mained undiscovered in unfathomable depths, unknown even to the angels
in heaven, who know nothing of God but by the effects, because his essence
is inaccessible to the understanding of any creature. As in Christ alone, and
in his blood, we have the purchase of ' redemption, even the forgiveness of
sin,' Col. i. 14, so in and by him alone we had the first discovery of it in
the promise, and a full declaration of it afterward. When he was set forth
142 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
as a propitiation, it was not only to purchase our happiness, but to let into
our knowledge the righteous and gracious nature of God thereby : Eom. iii.
25, ' To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins ; to declare, I say,
at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and a justifier ;' which
declaration was not made by nature and the creation.
(2.) This, then, was only discovered in and by Christ, both in the glory
of it to God, and the sweetness of it to us. It was in Christ discovered to
be God's nature, and our life, God is love, and the manifestation of it to
us was in God's ' sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him,' 1 John iv. 8, 9, that the dead world might live
through him. Hereby he did not only declare himself placable, not only de-
sirous to manifest a scanty goodness to the creature, but to shew that his
nature was enriched with the choicest love and grace, and his desire that it
should flow out in the highest manner through a mediator to the polluted
and rebellious world, and be screwed up to the highest peg. In him God
opened his bowels, which lay secretly yearning, and ' brought life and im-
mortality ' for the creature * to light through the gospel,' 1 Tim. i. 10.
Both mercy and love were manifested. Love is a perfection of a higher
strain than mercy ; mercy may be prevalent where love is absent. Mercy
hath for its object a thing miserable ; love hath for its object a thing amiable;
pardoning grace hath for its object a thing criminal. The mercy of God is
manifested in the death of Christ for us when we wallowed in misery ; the
pardoning grace of God is declared upon us as we are loaded with guilt ;
love is manifested in being well-pleased with us in the best beloved, after we
are made comely and amiable by him. Christ is the medium of the mani-
festation of this. This was his main design, that his grace might be dis-
covered with an emphalical phrase : Eph. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory
of his gr. cp,' i. e. by an Hebraism, n s glorious grace, and be known in its
glory to " en and angels in the heiglit, breadth, length, and depth of it, that
he might communicate his Spirit, his heaven, himself to them ; to be in
them, and they in him ; to love them with such a love as he loves his Son,
i. e. with such a love as he loves himself ; and all his other attributes were
employed in the design of glorifying this. Wisdom contrives, truth designs
the sacrifice, justice strikes, to render mercy and love triumphant. God
constituted this his principal glory, and, in a manner, esteemed not all his
other virtues, but as they were ordered to manifest this. Though he had
manifested several perfections in the creation, yet this was utterly unknown
to the world till he exposed his Son to death for them. The law manifested
him to be just, the gospel manifested him to be just, and a justifier. In the
law, he manifests the sovereignty of his justice in punishment ; in the gospel,
he inflicts severe punishments upon his Son, the surety, and mercifully ab-
solves the believing ofiender ; he is in Christ unveiled, and shines in the
condescensions of his love.
Discovered,
First, In the freeness of it. His goodness shined in the creation, but with
a weaker light. Goodness was communicated to nothing in bringing it into
being ; which nothing^ as it had not merited that goodness, so it had not de-
served the contrary. It had as little of demerit as it had of merit. He
made his goodness break out then upon nothing, but, in Christ, upon things
worse than nothing. He manifested his goodness in giving life to man, but
without the expense of the blood of his Son, and the loss of his life, by whom
he conferred the benefit of life upon sinners. What goodness he manifested
to man after his creation, in giving him the other creatures for his service,
had not so beautiful a complexion as his goodness in Christ. Then he
John XVII. 3.j the knowledge of god in chkist. 143
gave creatures to him of the same mould with man himself, but in Christ he
gives man's creator to man ; his own Wisdom, whereby he created all things.
When he gave creatures to man at first, he gave them to an holy, just,
righteous man, pure as he came out of the mint of God's power and holi-
ness ; but he gives his Son to depraved man, who had affronted him, and
cast those rich endowments of his nature behind his back. He finds out a
way to glorify his mercy, when he might only have glorified his justice ;
takes rebels into his arms, who had merited the thunders of his anger ; and,
by an incomparable and unimagined kindness, gives his Son to save his
enemies, and adopts them for his children ; and that by a free act of his
own, not being persuaded by any other : John iii. 16, 'He gave his only
begotten Son.' Also, in taking occasion from so great an evil as sin, to
manifest such an excess of love, as if the steams of dung and vapours from
mire and dirt should be an occasion of the sun's emitting his beams with
greater clearness and freedom. The heathens regarded G-od as severe ;
though they saw testimonies of his patience, they imagined the kindness he
shewed to them wrung from him by their sacrifices and cries, and purchased
by their services ; but they saw not the springs of kindness freely bubbling
up in his own breast. But in Christ we behold his compassions moving of
themselves, and working together till the whole design of love was brought
to perfection.
Secondly, In the tenderness of it. The gospel presents God in Christ
under more tender titles to man than either creation or law. In the one, it
was ' the Lord God ;' in the other, ' the mighty Lord,' * the Lord of
hosts,' ' the terrible God ;' names and marks of grandeur, sovereignty, and
justice. In the gospel, he assumes the title of Father, a name of kindness
and compassion ; and is called in the New Testament more by that title of
Father than that of a Lord, as if his sovereignty had been swallowed up in
tenderness. This title of Father is ascribed to him in the Old Testament
more rarely ; once in regard of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt,
as typical of the redemption by Christ : Deut. xxxii. 6, ' Is not he thv
Father that hath bought thee ? hath he not made thee and established
thee ?' and promised to be the familiar name whereby they should call
upon God in the times of the gospel : Jer. iii. 19, * Thou shalt call me, my
Father, and shalt not turn away from me ;' as, indeed, the name Abba,
Father, is peculiar to the gospel, and the name wherewith we have access to
the throne of grace ; in giving, also, a new law founded upon better pro-
mises, repealing the threatenings in regard of any force upon a believer, and
enjoining milder conditions than in the first covenant.
Thirdly, In the fulness of it, declared in the person of his Son. Rather
than he would lose the whole race of mankind, he would spare nothing, no,
not his best beloved, with whom though he were ever well pleased, yet he
must suffer, that in him he might be well pleased with us. He advanced his
mercy over all the difficulties which lay in his way, and to magnify it, would
not spare his Son, that he might spare the sinner, but condemn him to
death for the redemption of a servant. The immense goodness which ap-
pears in heaven and earth, sun and moon, and motions of them, and in
every other creature, is nothing to the making him a creature by whom he
made the worlds. To make him, who was the brightness of his glory, be-
come as vile as earth ; him who was God to be a man ; the Lord of Hfe
to be the subject of death, whereby the souls of men sunk into the depths
of misery are made capable of deliverance and enjoyment of an happy
immortality, the possession of an heavenly paradise, a communion in glory
with himself, is a love infinitely above that goodness which appeared in the
144 chabnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
creation ; and so magnificent, that if angels and men had millions of years
to busy their thoughts, they knew not how to imagine higher ; for it cannot
enter into the heart of men or angels to conceive the grandeurs of affec-
tion and mercy which God hath not only prepared, but represented to our
view in Christ. He hath hereby evidenced that he was so far from envying
the happiness of man, as the devil had made Adam at first believe, tbat
he would rather advance it at the expense and cost of the blood of his
Son, and would give life more abundantly in Christ, John x. 10, in a
greater plenitude and longer duration, than Adam had by creation and his
own strength, or the patriarchs under the law. Here love spends itself in
the conquest of death and hell, which had dissolved the happiness of man ;
gives life a freedom from unrighteousness, the death of our innocent nature;
and from the severities and torments of justice, which is the death of our
persons. And whereas in creation he gave creatures to man, which are the
works of his hands, he gives now his Son to man, who is partaker of his
essence, and sends him to be put in the place of the sacrifices, whose throats
were cut under the law, and were unable to make an atonement for sin; and
not onlv to sufier for us, but to suffer as a curse and execrable thing in our
stead. Gal. iii. 13. If God had sent an angel, one of the excellent creatures
of heaven, to be clothed with our nature, and die in our stead, it had been
admirable goodness not to spare for us one of those sublime and excellent
creatures.* God had manifested a goodness, but had not been glorified by it in
the fruits of it, which we could never have enjoyed, because no creature could
pay a sufficient ransom for the sin of man. The ransom was to be infinite, but
anoels were limited and finite creatures ; and if they had undertaken, they
must have suffered too infinitely, and never have emerged out of their miserj'.
Yet, supposing an angel could have redeemed us, this love, which is the
glory of his nature, had not appeared in its riches by such a grant, because
the anwels were formed of nothing, and were the works of his hands, but
were not of the essence of God. But herein his love appears in the choicest
dress, in that he sent one begotten of his substance, one with him, true God
with the Father, to whom the Father had communicated his nature. We
call not the works of an artificer his children, because they have not his
nature, though they are the products of his art and industry. Herein he
shows the lustre of his mercy, and that he is love indeed in his nature, as
well as in his fruits, beyond the imagination of men and angels, and all that
nature could instruct them in. His shooting his arrows into his Son rather
than lose the rebel, and engraving upon him the marks of his anger, is the
highest point his compassion to us could mount to, and the highest proof of
the treasures of love and pity in his heart for us.
(3.) This knowledge of God's love is most comfortable to the creature.
God is sweetened in Christ to our understanding. He lays by his fury to
unveil his mercy, and sticks the sting of his justice in Christ, to receive us
into the bosom of his love. It is a strong consolation, that if God kept to
his own design, formed in his breast from eternity, and discovered to the
world in Christ, to advance the riches of his grace, no penitent and believing
sinner can despair, but rather have an argument that God will pardon him,
because it is suitable to the design he had from eternity, and the manifesta-
tion of it in time. For why should he prepare all things for man's recovery
before man's fall, foreseen by him, and decreed to be permitted ? Why
should he provide a medicine before the disease, a solder before the crack,
and fix upon a certain way to pardon the rebels, before they had beings
■wherewith to rebel, if he had no intention to apply it when they should have
* Mestrezat bui 1 John iv. 8, 9.
John XYII. 3. J the knowledge of god in christ. 145
the grace to believe it ? And is not this pardoning grace rather honoured
by the pardon of great sins and many sins, than by the pardon of few sins
and small sins ? Therefore, as he suffered sin to enter into the world, that
he might bring upon the stage his pardoning mercy, to the view and comfort
of the creature, which else had lain in the abyss of the divine essence with-
out any opportunity of discovery, so he suffers men to go on in sin a long
time, that his grace may enter upon their souls with the greater magnificence
and glory : ' The law entered, that sin might abound ; but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound,' Rom. v. 20. Not, or not only, that law the
Jews had, but the first law to man in innocence ; not as the Jiuis intent lonis,
but the event in the fall of man and prescience of God. Men naturally
think God will not pardon their crimes, cannot have a kindness for such
notorious rebels, because their scanty natures are not capable of such a
quality towards grievous offenders against themselves. But this declaration
of love in Christ takes away all scruples from men, brings forth his love
triumphing over all the objections of penitent souls, that heaven itself cannot
find a stronger medium to assure them of an immense plenitude of love in
the breast of God. The goodness of God is therefore proposed as an object
of trust (as it may be understood) in the day of the gospel, Hos. iii. 5, which
is a larger manifestation of his goodness than in the law, which was an object
of fear. They shall fear or trust in the Lord, or run with haste unto the
Lord and to his goodness, viz. Christ, in whom they taste the bounty and
goodness of God, and this in the latter days, when the shadows of the law
shall fly away and have their period. And, indeed, when a poor deluded
sinner sees those treasures of mercy in Christ, that ravishing love doth as
much surprise as delight him, so that, with an amazing comfort, he can cast
himself into the arms of that goodness which are opened so wide in the Son
of his love. So that here only was love in its willingness, grace in its free-
ness, mercy in its sweetness, goodness in its fulness of benefits, conspiring
together to set themselves forth in their best attire.
(3.) The wisdom of God is admirably manifested herein. The sending
of Christ being so stupendous, the wisdom of God must be admirable in the
ends designed by it, which shoots forth with clearer beams in his Son than
in the creation, in which regard Christ is called the wisdom of God : 1 Cor.
i. 24, ' Christ crucified, the wisdom of God,' i. e. the highest discovery of
his wisdom is in the cnicifixion of Christ, in the death of the Son of God
upon the cross. Wisdom shined in the creation, it glitters every day in
providence ; but the depths and riches of it are in Christ. In those there
are some doles, some lesser sums, but the treasures of it are hid in him, as
in the great exchequer. Here are the deep counsels of God, which the
apostle cannot speak of without a ravishing admiration : Rom. xi. 33, ' Oh
the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !' ' A
manifold wisdom,' Eph. iii. 10, in regard of the variety of effects in the
glorifying his name, and dignifying his creature, in repairing the breach, and
establishing the repair. Wherefore the apostle, speaking of this great
mystery, breaks out into a doxology of the wisdom of God: Rom. xvi. 25-27,
' To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen,' When
the creation was despoiled by sin, not a jot of goodness left in it to give God
any content, it was a greater wisdom to repair it without breaking it to pieces
than to have created a new one. The i^dsdom in a new creation had been
but of the same level, but that in restoring was of a higher elevation and a
clearer gloss. To bring his glory out of the ashes wherein it seemed to be
buried ; to bring man out of darkness wherein he was, as to his own strength,
VOL. IV. K
146 charnock's woeks. [John XVII. 3.
irrecoverably involved ; to put heaven and earth in tune again, which sin
had made at discord with one another, was a high piece of skill. It is an
admirable wisdom among men to unite two princes at variance, without in-
vading either of their rights, but entirely preserving them ; to link them in
a stronger peace than that they were in before they fell out ; to enlarge their
empire, not only to a mutual satisfaction, but the increase of both their gran-
deur and glories. The case is the same : God repairs the breach between
himself and man, and preserves his right ; he loseth nothing of his own
honour, but enlargeth it ; man is restored to favour with a temporary dimi-
nution of his bodily happiness, but with an eternal increase of the felicities
both of his soul and body ; all seeming contradictions are removed, and
means fully proportioned to the ends intended are appointed. In this regard
the apostle calls it ' all wisdom and prudence,' Eph. i. 8 ; wisdom drawing
the platform, and prudence disposing the means consonant to the end. The
work is done to the content of both, the glory of both, the rest of G-od, and
the happiness of the creature ; and the skill was more wonderful in repairing
the devastation in such an infallible way, past the reach of the tempter that
defaced the first creation. Certainly that which shall be most admired at
last will be the harmony and consent of things, by the skill of infinite wisdom,
in conspiring together for the bringing about those ends God aimed at.
Wisdom takes large strides at every step.
[1.] In uniting the greatest extremes. In the creation God brought
nothing to become something. In this he joins together beings at a greater
distance.
First, The divine and human natures are united in one person. The
highest intellectual nature, with the lowest rational nature, infinite and finite,
glory and misery, time and eternity.* Christ calls himself the Son of man,
to shew that he was really man in qualities, — John iii. 13, ' And no man
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the
Son of man which is in heaven,' — yet saith he is in heaven, to manifest that he
is God ; man born of the virgin, yet the Son of God eternally begotten, the
Word made flesh. God in heaven manifested in flesh upon the earth, each
preserving their entire properties ; the Son of man by this union is become
the Son of God, yet retains his pure and naked form as man ; the Word by
this union is made flesh, yet without losing his infinity', eternity, and original
being ; as a man hath two parts, an immortal and invisible soul, and a
mortal visible body. As a man, he passeth through infirmities ; as God, he
is above them.f The two natures are distinct, yet united in one subsistence,
and make but one person, as the soul and body make one man. Yet not in
such a manner as that the divine nature is the form of the human, for then
Christ were not real man ; he was ' in the form of God,' yet * in the form
of a servant,' Philip, ii. 6, 7. Though there was no change in the divinity,
yet the lustre of it was veiled by the infirmities of the flesh ; as when a thick
cloud interposeth between the body of the sun and our eyes, it obscures the
beams from our eyes, but defaceth not the body of the sun, or ravisheth its
inherent beauty. And this union was made at the first conception ;l if it
had not been so, the virgin had not conceived God, but a pure man, con-
trary to Gal. iv. 4, ' God sent his Son, made of a woman.' If the humanity
was not at that instant united to the Xoyog, it did then subsist in its own
created person, and the conception was then terminated to a created person,
and in no sort to God ; and then it cannot be said that God was conceived
* Daille, sermon sur Jean iii. 13, p. 211.
t Daille, sermon sur Phil. ii. 7, 8, p. 411, &c.
J Suarez in tertiam Aquin. vol. xiii. diss. 16, sect. 1.
John XVII. 3.] the kxowledge of god in christ. 147
of the -virgin. If the divinity did assume the humanity of that person after
the time when Christ died, and the humanity had not before been united to
the divine nature, his blood then shed could not have been said to be the
blood of God, though the divinity should have assumed that humanity after
the resurrection. An unexpressible wisdom in the uniting, in an uncon-
ceivable manner, two such vast distances, the divine and human nature in
one person, that there might be a sufficiency to perform the task undertaken,
and capacity to endure the suffering required to make up the breach ; to
unite one greater than a man to the human nature, that he might satisfy for
man, and have that in himself which might exceed all the debt man owed to
God ! He provided a divine person to satisfy a God offended, a mediator,
one with God that was wronged, and one with man that had sinned ; par-
taking of the nature of both, that he might pay a price sufficient for the one,
and acceptable to the other. In the creation, one creature was united to
another, and all made up a world. In this, finite is united to infinite, to
make up a complete and able mediator.
Secondly, The justice and mercy of God are united in a joint applause.
He becomes merciful without being unjust, and just without impairing the-
honour of his compassion. Justice hath the highest right, and mercy its
utmost intention ; the cries of his justice, and the yearnings of his bowels,
are united, without depriving either of their rights. No complaints can be
found in the mouth of the one, nor any discontent in the looks of the other,
but mutual smiles and mutual applauses. Jmt and justifier are joined in
one justice and justification, Rom. iii. 26. The world is preserved, which
in justice ought to be destroyed, without any reproach to the righteousness
of God, as the governor of it ; an eternal marriage is made between mercy
and justice ; both shake hands, and not only acquiesce but rejoice, for the
sin is punished by justice in the surety, and pardoned by mercy in the
sinner ; both pleased and both gi'atified in seeing the honour of the law pre-
served, and the guilt of the sinner removed.
Thirdly, In uniting God and man in eternal fellowship. By this act he
brings stubble to dwell with flames, and weakness to behold and enjoy glory
without being overwhelmed by the weight and splendour of it, to draw near
to the supreme majesty through the veil of the flesh of Christ. He causetli
pardon and punishment to meet, that God appeased, and man acquitted, maj'
come together. The punishment is inflicted upon the surety, that the offender
might share in the glorious fruits of his mediation. God and man are brought
to amity, angels and men are made one family, and more grace given to fit
us for God than Adam lost. This was the point his wisdom aimed at, to
make ' the riches of gi'ace abound towards us,' Ephes. i, 7, 8. And to add
to the wonder of his wisdom, God saves the sinner in the same way whereby
he condemned the sin, and.^ advanceth the offender to communion with him,
the same way whereby he shewed his detestation of the crime. Sin is made
the mark of the divine displeasure in the person of Christ, swallowed up and
devoured by the flames of justice, that, the wall of separation being removed,
he might meet his creature with arms widened by the dearest love.
[2.] In effecting this restoration without the perpetual prejudice of the
mediator, and with his great honour and advantage. Had our sins been
transferred upon an angel, he must have lain for ever plunged in that misery,
for since his nature was not infinite to render his satisfaction infinite, an in-
finite duration of his sufferings was necessary to make that satisfaction valid,
which his nature being finite was too weak to do. But the Son of God
suffers a short time, to have an eternal glory for himself in his human nature
as well as for his brethren. A satisfaction for sin is procured without a total
148 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
destruction of the person satisfying ; for such an one was designed by the in-
finite wisdom of God, whom it was ' impossible for the bands of death to
hold,' Acts ii. 24. His death, the punishment of sin, is but of a short dura-
tion in regard of the pains, yet eternal in regard of efficacy for those ends
for which it was intended ; God's glory is restored, man's happiness secured,
without a perpetual impairing the mediator, but with an eternal exaltation
of him.
[3.] In frustrating the subtlety of Satan. The devil thought he had
brought a total destruction upon mankind, when he persuaded our first parents
to eat of the forbidden fruit. But God orders it to bring about a greater
glory to himself, and a firmer stability to his people, in introducing an ever-
lasting covenant founded in a mediator, which could not be broken, and
establishing their happiness upon surer terms than it was settled on in para-
dise, and afterwards outwits the devil in ordering him to be instrumental to
that which he designed to hinder ; for while he is filling the heart of Judas
to betray Christ, and egging the heart of the Jews to crucify him, God, by
his wisdom, over-rules him to a subserviency to his own glorious end, for by
that very way he thought to stifle the good of mankind, he occasionally pro-
motes their perpetual redemption. God turned the subtlety of the devil to
his own praise, bruised the devil's head by letting him bruise the mediator's
heel, and made his malice conduce to the restoration of mankind from that
ruin he had before by a prosperous subtlety eflfected. God, by a mysterious
wisdom, more signal than all that in the creation, gained the victory over
the devil, who had defaced his work, and gave man also a victory over the
tempter, who had depraved his soul.
[4.] In the propagating this means of the discovery of himself. The wis-
dom as well as the power of God is discovered in using the most unlikely
means to bring about his great ends, as the skill of a man is more evident in
the moving great bodies by small engines and wires, than if he engaged in
it a strength proportionable to the vastness of the body he would move.
God hath spread abroad this knowledge by such means as the world counts
foolishness, and by such persons as are no better than fools in their esteem,
1 Cor. i. 26, 27. He lodged his treasures of wisdom first in vessels of
earth, bended the world to himself by the sermons of fishermen, enlightened
the world by men unskilful in the affairs of it ; chooseth not to this purpose
the cedars of Lebanon, but the shrubs of the valley ; not the learned phari-
sees of Jerusalem, but the poor men of Galilee, whose education was not
capable to ennoble their minds, and fit them for such great actions as they
were employed in. But ' out of the mouths of such babes and sucklings he
ordains praise ' to his own wisdom, and makes the world know that ' the
foolishness of God is wiser than men,' 1 Cor. i. 25. Now, what is the frame
of heaven and earth to this ? Just as his wisdom is in making a clod of
earth to that which appears in the fabric of a man, or his yet more glorious
wisdom in the frame of an angel. In the creation it is like a sunbeam
through the chink of a wall in comparison of this, which, like the sun, faceth
us in a brighter glory. There is counsel as well as will in the minute pas-
sages of providence, but a more glorious workmanship of wisdom in the dis-
covery of Christ.
(4.) The justice of God is more evidenced than by all other judgments in
this world, or that which is to come. God would be acknowledged in his
justice after the fall, which was not known, and could not be known, in an in-
nocent state any other way than in the threatening ; God would therefore
have bloody sacrifices which might signify man's demerit, and therefore, pro-
bably, God was displeased with Cain for offering only the fruits of the earth,
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 119
whereby he only acknowledged God's dominion and bounty, but not God's
justice and his own offence, which required a bloody sacrifice ; he did not
acknowledge the rights of justice and the necessity of a mediator to bear his
sin. Whence Abel, who offered a more significant sacrifice, is said, Heb.
xi. 4, to ' offer a more excellent sacrifice,' -TrXiiova duaiav. And his justice
was never so evident as in Christ crucified ; he chose his Son to lay upon
him the guilt of the world, subjected him in the state of a criminal, depressed
him to the condition of a servant, sunk him into the misery of rebels, caused
him to swallow the disgraces of men, and drink down the vials of his anger,
rather than the sin of the world should boast of impunity, and men presume
to think him disarmed of his justice. What if the whole world was drowned
by a wrathful deluge, Sodom and Gomorrah consumed to ashes by a shower
of fire ? What if every son of Adam were to lie roaring in endless torments ?
What if not an angel in heaven had escaped the sin and punishment of
devils ? What if this world were multipUed into millions, what if every man
upon earth, and every angel in heaven, were multiplied into thousands of
millions of men and angels ? What if every spire of grass, grain of corn,
atom of sand, were made a rational creature, and for sin thrown for ever into
devouring flames ? Is not here inexpressible justice ? But what is this jus-
tice upon creatures which were made, to that justice upon his Son, by whom
he made the creatures ? What is this to the Son of God traihng a weak
body for thirty-three years in the world, suffering the indignities of men and
devils, bearing the weight of an infinite wrath ? What are all other judg-
ments to his bloody sweat in the garden, or the groans of this divine person
upon the cross, of more worth than innumerable worlds of creatures ? Who
ever knew before the power of God's wrath? Ps. xc. 11. For as there is
no proportion of creatures to God, so there is no proportion of the death of
the Son of God for a time, to the death of all men and angels together.
Consider the circumstances to render the justice of God more visible.
[1.] He was innocent in his own person. He was beloved by his Father,
had never displeased him ; the sins he suffered for were none of his own by
commission, he made them his own by a voluntary submission, and God
made them his own by a penal infliction. God would have sin punished in
the person of our surety, though he was his only begotten and perfectly in-
nocent Son.
[2. J He was willmg to pay the debt. He offered himself up with a design
to glorify his Father, to restore the creation to its former loveliness, to renew
the delight that God had in his works when he pronounced them good, a
consideration which one would think might sweeten the severest justice ; yet
nothing abated him, he must groan and bleed to death.
[3.] Yet he endured sorrows unexpressible. The powers of darkness had
their hour against him, all the curses of the law were thundered out against
him, while he was clothed in the garb of a sinner, as if when he had been
leading to the cross, G-od had particularly spoken that word to him, ' Cursed
is he that hangs upon a tree,' Gal. iii. 13. He was condemned and tormented
by his servants, and those whose salvation he sought and designed ; he was
subject to that which no man, no, not the wickedest man, had ever endured
in this life : the heavens were darkened upon him, earth forsaking him, none
seemed to have pity upon him ; ' terrors took hold upon him, and pursued
his soul as the wind ; his soul was poured out in him, his bones were pierced,
and his sinews took no rest,' Job xxx. 15-17. He had an angel to comfort
him, but with no commission to remove the cup from him that his Father
held out for him to drink. What a demonstration of the justice of God is
here : that he in whom ail nations of the earth were to be blessed, whom the
150 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
angels in heaven bless, the saints on earth bless, yea, and is the blessed of
his Father, yet is made a curse by him !
[4.] Deserted by his Father. His prayers were not answered for deliver-
ance, not the least ear lent to his cries in his weightiest distresses. He was
deserted as to the comforts of a Father, to be given up to the strokes of his
wrath, as if he had discarded all bowels of compassion towards him. God
dealt not with him as a Father, but as a God of justice; whence Christ
upon the cross calls not upon God by the name of Father, which was his
wonted custom, and as he had used that title in the garden, but by the name
of God: 'My God, my God.' God became as it were cruel to him, and
' with strong hands opposed himself against him,' Job xxx. 21, Nay, God
regarded him not, as if he were for a time ashamed to acknowledge him for
his Son. And when they taunted him upon the cross, ' He trusted in GoJ,
let him deliver him, seeing he trusted in him,' though they reflected upon
the name and glory of God, he would not at present take notice of the suffer-
ings of his own name in the reproaches of the Jews, nor remit upon that
score anything of his indignation against the sins of men, when it was the
fittest time to vindicate his Son's innocence, because for this he was con-
demned, his making himself the Son of God. But he was so intent upon
revenging sin imputed to his Son, that he regarded not the present actual in-
dignity offered to himself, so that our Saviour himself seems to be astonished
at his Father's silence in such a case, since his words, ' My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? ' are uttered a little after that reproach of the ■
Jews in the story. Mat. xxvi. 43, 46. This was the highest act of justice
that the arm of God could put forth, to make the soul of his dearly beloved
an offering for sin, whereby he manifested that without blood there could be
no atonement, Heb. x. 7. And since no other blood had a sufficiency in it
to quench the flames of his justice, God would single out the best blood in
the whole creation wherewith to satisfy it; a blood though created, yet the
blood of the Creator. Never could earth or hell read such a lecture of divine
justice as in this case. For if God should damn thousands of worlds, his
justice would be glorified, but in a company of little creatures; it would be
but a devouring a few drops of a bucket.* But in Christ it is glorified in
the man that is his fellow, Zech. xiii. 7. It is a stronger testimony of a
prince's justice to condemn his son, his only son, for a crime, than to con-
demn a shiftless and friendless creature that hath not wherewithal to live.
This doth manifest God's nature to be as just as it is gracious, that he will
be as severely intent upon the punishing obstinate offenders, as he will be
graciously intent upon the pardoning penitent sinners. It is equally in-
credible to the presumptuous sinner to believe God severely just, as to an
humble soul to believe God magnificently gracious. It is not without cause
therefore that the apostle doth urge his discourse of the justice of God on
Christ, and thereupon the justification of believers, with a repetition: Bom.
iii. 25, ' To declare, to declare, I say, his righteousness.' For in Christ we
see God doth declare as well the rigours of his justice as the grandeurs of his
love ; for that sin should not be pardoned without punishment in his Son,
is the height of justice; that he should expose his Son as a sacrifice for
rebels, it is riches of grace. It is clear that justice in God is his essence,
not, as in us, a quality ; and that he is to sinners a consuming fire. The
knowledge of God, as thus represented in Christ, should stop the course of
a daring sinner. God had not contrived the death of his Son but for the
declaring his justice as well as magnifying his grace. The knowledge of God
in bis justice, on Christ is comfortable to a believer; and the more, since
* Gurnal, part ii. p. 658, somewhat changed.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 151
that perfection of God which is most terrible is rendered a foundation of joy,
for God is gracious in being righteous: Ps. cxvi. 5, ' Gracicus is the Lord,
and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.' If he had not been righteous ir
his Son, we cannot conceive how with honour he could have been merciful
to us. The severity of his justice on Christ glorifies the greatness of his
grace to the believer. By how much the punishment on Christ was the
sharper, by so much his mercy to the believer is the fuller. This vindictive
justice is joined with his pardoning mercy, Exod, xxxiv. ; because his not
clearing the guilty illustrates his pardoning the guilty upon the account of
the Surety. It is a foundation of a plea for every believer. The justice of
God hath drunk up the blood of Christ as a full satisfaction ; it is therefore
glorified in the highest manner, whereas in the damnation of men the debt
had been always paying and never paid; and so justice had been always
satisfying and never satisfied, and so had been always glorifying and never
fully glorified. But here the debt is paid, and justice hath no more to
demand ; whereas in the other it would have been always receiving and
always demanding more, because the payment could never have amounted to
a full sum. In the punishment of creatures, justice would have had its due
by parcels, but in Christ it hath its full demand; and this may be pleaded
with God by a believer. This is the knowledge of God we have by Christ,
which is as terrible to any impenitent as it is comfortable to a penitent
believer.
(5.) The holiness of God is manifested by Christ. His justice is founded
in his holiness: 'The holy God is sanctified in righteousness,' Isa. v. 16.
His holiness is illustrated by his justice; he is exalted in judgment and sanc-
tified in righteousness. Had not Christ died upon the cross, we had not had
a discovery of the ingratitude and baseness there was in the first sin against
God and in all that followed it ; nor could we have had so full a prospect of the
holiness and purity of God's nature as in the dreadful punishment of Christ
for sin, because sin never appeared in its blackest and bloodiest colours, and
nothing was ever able to shew us the true tincture of sin comparably to the
blood of the Son of God. This perfection did sparkle in the commands of
the law, which he gave angels and men for the rule of their obedience. The
constancy of this holiness appeared in the renewing the law in tables of stone
to the Jews, adding thereunto the ceremonial law, made up of sacrifices of
beasts for the expiation of sin, as typical of a greater sacrifice, whereby he
would declare that he would never be pleased with iniquity. But this mani-
festation was with a fainter light than in a crucified Christ. If ever sin
appeared odious, it was in the death of his Son. Here we see nothing but
frowns and displeasures against the breach of his righteous law, his destes-
tation of sin to be as great as his indignation, his hatred of it to be as infinite
as his wrath against it, both joining hand in hand together to declare the
contrariety between the beauty of the one and defonnity of the other, strik-
ing it to the heart, and condemning it for ever to that death and dissolution
the greatness of the evil had merited, and publishing an irreconcilable enmity
to the filthiness and loathsomeness of it, shewing that he would rather have
his Son die than sin live. He never declared the heinousness of sin in itself,
and its hatefulness to himself, so much by all the vials of judgments poured
out upon the world, by all the flames and torments of hell, as by the humi-
liation, groans, and sufierings of his only Son. That was the hatred of sin
in the persons of his creatures, this his hatred of it in the person of the man
his fellow, bearing his indignation for sins never committed by him, wherein
he was both 'white and ruddy,' Cant. v. 10, an innocent and a sufierer; pure
in innocence and ruddy with blood. It was the intention of God to manifest
152 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
his holiness and his justice in this affair. When he was accused — ^Mal.
ii. 17, * Every one that doth evil is good in his sight' — that he delighted in
evil men, and had stripped himself of his holiness and justice, and seemed
to countenance the wicked in his providential dispensations, the answer the
prophet by the Spirit of God gives to this charge is, Mai. iii. 1, that the
Lord should come into his temple (a place approved to Christ in the Gospel),
whereby I shall make a full discovery that I neither delight in evil nor will
suffer it to go unpunished. And by righteousness which God declares in the
death of Christ, Rom. iii. 26, some understand the holiness of God, which
is evidenced by his being just and a justifier. He is first just, that he may,
with the honour of his holiness and justice, justify the sinner beheving in
Christ, whence the great praises of God in the Revelations, as well as in
Isaiah vi., a gospel vision, are for this perfection of holiness. Rev. iv. 8,
XV. 4. And herein the holiness of God may be considered with delight,
which did before affright the sinner, and make him deplore the impossibility
of his own or any other's standing before so pure a majesty, 1 Sam. vi. 20.
It is not only discovered in Christ, but honoured ; and justice, the fruit of
it, being satisfied, both smile upon men capacitated by Christ to stand com-
fortably before both of them. It is declared also in setting us so exact a
pattern as the holy of holies visibly for our imitation in all ways of humility,
self-denial, obedience, and love to God. The sum is this: Though God had
manifested the purity of his nature in his threatening annexed to the law,
and in the punishment of man after he had sinned, and in the law by the
sacrifices of beasts, yet these manifested God's hatred of sin very little in
comparison of the death of his Son. God being more willing to punish sin in
his Son than to leave it unpunished, shews an extreme hatred of iniquity.*
(6.) The veracity and truth of God is manifested in Christ. Christ ' gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,' 1 Tim. ii. 6, to fia^-
Tv^iov, for a testimony (it is a noun, not a verb) : a testimony not only
of his grace, and the abundant goodness of God in redemption, that he
would have all men to be saved, ver. 4, excluding none who have the condi-
tions of faith and repentance ; but also a testimony of the truth of his first
promise, constituting him the only mediator as the seed of the woman. His
passion was a testimony of the veracity of God in that promise whereby it
was accomplished. ' Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,' John i. 17 ;
grace in regard of our pardon, truth in the regard of the promise. This
attribute was highly discovered, in making good the promise of the seed of
the woman, after so many revolutions of time, weary expectations of his
coming, contrary appearances, a stay of four thousand years between the
promise and the performance ; whereby the faith of the ancient believer was
almost nonplussed, had not God supported it by a succession of prophetical
predictions, as assurances that he would make good his word ; all which
were to the utmost point fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ.
His veracity, in the promises of assistance made to Christ in this great under-
taking, which were the objects of our Saviour's confidence : Isa. 1. 7, 9, ' The
Lord God will help me;' which were accomplished in bearing up the human
nature under such a sea and load of sufterings, making his arm bare rather than
his truth should sink in the promises made either to his Son or his creatures.
Veracity in his threatenings ; he had declared in paradise his certain
resolution to punish the violations of his law, which he could not recede
from, without making a breach upon the holiness of the Deity. This threat-
ening, which Satan had made man believe that God would falsify, he kept
up without any spot upon his truth, any breach of his word, and yet disap-
* Mestrezat in Heb. i. 3, pp. 98, 99.
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 153
pointed the devil of the great end he aimed at in his lie. He makes in
Christ the threatenings of the law and the promises of the gospel kiss each
other ; both Uve comfortably together, and the honour of his truth is pre-
served in both, which have contrary aspects, as far distant as heaven and
earth, east and west in the furthest points, so that it was an impossibiHty in
the judgment of men, that God could be true to himself, and be merciful to
men, if he were immutably true to his threatening. God starts not one step
from his word, breaks not one tittle of his righteous commination ; his
threatenings are as certain as they are dreadful, and rather than one iota of
them shall pass away, or be accounted an empty word, or a copy of his
countenance, he will give up his Son for the breach of that law to which his
sharp threatening was annexed. Herein the immutability of God is declared
to be as great in his will as in his nature. It is impossible for him to lie, though
for the saving his Son from death ; which gives us such a representation of
God in the infallibility of his promises, as aifords us a strong consolation,
Heb. vi. 17, 18. The soul that knows Christ cannot but without scruple
rest upon his word, and think nothing more becoming him than to credit
God, who hath been punctual in keeping his word, though the relation of a
Son, the miseries to be endured by this Son of his love, and also the yearn-
ings of his bowels, stood in the way to move him to a breach of his word,
had it been possible ; and since God hath not the same reason to fall back
from this word of promise (which is a demonstration of his goodness natural
to him), as he seems to have had to fall back from that wherein his justice,
his strange work was to be manifested, the soul is carried out to a reUance
on him beyond any rational possibility of a doubt. If ever he would have
denied himself, it would have been in the case of his Son, whose prayer for
the passing away of the cup could not make him alter one tittle of what ha 1
passed from his lips. When his own glory in the good of his creature was
concerned, he coiid not deny himself, 1 Tim. ii. 13 ; no, nor in the con-
cerns of his Son. He hath hereby declared, that if he be wanting to his
faithfulness, he would be wanting to his nature ; and to break his word,
would-be to deny his deity ; which is such a discovery of God, as dreadful
to an impenitent, as delightful to a believer ; for he hath manifested his
truth to be as much his nature, as his holiness, grace, and justice.
(7.) The power of God is manifested in Christ. Hence Christ is called
* the power of God,' as well as ' the wisdom of God,' 1 Cor. i. 24. Not only
in the fruits of the gospel upon the hearts of men, but in his office, wherein
was manifested the power of God in redeeming the world. It was in him
God tore up the foundations of the devil's empire, disarmed all the curses of
the law, overthrew the false conceits of the world, knocked oil the fetters of
their captivity, demolished the power of death, snatched souls from the flames
of hell, unbarred the gates of heaven, prepared everlasting mansions, * laid
his beams in the waters,' the foundations of an happy eternity in the misery,
afflictions, death, blood of his only Son. He restored man to glory by
weakness, to wisdom by foohshness ; he made the law lose its sting in the
sides of him whom it struck, took away our captivity by misery, flung death
to the ground by death, quenched hell by its own flames, opened heaven by
a cross, cemented an everlasting habitation by blood, and condemned sin
by a sacrifice for it. By a crucified man, and a weak flesh encompassed
with infirmity, the God of heaven subdues the god of the world, destroys
the empire of the proud spirits, and subdues principaHties and powers under
his feet, who besides their usurped authority had a vast ambition to preserve
it, and a strength -and subtlety unconquerable by the power of man ; and
hereby shews, that no evil was so great but his almighty arm could put in
154 chaenock's works. [John XVII. 3.
execution, what his immense wisdom had provided as a remedy against it.
By his strength he gives a being to his own word and promise, when neither
angels nor man could conceive the methods of the execution, even after the
promise of bruising Satan by the seed of the woman was declared. It is
seen in raising Christ from the dead, after he had sustained the weight of
the sin of the world upon him, and bringing him forth with success and
glory, after that great encounter with the powers of hell ; which power is
called ' the glory of the Father :' Rom. vi. 4, ' As Christ was raised up from
the dead, by the glory of the Father,' dia bo^ra ; by the glory of the Father,
as noting the efficient cause, or to the glory of the Father, as noting the
final cause, being for the glory of God's power. In powerfully raising a
church to him from the seed of his blood, in spite of all spiritual and secular
enemies, defending it and supporting it under the most terrible waves of the
world, that he might be acknowledged, adored, and praised in this world,
and that which is to come. The power of God is not so manifest in laying
the foundation of the earth, stretching out the heavens, turning the wheel of
providence, as in this, which is the topstone of all his providences in the world,
to which they tend, and wherein they centre. ' Twice we have heard that
powder belongs to God,' Ps. Ixii. 11, 12, * Also unto thee, Lord, belongs
mercy.' Once we have heard of it in creation ; more gloriously in the work
of redemption, wherein his power and his grace were linked together, as well
as in creation his power and his goodness. And this is a comfortable ma-
nifestation of God, his power is as great as his mercy, and they join hands
together. His power is known in Christ to be able to save us without giving
his enemies any ground to reproach him ; and his mercy is made known,
whereby he is willing to save us.
Use. If the true and saving knowledge of God is only in and by Jesus
Christ, it will afford us matter for our,
I. Information, and it informs us,
1. Of the insufficiency of reason without revelation. Though there be
some relics of the law of nature, like Seth's pillars, standing in the heart,
the mind of man paved with some broken pieces of the tables of the law,
yet among all those fragments there is not one that hath the inscription of
Christ the mediator upon it. Nature never preached the doctrine of a
Saviour, and the necessity of faith ; and therefore by all the endowments of
nature the soul cannot be informed of the true nature of God. Mere reason
in innoceucy was never a key fitted to all the wards of divine mysteries.
The beauty of God is not discerned in the same way as we discern the beauty
of nature. Reason, though it be * the candle of the Lord,' Prov. xx. 27, yet
it is but a candle, and can no more discover the natm-e of God as he is to
be known in Christ, than a candle can help us to see the sun when it is
masked by a thick cloud. We cannot comprehend what is revealed of God
in the creature, much less can we arrive to that by our own reason, which
no creature under heaven, nor in heaven, of the highest endowments, can
make known to us without a revelation from God. Reason presents us but
with some dark shadows or notions of God only.
(1.) Reason is blind in the things of God. Can we render a satisfactory
reason of anything under our feet, and thoroughly uncipher the characters of
nature ? How can we then unlock the cabinet of God ? If we understand
not what is below us, how can we understand what is above us ? If we
could picture the soul of man in his lapsed state, it must be painted without
eyes, covered with a thick mist, more crooked in his will and afiections than
anything can be misshapen and monstrous under the heavens. A clear-eyed
John XYII. 3.] the knowledge of god in cheist. 155
reason can only be in an uncorrupted soul. Never speak of right reason in
the things of God without a supernatui-al illumination, and the guidance of
revelation, till you can shew a soul free from all manner of corruption, as
white as snow, and as innocent as a standing angel. Since the fall there
is as Uttle of pure reason in our minds, as there is of an exact holiness in
our will, and the Spirit is as necessary to enlighten the one as to incline the
other, the one being as full of prejudices and mistaken principles as the
other of corrupt and perverse habits. Hence man is represented in Scrip-
ture, Eph. iv. 17-19, with a mind as vain as his will is crooked, an under-
standing as much darkened towards God as his will^is alienated from the
life of God, as great a blindness of heart as there is madness of afiection,
and therefore the apostle gives it no better a title than darkness, Eph. v. 8,
comprehending thereby the race of all mankind naturally. And what can
better express the deplorable nature of the mind and reason, which so many
men are proud of, than darkness, the horror of the world, the cloud to the
beauty of it, the distracter of the fancy, and the spring of fears ? It is by
darkness we are blinded from seeing the comeliness of things in the world ;
it is in darkness we have the most affrighting fancies ; and such a dismal
thing is man fallen, without any power to open his own eyes, without any
more ability to become light in the Lord than darkness hath to change itself
into the light of the sun. Man is said to have no more understanding in
regard of the spii-itual things of God than a beast, Ps. xlix. 20. Not a man
as considered in Adam, and upon that root, that understands God, Rom,
iii. 17. He is bhnd as to the object which he was created to know and
contemplate. The world, by all 'the wisdom of God' discovered in the
creation, ' knew not God,' 1 Cor. i. 21. By all those things wherein the
wisdom of God appeared in creation and providence, in regard of the order,
harmony, beauty, and effects of them, the world, with all their reasons and
speculations, were ignorant of God, All worldly wisdom cannot remove that
darkness which is upon the understanding as to heavenly things ; for the
corruption like smoke rising up still from the fm-nace of that hell in the
heart, darkens the heavens from our sight, and it is as impossible that we
should know God while our corruption remains in its full force, as that an
eye, bemisted by an uninten-upted succession of thick vapours from other
parts of the body, can clearly behold any object. Peter, whose eyes were
something opened, thought he had great reason to dissuade Christ from suf-
fering, but his Master sharply rebukes him, and tells him he did not ' savour
the things of God,' Mat. xvi, 23, he understood not the nature and design
of God, The blindness of reason is seen, by considering that most of the
reason we have in the world is the fruit of education. What a miserable
thing would a man be, if he were bred up among beasts in a desert ! What
a stupid statue of a man would he be, rather than a man ! There is no
knowledge of God, man since the fall can lay claim to by his own reason,
without some common illumination. We know nothing of God by the
creatures, but as God spreads an inward light upon the mind. In nature
there is a manifestation in us, as well as a manifestation to us, Rom, i. 19,
yet it is a common illumination,
(2,) Reason is uncertain. It is a wandering vagabond, coins lies, and
reports falsities as truths. Is it not more often deceived in things of a
divine concern which are above our natural capacity, than the sense is in
sensible objects, which often mistakes things because of their distance ? Is
not the whole scene of nature troubled with janglings and controversies ?
What knowledge is there in the world that is not perplexed with a thousand
doubts ? Is not that interest, education, and often passion, which we call
156 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
reason ? Are not our minds often seduced by our humours, and drawn
aside by a faction of passions ? How can that mind which is swayed by the
bestial part of man frame right notions of God ? Do the beasts that perish
understand him ? And man is no better since the fall. Is the knowledge
of God bred and nourished by flesh and blood ? Some of the heathens were
so sensible of this uncertainty, that they counted it their only knowledge,
that they knew nothing as they ought to know ; and some of them believed
that God from heaven could only be the revealer of truth. So much are
men's thoughts entangled in divine things.
(3.) Reason in a natural man is an enemy to the knowledge of God in
Christ. It receives not the light that shines upon it, John i. 5. It offers a
strong resistance, it reflects it back, as a stone wall doth the beams of the
sun, without suffering the light to pierce into any part of it. It is from
hence the gospel hath not the same advantage upon men, as things of a
moral concern, which are written in the law and have a counterpart in the
remainders of the law of nature in the heart of a man. But the gospel finds
nothing of kin to it in the soul, but rather principles that oppose it ; the
mysteries of Christ, wherein the grace, justice, wisdom of God are discovered,
seem foolishness to a natural mind. It seems to them a folly to imagine,
that God should put his Son to death for the demonstration of his justice,
that man should be justified by his blood ; and upon this account it is that
the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ii. 14, that * a natural man receives not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they ax-e foohshness unto him.' He doth not say
a carnal man, but an animal, a soully man ; he doth not speak of one led by
the affections of the flesh, but those wise men that are led by flashy reason,
and by the common estimated wisdom and principles of the world, and order
their lives according to the rational dictates of the world ; such an one
' receives not the things of the Spirit of God,' he doth not say receives not
the things of God, for he knows something of God ; but not the things of
the Spirit of God, i. e. he knows not God evangelically, embraceth not,
apprehends not, affects not, the knowledge of God in Christ in the gospel
spirit. The reason is, because ' they are foolishness to him.' If the apostle
meant a man wallowing in sensual pleasures, and conducted by his bestial
appetite, he might rather say. Such an one receives them not because they
savour of wisdom, because they are against the pleasures of the flesh, than
because he accounts them foolish ; but he is one given to the study of
wisdom, and disaffects them, because he thinks them contrary to that which
he thinks wisdom, to that which hath prepossessed his mind. No sensual
man in the world can in his own judgment and conscience disapprove of things
morally good, and known so by the common hght of nature as foolish ; but
such an one rejects and hates the knowledge of God in the gospel ; for as
a rich man hates nothing more than poverty, a sensual man nothing more
than a seriousness and sobriety of life, so a wise man hates nothing more
than that which he thinks to be folly. With what contempt did the
Athenians reject the doctrine Paul preached to them, under no civiller a title
than that of babbling ! Acts xvii. 18. Carnal reason is the most furious
beast in the world. A natural wise man is too lofty to know God in divine
methods, who is best discerned in a way of humility and self-denial. And
at the best, the notions of God, by the representations of reason without
Christ, lose much of their majesty, beauty, and commanding power over the
hearts of men, they are weak and faint, for it is a represention by a declining
and disproportioned light.
From what has been said in this case, it follows,
(1.) That there is a necessity of revelation and illumination. There
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 1o7
must be first an external revelation of the object ; and secondly, an internal
illumination of the faculty. There is a word of revelation, which is the
gospel revealed to the understandings of men ; there is a Spirit of revelation
requisite besides, which the apostle begs for the Ephesians, who had the
object already revealed to them, that their understandings might be further
enlightened, Eph. i. 17 ; so that the further understanding of G-od and his
mysteries in the gospel, after the first illumination, is not a work of the bare
reason and understanding of man, without further operations of the Spirit
in and upon them.
Suppose that the light of reason were come to that point, to know that
our chief good consisted in communion with God,* yet no man could know
that God was of such a gracious and condescending nature, and were willing
to communicate himself in the choicest manner, since man was a sinner and
had incurred his wrath and malediction, without some divine revelation
which must discover God to be of such an encouraging nature.
(2.) We ought to submit our reason to revelation. God doth not give us
reason to quarrel with, but to discern and entertain divine revelation. He
hath given us reason to examine revelations, whether they bear a divine
stamp upon them. He hath not therefore imposed things upon men without
undeniable characters of their divine authority. Whatsoever hath been
revealed which reason could not of itself reach, has been attended with
miracles which could not be wrought by any created power, and bore the
marks of omnipotency upon them. We have not reason to comprehend all
the parts of divine revelation, shall we therefore deny it to be from God ?
Adam, and the angels, too, in heaven, may with as much reason turn atheists
because they cannot comprehend God. Some truths revealed may, if not
be formally demonstrated by reason, yet receive some clearness and evidence
from it after they are revealed. But as Adam had, and the angels have,
clear reason to prove to themselves, and experience too, that there is a God,
though they cannot fathom the infinite depths of his nature ; so there is
clear reason to manifest the Scripture which gives us a declaration of Christ
to be the revelation of God, though we cannot grasp all the parts of that
divine revelation, and make every thesis therein clear to a natural reason.
There are such arguments for it that contradicting ingenious reason cannot
but be startled at. We ought therefore to submit our reasonings to God's
declaration. The rational creature was made to serve God. His reason,
then, ought to be held in the rank of a servant ; the light of reason ought
to veil to the author of reason, and the light in the mind ought to veil to
him who enlightened it when man came into the world. Eeason ought to
follow faith, not precede it. The stars borrow their light from the sun, not
the sun from the stars. Reason, indeed, may come in with an auxiliary
force after a revelation is made, for the maintaining the truth of it, and
clearing it up to the minds of others, and may be a servant to revelation
now under Christ, as well as it should have been to any revelation in the
state of innocence. We ought therefore to submit our reason to God, not
think to mate him in knowledge any more than we can in majesty and
infiniteness, nor set up a spark to vie with the sun. Pride put out Adam's
eye at first ; and the pride of reason cherished will continue us as blind as
beetles in the things of a heavenly concern.
2. Information. The excellency of the gospel and Christian religion.
The Christian religion is a perspective wherewith to look to heaven, it
presents us with that knowledge of God which neither all the angels in
heaven, nor creatures upon earth, were ever able without Christ to convey
* Mestrezat.
158 charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
to us. Christ's being the image of God is a reason why the gospel is so
glorious, 2 Cor. iv. 4, 1 Tim. i. 11. It is called 'the glorious gospel of
the blessed God,' wherein the glory of God's perfection shines forth, because
in that Christ is made known to us, and in him the beauty of God is dis-
played to our view. The knowledge of God in nature was in darkness, in the
law it was in shadows, in the gospel it is in light. In nature it was a light
as at midnight, under the law as in the dawning, in the gospel as at sun-rising;
for by reason the knowledge was by candle-light, in the law by torch-light,
in the gospel by a sunbeam. The doctrine of the Trinity, obscurely deHvered
in the Old Testament, is more cleared up since the coming of the Messiah, which
could never have been found out by reason, nor yet can be demonstrated by
reason, though it be capable to furnish us with some illustrations of it.
The heathens disputed about God, and the Christians know him. It answers
the ends of all religion. Religion respects God ; it must have the know-
ledge of God therefore for a foundation. If it hath not the right knowledge
of God, it is superstition. All true religion conduceth to the creature's duty
and happiness ; our duty and happiness is to know and love God. This
religion only gives us a knowledge of God honourable to him, and presents
us with inducements to love him comfortable to ourselves ; and whatsoever
makes God known to man in his own glory, and for man's comfort, is cer-
tainly in reason the most excellent religion. Whatsoever renders God
venerable and amiable to the minds of men is true ; for it cannot be sup-
posed that infinite goodnees should create the world, and communicate
itself with a design to be hated and contemned by his creatures, but to be
feared and loved. Whatsoever therefore doth present God in the richest
streams of goodness to the creature, with honour to himself, hath truth for
the foundation of it.
(1.) This religion represents God with honour. It renders God as just
as merciful, and as merciful as just. It sets forth the riches of the one
without darkening the glory of the other. It presents God in the depths of
his wisdom, heights of his love, equity of his justice, stability of his truth,
beauty of his holiness, wonders of his patience, and glory of his power,
without offering violence to any principle of reason. The gospel is most
divine in the articles to be beheved of God, most magnificent in its pro-
mises, unquestionably holy and advantageous to the world in its precepts.
It unveils a God to encourage to duty, and twists our duty with God's
honour. What can be more reasonable ? or how can the creature honour
God more than to fear his justice, trust in his goodness, turn to him because
of his mercy, depend upon his truth, and glorify his grace, accept of a
righteousness from him, and be freed from guilt by him ? It pulls the
creature from itself to make it all in and by God. It brings God to the
state of a God, and the creature to a creature's posture ; it sets God upon
his throne and the creature at his feet, exalts heaven and depresseth earth.
It shews us that God is all our repose, that our rest and felicity is to love
him. It shews us the unreasonableness and folly of our natural conceits of
God. It discourages everything that hinders us from a conjunction with
him ; instructs us to abhor everything that made our separation from him,
to embrace everything that may further our return to him, and renders man
incapable of any centre, any end by himself, any repose but in him. Where
is God set out more illustriously, and with greater incitements to love him ?
Since his love to man hath reached the highest point, what is wanting to
heat us, what is wanting to inflame us ? But do we not disgrace this hon-
ourable religion by not elevating our souls to God, having hearts as c( Id as
ice, and hke salamanders, that cannot burn in the midst of such a fire ?
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 3 59
(2.) It represents God with unspeakable comfort to the creature. The
first notions of God in the gospel flash like lightning with comfort upon the
disconsolate soul. He discovers himself as a Father of mercy, because the
Father of Christ ; as a God of tenderness and consolation ; as a God that
would enter into the heart with all his sweetness if we would but open ;
would spread his wings over our souls and dwell in the midst of us, unite us
in eternal bands to himself. He sends to us ' the express image of his
person,' Heb. i. 3, one of his own nature to take ours, that we may freely
converse with him in that image, which we could not immediately with God
because of the distance of our natui-e. A communion between man and a
creature of different nature is hard ; man cannot converse with an angel or
a beast, much less with God. But the Godhead holds out his hand in the
humanity of Christ, to take us by the hand and lead us into his chambers.
In Christ, God condescends to shew his face to the creature, whereby he
renders his nature amiable, and the believing creature comfortable. There
is such a knowledge of God in it as can comfort a man upon a deathbed,
appease his conscience, direct his eye to a delightful sight of another world,
make him embrace death with joy ; such advantages as the knowledge of
God, in the whole book of nature, all political skill, and the choicest specu-
lations, cannot afibrd a man. These things delight him at present, help
him to pass his life with some content, but are unable to administer the
least cordial dram at a dying hour. In other religions we may know some-
thing of God, little of our own misery, nothing of a remedy ; but in the
gospel we know God, ourselves, our misery, and our medicine. We see a
God fit to be trusted by us, one that hath given the greatest evidence of his
care of the world. No stronger testimony can be given than his sending
his Son to declare it ; acting so about his Son, and in his Son. Who can
question the providence of God, and his taking care of human affairs ? Who
can dispute the tenderness of his bowels, when he hath writ his care and
compassions in the blood of his only begotten ?
^ (3.) The knowledge of God in Christ hath in the gospel been mighty suc-
cessful. Whatsoever discovery of God was among the heathens before the
manifestation of Christ did soon veil to that which was discovered by him.
The idols fell down at his feet, Dagon gave way to the ark, and that which
was limited to the Jewish nation extended itself to the utmost bounds of the
earth, and brought people to the acknowledgment of one God in his glory
and sovereignty, as it had been predicted : Zech. xiv. 9, ' And the Lord
shall be king over all the earth ; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his
name one.' The mountain of the Lord's house was hfted up above all the
idolatrous mountains, and the whole frame of idolatry the devil had erected
and preserved so many ages in the world against the traditions left by Adam
was demolished ; and so much hath God been discovered in his truth, that
not one of those heathen idols, so much famed in their writers, is acknow-
ledged for a god in any part of the world. In the eastern parts, indeed, they
have some idols where the Christian religion is expired, but the names of
Jupiter, Apollo, &c., are wholly buried among those nations that before adored
them, and scarce any part of the world that we know of doth acknowledge
now a multiplicity of gods. The discovery of Christ hath been the cause of
this. The Turks, who acknowledge Mahomet for a prophet, yet acknowledge
him not for a god. The true God, that had been cast out of the world by the
subtlety of the devil, and had confined himself in his worship to the small spot
of Judea, is restored by Christ to the knowledge of men, and to a worship due
to him, and the adored idols sunk at the foot of the cross. The knowledf^e of
God covered the earth in respect of plenty and abundance, as the waters cover
IGO charnock's works. [John XVII. 3.
the sea; superstition was demolished, and errors about God dispersed. Hath
not, then, the gospel and the Christian religion the greatest trophies ? Can
anything claim an equal honour with it ? Is there any religion in the world
whereby Grod hath been so fully discovered, restored to his right, to that right
which the common reason of the world must acknowledge due to God ? It
hath defaced no notions of God which were according to true reason, bat
cleared them, given us the reasons of those proceedings of God, obscure
before, and added a worthy and satisfactory account of God, which innocent
reason could not reach, and the most corrupted reason hath no firm ground
to quarrel with ; all which cannot be ascribed to any other profession in the
world but the Christian. This is the glory of the gospel, this is the fruit of
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
3. Information. How inexcusable is the ignorance of God in them that
hear so often ! God was but faintly discovered in the creatures, in the
Jewish time was obscured by shadows, but that which was a mystery in for-
mer ages is clearly revealed, so that there is now no mysteriousness in the
nature of God, so far as to hinder our direction to a happy enjoyment of
him. The things of God are as plain as the sun, so that whatsoever ignorance
there is of him under the preaching of the gospel is not invincible, but affected.
Every man under the gospel may be greater in point of knowledge than John
the Baptist. Shall any man behold the beams of the sun every day, and not
cast his eyes up' to see that body from whence they shoot ? With what face
can we call ourselves Christians, if we have no desire to know God as revealed
in Christ ? Shall we worship a God we know not ? Are we created by God
and preserved by God, yet are content to be wilfully ignorant of him, to whom
we owe our being and preservation ? Can we pretend any affections to him
whom we desire not to understand ? A worse charge will be brought against,
and a sharper punishment inflicted on, such, than upon the heathens, who
were ' given up to a reprobate mind,' because they ' liked not to retain God
in their knowledge,' Kom. i. 28, when it was a knowledge only by the dim
light of creatures. What do they deserve that will not embrace nor retain
the knowledge of God by a clearer light in Christ ? It was the end of the
whole creation to point us to God, Ps. xix. civ. ; it was the end of the work
of redemption to bring us to an acquaintance with God. By a wilful ignor-
ance of God, we cross both the end of creation and redemption, and slight
God as our first maker, benefactor, and restorer. He that doth not know
God in Christ has no true knowledge of God absolutely, because it is no God
as conceived by him, and packed together of various inventions of his own ;
it is not a God according to Christ's revelations, but his own imagination
and fancy.
II. Use of exhortation.
1. Let those that have the knowledge of God in Christ bless him for it.
The seventh day was appointed to bless God for the discovery of his good-
ness and other perfections in the creation. The first day is ordained wherein
we should bless God for the discovery of his perfections in redemption. The
' name of Christ' should be as an ointment poured forth,' Cant. i. 3; we
should delight in the fragrancy, and praise him for the odours and savours
of it. The patriarchs had a knowledge of Christ, and therefore a knowledge
of God afar off, Heb. xi. 13 ; they saw the promises afar off (i. e. the pro-
mises of the Messiah), obscure and dark : men have not a distinct sight of
the objects they see at a distance. What reason have we to render the praise
due to the name of God for bringing us, as it were, to see him face to face!
Christ bestows a blessing upon such, which was denied to many prophets
and kings, referring to the knowledge of the Father by his revelation of him,
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in christ. 161
Luke X. 22-24, as though the old believers saw nothing nor heard anything,
yet they that were pronounced blessed then had not seen Christ dying and
rising, and the coming of the Spirit, whereby the apostles had a clearer
knowledge of the nature of God. We have the full testimony of it in the
gospel. What blessing should we reflect back upon God, and how should
our hearts be filled with venerations of him ! And where there is the know-
ledge of God in Christ, it will be perfected in time in all the fruits of it. In
Christ, God is our God in covenant, to communicate himself to us in all
things we are capable of ;••' as when the sun communicates itself to us, it is
to enlighten us with that light which it hath. When a knowing man com-
municates himself to one ignorant, it is to give him part of his knowledge.
If creatures communicate their goods according to their condition, God will
also render us partakers of a divine condition, which extends to the banish-
ing all ignorance and errors, and to the bestowing on us a fulness of wisdom
and knowledge, as well as holiness and happiness, as much as the condition
of the creature will permit ; therefore glory not in riches and strength, or
anything else, but ' glory in this, that you know the Lord,' Jer. ix. 23, 24.
2. Let such as want the knowledge of God in Christ endeavour for it. It
is by this we gain a union with God. When we have an understanding to
know the true God, we are then * in him which is true :' 1 John v. 20, ' And
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, even in
his Son Jesus Christ.' God lives in such, and they in him. We are united
to him who is truly discovered in his Son Jesus Christ. Calvin observes
this intimation from the apostle's expressing it without a copulative, for the
particle even is not in the Greek. Those that seek to know God without
Christ have not any light that can satisfy them; they know that there is one
God, but they have no means of union to him, or communion with him,
without the mediator. Without Christ we can neither know God nor know
ourselves. Without him there is nothing but darkness and ground of de-
spair, nothing but confusion to us appears in the nature of God, nothing
but trouble and misery in our own nature. f We are desirous God should
know us in our misery, and know our want and indigence we lie under ;
and is it not a folly for us not to know God in his fulness ? We can make
but slender guesses at God till we see him in the face of a mediator.
To this end,
1. Study the gospel. The gospel hath the same titles in part that Christ
hath. It is called the power of God, and the wisdom of God; as instru-
mentally it declares Christ to the world, who is essentially the power and
wisdom of God, and mediatorily and by way of excellency, as he discovers
the perfections of God to the world ; and the gospel is so by way of subser-
viency, to inform our understandings, conduct us to God, and excite our
motions. It is in this God makes the church's windows as agates, Isa. liv.
12, 13, or, as others, jasper stone, clear as crystal, more fit for windows than
dark agates. And, indeed, the light of the church is compared to jasper, as
Rev. xxi. 11. The issue of all is to be taught of the Lord. It is unworthy
for any man to trifle away his time in the knowledge of human things, with
a neglect of this. Should not an eye-salve be more desirable to a blind man
for the restoration of his sight, than a purple robe ? What comfort can
learning, riches, greatness, yea, a thorny crown and sceptre, be to one as
blind as a mole in spiritual things ? Angels know more than any creatures,
of the depths of God's wisdom in creation ; they see the several engines
* Mestrezat, Ber. iv. sur. Ileb. viii. pp. 407, 408. t Pascal, Pens. p. 151.
VOL.. IV. L
162 charnock's works. [John XVII. 8.
whereby the creatures perform their motions, yet they are not said to in-
quire into those things, or please themselves with philosophical meditations,
but to be students in the wisdom of God, in the mysteries of the gospel,
which presents them with a scheme of God, more ravishing than that in
creation. The knowledge of God in the gospel is more glorious than the
knowledge of God by nature, as much as Scripture revelation is above natural
reason. There hath been something of God in Christ known in the church,
"ever since the first promise of the seed of the woman. Abraham saw Christ's
day afar off, the prophets predicted him, he was wrapt in types, the Israelites
beheld him in their paschal lamb, the stricken broached rock, the nourishing
manna, the divine propitiatory, and the daily sacrifices. But what is all
this to the knowledge of him by the gospel, and consequently the knowledge
of God by him since his incarnation, since the shadows fled away, and the
sun hath appeared in its splendour ?
2. Submit yourselves to the prophetical office of Christ as his disciples.
He is as real a prophet now to instruct the soul, as he is a priest to inter-
cede for it, or a king to rule it. As God is propitious through Christ, so he
is only an instructor through Christ. As the power of God in the conver-
sion of the soul, so the wisdom of God in the instruction of the soul, breaks
out through Christ. He only that can bring us to glory, can guide us by
his eye, Ps. xxxii. 8. He is the Lord that shews us light, Ps. cxviii. 27.
If we would have light, we must use the beams of the sun. If we would be
knowing, we must have recourse to some skilful person in the science we
would learn. Resignation to Christ is the first step to divine knowledge.
Christ will not teach any that proudly strut against his office. It is the
master's delight to teach an inquisitive and humble scholar. It was ' given'
to the disciples, those that had devoted themselves to him, * to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of God,' Mark iv. 11. Receive him, therefore, as
the great prophet of God's appointing, furnished with skill to propose to you
the knowledge of God, and efficacious ability to imprint it upon your minds
by an inward illumination. Have a solemn veneration for the letter of the
gospel ; but lift up your eyes to Christ as a prophet, begging of him to open
the eyes and seal instruction, to unlock the soul and enlighten the under-
standing ; and say as Zophar to Job, * Oh that God would teach and shew me
the secrets of wisdom ! ' Job xi. 6. He is God's interpreter ; to discover
God was the end of his coming. His office is to teach ; put him upon the
exercise of it. He hath a charge from the Father to declare his name, he
will not be unfaithful in it. Plead his charge, he hath promised to declare
it ; urge him with his truth.
3. Endeavour after suitable afi"ections to whatsoever you know of God in
Christ. Let the holiness of God in Christ be the awe of your souls. Let
us not dandle any sin which God so hates, that he would not remit it without
the price of the blood of his Son. Tremble at that justice which drank such
draughts of precious blood in the punishment of sin, and consider every sin
in its utmost demerit. Admire and bless that wisdom, which made itself so
eminent in the untying so many knots, passing over such mountains of
difficulties that he might shew himself a hater of sin and a lover of his crea-
tures, that he might entwine his mercy and justice in perpetual embraces.
Let us have as strong afiections of love and joy, as the devils, by their know-
ledge of God as discovered in Christ, have of horror and hatred. We see
in that, not only the manifestation, but the satisfaction of his justice ; they
see the manifestation of it, and the dissatisfaction of it for ever with them.
They have such a knowledge of God in Christ, as to nwaken their consciences ;
we may have such a knowledge of God in Christ, as to calm our consciences.
John XVII. 3.] the knowledge of god in chbist. 163
Their terrors are as much increased by that discovery, as a believer's comfort.
They behold G-od in Christ, their implacable and inexorable judge ; we may
behold God in Christ, a tender and condescending Father. They know a
God in our nature, imparting his own nature to us; and refusing their nature,
to leave them to lie in their fallen state for ever. The terrible attributes
become sweet in Christ to man, and more dreadful to them. Let the
motions of your will, and the affections of your soul, rise according to the
elevation of your knowledge of God in Christ, more or less.
To conclude ; let us behold his justice, to humble ourselves under it ; his
pardoning grace, to have recourse to it under pressures of guilt. Let us
sweeten our affections by the sight of his compassions, and have confidence
to call upon him as a Father in our necessities. Not any discovery of God
in Christ, but is an encouragement to a forlorn creature, lost in his own
sense. His perfections smile upon man ; nothing of God looks terrible in
Christ to a believer. The sun is risen, shadows are vanished, God walks
upon the battlements of love, justice hath left its sting in a Saviour's side,
the law is disarmed, weapons out of his hand, his bosom open, his bowels
yearn, his heart pants, sweetness and love is in all his carriage. And this
is life eternal, to know God believingly in the glories of his mercy and justice
in Jesus Christ.
A DISCOURSE OF CONVICTION OF SIN.
And when lie is come, he will reprove the world of sii7, and of rir/hteous-
ness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believed not on me. —
John XVI. 8, 9.
OuE Saviour in this chapter shows what was the intention of his discourse
in the former, which was, first, to forewarn his disciples of, and forearm them
against, the violence they should meet with in the world after his departure
from them, in the chapter foregoing, ver. 20 ; which violence should be
the hotter against them, because it would be thought an acceptable service
unto God to assault them with the sharpest persecutions. He therefore
wisheth them to remember what he had said, in the fourth verse of this
chapter : * But these things I have told you, that when the time shall come,
you may remember that I told you of them.' He knew the jealousies of
men's hearts, how apt upon every occasion they are to make unjust reflec-
tions. Therefore, saith he, consider it well, and do not have hard thoughts
of me, when you come to feel these suflferings I now speak of. I tell you
before of them, that you may have no cause to blame me, as one that dealt
falsely with you in concealing the sting, while I present you with the honey.
No ; I acquaint you with the worst as well as the best part, the bitterest as
well as the sweetest. Then, secondly, he supports his drooping disciples,
who began to faint at the thoughts of his departure, John xv. 26 ; and also
in this chapter, which he doth by the promise of a Comforter to be sent unto
them.
You may observe, first, that God doth not send any affliction upon his
people, without providing them also a cordial ; as a wise physician, who
prescribes a purge to carry away the corrupt humours, and a cordial to sup-
port the spirits. Our Saviour tells them of the Comforter that should refresh
them, as well as acquaints them with that misery that might deject them.
The same was God's procedure with our first parents after the fall : first, he
revives them with a gracious promise, before he denounceth a grievous stand-
ing sentence upon them. And,
Secondly, Observe that God sends afflictions on his dearest children.
These apostles that were the salt of the Jewish nation, preserving them from
a total putrefaction, those that Christ had laid in his bosom, revealed the
secrets of his Father, and the mysteries of redemption to, and prayed for
their preservation, and intended to do it further in a solemn manner (as he
John XYI. 8, 9.J conviction of sin. 166
did in the following chapter), had culled them out as witnesses to bear up
his name in the world, and given them an assurance of being in glory with
him ; yet these must be hated, and killed, and depressed under the violence
of the wicked world.
The miseries they should endure are two, John xvi. 2 :
First, Excommunication : ' They shall put you out of the synagogues.'
The Jews should not think them worthy to be in the church.
Secondly, Destruction : ' Whosoever killeth you will think he doth G-od
service. They should not be thought worthy to live in the world.
And the grounds of this violent proceeding are two :
(1.) Superstitious zeal. They shall think they do God good service in so
doing.
(2.) BHnd ignorance : ver. 3, * These things will they do unto you, be-
cause they have not known the Father.' These are the two great grounds of all
persecutions that are in the world, superstitious zeal and blind ignorance.
You may observe.
First, How often is religion pretended to justify cruelty ! God bad not
any church in the world but among the Jews at that time, yet the body of
them do set themselves in opposition against those few disciples that bore up
the name of Christ in the world, and under the pretence of religion they
would send them out of the world. So contrary to the main design of God,
which is to promote charity to man, as well as love to himself.
Secondly, Nothing is so great an enemy to true Christianity as ignorant
zeal ; nothing so hurtful as passion, clothed with the purple of a seeming
piety. A zealous Paul will be a persecuting Paul, because zealous in the
external part of the Jewish religion. The superstitious Jews did more
oppose the progress of the gospel than either the profane sort among them,
or the blind heathen.
Thirdly, We may observe in the chapter how Christ giveth them the reason
why he acquainted them with these things now, and withal, why he did not
tell them of them before : ver. 4, ' These things I have told you, that, when
the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these
things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.' He
was with them, and by his personal presence did give them a remedy upon
any emergency. He was a screen to keep oflf the rage of men from them,
by receiving it upon himself.
Fourthly, He searcheth into the causes of their sorrow : ver. 5, 6, • But
now I go my way to him that sent me, sorrow hath filled your hearts.'
(1.) His departure from them, ver. 6, that had filled their hearts with
sorrow, the thoughts of that. And who could blame them for grieving at the
parting with so good and tender a master, and to part with him when a deluge
of misery by his own prediction was flowing in upon them, and to part with
him upon such terms, and by such a death as to outward appearance would
reflect on them as his followers, as well as on him their master ? Such ap-
prehensions of the storm could not but stagger an ungrown faith, and nip
their budding hopes and joy. Probably their carnal conceptions of a carnal
kingdom being foiled by our Saviour, was the ground of all. Alas ! have we
left all to follow him, and expected great outward advantages, and that we
should be near him, and be his friends ; and are we thus mistaken in his
person and design, and fallen from the top of our hopes into the depth of an
unexpected misery ? Such conceptions they might have, and therefore their
sorrows were the greater.
First, Observe, that spiritual apprehensions are an antidote against un-
belief, and the boitow conseijuent upon it. All such sorrow in a Christian
166 chabnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
ariseth from ignorant, and false, and mean, and sordid, and unworthy notions
of the design and the truths of God. Had these weak and heavy apostles
had right and spiritual conceptions of their Master's work, they had rejoiced
as much as now they grieved. None can live to Christ, as dying and rising
for them, who have no other knowledge of him but * after the flesh, 2 Cor.
V. 15, 16. Carnal conceptions of the deeps of God do leave a very gloomy
darkness upon the soul. Therefore he searcheth into the causes of their
sorrow, the first of which was his departure.
Secondly, Their carelessness in inquiring whither he went ; which he tells
them of in a way of reproof : ver. 5, * Now I go my way to him that sent
me ; and none of you ask me, Whither goest thou ? ' Had they inquired of
him the reason of things, their grief had been prevented, and their joy estab-
lished. It was to heaven he was to go, upon their account as well as his
own, to a Father that loved him, and them also.
1. Observe. Those things which are ground of joy in themselves are, by
our neglect of a due inquiry, and our mistakes, matter of grief to us. How
apt are good men to draw matter of sorrow from grounds of joy ! The best
man is a very ignorant interpreter of the designs of providence. We cannot
see the beauty of providence, because of the black mask that veils it. For
want of inquiring of Christ the end of his death and ascension, the reason of
his going, and the place whither he went, they tasted not that comfort which
this might have afi"orded them, and missed at present the design and intend-
ment of it.
2. We may observe, that the way to true comfort is to inquire into, and
consider well, the reason of divine mysteries. Had they understood the
reason of his death, the reason of his ascension, the reason of his going to
his Father, they could not have grieved, but rather have rejoiced. A slight
knowledge will make but a slight grace, and flashy staggering joy : 2 Peter
iii. 18, ' But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.' Know how he is a Lord, and how he is a Saviour, and upon
what accounts and grounds ; and growing in such a kind of knowledge is the
way to grow in grace.
Fifthly, He informs them of the necessity of his departure for their advan-
tage. It was necessary for him to take possession of his kingdom, sit down
upon his throne ; necessary for them, that thereby they might enjoy the
choicest fruits of his purchase : ver 7, * It is expedient for you that I go
away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.'
1. He illustrates this necessity by the contrary, ' If I go not away, the
Comiorter will not come unto you ; ' therefore, if you would have the Com-
forter come, it is necessary that I go.
2. He confirms it by an asseveration, ' I tell you the truth,' I speak truly
to you, ' If I do not go, the Comforter will not' come.' There is one to
come after my departure to supply my absence, who shall carry on the work
of redemption I have laid, with greater success to the conviction of the
world, who shall be in your ministry with you, and shall convince men
of their sins, and of that remedy I have provided.
We may observe,
First, How tender is our Saviour of grieving his weak and distressed
people ! He doth not rate them for their unbelieving sorrow, and forbear
any further dealing with them ; he might have chid them for not believing
him upon his bare word, but he condescends to give them an affirmation,
next to an oath, ' I tell you the truth.' He is always very careful not to
break a bruised reed ; and is like his Father, who by his oath hath given us
strong consolation, and a mighty prop for our tottering faith.
John XVI. 8, 9.j conviction of sin. 167
Secondly, observe this, the death and ascension of Christ were highly
necessary for the descent of the Spirit.
(1.) This choicest benefit we receive from God could not have come,
unless the justice of God had been satisfied, and his favour procured by a,
sufficient sacrifice. How unreasonable is it to think God should bestow the
highest of his favours, while his justice was not contented ! Christ by his
death appeased the anger of his Father, and bare the punishment we had
merited, and opened those treasures of grace which by reason of our sins
had been shut up from us. Besides, the death of Christ was so perfect an
obedience, that it gained all the love and afiection of his Father as a requital ;
it was so highly grateful to him, and the pleasure he took in it was so great,
that because of that he would give to Christ and his people whatsoever was
most dear and precious to him. To have this right of sending the Spirit, it
was necessary Christ should die. The rock was to be struck by the rod of
Moses before it did send out water ; and Christ, the spiritual rock, was to be
struck by the curse of the law before the Spirit (which is often in Scripture
compared to water) could flow out. And though the Spirit was sparingly
communicated before the death of Christ, yet it was communicated, and
that upon the promise which Christ made of dying for men in the fulness of
time, upon the account of that death which was to be suffered in due time.
(2.) The Spirit could not come unless Christ had ascended ; for by his
going to the Father, he means his death and ascension. The Spirit could
not come but by the gift and mission of the mediator, on whose head he
was first to be poured, and flow down from him on all believers. Besides,
Christ received not those rich gifts from the hand of his Father, to com-
municate to us, till he had entered into the true sanctuary not made with
hands. He received them for himself before, to fit him for that obedience
he was to perform by the death of the cross ; but he received them to com-
municate unto us after his ascension, then he received gifts for men. What
he purchased by his death, he took possession of at his entrance into heaven.
The end of the Spii-it's coming could not be carried on without Christ's
death and ascension; for the Spirit was to manifest the infiniteness of God's
love to man, and declare the means of salvation. Now, the principal reason
upon which this manifestation was to be built, was the death of Christ ; he
must therefore die, and rise again, and ascend, before the grounds of this
reason could be valid ; which appears afterwards in the reasons rendered of
his ' reproving the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.' His
death was necessary to satisfy God's justice ; his resurrection and ascension
to manifest God's acceptation and approbation of his death. The sending
the Spirit being a part of his royalty as mediator, it was not convenient he
should be sent till Christ was crowned, and sat down on his throne in his
kingdom. There are two benefits by Christ : acquisition of redemption,
which was by his death ; and application of that redemption, which is by
his intercession in heaven, and his Spirit on earth So that if he had not
ascended, we had wanted the Spirit to make application, and to render us fit
for it ; we had wanted the preparation for it, and the comfort of it. Then,
Thirdly, we may observe, that the presence of the Spirit is a greater
comfort than simply the presence of Christ in his flesh. ' It is expedient
for you that I go away ; if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.' It
is better for you I should go, because then the Comforter will come. Christ
is a comforter ; but the Spirit is more intimately a comforter than Christ in
his fleshly presence. Christ in his first coming did possess himself of our
flesh, and converse with his disciples outwardly ; but the Spirit is to possess
himself of our hearts inwardly : Gal. iv. 4-6, ' When the fulness of time
168 charnock's W0RK8. [John XVI. 8, 9.
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adop-
tion of sons ; and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Christ dwelt among us in the
flesh ; the Spirit doth not only dwell with a believer, but in him, John
xiv. 17 ; not only dwell with you by outward declaration, but he shall be in
you by inward motion and inspiration. And you see he giveth him here
the title of Comforter. The name signifies one that speaks eloquently,
persuasively, with much facility, elegancy, and affection, in such a manner
as mightily works upon others, and pleasingly gratifies them. It signifies
both a comforter and instructor, both which agree well to the Holy Ghost.
For,
First, He was to acquaint the world with the highest mysteries of God
manifest in the flesh ; to open the secret of God's love to the world, and
the resolves of eternity ; to draw the curtain from before those truths which
neither the eye of nature, nor the more open eye of the Jews were able to
pierce into because of the veil, ver. 13. He was to ' guide them into all
truth,' the knowledge and observance of all truth necessary.
Secondly, He was to witness of Christ; and therefore might well be called
an instructor. As Christ unfolded the treasures of his Father's love, and
purchased divine blessings by his passion, so the Spirit was to bear witness
to the commission Christ had to ofler up himself, and the validity of that
offering, and the nature of his purchase. It was a thing incredible in itself,
that a God of infinite tenderness should expose his innocent Son to suffer-
ings and death for rebellious creatures. It was necessary the Spirit should
be employed to persuade men inwardly of the reality and truth of this, of
the authority of Christ, his sincerity in dying, and the efficacy of that death,
and the necessity of their interest in it by faith, and to apply all to the
believing soul with comfort, and fill it with peace by virtue of this expiation.
Now what is this Comforter, advocate, or instructor to do ? He will
reprove, or rather convince, sXiy^si ; the word here translated reprove is
sometimes so rendered : 1 Cor. xiv. 24, ' He is convinced of all.' It is the
same word which is here, and also in Jude 15, ' To convince all that are
ungodly of their ungodly deeds.' It signifies to reprove by way of argu-
ment, to manifest by an undeniable demonstration the truth or falsity of
such an opinion, so as to stop the mouth of the guilty or erroneous person,
that he cannot find so much as a fig-leaf of an excuse, or a starting-hole
from it. It is to charge a thing so home and so close as to bring the con-
science under the power of truth, and to make it self-condemned, to convict
us by our own conscience ; so the word is rendered in John viii. 9. So the
Spirit was evidently to demonstrate the guilt of sin, and the beauty of
righteousness, and the certainty of judgment.
To convince the world. The Spirit was not only given to the apostles, to
set up light in their hearts, but to the world in a large sense, to justify Christ
before them. Not only to those that shall be seriously affected under a sense
of sin, and turn to Christ, but to convince others in the world of sin, who
will never step any farther, nor yield to the power and authority of it, nor
acknowledge the truth, nor accept of Christ and his righteousness.
What is the Spirit to convince of? Of sin, of righteousness, and of judg-
ment. A threefold object the Spirit was to be conversant about.
I. He was to convince of sin. The light of nature was not so extinct but
some sins were to be discerned. All the most barbarous nations, agreeing
in some common notion of justice and righteousness, they knew that many
things they did were worthy of death by divine judgment ; and they perceived
JonN XVI. 8, 9.] CONVICTION of sin. 1C9
by sharp punishments inflicted on some notorious offenders in n particulnr
manner, how odious some actions were to God, and how criminal before him.
But,
First, The world understood not the extent of sin. They knew some sins,
but not all the kinds of sin to which wrath is due ; they looked upon some
sins as part of their happiness, rather than their misery. What were clearly
against the light of nature, crimson and scarlet sins, they could discern, and
acknowledge themselves for them worthy of death ; but there were some
molehill sins, peccadilloes, against which they had no help, by consideration
of the mercy of God, by laying hold of the righteousness of Christ, and the
necessity ot faith in him. They armed themselves with the mercy of God,
without considering the righteousness of Christ. It opens not the malignity
of sin, nor understands all the aggravations of it, -which are necessary deeply
to affect the soul.
SecondJij, The world did not understand the sin of their nature. The
world would not acknowledge it for unrighteousness, would not apprehend
itself in a state of sin, because of their commendable qualities in the eyes of
others. The world is not sensible of its change from the image of God by
creation into the image of the devil by corruption. It understands not the
extent of original sin, the depravation of their rational faculties, the lameness
and impotency of their free will, nor the sinfulness of the first motions of
their hearts ; nature applauds its own power and self-ability in the midst of
its weakness, and an affection to God under a boiling enmity.
Thirdly, The world did not understand the sin of unbelief. As the light
of nature could not discover a Christ to them, so it could not discover the
sin of unbelief to them ; how could it convince of their unbelief, when it did
not discover the object to be believed in. But the Spirit shall convince of
a state of sin, of the depths of it in the heart, the streams of it in the life,
and especially of unbelief, which renders the disease incurable, since there is
no other medicine but the blood of Christ, and no other way of partaking of
that medicine but by faith ; it will evidence they are born in sin, can do
nothing but sin, and cannot but by faith be delivered from those bonds of
sin, but must die in them ; that if they believe not in Christ, that came to
redeem fallen mankind, their sins will lie on them, they will perish in them,
and lie under the curse of God. Now that sin in general is here meant —
the Spirit shall convince of sin — as the object of the Spirit's conviction, is
clear, because,
First, He names it in general, as noting the whole mass of sin.
Secondly, Because it is in vain to convince men of the sinfulness of their
nnbelief, unless they be convinced first of the necessity of faith. And what
ground have they to be convinced of the necessity of faith, unless they find
such loads of sin upon them as they are never able to bear, such guilt as
they are never able to answer for, or remove from themselves ?
Thirdly, Because the Holy Ghost condemns all other sins, as well as un-
belief, and therefore convinceth of them ; not only of unbelief, but other sins
that stand in the way of salvation.
Fourthly, The Spirit in the text was to pronounce the whole world out of
Christ to be in a state of sin and death ; because, when the world would
plead its righteousness, and seem to establish trophies to itself, shield itself
by its own righteousness, the Spirit should condemn that righteousness as
not sufficient, because else it had been in vain for God to send his Son to
work another righteousness. That is the first thing, the Spirit was to con-
vince of sin.
II. The Spirit was to convince of righteousness.
170 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
1. Some refer it to the righteousness of Christ's person ; that is, his going
to the Father was an evidence that he was a just person ; heaven would not
else have entertained him ; it would have been no receptacle for an impostor,
and one that to his last gasp should persist in a known crime. The Spirit
should convince the world by undeniable testimonies and demonstra-
tions, that he was an innocent person, that he was no malefactor when he
suffered.
2. Others refer it to the righteousness of Christ's office, and his merits
imputed to believers. And, indeed, the coming of the Spirit was a testimony
of his acceptation with the Father, for the Spirit had not come in such a
miraculous manner as was manifest in the apostles, had not Christ in heaven
had an acceptation of his sufferings from his Father.
3. Others understand it thus. He shall convince of the insufficiency of
human righteousness. By the light of nature men had some particular
notions of justice. By nature, they knew in some measure what was right ;
they knew they were not to do wrong, that they were to be advantageous to
the community ; they knew they were to cherish those that had been bene-
ficial to them : hence they deified those that were public benefactors, either
by the discovery of arts that were useful to human societies, or the defence
of their country in an invasion, or the delivery of those that were oppressed,
from the common plagues and scourges of mankind. These they boasted of,
their moral virtues, their invented worship, the service of their gods, and
their good intentions. Now, since by the light of nature men could not con-
ceive of a higher righteousness than justice between man and man, and an
external devotion towards G-od, the Spirit was to convince them of the weak-
ness of this conceited righteousness, and the want of a better, shewing that
Christ's righteousness is the only true righteousness of God, because he is
gone to the Father, and shall not return again to be a sacrifice for sin. For
if righteousness should have been by works, Christ had died in vain.
III. The Spirit was to convince of judgment. Some understand it that
the judgment of this world concerning Christ was unjust ; and the Spirit was
to convince that it was so. Others, to convince of the damnation of the
devil, and consequently of all that adhered to him : ' Of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged.' Others, of the deliverance of man, which
was evidenced by the condemnation of the devil, subduing him upon the
cross, taking away that sin whereby he had power over man. Others, of
the judgment of the world concerning oracles, superstition, and the worship
of idols, which they thought an acceptable worship. The Spirit should con-
vince that this was a false judgment, since the devil was cast down from his
chair of oracles, and the mouth of the father of lies was stopped, and the
prince that usurped the government of the world, and to whom men paid
ready obedience, was cast out and stripped of his power ; also, convince of
judgment, of the consequent of this righteousness and merit of Christ, and
the certainty of God's judgment concerning him ; because the devil is cast
out, which is a sufficient evidence that God hath adjudged the victory to
Christ, since the devil is dismounted of his power ; and that perfection of
holiness and freedom from sin shall be obtained at last, since the great
captain of sin is slain, and there is no hopes of his rising again to secure his
own standing, or destroy a believer's interest; for if the power of the Captain
of their salvation did in his humiliation break the strength of the devil,
much more in the state of exaltation will he keep him from ever reducing his
people to that misery wherein they were before. And in this part of con-
vincing, the Spirit did work as a comforter. Now, to * convince the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,' and to shew the further extent of
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 171
Bin, and the necessity of another righteousness, required a mighty power;
since these apprehensions which the world had, had reigned so long in them,
and the new propositions and declarations were in themselves incredible to
blear-eyed reason. Who could imagine that the Son of God should take
flesh, and die upon the cross, and the devil be conquered and ruined by the
death of the Son of God ? Who could have imagined these things ? Had
the Son of God come in triumph into the world, with legions of angels, and
visibly cast the devil from his throne, and visibly given forth his laws, then
the world could not but have believed on him, and submitted to him : but
to talk of a victory over a living devil by a dying man ; of the necessity of
believing in a crucified person, that sufiered death as the vilest malefactor;
to speak of the righteousness of God, wrought by one that was put to death
as a criminal and a blasphemer, in the judgment of a whole nation, and his
own countrymen too ; these were such seeming contradictions to the weak
reason of the world, without the divine light of the Spirit manifesting the
reason, and divine methods, and the nature of the things which he was to
instruct men in, as a comforter, as a teacher of the world, that they could
not possibly take place in them by any less power than an almighty one.
One thing more: some think these convictions not to be by an inward
illumination, but by an objective testimony of the Spirit, by miracles and
extraordinary gifts conferred on the apostles, whereby the truth of what
Christ had said and spoke was confirmed and demonstrated. Though this
be true, yet it is not all : there was an objective conviction by miracles ; but
was not there also a secret inward conviction by inspiration ? The Spirit
was not only to dwell among men, or ivith them by outward acts, but in them,
John xiv. 17. The Spirit was to be sent into the heart by an inward opera-
tion, as well as by an outward demonstration of miracles, and the Father
and the Son promised to make their abode with the souls of believers, and
manifest themselves to them : how, except in this manner ? All the works
of the Spirit are couched in this act of convincing of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. What is to be done here, but hating sin and encouraging
our faith in Christ, because of his merit and his ascension to the Father, and
heightening our hopes by the assurance of the conquest of sin and Satan ?
And all these are the acts of the Spirit in every believer, more or less, to the
end of the world. The convincing of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,
do in a manner comprehend all the acts of the Spirit in a believer. There-
fore, it is more than an objective conviction. Thus much concerning the words.
I shall pitch upon these two observations :
Obs. 1. That the Spirit of God is the author of conviction of sin. And,
Ohs. 2. That unbelief (that being the reason rendered, ' of sin, because
they believe not on me') is a sin of the greatest malignity against God, and
danger to the soul. But for the
First, The Spirit is to convince of sin : not only in general, but in parti-
cular, of unbelief, consequently of the root whence it grows, the food that
maintains it, and every sin that stops the entrance of the grace of faith. He
was to shew the demerits of sin, whereby men might apprehend and be ascer-
tained of the necessity of believing in the Mediator proposed, when they saw
the depths of filthiness broken up, and the mountains of sin discovered, and
not a mite of solid righteousness visible either in their natures or actions.
The Spirit of God is the author of the conviction of sin. I shall shew,
First, That the Spirit doth convince of sin.
Secondly, It is necessary the Spirit should throughly convince of sin, if
ever a man be convinced.
Thirdly, How and by what means the Spirit doth work this conviction.
172 chaenock's works. [John XYI. 8, 9.
Fourthh', What sin, or what in sin, he doth most convince of.
Fiftlily, What the difference is between convictions proceeding from the
Spirit more immediately, and those from any other cause.
Sixthly, The use.
I. That the Spirit doth convince of sin. We shall speak to it in some
propositions. •
First, All convictions of sin do, either mediately or immediately, come
from the Spirit of God. As it is commonly said, whencesoever truth imme-
diately cometh, it originally ariseth from the Holy Spirit ; so, whatsDever
the insti'ument be, the principal cause of the application of conviction is from
the Spirit. There is a common and a special work of the Holy Ghost. All
convictions of men, though they may some of them arise from some more
immediate cause by the word, are the Spirit's work efficiently, by the word
instrumentally. Conscience is naturally a dead and stupid thing, man a
brutish creature, being fallen ; and, being flesh, he resists and disputes against
any convictions of sin ; and therefore, if conscience be not stirred up by the
Spirit, it would never rise up in any self-reflection : Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit
shall not always strive with man, for he is flesh.' As man, being flesh, is
perverse against the reasonings of the Spirit, so, being flesh, he would never
have the least distaste of any iniquity, unless the Spirit did excite those relics
of natural light which remain in the soul. As those relics do remain in us
by virtue of the mediation of Christ, so all the awakenings of them to any
sense, or the reformations which have been wrought thereupon in the world,
have been by the Spirit of Christ. All the sense that any of those of the old
world had, was from the inward motion of the Spirit inviting them to repent-
ance : ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man ;' implying that it did
strive, and it was in subserviency to Christ the Mediator that the Spirit did
strive with that generation of men. Upon which account Christ is said
by the Spirit to go and * preach to the spirits in prison, which sometimes
were disobedient, when the long-sufifering of God waited in the days of Noah,'
1 Pet. iii. 20.
It was that Spirit of holiness and truth whereby Christ was quickened,
which was no other than the Holy Ghost ; and these disobedient persons to
whom Christ preached thus by his Spirit, are called spirits, in relation to the
state wherein they now are in prison, before the resurrection, not in relation
to the state wherein they were when the Spirit did strive with them. What-
soever sense there was upon any in the old world, was from the striving of
the Spirit of God with them, as the Spirit of the Mediator, by whose inter-
position those relics which were in them were kept up, and that reason which
they had was conveyed to them, and did remain in them. By this Spirit
Christ is said to go and preach unto them. So that all motions of conscience,
all convictions, whether upon those that reject them, or those that receive
them, are from the Spirit as the Spirit of the Mediator. From this power
did the terrors of Cain and Judas arise, so far as it was the work of illumi-
nation, exciting their rational faculties, though the sin and unbelief in those
terrors did not arise from the Spirit. The stick stirs the water by the child's
agitation, the mud is raised, though the stick doth not convey the mud to it,
nor immediately touch it, but by the water. When the discovery of sin in
its evil is made by the Spirit, that is a good work ; but if men abstain from
that sin, the evil of which they see, out of a servile principle, that is evil ;
the discovery and restraint is good, but the principle is evil, being the efi"ect,
not of any love to God, but enmity to him, and love to themselves. All the
convictions of sin do either mediately or immediately come from the Spirit
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 173
of God in any person whatsoever, it is from his striving with them that they
do arise.
Secondly, This is the office of the Spirit. The word comforter, 'xaPaxAzTog,
signifies an advocate, and is so translated when it is used of Christ ": 1 John
ii. 1, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous.* Now, the office of an advocate is to convince the party he
appears against of his crime, and the injury he hath done to his chent ; to
answer his reason, and stop his mouth, and make the mattsr of f.ict evident.
The convincing work of the Spirit is an advocacy to the soul ; he appears
and manageth the cause as an advocate ; he arms himself with the curses of
the law against it. He is an advocate for God and his righteousness in the
law ; hut in the work of consolation the Spirit is an advocate for the soul,
and the righteousness of the gospel, against the rigours of the law ; so that,
while the Spirit is an advocate against the soul, he must as necessarily
accuse and argue against it, as when he is an advocate for Ihe soul, he must
refresh and pacify it, and plead for its support. In regard of this office he
is called * a spirit of bondage' : Rom. viii. 15, ' Ye have not received the
spirit of bondage,' &c. ; which, though some would understand only of the
outward Mo?aic dispensation, it seems to be an inward work of the Spirit in
the hearts of men. The intent of the apostle may be sometimes to shew the
liberty of believers from the ceremonial law, to which the Jews were in bond-
age ; but it doth not appear that it was the intent of the apostle in this
place. Yea, it is to be considered that he wrote to the Christians in Rome,
who were not all Jews, and very likely but a few of them were so, and so
were never under the bondage of the Jewish ceremonies, but the burden of
Pagan rites. As he is a ' Spirit of adoption,' exciting the soul to cry Abba,
Father, he works orderly in the heart after faith ; therefore, as he is a Spirit
of bondage, he stirs up fears inwardly in the heart before failh. The apostle
speaks in the former part of the chapter of the actings of the Spirit in be-
lievers, of the Spirit's dwelling in them ; the necessity of a man's having the
Spirit of Christ for ' mortifying the deeds of the body' through the Spirit,
which respects men in particular in a state of faith ; therefore what he means
here is an inward work in the hearts of men, as well as the other operations
of the Spirit, which he mentions both before and after it ; so that the Spirit
of bondage respects men in particular before a state of conversion ; he is sent
into the heart as a Spirit of bondage. Terrors, therefore, which are inward
in the soul, and are called the Lord's terrors, Ps. Ixxxviii. 15, 16, are here
called the Spirit of bondage ; not as if it bound the soul, but discovers those
bonds which are by nature upon it, lays open the judgments of God against
it, sets conscience at work to gall men for sin, and giveth not only a notional
knowledge, but a sensible feeling of the weight of them. As he is called the
' Spirit of truth' and the ' Spirit of adoption,' because he applies the pro-
mises of gi-ace, so he is called the ' Spirit of bondage,' as he gives a sight
of those fetters that are clapped on by sin and Satan, and applies the law as
a ministration of death, as that whereby the man is concluded or shut up
tinder sin, and at present sees no way to escape. Now, the natural conse-
quent and effect of this work must needs be fear. As the contagion of sin
is discerned by the law, and the curses of the law, without the appearance
of the evangelical remedy, there must needs be pangs and ten-ors. The law
shews only the guilt, but not the pardon ; opens the command and threat-
ening, but whispers not a syllable of comfort without perfect obedience. In
the application of the threatenings, he is a Spirit of bondage ; in the appli-
cation of the promises, he is a Spirit of adoption. As he flashes fire in the
face of a sinner, so he strews comforts in the heart of a believer.
174 charnock's wobks. [John XVI. 8, 9.
Thirdly, The Spirit is tho infuser of all grace in the heart, and therefore
is the author of all preparations to grace, or anj'thing that hath an_y tendency
that way. It is by the Spirit of grace any are made sensible of their pierc-
ing Christ, Zech. xii. 10, and brought to mourn over him. The same Spirit
that springs up their mournful tears, fixeth their believing eye, both upon
their sin, and on the person they had abused by it : ' The love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,' Rom. v. 5, as he manifests
the love of God to us, or raiseth up our love to God ; which cannot be with-
out loathing sin, and a sense of it in the heart and life, to enable the soul
to hate it. The true sense of God's goodness cannot be without the sense
of our naughtiness. When the Spirit doth both these, it is a Spirit of adop-
tion ; when it works only a sense of sin, it is a Spirit of bondage. As all
righteousness and truth are works of the Spirit, so all works that are ante-
cedaneous to, and necessary for, the attaining and preserving true righteous-
ness, are the fruits of the Spirit, among which deep convictions are none of
the least. It is by the Spirit that we see, as well as crucify, the lusts of
the flesh.
Fourthly, The Spirit of God is promised in the times of the gospel, for
such operations as this of conviction, as ' a Spirit of judgment,' and ' a Spirit
of burning :' ' When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughter of
Zion, and purge the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit
of judgment, and by the spirit of burning,' Isa. iv. 4. A spirit of judgment
to convince them, a spirit of burning to refine them, and consume their
greater and lesser iniquities. He cites the souf before a tribunal, before he
baptizes it with fire to refine it ; and that this is to be understood of gospel
times, will appear from the 2d verse, ' In that day shall the branch of the
Lord be beautiful and glorious ' ; and this is part of that excellent fruit that
shall be in the earth. In regard of this the Spirit is called fire, to scorch in
conviction and self-condemnation by its heat, as well as to comfort by its
light and warmth : Isa. xl. 7, ' The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth,
because of the Spirit of the Lord that bloweth upon it.' Our carnal con-
fidences stand firm until he hews them down ; our righteousness is amiable
until the Spirit blows upon it, and dissolves its paint ; beautiful, until the
Spirit snatches ofi" the disguise. This is a gospel promise, that flesh should
appear what it is. It should be made desolate, and convictions be wrought
in men of the ugliness of sin, and the emptiness of their own righteousness,
and the insufficiency of everything that comes under the title of flesh. This
is a gospel promise of what the Spirit should do when the glory of the Lord
should be revealed. Flesh should appear to be what it is, a manifest con-
viction be wrought of the ugliness of sin, the emptiness of our own righteous-
ness, the insufficiency of everything that comethjunder the title of flesh. The
II. Second thing is to shew, that it is necessary the Spirit should do this
work of convincing. There is as much need of the Spirit to convince us of
the guilt of sin, while we are in a state of nature, as there is of the Spirit to
comfort us under the apprehensions of guilt, and the charge of an accusing
conscience. There is as much need of the Spirit to do the one as to do the
other. For,
1. The light of fallen nature is insufficient of itself to cause a thorough
conviction. It is true, there is a natural law in men's hearts, which dis-
covers some duties to be done, some gross impieties to be avoided. There
are common notions left in man which may conduct him in a moral course,
without which human society could not be preserved. These are, that there
is a God, that this God is to be worshipped, that he is righteous, who re-
John XVI, 8, 9. J conviction of sin. 175
wards those that seek him, that there are evil actions worthy of death, that
there is a judgment to be inflicted upon the commission of sin, a self-satis-
faction and peace in the avoiding of it, and performing such things as are
good, and comely, and honest, and of good report ; and from such principles
as these, common in man, those laws in all nations against enormities, which
are praiseworthy, and are the bands and ligaments of society and of govern-
ment, did arise. Now, these habitual principles in the mind, if read over,
will judge and censure some acts of unrighteousness : some ' works of the
flesh are manifest, such as these, adultery, fornication,' &c.. Gal. v. 19, clear
by natural light to be the works of the flesh. Conscience must more or less
naturally set in order before a man's eyes some sort of unrighteousness, such
unrighteous actions which are contrary to those implanted notions, and
plainly tell them, without any other proof than what is in them, that ' they
that do such things are worthy of death,' Rom. i. 32 ; because they are
against the universal law imprinted in human nature, and against the acknow-
ledged principles placed in us by God. For the knowledge of righteousness
and sin, and also of God's piercing eye, whereby he seeth all sin, and of his
impartial justice, which hath store of punishments for the violaters of his
law, is almost as deeply imprinted upon the mind of man by nature as the
notion of a God ; for, indeed, they do naturally flow from the notion of a
supreme cause, the governor of the world. Wherefore, in many cases, God
appeals to men's reason, and the principles that are left in them, Isa. v. 3,
Ezek. xviii. 25, and is willing to stand to the unbiassed judgment of their
own minds. But natural light discovers not sin bo fully as it is necessary
for a man to be convinced of it, in order to the entertainment of Christ, and
the grace of God in and by him. For natural light,
First, Discovers not the root of sin. But there is a necessity a man
should be convinced of the root of sin. Men do not by nature understand
the universal pollution of their nature, nor feel the heaviness of the sin of
Adam. It shews us that something is amiss, and much amiss, but whence
this disorder doth arise nature of itself is wholly ignorant, hath not so much
as a regular guess, without revelation. The light of nature is too dim to
pierce into the depths of evil ; it acquaints not with the fomes of sin, and
that inward strength of evil that gave birth and nourishment to those un-
couth actions ; some actual evils it discerns to be so, but not the depraved
principle of them. Some actual evils are loathsome to men by nature, but
not the principle of them ; men are not sensible what possession the evil
spirit of Adam hath of their souls. There must be, therefore, some other
light to pierce through the clouds of nature, and search into the depths of
the belly, and bring to view that habitual inconformity of our nature, to that
rectitude required of us, and once possessed by us.
Secondly, It discovers not sin as the greatest evil in the world, neither did
ever nature hate sin as such, because nature is not endowed with any
spiritual affections by its natural descent. It never had a due sense either
of the authority or holiness of the lawgiver, nor ever considered sin as a
contempt of the sovereignty and purity of the lawgiver and his law, wherein,
indeed, the intrinsic evil of sin doth consist, James ii. 10, 11. Nature did
excite some fears upon the guilt of sin, but no grief for the filth of sin. Men
by nature respect sin as it stands in relation to the justice and omniscience
of God, as it is the object of his sight and knowledge, and the object of his
revenging justice and wrath, but not as it stands in contrariety to the purity
of God. As it is an afflictive evil they may regard it, but not as it is a pol-
luting evil ; as staining their reputation, not as defiling their souls. Nature
givcth us but a little prospect of the beauty of God's holiness, whereby we
176 chaknock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
must measure the heinousness, malignity, and odioueness of sin. As from
the weakness of the relics of natural light there are no strong and powerful
motions to God, because, though nature discovers something of God, yet not
in all his perfections, and the amiableness of his nature ; so the convictions
of sin are weak, because there is not by that light a discovery of the
abominableness of it to God, and the intrinsic pollution, which is as essen-
tial to sin as guilt. Neither, indeed, doth nature discover the consequents
of sin in their dreadfulness, and that wrath which will at last meet with it,
and overflow the sinner. The mind, therefore, must be enlightened by some
higher power to understand the holiness of God, thereby to conceive the im-
purity of sin.
Thirdly, Nature discovers not the extent of sin in the invisible and secret
veins of it. Many branches of sin are invisible to nature ; it doth not dis-
cover sin in its latitude. Nature acquaints not with all the duties to be done,
nor the manner how to do them ; therefore, tells not of all the sins we are
to shun, nor the manner how to avoid them. It utters not a syllable of
Christ the mediator, in whose name we are to perform our, duties, nor of the
sanctifying Spirit, in whose strength we are to perform them ; nor of faith,
through which principle we are to do them ; nor of the glory of God in all
the ways of it, for which end we are to do them ; nor of the evangelical
promises, from which we are to take encouragement for the doing of them ;
and, consequently, doth not shew the extent of sin, which consists in the
failing in all these. It did, indeed, dictate since the fall that God was to be
worshipped, and that with the best strength of the creature, but not the man-
ner and way of that worship, and therefore informs not of sins committed
against the true worship of God. It discovers not the sinfulness of the first
motions, and of the inward workings of lust. The Jews, that had the im-
provement- of nature by tlie discoveries of the law, knew not the first inward
motions, v. ben stifled, to be sin. They needed, though not the correction
of the law, yet the interpretation of our Saviour in his sermon on the mount.
What sins nature did make a discovery of, it did only manifest in some
pieces and parts, not in the whole scope of them. As the light of nature
did not shew the law of God in its wideness, so neither sin in its foulness.
It is necessary, therefore, that there should be some higher power to dis-
cover those sins that are beyond the ken of natural light. By the light
of the sun we see the atoms and motes, that we can never discern by the
light of the stars.
Fourthly, Nature discovers not unbelief, the greatest sin of all. Nature
doth not convince of unbelief; what sight of it can nature direct us to ?
The works of creation evidence not the mystery of redemption, so
the light of creation doth not evidence the sins against that mystery. The
light of nature discovers a Creator, but not a Redeemer ; because, though
God made the world in order to that glory he intended to get by
redemption, yet he made not the world as a Redeemer. And though it
was made by that person who was the Redeemer, yet it was not made
in the way of redemption, nor with the manifestation of those attributes
of love, wisdom, and righteousness, which were evident in the work of
redemption.
A toad, upon the view of its image in a glass, knows not its own deformity,
nor the excellency of a man, or some other creature superior to it, and there-
fore knows not how to measure its own deformity ; nor doth a natural man,
with his depraved reason, know himself by the glass of the word to be of a
viperous brood, without some common work of the Spirit. Men by nature
are not ashamed of sin as sin : Rom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye then in
John XYI. 8, 9.] . conviction of sin. 177
those things, whereof ye are now ashamed ?' Xow ashamed, intimating
that in the state of nature they were not ashamed. They were now
ashamed under the new light whereby they saw them in their nature, not
before, under their natural darkness, wherewith their eyes were closed.
Nature never discovers its own deformity. That is the first thing ; the light
of nature is insufficient to discover or convince thoroughly of sin. Nature is
insufficient for this work.
(2.) The law barely of itself doth not convince thoroughly of all sin. It
discovers, indeed, more clearly some sins than the light of nature, in regard
it doth more evidence the sovereign authority and holy nature of Grod, and
consequently discovers the nature of guilt and the greatness of the filth of
sin, and brings to view upon an examination of the heart those Uttle sprouts
and branches of sin in the first motion which are not visible by star-light ;
yet this discovers not the main condemning sin, it discovers not the work of
redemption by Christ. It commands faith in what God reveals, but not
faith with such a modification, directed to such an object as a dying Re-
deemer. The voice of the law is not, * He that believeth shall be saved,' but
* Do this and live.' The knowledge of other sins is by the law, but the
knowledge of unbelief by the gospel. Yet this doth not convince us of all
actual sins of itself, not in regard of the inability of it as a rule, or want of
perfection in its prohibition of sin, but in regard, not only of the multitude
of our sins and infirmities, but the weakness of our nature. Whence David,
Ps. xix. 12, cries out of secret sins, ' Who can understand the errors of
his life ? Lord, cleanse me fi-om my secret faults.' He rightly imagined
there were more sins in him than fell under his discover}- by that light.
These properties of the law can never be exercised but in the hand of God,
as it is an instrument of his managing and directing. How few souls,
among those multitudes of the Israelites, were rightly and thoroughly con-
vinced by the thunderings at mount Sinai, at the first publishing of the law !
The word is a sword, yet the sword of the Spirit, and can no more make
gashes in the conscience without the Spirit to wield it, than a sword can
pierce and cut without a strong arm to add force to its edge. God himself
appearing to a man by his bare word to his ear, without exerting a power on
his heart, cometh short of attaining to this end. It was not presently that
Adam came to a downright acknowledgment of his sin, though charged with
it by God in the garden. Nor did Cain come to a kindly conviction and
confession of his sin, after all God's disputes with him about his sin, and
manifestations of his patience in making a hedge of his providence round
about him. So that the law, as it doth not discover all sin, sins which are
immediately against the gospel, so it is unable of itself to convince without
some powerful hand, the power of the Spirit of God, to manage it. The
reason of this insufficiency is.
First, The wrong notion of things, and the blindness of mind, in natural
men under the gospel. It is a notion that will not enter into the hearts of
men naturally, that sin is so odious and abominable to God. Many things
they count very light, and prop up themselves with a hope of mercy, and it
will not enter into their heart (it is so deeply inlaid in their natures), that
there is need of the death of the Son of God to take away the guilt of sin,
and the power of the Spirit to wash away the filth of it. They are not ready
to believe this, unless the arm of the Lord pull up such notions, and root
others in them. Hence Isaiah cries out, ' Who hath believed our report ?
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? ' Who hath believed that
ever sin is attended with that guilt that the Messiah must be smitten of God,
178 chaenock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
stricken and afflicted, to repair the breaches sin hath made ? We have false
opinions of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and therefore the Spirit
doth confute an opinion (as the word iXsy^siv signifies) which had been
settled in the soul ; it shews us sins we never dreamt of, a righteousness we
never imagined, and a new fountain of holiness. Rom. i. 21, ' When they
knew God, they glorified him not as God, and became vain in their imagin-
ations, and their foolish heart was darkened.' Man believes he is as God
created him ; he is ignorant of the corruption of his blood, believes himself
holy in his unholiness, righteous in his unrighteousness. Vice is hid in the
soul, worse than any outward disease in the body. Men easily find their
bodies ill-afi'ected, but understand not the state of their souls possessed by
sin, because the understanding, which should judge of the disease, is ill-
afiected itself. The foolish heart of man is darkened, and being darkened
cannot understand the disease, because that is the power of judging, and
that being corrupted, cannot judge in the things it suffers. This makes
soul-diseases naturally incurable, causeth men to refuse the medicines, shun
all means of recovery, and be angry with them that apply remedies. Men
may converse with the law, understand the letter of it, while they are igno-
rant of the intent ; a man may see a glass without a reflection on himself.
Paul, a pharisee, was a student in the law, a doctor fit to teach the letter of
the law, yet there was a veil between him and the spirit of it, until the
Spirit held the law close to his conscience, Rom. vii. 9. We may have the
outward letter and outward work too, when yet the brightness of it, by reason
of the thick mist on the mind, reacheth not the remote part of the soul.
Bring a man that hath lost sight and smell into a nasty filthy place, he
knoweth not but that it is a beautiful garden, until his eyes be opened and his
smell restored. Therefore there is a necessity of the Spirit to enlighten
the mind in this first work as well as in all consequential acts. A necessity
of the Spirit to enhghten our minds, who, in regard of his omniscience, is
able by the Hght of the word to bring sins to view, out of their skulks and
hiding-places. How great is this ignorance of themselves in the best ! We
know but in part, and as ' in a glass darkly,' either God or ourselves. And
as we stand in need of an high priest to pity us under our infirmities, so of
the Spirit to discover them to us, that we may have a spiritual discerning of
a spiritual mischief. For as there is a common natural and a spiritual know-
ledge of God, so there is a natural and a spiritual knowledge of sin : natural
when men know such a thing to be sin, but spiritual when they understand
the spiritual filth, and pollution, and mischief of sin. There is need of the
Spirit that we may spiritually discern the spiritual mischief, that we may
know spiritual truths in a spiritual manner, that we may know sins also with
a spiritual eye. Since the darkness of the mind is the cause of a vain walk-
ing, Eph. iv. 17, 18, that can never be in any sort a remedy, which is the
cause of the disease, therefore the wrong notions of men make them un-
capable of working this conviction upon themselves by the law.
Secondly, Another reason is, a natural enmity to any such discovery,
which is universal in all men. There is nothing men more naturally abhor
than any thing tending to the rooting out those vicious habits they are
deeply in love withal. As men, when they know Grod, have no mind to
glorify him as God, so men, when they cannot avoid the knowledge of the
threatenings of God, have no mind to believe them and consider them as the
threatenings of God. Convincing arguments always meet with contradiction
from nature. It is for this very reason men hate the light, lest their deeds
should be reproved, their deeds they be convinced of: John iii. 20, ' Every
one that doth evil hates the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 179
should be reproved ;' which hght they would love well enough were it not
attended with so unpleasing an effect. Our Saviour pronounceth it univer-
sally of all mankind, ' Every one that doth evil hates the light ;' and who by
nature can pretend an exemption ? Not a man by nature but abhors more
to have a conviction of sin, than the best believer abhors those deeds he is
convinced of; and this makes the conviction utterly impossible by the mere
strength of nature. Hence we are compared to wild asses, that snuff up the
wind, endure hunger and thirst, undergo any inconvenience, rather than be
convinced of a miserable state, and submit to be reduced to a better. Hence
where do you find a man that yields to the first arguments brought against
his lusts, but struggles and strives against such conviction ? Nay, do they
not cherish their beloved sins under rebukes, draw a curtain between
themselves and the law, and will see no faults in what they affect ? "What
an irrational folly did possess the pharisees, who, because Christ by raising
Lazarus had got a name and a greater number of disciples, would have killed
Christ and him, as though that power that raised Lazarus, after he had been
dead three days, could not have preserved him from them, or, if they had
killed him, could not have raised him again, and restored life to him as often
as they had stripped him of it, or turned them into their graves ! So hard
is it to convince men of sin, yea, and of common and rational truths, against
the overswaying love of their passions and interests. There is need then of
some superior power to set the light before men, and fix their eyes upon it ;
for naturally men reject all impressions which come upon them from any
declaration of truth, and are no more friends to it than darkness is in league
with light, and cannot from themselves have any due reverence to the word
on the account of the authority of it, and the holiness of God the author of
it, but endeavour to extinguish it as soon as ever they see any sparks of it in
their hearts.
Thirdly, The weakness and falseness of natural conscience is another thing
that proves nature's insufficiency to such a work.
(1.) The weakness of it. Conscience, indeed, hath a natural power of
judgment, but not higher than the light in it. A clear light is necessary to
a right judgment ; and when there is a light in it, yet itself being dull and
sleepy, must be roused up to perform its office. As original corruption hath
darkened the mind and enfeebled the will, so it hath darkened this faculty
(for there is no room in the house that is privileged from infection), and the
greater the strength of sin, the weaker is the sense of it ; for the defilement
increaseth the insensibility, Eph. iv. 19, which is the state of men by nature,
it being the state of all the Gentiles. The fuller of dead works, the more
listless must it be in its office ; for the strength of sin puts the conscience
under a restraint, and makes that a prisoner to it, which should be a spy and
monitor against it ; ' who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' There is an
imprig'onment of truth, and though conscience doth sometimes reflect the
light of the law upon the soul, yet because of its weakness it is as unable to fire
the soul as a small spark is to inflame a reeking dunghill, or a burning-glass
to fire anything when the sun is masked with thick clouds and fogs. Some-
times conscience makes false determinations and reflections for want of know-
ledge ; sometimes no reflections by reason of stupefaction by sin, which is the
effect of every sin, till it be roused by the voice of God. Perhaps Adam's
conscience might be put almost into as deep a sleep by sin as his body had been
by his Creator when he took Eve out of it ; for though he was sensible after his
fall of his being stripped of his righteousness, yet he doth not seem to be con-
vinced of his sin till God had spoke, which awakened his conscience. Just
after by his sin he fell from so great and so happy an estate, the Scripture
180 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
giveth no remark of any aflfrightment he had till he heard the voice of God.
Prisoners are jolly in the gaol till they hear of the coming of the judge,
though they know the crimes they are guilty of. In some, conscience is so
sleepy, or rather dead, that it may be said of them, as of those, Acts xix. 2,
who when they were asked 'whether they had received the Holy Ghost,' they
' had not heard of such a thing as the Holy Ghost :' so these have not heard
of such a thing as conscience.
(2.) The falseness of conscience, and its easiness to be deceived, shews the
unlikelihood of nature's ever convincing. An ' evil conscience,' being opposed
to a 'true heart,' by the apostle, Heb. x. 22, is a false conscience. The
falseness of conscience lies in not pressing what it knows. Every man by
nature hath the same general and natural notions which a renewed man hath ;
but conscience makes not the soul sensible of what it knows, by urging
things, and bringing them to a particular application, and drawing them out
in rank and file. Though it hath a commission as God's deputy, yet it
neglects its charge, is bribed, and overawed, like an officer in a town, who
neglects the trust reposed in him by the governor. It is apt to be deceived
by outward performances, which doth incapacitate it to convince men
thoroughly ; it is apt to have its mouth stopped by the husk of a duty in-
stead of a kernel ; it troubles rather for gross sins than for spiritual ones ;
nay, it doth not ordinarily rebuke for any spiritual sin ; leaves off reproving,
and rather applauds men when tbey engage in outward performances ; saith,
' Well done, good and faithful servant ;' it is usually contented with the out-
ward performance, though there be more of self in it than of aim at God's
glory ; with the work of the law, though there be not the power of the law
written in the heart. If it hath any voice at all, it is not loud, but faint, like
that of Eli to his sons, Do no more so ; and it is apt to speak peace when
there is no ground of peace. This is universally the disease of conscience in
natural men. It conspires with the other faculties, not to be injurious to
the carnal interest in the soul. There must therefore be, on the account of
its falseness and weakness, some higher power to rouse a sleepy conscience,
rectify a depraved conscience. Unless the eye be more piercing, the judg-
ment more sound, conviction can have no progress. Until the bullet be shot
by the Spirit, it will fall short of the mark.
Fourthly, A fourth reason which shews the insufficiency of nature to such
an end is the false disguises of sin, and the pretences for it, which make the
universal conviction of it impossible to nature. Besides those notions of sin
which naturally are in men's own minds, they are swayed much by the
common sentiments of others concerning this or that practice ; and when
any vice is esteemed a virtue, it is above the power of nature to affect the
heart with that which is commonly applauded as a matter of praise. The
sinfulness of actions which are attended with profit and honour is not easily
perceived ; the whole bent of nature stands in defence of them, interest,
profit, and credit ; whatsoever is dear to men, they are mighty champions for
it. Covetous, and ambitious, and proud men, and whosoever are guilty of
those sins that stream from these fountains, do not easily acknowledge their
crimes, because they lie hid in the heart, they continually besiege the mind,
fill up all corners of the soul, that true reason hath not room to lift up its
hand. Those that are given to sensual pleasures and intemperance appear
more easily to acknowledge their sins in the intervals of lust, because these
are more brutish ; but as for others their sins are more refined, accounted
necessary and generous ; they have cloaks and covers for them of frugality,
fortitude, &c. Whence it appears men are more easily brought to a sense
of, and turning from, brutish vices than from internal ones, those which spring
John XVI. 8, 9. J conviction of sin. 181
up from a root more fast settled in the heart, those vices which bring in
honour, profit, and esteem, such being more dear to men than those of plea-
sure, which may be laid aside, and men being at great pains in undertaking
to nourish their ambition. In some things, men have an imagination they
act generously and bravely, even in their vices, which renders them more
inflexible to any reflections of conscience, and shews a necessity of some
higher power to take off" the mask of sin, and discover it without its disguise.
Fifthly, The subtle evasions of carnal reason render the universal conviction
of sin impossible to mere nature. What glosses will a winding wit put upon
sin, present evil as good, and good as evil ! Ever since man drew in the
serpent's breath, he hath imitated the tempter in this his masterpiece of
false representations. Excuses for sin are equally derived with the sin of
our nature from our first parents in their first sin. Adam and Eve did not
deny their crimes, but cast the blame from themselves, Adam upon Eve, Eve
upon the serpent. And Adam wraps God himself up in the society of his
crime, charging it on that snare that his wife was to him. Thus great
sinners imagine themselves innocent, when they can excuse their sin by the
inducement of others, and the constitution of their bodies, as if anything
could force the will ; they will have subtle distinctions for the extenuating of
their sin, though their spots appear in all their garments, and may be seen
without searching for. Men will not many times believe themselves sinners,
by reason of the subtle distinctions that a corrupt wit will find out, though
their blackness be as visible as that of a negro, and argue against strong
rebukes as much as a troubled conscience will against grounds of comfort.
Men naturally stand upon a sense of honour, are loath to condemn themselves
under apparent crimes, and for fear of punishment will rather reflect upcn
God, and by distinctions blunt the edge of his word. And there are other
corrupt reasonings, by promises of future repentance, hopes of mercy, f n-
titling presumptuous sins infirmities, and such as all men by nature are
incident to, whereby they nonplus conscience and delude their souls ; and
though they confess sin in the general, yet they suspend as to a particular
confession. Till this self-love be discovered and overawed by the Spirit,
little good is to be expected. There is therefore need of the Spirit, IXs^ysiv,
to confute these calumnies and stop men's mouths, and bring down the c'on-
trivers and inventors of them to lick the dust. God only, who is omniscient,
and knows all the wards of the heart, can search the secret parts of it, and
bring sin to light, and the soul to spiritual reason.
Sixthly, The natural levity and inconstancy of the soul, renders it im-
possible to nature to convince. It is from this instability, those wrestings
of Scripture, and evasions to turn away the dint of a rebuking argument,
do arise : 2 Peter iii. 16, * Which they that are unstable and unlearned, wrest
to their own destruction.' They are naturally like clouds which have no
certain basis, therefore as soon can a natural cloud fix as they. Hence,
men's convictions are like fits of an ague, which have their intervals, and
at last wear quite away. Man can have no composedness nor consistency
in himself, while he is hurried about by various ends and objects, while in "a
state of nature. All the power of nature can no more make an impression
on such fluid persons, than a man can draw a picture upon the water, or
plough the rivers, and make them receive seed and bring forth fruit. In-
stability scatters and divides the powers of the soul, that they cannot unite
in any serious reflections. So that you see nature is utterly insufficient,
and there is a necessity of some higher power than nature to convince the
soul of sin. I shall add a,
(3.) Third argument. As neither nature nor law can do it upon those
182 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
accounts, and therefore there is a necessity of the Spirit for this purpose ;
so it is necessary that this thorough conviction which ends in conversion,
should be the work of the Spirit, in regard of the honour of God, that the
whole new state, with all its antecedents, as well as consequents, may be of
God ; that the hewing the stone, as well as setting it in the building, the
preparations of the members, as well as uniting them to the head, may owe
itself only to the divine power, that all cause of glorying in ourselves may
be cut off, according to the intent of the gospel. If a man should convince
himself, and make himself sensible of sin, though afterwards he should be
brought to a through conversion and close with Christ, yet the glory of the
first sense and preparation will be the glory of the flesh ; but all flesh, in
everything which concerns our recovery, must be silent before God. As the
Spirit doth all things about the head Christ, so he doth all things about
those he intends his members. As Christ was led by the Spirit to be
tempted by the devil, that he might have a sense of sin, and be acquainted
with the craft and subtilty of that adversary, which had brought all the dis-
honour upon God, and sunk all mankind in misery ; so the Spirit doth con-
vince his members of sin, suits the word providentially to make impressions,
worketh and preserves these impressions in them, that the whole work, the
ploughing up the fallow ground of the heart, as well as the sowing the seed
in it, may redound to the glory of God in the entire praise of it.
So that, you see, it is necessary the Spirit should convince of sin. Nature
cannot do it, cannot convince of the root of sin, and it cannot convince of
the evil of sin, and it cannot convince of the latitude of sin, nor of unbelief.
And the law, that cannot convince of unbelief, nor indeed of any sin, without
the Spirit's management of it, it being the sword of the Spirit. The reason
of the insufiiciency of nature, which is, the wrong notions of things, the
blindness of mind under the gospel, and a natural enmity universally in
every man that doth evil against any such discovery, the weakness and
falseness of natural conscience, and the false disguises of sin, pretences for
it ; all which render universal convictions impossible ; and so doth the levity
and unstedfastness of the soul ; beside the necessity of it for the honour of
God.
III. The third question is. How doth the Spirit work these convictions ?
And before I speak to that, take only this caution. Though the Spirit doth
work these convictions in the hearts of men, and it is necessary he should,
yet slavish fears, desperation, and other sinful things consequent upon the
knowledge of ourselves, are not the work of the Spirit, and therefore do not
flow from him by any immediate impression of his upon the soul ; but they
are the consequent of this sight and sense men have of the dreadfulness of
their state, which the Spirit shews them, by fixing their eye on the glass of
the law, and their thoughts upon their miserable condition. As when a wild
beast is tied to a post, or shut in a den, the hand that fastens or shuts him
in is not the cause of his snarhug, and tossing, and beating himself against
the wall ; this is a consequent of his own wild disposition, as being in such
a state ; or, as the wrath of Grod, which kindles hell, and locks and scorches
the damned in the perpetual prison, this as punishment and a physical evil
belongs to God, and is his proper act, but not those blasphemies and curses
which rise from the pain of the damned. If men in afiiictions, which may
be remedied, do curse God, Isa. viii. 21, much more will it be consequent
upon an endless misery, where there is no hope of redress. It is impossible
that a man under punishment, without the hopes of a pardon, and being
wholly corrupt, should have good thoughts of a revenging God. Yet though
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 183
God inflict what is just, he doth not excite what is evil and unjust. So,
though the Spirit makes impressions upon men, discovers the misery of their
state, sets their sins in order before them, by the awakening of conscience,
and by his motion fixeth their minds on the consideration of them ; yet those
sinful fears, accusations of God, charges against God, are not the effect of
the Spirit in them, but the bubbling up of their own hearts naturally incident
unto that state they are apprehensive of. And now to proceed unto that
Third question. How doth the Spirit work this conviction ? The great
instrument whereby the work is wrought, is the law ; he acts in such a
method in conviction as a Spirit of bondage, as he doth in assurance as a
Spirit of adoption. As he is a Spirit of adoption, the gospel is the instru-
ment whereby he works assurance ; as he is a Spirit of bondage, the law is
the instrument, which is in a way of syllogism. When he comforts, it is in
this manner : ' He that believeth shall be saved ;' but the soul assumeth,
But I believe, therefore I shall be saved. So it is in this of conviction,
' Every one that believeth not, shall perish ;' the soul assumeth. But I be-
lieve not, therefore I shall perish. Every one that is unholy shall not see
God ; I am unholy, saith the soul, therefore I shall not see God. The first
proposition is the evidence of Scripture, the second is the evidence of con-
science, the third is the evidence of reason in a rational deduction. It is as
a solemn court of judicature : the first proposition consists of matter of law.
He that believeth not shall perish, the assertion of God ; and. He that is
unholy shall not see God ; this is matter of law, the assertion of God. The
evidence as to matter of fact, is given in the second proposition. But I be-
lieve not, but I am unholy. The sentence is pronounced in the third,
Therefore I shall perish, therefore I shall never see God. In the first, the
soul is arraigned ; in the second, tried and cast ; in the third, condemned. The
instruments then which the Spirit useth in convincing, are.
First, The law, which is the rule whereby to judge of the moral good or
evil of actions ; and conviction is nothing else bat the formal impression of
sin by the law on the consciencu, or the reviving that which was before im-
printed ; the blowing off the dust from the letters of the law written in the
soul. The
Second instrument the Spirit useth is the conscience, in the conviction of
the fact. This tells the soul of its breaking the law, and contempt of the
lawgiver ; flies in the face with a Thou art the man, and aff"ects him as if
the law had pronounced him by name accursed ; upon which account con-
science is called a witness, Rom. ii. 15. And when this cometh and gives
full evidence, the mouth is stopped, Rom. iii. 19, and the soul is said to
die, Rom. vii. 9, is no more able to answer the accusations of the law, when
applied by conscience, than a man deprived of life is able to answer a word
at the bar, but remains as dead in law, under a sense of guilt. To assist
conscience in this work, is the greatest work the Spirit hath to do, which
otherwise would be silenced by men's lusts, or bribed to give in a false, weak,
or slight witness, icjnoramus, or mince the matter. As in the syllogism,
whereby we come to assurance, it is the hardest matter to frame the second
proposition. But I believe, but I love God ; the hardest matter to find out
the truth of grace ; so it is the hardest matter in this way of conviction to
find out sin, to be sensible of the guilt of sin. As many Christians do not
own and find the truth of grace, by reason of their fears, and doubts,
and darkness, so many a sinner will not own his sin, by reason of his self-
love. Therefore the Spirit doth first work by the law, this is the breath of
his lips, wherewith he slays the wicked, Isa. xi. 4, which hath a greater force
in the hand of the Spirit, than the eloquence of the mightiest orator, and
184 chaenock's wokks. [John XVI. 8, 9.
makes men fall down under the power of it. As conversion is a knitting
the heart and the gospel together, so conviction is a knitting the heart and
the law. As the Spirit dwells in sons in a way of comfort, to make them
call God Abba, Father ; so he is in sinners, in a way of conviction, to make
them regard God as a judge. As by the word men are forewarned from sin,
so by the word men are reproved for sin. This is the Spirit's instrument,
for God doth not in an ordinary way act immediately, but useth instruments
in all his works ; not that we say that the law is the cause of salvation
(that is only by the gospel), — it is no more the cause of it, than the lancing
of a wound, letting out the putrefied matter, is the cause of the cure, — but it
discovers the depth of the wound, and that corrupt matter which, residing
there, would hinder the cure, and fester, and end in putrefaction ; or, as one
saith, it is but as a fisherman beating the river, or troubling the water to
drive the fish into the net. The Lord drives men into the net of the gospel,
whereby they are catched for God. There are three acts of the law, justify-
ing, directing, and convincing ; the justifying act of the law is out of doors,
and a condemning act stepped into the room, since men are ' concluded under
sin,' Gal. iii. 21-23. Man in his fii-st creation stood in an indifi'erency to
the promises and comminations of the law, according as his carriage should
be, but when sin came, the promise of the law was of no force, because the
condition of obedience was not performed, whereupon man lay under the power
of the curse. The directing power of the law remains, as a rule to guide us ;
for the work of Christ was to reduce us to obedience. The convincing power
of it is of perpetual use, for the discovery of the depth of sin in the heart :
Ps. xix. 12, ' Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse me from my secret
faults.' Of perpetual use even to believers too, in regard of the contest with
spiritual sins, even for the discovery of spiritual sins. There is a spiritual
use of a spiritual law, to manifest those sins to a believer ; in which respect
it is not a terror to a believer, but a delight, because it discovers the ene-
mies of God in the soul, and makes it run to the fountain of Christ's blood
in the gospel for the cleansing of them ; so that the more this revealing
power of the law is used, the more occasion hath faith to manifest itself in
recourse to the gospel promise. In these two latter respects the law is of
constant and necessary use : the convictive is necessary to affect us with
sin, and the insufficiency of our own righteousness ; and the directive is not
destroyed, but enforced by the gospel. We must know ourselves, and
know Grod ; the law giveth us a knowledge of God in his authority and
holiness, and a knowledge of ourselves in our subordination and vileness.
And,
First, The Spirit discovers sin by the law. It is the end of all laws to
inform the understanding of what is to be done, and consequently of men's
deviation from them : and so absolutely necessary the law is for this dis-
covery, that the apostle owns all his knowledge of sin to come from thence :
Kom. vii. 7, ' I had not known sin but by the law ;' by this sin is revived :
Kom. vii. 9, ' When the commandment came, sin revived ;' as the mois-
ture in wood is excited by the fire, wheezing out at the end, which was not
discerned before. The rectitude of the rule discovers the crookedness of
our nature ; the perfection of the law, the degenerateness of the soul ; the
purity of the law, the pollution of the heart ; the spirituality of the law, the
carnality of our minds. The rule being altogether excellent, discovers a
man altogether vile : Gal. iii. 19, ' The law was added because of transgres-
sion ;' to discover the filth, stench, and venom of a man's heart and
actions, and make him to lie under the condemnation of it, without any accu-
sation of the righteousness of God. Hence it is said, that ' The law entered
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 185
that sin might abound,' Rom. v. 20 ; not to make it abound by encouraging
the commission of it, but by impressing the conviction. A man before
thinks himself a scanty and mole-hill sinner, but after the sight of the law,
deep consideration, and the sense of it, he seeth himself a large and moun-
tainous sinner, though he may appear small to the eye of man. And the
Spirit discovers by the law the extent of sin ; by the breadth of the law, the
Spirit helps us to" measure the latitude of sin. Naturally we think not sin to
be so great as it is, but its dimensions are seen through the glass of the
word, which shews it to be exceeding broad ; as a star which a child thinks
is but a little spark, is known and discerned by an instrument to be bigger
than the globe of the earth. The Spirit shews the extent of the precept,
and thereby measures the wideness of the sins ; he discovers the purity of
the precept, and thereby the filthiness of sin. And as he discovers sin, so,
Secondly, Secret and lurking sins he discovers by the law. The Spirit,
by this dissecting knife, opens the entrails of the heart, to manifest the secret
holes and traverses of this inward serpent ; as when the body is opened,
all the little strings within are plainly seen to the back-bone, r£rgap^j]X/(r-
u.ha, everything in the whole composition of it lies open to public view,
Heb. iv. 12, 13. It divides soul and spirit ; it discovers what cattle litter
in the affections and fancy. It doth unmask those spiritualised sins which
harbour in the understanding and will ; those lusts which appear abroad in
the garb of virtues, as acts of gallantry and generosity ; though they looked
like stars of the firmament, it shews them to be but some unhappy vapours.
The Spirit by the word opens both heart, and mind, and affections ; the
spiritual and sensitive part of the soul of man brings the conscience, as he
did Ezekiel, from chamber to chamber,^ to see the vermin which crawl in
every part ; and as in dissection we see the valves and small fibres of the
body, so the thoughts and intents of the heart, the secret aims wherein the
spirit of wickedness lies, the counsels which gave the first birth unto sin, the
close intents that had a fair outside, like a venomous serpent in a golden
box, these the Spirit brings to light ; it rifles the very corners, and sheweth
the inwardest and the least things, and fetcheth up that mud which lay
under a clear stream, which conscience was not acquainted with before. And
this discovery of lurking sins is not from the innate power of the law, — that
hath not a power of omniscience, — but by the Spirit working by that law. ^ It
is God that ' searcheth the heart,' Jer. xvii. 10 It is God's heart, like
Elisba, in 2 Kings v. 26, that goes with every man when he doth this or that.
The Spirit doth work by the law, in the discovery of sin, both as to the ex-
tent of it, and as to secret sins. So,
Thirdly, It discovers the wrath of God due to sin by the law. As the
gospel is a glass reflecting the glory and love of God upon the heart, so the
law is a pure glass reflecting the holiness and wrath of God upon the con-
science. The gospel represents God upon a throne, with a sceptre of grace
and righteousness ; the law exhibits him upon a tribunal of justice, with a
rod of iron and wrath. As the gospel is called the ' word of reconciliation,'
60 the law is the word of wrath ; it shews a man lying under God's displea-
sure at the brink of the pit, and holds him quaking over the smoke of hell.
As the gospel is the ministration of life, so the other is the ministration of
death ; it shews wrath entailed upon the least as well as the greatest ini-
quity, brandisheth and darts curses against the sinner. God is discovered
in arms against the soul, going forth conquering and to conquer, with death
and hell marching before him : Rom. ii. 8, 9, ' indignation and wrath, tribu-
lation and anguish, on every soul that doth evil.' Sin is shewn in its filthi-
ness, and wrath in its dreadfulness ; sin, too, in its guilt. By the law we
186 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
discern our debts, and are assured they must be paid. The law lays hold
of every sinner, like that servant in the Gospel, and, with a dreadful voice,
claims the debt, * Pay me that thou owest !' That is the first thing the
Spirit works by the law as an instrument.
Secondly, The Spirit doth stir up the natural notions and acquired know-
ledge in the mind in this conviction. He lets loose those truths in the heart
which were prisoners in the chains of unrighteousness, to be assistant in this
work, as invaders put arms into the hands of those prisoners which had been
under a force before. This work is the exciting and reflecting the light and
knowledge in the understanding upon the conscience, whereby the creature
feels the heat of the light, which in its direct beams he did not ; nor doth
knowledge swimming in the brain afi'ect ; he blows up the sparks of reason
to a height, and, like the sun, draws forth the sap of those notions implanted
in the heart, making them sprout up according as he first set them. For, as
the sowing this seed was by the hand of the Spirit, so the improvement of
these principles sown is, by the breath of the Spirit, in a way of common
grace. He caused the birth, and he causes the growth too ; that which he
had sown he preserves and excites, so that when these notions are excited
by the Spirit, men see double to what they did before discern of the secrets
of wisdom and righteousness, and accordingly that there are more transgres-
sions according to the law of nature than men usually dream of, which makes
them justify God in the way of his judgments : Job. xi. 5, 6, ' Oh that God
would speak and open his lips against thee, and that he would shew thee
the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is ! Know, there-
fore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.' It is an
answer to Job's complaint, that his afilictions were without ground ; which
Zophar answers, that if the secrets of wisdom in the law of nature were
excited, it would discover sin enough to justify God in his proceedings.
The law of Moses was not in being in the time of Job, but in the original
copy, the law of nature, and the common notions of mankind. The Spirit
stirs up these in this conviction, and though the Spirit takes these, and
works by the excitation of natural light, yet he brings in also another light,
because the chief conviction he aims at is the corruption of the state, not
only that of corrupt acts ; the necessity of a mediator and a sense of spiri-
tual sins, which cannot be wrought merely by that light which is naturally
in the mind. It stirs up, therefore, principles already impressed, and intro-
duceth principles not yet impressed, and binds both of them on the soul; for
it convinceth by way of argument, and therefore its convictions must be
founded on somewhat which the soul knew before, or arise from a new light
attended with a greater evidence. Now, the Spirit of God doth not put out
nature by the shining of grace, but improve, perfect, and regulate it, putting
it into a right channel, making it to serve the ends of grace ; so in this act of
conviction, he maketh the natural knowledge subservient, and rouseth up that
knowledge which lay rusty and useless. There is use of this, for God acts
in a rational manner, that reason may be employed in this case ; hence are
his appeals to men (Isa. v. 3) of a depraved reason, ' inhabitants of Jeru-
salem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.'
Had reason no competency at all to judge of the unprofitableness and the bad
return the vineyard had made to God, the appeal had been fruitless ; but the
appeal implies that even natural reason would have cast the verdict on God's
side ; so in conviction the Spirit doth stir up that natural light in the mind,
and that acquired knowledge that it hath to be assistant in this work.
Thirdly, The Spirit doth irradiate and enlighten the mind and practical
judgment. The Spirit brings a man to belief of the truth in the word by
John XVI. 8, 9. J conviction of sin. 187
clear and undeniable reason, and by rectifying and elevating the understand-
ing. As he makes the characters written upon the heart legible, so he
enlightens the dim mind, and snuffs the candle of the Lord, that they may
be read, Prov. xx. 27, that thereby ' the inward parts of the belly' may be
searched. In this regard he is called a Spirit of bondage ; not that he brings
us into bondage, but as he opens the curtain of sin and the blind eye to see
the bondage sin hath brought it into. The truths of God in the word have
an objective light, and the Spirit doth enlighten the mind, not by discovering
new notions and giving new objects of knowledge only, but by creating a
dogmatical faith and an assent unto those principles, and helping us to
receive right and distinct notions of those things which are represented.
And it is such a faith which the Spirit in this work doth create, which is
not only apprehensive but quietative ; it not only apprehends the things
themselves, but the soul rests in them for truth, not that they are grounds
of comfort in themselves, but doth clearly assent to them for truth, and own
them, and fully assent unto them. There is a faith of assent common to men,
but the Spirit quickens this faith in conviction that it hath a fuller prospect
of these things which he doth discover, which were weakly and imperfectly
assented to before ; and the soul weighs these particulars which the Spirit
sets before it more seriously than ever it did. This is a necessary work of
the Spirit, for a stupefied judgment is a bar to any recovery ; but when the
light of the word and the light of the mind meet together, the issue is a full
discovery of the motes in the soul and sink in the heart.
Fourthly, The Spirit excites and actuates the conscience, sets the con-
science to smite, as David's heart smote him, upon the Spirit's touch by the
ministry of Nathan. Most men know such and such actions to be sinful ;
they know unbelief to be a damning sin, God to be a righteous God, Christ
the only Saviour, yet how few know these things convincingly, with an appli-
cation of them to the conscience ! How few have the descent from the spe-
culative to the practical judgment, to be affected with them and with their
own deplorable state ! The Spirit, as it increaseth the light, it doth sharpen
this faculty of conscience for self-reflection ; direct beams are darted in to
shew the object, and an edge is put upon the faculty to do its office. Light
is shot in upon the understanding by the Spirit in the word, and fire is
struck upon the conscience ; suitable passions are raised in the heart by
that light in the mind. As the Spirit of adoption giveth efficacy to the
gospel, in affecting his soul with righteousness, so, as he is a Spirit of
bondage, he giveth efficacy to the law to affect the conscience with guilt ;
he lets loose the natural activity of conscience, he arms it with a renewed
commission, he opens the mouth of this herald of God, and makes it de-
nounce dreadful things ; he enlargeth it to take in the impressions of wrath,
and transmit them to all parts of the man ; he reviveth the guilt, and rouseth
the conscience, the serpent in the bosom ariseth and hisseth, and conscience
in man being awakened, lashes him. Thus sin being revived, and conscience
awakened, they lay the soul flat and breathless. * Sin revived, and I died.'
Guilt is so strongly reflected, that a man doth not simply understand him-
self to be in a damnable state, but feels in himself the filthiness and misery
of that state, and becometh a judge and witness against himself, acknow-
ledging the righteousness of God, and the unrighteousness of his nature.
Conscience, thus actuated by the Spirit, pleads sharply from the law against
the soul (as a king's attorney doth against a prisoner at the bar), takes ofl' all
excuses, beats it off from all apologies made in its defence, and reproacheth
him for it. Job xxvii. 6. It brings not only the substance of sin but the cir-
cumstances to mind, and what rebukes itself gave before to hinder the com-
188 charnock's wobks. [John XVI. 8, 9.
mission, just as it will at the last day deliver those truths that were suppressed
and clouded in unrighteousness, and usher them in as so many speaking
witnesses ; the memory is also revived to assist conscience in this work.
Now, the Spirit only can excite conscience ; though conscience hath a power
to judge, yet it must have a light to judge by, and because it is sleepy and
dull, it must be soundly roused ; and therefore there is the same need that
the Spirit should set conscience right, as any other faculty ; because that is
depraved, as well as the understanding is darkened and the will perverted.
Fifthly, The Spirit brings forgotten sins to mind, and presseth them upon
the conscience. As the Samaritan woman concludes Christ to be the Mes-
siah, because he ' told her all that ever she had done,' John iv. 29, so the
renewing upon us the sense of all that ever we did, is an evidence of the
Spirit's work. When old, forgotten sins are brought to light in the mind,
it is an effect of God's Spirit, who is greater than our hearts, and knoweth
all things. Thus the Spirit doth set in order youthful sins in old age, makes
men to 'possess the sins of their youth,' as in Job; and gathers iniquities
laid in the dust together, upon the beating the drum of conscience, and fills
the soul with the sense and consideration of them, and brings in an old score
of sin with many items. Item, such a time a contempt of God ; such a time a
speculative wickedness ; such a time a quenching of the Spirit; profane speech ;
swarms of vain thoughts and vile lusts ; the many aggravations of sin against
mercies, in the very face of God, when a pardon was offered ; rebellion against
the light of conscience ; stifling holy motions ; breaking the bonds of love ; the
influence our sins had upon others ; principles and root of sin ; enmity to God ;
secret rising of heart against the purity of the law. Thus it brings sins
that were forgotten, and sets them home : Ps. cxix. 59, ' I considered my
ways.' He counted his ways and his sins one by one, as the word there
signifies, as much as he could, and as the Spirit of God directed. Though
many times the Spirit lays one sin closest, yet all the rest are brought in,
and severally charged ; as in a pestilent disease all the humours wherewith
the body was troubled before run into that infectious disease ; and the soul
is made to read those sins as plainly as if they had been committed but the
day before. A wicked man 'knoweth not whither he goeth,' 1 John ii. 11;
he hath no clear knowledge of the nature of sin and the dreadfulness of wrath.
But the Spii-it in this work makes us not only see sin, but giveth an intuitive
knowledge of it; draws the veil from the face of sin, washeth off its varnish,
pulls away its fine dress and attire, and presents it as the greatest evil, and
in its most Ethiopian deformity.
Sixthly, The Spirit fixeth the sense of the most terrible attributes of God
upon the soul in this work. His justice, eternity, holiness, are brandished
against him, and mercy seems standing aloof from him. He makes him look
upon justice incensed, holiness disparaged, mercy slighted, power preparing
a Tophet of wrath, and kindling it against it, and eternity perpetuating the
punishment ; and hides all considerations of God that might give hope of relief.
Upon these perfections of God, which breathe terror against the sins of men,
is conviction founded. Men naturally have a greater sense of God's mercy
than any other attributes, because mercy and patience are more continually
exposed to their view, in the warm sun, influences of heaven, fruitful showers,
and kindly provisions, which multiply the notion of his mercy in the minds
of men. And from those ideas, fortitied by these common works of kindness,
and from self-love in men's breasts, doth arise men's confidence and presump-
tion in the mercy of God. And therefore the soul is never soundly convinced
of its own natural state till self-love be shaken, and the other attributes of
God seriously pondered and owned. When the soul is in a dead sleep, there
'
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin, 189
is no consideration of justice ; and when awakened by the law, without the
sight of the gospel, and a discovery of his mercy in Christ, like Adam and
Eve the soul runs from God's presence, and every voice of God is terrible;
and finding himself culpable, and seeing nothing but a sea of sin, he fears
the justice of God, that the sovereign Judge of all the world will bring him
to a speedy account, and inflict that death that he knows himself worthy of.
Now, the consideration of these attributes have in the holiest men always
caused in them reflections on their iniquities. Hence holy men in Scripture,
upon some apparition of God, or an angel, were full of apprehensions of God's
holiness and their own impurity, which possessed them with expectations of
death, when they looked upon God as a consuming fire, and themselves as
dry stubble, Ezek. iii. 6, Judges xiii. 22, Isa. vi. 6.
Seventhly, The Spirit of God removes, in this work of conviction, all the
former supports which the soul leaned upon. It blows up all the little castles
of defence, pufis them away as chaff, makes conscience work through all the
plasters laid on to assuage the grief, lays the soul naked without any cover-
ing. The heart of man being stufied with self-love, frames a multitude of
miserable comforters as weak as Adam's fig-leaves; but when the Spirit
ariseth in the ministry of the law, he tears all those coverings, nonplusses
all those subtile evasions, breaks all those props and crutches in pieces, and
casts down the soul before the foot of God's righteous judgment, that it dares
not cast a glance, a loving look, towards that Sodom which God hath fired ;
knocks ofi" the hands from all those things whereby men would compound
with God and their guilty consciences ; all the strong reasonings for the life
of their lusts, and the presumptuous arguings for the salvation of their souls,
fall before the battery of the word, which like an engine plays against the
high-built and pleasant imaginations. He pulls up the foundation of their
own righteousness, strips it of its painted garment, and makes them look upon
their pretended beauties as loathsome deformities. When sin revives by the
commandment, the sinner dies in the former opinion he had of himself ; the
sentence of death in himself is attended with death in all his comforts. And
upon this account afilictions are mighty helpful to this work, when the Spirit
sets in with them. When the supports of sin are drawn away, the evil of sin
is more seen, which was not observed by men in the midst of their wealth
and pleasure. When he ' holds them in afflictions,' then ' he shews them
their work and their transgression, wherein they have exceeded; he openeth
their ear also to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity,'
Job xxxvi. 8-10. On this account God takes afflictions as the proper season
to carry on this convincing work. For the rod puts life into the word, and
makes men look inward to their consciences, and outward to their actions.
When their fonner supports are pulled down about their ears, and conscience
is quickened by the Spirit, then is the time for it to shew its commission ;
whereas in the hurry of pleasures it was wholly silent. And while the Spirit
doth arm conscience against a man, he doth suspend the force and fury of
his lusts, which before stopped the mouth of it.
Eighthly, The Spirit makes the soul intent upon the consideration of its
sin, and those evidences which are brought in against it.
(1.) Upon the consideration of its sin. The thoughts of his sin haunt
him like so many ghosts, and conscience, like Zipporah to Moses, flies in his
face ; not once, but with a repetition, ' A bloody husband hast thou been
unto me.' It gives no respite, every thought is a particular sting; wherever
he looks, sin stares upon him ; and wherever he is or moves, conscience is
with him, thundering in his ears the curses of the law, and flashing in his
face the fire of hell, and presenting the black scroll to his consideration.
190 oharnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
His sin is ever before him, which Job calls, chap, xiii, 27, a putting his feet
in the stocks. He cannot move but he feels the smart of his wounds at
every motion. The Spirit ' seals instruction ; ' he sets such a brand upon
the conscience, that all the art of men cannot raze it out ; it is held in by
the law, Rom. vii. 6, and ' filled with bitterness,' Job ix. 18. The Spirit
stakes him down, and points him to his sins. Lo, these are thy sins, and
these will be thy plagues without a conversion. He will not let him take
one sweet draught, nor a mouthful of cool air ; he fixeth his eyes upon sin
with sorrow, as much as his eyes were before upon it with joy. The soul
had heard a thousand times of its lying, swearing, drunkenness, unclean-
ness, and other wickednesses ; the necessity of conversion, the misery of
hell, and the pleasures of heaven ; but all were vanishing sounds, till the
Spirit sounds the trumpet of the law, and fixeth truths upon the conscience,
and maketh reason perform its office ; then he ' holds the eyes waking,' Ps.
Ixxvii. 4, and the soul cannot speak of anything but its trouble. For as
the Spirit brings to remembrance the promises of Christ, and fixeth them as
a ground of faith, brings to remembrance the precepts of Christ, and settleth
them upon the soul as a ground of obedience, so, as a Spirit of bondage, he
brings the threatenings of the law, and leaves the stamp of them upon us,
that we cannot look oif from them ; inlays the law in the heart as a law of
death, as in conversion and faith it is engraven as a law of life. Thus Christ
dealt with Paul ; Acts ix. 4, tells him of his persecuting, ' Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me ? ' When Paul would know who it was who spoke to
him : ver. 5, ' I am Jesus of Nazareth ;' yet holds his eyes still upon his
sin, ' Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.' These considerations
break in like a deluge on the soul, so that none can stop them, and they
attend the person at his bed, and table, and shop, and walk, and they in-
corporate themselves wuth him. And the Spirit
(2.) Doth follow the soul with one word after another, and presseth and
urgeth more and more that which may make a thorough conviction. The
word to natural men is like a flash of lightning, that scareth and vanisheth ;
it is like an arrow shot against a brazen wall, that immediately falls down
again ; it is a glass wherein a man seeth his face, and quickly forgets his
own physiognomy. But the Spirit in this work holds the glass before the
face, presseth upon the soul the pure interpretation, the sense and meaning
of the law, drives it deep, like a nail that cannot be pulled out, doth many
times providentially guide a man to those places of Scripture that sharpen
the conviction, and rend the soul wider, as a torn garment is by every nail
that catches hold of it ; and never leaves it till he brings it to subscribe, I
am the man whose name is written here, I am the man who is meant in
this curse. But then.
Ninthly, The Spmt springs up fears in the soul at the consideration of this
state. Fears, so far as they are not sinful, are the work of the Spirit, as a
Spirit of bondage ; he concludes it under a state of unbelief, makes it under-
stand the intolerableness and duration of its misery in that state, puts the
question to it, whether it can dwell with everlasting burnings ? The Spirit
presents it with a pure law, a righteous judge, and a deserved wrath. Now
it is natural for any man under the just sentence of the law for a capital
crime, to be full of dread. There is fire and thunder in the particular
application of the law, as there was in the first dehvery of it on mount Sinai ;
and since the transgression of the law, there is nothing but death, horror,
and the curses of it, ready to seize upon the soul. It may well set the
holiest men, when they examine themselves by it, on trembling, as Moses
did at the delivery of it, Heb. xii. 21. And indeed it is impossible for the
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 191
Spirit to act, in an ordinary way, but according to the nature of that word
which is presented to the mind. If a promise be applied, the proper con-
sequent of that is comfort ; if a threatening be impressed upon the mind,
the proper consequent of that is terror ; if a precept, the immediate opera-
tion of that is obedience. Therefore the Spirit can be no other but a spirit
of bondage, exciting troubles in the soul, as it works by the law, because
there is no promise of reward in that, but to those that perfectly obey. If
the law met with a pure heart, free from all taint of sin, the Spirit would
engender comfort by it ; but since there are deep spots in the hearts and
natures of all men, God by the law only persuades them of the truth of
that ; and it is impossible that from the law alone anything should arise but
what is slavish. If the Spirit speak no other word but the law, it can pro-
duce nothing but terror and condemnation. What terrors must then seize
upon the spirits of men, and what distresses be rooted in their souls, when
they consider themselves cut off from all hopes of mercy by the law, havincr
broken it, and no promise giving any ground of comfort, but a curse pro"^
nounced by the violation of it ? And how severe that is you may see : Gal.
iii. 10, ' Curseth is every one that continueth not in every thing to do it.'
Now when a man seeth he hath no title to heaven in regard of the curse, no
disposition to heaven in regard of his nature, and that the curse of the law
is his right before the legal bar, and beholds the sparklings of wrath, with-
out any cloud to shelter him, can a man see this without self-condemnint^,
and a crying out, ' I am undone, I am undone ' ? When conscience is thus
awakened, sin thus presented, the law thus manifested, and the soul held
down to the consideration of all, it is as impossible it can be without in-
ward convulsions, as the ground without earthquakes which hath air in its
bowels without any vent. This thunder from Sinai raiseth nothing else but
blackness, and darkness, and storms in the region of the soul.
Lastly, The Spirit, in a saving conviction, brings the soul after this wound-
ing to a self-debasing and humiliation. Man is the most backward in the
world to the charging guilt upon himself, he is more skilful at self- excuses
than self-indictments ; but the Spirit brings the soul to comply with the end
of the ministration of the law, which is, ' that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God,' Kom. iii. 19. By this revela-
tion of the secrets of the heart, and the urgency of conscience the over-
powering work of the Spirit, the soul makes a positive conclusion against
itself to the glory of God, 1 Cor. xiv. 25. Thus by sharpening his arrows
in the hearts of his enemies, Ps. xlv. 5, he makes his enemies fall under
him, in an acknowledgment of his righteousness and power, and the unlike-
ness of their hearts to the pui-ity of the law ; not extenuating the guilt, but
loading themselves with it to a self- abhorrence ; abhorring themselves in
dust and ashes, counting themselves as dead dogs, to violate so holy, right-
eous, just, and good a law; and turning all their self-righteousness to shame,
heartily wishing those sins which gall them had never been committed. And
after this, when the gospel is presented, the soul enters into debates with
itself, and makes a judicious comparison between the first covenant, and
condemnation by that, and the second covenant, and life by that. Here are
flames of wrath, and there are rivers of joy ; here is a lake that burns, there
is a paradise that refresheth ; here is a flying roll, full of curses, which will
seize upon me, there is a rich gospel, full of blessings, that is offered to me ;
here is death to sinners that will not have God to reign over them, there is
life to believers that submit with the obedience of faith. If I sin while I
live, I must perish when I die ; I must be saved by grace, or be punished
by wrath. And shall I sin away my hopes, to fall into a miserable eternity?
192 charnock's works. [John XYI. 8, 9.
shall I sin myself to death, when the promise of grace is freely made to me
in order to my salvation ? Thus the soul is brought to a sense of sin by
the law, and the insufficiency of the creature, and then welcome Christ, and
gospel, and covenant, and promises of grace ; welcome the yoke of Christ.
And when it cometh to this, then conviction ends, hath its perfect work,
concluding in a thorough conversion and acceptance of Christ.
IV. The fourth thing ; what sins, or what in sin the Spirit doth chiefly con-
vince of ! The conviction by any other cause is partial, it is but half baked,
roast on one side, and raw on the other ; the Spirit's conviction is universal,
he holds a right rule to the crooked heart ; he measures all the dimensions
of the soul, and of sin in it, considers root and branch, leaves and fruit. As
the Spirit in a good man mortifies all sin, cleanses from all sin, so in this
work he discovers all sin.
First, The Spirit usually singles out some one sin at the first to set home
upon the soul ; sometimes some base unworthy action, some blasphemous
word, some disparaging thought of God, some captain and master sin, which
is first brought out to face the soul, and presented in its hideous shape :
as crucifying the Saviour of the world was charged by Peter upon the Jews,
Acts ii. ; fornication upon the woman of Samaria, by Christ, John iv. 18.
As the Spirit of adoption, in working assurance, evidenceth to the soul some
one particular grace which is wrought in the soul, whereby he may be able
to judge of his state ; so, as a Spirit of bondage, he presseth some particular
sin at fii'st, whereby a man may judge of his deplorable condition. Some
one sin the Spirit takes hold of, to begin this work of conviction. But
though one sin chiefly sticks in the conscience at first, yet in the Spirit's
work all others do rush in afterwards to have their share. When one bee
cometh forth and stings one that hath disturbed the hive, the rest come out
to revenge the quarrel ; or when one mastifi" sets upon a passenger, all the
rest will come barking in. The guilt of one sin is let loose upon the con-
science ; not that the work ends here (for then the soul might be lost), but
this is an introduction. Judas's thought dwelt only upon one sin. Mat.
xxvii. 4, betraying innocent blood, that did afi'ect him ; but he never searched
further into the kennel, never into the depravation of his nature. But the
Spirit begins at one, and leads the soul from chamber to chamber, from lust
to lust, till it hath viewed the whole den by degrees ; for he doth not shew
all at once, that the soul for whom he hath kind thoughts may not fail
before him.
Secondly, The Spirit usually convinceth the soul first of gross sins. He
begins with these, because they are more legible and obvious by natural
light, which of itself condemns them, and sets the soul speechless. As in
the siege of a town, batteries are planted against that part of it which is
weakest. Sins in the conversation 'are more visible than those that lie
secret in the heart, other sins are obscured by these outward ones, as stars
are by a bigger light, and a little spot by a greater stain ; these are more
visible to the inward senses, and more easily read by conscience, by prin-
ciples of reason which rise up in accusation of them. David's murder and
adultery first afl'ected his conscience by Nathan's ministry, but in the pro-
gress he complains of his hypocrisy, Ps. li. 10 ; of those sins which poured
in their streams to the increasing that river, those auxiliaries which had
contributed their assistance to maintain his heart in its hardness for that
sin. As in thankfulness one great mercy appears, but when that is dissected,
the whole train of mercies appear ; so in conviction, one gi'oss sin first shews
itself, and when this is discerned, the whole litter comes in view. Christ
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 193
rouseth Paul for his persecution first, but after, if spread further on his
conscience ; for he acknowledges himself not only a persecutor, but a blas-
phemer and injurious. The Spirit holds the conscience to the visible letter
of the law before he applies the invisible spirit of it to the heart, and afiects
the heart with that which is biggest, because of its nearness, rather thaa
others, which, though as bad or worse, seem less by reason of their remote-
ness.
Thirdly, The Spirit from thence proceedeth to the conviction of the bosom
sin. All men worship some golden calf, set up by education, custom,
natural inclination, or the like ; and while a Delilah lies in the bosom and
engrosseth the affections, the soul cannot be set with its love upon God ; and
if the heart be disafiected to this, the others are more easily hated. When a
general is taken, the army runs. This is the great stream, others but rivulets
which bring supply. The disaffecting the soul to this, facilitates the re-
maining work, because this is the strongest chain wherein the devil holds a
man, the main fort. The Spirit fights against the lighter parties that come
forth, but chiefly against that which hath been the great commander of all
the other forces against Grod, and the greatest confidence of the devil. As
a -wise general directs his force against the stoutest body, w^herein the
strength of the enemy consists, when that is worsted, the arms presently
fall out of the hands of the rest. Other sins are as the stragglers of an
army, by the routing of which the victory is not obtained, but by the shatter-
ing the main body. The Spirit doth chiefly convince of this bosom sin.
Violence was the soldiers', extortion was the publicans' sin, and the Spirit
directs John Baptist against these ; hypocrisy was the darling iniquity of
the Pharisees, Christ plants his battery most against this ; Paul, in his whole
progress after conversion, abhors most his persecution. As sanctification is
a cleansing a man from his iniquity, so is a conviction of the Spirit, a dis-
covering to a man his proper iniquity, Ps. xviii. 21.
Fourthly, Thence the Spirit directs the soul to a sight of its corruption
by nature, opens the root of bitterness, makes us smell the sink of sin,
discovers the dunghill whence all these little serpents derived their Hfe and
strength, shews us the rotten core as well as the worm-eaten skin ; that the
nature of the person lies in wickedness, as a mole in the earth, or a carcase
in putrefaction, 1 John v. 19, all under sin, no good spring in the heart;
that there is poison in the heart, that taints every work of the hand, ima-
gination, fancy, thoughts of the mind, and motions of the will. He brings
a man from the chamber of outward to the closet of inward sins, until he
arriveth to the large room of nature ; bids him see if he can find out one
clean corner in the heart, and so conducts him to the first sin of Adam,
makes him behold the first fountain whence all issued, and all little enough
to make the proud heart stoop to God. He makes him consider he is
deeply concerned in that first sin, though so many revolutions of years have
passed. This makes a man vile in his own eyes, that he cannot look upon
himself, but with confusion and an universal blush. God looks to this sin
of nature as the ground of punishment : Gen. vi. 5,6,' The imagination of
the heart was only evil,' and therefore it repented God that he made man
on the earth ; therefore the Spirit doth afiect most with this in conviction.
As Christ came to cure the wound of nature, so the Spirit shews the im-
purity of nature in order to that cure; he would not else act upon the
foundation Christ had laid. He is sent to convince men of their need of
Christ, therefore of that which lays men under the greatest necessity of Christ,
which is the violation of the first covenant, and the evil consequents of it.
VOL. IV. N
194 charnock's woeks. [John XVI. 8, 9.
As the Spirit in mortification strikes to the root of sin, so in conviction he
digs to it ; as in sanctification he cleanses from the sink of sin, so in con-
viction he shews it. Christ, in his discourse with Nicodemus, lays this
open to him, who thought the doctrine of the necessity of regeneration a
strange kind of discourse, and must needs think so, until he understood, John
iii. 6, that ' that which is born of the flesh is flesh,' that nature was uni-
versally depraved. David begins with a sense of his adultery in his con-
viction, but traceth up his sin to the spring, his natural conception, Ps.
li. 5. He followeth the young cubs to the old one's den, where he found
sin's mark upon every member at his first formation. If the Spirit did not
convince of this, he did little or nothing to the purpose ; for as long as we
think there is any good in us, we shall depend upon it, and never go to
Christ. But when we see the running issue of nature, as well as the out-
flowings of nature, then we shall with open arms fly to him. To be ignorant
of this, and complain of other sins, is a sign of conscience but half awakened.
This is the proper work of the Spirit, and it cannot be done without this ;
the branches and fruit are visible, so are the beams and rafters of a house,
but the root and foundation lies under ground. The Spirit shews this cor-
ruption of nature not b}' a glimmering but clear light ; not only shews a man
that he is fallen, but makes him see the heavens in their glory, from whence
he fell ; hell in its misery, to which he fell. He afiects him with his nature,
as the seminary of all sin, as a womb to prepare and ripen sin, until a suit-
able temptation is offered to give birth to it.
Fifthly, The Spirit convinceth of the evil nature of sin ; and this is a
necessary work of the Spirit. As in striving against it, the renewed soul
quarrels with it as it is sin, so in a thorough conviction the Spirit doth un-
mask it as it is sin ; he presents it under those considerations upon which
the soul is to fight against it ; he evidenceth it sensibly to be enmity to
God, to his essence, attributes, his law, turning the back upon God with
the greatest scorn, and lifting up the heel against him, Jer. xxxii. 33,
<;ndeavouring to despoil God of his government (whence sinners are said to
be without God in the world), casting the holy law behind their backs, pre-
ferring a dirty creature before the Creator, a base lust before a blessed
Jesus. He doth evidence every sin to be idolatr}^ an implicit adoration of
Satan : ingratitude, because our mercies are received after our lives were
forfeited ; theft, in robbing God of that reverence that is due to him, and
the revenues of his glory ; unbelief, not believing his promises whereby he
allures, nor his threatenings whereby he scares; unfaithfulness, in breach of
covenant, and abundance more bound up in the womb of sin; this the
Spirit doth convince a man is in the nature of sin, in every sin. Now, the
Spirit shews sin to be an injury to a gracious God, impurity, disingenuity
against a holy God, disloyalty to our supreme Lord, a breach of a holy
aiid righteous law, a stab to the heart of Christ, a shedding the best blood
that ever was, and such a heinous thing as is not to be remitted without the
blood of God. As the Spirit's second conviction, of the righteousness of
Christ, is as it is the expiating cause of the sin of man, so his first discovery
of sin is, as it appears to be the occasion of the death of Christ. Without
this conviction of the evil nature of sin, the Spirit is not like to attain its
end ; for there cannot be a conversion till a man be sensible of what sin is
in its own nature, aversion from God, alienation and contrariety to him.
Sixthly, The Spirit doth convince of the filthiness and pollution of sin.
Sin is the contagion of the soul, the universal stain of nature; nothing but
pollution succeeded in the place of original purity. The Scripture doth set
forth sin to us under all the vilest terms, calls it an Ethiopian blackness,
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 195
spots, mire, dirt, dung, plague, ulcer, sore. As there is a saltness in every
drop of water in the sea, so there is a filthiness in every action of sin. The
Spirit discovers the naughtiness of the heart, and the nastiness of lusts,
being more loathsome than toads, and infectious than plagues : Isa. Ivii. 20,
the wicked man's heart is like the sea, * casting up mire and dirt.' The
Spirit in this work doth (as it were) spread dung in the face of the sinner,
he shews what slime and frogs it hath left behind in every part it hath
touched, that he may feel as well as see the loathsomeness of it. When the
Spirit Cometh thus as a judge into the soul, though we seem to be washed
with snow-water, and our hands appear clean, yet we shall be as plunged in a
ditch, that our own clothes will abhor us. Job ix. 30, 31. Then a man
sees himself bemired from head to foot, like one over head and ears in a
common sewer. By seeing original sin, we see the defilement of it, how it
hath infected the whole nature ; and that human nature is not like a river to
purify itself, but its mud is increased rather than diminished. If the Spirit
should stir up all the stench of sin, and unmask all its ugliness, without
making any further progress, utter despair, fury, confusion, self-hatred,
would be the effect of it. The Spirit in this work must needs discover this
filthiness, if he attain his end in it. For as the soul in sanctification is to
purge out sin by the strength of the Spirit, so it is necessary by conviction
it should see the filth of that that is to be purged out, as an incentive to
cleanse it. No soul will hate it, no soul will move its hand to its expulsion,
till it be stripped of its painted colours, till it be shewn in its native black-
ness, till the sei-pent be stripped of his skin, and manifested in the venom
and poison of its nature. Cain saw his sin in the wrathful efi'ects, as it was
not forgiven, but not in the polluting effect, as the blood of his brother had
defiled his conscience. When we see the guilt, it terrifieth us ; and the
filth, it shameth us : the one makes us desire ease, the other cleansing.
Without this sight we cannot justify God in his righteousness, nor admii-e
him in his patience, that he did not long since fling such nasty vessels on
the dunghill; without a sight of this we can never hate sin spiritually.
Sensibleness of the wrath that is due to it may make us fear it, but it is
sensibleness of the filthiness of it that must make us loathe it. Both these
are the designs of the Holy Spirit in conviction, to make God appear admir-
able, desirable, and sin appear hateful. Then,
Seventhly, The Spirit convinceth of spiritual sins, and this is the great
work. It convinces of the corruption of nature, the nature of sin, and the
filth of sin ; but it presseth most upon spiritual sins, the first motions, self-
conceit of our own worth, pride against God, unbelief, and the like. Con-
science hath a natural edge to wound a man for those sins which render a
man inexcusable by the light of nature ; but some sins lie remote out of
sight, as spiritual wickedness in the high places of understanding, will, and
affections, yea, and of conscience itself; a clearer light and a more piercing
principle is requisite for the discovery of these. Drunkenness, murder,
luxury, theft, &c., are sins condemned by the general consent of nature ;
the works of the visibly defiled flesh are manifest, but the works of refined
flesh lie closer in the inward corner, and are not so easily discovered, though
there is a greater defilement in these than men commonly imagine. Other
sins disgrace us more in the eye of men, and these defile us more in the eye
of God. The soul, which ought to be a living temple for God, is defiled by
these sins, which is as if the throne of a prince should be besmeared with
dung. That is worse in the eye of God, which consists in a conformity to
the devil, God's great enemy, than that which consists in a conformity to
the brutish creature, as sins'of the flesh are. They are the strength of sin,
19G charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
the heart and life of the body of death, the main fort, the other sins are but
the outworks. The great end of the Spirit is to convince of these. The out-
works must be first taken, therefore gross sins must be first known ; yet
there is no hopes of conquest while the main strength remains invisible.
As sanctification begins at the sins of the flesh, but grows up to a cleansing
from spiritual sins, so must a sense of sin in order to sanctification sail the
same course. These being the subjects of the Spirit's sanctification, as that
wherein the enemy's chief strength lies, are the subject of conviction too ;
and herein consists the spirituality of conviction. As the strength of an eye
appears in discovering the spots in the sun, which lie covered with a rich
robe of light, so the strength of conviction in the spirituality of it is dis-
cerned in the eye's discovering the stains in the heart, which are covered
with a beautiful cloak of outward morality. When sciences are learned, the
rudiments and more obvious principles are known before the mysteries are
understood, and men grow up from a common to an abstruse knowledge ;
so the Spirit leads us from a sight and sense of more visible, till it dives at
length to the secrets of sin, to the deceivableness of unrighteousness in the
spiritual antichrist working in the soul. No spiritual conviction without a
conviction of spiritual sins. A natural man may by natural conscience be
convinced of great sins against th'e light of nature, as a dim eye can read a
great print ; but such are usually most sensible of sins against the second
table, or more open sins against the first; but the Spirit convinceth of the
more inward imperceptible sins, afi"ects it with those against both tables.
Paul was convinced not only of the sins he acted without, as his persecution,
but of sins dwelling in him, springing up in him, and discovering themselves
by their motions in him. And,
Eighthly, The Spirit convinceth the soul of its own impotency and weak-
ness. He shews the sinner his filth and his chains ; how lust brings guilt
and slavery ; how his understanding is deprived of true light, and his will of
true Hberty ; whence there is an utter inabihty to make up the breach
between God and the soul, from whence his best righteousness smells rank,
and contracts a taint from that corruption which is derived from Adam unto
the whole human nature. Men naturally glory in their own power, they
think grace no more than walking according to the rules of blinded reason,
they understand not the depth of their wound, nor their weakness by it.
Sins of infirmity they think they have, which are to nature only like the
scratch of a pin, not like the stab of a sword ; they think their vitals are
sound and strong still. But the Spirit convinceth the soul that her wings are
broke, and her feet crippled, and her hands possessed with a dead palsy ; that
man hath an universal impotency, spiritual feebleness, his weakness as incu-
rable as bis wickedness, that he can no more strengthen himself than purge
himself, Kom. vii. 15. The Spirit convinceth man that his best strength is
but a shadow of righteousness, that as he was mutable in righteousness in
innocency, so since the fall he is immutable to sin, and unable to turn from
it ; that he is a slave to his lusts, held in chains till they be knocked ofi", shut
up in a prison that he cannot break, and under the power of a jailor that he
cannot conquer. Without this he would think to lick himself whole, and
never lie sighing and sobbing at the foot of Christ. Though a man naturally
justify himself, yet when the Spirit deals with him, overturns all his props,
and discovers him overgrown with feebleness as well as sinfulness, he cries,
like Job, chap. ix. 20, 21, ' If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn
me : if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though I were
irfect, yet would I not know my soul ; I would despise my Hfe.'
Ninthly, He doth continually convince of the consequences and demerits
John XVI. 8, 9.J conviction of sin. 197
of sin. He doth dissect sin, and shew it in its circumstances, and he doth
convince and set home upon the soul the demerit of sin ; and (though he
doth also propose the gospel) he sets home that wrath which is deserved by
it. For he speaks a language quite contrary to that of the devil to our first
parents, persuading Adam that no wrath would ensue upon it ; that he should
meet with life in eating the forbidden fruit. The Spirit's method is contrary
to that of the devil ; death is the wages of every iniquity. You shall be as
gods, saith Satan ; you have made yourselves like devils, saith the Spirit ;
are transformed into the devil's nature, fallen into the devil's condemnation.
The Spirit sets home what it deserves at the hands of God ; although he doth
propose the gospel, yet he affects the soul with what sin hath deserved.
V. The fifth thing is. What the difference is between the convictions of the
Spirit by this or that instrument, by nature, law, and gospel. What differ-
ence there is between the Spirit's setting sin before us in a way of conviction,
and Satan's setting sin before us, who doth interest himself sometimes in this
conviction of sin, when it is attended with much terror ; what the difference is
between the sense of sin barely from natural principles, and a sense of sin
that is wrought by the Spirit ; then what the difference is between a legal
and an evangelical conviction.
1. Though there are some beams of candle-hght in nature, which make
a discovery of some unrighteousness, whence arise rebukes of conscience,
yet nature is not able to furnish us with a full conviction, and such a one as
is necessary for our repair. Blind nature cannot see the rubbish, much less
remove it ; depraved nature is not sensible of all its crookedness, much less
can it rectify it : it cannot hew and prepare itself for the introduction of the
image of God. The highest natural improvements of our natural faculties
cannot guide us into the close dens and chambers of sin, and give us a true
prospect of the poisonous entrails of it. Nature may spring up some good
operations in the heart, take nature in its latitude, what a man maybe in his
natural state, before his conversion to Christ ; nature as it is propped up by
the mediation of Christ, and as there are some commendable relics left in it,
there are still some inbred principles which bring forth many excellent things
according to their proportion ; as there is virtue in the earth since the curse
of it after man's fall, to bring forth many excellent plants and medicinal
herbs. But these convictions by nature are,
First, Light and uncertain, of a short duration ; they are sudden qualms
and fits upon some observation of outward judgments. As all judgments are
sent to make men sensible there is a God in the earth, and that there are
unrighteous actions that are displeasing to him, upon these judgments there
are some reflections in a natural conscience, some sense of God, what is due
to sin, and what deviations are from him ; but they continue no longer than
the cause that raised them ; they are sudden frights and startings, which soon
settle again, as in a sudden fright and start nature is speedily reduced to its
former temper, and the blood that was put on the sudden into another mo-
tion is quickly brought to its former consistence. They are usually like a
land-flood, which causes an inundation, but sink not into the roots of the
soul : Ps. ix. 21, they are ' put in fear,' and while they are in fear, they
' know themselves to be but men.' It is a work not so much upon the judg-
ment as upon the affections, therefore it is like a fire falling upon flax, and
other combustible matter, which flames and expires, and you see its death
almost as soon as it begins to live ; whereas, those convictions that arise
from the Spirit settle upon the judgment, and, like a fire in a log of wood,
are kept aUve in the soul, eat into the soul, dive into the bottom, produce
198 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
serious and lasting affections. Conscience is staggering and unfixed, there-
fore whatsoever ariseth from it, partaketh of the uncertain nature of the
cause. We shall be moveable in our affections, unless first stedfast in our
judgment ; until then, there can be no abounding in the work of the Lord.
The apostle makes one the cause of the other : 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' Be stedfast
and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.' First a sted-
fastness in judgment, and then a settlement in the affections, and then an
abounding in practice. No conviction can fasten in a rolling and unballasted
mind, no conviction that ariseth from nature. Besides, fear is an unwelcome
passion, as love is a delightful one ; nature is held longer in the chains of
love than in the fetters of fear : the one it hugs and embraceth, the other it
knocks off. The whole course of nature strives against flashes of fear, and
•will not endure the object of it ; not invite and encourage its stay, but rather
is up in arms against it ; and, upon this account, those convictions that arise
barely from natural principles, from anything of bare nature, are not of long
duration. Any conviction from nature is like the smart of a prick of a pin
in the flesh, which is soon forgot ; a conviction by the Spirit is like the stab
of a sword in the heart. The arrows of nature are easily plucked out, but
God's arrows stick fast, Job vi. 4. Nature likes not to retain anything of
God in its knowledge, Eom. i. 28 ; but the Spirit imprints things and holds
them upon the soul, binds his corrosive to it, that it cannot shake it off.
Secondly, Convictions by nature do at best but stand at a stay ; they are
not growing. If the convictions by nature do remain, yet they are not
growing convictions, they gather not strength and perfection every day ; if
they do not decay and fall, as a seeming star, into dust and rottenness, yet
they rise not up into a stronger light, are not in a state of progress, but are
stinted to low measures. If they do seem bigger, it is by an external addi-
tion from multiplied causes and renewed observation of judgments, not from
any internal principle of an enlightened mind ; but, in the conviction of the
Spirit, the light }■ esterday was as the light of a torch, to-morrow as the moon,
and still rising till it be as the sun, which discovers the filthiness and little
motes of the heart, as the sun doth the filthiness as well as the beauty of the
earth ; and this light will increase sevenfold, as the light of seven days put
into one : Prov. iv. 18, ' The path of the just is as the shining light, that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.' His path from his first step-
ping into anything that tends to it, is as the shining light, -which shines more
and more unto the perfect day ; whereas the way of the wicked is as dark-
ness : a sudden gleam of light lighting upon him and vanishing, leaves his
eye under more darkness than before. The Spirit makes a progress from
the first step towards righteousness, till the dawning of the day of righteous-
ness in the soul. As Christ came not only to give life, but to give it more
abundantly, John x. 10, so the Spirit giveth not small flashes of light in the
mind and conscience, but an abundant and growing light. Usually, convic-
tions of nature do stand at a stay ; nature wUl not row long against the
stream, but at last be carried down by its force. Talents not improved are
quickly lost, and plants, when they begin to wither, never cease till quite
blasted, unless influenced afresh by the beams and showers of heaven.
Thirdly, Natural convictions arise from some external cause, spiritual from
the word imprinted upon the soul. Natural convictions are, from some
natural outward cause, only from the sight of judgments on others, or some
personal afflictions on themselves ; but the word is the sword of the Spirit,
Ephes. vi. 17, whereby he cuts open the soul. By this he did execution
upon those whose hands were red with the blood of Christ, Acts ii. This
is always his instrument to cut, though he useth judgments and afflictions
John XVI. 8, 9. J conviction of sin. 199
as whetstones to sharpen the edge, or as a mallet to strike it in the deeper.
David, a most intelligent person, well skilled in natural notions, was not
convinced of his sin of murder and adultery by any immediate excitation of
his natural principles, or those spiritual notions in his mind, without the
instrumentality of the word in the mouth of Nathan ; that man of under-
standing was not sensible of his sin, till Nathan came with a message from
God, and upon this alarm the Spirit arms his memory, and conscience, and
understanding, to carry on the work, 2 Sam. xii. 7, 8. The filthy soul and
the pure word are brought together when a spiritual conviction is wrought,
and it discovers milHons of loathsome lusts which the dim light of natm-e
could never discern. That is the first thing ; the difierence between the
convictions of nature and the Spirit.
2. There are also differences between legal and evangelical convictions.
And,
First, In regard of the principles whence they proceed.
(1.) A legal conviction ariseth from a consideration of God's justice chiefly,
an evangelical from a sense of God's goodness. A legally convinced person
cries out, I have exasperated a power that is as the roaring of a lion, a jus-
tice that is as the voice of thunder ; I have provoked one that is the sovereigQ
Lord of heaven and earth, whose word can tear up the foundations of the
world with as much ease as he established them. This is the legal convic-
tion. But an evangelically convinced person cries, T have inccused a good-
ness that is like the dropping of the dew ; I have offended a God that had
the deportment of a friend, rather than that of a sovereign. I have incurred
the anger of a judge, saith a legalist ; I have abused the tenderness of a
father, saith an evangelically convinced person. Oh my marble, my iron
heart, against a 'patient, wooing God, a God of bowels ! It makes every
review of acts of kindness to be a sting in the conscience ; it makes such a
person miserable by mercy, and scorches him with the beams of goodness ;
turns the honey into a bitter pill, and useth a branch of the balsam tree as
a rod wherewith to lash him. wretch, to run from so sweet a fountain
to rake in puddles ! to rush into a river of brimstone, through a sea of good-
ness ! What a cut is it, when ingenuity is awakened, to reject a natural
goodness, much more an infinite goodness ; to reject the goodness of a man,
much more that of a God ; the goodness of a friend never provoked, much
more the goodness of a God that had been so highly incensed ! There is a
torture of hell in both, kindled by the breath of the Lord ; in the one by the
breath of his wrath, in the other by the breath of his goodness. One is in-
flamed by justice to a sense of rebellion, the other by goodness to a sense of
his own vileness. This is that which was promised should be in gospel
times, that in the latter days men should fear the Lord and his goodness,
Hos. iii. 5. That is a true evangelical conviction, that springs fi'om a thorough
sense of God's goodness, when the goodness of God excites ingenuity, as well
as the majesty of God strikes a terror.
(2.) A legal conviction springs from a sense of God's power, an evangelical
from a sense of God's holiness. Power is the relief of a friend, and the
terror of an enemy. Faith pitcheth upon the power of God for its establish-
ment, and unbelief sinks under the sense of God's power with confusion ;
the beHever stays himself upon the name of God, but the sinner languisheta
under the consideration of the mightiness of that stroke that power can in-
flict. An evangelical convict dissolves under the sense of God's holiness,
the other falls under the sense of God's power. I have ofi"ended majesty
that can punish me, saith one ; I have ofiended purity that would have
sanctified me, saith the other. As the forgetfulness of God's power and
200 charnook's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
majesty is the cause of men's sins, we regard not how corrupt our practices
and offerings to Grod are, when we consider him not as a great king and
dreadful Lord, Mai. i. 14. As the forgetfulness of this is the cause of sin,
so the remembrance of his greatness is the cause of man's reflection ; but a
beam of God's holiness shining upon the understanding makes a soul more
sensible of its dross than all the flames of wrath. The angels solemnly ap-
plauding of God's holiness, which they cried up in Isaiah's hearing, Isa. vi.
3, 5 ; — one cried to another, ' Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,' — cast him
down in a sense of his vileness. Then said I, ' Woe is me ! because I am a
man of unclean lips.' The sight of their covering their pure faces with their
wings made him abhor, and cry out of the uncleanness of his soul. He
saw the sun in its purity, and himself in his darkness and filthiness. A
conviction by wrath is like a fire which only scorcheth ; a conviction by
holiness is like that of the sun, which burns by its heat, and discovers atoms
by its light. The one measures his loathsomeness by the judgment of men,
the other his filthiness by the holiness of God. Was I made for God ? did
not his holy as well as his powerful finger frame me ? and am I so base as
to wallow in corruption ? But,
(3.) Legal conviction ariseth only from a sense of the omniscience of God,
but an evangelical ariseth from a sense of the disaffection of Grod to sin.
The cause why men sin is the unbelief of God's omniscience, and the cause
why they are troubled is a sense of this attribute, and not of God's hatred
of their sins. The first impression from the edge of the word is, * that all
things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do,' Heb. iv.
13 ; and that sins, even secret sins, are set in the light of his countenance,
Ps. xc. 8. Men will forbear their actions of folly when they think the eye
of a grave man beholds them, but are bold to commit them when his back is
turned. If a prince be unknown behind the hangings, when subjects speak
treason, they will be afraid when they discover he hath overheard them ; not
because they spoke it, but because he heard it ; they consider it as the object
of his knowledge, and the mark of his vengeance. A legalist considers God
only as privy to his iniquity, the other as he is disaffected to it ; he would
never be troubled for his sin, if it never came under God's notice ; the other
sinks under it, because it is the object of God's displeasure. The one
shakes, because he is convinced God observes it ; the other trembles,
because he is sensible God disapproves it.
(4.) A legal conviction is a sense of sin in the death of the soul, an evan-
gelical is a sense of sin arising from the death of Christ. One person seeth
sin in the misery of his soul, and the other in the cross of the Redeemer.
The moral law condemns sin, and the practice of the ceremonial acknow-
ledged that condemnation. The offerer saw himself in those sacrifices which
died for him, guilty of death ; hence in the renewing of them there was a
remembrance of sin, Heb. x. 3, and the killing of them was a bond or hand-
writing, whereby they confessed themselves obnoxious to the curse, and
debtors to punishment. Col. ii. 14. This was only a sight of sin in the
death of a beast, though it typified the death of Christ. An evangehcal con-
viction seeth sin in the sighs and groans, cries and agonies, suffering and
blood of the Son of God, an only Son, an innocent Son, unspotted as to any
inherency of sin in his person, only submitting to the imputation of sin to
him, and infliction of punishment upon him, even to a commotion of soul
and body. This giveth a clearer evidence of the demerit of sin to a full con-
viction, than the whole latitude of threatenings, or the roarings the damned
utter, or the destroying millions of angels and men. This giveth ground for
a full sense of the inviolable sanction of the law, the reasonable severity of
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 201
justice against us, and the unavoidable demerit of sin, more than thousands
of sacrifices could discover to the Jews. The voice of Christ's blood dis-
covers more the malignity of sin than all men or angels are able to express.
In this glass doth the Spirit shew it, to convince the soul in an evangelical
manner. One seeth sin in the handwriting of ordinances against him, and
the other sees it more meltingly in the tearing and cancelling this bond and
bill by Christ upon the cross. That is the first thing, they differ in the
principles whence this sense doth arise.
Secondly, They difier in regard of the object of the conviction, or matter
they are convinced of.
(1.) A legal convict accounts his torture the greatest evil, an evangelical
his sin. Both indeed are burdened, the one with his punishment, the other
with his desert of it ; one counts his torment hateful, the other his sin abo-
minable. The first is troubled there is not a beam of mercy, but not
troubled that he hath not a spark of grace. He groans under the presages
of damnation, but not under the want of holiness ; he is of the devil's temper,
Why dost thou torment us ? but doth not desire to be restrained from sin,
but to be kept from torment ; cries out as Lamech, Gen. iv. 23, ' I have
slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt' ; not to God's
dishonour, no complaint of that. It is true, he hath no pleasure in his sin,
in the remembrance of it at the present, not for want of affection to it, but
because it is embittered to him with the gall in his conscience ; the law spits
fire in his face, and makes his beloved object too hot for his holding ; his
allegiance to sin is not cast oflf, but at present only interrupted in the exercise.
The other, the evangelically convinced man, cries out of his sin as the greatest
burden. My God I have dishonoured, his Spirit I have grieved, his name I
have slighted, and his mercy abused. And therefore the one, vrhen his rack
is laid aside, and the storm in his conscience blown over, falls as roundly to
his former course as before ; or if he abstains from that sin which was a
cause of his smart, he opens his heart for more spiritual, and therefore more
rooted iniquity, which breaks out into worse. Some think Ananias and
Sapphira were in the number of those that had their hearts pricked at Peter's
sermon, but their covetousness in a great measure remained in their afi'ec-
tions, and ended in lying against the Holy Ghost. Such lay aside their
apparel as players, to put on a disguise that suits the part they are to act,
but strip themselves after, to put on their old garment again. Whereas
the other, that is evangelically convinced, is more tender and careful to avoid
the smallest slip as well as the grossest, not only when his conscience tor-
ments, but when the heat is allayed ; careful to avoid sin in his duties, as
well as in his more public conversation ; he is afraid of the sting of sin, as
well as of the sting of punishment ; he judgeth sin his greatest evil, and
next to that the want of God's favourable presence : ' How long wilt thou
forget me, Lord ; how long wilt thou hide thy face, for ever ? ' Ps. xiii. 1 .
But then,
(2.) A legal convict is convinced of some sin, but he is also conceited that
he hath some good. An evangelically convinced person is sensible he hath
no good dwelling in his flesh ; his conviction is more universal, the other's
is more limited ; a legal conviction lays a man but half dead, an evangelical
lays him wholly dead ; he hath no esteem of his sin, nor any of his righteous-
ness. One is sensible of his sin, but not of his utter insufficiency to redeem
his soul from everlasting death ; the other sees fully what poor stuff his own
righteousness is to make a saviour of. The Spirit, as it discovers the ugli-
ness of sin, so it discovers the rottenness of that righteousness wherewith a
man stilted himself up ; it makes all seem as grass, and fading flowers, and
202 ch.vrnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
of no value. The other, like the prodigal, though he be sensible of his
misery, yet he thinks to preserve himself by husks. A true convict seeth
himself under the curse of the law, without ability in anything but Christ to
take it off; he seeth a necessity to have Christ to deliver him, or he must
be for ever bound ; and Christ to raise him, or he is utterly lost ; whereas
the other thinks he is able to raise himself. The one thinks to repair him-
self out of the ruins of nature, and raise up a building of righteousness by
materials of his own hewing ; the other, like Job, abhors not only sin, but
himself too. Job xlii. 6, and speaks not a word of that integrity he boasted
of before. The one knows himself a debtor to the law, but thinks himself
able to do something to content the creditor, and patch up his credit by
promises of refornoation ; he lies down in sparks of his own kindling, wraps
himself in a garment of his own weaving, thinks himself rich by conceits
framed in his own mint, and fancies that he is able to silence the clamours
of the law, and lick the wound of his conscience whole ; as Saul thought to
redeem his credit with God by the sacrifice of beasts, after he had offended
in the case of Amalek : he makes self a God, and idolises his own power.
This is a secret self-pride, that runs in the channel of the whole nature from
Adam ; and as sin is irritated by the law, so these thoughts start up by it,
and make many that seemed to begin to be spiritually convinced, to end in
the flesh. As sin revives by the law, so doth this pride rise up afterwards,
and is the ruin of many. Hence arise those frequent excuses of men before
they will come to a downright confession ; whereas the other, that is evan-
gelically convinced, is dead to his own righteousness, as well as his sin ; he
is sensible he hath no activity in himself, unless grace inspire him with a
new principle. He performs duties, but doth not idolise them ; puts forth
his power to the utmost, but doth not rest in it ; he seeth the emptiness of
his righteousness, as well as the foulness of his sin ; and thinks the one as
unable to deliver him from the stroke of justice as the other to deserve it ;
and despairs of help and relief from the spring of nature. Paul, when a
Jew, was of the same stamp with his brethren, thought to keep up his repu-
tation with God by an external observation of the law, but when the law
came in the hand of the Spirit, he died ; saw not only his damnable condi-
tion, but the insecurity of his soul upon any legal foundation, and the rotten-
ness of all his former services to bring him to heaven. Then all his natural
and moral excellencies were as unvaluable as before they were amiable ; they
were loss in his sight. And to heighten his vile esteem of them, he adds
dung, a dunghill righteousness, things of no account as to justification ; yet
none more holy than Paul, by a holiness derived from Christ by the Spirit
after conversion, as none was more moral before by the strength of nature.
Thus was he dead to the law, convinced of the vanity of any confidence in
legal services ; not that he might live to sin, but to God, by a new power
derived from Christ, Gal. ii. 19, for he was supplied with sap from that
crucified root. Now what was really the attainment of Paul, is so of every
true convert, and is the desire of every evangelically convinced person. This
conceit which the legalist hath of some good in himself, ariseth from the con-
sideration of himself, compared with those that defile themselves more in
sin. A sense of our own vileness, when truly convinced, ariseth from our
consideration of the perfection of the law of God ; for measuring ourselves
with the holiness of God, we see nothing at all that bears proportion to him.
MoraHty is but as the moon, which is glorious if compared with a candle,
but faint if compared with the sun.
Thirdly, There are differences in regard of the carriage of the persons
under each of these works of conviction.
John XYI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 203
(1.) Legally convinced persons snatch at comfort, though never so false ;
an evangelical convict looks for comfort only from the mouth of God. The
one doth not kindly own the supremacy of God, and therefore makes not
full and close addresses to him for healing, but seeks for shelter from every
hedge, like Saul in his melancholy to music, and in his distress to the witch
of Endor ; like Pharaoh to his magicians, the charming pleasures of the
world. He thinks, by thus being in a fool's paradise, by the pleasures of
sin to choke the sense of conscience ; take a receipt from any unskilful hand
rather than fi'om the physician ; worldly mirth, carnal advice ; or at best he
runs to sermons, and fasts in hopes of remedy, catches at any passage in a
sermon to ease his soul. Sometimes he endeavours to stupefy his trouble
by smful diversion ; he moves hell for ease, and cries, Give me comfort, or
I die ! Sometimes he snatches a promise wherein he is in no manner con-
cerned, and claps it on by a misapprehension, and so charms his trouble for
a time ; and in this he is assisted by the devil, who is skilful in this art, and
so he makes a flower of paradise prove poison. Such wrest the Scripture to
their own destruction, and to allay the storm is all they look for. Now, an
evangelically convinced person, he longs for comfort from that Spirit which
first impressed the sense of sin. As he was struck by the law, so he will
be healed by the gospel only. He longs for joys, not of the world, but of
God's salvation ; his eye is fixed with Heman's only upon the God of salva-
tion, Ps. Ixxxviii. 5. He will wait God's leisure, and take nothing but what
the word ofiers ; examine well whether the word belongs to him. The
Spirit makes him, like Christ, inquire into anything that is alleged, that he
be not deluded by Satan's fair pretences ; he longs for healing by the Sun
of righteousness, that he may come and scatter the darkness he sits in. All
the good opinion of men concerning him cannot give him a grain of true con-
tentment ; he is willing to do anything with the gaoler for the saving his
soul—' Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?' — resolved to undergo the hardest
conditions prescribed by the word of God ; but he knows all the true spring
of comfort is the blood of Christ, the covenant of grace, the promises sealed
by that blood, and a sound and substantial faith in them, and till milk spout
from these breasts into his mouth he will not be contented ; he is for no
other peace but that which is the fruit of God's lips ; whereas the other is
satisfied with a slight answer, warms himself by his own sparks, drinks of
any puddle, so he may but quench his inflamed bowels, and regards not
faith in Christ. Such coolers make men go on more resolutely in the ways
of death afterwards, since they can quickly have an allay for conscience when
it begins to stir. These legally convinced persons snatch at comfort though
never so false.
(2.) A legally convinced person would only be freed from the pain, an
evangelically convinced person from the sin, the true cause of it. Like
swine, they would not have the cudgel, but they would have the mire; would
have a freedom from the lash of the law, but hate to come under the yoke of
Christ. They hate the iron that is come into their side, but not the crime,
as a malefactor doth the gaol or a thief the gibbet. Such a one had rather
have a rotten heart than a painful rack ; he had rather have a putrefied soul
than a deep incision. The one cries for a plaster to ease his conscience,
the other for an axe to be laid to the root of his sin. He would keep his
right hand and eye, provided they would not fester. The other would not
have any corner of his heart inhabited by any sin ; he is desirous it might
lose its empire and dominion in the heart. He hath a respect to God's tes-
timonies, though tremblings at the considerations of God: P^. cxix. 119,
0, ' My flesh trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments ;'
204 chaknock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
the other, like the man possessed in the Gospel, would not have the devil
tormented in him, and utters not a word to have the devil cast out of him,
Luke viii. 28. He that is evangelically convinced looks forward to sin that
may tempt him, and is watchful against the occasions of it ; the other at
best looks only backward to those already committed, and spends this dis-
affection he hath only on that for which he is racked ; he singles out that to
wreak his anger upon ; he doth not fall on the troops of sin, not upon sin
in general, but some particular sin which hath been painful to him ; he hath
no disaffection to the pleasure promised in other occasions, though he hath
a distaste of the pain for that which is past. If the legalist be wrung into
some reformation, it is with as much regret to part with his darling sin as
David with Absalom, or Adam to be turned out of paradise. Though he
forbears it, he doth not abhor it; if he abhors it, it is only the pain, not the
sin ; and the reason is, because there is no higher principle in such a person
than fear and self-love, and to one or both of these all the reformation he
hath owes its original. He is only afraid of hell, and could he enjoy sin
without terror in his conscience or wrath in hell, he did not care if the glory
of God were lost for him, whether ever he came at heaven or the presence
of Grod, whether ever he had an hatred of evil or acted good ; he distastes
the evil only. But one that is evangelically convinced distastes the foulness
of sin, relishes the excellency and beauty of hoHness, because of its suit-
ableness to its Creator. Where there is fear only, there is nothing but
bondage and a legal frame. The voice of one legally convinced is, How
shall I do this wickedness, and open the flood-gates of wrath ? The voice
of an evangelical convict is this. How shall I do this wickedness, and sin
against God, and spurn at his bowels ?
Fourthly, There are differences in regard of the effects of these, and
(1.) A legal conviction doth not of itself soften, but rather harden ; an
evangelical is melting and submissive. The making a fleshy heart and dis-
posing it to such a frame, is the incommunicable property of the covenant of
grace, and was never within the verge and compass of the law. The law,
like a cannon, thunders only bullets and cursing, not a word of a promise
but to perfect righteousness ; therefore a legal conviction cannot be attended
with any melting fruit. It is like a hammer, that may break a stone in
pieces, yet every part retains its hardness. After a mere legal conviction,
the heart is commonly harder, as water ; if it grow cold after it is heated,
freezes harder than it would have done if it had retained its native cold,
without the interruption of a contrary quality. All those strivings of the
Spirit with the old world abated nothing of that evil figment, those evil
imaginations, which lodged in the heart continually. And it is observed,
that though the Israelites heard the thunder, saw the lightning, the moun-
tain burning with fire, the blackness, darkness, and tempest, as a prepara-
tion for giving the law, which made them tremble, yet before forty days
were over, they had not only forgotten that law, but they sin against that
God whose power they feared, renounce God and his power over them, and
make themselves a golden calf, Exod. xxxii. 1, 4. The scorching of the
law makes the burned place more brawny after the fire is out. The under-
standing may be soundly convinced, yet the heart not melted ; the one is
from the undeniable evidence of truth, the other is from the kindly influence
of the Spirit. But when the Spirit convinceth the heart in a spiritual
method, it shines like the sun in the heavens, which thaws the cold and
frozen earth, and makes a man to be as melting wax before God. Oh how
immense is this love of God, that should offer me a Christ, provide a
Redeemer, set him apart from all eternity for me that am self- condemned,
John XYI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 205
while I was a rebel, for me who am a firebrand of hell ! inestimable
mercy ! melting goodness ! free grace ! Then he calls to his heart,
Down, rocky heart, down to the very dust ; lie as low as hell by abasement,
since Christ hath made himself so low for thee ! This is always attended with
humility ; such a person falls down on his face and worships God, 1 Cor. xiv. 25,
and with submissiveness will bear the indignation of the Lord, Micah vii. 9.
And therefore a renewed man, that is past these pikes, is more humble under
a sense of his own vileness than all the legalists ever were ; for the Spirit
keeps his foundation firm, which he first laid, whereon to build the super-
structure of grace and comfort. As this sense of sin, the root, grows
downward, so these noble fruits grow upward. The sense David had at
his conviction for the blood of Uriah, made him startle at the num-
bering the people, and afraid of the water fetched from the well of Beth-
lehem, but he poured it out before the Lord, lest he should seem to
countenance the shedding of any blood. Well, then, the legal conviction
is as a brick in the kiln, burned and hardened ; the other like gold, in-
flamed and melted, separating itself from the dross.
(2.) A legal conviction of itself tends only to destruction, evangelical to
health and salvation. The law presents nothing but condemnation and ruin,
and can speak no other language ; its mouth is filled only with curses, with-
out the mixture of any one blessing for degenerate man : what can be the
issue of this, but confusion and endless torment ? Not the least drop of com-
fort streams from it. It is impossible but that when it chargeth home the
violation of the law, and brandisheth all its curses, self-condemnation and
despair must reign in the conscience ; and conscience, the deputy of God,
when awakened, cannot but (like the Israelites) subscribe an Ameji to every
curse. The law, like mount Ebal, is barren of comfort ; blessing grows
only upon the mount of the gospel. Hence, many under sharp terrors of
the law have endeavoured to make away themselves, and leaped into the
flames of hell to avoid the sparks. This of itself, like poison, works to the
dissolution of the temperament of the body ; but evangelical is like physic,
which, though it disturbs the humours, yet it tends to the preserving and
rectifj-ing the complexion of the body. And by this at last the scul is
brought to such a frame that it is willing to lie under afllietion and torment,
yea, under the fury of devils, rather than sin against God ; for fear and in-
genuity in the soul join hands to the keeping of God's commandments.
The one discovers the disease, the other the remedy ; the one causes fear,
the other hope ; the one shews the plague, the other discovers the plaster ;
the one is like a dart in the side of a deer, that makes him run further from
him that shot it, the other is as a chain to draw the soul nearer to God.
(3.) A difi"erence in regard of duration. The legal conviction is like a
convulsion fit of the earth, when it quakes and trembles, and afiects all that
feel it with amazement, but holds not long ere it return to its natural con-
sistency and stability ; but an evangelical conviction lasts as long as we live,
and is not cast ofi" but with the mantle of the body ; then the sense of sin
shall be left, and we wholly taken up with the praises of a Redeemer. With-
out this, grace would not grow and thrive to a due maturity.
3. Thu-dly, As there is a difierence between those convictions which rise
from nature, and which rise from the law, so there is a difierence between
Satan's setting sin in order before us, and the manner of the Spirit's pre-
senting it to us (for Satan doth sometimes set sin in order before the soul,
and there is a difference between their methods). In convictions begun by
the Spirit, Satan doth interest himself, and if he cannot stifle them, he en-
deavours to increase them. Though they are not in themselves acts of com-
206 charnock's works. [John XYI. 8, 9.
fort, vet they are the act of a comforting Spirit, and in order to comfort ;
but the devil impresseth them only as a terrifying spirit. God sometimes
employs him as his officer after conversion for a correction of his people, as
a beadle to discipline vagrants when they stray from their duty ; but there
is a manifest difference between the impressions of guilt made by him, and
those stamped by the Holy Ghost.
(1.) Satan sets sin in order as an accuser, the Spirit as a comforter.
The tendency of a spiritual conviction is comfort, the intention of Satan is
only to charge us with our fault. Satan, as an enemy, with violence brings
his charge ; the Spirit, as a friend, with tenderness doth impress conviction
upon the soul. Satan hath no mind to awaken the conscience, but would
rather lull men asleep in a carnal and endless security as to this world, and
not discover the danger until they feel the stroke ; he rather tempts to sin
than accuseth for it, and sets men before the cannon of wrath, and giveth
them no warning until they feel the bullet at their hearts, and are shattered
in pieces by it. When he hath a full possession of the heart, all things are
in quiet, and this great deceiver doth what he can to hinder true conviction;
and this great Pharaoh doth not double the burden until he is like to lose
his prey, and is afraid the soul should be snatched out of his hands ; then
he charges, as before he charmed. He chargeth violently, therefore his
title is, ' The accuser of the brethren,' Rev. xii. 10. He is also diligent in
it, for he doth accuse them day and night : he is no less an accuser, and a
dihgent accuser, of men to their own consciences. His accusations do not
precede, but follow, the Spirit's conviction, to spoil the Spirit's work, and
keep off the soul from coming under any other government than his own.
Satan doth only accuse hke a councillor at the bar, with violence doth im-
plead the prisoner that he is counsel against, rakes up all crimes that can be
found, prefrents them with the sharpest edge, blunts all his apologies made
in his deitnce, giveth no direction to procure a pardon ; if the man look
after any, he puts him out of hopes of obtaining. This Satan doth when he
is afraid lest he should lose a man that he finds soundly convinced by the
Spirit, and ready to go off from him, when other means are successless. He
deals with such a soul as with Job : after God had granted him liberty to
afflict him, he dispatched not one messenger with good news to him, but
hastened one after another with tidings of his loss and misery. He doth
rather over-accuse than under-accuse ; he is a lying spirit, and being envious
too, that delights in the misery of others, he cares not what he saith to
strengthen his charge. He would not speak truth to God when he accused
Job, but makes a charge of hypocrisy, and a false prognostication of Job's
cursing God, if he were stripped of his worldly riches. Job i. 11 and ii. 5.
And he accuseth Job to his friends of more than he was guilty of ; this he
doth to drive to despair. But the Spirit is a Spirit of truth ; he sets sins in
order as they are, and is a Spirit of tenderness, convinceth the soul with a
compassion to it. Satan deals with the soul as the thieves with the man in
the Gospel, whom they left for half dead, but had no pity on his wounds.
He acts quite contrary to Christ, and the Spirit of Christ in the world.
"When the Spirit is only a con\'incer, Satan will be a comforter, tells them
sin shall do them no hurt, there is no cause of fear ; but when the Spirit's
conviction operates kindly, and is like to be a preparation to Christ, when
the Spirit begins to be a comforter, then Satan will be a convincer ; then
his language is. Nothing will cure. Satan tormented men ; Christ, when
he was on the earth, cured them. The Spirit, being Christ's deputy, acts
as Christ did when he was here, and with the same affection as Christ did.
Not but that the Spirit reproves sharply, as Christ did upon occasion Peter
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 207
and the Pharisees, and yet, upon compliance, was as gentle as before severe.
The Spirit doth accuse for sin, but doth also shew a righteousness to answer
those accusations, if it be embraced,
(2.) Satan presents God only as a Judge to punish. The Spirit in the
progress of conviction represents him not only as a Judge, who hath the
power of punishment, but as a Sovereign and Father in Christ, who hath the
power of pardon. Satan presents God upon several occasions, either armed
only with fury, or covered only with a robe of mercy ; one, when he would
drive to despair, the other when he would settle the heart in presumption.
To a soul convinced thoroughly of sin, which is upon the threshold of conver-
sion, he represents God as the Lord of the world, calling him to account in
the strictness of justice ; not as the reconciler of the world in Christ, not as
standing with a pen dipped in the blood of Christ to cross out his debts upon
his resignation to him. He tells the soul God is a God of terror, without a
mite of mercy, never shews God in all his perfections ; but the Spirit, being
'the Spirit of truth,' John xvi. 13, discovers God in all his excellencies.
Satan is the ruler of darkness : Eph. vi. 12, 'The ruler of the darkness of
this world.' He discovers nothing but what may increase the darkness in
man, like that in himself, that God is revengeful and false, not willing to
make good any word of grace ; not only accuseth the soul to itself, but ac-
cuseth God to the soul, and chargeth God falsely. He represents God as
armed with wrath ; the Spirit represents him as calmed by Christ. Satan
tells the afflicted sinner only of an iron rod in God's hand ; the Spirit tells
the sinner of a gracious sceptre ; Satan shews justice brandishing terror, and
the Spirit goodness with melting bowels. Not but that the Spirit shews
the justice of God in the law against sin, but it is to make way for the bet-
ter welcome of the mercy of the gospel ; as Joseph carries himself like a
judge, sends his brethren to prison, not to keep them languishing there, but
to shew the affection of a brother, with the more comfort to them, and ad-
vantage to his own designs.
(3.) Satan conceals the remedy for sin by the mercy of God ; but the
Spirit discovers it. The devil may aggravate the disease, but not tell us of
the true medicine ; the devil discovers sin as an executioner, and nothing
but the sin ; the Spii'it, as a physician in order to a cure, discovers both the
wound and the plaster, the disease and the remedy. Satan shews only fire
to inflame, but he never acquaints the soul with the blood of Christ to quench
that flame ; he is only a fiery serpent to sting, but never directs to the brazen
serpent to cure that sting. Since he knoweth that all the strength and acti-
vity to cast off his yoke lieth in the knowledge of, and closing with, Christ,
he useth all arts to keep us from the knowledge of the gospel, and the gracious
condescension and good will of Christ, that we might not, by becoming Christ's
subjects, cease to be his slaves ; therefore he uses all the power he hath, as
' the god of the world,' 2 Cor. iv. 4, to blind the eyes of men, that they may
not see a spark of the light of the glorious gospel, which he doth by putting
strange fancies into the hearts of men ; but the conviction of the Spirit is in
order to the manifestation of the things of Christ. To the convinced soul,
the devil shews only the curses of the law, but the Spirit shews the promises
of the gospel. The devil is an envious spirit, and since he is thrown down
from heaven, veils any light that comes from thence, that men may not look
that way. The Spirit's conviction is in order to the manifestation of the
things of Christ: ' He shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you.' Not but
that the Spirit, many times, first shews justice with a drawn sword, and
mercy with a veiled face, and doth not discover the promises for a while, and
entertains the soul with this language : Look upon a doleful eternity, an
208 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
nnavoidable wrath, consider the easiness of utter ruin, how life and endless
miseiy hang upon a small thread, and a puflf of Grod can send thee among the
damned ; but this is but temporary, and to make the remedy more estimable ;
but the devil is always for obscuring the gospel, and flashing the law in the
face of the sinner.
(4.) When Satan cannot conceal the remedy, he endeavours to disparage
it, to keep the soul under terrors and a sight of sin, in opposition to that
remedy. But the Spirit convinceth of the foul evil of sin, and also magni-
fies the excellency of the remedy provided against it. Satan would make
them believe the blood of Christ is too shallow to cover the mountains of
their iniquities ; the Spirit wounds to raise an esteem of the depths of that
blood. Since the devil cannot conquer Christ, he will endeavour to disparage
Christ, and the merit and value of his blood ; the Spirit was sent to glorify
Christ, which is contrary to the devil's designs, to disparage him : John
xvi. 14, ' He shall glorify me.' As Satan would wholly hide the mercy of
God, so when he cannot, but that it breaks out, he extenuates the gi-ace of
the covenant, fills men full of disputes and carnal reasonings against the
riches of grace, and latitude of the promise. He sets up pride in the heart,
as he did in Adam, against the grace of God ; it was his old trade to make
men jealous of God : the same arts he doth exercise still, with more subtilty,
as being assisted with a large stock of experience since the fall. Distrust ot
God was that he tempted Adam to, and Christ himself, putting the thing to
an If, ' If thou art the Son of God.' Satan presseth upon them their sin,
as unpardonable ; at first, to encourage security, he tells them sin is so small
that justice will not regard it, and afterwards so gi-eat that mercy cannot for-
give it, that they are past the limits of grace, that the candle of their lives
will not bum long enough for a true repentance ; but the Spirit never
acquaints the soul with any such news ; for this is against the nature of the
gospel, this is to bely the terms and tenor of it, for he always proposeth the
gospel in its true terms of faith and repentance. He shews sin in its ugly
colours, as an object of justice, while it is cherished, and the sinner as an
object of mercy in the gospel, when repenting. The Spirit presseth it as a
duty to believe, Satan presseth it upon their consciences that they ought not
to believe, that swine must not meddle with pearls, nor dogs with jewels, that
to believe is to presume, that they provoke God in closing with mercy, before
they have a fitness for it. Such things are the language of many under troubles,
when Satan puts his finger into them, and by this means keeps men ofi" in a
sight of sin, from closing with the promise. If a promise appears, Satan
darkens it ; if the soul cometh to close with it, Satan endeavours to beat ofi
their fingers, and tells them they have not, nor are ever like to have, qualifi-
cations for the promise ; but the Spirit is sent on the same errand that Christ
came on, to manifest the name of God, the freeness of his mercy, and that
the gospel is as large in blessings to penitents and believers, as the law is in
curses to impenitents and infidels, and clears up the things which are freely
given us of God, gospel gi-ace and favour, gospel promises. These are ' the
things freely given us of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 12. But if the soul, like Joshua,
doth look towards the angel of the Lord, Satan will be at hand to turn away
his eyes from him, Zech. iii. 1.
(5.) The devil always, in setting sin before the soul, endeavours' to drive
it to despair, the Spirit to encourage it to faith ; the one to sink it in despair
of pardon, the other to excite it to a mourning for sin. Satan would drive
it to blasphemy, like those, Rev. xvi. 11, that * blasphemed the God of heaven
by reason of their pains, and repented not of their deeds.' But the Spirit
instructs with the conviction, teaching us to justify God, and condemn our-
John XVI. 8, 9.] coN^^CTION of sin. 209
selves, to quell our murmurings, and justify God's procedure, and make us
submissive to God's righteous judgment. Satan discovers sin, to drive the
soul to a worse sin than that which he hath discovered, and set the soul more
at variance with God. Satan is an evil spirit, and is ' a roaring lion, going
about to devour,' 1 Pet. v. 8. The Spirit seeks to support, and discovers sin,
to make men humble before God, and to have good thoughts of God's ten-
derness. The language of the Spirit is, thy case is desperate in itself, but
there is balm in Gilead, there is eye- salve. The language of the devil is,
God hath forsaken thee, as to Saul, who thereupon slew himself on his own
sword; as he spurred Judas to sin after self-conviction, so he hurried him
as fast to the halter, thence to hell. Thus he endeavoured to engage Job in
an open hostility against God, and spared no way to gall him, and move him
to so cursed a rebellion. When such motions are found by any persons
lying under a sense of sin, and wrath due to it, they may conclude them not
to be any touches of the Holy Spirit, who, being a Spirit of holiness, can
never stir up such sinful motions. Satan hath a great advantage to this end,
to drive to despair, from the guilt of our consciences; and an advantage to
accuse us, from the darkness and ignorance of our hearts, and unacquainted-
ness with the largeness and extent of the gospel. He is also skilful in all
the terrible threatenings of God in the word ; he hath read them all over, and
draws what darts out of that quiver he pleases to answer that end. He can
open the fountain below, the spring of our sin, the window above, the stream-
ing of justice, and cause a deluge of despair ; and, being a perfect hater of
God, he endeavours to imprint upon men the same disposition. Whereas,
the Spirit being love, and acts of love principally ascribed to him, aims at
the drawing the soul to such a frame of love, and opens our sin to make us
despair in ourselves, and the treasures of the gospel, to make us run to God
with open arms, shews the greatness of sin, and also the attainableness of
mercy, upon our return and repentance. The Spirit being sent as a com-
forter, his principal intent is, not to terrify, but that he may lay more lasting
and stronger foundations for comfort ; and, being a wooer and solicitor for
Christ, when he tells us of our misery by our match with sin, it is not like
Satan, to make our union straiter, but to break it off, and bless us with a
better ; and therefore, when he shews the ugliness and misery of sin, it is to
raise our esteem of Christ, and promote our acceptance of him.
(6.) Satan works violently and suddenly in this case, and most by the
passions and humours of the body, rather than by reason ; but the Spirit
works upon the mind, therefore he is an enlightening Spirit. Satan works
upon the reason by the passion, the Spirit upon the passion by the reason ;
he first enhghtens the mind, and brings light into the heart, and the rational
faculties, the proper subjects of light, and by this means winds up the pas-
sions to what pitch and tune he thinks fit. Satan first works upon the humours
of the body, as melancholy', and the hke. Satan works violently, as upon
passion, as he buffeted Paul ; boxes a man to and fro, so that he hath no
time to do anything but consider his misery : whereas the Spirit proposeth
the object, helps the soul to consider, and by degi-ees leads to a further
knowledge of the light of the gospel, from a glimmering to a shining light,
until the knowledge of the Lord break in in its full glory. The Spirit also
is more particular in his convictions, as acting omnisciently, which Satan
being a creature cannot do ; who cannot discern all sins, but guesses at some
thoughts and actions, and therefore his setting sin before men is more con-
fused. The Spirit's setting sin before men is more particular and orderly ; but
in the whole, Satan acts as a convincer only, the Spirit as a convincer and
comforter : one aims at terror aad despair, the other at comfort and faith.
VOL. IV. o
210 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
VI. The application.
Use 1. Of Information. If the Spirit of Christ be the author of conviction
of sin ; if this is the order God proceeds in, then,
First, The gospel doth not destroy reason and rational proceeding. It is
agreeable to common reason, that old principles should be exploded, and
appear unworthy, base, unreasonable, and weak, before new ones be intro-
duced and entertained. The working of the Spirit is according to the nature
of man, moves not in contradiction unto, but in an elevation of reason ; he ex-
plodeth principles, which were planted in the mind before, and discovers
principles which reason cannot disown, though it did not before apprehend ;
he doth not extinguish reason, the candle of the Lord, but snufls it, and
adds more light, reduces it to its proper manner of operation, and sets it in
its right state towards God ; brings fresh light into the understanding, and
new motions into the will. He doth not dethrone reason and judgment, but
apply it to its proper work, repair it, sets it in its true motion ; as mending
a watch is not to destroy it, but rectify that which is out of order, and re-
store it to its true end. Religion is not the destruction, but the restoration,
of reason. The arguments the Spirit useth are suited to the reason of men,
otherwise conscience could not be moved, for conscience follows judgment :
it is not an act of judgment, but imagination, that reason doth not precede.
As the service God requires is a rational service, so the method he uses in
conversion is a rational method.
Secondly, We may from this doctrine see the excellency of the gospel
state. The foundation of it is laid by the Son of God ; the application of it,
and the preparations to that application, are wrought by the Spirit of God.
The whole Trinity concern themselves in man's recovery : the Father con-
trives it, the Son lays the foundation of it in his blood, the Spirit prepareth
the soul for the participation of it. The Father shews the evil of sin, by
making his Son a sacrifice for it ; the Son acknowledgeth the demerit of sin,
by consenting to his own expiatory death ; the Spirit bears witness against
the evil of it, by discovering to us the filthiness of its nature, ' For when he
is come,' ' the Comforter whom I will send,' John xv. 26, ' he shall testify
of me,' saith Christ. The Spirit doth it as the fruit of Christ's purchase,
and gift of Christ's royalty ; he breaks the rock, subdues the heart, fills it
with the bitterness of sin, that it may taste of the sweetness of grace ; he
shakes the rod of damnation over men, to make them fly to a golden sceptre
held out to relieve them. The first covenant spake terror only, and spake
no more comfort to men than devils, sealed them up to destruction, without
one spark of light to shew the way of salvation ; but the Spirit in the gospel
giveth us light to see our misery, but in order to our apprehension of the
remedy ; he makes us know our state, that we may know our Saviour ; he
fills men with trembling and amazement in a way of grace, for his service ;
not in a way of judgment, as a preparation to their down-lying in eternal
flames. God hath provided an agent to do that, which Christ by reason of
his flesh was not so likely to do. The garb wherein Christ appeared
offended the world ; it was incredible to man that God should send his Son
in so mean a condition. From this the world drew pretences for their unbelief,
but the glorious appearance of the Spirit cuts off all these pretences. Man
can have no excuse from the convictions the Spirit makes. This seems to
be part of the expediency of Christ's departure, that the Spirit might con-
vince.
Thirdly, All convictions and convincing discourses must not be exploded
as legal ; they are the work of the Spirit, as the royal gift of Christ, and the
fiuit of Christ's ascension ; nay, the first work of the Spiritas a comforter,
John XYI. 8, 9. J conviction of sin. 211
a fruit of the promise of the Spirit as carrying on the design of Christ. The
convictions of the Spiiit are no moi'e legal, than the blood of Christ a legal
blood, the priesthood of Christ a legal priesthood, the offices of Christ legal
offices. The works of the Spirit, in what way soever, are evangelical in their
end, since the foundation on which they are built is a gospel foundation.
Fourthly, We see the mighty power and excellency of the word in the
hand of the Spirit. The Spirit is the author of conviction, not immediately,
without the proposing any object, but in and by the word. The Spirit, like
Christ to the woman of Samaria, discovers ' all that she had done,' John
iv. 29. The word in this hand is a hammer to break the hardest rock, a
fire to melt and devour the compactedest metals, a spirit to enter through the
closest bars, a rod to smite the stoutest sinner, a breath to slay the highest
wickedness. It makes men to assent to what they loathed, sets them on
fire, though they use all their arts to quench it, Rev. xi. 10. It doth torment
those that dwell on the earth, while they are in an earthly and carnal frame.
The holiness of the word is evidenced, in shewing us the filthiness of our
souls ; the power of the word manifested, in pulling down that which exalts
itself, though it be never so strong a hold ; the divine authority is manifest,
in revealing the secrets of the heart, though lying hid, not only from the
eyes of the world, but also from the present knowledge of the soul itself,
1 Cor. xiv. 24. Like the sun, nothing is hid from the light and force
thereof; it edgeth a man's conscience, sets him a- trembling, because it is
the voice of the Lord. When the Spirit fastens it on the soul, it will make
the highest mountain to shake, the heart of an incarnate devil to tremble ;
put such a cup of amazement in the hands of a sinner, that all the pleasures
of sin shall not put the taste out of his ; it will make a prince come down
from a throne, let fall his sceptre ; make David throw his crown from his
head, and Ahab change his purple into sackcloth, and the jailer spring in
trembling before his prisoners. Wonder not at this powerful efiect, since
the word is managed by the hand of the Spirit.
Fifthly, If the Spirit be the author of conviction, how weak then are all
means of themselves, till the Spirit set them home upon the conscience !
Could nature thoroughly convince, what need of the Spirit ? Threatenings
will not savingly aftright, nor promises powerfully allure, without the power
of the Holy Ghost to imprint them. A man may read them ten thousand
times over, and have no full reflection upon himself, as concerned in them,
without the operation of this mighty arm. All the Jewish sacrifices were
too feeble to expiate sin without the death of Christ ; all the powers in the
world are too weak to convince of sin without the arm of the Spirit. How
foolish is it for man to depend upon his own resolution, to think the sense
of sin necessary, and yet put it off" until another day, when this sense is not
in his own power, but at the Spirit's pleasure, and there is as much need of
the Spirit to touch us with a sense of sin, as of the angel's descent to move
the waters, to the bestowing of health !
Sixthly, If the Spirit be the author of conviction, we may hereby judge of
the motions of the Spirit, and distinguish them from motions from other
causes. The Spirit never moves to sin, or anything that appears sinful.
That Spirit which is to display sin in its black colours, in order to con-
viction, can never solicit to the embraces of it, in order to damnation ; that
Spirit which shews sin in its hellish shape, can never invite the soul to
espouse deformity. He that is sent to convince of it, can never be so false
to his office as to daub with it. Impure breathings are not the issues of a
Spirit of holiness ; injuries and falsities against God never take their rise
from a Spirit of truth. Whatsoever therefore hath a tincture of sin, what-
212 chaknock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
soever is per se an occasion of sin, can never come from the Spirit of God,
let what revelation soever be pretended ; especially whatsoever disparageth
Christ in his undertaking, in the glory of any of his offices, and the honour
of God by him, this receives no encouragement at all from the Spirit, whose
employment it is to reprove for unbelief, and whatsoever shelters itself under
the wings of it. He is Christ's deputy, and will not infringe the main end
of Christ, which was to set up holiness and pull down sin. The Spirit can-
not move to anything that destroys the foundation of Christ's gospel.
Seventhly, If the Spirit be the author of the conviction of sin, we see then
who is the great author of stifling convictions, and hindering them from com-
ing to a good issue. It must be something contrary to the Spirit of God;
who is that but Satan ? It is a character of a child of the devil to be an
' enemy to all righteousness,' Acts xiii. 10 ; much more is the devil, the
father of that child, an enemy to all righteousness. And thus said Paul to
Elymas when he withstood the apostle, and endeavoured to divert Paulus
Sergius from entertaining the word. The devil hath no such ememy in the
heart of man as faith, because this brings the soul from under his power, to
be subject to another head ; he sets his strength against the plantation of
it, and likewise against the preparation for it. His design is against right-
eousness and holiness. He first assaulted the righteousness of Adam's
nature in paradise, and endeavours to prevent any restoration of righteous-
ness to the soul, by keeping men ofi" from the means of it, raising the spirit
of persecution against it, instilling into men false imaginations of the unplea-
santness of it, the pleasures of sin, and the easiness of a deathbed repent-
ance, and stifling convictions, which are the first step to happiness. He
finds corrupt principles in men, which he arms against the attempts of the
Spirit. The Spirit first convinceth of sin, and then of righteousness. The
devil goes quite contrary: fii'st he endeavours to convince of a false right-
eousness, and, when that will not prevail, then he convinceth of sin. When
he cannot prevent a sinner's seeing sin in its deformity, then he will endea-
vour to hinder him from seeing grace in its beauty and lustre. When the
sinner is impenitent, he represents Godasstrippedof his justice, that he may
not fear. When conscience is soundly stirred, he labours to render it fruit-
less, and stop the torrent of conviction; strips God of his mercy, that he
may increase the man's fears; he tells him his former sins are swelled
above mercy. He tells the bold sinner that he hath a righteousness, and
that God hath no arrows in store for him ; he tells the troubled sinner that
he hath nothing but sin, and that God hath no bowels reserved for him.
He always contradicts the method of the Spirit of God, and still is, what he
was from the beginning, a liar ; he endeavours to comfort when the Spirit
troubles, and troubles when the Spirit comforts ; he will speak peace when
God cries guilt, and cries guilt when the Spirit cries peace ; he is all for the
gospel when the Spirit handles the law, and is all for law when the Spirit
utters the gospel. Hence he hath his ' fiery darts,' that is, the fear of death
and damnation by reason of sin and imperfect obedience, which he suggests
to the conscience, Eph.\d. 16. Thus he walks contrary to the Spirit of God.
You see then who is the author of stifling conviction.
Eighthly, If the Spirit of God be the author of conviction, how sinful is
it then to resist the convictions of the Spirit ! It is a new and worse rebel-
lion added to all the former, more immediately against God, and offering
violence to the Spirit, and in some degree a doing despite to the Spirit of
grace, by whose influence convictions are made. It is something above a
sin against mere knowledge, because it is against the present dictates of the
Holy Ghost, a depriving him, as much as a man may, of a great part of his
John XVI. 8, 9.j conviction of sin. 213
office, and consequently of all, because he cannot be a comforter unless he
be first a convincer. The Spirit shews a readiness for your cure, and it is
a more than ordinary provocation to slight a physician when he stands ready
with his medicines. It is a justification of ourselves in the face of God, and
of all those sins we have committed, when we will not regard anything that
God saith against them; it is to be the devil's second in his war against
God and our souls.
II. If the Spirit of God be the author of conviction, it afi'ords a use of
comfort. It being the peculiar work of the Spirit, it is a mighty comfort to
them that comply with the operations of the Spirit, listen to these convic-
tions, and do admit them to take possession of the soul.
Fii-st, It is a matter of comfort that the Spirit should take upon him this
office of curing us, that he will condescend to be a chirurgeon to so many
putrefied souls, deals with them in the word, and employs his lance to let
out the corrupt matter ; that he will vouchsafe to bring the law and our con-
sciences, the gospel and our hearts, together. The blessed Jesus submitted
to be a sacrifice that he might be our righteousness ; the Spirit undertakes
to be our instructor that he might be our comforter, and stirs up the mud in
our consciences that is so loathsome in itself. The Spirit might have stood
aloof of, and left us and our sins to nuzzle together, without troubling him-
self about our state.
Secondly, The convictions of the Sph-it will have a good issue, if they be
not resisted. You need not fear a lance in the hands of love and tenderness.
He is God's agent, Christ's deputy, to rescue you. He hews not those that
submit to him for the fii-e, but for the building ; he cuts that he may heal,
burns that he may cure ; he is only to open the passage into your hearts, to
let in some of the blood from the pierced heart of Christ. As wars in the
world go before the end of all things, so convictions and tumults in the soul
are the presages of an approaching redemption. There is good hopes, since
he is entered upon the first part of his work, the conviction of sin, that it will
not be long ere he proceeds to the second, which is the conviction of right-
eousness. If the Spirit did not intend your good, he would never have
pressed so hard upon you at any time, never given a heart to comply, but
have left you blind in your sins till destruction had seized upon you, and
hurried you to perpetual imprisonment. But though now you are prisoners
il is a comfort, because you are prisoners of hope. The Spirit wounds, and
wounded souls are the fittest objects for compassion. The sight of sin must
precede the purging of it, and then the fruit of it is true consolation. Isa.
Ixvi. 1, God dwells ' with the humble and contrite spirit;' noil will dwell, but
I dwell; I dwell there when I wound and bruise, but the end of my dwelling
there is not principally to bruise, but ' to revive the spirit of the humble.'
The Spirit is Christ's deputy, therefore doth nothing but pursuant to Christ's
office, and that is, to turn a ' spirit of heaviness ' into the ' garment of praise,'
Isa. Ixi. 1. He came ' to seek and save them that were lost,' to bind up that
which was broken, and strengthen that which was sick, and deliver them from
their destruction, Ezek. xxxiv. 12, 16, ' in a cloudy and dark day.' Such a
temper was our Redeemer of when God entrasted him ; such a temper is the
Spirit of. Our Redeemer would not have sent one of a difi"erent nature from
himself; the same nature is in all the three persons ; they are one in nature,
one in affection, one in design of the salvation of man. What though the
troubles of any man may be grievous at present, and he may be like a hart
hunted and standing at a bay, at a loss what course to take ! It is no ground
of discouragement. When our sins were set home upon our Redeemer, they
put him to a stand : John xii. 27, ' What shaU I say ? ' Yet the issue was
214 chaknock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
glorious to God and himself, and to poor souls. The Spirit will deal no
otherwise with the members than God with the Head.
III. Use of exhortation. If the Spirit be the author of conviction, the
First exhortation is to those who have been convinced by the Spirit.
(1.) Be thankful to God. It is a matter of praise that God hath
driven you to him, though with sharp lashes, and a greater matter of
praise if he drew you only with cords of love. That God should em-
ploy his Spirit to be his solicitor to sinners ; that he left you not to find
out the filthiness and danger of your state by your own blind eyes. You
have had fairer draughts of his power and goodness. When you were
under troubles, did you ever think the mountains would have been re-
moved ? did you ever think comfort would have dawned on you ? Since
any of you have received light, you see the blessed skill and power of the
Spirit ; you were * brought low, and he helped you,' Ps. cxvi. 6 ; bless
your strong deliverer ; bless that skilful chirurgeon that cured though he
lanced. When Peter was brought out of man's prison, he considered it
with great astonishment ; much more consideration is due when we are
brought out of God's prison, Ps. xlii. 6. It was God's counsel in your
reins, though sharp like the pain of the stone, bless him for it. He hath
given you but a drop of hell, when he might have shot all his granadoes into
you, and at last have shot you out of his sling into hell. He hath brought
you from prison that he might bring you to a throne of grace, and give you
a pardon.
(2.) Compassionate others, and assist" the Spirit, when you find him at
work upon others, in such a condition. By this we become like Christ, who
learned pity to us by experience of our infirmities ; and we should learn it
to others, by reflection on what we felt ourselves. To quench smoking flax
is to be unlike our Saviour, and thwart the work of the Spirit ; kindle it,
therefore, into a quicker flame by your breath. Nothing so tender as an
afflicted conscience, which therefore must be tenderly dealt with. Eake not
in the wounds of any that are afflicted for sin ; to help forward affliction will
be as Httle pleasing to God in spiritual as temporal troubles. The Spirit
acts in this office as a comforter, and the comforts you have had are for
others as well as yourselves : 2 Cor. i. 4, * Who comforteth us in all our
tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comforts wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.' Pour in,
therefore, balm, and not vinegar.
(3.) Take heed of offending and quenching the Spirit. Let not new sins
make the Spirit take his old sword into his hand ; the second wound will be
worse than the first. Love enraged strikes more keenly. David had more
sharp terrors after his fall into the sins of murder and adultery than any
time before that we read of. Anguish and terror will fall on the doers of
iniquity, to the Jew, the professing party, as well as to the Gentiles, Rom.
ii. 9, 10, but glory and peace, spiritual communications of divine goodness,
and an unspotted joy, attend the doing good. If you would avoid wounds of
conscience, avoid sins which grieve the Spirit. Conscience, that checks men
for acts of a sensual life, even for those that are more generous, never checks
the soul for its aspiring upward, and attempts toward a closer communion
with God. Peace is the ' effect of righteousness,' Isa. xxxii. 17 ; the loving
God's law affords great peace, peace in abundance, Ps. cxix. 165. Peace
can then only be as the river, when our righteousness is as the waves of the
sea ; therefore quench not that Spirit that hath convinced you, and do not
by new sins drive him away.
(4.) Exercise faith much. Faith was first acted by you before you were
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 215
brought from under those pressures you felt ; it must be still acted for keep-
ing them from returning on you. Faith was the medicine that cured your
wounds, and faith is the only antidote to prevent new ones ; faith acted will
make your inherent righteousness more vigorous, and the more holiness the
more peace. Christ constantly in the eye will make Christ formed in the
heart thrive and rejoice.
Secondly, The second branch of the exhortation is to those who are under
convictions for sin. If there be any that at present are under conviction
for sin,
(1.) Murmur not against God. It is the Spirit's work; murmur not,
therefore, against him ; let not your hearts fret within you while the Spirit
is raking up the mud to make you view it ; let there be no breakings out of
impatience whereby to quench the Spirit. Murmuring is the way to lose
the possession of our souls and the expectation of our comforts. Deal not
with God as Job's wife would have had him to have done, ' Curse God, and
die,' Job ii. 9. Tumultuousness of spirit against God is a diabolical temper,
a resemblance to that of the damned, who blaspheme God under their tor-
ments, and curse God when sin gnaws their conscience. To lie patient under
the Spirit's hand is a Christ-like frame, who uttered not a word against his
Father, when the sins of all the world were laid upon him to bear the punish-
ment of them. Speak well of God, and as bad of the loathsomeness of your
hearts as the Spirit himself doth. This is a holy compliance. To hinder
pettishness, consider God as a sovereign who hath power over you, and as a
gracious sovereign who hath an affection for a man under his rebukes ; repre-
sent him to yourselves, not only in his severity, but in his mercy also, laying
the foundation deep that he may make the building more strong, beautiful,
and lasting. Murmur not, unless you had rather remain in league with the
devil than have the band broken.
(2.) Run to the same hand for healing which wounded you. The wounds
of the Spirit may sometimes be skinned over by other helps, and left in-
wardly rankling, but they can be cured only by the same hand that made
them : Isa. Ivii. 17, 18, ' For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth,
and smote him : I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly, in the
way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him ; I will lead him
also, and restore comforts to him, and unto his mourners.' It is the sense
of God's wrath, the forfeiture of his favour, and the sinful distance man
stands in from God, which chiefly chargeth the soul ; the taking off his
wrath, the beaming of his favour, filling up the gulf between God and the
soul, belong only to God. The longing of a woman cannot be satisfied with
the most delicious fruit if she hath not the very thing she longs for, but there
will be indehble characters printed upon the foetus. Since our natural blind-
ness by the fall, we are not able to find out truth, there is need of his Spirit
to enhghten and guide us ; hence is he called the Spirit of truth. And since
sin raiseth storms in the conscience, which no wit of mere nature or strength
of reason can compose, there is need of the Spirit to silence the storms of
conscience ; hence he is called a comforter, to dispel them. As you are
wounded by the Spirit in the word, so look for cure from the Spirit in the
word. Nathan had assured David of a pardon by God's order ; David
would expect the joy of it only from God by his Spirit : Ps. li. 12, ' Restore
to me the joy of thy salvation.' Though he had an assurance from Nathan
of a pardon, he would have it also from the Spirit of God. If the Spint be
silent, no other voice can be musical ; give God, therefore, the honour of
his own prerogative. The key of peace is held in the hand of God, not m
the mouth of the creature ; peace is contained ia the cabinet of the word,
216 chaenock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
and God only can unlock it ; it is an effect of God's creating power, Isa.
Ivii. 19. Since the conquest sin hath made of us, the heart is but a tem-
pestuous place ; there is always matter for storms, as in the world for ex-
halations ; when they are raised, only Chi-ist by his Spirit can say to the
waves, ' Be still.' Spiritual storms will obey no other voice. Till you find
anything in the world that can equal God in a creative omnipotency, ex-
pect no peace from it ; sin must be removed before peace can be settled.
Only the blood of Christ can stop the mouth of conscience, and none but
the Spirit can drop it into the conscience. The application of it is only
by the Spirit, as the offering it on the cross was by him. But it must
not be in a way of enthusiastic expectation. As he wounded you in the
word, so he will heal you by the word also. He is faithful to Christ that
sent him, and takes of his to shew it to us, that is, of his truths ; he takes
his healing herbs out of no other garden. Though peace be the fruit of
a creative power, yet it is the fruit of the lips. And the Thessalonians
received the 'joy of the Holy Ghost' by receiving the word,' 1 Thess. i. 6.
Thirdly, Have recourse to Christ's atonement. Troubles of spirit are the
arraignment and indictment of the soul before God. It is by Jesus Christ
only, in whom God hath writ all the characters of his mercy, that we can be
freed from the danger. In him you will see a wrathful justice appeased, and
a provoked God reconciled. It is this blood only that quenches the fury of
God and the fire of conscience ; it is by his blood only we are justified, and
by this blood only can we be pacified. An infinite wrath you fear, an infinite
satisfaction must expel your fears ; that that quenches the fire of conscience,
must be water from the well of salvation. There are two things trouble a
convinced sinner, the sight of guilt and the weakness of righteousness. He
sees himself much in debt, and nothing to satisfy, is sensible he is come
short of the glory of God, that the righteousness of God will bar heaven
against his unrighteousness. He must then go to Christ to pay his debt,
and impart his righteousness. When David found iniquity prevailing, he
had recourse to this, Ps, Ixv. 3. Christ is a physician for the sick, a saviour
for the lost, a redeemer for the captives, a refiner for the filthy, a sm-ety
for the debtor, and a priest for the sensible sinner. In him we may see
both our weakness and our remedy ; his riches will make us sensible of our
poverty, his fulness of our emjDtiness, his medicines of our sickness, his ran-
som of our bondage, his glory of our misery. This is the way to make a legal
conviction commence evangelical.
Fourthly, Those that are under conviction should wait upon God for a
good issue. Be not too hasty to break prison, but stay God's leisure ; call
upon him, and he will be near you in a way of grace, though not immediately
in a way of comfort. ' The Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him in
truth,' Ps. xlv. 18. It is not for want of means that God doth not presently
comfort ; he hath endless comforts by him, but he stays for a fit season, that
he may come with double love, for his own glory and his creatures' advantage ;
as Christ deferred the raising Lazarus till certainly dead, that the mii-acle
of his resurrection might be indisputable, and his glory in raising him more
illustrious. God leaves men under a cloud to exercise their faith, which
many times is most strong where there is least feeling, otherwise it would
not be faith but sense that would make us come to him by prayer; he keeps
the day dark that we may fly to him in prayer, which we should not regard
had we comforts at pleasure. Hannah's soul must be poured out in tears
before she can have the desire of her heart. God keeps us under matter of
prayer, before he giveth us matter of praise, that we may praise him with
higher strains : * He that hath torn will heal, he that hath smitten will bind
John XVI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 217
up,' Hosea vi. 1. Exercise what little faith there is in such a case, Christ
did so in his agony : ' He ofiered up strong cries and prayers to him that
was able to save him from death.' God will knock oif your fetters in time,
when the soul finds the greatest need, and is in the fittest posture to glorify
him : Ps. 1. 15, ' Call upon me in a day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me ;' implying that God will dehver at such a time
when there is the greatest occasion to glorify him ; when you are most humble,
he will hear your cry, 2 Chron. vii. 14.
Fifthly, All the time of your waiting for the taking off your trouble which
may be upon your spirit, desire cleansing as well as comforting grace. To
desire only comfort is more selfish, to desire purging is an aim more at the
glory of God, who cannot be honoured without holiness. David put up
more prayers for purging than pardoning mercy. The waters that proceed
from the throne of the Lamb are not only refreshing and cooling, but also
purging and cleansing. A divine nature is necessary to a divine peace ;
cordials are not so necessary, but may be dangerous, when the humours are
strong ; purging is then more needful. The comforting Spirit is first a Spirit
of holiness, and Christ is Melchizedek, a king of righteousness, before a
king of peace. Besides, restoratives are best when purgatives have gone
before. Now because men are apt to run to wrong means, and take ways of
stupefying rather than rightly appeasing conscience, it will not be amiss to
give some directions to avoid this rock on which some split. Man is so full
of enmity against God, that he takes hold of what first comes to hand, and
would rather gather ease from any thing than go to a mediator of God's
appointment. A sense of sin is always attended with a look after a remedy :
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me ? Take heed of some
things in such a case :
(1.) Take heed of false opinions. As the word is the instrument of com-
fort, so the truth upon which comfort is founded must be tried by the word.
The Spirit must take of Christ's, the truths of Christ, and shew it to us :
' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; the commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes,' Ps. xix. 8. Poison may be fair
to the eye, and delightful to the palate, but hurtful to the life. Men in
distress of spirit are apt to catch at every rotten plank, like men ready to be
drowned. Puddle-water will be swallowed down in extremity, as eagerly as
the juice of a delicious grape ; the appetite desiring something to cool the
bowels, considers only what may give it some refreshment. False judg-
ments either of the disease or of the proper remedy are equally dangerous.
In this case men are like sick persons, that ask advice of every friend, scrape
up many remedies, but never go to a skilful physician. Take heed of false
opinions.
(2.) Take heed of carnal counsel in such a case. For if the Spirit be the
author of conviction, cleaving to any carnal counsel is turning the back upon
the Spirit. Flesh and blood are bad counsellors in this affair, they will con-
sult their own ease and seek their own satisfaction ; to consult with them is
to disobey God, Gal. i. 6. Christ would not suffer one that desired to be
his disciple to turn back, and take leave of his friends, which was but an act
of civility, Luke ix. 61 ; perhaps, because by them he might have been
diverted from his religious resolution, and his answer to him intimates as
much : ver. 62, ' No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking
back, is fit for the kingdom of God.' Unbelieving hearts, unbelieving friends
are the worst counsellors in the world, and the most miserable comforters,
their counsels are the devil's delight and the Spirit's grief. Such will quench
not only the fire in the conscience, but the Spirit too that kindled it, and
218 charnock's works. [John XVI. 8, 9.
cause him to depart. The best way in this case is, to have the counsel of
the wicked far from you, Job xxi. 16.
(3.) Our own righteousness and a road of formal services is to be taken
heed of. In this case our own righteousness is so far from being a means to
ease us, that it is a bar to true peace, by keeping us from that righteousness
that can only purchase it, and only effect it in us. Pride was the cause of
our ruin in Adam, and what was the cause of our ruin cannot be our remedy.
This temper manifests the heart to be full of the proud pharisee's, an enemy to
Christ, for it grudges him the title of a Saviour. An imperfect righteousness
cannot afibrd a perfect peace ; the righteousness of a sinful nature is not the
righteousness of a pure law ; a thorough conviction throws away a man's right-
eousness asjwell as his sin, in point of justification and in point of consolation ;
and to expect peace from a road of formal duties is to trust in the arm of
flesh. Paul calls all things so when he opposed ' rejoicing in the flesh' to
' rejoicing in Christ,' Philip, iii. 3. By flesh he means all things different
from Christ, and to go to a creature is to depart from the Lord. Take heed
therefore of valuing your own tears in the room of Christ's blood, your own
petitions in the room of his intercessions, and applauding yourselves in a
vain righteousness, instead of the meritorious satisfaction of the blood of
God, as though a few good duties could expiate a multitude of sins. What
are a few tears but a drop to the sea of our guilt ? What are our petitions but
as the breath of a child to the storms of our provocations ? our righteousness
but as a mite to the many talents of our unrighteousness ? Sinful duties
cannot make an infinite and holy satisfaction. As these were not our saviour,
so they cannot be our comforter ; they have no blood to shed for us, and
therefore hate no power to heal us.
(4.) Take heed of carnal contentments and sensual pleasures. Saul called
for music to drive away the evil spirit ; so do some for sensual delights, to
drive away the Holy Spirit ; set up projects in the world to avoid the noise
in their own consciences ; and sometimes sinful merriments to expel the good
Spirit by an impure devil, is as if a man should endeavour to quench fire
vpith burning pitch, or cure the gout by a stab at the heart. Thus men use
all arts to stifle convictions, but the end of their mirth is heaviness, Prov.
xiv. 13. What creature can cure the wound that God makes ? What can
comfort when the Almighty troubles ? All carnal contentments can no more
remove inward and spiritual distempers than a crown can cure the headache,
or a golden slipper the pain of the gout. Therefore, go to none of these
things, but run to that hand which did wound you, unto the Spirit of God,
who is the author of conviction. The
Third exhortation, to those who are desirous to have spiritual conviction ;
to be convinced of sin.
First, Desire the Spirit to pull the scales from your eyes which Satan hath
put on ; beg of God, ' What I see not, teach thou me ;' desire him to lead
you into the seminary of corruption, and cause you to possess your sins, till
you cry out. Guilty, guilty ; to see them in their filthiness, not as a dunghill
in a picture, but as a real dunghill, offending a delicate smell. This course
Job took. Job xiii. 23, when he considered the multitude of his sins: ' Make
me to know my iniquity and my sin,' not only with a simple but sensible
Secondly, Meditate much upon the sense Christ had of sin. Consider how
his undertanding was enlarged to the highest pitch of knowledge ; not a grain
of malice or ingratitude in the bowels of sin but was within the compass of
his apprehension. He understood the hoUness of that God that was offended
with sm. Conceive Christ in his agonies ; consider how much sin hath dis-
John XYI. 8, 9.] conviction of sin. 219
pleased and injured God, sunk and ruined the soul, and this may be some
assistance, by the means of the Spirit, for gaining a spiritual conviction. A
spiritual sense Chiist had, and the consideration of him and imitation of him
is the way for us to have a spiritual sense of sin.
Thirdly, Study the law in its spiritual meaning, and in the extent of it. Paul
apprehended the law in its spirituality, which before he understood according
to the Pharisaical interpretation, which dulled its edge in its operations.
Fourthly, Set every doctrine you know home upon your conscience. There
is a double knowledge, dogmatical and aflfectionate. We may know many
things that do not affect us ; we may be affectedly ignorant, when we are
dogmatically knowing. Paul knew the law by the means of Gamaliel, at
whose feet he sat, but had no sense of it, till Christ came and brought the
sense of it from his head to his heart.
Fifthly, Attend upon the means. God will honour the word with con-
vincing men of sin, even of those sins which the light of nature would mani-
fest : as David of mm-der and adultery, which God would convince him of
by the prophet.
Sixthly, Suppress not any convictions when they flash in upon you ; let
them have their perfect work. Cherish every conviction the Spirit fastens
upon you while it is warm upon your affections. It is dangerous to suppress
it. The Spirit's operations will not be fruitless ; it will end in a full con-
viction, or in a curse. If the Spirit hath invited himself, and hath been
refused to be a physician, he may leave you remediless ; he may have no
more hand to knock, but dust to shake off from his feet, as a token of his
final leaving you. And wait upon God in the use of means ; it is there that
the Spirit doth breathe ; it is by the word he doth convince, as well as by
the word he doth comfort.
A DISCOURSE OF UNBELIEF, PROVING IT IS
THE GREATEST SIN.
OJ sin, because they believe not on me. — John XVI. 9.
There were two observations in this text :
1. The Spirit is the author of conviction of sin.
2. Unbelief is a sin of the greatest maHgnity against God.
For the second,
Of sin. Not of sins, but sin. The Spirit convinceth of all sins, but chiefly
of a state of sin, of unbeUef.
First, As the fountain of all sin. It was the first sin of Adam. Not un-
belief of a mediator, but the not giving credit to the precept of God, and
the reality of God's intention in commanding. There was a jealousy that
God had not dealt sincerely and plainly with him in the precept, as if he
thought the prohibition was not so much an act of his sovereignty, as an act
of his envy. It was the cause also of all the sin that grew up to such
maturity in the old world ; they had not faith in that first promise made to
Adam, and without question transmitted by him to his posterity. The faith
of Abel is applauded, Heb. xi. 4 ; consequently the unbelief of Cain, the
head of the wicked world, is marked. If Abel's sacrifice was more excellent
in regard of his faith, Cain's was more vile in regard of his unbelief.* The
apostle, shewing that faith makes the difi'erence between the godly and the
wicked, begins his discourse with the two examples of faith and unbelief in
those brothers. Abel's faith seems to be thus in his offering: 1. He con-
sidered his own sin transferred upon that innocent victim, thereby under-
standing the demerit of his sin, as deserving wrath and death for it. 2. He
considered that this sacrifice, being the blood of a beast, could not take away
sin ; but that it was typical of the Lamb promised, upon which his sins were
to be transferred, and to whom they were to be imputed, and accordingly
acted faith on that promise of the seed, and desired God not to impute his
sins to him, but to that Lamb which was to be slain ; and this the very
nature of his sacrifice, being bloody, and the character the apostle gives of
his faith, intimates. Cain had not faith in the promised seed ; he brings an
ofi"ering to God of the fruits of the ground, not a bloody sacrifice, whereby
he might signify the acknowledgment of his own desert, and his reliance
* Illyric. in loc.
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 221
on that Lamb of God whose heel was to be bruised, who was to be made an
offering. The kinds of their sacrifices imply two different conceits in them.
Cain's seems to be only a present to acknowledge God the author of the
good things he had, at the best, or to oblige God rather ; for the ground of
all his wrath was, because God did not respect his offering, did not testify
a well-pleasedness with it. His offering was no signification of his sin, nor a
type of the promised seed ; he owned God as creator, not as redeemer.*
Cain and his posterity, which infected the old world, disregarded that pro-
mise of the seed of the woman, slighted the offers made in it, and resisted
the strivings of the Spirit with them against their unbelief, which was
principally the matter of the Spirit's striving, because he acted with them as
the Spirit of Christ the Messiah, 1 Peter iii. 18, 19, and therefore to
accept him with a sense of that sin, which was properly against that person
in whose name he came and by whom he acted. The Spirit was then in the
world striving against their unbelief in the promise, as he is now in the
world striving against unbelief in the performance.
2. As the ligament and band of all sin : John viii. 24, * If you believe
not that I am he,' the Messiah sent of God, ' you shall die in your sins ;'
unless you believe me to be that seed of the woman, promised by the merit
of my death to reconcile the world, you will sink with all the mass of your
sins upon you. If unbelief be removed from a soul, the guilt of all other
sins departs with it ; if that remain, the guilt of all other sins is bound and
fastened with an adamantine chain upon the soul, and that with more
crimson aggravations ; where the notices of a mediator have been revealed,
there is a superadded guilt to all the rest. As faith is the only means
whereby we gain a pardon, so unbelief is the only formal cause of condem-
nation, though other sins are the meritorious cause of eternal death. As no
price had been paid for our redemption, unless Christ had offered his blood,
so no application can be made of that price to us without faith in that blood.
Upon this, sins are flung into the depths of the sea ; upon the other, they
remain with their whole weight upon the soul.
In general. That unbelief is the greatest sin, appears,
1. Because God employs the highest means to bring men to a sense of it.
This is in the text. It is the work of the Spirit to convince of this sin.
The odiousness of sin to God appears by his sending Christ to expiate it ;
the odiousness of unbelief to God appears by his sending the Spirit to re-
prove it. That which calls for the Spirit's descent from heaven, in order to
a conviction of it, is attended with black aggravations. This is the great
errand of the Holy Ghost to the world ; the first thing he does is to open
the understanding, the eye of the soul, to see the malignity of other things,
in order to convince the conscience of this before he changeth the will.
This is the principal fort against which the Spirit plants his battery, and it
is the last that is surrendered. A terrified sinner would run from the shot
that is showered about his ears ; he would reform, he would be holy, but
cries out still, loath to believe. The prodigal will be next door to starving,
before he will come to his father ; and the woman with the bloody issue will
spend all her estate before she will come to Christ.
And indeed it is a sin so deeply rooted that,
(1.) Reason cannot convince of it. Christ, the object proposed, is above
the reach of a rational eye, and therefore the sin against him is not discerned
in its blackness by mere reason. Reason will not inform a man of the
stupendous love of God in sending his Son to die for men, that were and
* Catharin. nxuoi/a dutriav, more sacrifice, more ackuowledgment of God. — Heb.
xi. 4.
222 oharnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
would be unprofitable servants. Neither doth it consist with the natural
notion men have of the justice of God, to lay upon an innocent person the
sins of guilty offenders. It cannot naturally enter into any man's heart,
that he that by power and wisdom made the world, should design by the
cross and the foolishness of preaching to save it ; that he that is infinite in
love and mercy should make his Son to suffer. It is not therefore by the
sparklings of bare reason men can see the blackness of this sin. Other sins
may be known by natural light, because the duties to which they are op-
posite may he known by the light of nature. As the Spirit only discovers
the greatness of Christ, the excellency of his person, the preciousness of his
passion, so it also only shews what a sin it is to reject Christ. As faith is
' the gift of God,' Eph. ii. 8, a grace more pecuUarly the birth of heaven,
so the extirpation of its opposite must only be from God.
(2.) Natural conscience of itself helps not in this conviction. It indeed
maintains the quarrel against other sins, and plains the way for the Spirit's
victory. But in this case there is no auxiliary force fi:om conscience, nothing
of a natural interest to plead for faith. It finds all the powers of the soul
prejudiced against it, maintaining a war against the doctrine of the gospel ;
and the tide of our own natures carry us forcibly against it. The Spirit
enters the lists singly and maintains the duel alone. So that what was said
of the temple may more properly be said of this, ' Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.'
2. It is a sin against the gospel ; not as a killing law, but an healing
command ; a blacker sin, because against a better covenant. It is his peculiar
gospel command ; a precept of the highest valuation with him : 1 John
iii. 23, * This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of
his Son Jesus Christ.' Not only in regard of his authority (for so others
were his commands), but in regard of the affection he hath to it, it being
most pleasing to him, as ver. 22 intimates. The disobedience of this com-
mand, then, is most disgustful and hateful to him ; it is his command, as
being the last that ever he will give ; it is a dispensation from the rigour of
those commands in the covenant of works, but is to be followed with no
dispensation by any other. The sin against it, then, is against the utmost
gracious command that God will ever give. Other sins are against the
precepts of his sovereignty, this against the precepts of his grace, as well as
his sovereignty. The keeping this command brings him near to us to abide
in us, ver. 24, the breaking this command sets him at a distance from us, and
makes our persons and services loathsome to him. Wickedness against the
gospel is greater than wickedness against the law, because the evangelical
revelation hath more of grace and more of glory, the sin against it hath more
of contempt and more of heinousness ; a sin against that is a sin dyed seven
times blacker, and will have a furnace seven times hotter. It is against
the gospel, which is so holy a declaration of God's will that there cannot be
an holier ; so good in itself, so profitable for man, that nothing can be
better ; the sin therefore against it is so bad, that nothing can be worse.
The law or covenant of works never discovered the object of faith, and
therefore never enjoined any such formal act of faith in a mediator, and
therefore takes no cognisance of this sin of unbelief. It, not making known
the person to be believed in, cannot make known the sin of not believing.
If the law commanded faith in relation to the object of Christ crucified, it
must then acquaint us with Christ crucified. It would be an unreasonable
law to enjoin an act about such an object, and never discover one syllable
of that object to us. It doth not appear that Adam had any knowledge of
Christ ; the revelation of that bears date after his fall, at the time of the first
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 223
promise. If unbelief were a sin only against the law, then those that reject
the gospel would be liable to no more punishment, than if they had been
only under the law ; but they will, as will appear in the sequel of this dis-
course. This faith is the peculiarity of the gospel ; and when Christ is said
to come * preaching the gospel,' the matter of it is, ' repent and believe,'
Mark i. 14, two things that never entered into the heart of the law to con-
ceive. It is therefore a sin against the whole gospel, since the design
of that is to remove our suspicions of God, and establish a trust in him ;
upon which account the Gentiles, that are without the gospel, are described
by the title of men ' without hope,' 1 Thes. iv. 13. Unbelief is a making
ourselves without ground of hope, contrary to all the encouragements of hope
which God gives us in the gospel.
3. UnbeUef is a sin against the highest testimony. It is against the two
greatest witnesses that ever were, or can be, viz., the Father and the Son.
The Father in the Old Testament, the Son in the New : John viii. 17, 18,
' I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears
witness of me.' What did they witness ? That Christ was the light of the
world, ver. 12. The Father witnessed this in the Scripture : Isa. Ixix. 4,
* I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles ; ' and by the works he did, John
X. 87. Christ the eternal Xoyoi; (the word) bears witness to his human
nature. Since the testimony of two men of credit is worthy of belief, much
more the testimony of two persons in the Deity, infallible in their testimony,
in whom there can be no suspicion of falsity. Therefore Christ saith to
Nicodemus, John iii. 11, ' We speak that we do know, and testify that which
we have seen.' We, i. e. my Father and I ; in answer to Nicodemus, who,
ver. 2, acknowledged him a teacher come from God; therefore, saith Christ,
we, God who hath sent me, and I, witness this. The witness follows, ver. 15,
that ' whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
It is a sin against the witness of the whole Bible.
4. As faith is the choicest grace, so that which is opposite to it must be
the greatest sin. It hath as high a place among sins, as faith hath among
graces, and hath the precedency of all other sins, as faith hath the pre-
eminence above all other graces ; and what faith is in the nature of grace,
unbehef is contrary to it in the nature of sin. Faith glorifies God, unbelief
vilifies him ; one justifies him, the other condemns him. * Faith works by
love,' Gal, v. 6, excites a love of God, and is excited by it ; unbelief works
by hatred. Faith is the spirit that quickens all obedience ; all the fruits of the
Spirit grow upon the root of faith ; all the fruits of the flesh grow upon the
root of unbelief. Faith turns common works into acts of grace, as the
chemist doth metals into gold ; unbelief turns all into dung and poison.
Faith makes every prayer, though weak, an acceptable sacrifice; our prayers
can no more enter into heaven by unbelief than the Israelites could enter
into Canaan. As Christ is ' precious to them thatbeheve,' 1 Peter i. 7, so is
he odious to them that believe not ; as faith is a consent to take Christ for
an husband, so unbelief is a flat refusal of him. Faith cuts off" all self-exal-
tation : Rom. iii. 27, ' Boasting is excluded by the law of faith,' and by the
grace of faith too ; unbelief supports it. It is a keeping up a pride greater
than that of Adam's, a pride against God ; it is indeed the Beelzebub,
the prince of all those legions of sinful devils that quarter in the heart of a
natural man.
5. It is more odious and loathsome to God, and hath in some respect a
greater demerit in it, than sins against the light of nature. ' The killing an
ox is as the slaying a man,' Isa. Ixvi. 3. Not simply the killing an ox, but
by reason of the unbelief in the Messiah, the ground of keeping up the
224 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
ceremonial worship by sacrifices after the exhibition of Christ in the promise,
which made a worship formerly instituted as odious as murder, which was
a disparaging the image of God. Sodom was not defiled by its pollutions,
as Capernaum was by refusing Christ. Who can think of the sin of Sodom
without indignation and horror ? Yet the punishment of unbelievers being
greater than theirs, impUes the sin to be more grievous ; because the un-
spotted righteousness of God would not inflict a punishment above the merit
of the offence ; he exacts no more than iniquity deserves. Job xi. 6. Now,
' it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for' a city or person that rejects the oflers of the gospel. Mat. x. 15.
That city was an epitome of hell both for sin and judgment, yet that defiling
sin hath less guilt, less filth than the rejecting, purifying gospel grace. The
punishment of Sodom should be like that of the whip to the punishment of
rebels under the light of the gospel, which should be as the torment of a
rack. The sin therefore is of a lighter tincture, like petty larceny to murder.
All other sins indeed strike at some one or two attributes of God, and of
God as considered as Creator ; but this is a formal injury to God in all his
perfections, and as appearing in the richest dress. Other sins being con-
versant about some created matter, preferring some creature before God,
this is a preferring that very sin, the loathsomest thing under heaven, before
a God of glory and an excellent Saviour. Other sins are conversant imme-
diately about some inferior object, this strikes directly at God himself. It
is therefore called the sin: Heb. xii. 1, 'Let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us.' The name of weight is given to
other sins, but unbelief is called the sin. Most understand it of original
concupiscence ; but since it is the use the apostle makes of the former
doctrine, Heb. xi., concerning the excellency of faith, I think it is more
consonant to understand it of unbelief, the sin contrary to that faith he had
been so highly commending. This is the provocation: Num. xiv. 11, 'How
long will this people provoke me, and how long will it be ere they believe
me ? ' They were guilty of many other provocations, but God reckons their
incredulity as the top of all. It flings most dirt upon all the attributes of
God, and doth not only wrong the Deity singly considered, but bears a spite
at all the three persons.
In handling this subject, I shall shew,
1. '^Vhat is to be understood by unbelief.
2. Wherein the sinfulness of it consists.
1, What is to be understood by unbelief.
First, negatively, what it is not.
We must not understand by it.
First, a want of assurance. Drooping spirits may be believers. There is
a manifest distinction made between faith in Christ and the comfort of that
faith ; between beheving to eternal Hfe, and knowing we have eternal life :
1 John V. 13, ' These things have I written to you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.' There is
a difference between a child's having a right to an estate, and his full know-
ledge of the title. There may be a trust in God where there is a walk in
darkness, Isa. 1. 10. If faith be not assurance, unbehef is not the want of
it. If faith were assurance, a man would be justified before he believed ; he
must be justified before he can know himself justified. The object always
precedes the knowledge of its existence ; the sun must be risen before I know
it is risen. If the want of assurance were this unbelief, a child of God
would be an unbeliever every time God is pleased to draw a oloud between
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 225
heaven and the soul, and deny him the present tastes of the hidden manna.
UnbeHef is a sin, the want of assurance is not ; to have it is not our duty
but God's dispensation ; he hath obUged the believer to seek it, but not to
possess it. Assurance is a fruit that grows out of the root of faith : the
fruits in winter appear not upon the tree. Because I see not a flourishing
top, shall I deny the existence and sappiness of the root ? Mary, when she
wept at Christ's feet, had no assurance of his love, yet Christ sends her
away with the encomiums of her faith, acted before the comfort dropped from
his'lips, Luke vii. 48, 50. The characters of faith may be written in the
heart as letters engraven upon a seal, yet filled with so much dust as not to
be distinguished ; the dust hinders the reading of the letters, but doth not
raze them out.
Secondly, not every interruption of the act of faith. Faith may lie asleep
in the habit, when it doth not walk about in the act. A man upon this
account can no more be called an unbeliever than a man asleep can be called
a dead man. A behever may, like Samson, lose his present strength while
he retains his life. Christ's prayer propped up Peter's faith from failing,
when there was as little appearance of faith in him at one time as of life in a
dead man ; yet all that time there was a pulse of faith beating in him, which
was made sensible by his Saviour's look. Faith is the vital principle : ' The
just shall live by faith,' and where this is, though in a weak degree, such a
person cannot be denominated an unbeliever. Fogs and mists darken the
sun, but put not out that eye of the world ; the sun shines though there be
an interception of his beams. Yet this is but temporary. A true believer
cannot be long without acting faith, no more than a living man can be with-
out breath and some kind of motion. Thomas was not without faith, though
his faith was at present asleep and had a defect in it.
Thirdly, not doubts, which may frequently step up in the soul. Such
there are in the beginnings of faith, when the state of the soul is like that of
the twilight, a mixture of light and darkness. Such a condition the soul is
in, in its first conversion; as the Jews were when the chains of their captivity
were knocked ofi", 'like men in a dream,' Ps. cxxvi. 6, 7, scarcely believing
the performance of that which they vehemently desired, expected and believed
in the promise, scarce imagining that they, so lately dead in a civil sense,
should live and return to their land. When men are in a state of nature,
they are most swayed by self-love and presumption ; when they come into a
state of grace, there riseth up jealousy and fear, and they think they cannot
run far enough from the other extreme. This is a jealousy principally of
themselves, but it redounds upon God. The mother and nurse of it is a
secret partial infidelity, the ignorance of the promise, power, and extent of
the mediation of Christ. This is not an unbelief habitually settled ; it is
rather a misbelief than unbelief, and rather a start of passion, a fit of infirmity,
as Asaph : Ps. Ixxvii. 10, ' This is my infirmity,' when he had doubted
whether there were any mercy left in God, when he believed God had parted
with all his bowels, it was from a sudden storm, not a settled way of argu-
mentation. Not only at the beginning of faith, but after a full-grown faith,
there may be some doubtings. David was none of the lowest form ; when
in a fit he gives the he to God through the sides of his prophets : Ps.
cxvi. 10, 11, ' I said in my haste all men are liars ;' I did not seriously,
and as my judgment, say so. All men are bars, the prophets too, who have
brought to me the message of a kingdom. He casts the dint of his passion
in the face of the promise ; this was the pang of unbelief, not an evil heart
of unbelief. He was a man after God's own heart in his state, though not
VOL. IV. p
226 * chaenock's woeks.'' [John XVI. 9.
in that act. Doubting doth not imply a want of faith, but a weakness of
faith. Christ acknowledgeth the few grains of Peter's faith when he reproves
him for doubting : Mat. xiv, 31, '0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst
thou doubt?' A divine spark may live in a smoke of doubts without a
speedy rising into a flame. When grace is at the bottom of doubting,
there "will be reliance on Christ, and lively petitions to him. Peter's faith
staggers when he began to sink, but he casts a look, and sends forth a ciy to
his Saviour acknowledging his sufficiency : Mat. xiv. 30, ' Lord, save me.'
Sometimes those doubtings strengthen our trust, and make us take faster
hold on God : Ps. Ivi. 3, ' What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.'
This was a fear of himself or others, rather than a jealousy of God. Had
he had unworthy suspicions of him, he would not have trusted him ; he
would not have run for remedy to the object of his fear. The waverings
where faith is, are like the tossings of a sbip fast at anchor (still there is no
relying upon God), not like a boat, carried by the waves of the sea to be
dashed against a rock. If the heart stay on Christ in the midst of those
doubtings, it is not an evil heart of unbehef. Such doubtings consist with
the indwelling of the Spirit, who is in the heart, to perform the office of a
comforter against such fears, and to expel those thick fumes of nature.
Fourthly, Neither are temptations to unbelief and unbelieving thoughts
injected, the unbelief I mean. If these be not entertained, though in regard
of their matter they are unbelieving thoughts, yet formally they are not acts
of our unbelief. If such thoughts in themselves were acts of our unbelief,
while they are disowned by us, what shall we say to Christ, who had as great
incentives to diffidence proposed to him by the devil as are to any of his
members, Mat. iv. 3, who yet was without the least spot ? The proposal is
Satan's, the entertainment only makes them ours. A true believer will not
harbour such thoughts of God ; they may be forced in, and paused upon, but
they can find no standing credit in the heart, but will be regarded as the
hissings of the old serpent. If you receive them as a flash of lightning in
your faces, shut your eyes against them, give them their pass, and command
them to depart with a Get thee hence, Satan. If you pour out tears upon
every assault, as Asaph did after he had had a multitude of them (Ps. Ixxiii. 21,
* Thus was my heart grieved, and I was pricked in my reins,' his soul and
pU his aflections were wounded, because of those foolish imaginations of
God) ; I say, if we do thus, and run to heaven for help, it frees us from the
charge of a state of unbelief upon this account. That cannot be unbelief
that resists unbehef. TMiatsoever votes against such thoughts is not a friend
to them. If they be entertained with a temporary delight, unless they fully
overcome the soul, they do not declare us in a state of infidelity. But if
thi^y are received, delighted in, applauded, and grow to a settled and rooted
notion, and spread their fruits in the hfe, the person cannot be excused
from the charge of unbelief.
Fifthly, Kor is it an unbelief of some truths through ignorance, provided
they be not fundamental. Zacharias was a believer, and expecter of the
Messiah, Luke i. 6 ; he could not else be said to be righteous, walking
in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless, yet believed not that particular
word spoken to him by the angel, ver. 20 ; and the disciples believed not the
testimony of those that witnessed the resurrection of Christ, Mark xvi. 11,
18, 14, Every error in the head doth no more destroy the truth of faith,
than every miscarriage in the hfe through infirmity nullifies the being of
grace, or every spot upon the face impair the beauty and features of it.
The apostles, those glorious instruments of the propagation of the gospel,
and the first commissioned ambassadors of Christ, believed all the time of
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 227
Christ's life, and after his death too, according to the notion of the Jews,
that the Messiah was to rear a temporal kingdom. Herein their errors were
the same with the Jews'. But they had a faith in believing this person Jesus
to be the Messiah, and resting upon him for salvation ; so that they had an
habitual faith in the person, with a partial unbelief. The Jews had a total
unbelief in the person, though an assent to, and mistaken expectation of the
promise ; nay, after the Spirit of God descended upon them, they would not
believe the conversion of the G-entiles, though the Scripture was more full
of promises of that than the conversion of the Jews ; and they limited that
precept of Christ of preaching to every creature as if it were meant only of
that nation ; yet those times were the richest for the knowledge of Christ and
faith in him that ever were ; and though before that they were ignorant of the
design of the death of Christ, and did not believe his resurrection upon a de-
claration of it, yet certainly their habitual faith was not expelled. Peter's
faith did not fail at the time Christ lay in the grave, for both the promise
and prayer of Christ was a bar against it. Their faith, indeed, was stupe-
fied and nonplussed at present ; but it is one thing not to believe through
weakness and ignorance, and another thing not to believe thi'ough wilfulness
and neglect of enquiries. They did not believe the resurrection of Christ ;
but Peter, when he heard the news of it, did not supinely rest in his un-
belief, but ran to infoiin himself, Luke xxiv. 12. If a fundamental truth be
not believed, be not enquired into, if a man is wilfully ignorant of it, I know
not how he can be excused fi-om unbelief; nay, if we have a doubt of any
truth of God, and cherish that doubt with complacency, and are afraid it
should be a truth, and wish it false, I question whether this be consistent
with true faith. I am sure such an one is guilty of unbelief in that act,
because it is an act of the will, delighting in that which is contrary to faith.
Sixthly, Nor is it a negative unbelief {carentia simplex fidei) which is in
the heathens, that is here to be understood. The schools distinguish
infidelity into negativa and j^rivativa ; the one is in the heathens, who never
had the means of faith ; the other privative, which is carentia fidei dehitce
inesse, is in those who are acquainted with the doctrine of the gospel, and
therefore are obliged to believe. The heathens' unbelief, say the school-
men,* is not their sin but then* punishment, arising from the ignorance of
divine revelation. There is a natural incapacity of acknowledging and
believing that which never was discovered to them. A man may study sun,
moon, and stars, yet never learn such a lecture as the death of the Son of
God for the redemption of the world. Their rain is not properly for the sin
of unbeUef, but for the sins against the first covenant, and against the law
of nature, known and accepted by them ; yet then- ruin is for the want of
faith, because those sins cannot be wiped off, but by faith in the blood of the
second covenant ; but they are not immediately chargeable with it as a sin.
But the unbelief of those who live under the gospel, and believe not the re-
port made to them, either from an affected ignorance, gross laziness, not in-
quiring into the truth, or a desperate contrariety to it, is a sin for which they
are condemned. The heathens are under a material infidelity, because they
are utterly ignorant of the matter of faith, never had an}i;hing of divine
revelation ; yet their ignorance being so great as to exclude faith, it is a true
infidelity. But those who have had sufficient proposals of the gospel, and
receive it not in the truth and love of it, are guilty of a formal unbelief.
The former necessarily want faith, because they want the object of it ; the
latter voluntarily want faith, because they have the revelation of the object
made to them, and will not embrace it. This is not a sin in the heathens.
* Aquiu. 2da. 2ds&. qu. x. art, 1.
228 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
If it were a sin not to believe, the obligation to believe must arise from the
law of nature, or from some new declaration ; not from the law of nature,
because that could not instruct them in the doctrine of justification by a
mediator. There are notions of morality writ in men's hearts by nature,
but none of the gospel, and naturally men are obliged to no other obedience
than what Adam in innocence was bound to ; but Adam in that state was
not bound to believe in a mediator, not because of any natural inability in
him, but because of the unfitness of such a declaration of redemption to
him in such a state, which needed no recovery, he then standing by another
title. But since Adam was obliged, as a rational creature, to believe what-
soever God should reveal, and so bound to believe in Christ upon the reve-
lation of Christ to him, such an obligation indeed lies upon all men, as they
are rational creatures, and the posterity of Adam, to believe when a revela-
tion is made to them ; and when such a revelation is made to the heathens,
they would be condemned for not believing, because in Adam they had
power to believe, and lost it. But till that revelation be made, infidelity in
the heathens is not their crime, no more than it is a crime to disobey a law
which was never published and made known to the people. They can no
more be condemned for not believing than you would punish a man in the
night for not seeing the sun before it is risen, or for not dancing at the
sound of music he never heard. The light of the gospel never dawned upon
them, nor the sound of it ever arrived to their ears, yet they are condemned
for want of believing in Christ, as a sick man dies for want of mediciue to
cure him, but his own sickness is the cause of his death. They are only
obliged by the law of creation, but the gospel was not delivered to Adam by
the law of creation, as he was a common person, but after he had put him-
self out of that capacity by his fall, and the headship put into other hands,
the hands of Christ. The Scripture is clear in this. If it be ' the con-
demnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather
than light,' John iii. 18, the rejecting this light is not their condemnation,
unless it shines upon them. And Christ tells his apostles, John xv. 22, that
if he ' had not come and spoken to the Jews, they had not had sin ;' they
had not had the sin of unbelief, which is the highest condemning sin ; they
had not been guilty of it, if they had not had declarations of the gospel by
the mouth of Christ and his ministers. And though some think the heathens
will be judged according to the gosjiel, because of Rom. ii. 16, * God will
judge all men according to my gospel,' yet that is to be understood only
according as it is revealed in the gospel ; for, ver. 12, he speaks of the
judgment of the heathens by the law of nature, and the judgment of the
Jews by the law of grace. He speaks of their being judged by Christ as it
is declared in the gospel, but not of the gospel as the rule whereby they
shall be judged who never heard of it ; for God doth not bind any to a mere
impossibility, nor require more of men than what he hath given man by
creation power to do.
Secondly, But positively by unbelief we must understand,
First, A denial of the truth of the gospel. When men assent not to the
doctrine of the gospel by an act of the understanding ; * when, like Julian
the apostate, they regard it as ysXurd xat (pXva^hv, a matter of laughter, a
mere trifle ; or, as the Jews call the gospel, ]"lt^ P v3, a volume of lies ; or
as a French papist said of the epistles of Paul, that he believed them no more
than he did ^sop's fables. I doubt there may be many such among us. I
am sure the practical unbelief among us argues this dissent in the under-
standing to lurk in more than we imagine, as the foundation of all the other
* Clark's Sermons, p. 116.
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 229
unbelief. The first temptation Satan assaults the soul with, after some
awakenings of conscience, is to question the matter to be believed. If he
can hinder men from laying the foundation of truth in their understanding,
he prevents all the superstructure, which cannot be raised without it. Many-
there are who, because they cannot comprehend the mysterious ways and
counsels of God, which seem unlikely and improbable to reason, deny the
whole word ; whereas it would be more suitable to submit to God's will than
to question it. Such a dogmatical unbelief, which is not very rare among
us, is an exploding the whole doctrine of the gospel, which is inexcusable
and irrational, since men every day believe other things upon far less evi-
dence than they have for the gospel, whose divine authority is witnessed by
the manner of its propagation in all ages, contrary to the power, strength,
parts, and eloquence of the world, and supported by a concurrence of provi-
dence against and under the violences of men.
Secondly, A doubting of the truth of the doctrine of the gospel. Many
who will not openly deny it, yet question whether it be true, and think that
which is true uncertain and dubious ; this is unbelief. Such a doubtful
opinion is no full assent, but a floating judgment, a suspicion that it may be
true, and a suspicion that it may be false, like a pendulous weight which
swings to and fro, as much on one side as on the other. There is an uncer-
tainty in the speculative judgment, when a man knows not what he should
assent to. There is indeed sometimes a doubting of admiration, which riselh
not from any contrariety in the heart to the matter proposed, but implies a
suitableness of the heart to it ; but by the greatness of the thing ofiered it is
dazzled, as the eye by the splendour of the sun. Such an admiration was
Abraham's at the power of God to raise seed out of such a dry root. Gen.
xvii. 17 ; such a doubt had the blessed Virgin, which was joined with a
modest inquiry for better instruction, Luke i. 24, her reason being non-
plussed in the manner of the thing revealed to her above the course of
nature. But where there is a doubt of diflidence of the great truths of the
gospel,* regarding them as of doubtful credit, this is unbelief, because it is a
judgment contrary to the doctrine of faith ; for we are not only to believe that
the things revealed are true, but that they are certain and infallible. As all
suspicion is an opinion of evil with light conjectures, so a suspicion in mat-
ters of faith is an opinion offalsity upon light conjectures. Such a suspicion
includes a judgment contrary to faith, because, without some judgment in
the case, there cannot be an opinion of one thing or other. Since all men
are in the rank of believers or unbelievers, a suspension of our belief of the
doctrine of the gospel cannot be ranked under the banner of faith ; it is at
best, for the present, a more modest refusal, rather than a downright rejec-
tion. As a man is thought to refuse a proposition when he seems unwill-
ingly to comply with it, and will take time to consider, he that is not with
Christ is against him, he that receiveth him not refuseth him. If faith be a
certain knowledge, — John xvii. 8, ' They have known surely that I came out
from thee,' — then an uncertain opinion is unbelief. In many men there is
uncertainty from an acuteness of understanding, whereby they are dextrous
in raising objections, as Mark xi. 31, 33, which makes them uncertain how
to steer themselves, like a needle between two loadstones, which refuseth
neither, nor closeth with either of them. Such an unbelief there is among
many of us, a believing a probability of the gospel, not the certainty ; nay,
scarce the probability, but owning it outwardly, as they would do a fashion.
Thirdly, Refusal to accept heartily of Christ upon the terms of the gospel,
which is opposite to justifying faith, when there is not a fiducial motion to
* Suarez, vol. v. Disp. xvi, sec. ii. parag. 2.
230 charnock's woeks. [John XVI. 9.
Christ as the centre. There may be assent, and, as some divines say, upon
a divine motive, yet a man still under the notion of an unbeliever ; for a
dogmatical faith is not always accompanied with a jtistifyirig, though a justi-
fying faith always supposeth a dogmatical, or assent to the truth as ante-
cedent and preparatory, or else including it in its essence. The devils, fn m
evident experience, believe there is a God, and believe the principles of the
Christian religion (as we believe the wind blows, the sun shines, and the air
freezeth) ; and they have had experience of the power of Christ wasting their
kingdom. Both these faiths, dogmatical and justifying, must go together.
There is a double act of the soul, the understanding to propose, the will to
embrace, suitable to the double object in the promise, which must be con-
sidered as true, and so move the understanding as good, and so affect the
will. This dogmatical faith is necessary, as a glass window that lets in the
light. This unbelief is when, though men profess an assent to the truth
with their understandings, yet they consent not to it with their wills, and by
reason of corrupt habits, embrace it not as good ; when, though there is not
an evil head, there is 'an evil heart of unbelief,' Heb. iii. 12. They may
may well be said not to believe a thing, who, though they believe the truth
of it, yet have no due estimate of the goodness of it ; when there is a suffi-
cient evidence made to them, both of the truth and goodness of the matter
revealed, they will not come up to the terms of the gospel. Such as those
are in every assembly, who, though they dissent not from the truth of the
Scripture, and the dogmatical points in it, yet they never seriously reflect
upon them, have not valuations of them. They may have approbations of
the truth as it is rational, but not an esteem and application of it as holy.
They have no sense of the need of Christ, nor of the worth of Christ ; value
not the commands to obey him, nor the promises to rely upon him, nor
Christ to embrace him, nor the threatenings to fear him. The precepts, as
well as the promises of Christ, are the objects of faith, so the precepts, as
well as the promises, are the objects of unbelief. The precepts are not the
formal object of faith, but of obedience ; yet he that believes not the precept
believes not the promise, which is an encouragement of obedience to the
precept. They then are unbelievers who, though they would have the safety
Christ hath purchased, will not pay him the service he hath merited ; who
postpone the commands of the gospel to the indulgences of the flesh ; who
would have salvation, but reject the yoke. They renounce the articles of
the gospel, that would preserve their sins, which Christ principally came to
save from ; and God counts such no less unbelievers than he did the Jews,
who cried, ' The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,' and would
have nothing of the image of the Lord in their hearts. So then unbelief is
properly a sin in those places where the gospel is preached ; they are guilty
of it who have heard the gospel. We must not cast it off from ourselves to
the heathens ; it is, indeed, their punishment, but our sin. That is dis-
obedience to a law which is against that law, when it is revealed and known ;
and that is unbelief which is disobedience to the law of faith when discovered
to men. Denial of the truth of the gospel, or contempt of the terms of the
gospel, are properly and truly unbelief.
But of this practical unbelief I shall speak further in the sequel of this
discourse. None will deny that the Jews were guilty of positive unbelief,
who, though they did believe the gospel as it was veiled in their Mosaical
rites, and firmly believed a Messiah, yet were opposers of him when the
mask was taken off. What they believed in the Old Testament they re-
jected in the New. So among us men believe Christ to be the Messiah ;
they believe him with their heads and deny him with their hearts ; they
John XVI. 9. j [ unbelief the greatest sin. 231
assent to him in the notion, and deny him in the application ; they believe
his person, and reject his doctrine.
2. Wherein the sinfulness of unbelief doth consist.
I. First, It is against God.
II. Secondly, It is worse than the sin of the Jews against Christ.
III. Thirdly, It hath many other reasons of sinfulness in it.
I. First, It is against God.
It strikes peculiarly at God. "Whatsoever is done against any institution
of God is interpreted by God as done against himself. When the Israelites,
weary of Samuel's government, desired his resignation, and the electing of a
king, God calls it a rejecting of himself, 1 Sam. viii. 7, that he should not
reign over them. The slighting a mortal creature in the ends whereto God
hath appointed him, being a contempt of God, by whose authority he acts, a
rejecting of Christ, who is the highest ordinance of God, whose words are the
words of God spoken in his name, as God foretells, Deut. sviii. 19, is a
breathing forth the highest disdain of God. Though it be an enmity imme-
diately against Christ, it redounds to God, because Christ is his Christ, his
anointed. The conspiracy is joint against both, a ' taking counsel against the
Lord and his anointed, to break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from them,' Ps. ii. 2. Let us cast away the promises of an eternal kingdom,
and those threatenings of hell,* whereby they would allure us or scare us
into an allegiance, to submit our necks to the yoke of their laws. Let us
slight all those reasons, and spurn away those vain hopes and fears, those cords
whereby they would draw us unto their power. It casts a dishonour upon
God more than all other iniquities ; it is a departing from him after the high-
est and clearest declarations of his nature, a representation of him under all the
disparagements imaginable, and under all encouragements of complying with
him. As those that trust Christ are ' to the praise of God's glory,' Eph. i. 12,
so those that distrust him are to the dishonour of his name.
1. It is the greatest reproach and undervaluing of God. He calls it a
wearying of him more than other sins : Isa. vii, 13, ' Will you weary my
God also ?' The sin of Ahaz, upon which this speech was uttered, was a
distrust of God, not properly this unbelief we are speaking of. God had
declared his intent to preserve Judah against the invasion of the Syrian, and
to defeat the counsels of the league against them. To strengthen Ahaz his ^
belief in the promises, he commands him to ask a sign as a seal of this
assurance, and gives him the choice of what sign he pleased ; wisheth him
to put his power to the utmost trial, either in heaven or earth: ver. 11,
' Ask it either in the depth or in the height above.' Judgments against the
enemies, from the bowels of the deep to the windows of heaven. And as he
gives him liberty to employ his power, so he assures him of the tenderness
of his mercy: ver. 11, ' Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ;' though thou
hast been so wicked an idolater, if thou wilt repent, confide in me, walk ac-
cording to my will, I will be a God in covenant with thee, I will be a God to
preserve thee, and a God to judge thine enemies ; thy Jehovah in being their
Elohini, and manifesting my power for thee against them. Ahaz his answer
seems to be a start of a modest humility, though indeed it was disobedience
not to do as God commanded him: ver. 12, * And Ahaz said, I will not ask,
neither will I tempt the Lord ;' he would not tempt God, or as some read
the word nD:N, J will not exalt God ; the words import, I will not trust God,
» Foleng. iu loc
232 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
I will send to the king of Assyria, who can better save me than the Lord.
As he did, 2 Kings xvi. 7. I will fortify my cities, train my soldiers, crave
assistance of my neighbours. Observe, though God, in his message to him,
offered himself to be his God in covenant with him, Ahaz would not accept
of the proffer, owns him not as his God in his answer, ' I will not tempt the
Lord;' not, I will not tempt niij God, which had been an argument of his
trust, and so had altered the tenor of his answer to an humble resignation.
Ahaz would not be beholden to God, he would not honour God so much as
to give him an opportunity to glorify his great power ; if we read the words,
' I will not exalt the Lord.' Upon this God promiseth a sign, ver. 14, that
' a virgin should conceive and bear a Son, and call his name Emmanuel,'
and this should be a sign. I will not discourse how this was to be a sign to
Ahaz, or the body of the people then in being ; but take notice, every unbe-
liever is an Ahaz, reproacheth the kindest offers of God. God calls to men
to turn to him, to place their whole confidence in him ; but men reject the
offer, run to creatures, and thus weary God. If it was so great a scorn of
God, not to accept his proffer for a temporal deliverance, not to regard any
sign from him, how great is it not to regard the sign of his greatest power,
wisdom, and love, which he hath manifested in that Son bom of a virgin,
who is Emmanuel, God with us ! An unbeliever is such a scorner of God,
that he is not willing that that dirt he hath cast in the face of God by his
other sins should be wiped off ; not willing to sanctify that name by be-
lieving, which he hath profaned by other sins against the law ; will not
embrace that Christ which God offers him, whereby he may in some sense
render him a satisfaction for all the wrongs God hath sustained by him.
As faith ' gives glory to God,' Rom. iv. 20, so unbelief casts reproach and
scorn upon him.
2. It robs God of the honour of all his attributes. He that beheves not
God, doth fling dirt in the face of all those attributes which were illustrious
in the work of redemption : of his wisdom which contrived it, of his right-
eousness which executed it, of his mercy which is infinitely commended by
it, of his truth which is engaged to make good the intent and purchase of it
to every one that believes. Either men believe not that God will perform
what he saith, and then it is an injury to his truth ; or they hope for salva-
tion by some other means, and then it is a contempt of his wisdom ; or
that the things proposed by him are not amiable and desirable, and then it
is a reproach to his goodness ; or they trust to some creature helps against
his command, and then it is a disobedience to his sovereign authority, or
they think him not able to effect the things he hath promised, and then it
is a disparaging his power and suflSciency. Whatsoever attribute in God is
a ground of, or an encouragement to, faith, is struck at by unbelief. The
grounds and encouragements of faith are these : God is infinitely wise, and
cannot be deceived ; he is infinitely true, and cannot deceive his creature in
declaring what is false ; he is infinitely good, and will not deceive his creature,
for deceit is most opposite to love and goodness ; he is infinitely happy, and
hath no reason to deceive his creature, which could not add to his happiness ;
whereas deceit among men sometimes improves their interest, but deceit in
God would dissolve the Deity ; he is infinitely powerful, and well able to
make good what he asserts, to confer what he promiseth, inflict what he
threatens. As all these are indisputable grounds of faith, and are owned
and honoured by it, so they are blemished in their reputation by unbelief,
and marked with a base alloy ; they are all foolishly charged by it, and made
the common scoff of it. There is not an attribute but may draw up a par-
ticular indictment against an unbeliever, for an offence against its crown and
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 233
dignity. And as there was not an attribute but God intended to glorify in
Christ, so there is not one but this sin doth really vilify.
3. It is an undeifying of God, as much as lies within the compass of a
creature's power. He that denies any one attribute of God, seems to deny
God himself, to ungod him, strips him of the glory of a deity. Take but
one pin, necessary to the frame of a watch, and you take away the perfection
of it. Those attributes which unbelief stabs, are essential to the being of a
deity. God can no more be a God without them, than the sun can be a sun
without light, or any of us men without a rational soul. Unbelief is not so
indulgent as to divest God of the honour of one perfection, but of many ;
nor so mild as absolute atheism, which denies the being of a God. It is a
less scorn to deny that ever there was such a man as Caesar, than to affirm
indeed there was such a person, but he was a fool, coward, false, cruel, and
the vilest man that lived : it is better to deny his being, than to count him
infamous. Unbelief strips God of his richest robes, his highest virtues,*
which were more singularly glorified in redemption, than they were in the
creation, or could be in the creation of innumerable worlds, more glorious
than this without the death of his Son for them. Not to acknowledge God
in Christ, is to deny him that glory that the creation and common providence
cannot afford him. As our Saviour was tormented by the Jews in every
part of his body, — head with thorns, face with spittle, hands and feet with
nails, and wholly with reproaches in what was dearest to him, — so is God
dishonoured by unbeUef in every perfection. As their actions denied Christ
to be the Saviour of the world, so the acts of this sin deny God to be the
God of the world.
4. It strikes at all the three persons. As all have an hand in the salva-
tion wrought by Christ, so the rejecting that redemption dashes a blot upon
all. They all sat in joint consultation about man's redemption ; they were
joint in counsel, joint in publication of it ; the Father in his first promise to
Adam, and in a voice at Christ's baptism ; Christ in his person, and the
Holy Ghost bearing witness by the gifts conferred upon men after the ascen-
sion of Christ, which was a testimony of his glorious entertainment : Acts
V. 31, 32, ' And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the
Holy Ghost, which God hath given to them that obey him.' The Father
sends, Christ dies, the Spirit offers to apply ; the neglect of this is against
the wisest counsel, the greatest persons in being. The Spirit was the great
witness after the ascension of Christ, by the collation of eminent gifts,
whereby a divine approbation was given to the doctrine of Christ from
heaven. He revealed nothing but what Christ had before done, and wrought,
and built upon that foundation, John xvi. 14, he glorifies Christ, for he
receives of his. He discovers the eternal counsels of God, the depths of
divine wisdom, which * the heart of man could not conceive,' 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10;
The Father bears witness to Christ by undeniable miracles ; the Spirit adds
his testimony by internal operations, and urging the truths of Christ upon
the hearts of men ; Christ bears witness to himself by his obedience and
death. So then, any slight of Christ is a slight of the Father and the Holy
Ghost.
But particularly.
First, It blemisheth the truth and veracity of God. He that believes
' sets to his seal that God is true',' John iii. 33, i. e. he approves and de-
clares solemnly the truth of that revelation God hath made.f Men fix their
* As the word is, 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Shew forth the praises {a^tTas, the virtues) of him
who hath called you.'
t Daille, Sermou sur Jean iii, p, 458.
234 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9. A
seals to contracts to ratify them ; faith is as the subscription to the word of
God, protesting that what God speaks is true. And it is the highest glory
a creature can give to the Creator, to acknowledge him a God of eternal and
immutable verity. Since Christ, ' whom Grod hath sent, speaks the words of
God, ver. 34, since what he declares is not simply his own, but the instruc-
tions of his Father ; the acknowledging those declarations to be true, is an
acknowledging the truth of God in Christ. Now, as the true believer glori-
fies not only the truth of the Son, but of the Father, so the unbeliever
outrageth not simply Christ, but God the Father, whose counsels and com-
mands are published by him. As assent is a justifying God, as the people
and the publicans, by assenting to the truth John Baptist declared, are said
to do, Luke vii. 39, so a dissent is casting an aspersion of falsity on God.
In common sense, when we say we believe not a man, we declare him to be
false ; and no better a title than that of a liar doth this sin give to God :
1 John v. 10, ' He that believes not God, hath made him a liar, because he
believes not that record that God gave of his Son.' It is as certain that he
gives the lie to God, as it is certain God cannot speak a lie to him. Thus
men write deceit upon the promises when they do not believe them : ' Though
I have redeemed them, yet have they spoken lies against me,' Hosea, vii. 13 ;
DIDN, though I redeem them, though I have promised them redemption by
Christ, yet they slander me as if I were the falsest person in the world. We
bely God when we believe not his threatenings, and promise ourselves im-
punity under sin : Jer. v. 12, ' They have belied the Lord, and said. It is
not he, neither shall evil come upon us ;' as if his promises were like the
picture of a sun, without heat and light ; his threatenings like the sound of
pot-guns, as if the one were toys, and the other bugbears. This is to repre-
present God a cozener and impostor, though he hath engaged his royal word ;
to make the whole Bible an heap of fallacies. The glory of a man is his
credit ; it is an honourable character, such a man is a man of his word ; it
is a disgraceful character of God to fancy the first truth guilty of lying ; it
is a title he hath joined with his honour as a Creator, that he ' keeps truth
for ever,' not to part with it any more than with any other perfection, no
more than with the title of Creator : Ps. cxlvi. 6, ' Which made heaven,
and earth, and sea, and all that is therein, which keeps truth for ever.'
These represent him with no truth to keep, or no heart to preserve it.
The guilt of it in this regard will appear.
First, It is in this respect a greater sin than despair. Despair is de-
servedly counted an horrid sin, a wrong to the mercy of God ; but this is
greater. Unbelief is against a divine good as it is in itself,* for as much as
in us lies, we make God the author of a lie. Despair is opposed to a divine
good as communicable to us, and therefore is a less wrong to God ; despair
questions not the stability of divine faithfulness in itself, but the communi-
cableness of that good promised to the soul ; but unbelief lays a battery
against the divine nature. Despair acknowledgeth the truth in regard of the
object, but doubteth in regard of the subject ; they count the divine procla-
mation true, but think themselves without the compass of it.
Secondly, It strips God of the glory of his nature, who can as soon cease
to be, as cease to be true. Some say that if God should appear in a human
shape, light would be his body, and truth his soul ; so essential is truth to
the Deity, 'it is impossible for God to lie,' Heb. vi. 18. If we fancy him a
liar, we fancy him no God, because we represent him doing a thing impos-
sible to the divine nature, changing an unchangeable goodness into a hateful
unfaithfulness. What is his power, knowledge, sufficiency, if truth and
* Suarez, vol. viii. disp. xvi. sec. ii. parag. 3.
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin, 235
faithfulness, the glory of all, be wanting ? As sincerity is the beauty of all
graces, so veracity and holiness is the lustre of all divine perfections. To
give the lie is incivility to an inferior, insolence to a superior, a kind of
treason to a prince ; yet this may be done without unmanning a man, or
deposing a prince, but it cannot be done to God without degrading him to
the condition of those lying vanities we trust to. It is, indeed, so heinous
as that it puts upon God the character of the devil, who is called ' the
father of lies,' as though God should be projecting nothing else from eternity
(as the devil hath been from the time of his fall) but to mock and cozen the
souls of his creatures into everlasting destruction. It is to count him worse
than the devil, by how much they fancy him more powerful, but equally
false. It is strange that a man who knows in some measure what God is,
should be so insolent and blasphemous as virtually to charge him with a dis-
sembhng nature ; yet so unbelievers do, though not in positive opinion^ yet
by interpretation and practice. And as they make God as bad, so they
make themselves worse than the devil, who believes the truth of God, though
he feels only the terror of it, and nothing of the comfort.
Thirdly, It makes God guilty of perjury. God hath not only obliged
himself by his royal word, but his solemn oath, ' two immutable things,'
Heb. vi. 17, 18. His promise, considered alone, is of eternal verity ; he is
true and unchangeable ; he doth not promise one thing and purpose another.
To this he hath added his oath, to remove all controversy and doubt which
may arise in the mind. Not to beheve a man of an honest repute, when he
swears the truth of a thing before a magistrate, is a gross uncharitableness,
unless we certainly know, or have strong presumptions, that what he swears
is false. How black is it then not to beheve God speaking ? how much
blacker not to believe God swearing ? As the oath of God, the caUing all
his perfections, his very being as a testimony to the truth of his assertion,
is the highest ground of assurance that can be given, so the not believing it
is the highest injury itiat can be otiered to a God of truth. He anneseth his
oath to his word for the encouragement of sinners to faith and repentance :
Ezek. xxxiii. 11, ' As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.'
As I am an eternal, immortal being, so surely do I deUght not in the death
of a sinner, but in his conversion and life. How great a charge of peijury
doth unbelief bring against God, whose condescension hath been so infimtely
wonderful as to give us his oath for a cure of oui* mistrust, to invite men to
faith and repentance upon the security of his own eternal life and being !
Fourthly, It is aggravated from the clearness of the revelation. The higher
the revelation is, the stronger arguments there are of the divine authority,
and the greater contempt of the truth and authority of the person so reveal-
ing. If an angel should bring a message from heaven, what man would be
jealous of the truth of it, when brought by so pure a creature ? But this
revelation was made by the Son of God, who lay ' in the bosom of the
Father,' John i. 18, and is truth itself; to the propagation of which truth,
neither the wit and eloquence, the strength and valour, the wealth and inte-
rest of the world can lay any claim. It hath appeared in the whole progress
with a divine stamp in the forehead of it. The first declarations of it were
laid in the sufferings of the publishers : Could such multitudes be thought
to lose their lives, so dear to man, for a mere falsity ? No man is so
mad as to invent a fable, and to stand to it to the loss of his life, and what-
soever is of most account with him in the world. Would any affection to
Christ have animated them to expose themselves to the sharpest suflferings,
had they had but any jealousies that Christ was an impostor ? No, they
would rather have expressed their hatred than their love (who can love an-
236 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
other for a gross abuse of him ?) or had they been so extravagant as to be
desirous to keep up the credit of their Master, would they for it have made
themselves the public scorn and off- scouring of the world ? It could not be
covetousness or ambition, or any other lust, which could be the principle of
their publication of Christianity ; the little wealth they had, they forfeited
for it. No ambition could build any hopes of worldly honours upon the doc-
trine of a crucified Christ. The Jews had lately crucified the Master, and
were not like to honour the servants for a charge of murder against the Son
of God. The Gentiles were not likely to receive it, and applaud them for
it by any strength of nature. Ambitious men take rational courses for at-
taining honour ; but this was against the rooted customs of the world, which
are hardly parted with ; and contradicters of ancient rehgions use to be vio-
lently persecuted to death for the honour of their acknowledged gods. But
had such principles excited them to a publication of this doctrine, surely they
would gladly have desisted, after they had found their hopes without suc-
cess, when they found blows instead of honours ; or they would have armed
the professing multitudes, and conquered countries ; but they used not their
swords against their enemies, but received the strokes of their enemies'
swords into their own breasts, for the defence of the doctrine ; and tbat not
for a time, but during their whole lives. Not one sword was drawn in the
defence of it by any votary to it. They resisted no force used against them,
though, by reason of their multitude, they were capable of preserving them-
selves, and of offending their enemies. Their disciphne was strict, the
maxims of their doctrines were advantageous to mankind ; they thwarted no
moral precepts that were amiable by the light of nature, but highly advanced
them ; there could not be a way of publishing it more clear and full, to ma-
nifest it to be the truth and doctrine of God, than this. Had it been uttered
by the voices of angels in the air, we might have suspected them to be
impure devils as soon as holy angels. When the way of the revelation of
the gospel hath been altogether divine, without any taint of worldly means
for the propagation of it, the not believing it, the not complying with the
precepts and promises of it, is an high contempt of divine truth.
Fifthly, It is aggravated from the performance of God's gospel promises.
It is a great sin not to believe the truth of God when it is declared, but a
greater not to believe it when it hath been made good. It is not only a
word, but ' a tried word, as silver tried in the fire,' which hath been found to
be good and sound metal, and free from all mixture of baser metals, as lead
or tin, with it, Ps. xviii. 80. ' The word of the Lord is tried,' Ps. xii. 6,
and there have been experiences of this in all ages. Not one among all those
multitudes that have sincerely professed him, could charge him with falsity.
God hath given the highest evidence of his veracity in making good the pro-
mises of assistance to our mediator in the exercise of his office. The promises
were made to him as mediator and undertaker of that great work of suffer-
ing for us. The performance, therefore, of them to Christ is a manifestation
of God's truth to us ; for though Christ was the immediate subject of those
promises, yet God's glory in our good was the ultimate intendment of them ;
and what was promised and performed in the head, is influential upon all
the members, and is the main ground of faith, and so proposed in Scripture.
The resurrection of Christ is everywhere set out as the strong foundation of
faith in him. God carried him through the gulf to a glorious immor-
tality. Since, therefore, God hath performed the greatest promises, wherein
his power could be engaged (for his power and truth were then tried in the
highest manner), it is a great disparagement to him to distrust his truth in
those things which require less power to effect them, after so great an expe-
John XYI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 237
riment of his faithfulness. Unbelief denies that truth is crowned with a rich
performance.
Again, This sin would frustrate the truth of God in the promises remain-
ing to be fulfilled by Christ, or but in part fulfilled. God promised him a
seed, a generation to serve him. This was an article in the covenant of
redemption, as the great encouragement of Christ to undertake that work.
If all were of the unbelie^'er's mind, would not the truth of this promise lie
in the dust ? Every unbeliever would have it so. He is a child of the devil,
and like him envies God a glory, the glory of his truth and power ; and,
like Ahaz, Isa. vii. 12, ' I will not exalt the Lord,' if the word tempt may be
so read, as some read it.
The power of God was the chief ground of faith in the promise in Abra-
ham's time, Rom. iv. 21 ; but since the performance, not only the power of
God, which he had given an evidence of in the creation, but the truth of
God, whereof he had given an evidence in Christ ; and in this sense the
fathers' not knowing God by the name Jehovah is meant, Exod. vi. 3. They
did know God by that name ; for Abraham calls the mount Moriah so, Gen.
xxii. 14. But they knew him not by that name in regard to the faithfulness
and truth of God, which that name signifies. As the unbelief of the Jews,
after the deliverance from Egypt, where God had manifested himself
Jehovah, was greater than before, so it is greater now, because it is a»ainst
the highest manifestations of God as Jehovah, in accomplishing his promise
in the assistance of Christ, and bringing forth the mediation promised.
Sixthly, This is aggravated from our believing creatures before God,
whereby we lessen the esteem of his truth below that of a creature. Have
not we many times trusted the honesty of man, who in his best estate is
vanity, and given him credit for many pounds ? Not to believe the great
promise of God in Christ, wherein he hath made himself in a sort our debtor,
is to debase the credit of the unerring God below that of a mutable mortal.
How corrupted is that nature that will believe man, a wicked man, a lying
man, rather than God, who is under so many obligations of promises to
make good his word ; nay, believe man's falsities before God's verities ? Do
not men believe often the vain predictions of men, and their promises of
help and furtherance of business of concern, and receive them with more
gladness and confidence than ever we received the clear promises of the gos-
pel ? The credit of God, that cannot lie, is of less value with men, and hath
a lighter influence upon them, than the word of a deceivable creature. What
a reproach to God is it for a man to give no credit to his word, sealed by the
blood of his Son, and confirmed by various repetitions, and yet will trust an
inconstant element with thousands, which may be lost by the fury of winds
and waves ? A patent of an earthly honour from a temporal prince is highly
valued, when the great gospel charter, where the truth of God is engaged
for security, is slighted, the highest faithfulness not esteemed worth the cre-
diting. When God is not beheved, we must needs give credit to the devil ;
if we believe not Christ, we beHeve the devil, there being but those two
heads, one by God's authority, the other by his own usurpation. Unbelief,
then, changeth the devil into a god, a liar from the beginning into truth,
and the truth of God into a lie, and the God of truth into a liar ; it prefers
the dictate of the devil, and so owns the faithfulness of the devil above the
faithfulness of God.
Seventhly, It is the greater contempt, because God doth highly value his
truth, 3'ca, above all his name : Ps. cxxxviii. 2, ' Thou hast magnified thy
word above all thy name.' Whatsoever of God's name should drop to the
ground, this shall remain glorious in all successions of ages ; it shall stand
238 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
firmer than the ordinances of heaven, without the staggering of one iota or
tittle of it. Nothing is so dear to God as his truth ; he will fold up the
heavens like a garment, and crumble the earth to dust, before one tittle of
his word, of his gospel as well as his law, shall vanish and pass away. Mat.
V. 18. God values the promises of the gospel no less than the precepts and
threatenings of the law ; his truth hath an interest with his love in the one,
as well as with his authority and justice in the other. The wrong is greater
to us when we are struck through the sides of that which is most precious
in our esteem. This sin, therefore, as being against the truth of God, is
odious to him. As it is irrational not to love the chiefest goodness, so it is
irrational not to believe the supreme truth. No man but disesteems another
that will not take his word, when yet himself knows he is a mutable crea-
ture. How much greater is the offence against the God of unchangeable
faithfulness, to put the lie upon him by not believing those truths he hath
so solemnly proclaimed and miraculously confirmed ? Has not the eternal
truth reason to be offended with men for not believing him, when he pro-
miseth and swears too ? It is strange that if God had a deceitful and
dissembling nature, he should discover it at no less expense than the royal
blood of heaven, and not deceive men without such solicitous entreaties of
them to believe in him through his Son. To count a man a liar is to stop
all passages to a conversation with him ; to conceive of God under such a
notion is not only to deny any commerce with him ourselves, but to count
all foolish that address to him or are willing to believe him.
Secondly, It casts a black aspersion upon the wisdom of God. The wis-
dom of God appears not singly in the gospel, but with admirable variety of
mysteries and contrivance, Eph. iii. 10, ' manifold wisdom of God,' a depth
of counsel in the forming it, a glorious contexture of means for the com-
pleting it, wnsdom in the drawing out the glory of his grace from the rubbish
of sin, in breaking the neck of the devil's designs, by those means whereby
be wrought our ruin, even by the human nature, in bringing about man's
redemption by the disgrace, infirmities, weakness of human nature, means
seeming contrary to so glorious an end ; the admirable uniting justice and
mercy in one point, reducing them to one end with an entire consent, the
manifestation of the highest hatred of sin, and the choicest love to the
sinner by one and the same act ; all these are treasures of wisdom opened in
Christ. His wisdom is more glorious in the contriving redemption than in
laying the platform and model of creation. That God might create millions
of worlds is obvious to the conceptions of men that understand him to be
omnipotent, and give more sparkling evidences of his wisdom in the fabric.
But how he should make justice and mercy conspire together with a joint
consent, and salve the honour of all his attributes in the recovery of guilty
man, is an abyss of wisdom which transcends the conceptions of men and
angels till it be revealed, and after the discovery must needs leave them in
eternal astonishment. This must be no inconsiderable affair, which is the
object of the highest wisdom in the Deity.
Now, unbelief chargeth God either,
1. With folly in regard of the unnecessariness of it. If men think they
have ability to save themselves (as all justiciaries and fondlers of their
own righteousness virtually imagine), what a needless work was this in God,
to make his Son a sacrifice for man's salvation ! No wise man would spend
his time to contrive a way to make birds to fly, which have both wings and a
power to exercise them to that purpose, or to make cork to swim, which
bath an aptitude because of its sponginess. What is the secret ground of
the rejecting Christ, but a conceit in man that he hath a power to save him-
John XYI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 239
self without him ? For since sahation is highly desirable, if we will not
accept it from another upon his terms, we imply we can attain it by our
own power. What is the language of this, but that God busied, himself to
no purpose, and was employed from eternity in a needless affair, which is a
most unworthy reflection upon God and Christ ; since God, being infinitely
wise, he would not have purposed it, and Christ, being the wisdom of God,
would not have debased himself to death, had it not been for the highest
concern both to God and man. It had been inconsistent with the wisdom
of both, the one to purpose, the other to undertake, such a task, but for the
most weighty necessity and the most advantageous benefit. It was the will
of God that Christ should take a body for our sanctification : Heb. x. 10,
* By the which will we are sanctified ' ( j. e. by the will of God which Christ
came in his body to perform) 'through the ofiering of the body of Jesus Christ.'
What doth unbelief but blot out the characters of God's wisdom, the orders
of his will, accounting it unnecessary for God either to prepare Christ a
sufieriug body, or for Christ to ofi'er up himself to God in it ? It imputes
the rejoicing of Christ at this body to an ignorance and folly in him, as if it
were a folly in God to command it, and a folly in Christ to obey such a
command, a fraitless design and an unnecessary employment. Unbelief
indeed is nothing else but a cavil with the judgment and reason of God.
Upon this score the apostle chai'geth the incredulity of the gentiles ; they
counted the gospel foolishness ; the choicest mysteries of divine skill were
of no better repute with them than the nonsense of fools and the extrava-
gancies of madmen : 1 Cor. i. 23, * Unto the Greeks foolishness.'
2. Or, if men do account the coming of Christ necessaiy, and so free
God from the charge of folly, they at least charge his wisdom with a mis-
take in the means of salvation, as if it were undertaken without precedent
consideration. Either Christ hath sufiiciently performed his office or not ;
if he hath, why is he not accepted by faith ? If he be not accepted, there
is a tacit imputation in the refusal of believing that the wisdom of God was
defective in the person he appointed, that God was frustrated in his expecta-
tions, that he pitched upon a weak and unworthy person, unfit for so great an
honour, and unable for so vast a weight. Hereby they impair the credit of
Christ and prudence of God. It must be an act of wisdom to entrust Christ
with the weight of all his glory, since God can no more be deceived himself
than he can deceive his creature. But doth that man think it so, that will not
trust Christ with his soul according to those terms upon which he is offered ?
Doth he not reproach God of weakness by a refusal to imitate him, and de-
posit the concerns of his soul in the same hands wherein God hath trusted
the honour of all his excellent perfections ? If God depended upon Christ
for his richest glory (for where there is a trust reposed there is a kind of
dependence upon that person upon whom the trust is devolved), doth not
that man count himself wiser than God, that will not depend upon Christ
for the chiefest happiness ? He cannot possibly be freed from the guilt of
accusing God of an high imprudence, who will not beUeve in and trust that
person to whom God hath given credit for all his glory ; that thinks not
Christ fit to be trusted by him, who hath been trusted by God with that
which is of more value than the salvation of thousands of worlds, and by
this ascribes a greater wisdom to his own reason and understanding than he
will acknowledge in God's, when he seeth no comeliness in him in whom the
wisdom of God beheld the greatest beauty and a fulness of grace and truth ;
when that which is gold in God's eye is dirt in his, and that which is dirt in
God's eye is gold in his.
3. By this sin the unbeliever doth, as much as in him lies, frustrate the
240 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
design of God's glorious wisdom, in not consenting to that which the wisdom
of God hath contrived. The wisdom of a man, as also the wisdom of God,
lies in choosing the end and suiting the means. When we approve not of the
one or contradict the other, we deny the fruit of a man's wisdom to him.
In this case we do the like to God, when we neglect the end of his wisdom,
salvation, and reject Christ, the means and way to it ; it is to defeat his
design, and tread under our feet the whole scheme of his counsel ; for if
all men were of the same mind, God would have discovered himself to be an
all- wise God in redemption to no purpose. As faith is a justification of God
in his counsel, so is unbelief a condemnation of God's counsel, and render-
in« it vain : Luke vii. 29, 30, ' They rejected the counsel of God in them-
selves.' It is spoken of the pharisees' not being baptised by John Baptist.
They did not publicly contemn it, but their non-compliance with it was a
rejecting immediately the doctrine and baptism of John, and ultimately the
counsel of God. When God saw man sunk into misery by sin, and under
an impossibility to recover himself, God in his boundless mercy and infinite
•wisdom contrived a way of restoration, proposeth it to men, and acquaints
them with his resolve how he would have men saved ; when men refuse it,
rebel against God's decree, they reproach his counsel as well as his good-
ness. The word k&i7iiv, there used, signifies not a simple refusal, but reject-
ing a thing with reproach, and a dissolution of it, a bringing it to nought ;
as the word is used by the Septuagint, Ps. xxxiii. 10, ' The Lord brings the
counsel of the heathen to nought.' As God brings the counsel of wicked
men to nought, dissolves the whole frame of it, and makes their devices of
no effect, so doth an unbeliever, as much as it is possible for him to do in
himself, unravel the whole web of divine counsel, and would make it utterly
insignificant. Against themselves ; some render it in themselves, in their own
thoughts by inward pride.
Well, then, consider how great a sin unbelief is in this regard.
Here is the wisdom of God making a match in heaven between the
divinity and humanity,* Christ by the wisdom and will of God stripping
himself and becoming a worm, that you may be as glorious as an angel.
God micht have employed his wisdom in contriving your ruin, but he sets
it on work to build a scaffold for your salvation. Shall this wisdom be
despised, which doth as far surpass the comprehensions of angels as the
apprehensions of infants ? When a scholar hath made a curious book,
wherein he hath wrapped up all his learning, an artificer a beautiful watch,
wherein he hath laid out all his skill, what a contempt of the learning of the
one and art of the other is it to tear the book and break the watch ! Oh
how is the workmanship of God, which is admired by angels, dashed by
uubeUef ! How is the unconceivable art of God blotted by the wilfulness of
man ! God may well say to us. Is the masterpiece of my counsel of so
slight a value as not worth your consent ? Have I caused the beams of my
adorable wisdom to shine so bright in the gospel, to have no other return
but a charge of folly ? You see what blackness there is in the bowels of
this sin.
Thirdly, It slights the goodness of God. Unbelief vilifies that which
God designed to the praise and gloiy of his grace, and renders God cruel to
his own Son, in being an unnecessary shedder of his Son's blood. Unbelief
consists either in presumption or despair. Presumption on his absolute
mercy, which, while it seems to magnify, it doth slight the constituted
methods of his declared goodness in Christ; and, in a relying upon an
undiscovered kindness, impairs his sovereignty, by prescribing other ways of
* Jenkin.
John XVI. 9. J unbelief the greatest sin. 241
communicating himself to his creature than what he hath appointed ; or
despair, which represents God under the appearance of a cruel tyrant, glad
of the destruction of his creature, and changeth infinite mercy into infinite
fury ; as if a great multitude of iniquities could throw mercy into the depths
of the sea instead of being thrown by it ; as if the clouds could dissolve the
sun instead of being melted by him. Presumption turns mercy into care-
lessness, and despair into cruelty. Unbelief, in the general notion of it,
casts a scorn before men and angels upon the unsearchable riches of grace ;
it would hew in pieces the throne of grace, and wipe off the blood of Christ
wherewith the mercy- seat hath been sprinkled.
First, Thus it is a diabolical sin ; a receiving the devil's accusations of
God before God's declarations of himself. When the devil was a murderer,
he was a liar, John viii. 44 ; he belied God and murdered man. An un-
believer belies God's goodness and murders his own soul. He represented
God an hard master, envying man a felicity belonging to him ; an unbeliever
comes nearest his nature : he slighted God's goodness in forming man ; an
unbeliever slights God's goodness in redeeming him. The one envied God
the glory of his work, and the other envies God the glory of his grace.
Secondly, It is against absolute and sincere goodness. God can have no
more addition to his perfections by redemption than he had by creation, but
a more illustrious communication of them to his creatures. If he could
have any real increase, he had not been the chiefest good, infinitely perfect.
The sin might claim some excuse if God had any selfish aims, if his essential
glory could have been made brighter by believing. But since he requires
faith as a necessary disposition for receiving the communications of his
favour, and what he doth offer is an advantage to the offender, none to the
offerer, to convey a goodness to us, but not to receive anything from us, it
is an inexcusable contempt of sincere goodness, a hewing at that redemption
which grew up like a tall cedar from the root of pure mercy, when God
needed not have sent his Son to die, nor a messenger to entreat, but have
mustered up an army of destroying judgments against sinners.
Thirdly, Against the highest goodness that ever appeared to the sons of
men. No greater act of love could spring from boundless eternity, than
the parting with his only delight in heaven out of his bosom for the redemp-
tion of man ; so that he may well say, ' "What could I have done more to
my vineyard ? ' Isa. v. 4. Unbelief, then, is a reproach of that love which
God designed to commend to the world in the mission of his Son ; and
therefore the ingratitude in refusing it is as unparalleled in the rank of sins,
as the kindness it slights is in the rank of mercy. It is against a law more
animated with love than any other dispensation of God was filled with. The
giving his Son to die was the most stupendous evidence of his goodness,
whence faith draws the highest encouragement, and unbelief contracts the
most dismal aggravation ; and the greater, since it is a contempt of a greater
kindness to us than what was shewn to the ancient patriarchs, who only had
a promise of the Messiah, when we have the performance ; yet naturally we
do as frowardly reject the thing performed, as they did heartily embrace the
assurance of it. Christ is a gift, Rom. v. 16, a gift of love, John iii. 16,
the royallest gift of God, springing from unconceivable treasures of good-
ness. Is it a little sin to turn our backs upon the choicest gift that God
can bestow, as though this pearl were of no more worth than a pebble ?
What really is the language of this scorn, but as if a man should blas-
phemously say in so many words, God might have kept his gift to himself,
and never have troubled me with such a present ?
VOL. IV. Q
242 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
Fourthly, A goodness ready to flow in upon us. The bosom of God is
opened, the treasures of his goodness dispensed, the fountain of his grace
running.* For men to be as deaf adders under such charms, blind moles
under such beams, is as great a wonder of wickedness as the mercy is a
miracle of goodness. And when the tenders of grace are made with that
afiection and importunity, that love rides upon wings and meets us at every
turn ; when we cannot open the Scripture but we see a transcript of his
heart as it breathed toward us from eternity, and view the deep counsels of
God, and the transactions of old between the Trinity about man's redemp-
tion laid open ; how great a sin is this, to scorn treasures not only stored up,
but ready to be given out, with the most pressing arguments and strongest
obligations to an acceptance !
Fifthly, And this perpetually. It is an everlasting goodness, a kindness
firmer than the foundations of the earth, or the battlements of the heaven,
which God offers; it is an 'everlasting mercy,' Isa. liv. 7, like light in the
sun that is never diminished, the element of fire never extinguished, water
in the sea never emptied.
Sixthly, When we have absolute need of it. How inexcusable is the con-
tempt, when rebels in chains trample under foot declarations of pardon !
The necessity of the subject, as well as the excellency of the thing, and the
unbounded goodness of the offerer ; a necessity accompanied with an in-
evitable ruin without a leap into the arms of this goodness, still adds
blackness to the refusal. How great a sin is it, then, to spurn at the
beatings of God's heart, to account all the thoughts of mercy as if they had
been thoughts of vanity, to spurn at that which angels wonder at and devils
wish for ? This is to treat unsearchable riches, bound up in Christ, as we
would do the most loathsome dung. For God to find out this way, to offer
his Son, to manifest such condescending grace as to entreat us to believe,
and for us to make our excuses that we cannot come, to resolve not to
handle the word of life, this, this is a sin of the deepest dye, this will at last
silence the voice, of mercy, and rouse up a roaring fury. If we could unhinge
the world, cast a blot upon the whole creation, raise a sedition of all crea-
tures against God as Creator, dash in pieces the whole frame, consume it to
ashes, that no reUcs of a God should appear in it, it could not be so high
an indignity as the striking at his bowels. What is the glory of creation
but as a mite to that of redemption ? What is the destruction of the world
to the contempt of his Son, the demolishing the work of his hands to the
spurning at that of his heart ?
Fourthly, Or, it disparageth the power and sufficiency of God. Man is
naturally apt to question God's power, as though he were unable to bring
his word into act. God, therefore, doth preface his covenant with Abraham
by the title of his almightiness : Gen, xvii. 1, 'I am God almighty ; walk
before me, and be thou perfect.' All distrust grows up from a jealousy of
weakness or wickedness in the object of it ; cither that a man is not honest
and will not, or weak and cannot, perform. UnbeUef, therefore, sometimes
strips God of his power, and represents him impotent. It scantles almighti-
ness according to the narrow apprehensions of the creature, as they,
Ps. Ixxviii. 41, who questioned whether that strength that had secured them
in the Red Sea, and fed them in the wilderness, could conquer the possessors
of Canaan and give them seisin of the country. As though that God who
had bridled the waves could not as well fell down the Anakims, who breathed
by his leave, as well as the waters moved by his providence. If there be a
belief that God hath an intention to perform his promise, the diffidence doth
* Ecynolcls,
John XYI. 9.] itnbelief the greatest sin. 243
arise then from a doubt of his omnipotence ; if there be a belief of his veracity,
there must be a jealousy of his ability. The apostle bottoms the faith of
Abraham, whereby he believed he should have a son, upon the ' power of
God,' Rom. iv. 21. Unbelief is then sometimes bottomed upon a secret
unworthy conceit of inability in God, as if he could not be as great as his
word ; as if he were, like the idols of men, without eyes to see and arms to
relieve.
Indeed, all unbelief doth entrench upon God's power and sufficiency.
First, In not coming to him. It is a departure from God, not simply as
God, but as a living God, Heb. iii. 12,* a God that hath life in himself,
and is able to communicate it to others ; he departs from a spring to a
puddle, and denies a fulness of life and satisfaction in that which he departs
from. Certainly unbeHef, as it respects Christ, is a virtual denial of his deity ;
discards him from being the living God, from having a power and sufficiency
to save, and as it is a sin against his divine person, is a wrong to the power,
life, and sufficiency of God. He that runs from a prince that offers to pro-
tect him against his enemies, declares to all the world, that either the prince
is not sincere in his offers, or unable to give him the protection he pro-
miseth. All unbelief at least denies God the honour of his power, and doth
depose him from the exercise of his saving omnipotence as to the unbeliever,
and declares he can shift well enough with himself: ' He could not do any
great work there because of their unbelief.' If all faith gives glory to the
power of God, all unbelief vilifies it. If the power of God, as well as his
faithfulness, be the object of faith in prayer (as it was of the faith of Christ:
Heb. v. 7, ' He offered up prayers unto him that was able to save him '),
then unbelief must needs strike at that which is the great ground and object
of the grace which is contrary to it. An unbeliever thinks his soul safer in
his own hands than in God's, and therefore will not commit it to his keeping.
This is very visible in convinced souls before they come to Christ ; how
often do they cry out. Can God pardon ? Can he remit ? Are not my sins too
great for him ? Upon a diffidence of his power they are loath to lodge their
souls in his arms ; they cannot believe he hath an arm strong enough to
cast a blot and dash upon all their sins,f as though a mighty rock could
not bear up a bruised reed.
Secondly, In trusting to something else. Man is like a vine, he cannot
subsist without some prop. A trust and faith he must have, if not in God, in
something else, either in himself or abroad ; he cannot depart from God, but
he hath recourse to something else. Every motion hath a terminus ad quern,
a term to which it tends. What then we trust unto, besides God and above
God, we render in our thoughts more powerful than God. We cannot go to
anything for relief with a neglect of God, but we depose the true God and
create a new one ; we acknowledge a greater fulness in some inferior good
than in an eternal spring. A man's own righteousness, weak ordinances
relied on with a neglect of faith in God upon his own terms, are as well
deified as the belly is made a god by a glutton, or money by a covetous
person.
Thirdly, It receives an aggravation from the demonstrations of God's power
exercised about Christ the object of faith. Unbelief is a contempt of all those
attributes which were signally manifested about the effecter of our redemp-
tion, whereof the power of God in assisting him in his whole course, and
unloosing the bands of death, and setting him at his right hand, was nono
* Living God is by interpreters understood as a reason to move them not to depart
from God. It may also refer to a root of unbelief,
t S. Bolton.
244 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
of the least glorified in our redemption, since the power of God in raising
Christ is set forth to us as a ground of faith for the imputation of righteous-
ness : Rom. iv. 24, 'If we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead.' His doing the greater work in the resurrection of Christ,
wherein infinite power was manifested, considering what a charge of imputed
guilt Christ lay under, is an evidence of his ability to do that which is less.
Since it is thus, unbelief is a reflection upon this power of God, depriving
it of the due glory which belongs to it. God hereby shewed himself willing
to be our God upon our faith, as he shewed himself the God of Israel in
bringing them out of Egypt ; and doth frequently, upon their incredulity and
murmuring, mind them of his power manifested in that deliverance, as if in
all their infidelity and unbelief they did unworthily reflect upon the glory
of his strength in that work. And, certainly, since we are commanded to
believe in him who by the power of God raised the dead to life, restored
sight to the blind, conquered the legions of hell; who hath done things im-
possible to be acted by the strength of men or angels ; one that hath made
the power of princes and the wisdom of the world to bend to him, and lie
prostrate before him, and come under his footstool ; the not believing in
Christ is a denial and contempt of all this power, or a tacit ascribing those
acts to some occult causes rather than the power of God. This is the lan-
guage of unbelief. If those things were acted by the power of God, why do
we not firmly, really believe, and act according to such a faith ? If we do
not, it is evident that we do not think such things were acted, or that the
power of God was engaged in them. What an unworthy charge is this upon
God, when we will believe man, who is able to do nothing without God, and
will not believe in God, who hath manifested himself able to do all things by
his own arm, without any partner ?
Fiftklij, It strikes at the sovereignty and authority of God. It is a debt
we owe, as subjects, to God as our sovereign, to give credit to what he doth
reveal, and to obey what he doth command. There is not only a revelation
to encourage faith, but a command to enjoin it, 1 John iii. 23. If men
believe not, they pretend some reason for their unbelief. Whatsoever any
man's reason is, it deposeth God from the sovereignty in his soul ; because
it hath a greater power over him to cause him to refuse God, than God's
word and command hath to make him accept his Son. He that comes not
for shelter, recovery, and protection to that head God hath exalted, disowns
the authority as well as the wisdom of that person who constituted him in
that ofiice and dignity. Since Christ is enthroned by God, and ' exalted to
be a Prince and a Saviour,' Acts v. 31, and acts in it as vicarim Dei, God's
vicegerent, he that refuseth to be gathered jnder his wing casts a contempt
not only upon the person of Christ, but the authority of God, who fixed him
in his royalty. Murder is a defacing the created image of God, unbelief is
a contempt of the natural image of God, a treason against the Head of the
redeemed world. It implies either a supremacy over God, or an equality
with him ; either that he hath not power to make a revelation, a law, or to
enjoin a behef of it and obedience to it.
First, It is a contradiction to the resolute and fixed will of God. All un-
belief is a dislike of God's terms, Rom. x. 3, a non-submission to the right-
eousness of God, afiecting a power of choice ourselves, debasing the royal
authority to our demands, and that not to the demands of our reason, but of
our lust. It is to make the Lord of glory kiss the sceptre of our wills, and
his sheaf bow down to ours. We would be blotting out what articles he
hath drawn, and putting in what conditions we please, when we consent not
to what he proposeth, and submit not to what he commands. Is not this
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 245
to pull down his colours, and set up our own ? It is not a simple disobe-
dience, but an evasion of his authority, not to acquiesce in and comply with
bis conditions, imposing our own upon him, and indenting with him. We
will have so much of Christ, and so much of our own righteousness to join
with him. Other sins are against his sovereignty as a creator and a lawgiver,
this against his sovereignty in a merciful design to reduce his creature to its
happiness as well as duty. This sin therefore implies a denial of God's
dominion, or having anything to do with his creature. It opposeth the
return of the soul under his sceptre, and would keep man at an irreconcil-
able distance from God. How malicious would this contradiction be, if our
redemption had proceeded from some other hand ! Such an efflux of
goodness, in restoring from slavery upon such Hght conditions, would have
deserved from us an entire subjection. Such a mercy had merited an abso-
lute sovereignty. How much more malicious is it against God, who besides
the authority merited by this mercy, has naturally an absolute supremacy
over us !
Secondly, It is an imitation of Adam's rebellion against God, in being a
god to ourselves, or choosing another. God will have the soul of man in a
state of dependence on him ; it cannot be otherwise, unless man were a god.
To make an independent creature is a contradiction, for that is to make him
a god. Adam's sin seemed to be an affecting an equality with God, to be
God's companion and equal in knowledge, which would infer an equality in
everything else : Gen. iii. 5, 'You shall be as gods,' or Elohim, ' as God';
not as the angels, for God interprets it an affectation of equality with himself
in the ironical speech, ver. 22, * The Lord God said, Beh*ld, the man is
become as one of us.' Unbelief would still keep up this independency which
Adam aimed at, and whereby he quenched his own happiness and that of his
posterity, and attempts a salvation by his own righteousness, which God
denied him when he drave him out of paradise, that he might not invade the
tree of life, after the new covenant made with him of faith in Christ, and so
have any hope to attain eternal life by any other means than what God had
proposed. This sin is an approbation of Adam's act, in an imitation of it.
Pride against God doth as necessarily attend unbelief now as it did then.
Unbelief was the first sin, and pride was the first-born of it. Adam first
cast away his belief of the precept, and flung away humility at the heels
of it.
Thirdly, Unbelief renders God, as much as in it lies, unworthy of any sove-
reignty. It doth not only deny his authority, but it represents him as false,
foolish, careless, cruel to his own Son, and strips him of the honour of his
truth, the glory of his wisdom, the designs of his grace, the arm of his power ;
and so represents him unworthy of obedience from the unbeliever himself or
from any else. For who can be obliged in reason to obey a God so coloured
as unbelief represents him, one that is not to be credited, that is mistaken
in his contrivances, that hath no thoughts of goodness, that is too weak to
protect his creature? Nay, God himself would not judge himself fit to be
obeyed, if he were any of those which this sin would fasten upon him, since
all the perfections in God which are abused by it are declared in Scripture
as inducements to obedience ; and God makes appeals to the reason of men
to judge of his faithfulness, righteousness, wisdom, and goodness in them.
To call a prince a fool is by the law of some countries made high treason,
because such language concludes the prince incapable of government. The
wiser heathens looked upon the fabulous gods of the vulgar, being represented
vicious, unworthy of any acknowledgment, and ridiculous deities. Unbelief
renders God ridiculous to the world, and more among us than among the
246 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
heathens, who have absolutely denied Christ to be the Kedeemer and Son of
God ; for they own not the revelation from God, and therefore cast not that
imputation upon him, as the practical infidelity of those that believe it to
be God's revelation doth ; for they acknowledge it in a pretended opinion to
be the revelation of God, yet act as though there were nothing but falsity,
folly, and unrighteousness in the whole design.
Sixthly, It affronts the holiness and righteousness of God. If the setting
forth Christ to be a propitiation for sin was to declare his righteousness,
Rom. iii. 25, i. e. his holiness as well as his justice, what doth unbelief
signify but that this act was unrighteous in God, that God was not holy and
righteous in punishing his Son as our surety ? Continuance in a state of
nature by unbelief, after the revelation of God's holiness in so eminent a
manner, is an approbation of that sin Christ suffered to expiate, a preferring
it before the imitation of God's holiness, so much glorified in the death of
his Son; an affecting that which is the just object of God's disaffection,
since God, in the highest manner that possible can be, yea more than in the
damnation of the whole world, hath manifested his hatred of sin in the death
of Christ. The keeping up notoriously gross practices, or unbelief, thougli
attended with morality, is a valuing a state of nature, against which God
hath manifested his hatred ; and therefore unbelief, after the declaration of
Christ, draws a greater guilt upon a man than all sins before the coming of
Christ in the flesh, and the declarations of the gospel.
Seventhly, It is a stripping God, as much as lies in man, of all his delight.
The service Christ did, which was delightful to God, is contemptible to an
unbeliever, God's delight and his stand in direct opposition ; it is a repre-
senting God cruel to the object of his delight ; it makes God a murderer of
his Son ; it taxeth him with the greatest act of cruelty in sacrificing his
obedient Son, the object of his delight, and renders that act of God, which
was the greatest pity to sinners and the glory of his mercy wherein he re-
joiceth, not only a vain and a fruitless, but a tyrannical execution.
First, It is a refusal of Christ, the 'man that is God's fellow,' Zech. xiii. 2,
his 'daily delight,' Prov. viii.; it is contrary to that which is most dear to
God, slights that which is most precious in his esteem. It was all God's aim
in all his actions in the world, ever since the first promise, to magnify himself
in his Son. The revelation of his righteousness in and through him, and
the compliance of men with it, was the chief end of God in the manifesta-
tion of Christ to the world. The conversions of men to him are his plea-
sure : Isa. liii. 10, ' The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.'
What, then, is this sin, but a thwarting God in his main end; robbing
him of the fruit of his counsel, the incomes of his love ; making him a loser
by his grace ; depriving him of a joy in his works, by slighting Christ, who
is the centre of his delight, the joy of his heart, the top of his glory ; chas-
ing away all gladness from his soul, that he should have no pleasure in that
which he hath contrived with so much wisdom, effected with so much power,
but have an eternal grief in the miscarriage of his work ? It is true this
cannot be actually done ; the counsel of the Lord stands firm, the deUght of
God is above the injuries of men ; but this is in the nature of unbelief; and
if this sin should have reigned in Adam, and every branch of him, from the
beginning of the world to the last man born upon the earth, would not this
be the effect of it ? Therefore every unbeliever, as to his part, doth that
which would really be the issue if- all the sons of Adam were in his state.
It frustrates the expectation of God, because God, in sending Christ, had an
expectation that men would lay down their arms, accept of peace, reverence
his Son, and manifest a joy in the reception of him suitable to the joy of
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 217
God in his mission : Mat. xxi. 37, ' But last of all he sent his son, saying,
they will reverence my son.'
Secondly, It is a privation of faith, a grace so pleasing to God. Next to
the delight God hath in Christ, because of the glory accruing to him by it,
he hath a delight in faith, because it owns the glory of God in the redemp-
tion by his Son, and honours those attributes in a peculiar manner which
were eminent in it. Is there any grace he is more pleased with than faith ?
Is there any grace he hath put such a dignity upon ? It is called a justify-
ing faith, Rom. v. 1, a kind of an incommunicable attribute of it; other
graces are the attendants, this the mistress. God is so infinitely pleased
with it, as it stands in relation to the object, Christ crucified, that upon the
appearance of it with a Christ lifted up in its hands, God blots out all the
sins that stand upon record, accounts the soul righteous, opens his arms to
embrace it, and seems to own it as a recompence for all the wrong he hath
sustained. And what a delight it is to Christ I shall have occasion to shew
afterward. The soul that draws back by unbelief affords God no pleasure :
Heb. X. 38, ' If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.'
It deprives God of all pleasure in his creature ; it disturbs the rest of God.
This is spoken of those that were within the church, and made profession of
Christianity.
Thirdly, As it is a refusal of his mercy in Christ. Because mercy is the
perfection he delighted to manifest in Christ, Micah vii. 18, it bars all com-
munications of it to such a soul, because he hath linked his mercy only to
faith in Christ, where the gospel is revealed. So that when Christ is not
believed in, the unbeliever, as far as in his power, frustrates the end of God
in sending Christ, deprives him of that delightful glory he intended by his
Son's death, makes void the merciful contrivance of God from eternity,
which was the stupefaction of angels, the envy of devils, the expectation of
the ancient fathers, and the satisfaction of believers, and, above all, the
delight and glory of God. So that you see what a vast injury unbelief ofi'ers
to God.
Secondly, It is a sin peculiarly against Christ. It is a piercing him again,
Zech xii. 10. Some think this prophecy respects, as to the time, the day of
judgment ; others, the time of Christ's being upon the cross. It respects, I
suppose, some time between. The prophet speaks of Christ's piercing as a
thing past ; and at the time of his passion, there was not such a mourning
among the Jews as is here described ; neither doth it respect the times of
the day of judgment. The mourning, then, of the condemned world, shall
not be from a spirit of grace and supplication, but from a spirit of hoiTor
and despair. The result will be, since those that had not an hand in the
death of Christ's body are said here to pierce Christ, it must be understood
of a piercing by unbelief, which is an approbation of the Jews' cruelty to-
wards him. Any man is guilty of an act who doth approve an act, though
he was not formally an agent in it. And indeed the Jews did not actually
pierce him, but the hand of a Roman soldier ; yet they are said to do it, be-
cause they consented to the act. It is a piercing of Christ.* An unbeliever
is a Jew in his heart and life, though a Christian in profession ; though he
doth verbally acknowledge the coming of Christ, he doth really deny it. It
is an unworthy usage of Christ ; it is a using him, as he speaks of himself
in the Psalms, as ' a worm and no man,' trampling upon him with more
violence and contempt than they would upon a worm. The vilest man in
the world never suflered so many reproaches as Christ hath sufiered hj
* 3p3, which signifies per/orare, is put for liXa<ripfifii7y, Lev. xxiv. 11. — Grotius in
Zcch. xii. 10.
248 CHARNOCK^S WORKS. [JoHN XVI. 9.
notional and practical incredulity since he went to heaven, Judas, that
betrayed him, was never so much hated by the highest professor and sin-
cerest Christian, as Christ betrayed by him is slighted by unbelief, as if he
were set up for a sign to be spoken against. ' As bis visage was marred
more than any man's ' while he was upon the earth, Isa. lii, 14, so his glory
is stained more than any man's since he went to heaven. The natural dark-
ness of men is so thick, that instead of being dissipated by the light, as other
darkness is, it is so obstinate, that it excludes all the divine brightness of
Christ from the understanding and consciences of the most part of men :*
John i. 5, ' The light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth
it not.' It contemns by a desperate ingratitude the person of the Son of
God, the truth of his word, the bowels of his love, the power of his miracles,
the ministry of his death, the glory of his ascension, and the majesty of his
offices ; and accounts the whole history of the gospel no better than a narra-
tion of lies.
And though men never saw the person of Christ, yet they offer violence
to it by slighting the marks of it he hath left in the world. As a man is
guilty of treason by abusing the statue or image of the prince, by defacing
his seal, though he never saw the person of the prince ;f he violates his
authority that regards it not, owns not any act of grace from him, though
he never saw his face ; so are men guilty of trampling on the blood of Christ
when they count it as a trifle, and unprofitable for their salvation, though
they never saw Christ, nor ever had any communion with him, Heb. x. 29,
when they * count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing.'
First, It is a nullifying the work of his mediation and death. It denies
him the honour of his meritorious passion, vilifies the glory of his mediation,
from the first counsel to the last act, sheds his blood afresh, and pours it
slightly upon the ground, and tramples that inestimable sacrifice like dirt
under the feet. No sin doth so immediately oppose Christ as mediator.
This is the great antichrist in the world ; though this sin, among Christians
at large, denies him not in his person, it doth in his offices. As faith puts
a value upon the priesthood of Christ, eyes his death as a perfect atonement,
leans upon him as a sacrifice upon the cross, and an advocate in heaven ; so
unbelief, being contrary to this grace, undervalues all that faith esteems. It
frustrates the end of his coming, which was to reduce us to God, from whom
we had receded by unworthy jealousies of him.
First, It renders the design of his coming a vanity, when it receives not
the fruits of it. As he that will not use the creatures for those ends for
which God created them, that shuts his eyes against the sun, that stops his
mouth wilfully against his appointed food, writes a vanity upon the creation
of God ; so he that doth not receive Christ upon those terms God offers him,
and for those ends God sets him forth, writes vanity upon the whole work of
redemption, and ' makes the grace of God to be in vain,' 2 Cor. vi. 1. Nei-
ther the pains of Christ, the blood of Christ, nor the righteousness of Christ,
attain their end in such a person, who offers to him the indignity of unbelief,
and makes him * spend his strength in vain and for nought,' Isa. xlix. 4.
Some think it is Christ's complaint of the incredulity of the Jews, and it will
extend to all men that make no account of the travail of his soul, his unwea-
ried pains and bloody passion, whereby they argue him to be a fruitless and
a needless mediator, working miracles and shedding his blood to no pur-
pose ; and fix themselves in a state, as if Christ had never died in respect of
benefit, though not in regard of guilt.
* Amyraut. in loc. f Maccov. Metaphys. lib. i. cap. xii.
John X"VI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 249
Secondly, It is a vilifying the price of redemption ; * accounting that
blood -wherein Christ was sanctified, demonstrated to be the Son of God and
Saviour of the world, and for which he was absolved from guilt, and counted
righteous before God, and advanced that he might save them that come unto
God by him, a common, an inefficacious thing, Heb. ix. 28.
Thirdly, Yea, a regarding it as the blood of a malefactor. It is impos-
sible that an unbeliever can regard it only as the blood of an innocent man,
that may cry for vengeance like Abel's, and be as weak as Abel's blood to
purchase salvation for the soul. It is impossible that this, though bad
enough, in denying the efficacy of his blood, can only be the reflection ; but
he must needs regard it as the blood of the highest malefactor that ever yet
was in the world. In not accepting it as the blood of God, he renders Christ
more criminal than Judas, and chargeth him with a falsity in declaring him-
self to be the Son of God, and the mediator of the world. If Christ be the
Son of God, and the mediator of the world, why is he not cordially owned
to be so ? If he be not accepted heartily under those notions, the refusal
of him declares he is not the person and officer of God, as he affirmed him-
self to be, and so renders Christ, not only void of innocence, but guilty of
the highest affront to the majesty of God. He that refuseth him, disowns his
filiation, denies him to be the Son of God, sees not a glory in him ' as of the
only begotten of the Father,' John i. 14; what faith the apostle asserts,!
unbelief denies. An unbeliever implies the truth of what the Jews falsely
writ to the synagogues after the death of Christ, that he was a()£oe xa/
avofLog, an atheist.|
Thus do all persons that think to attain salvation by any righteousness of
their own. Whosoever thinks he is able to enrich himself with spiritual
blessings, to weave a covering of his own righteousness, and make payments
of his old debts by a heap of good works, despiseth Christ's payment, slights
the righteousness of the God of heaven, abuseth that Saviour who came to
knock ofi" our bolts, heal our wounds, and clothe our souls. He that thinks
to enter into heaven, and not by him, is a thief and a robber ; he robs God
of the honour of his own constitution, and Christ of the glory of his mediatory
office, and the right of his purchase. And thus do all persons who walk
contrary to the end of Christ's coming, who are enemies to that spiritual life
Christ came to set up, and friends to that sensual life he came to pull down.
Such may pretend friendship to his person, but are enemies to his cross,
Philip, iii. 18, 19 ; they defame the end of his suffering, as much as the Jews
defamed him in it.
Secondly, It is a denying the love of Christ. It is a stab at his heart, an
outrage of his tender bowels. He suffered willingly all those torments which
were inflicted on him, to remove from us the necessity of suffering, which sin
had involved us in, had he not stepped in to take our burdens upon his own
shoulders. If we will not believe in him, we deny those choice affections
which engaged him in the undertaking, and were illustrious in the execution.
It is as if we should think the covenant of grace more severe than that of
works ; as if Christ were our enemy rather than our Redeemer, and came
rather to kindle a hell for our torment, than to quench hell for us by his
blood; as if be came to suffer for our misery, and not for our happiness. Was
there any need of his coming to make us more miserable than we were before ?
Did it consist with the goodness of God to expose his Son to suffering, to
make the creature more wretched, since the misery we were sunk into was
* Cocceius de Foede. Thes. 200.
t Qu. ' what the apostle asserts ' ? — Ed.
X Grot, in Mat. xxvii. 83.
250 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
more than we were able to bear ? If it were an act of love in Christ, why
is he not embraced by the choicest and most affectionate faith ? If he be
not thus embraced, it clearly implies that you have no imagination of any
affection in him, that he is rather a formidable person than an affectionate
Saviour. It is as great a slight of his love, as if he should open heaven and
make the proffers of the gospel from thence. If Christ should speak from
heaven in an audible voice, and propound the gospel articles in the most
affectionate strains, would not the contempt of it be judged by all men to be
an ungrateful scorn of his love ? He doth speak from heaven in his word, as
really as he bled upon the cross in his person (Heb. xii. 15, ' If we turn
away from him that speaks from heaven'), and unbelief doth insolently abuse
the riches of his unspeakable goodness, and slight the blood shed with an
adorable love, without which the anger of God could not be appeased, nor
the fire of hell, prepared for sinners, extinguished, without which the filthi-
ness of the soul could not be cleansed, nor the glories of heaven opened. In
despising this love, we despise all the fruits of it which the believer enjoys.
Since Christ was so willing to offer up himself to death that we might be
freed, and the power of the devil put to an end in us, the keeping up the
power of the devil in its full strength, as unbelief doth, is a slighting the
main kindness our great benefactor intended to bestow upon us.
Thirdly, It denies the wisdom of Christ. It chargeth him with folly and
inconsiderateness, in undertaking a task that was not worth his pains, in
suffering for the purchase of pardon and salvation, which might be gained
without so much ado. What did Christ aim at in the shedding of his blood,
but the appeasing of the wrath of God, sanctification of the souls of men, the
opening the gates of heaven, which justice, provoked by sin, had barred
against them'? If men do not believe, certainly they have some conceits,
that either these benefits are not desirable and worth the inquiring after, and
labouring for, or that they may be procured by other means at an easier rate
than faith in the blood of Christ. And is not this a charge of folly brought
against Christ, who paid so dear for that, which they suppose they can have
upon a cheaper account, and without being beholden to him ? Thus some
interpret that place, Isa. slii. 19, ' Who is bhnd as my servant, or deaf as
my messenger that I have sent ? who is blind as the Lord's servant ? ' As
if God should introduce the unbelieving Jews, charging Christ with blindness
and folly, who is the wisdom of God, and regarding that as contemptible,
which was honourable in God's account. And, indeed, it seems to be the
true sense of the place, since all the foregoing part of the chapter is a pro-
claiming of Christ, who, ver. 1, is particularly called God's servant. An
unbeliever injures the wisdom of Christ in not following his pattern ; he
trusted God upon his bare word, and oath, and promises of assistance in his
work, and a good issue and success. He that will not give credit to the pro-
mise of God for salvation by Christ, implies that God is unworthy to be
trusted, that his word is of no value, that all that trust him are unwise, and
consequently that Christ himself, who exercised the greatest trust of any in
the world, was the most unwise of any. When we follow not the practice of
another, we imply some defect in the wisdom of that person we refuse to
imitate. This is truly the language of unbelief ; and the Gentiles at the first
preaching of Christ were so besotted with their own imaginary wisdom, that
they thought the preaching of the cross foolishness, and a mere extravagancy
of man.
Fourthly, It wrongs the authority of Christ. It receives an aggravation
from the greatness of the person that published the doctrine of faith. All
law^s are lo be attended with a greater veneration, by how much the more
John XYI. 9.] unbelief the geeatest sin. 251
eminent the wisdom and authority of the person is. It was the Son of God
who died by the command and commission of the Father. It is the Son of
God that hath left the command of faith upon record. It is the Son of God
who is the object of that faith we are commanded to have and exercise. The
not believing, therefore, is a crime of the highest nature, in denying all the
authority derived to Christ from the Father. Upon this score Christ chargeth
the unbelieving Jews : John v. 43, * I am come in my Father's name, and
you receive me not ;' you have evident marks of a divine authority in me ;*
but because my doctrine accords not with the interests of your ambition and
imperious lusts', therefore you receive me not. ' If another shall come in his
own name,' who shall flatter your ambition, and preserve the dominion of
your beloved lusts, * him you will receive.' Thus is the authority of Christ
slighted by this sin, when the terms upon which he offers himself are dis-
liked, when we would bring down Christ from his throne, to condescend to
the conditions we would impose upon him ; when we set the crown upon the
head of some darling sin, which we should set upon the head of Christ.
Fifthly, It denies the excellency of Christ. To work faith there is neces-
sary, first, a clear proposal of the object, supported with such reasons and
allurements that have a strength in themselves to work upon the mind. But
unbelief denies any such attractives in the nature of the object presented, to
move the will to the embracing of it ; it sees more righteousness in a Barab-
bas, soul-murdering lusts, than in a soul-saving Redeemer, when all the
labour, study, thoughts, are for the pleasures of sin, the satisfaction of self,
the increase of profit, and men scarce let Christ have a thousandth part of
the thoughts. If drafi" and swill be preferred before a pearl, it is because a
swine sees no excellency in it. As faith ' counts all things dung for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ,' Philip, iii. 8 ; so unbelief accounts
the person, offices, doctrine, and laws of Christ dung and dross in comparison
of the excellency of self-righteousness, self- wisdom, self-dependence, pleasing'
temptations, and gilded nothings. As faith accounts all things dross to Jesus
Christ, 60 unbelief accounts Christ dross to self. How injurious is this to
the worth of an heavenly object ! to value a feather above a mountain of gold,
a box of poison before a pearl of the greatest price, when nothing can come
in competition with him, but what is infinitely inferior to him ! This unbe-
hef sees no glory, tastes no pleasure, conceives no fulness, in that which God
hath furnished with an unconceivable glory, and rests in with an eternal
delight ; it represents Christ empty, whom God stored with a communicable
fulness, a poor nothing who is a rich treasure ; it esteems Christ, who is an
overflowing fountain, as if he were no better than a broken cistern. It is
most certain that, while God is not chiefly affected, whatsoever is in esteem
above him is valued as more excellent than God ; so when Christ is not
trusted, but a creature hung upon as the object of reliance, that creature so
received is more excellent in esteem than that Christ who is refused.
Sixthhj, It denies the sufficiency of Christ : the greatness of his priest-
hood, the fulness of his satisfaction, the sufficiency of him as the Son of (Jod
to make a prevailing intercession, as if he had not a fulness of living waters
to bestow, or not goodness enough to communicate them ; as though he were
too scanty to free us from all misery, and fill us with all felicity. Where no
trust is reposed in him, it implies that no benefit can be expected from him.
The satisfaction of Christ was more efficacious to take away sin and please
God, than the sin of man had guilt to displease him, and of more value to
outweigh the sins of the whole world, than they had weight to press man
down to the lake of fire; because of the marriage between the divinity and
* Amyraut in loc.
252 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
the humanity, whereby that person, who was man, was infinite in regard of
his divine nature. Faith owns the fulness of this satisfaction, pleads it to
Goii, acquiesceth in it. What doth unbelief ? It either thinks the satisfac-
tion too short, or that a man hath no need of it, or that he hath some other
invention to content the creditor ; but the first is as likely as any else, for,
since Abraham's faith respected the power of God, Rom. iv. 21, unbelief
questions the ability of God. The apostle, pressing the Jews with many
arguments to make them sensible of the ability of Christ to ' save them to
the utmost,' Heb. vii. 25, witnesseth that the secret sentiment in the heart
of this sin is the insufficiency of the blood of Christ for this great end of sal-
vation : that it is of no more efficacy to the purging away of sin than the
blood of bulls and goats ; nor can reach the soul any more than the waters
of a river can purge the filthiness of the Spirit. This sin therefore receives
a mighty aggravation from the dignity of Christ's person, whereby he was
able to make a valuable satisfaction, and actually did so. It is a * light
esteem of the rock of salvation,' Deut. xxxii. 15, iriyEJ** of his Jesus who
conducted them in the wilderness ; as if the rock of God's salvation had no
more strength than a feeble pebble. It disgraceth his power in the whole
web of his design, as if his merit were not strong enough, his satisfaction full
enough, to procure our discharge, but we must have something of our own
to eke it out. The blood of Christ cries to us, we regard it not ; it streams
out fresh from his heart in the virtue of it, and flows through the pipes of
the gospel in the offers of it, yet unbelief stops the ears against the voice,
shuts the heart against the approach of it, as if the sacrifice of Christ were a
sacrifice of no value. And since this sin denies the virtue of the sacrifice of
the Son of God for the expiation of sin, the justification and sanctification of
the soul, it would expose him to another death to make his blood efficacious ;
since there is no means imaginable for the attaining those ends but the death
of the Son of God.
Seventhly, It denies Christ his right and reward. The restoration of souls
is a part of his reward for his work: Isa. liii. 11, ' He shall be satisfied
with the travail of his soul ;' God promised it to him. Unbelief would make
Christ a loser, as well as God a liar ; for, if this leprosy did totally overspread
the hearts of every son of Adam, all the travail of Christ's soul would have
been in the service of the devil. Christ would take the pains, and the devil
have the harvest. What an injury is this, to steal Christ's reward from him,
to bestow it upon his enemy ; to gratify the destroyer, as though they envied
the honour of the Redeemer ! It is his glory to have a numerous posterity ;
when ' he was taken from prison and judgment, who shall declare his gene-
ration ? ' Isa. liii. 8. Generations, in Scripture, are put for a people or
family : * the generations of Adam,' ' the generations of Noah,' i. e. the pos-
terity of Adam and Noah. It is the glory of Christ to have his dying body
spring up into a multiplied seed : John xii. 23, 24, ' The hour is come, that
the Son of man should be glorified.' How ? In his dying, that he may
bring forth much fruit, as ver. 24 intimates. The occasion of our Saviour's
speech was the desire of some Greeks to see him, ver. 20, and, in his answer,
he intimates that the conversion of the Gentiles after his death was part of
his glory, and the end of his death was to draw a train of believing disciples
to him, ver. 32. If the faith of men makes the thoughts of Christ's death
pleasant, and the death itself glorious to him, unbelief doth in its nature
snatch this honour from Christ, and would hale him down from heaven, to
stake him in a humiliation-state for ever, to continue him the scorn and deri-
sion of men, which, as it is injustice in depriving him of his right, is also
ingratitude to him, who hath done so much to make himself dear to men.
John XVI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 253
If the hire of a labourer was to be given him the same day, and the sun was
not to go down upon it, because he had * set his heart upon it, and lest he
cry against thee to the Lord, and it be sin unto thee,' Deut. xxiv. 15 ; if
the depriving a labourer of his hire, for a small time, is a sin God marks,
how black is that sin in the eye of God, which hath not once, but often,
defrauded Christ of the hire he laboured for, both in his life and death, and
will not return the soul to him for whose welfare he travailed ? What is this
but to defeat him of the fruit of his sweat, pain, blood and death, to disap-
point him of the satisfaction he hath set his heart upon ; or, as it is in the
Hebrew, lifted up his soul unto, has a vehement desire for ? What made him
bear up in his dreadful sufferings, but the joy and hopes of having a genera-
tion to serve him ? It was to this purpose he did groan and bleed. But
unbelief would have him an unattended Redeemer, a man of sorrows without
a spark of joy, when it will not come to Christ that the soul might have life,
and Christ might have glory.
Evjhthhj, It puts Christ to the greatest grief. His soul was never more
deeply impressed with grief before the hour of his passion than when he saw
men would not come to him that they might have life. That his table was
spread, and his invited guests would not accept of his feasts, did both grieve
and incense him. When he gave his disciples so sharp a check, and calls
them fools, it was not for their timorous and ungrateful forsaking him, but
for their slowness of heart in believing, Luke xxiv. 25. Not their leaving
him in the hands of his enemies, or their present charging him with impos-
ture, but their not giving credit to what was predicted of him by the prophets.
It was not the buffets he received, the thorns whereby he smarted, the re-
proaches of his enemies, the wounds from the hands of the soldiers, which
did so much damp his soul, as the unbelief of his disciples ; he seemed not
to be afflicted with them so much as with this. This seems as grievous to
him as the wrath of his Father, not to be trusted, and to be charged with
falsity. To be ungratefully dealt with is more bitter to a generous spirit than
death. This grieved him before ever he came into the world, when he con-
ducted the incredulous generation of the Israelites through the wilderness ;*
it may now grieve him more, since it is against more incomparable marks of
his kindness. Is there any gi'ace that Christ doth more earnestly inquire
after than that of faith ? If he finds it, he regards nothing else, John ix. 35.
When he had found him that was excommunicated by the pharisees, he saith,
' Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?W He inquires not after this poor
man's zeal in defending him so strenuously before the council, vers. 30-33.
'Dost thou believe?' is the only question he asks him in order to his admis-
sion into his family. What other grace doth he admire in the centurion ?
Mat, viii. 10. Humility, marching in the first rank, 'I am not worthy,' &c.
seems more obvious to view. But Christ looks at the faith which gave birth
to his humility. If faith be the grace on which he fixeth his eye with affec-
tion and delight, unbelief must be the object of his greatest grief as well as
anger ; it is a grieving him after God hath wiped tears from his eyes,
3. As unbelief is an injury to God, as it is a particular injury to Christ, so
it is also a wrong to the Spirit of God. It slights the witness he bears by
his common illuminations to the dignity of Christ and the truths of the
gospel, and therefore when men refuse to yield obedience to the terms of
the gospel, they are said to ' resist the Holy Ghost,' Acts iii. 51. It is a
sin more against the Spirit of God than any ; it is not the sin against the
Holy Ghost, but the sin against the Holy Ghost may be without many
* Heb. iii. 10, 17, I am grieved with this generation. And forty years was lie
grieved for their unbelief, ver. 19.
254 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
other sins, as it was in the pharisees, who were free from many immoral
vices, but it cannot be without this as the main ingredient. It is a sin more
against the Spirit of God than any, because it is the peculiar office of the
Spirit to receive of Christ's, and shew it to men, to declare of the things of
Christ, to bring the truths of Christ to a remembrance, to convince men of
the necessity of Christ and his righteousness. Unbelief crosseth all those
purposes of the Holy Ghost, the end of his coming into the world, writes
vanity and folly upon his mission, by not subscribing to his motions. As it
reflects upon the Father for sending Christ, so it reflects both upon the
Father and the Son for sending the Holy Ghost. The more honourable the
messenger is, the more base is the afi'ront both to the messenger and to him
that sent him. This sin, as it is against Christ, is also against the Spirit of
God, because Christ was fitted by the Spirit, and furnished with all fulness
in his human nature, for the accomplishment of his work in the world. It
was by the strength of the Spirit that he first entered the lists with our
great enemy, who had first moved the rebellion of inan. Mat. iv. 1, and the
same Spirit acted Christ in the whole course of his prophetical office. It
was through the eternal Spirit that he ofi"ered up himself a propitiatoiy sacri-
fice for our sins, Heb. ix. 14 ; but it is also more immediately against the
Spirit exhorting to faith, pressing the doctrine and truths of Christ upon the
souls of men, repeating again and again the things which concern salvation,
offering himself to change the soul that is without form and void into a
comely and beautiful workmanship. How great is this sin, then, that gives
the lie to the Spirit of truth, who is infallible himself and cannot deceive,
nor could no more be employed about a trivial and unworthy afi"air than
Christ about an unnecessary redemption ! And since this sin is that which
the Spirit directs his battery against, it is more peculiarly a maintaining the
fort against the power of heaven and the summons of that Spirit, whose
least motions we ought to obey to a full suirender. To cast away his soli-
citations, to put bars in his way to hinder him an entry, is to quench the
Spirit,' 1 Thes. v. 19, as if the resisting his office were a blowing out his
life, and as much a stifling of him in the soul as when the Jewish fury cruci-
fied Christ upon the cross. This is as great a sin, as appears by the punish-
ment of the Jews, who were not cast off so much for the crucifying the Lord
of life as for resisting the Spirit, who would have appHed for their cure that
blood they had shed in their madness. Thus Stephen charged them when
they stoned him, ' Ye always resist the Holy Ghost.' The Spirit is the
ambassador of the Father and the Son too ; he is sent by the Father, John
xiv. 26, ' whom the Father will send in my name ;' and sent by Christ,
chap. XV. 26, ' whom I will send unto you from the Father.' To stand
against an ambassador that represents two states or princes is more than to
resist him that represents only one. Christ was sent by the Father, and it
is nowhere in Scripture said that the Spirit sent Chi-ist, though it was given
to him, not by measure, for the fitting him for his mediatory work, and so it
is against the Spirit, as furnishing Christ with gifts and graces for his employ-
ment. But there is a further aggravation in its redounding upon the Holy
Ghost, as authoritatively sent both by the Father and the Son, to build upon
that foundation which Christ laid.
II. The second thing in the demonstration of the sinfulness of this sin
was, that it is as bad, or worse, than the sin of the Jews in crucifying
Christ.
It is as bad as the Jews' crucifying Christ. It is as if we had been part-
ners with that cursed generation at Jerusalem, that stained their hands in
John XYI. 9.] unbelief the greatest sin. 255
the blood of the Son of God. There is a spiritual crucifixion of Christ as
well as a corporal one : Rev. xi. 8, ' And their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city, ^hich spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where
also our Lord was crucified.' It is a speech concerning the death of the
witnesses, and a description of Rome, the seat of antichrist. As it is spirit-
ually called Sodom, and spiritually called Egypt, so the crucifixion may be
understood spiritually, though there be something also literal in it ; for
Christ may be said to be crucified at Rome, not in regard of the place, where
Christ never was, but in regard of the Roman authority, whereby he sufi^ered,
all power of capital punishment being taken away from the Jews after their
subjection to the Roman empire. The crime pretended against him was
against Caesar, the Roman magistrate ; he was crucified by PHate, a Roman
president, and crucifixion was a Roman punishment. It is called Sodom
because of luxury and lust, in regard of the idolatry of it, which is spiritual
uncleanness (as Jerusalem is called Sodom in regard of her filthiness, Isa.
i. 10, Isa. iii. 9, Ezek. xvi. 49, 50), and called Egypt in regard of idolatry,
and in regard of the similitude between the oppressions of Israel in Egypt,
and Christians under the Roman jurisdiction. Now, as the name of one
place is metaphorically translated to another, because of the likeness of their
sin, so, by the same rule, the similitude in sin transfers the name of one sin
to another. Christ is crucified by the Romish power, when he is deprived
of the honour of his mediatory office, by justling in the intercessions of the
virgin and other saints ; of the glory of his satisfaction, in mingling with it
the merits of other creatures ; in his kingly office, by assuming the power of
dispensations for sin, and pardoning the punishment due by his laws to it.
And Christ is as much crucified by an unbeliever, when he rejects or doth
not accept him as a sufficient sacrifice, a propitiating priest, a commanding
king, and a teaching prophet. A man is as deeply guilty of crucifying Christ
in a spiritual manner, as the Jews were in the reproaches and scoffs of him,
and the nailing him to the tree. As there is a spiritual entertainment of
Christ, and supping with him by believing, and a spiritual bringing forth
Christ in the womb of a soul, as a mother doth an infant, so there is a
spiritual lifting up Christ upon the cross, and piercing his side.
Another place which proves this, is 1 Cor. xi. 27, ' Whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord.' If a man hath the guilt of any known sin
upon him unrepented of, if he comes not with a suitable frame, when he
hath no high thoughts of the excellency of Christ's body in the sacrament,
be is partaker of the Jewish crime instead of a Saviour's merit, and acts as
one that nailed him to the cross, and pierced his side, — as an affront to the
picture or statue of a prince is interpreted an affront to his person. Now if
the unworthy receiving the signs of the body and blood of Christ, when a
man hath no formal intent to be guilty of so great a crime in his approach,
but he hath some pretences of holy ends, and addresses himself to it with
some kind of seeming seriousness, make him guilty of the death of Christ,
bow much more must he be guilty of it, who hath no value for it, doth not
accept of it as the death of the Son of God, and mediator of the world ?*
He intimates that Christ did not suffer as a propitiation for sin, but as a
malefactor, and so is like to them that crucified him. So that there are
other ways of being counted before God the murderers of Christ, than if our
hands had been as deeply imbrued in the blood which ran in the veins of
bis body, as the hands of the Jews were. It is true, all had a hand in the
killing Christ, for our sins armed the hands of the executioners ; they put
* Vatabl. in loo.
256 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
the hammer into the right hand of the instmments, and the nails into their
left hand, and, as it were, compelled their cursed hands to pierce his body.*
Our sins demanded the death of the Son of God. But only unbelievers are
guilty of his death, because they make that blood to be shed again in vain,
which they shed when he was crucified for them.
1. UnbeUef is as bad as the Jews' act in crucifying him.
2. It is worse.
1. It is as bad, in being a virtual approbation of what they did. Every
voluntary sin is a justification of all acts of the same nature done in the
world. The sin of the Jews was a justifying the sins of Samaria and Sodom :
Ezek. xvi. 51, ' Thou hast justified thy sisters in all thy abominations ;'
those sisters, ver. 46, were Samaria and Sodom.
(1.) It comes from the same root. There is the same disposition of soul
in one as in the other. They were no more of Adam's descent than we are,
and no more corrupted in their nature than any other nation. We have no
more good naturally than was to be found among them, and they had no
more evil naturally than what is to be found among us. Unbelief was the
principle from whence all their rigour against him did arise ; and had they
not first been unbelievers, they had not been the Redeemer's murderers.
If there be the same disposition, and an interpretative approbation of an
act, there is the same guilt in the exact eye of G-od's justice ; for God doth
not judge by outward fact, but by the inward frames of the heart, and dispo-
sitions of the soul. The blood of all the prophets, from the blood of Abel
to the blood of Zacharias, was to be required of that generation of the Jews
in whose times Christ lived, though not a man of them had ever known Abel
or Zacharias but by the history of the Scripture, Mat. xxiii. 35, Luke xi. 51 ;
yet Christ tells them they had shed the blood of Abel, and all the rest to
Zacharias. Neither did they formally approve of those actions ; no doubt
but they would in words have testified an abhorrency of Cain, as well as
many among us will their indignation against the traitor Judas, and would
have disowned the wicked and cruel facts of their ancestors, who had dyed
their hands over and over again in the blood of the prophets and messengers
of God ; yet they were still guilty of all that blood, because they had the
same disposition of heart, by their unbelief, to do the same act as Cain did,
who was the head of the unbelieving world ; and they did imitate Cain in his
hatred of his brother, by hating Christ, who was to be the grand sacrifice
tvpified by the sacrifice Abel offered, and by Abel's blood too ; and, having
such a frame, would have used the same person with as much rigour, were
he then aUve, as Cain did. So no doubt but there is the same disposition
in every unbeliever to use Christ as cruelly, were he now alive upon the
earth in the same state as he then was, and should fall foul upon the reign-
ing sins of men's hearts, as the Jews did then use him ; for the reason is
the same. If those Jews, notwithstanding all their glavering affection to
the prophets that had been slain by their ancestors, would have handled
them as sharply, and persecuted them to the death, had they been alive in
their time, and had as faithfully performed their office and message as they
did then, no doubt but men having the same disposition would do as much
to Christ ; and, having the same root in them, and bringing forth the same
fruit, where it is in their power, they would do the same to Christ or any
other object, if it were as obvious to them as that which is the mark of their
fury. As those Jews had the spirit of their murdering fathers in them,
though themselves did not believe it, so every unbehever hath the spirit of
the crucifying Jews in him, though they themselves think no such thiog, and
* Jserimberg. de Adorat. lib. i. cap. vii. p. 48, &c.
John X\1. 9.j unbelief the greatest sin. 257
would with as much abhorrency detest such a fact as the Jews did that of
their fathers. There is still the same rancorous root of bitterness latent in
the heart and nature, as was in theirs.
(2.) It hath the same object now, the person of Christ, though in another
manner. Whatsoever is done against the commands, and doctrine, and
people of Christ, against his inward motions in the soul, is done against the
person of Christ : Acts ix. 4, ' Why persecutest thou me ?' How could the
persecution of believers by Saul be more against the person of Christ than
unbelief, the root from whence that furious zeal did branch ? As the
Father appeared principally in the creation of the world, forming the design
of it, and upon that occasion settled the law as a rule of man's obedience,
every sin against the law is an offence against him, a blasphemy of the
Father. But redemption being the work of the Son, by his suffering and
resurrection, and the Son being the matter and subject of the doctrine of the
gospel, and set forth as an object of faith, and appointed by the Father the
lawgiver of the world, the gospel refers properly to the person of Christ ;
and unbelief is a sin committed against the person of the Son, and an out-
raging him. Apostasy and denying Christ to be the Messiah is by the
apostle called a crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh : Heb. vi. 6,
' They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame.' It is such an act as is by interpretation a crucifying the person of
the Son of God ; it is a rejecting his person and offices, and counting him a
deceiver, as the Jews did, Mat. xxvii. 63, and not the Son of God ; for if
we do count of him as one sent from God, why do we not believe in him ?
why do we run from him ? 'EauroTg, to themselves, or in, or ivith themselves,
as much as in them lies. All his common works, which were upon their
hearts, they kill, which is as much as a killing his person ; what they do to
his truth, and the convictions they have, they would do to his person were
he in their power. They put him to an open shame, for as he was derided
and reproached as an impostor when he was upon the cross, so men by their
unbelief shame him before the eyes of men. The action in refusing him and
departing from him asserts that there are no allurements in him, nothing
worthy of love, but worthy of that reproachful usage he had among his cruci-
fiers. As apostasy is attended with this guilt in the account of the apostle,
so is all unbelief, according to the degrees of it, more or less, because it is a
virtual denial of Christ's being what really he is, the Son of God, and
Saviour of the world ; which was that the Jews denied, and therefore cruci-
fied him, and therefore is a sin against the person of Christ as well as theirs.
As faith pitcheth upon the person of Christ as its proper object, so the re-
fusal of the person of Christ is that which doth constitute this sin of unbelief.
(3.) It hath the same end, the indulgence of some carnal lust and end. Is
not our love naturally as strong to those corruptions which lie nuzzling in
our natures ? Are we not as fond of them, as indulgent to them, as the
scribes and pharisees were to theirs ? They did not pay a greater homage
to their beloved sin, and adore their heart-idols with a greater veneration,
than every one of us endeavour to pleasure ours naturally ; and this is the
main end of every unrenewed unbelieving person. Therefore, if Christ were
among us in the same garb as he was among the Jews, and shewed his dis-
like of our vices and corruptions, and laid the axe to the root of them, though
edged with so many miracles as he did among them, what reason have we
to think that he should not meet with the same rude entertainment among
us as he did among them ? Our nature is no better than theirs, our lusts as
dear to us as theirs, principles of education as strong in us as theirs ; we
VOL. IV. B
258 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
have the same spiritual progenitor by nature as they had, even the devil, and
his lusts we do as well as they : John viii. 44, Eph. ii. 2, 3, ' The spirit
that works in the children of disobedience (acre/^/a?, unpersuadableness),
among whom also we had our conversation in times past, fulfiUing the de-
sires of the flesh, and of the mind,' and are as much guided by his inspira-
tions as they ; for the apostle pronounceth it of all, of himself and the
Gentiles, as well as Christ had before of the Jews. Would we not befriend
our father, especially when he would put forth his utmost power and malice
in us upon such an occasion, as he did at that time in them ? And we
rather should use him more despitefully, because if he did come in the flesh,
it would be contrary to expectations, whereas they expected the Messiah, and
gloried in the promise of his coming. Had any told them before, that they
should have used him so barbarously as they did, they would have thought
themselves wronged and defamed. What ! to crucify him whose coming
they longed for, and had expected in their successive generations, from the
time of Adam's being cast out of paradise ! Yet for all this, you know how
they used him, because he came in another garb than they expected. They
looked for him to come as a conqueror, and he came as a person not know-
ing where to lay his head. And what unbeliever is there among us that can
assure himself he would not do the like, were Christ in person present, and
struck as cross a blow at his darling corruptions as he did at those of the
Jews in that time ? What pharisees would not swell against him, if he
should tell them of loading men with grievous burdens, and charge them with
their hypocrisy and foimal devotions, and thunderingly tell them they should
die in their sins ? Is there not the same reason ? Have not men the same
love to their vices as they had then ? What can alter their afi"ections ?
Nothing but faith. While men, therefore, remaining in unbelief, have the
same dispositions, the same ends, and the same motives to unbelief as they
had, they would do the same acts against Christ, out of the same disposition,
and for the same ends, which managed them in all that tragedy. They
would still fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Those that sacri-
fice the truths, precepts, ordinances of Christ to their Delilahs, would sacri-
fice Christ himself, whose truths, precepts, and ordinances they are. If
Christ were again upon the earth in the same state, he would be as faithful to
his Father's instructions as he was then ; and unbelievers would be as faith-
ful to their father's, the devil's, instructions, as the Jews were then.
As we see in what sense unbelief now is as bad as the Jews' crucifying, as
having the same disposition, being set against the same object and guided by
the same ends and motives, so we shall see that
2. Unbelief now is worse than the unbelief of the Jews, and worse than
that act of crucifying Christ, and more grievous to him. They crucified him
by the authority of Pilate, and pretended a law among them whereby he
ought to die. But what pretence can there be for any man's unbelief among
us ? Our unbelief at the last day will be an excuse of theirs.* The Jews
resisted a truth ofiered to them, but we resist the force and power of that
truth w'hich in the notion we own. While we receive it in our assent, we
reject it in our consent ; we profess him to be the Son of God and Saviour
of the world in our doctrine, and proclaim it a mere imposture in our prac-
tice. Theirs was a rejecting him ; ours a scorn and mocking of him. Be-
sides, we by our baptism are obUged votaries to him ; we have given up our
names to Christ in an outward profession, and promised faith in him and
obedience to him. The Jews did not formally so, though implicitly they
did, as the doctrine of it was contained in the ceremonies of the law of
* Zanch. in Decalog. cap. xii. de a7n(rrla, Thes. viii. p. 246.
John XVI. 9. J unbelief the greatest sin. 259
Moses and the writings of the prophets. But our unbelief is manifested
after solemn promises to stick to him.
(1.) Our unbelief is against the spiritual discovery of Christ ; theirs was
not. Their sin was against his personal discovery, ours against his spiri-
tual, in the miiaculous appearance of the Spirit in the apostles' preaching.
The coming of the Spirit depended upon Christ's glorification, John vii. 39;
their sin therefore could not be so gi'eat as ours, it being against a less, and
ours against a greater, discovery of Christ by the effusion of the Holy Ghost.
It is a contempt of Christ after a full revelation. The Jews had better ex-
cuses to plead for the mitigation of their crime, the prophecies concerning
the Messiah were obscure till cleared by the event, and delivered in such
expressions that a natural understanding might conceive them to be meant
of an outward splendour rather than a spiritual glory. The condition of
Christ was so mean and disguised in the world, that they could scarce dis-
cern the Lord of glory for the mask of infirm flesh, could not tell
how to imagine him to be the Son of God, who was meaner than an
ordinary man in his outward appearance. There were, indeed, some
sparks of his divinity flashed out in his words and actions, but short of
those illustrious beams wherewith he afterwards chased away the darkness
of the world, short of that power whereby afterwards he broke open the
gates of hell, and hurled Satan, the prince of it, from his long-possessed
throne. They crucified him, whenas yet the Spirit had not spread the
light abroad, discovered the reason of all the foregoing methods, had not
yet shewed him to be the Lord of glory, nor animated some men to preach
him in the world and bear witness to the truth of his mission against
their worldly interest, and whatsoever was dear unto them there. Not a
nation in the world had then submitted their sceptre to the Son of God ; the
world as yet lay steeped in idolatry, and wallowed in the sink of hell. But
our unbelief being after the clearest discovery of him, and his appearance in
the power of his royalty, since he hath a long time reigned in the midst of
his enemies, is rendered more vile, unreasonable, and inexcusable. The
Spirit doth not speak of Christ to come in an obscure style, as the prophets
did, but manifests things past, things accomplished, in unveiled and clear
expressions, and with an undeniable light. He discovers not Christ on earth
in a mean flesh and form of a servant, but in the glory of the Son of God,
and as a mediator for man, invested with the government of the world, and
hath sealed the truth of his mission with the conversion of many nations,
and spread it over all parts of the world, contrary to human methods, whereby
false religions and errors have been propagated in the earth. The promise
of the Spirit's mission, made by our Saviour on earth, being performed, is
an evidence of the acceptance Christ finds with the Father, and of the stabi-
lity of all his declarations as a foundation of faith. It is against this appear-
ance of his our present unbelief is, which makes it more criminal than that
of the Jews in crucifying him when he was under a veil. We have seen the
conquest he hath made by his Spirit for so many ages since his being upon
the earth ; how prodigious, then, is our heart-refusal of him after so many
records of his power, and troops of miracles wrought by the strength of his
name !
(2.) They crucified him when he was in a state of humiliation ; our un-
behef is against him, since he is exalted at the right hand of his Father.
There is a great deal of difference between the contempt of one upon
a dunghill and upon a throne. They sinned not against a Christ crucified
for them ; he had not then died for them when they apprehended him and
bought his death. Theirs was against God's act in sending Christ ; ours
260 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
against God's act in sending him, and glorifying him also. Theirs was
against Christ in his low estate ; ours against Christ in his exalted nature.
Theirs against Christ as a man on earth ; ours against him as the Son of
God in heaven, and in his approaches to the fulness of his kingly authority
in judging the world. They crucified his humanity, and we, in a manner,
his divinity. They believed not in him when he was clouded in the form of
a servant ; we believe not in him when he hath reassumed the glory of the
Deity. He was as a contemptible shrab among them, making no appear-
ance of rising into a full-grown tree ; there was not that manifest grandeur
wherein he seemed to be promised : he appeared not in such a garb as to
seem desirable to them : Isa. liii. 2, ' He was as a root out of a dry ground.'
But we have heard of him in his glory mounting above the violences of men,
dropping ofi" the infirmities of the flesh, shaking off the fetters of death by a
victorious resurrection, and triumphant ascending above the heavens to live
for ever, and all this that he might be believed on, confided in as the Re-
deemer of the world. Judge, then, which unbelief is more sinful. They
crucified him whom they supposed to be a man and a malefactor ; we crucify
him who was glorified after he was crucified for us. We crucify him since
his divinity hath been manifested above his humanity ; they when his
humanity had veiled his divinity. Which of the Jews, that should have seen
Christ at the right hand of God, as Stephen did, would have dared to utter
those words, ' Crucify him, ciTicify him ! ' * Every unbeliever, that dares
not speak it, dares do it. They will be confounded, when they see him glo-
rious whom they have pierced. Many of them bewailed their crime when
they believed his resurrection ; we reproach him while we pretend to believe
him glorious, and crucify him again by rejecting his promises and precepts,
whom we confess to be risen from the grave. Had the Jews had the Mes-
siah only promised them by the prophets, f and had not believed it, it had
not been so great a sin as not to believe him after he came, and prefer Ceesar,
an earthly king, before him, and the life of Barabbas, a murderer, before his.
It was an higher sin to refuse him, not only since he was promised, but was
come, and had preached and wrought miracles among them, and had lived
hoKly ; yet it was a greater sin than of crucifying him, not to believe on him
after he was dead, raised again, ascended into heaven, had sent the Holy
Ghost and converted a world. Peter denied Christ, Judas betrayed him,
Pilate condemned him, the Jews crucified him, but not one of them had then
seen him dead, raised, and ascended into heaven, and sending the Holy
Ghost, as we have full evidences of. As if the Jews did not believe Moses, when
he pretended in Egypt to deliver them, by taking the Israelite's part, and
killing the Egyptian, it was no such great thing. But after he had been, as
it were, dead by his absence, and returned again, by a course of miracles,
knocked ofi" their chains, brought them through the Red Sea, for them then
to carry themselves so to him, as if he had not delivered them, was a great
injm-y to God and him. So it is a greater injury, since Christ, by his death,
hath freed us from evil, brought the kingdom of heaven, his gospel, among
lis, and that for many years, that we should not heartily comply with his
terms, but behave ourselves towards him as if he were a mere man, an un-
worthy man, had done nothing for us, had not been taken notice of by God,
but in a way of punishment. So to carry ourselves after his high exaltation,
is unparalleled, even among devils, and by the sin of the Jews in crucifying
him. And our notional owning him, or assenting to the articles of the creed
concerning his death, resurrection, ascension, and sitting at the right hand
* Nerimberg de Adorat. lib. i. cap. v. p, 48, &c.
t Ochino Prjedic. part v. Praedic. xxviii. pp. 209, 210.
John XVI. 9.1 unbelief the greatest sin. 261
of God, and his coming to judge the quick and the dead, is so. far from alle-
viating the crime, that it renders it more base and unworthy, not to cast
ourselves upon him for salvation, resign up ourselves to be saved in his way,
and guided by his precepts, after our acknowledgments of his death and exal-
tation. I say, it renders it more unworthy than the Jews' murder, or the
present unbelief of their posterity, because it is a contradiction to our own
professed sentiments.
(3.) Our unbelief is more palpably against the offices of Christ than theirs
was : it was not of that black hue then. Christ had not a full investiture in
his offices, he had not all royal power settled upon him, till after his sacri-
ficing himself. For the full exercise of those offices belonged to his state of
exaltation, and he was not perfected till he was offered up, Heb. v. 9 ; it is
now against his priestly office settled upon him for ever, and against a special
part of it, his intercession. They sinned against Christ ready to offer up
himself a sacrifice ; we against Christ who hath offered himself a sacrifice of
a sweet-smelling savour to God ; we sin against him as an advocate settled
at the right hand of God. It is true, Christ did intercede before bis coming
in the flesh, and evidences of it there are in Scripture, but that was not evi-
dent to the Jews. It was then upon the account of what he was by compact
to suffer, it is now upon the account of what, according to that compact, he
hath suftered ; it is a sin, therefore, more pecuUarly against his priestly office,
in his pleading for all the fruits of his oblation, and appearing in the presence
of God for us, as well as appearing for God to us ; theirs was against the
latter, and ours against both ; theirs was against Christ, when as yet the
contract was to be performed ; ours against him, when, according to the
contract, the price and ransom is paid ; theirs was when the debt due to God
remained unsatisfied ; ours when God hath given Christ an acquittance for
the payment of it, and made him king, priest, prophet, prince, and saviour,
and for ever invested him in each particular office. It was not by any force,
hut with the greatest willingness, that he offered up himself ' to destroy the
works of the devil,' 1 John iii. 8, and to be, in all respects, an officer of
mercy at the right hand of his Father. If we shall endeavour to preserve
him, whom Christ came to cast out by his death ; if we preserve any of those
works by unbeHef, Christ came to destroy ; if we continue tiie sceptre of
Satan in his hands by our want of faith ; nay, if we preserve that unbelief,
which was the first work that the devil framed in our first parents by his
subtlety, we do that which hinders the glory of his offices, and that which is
more contrary to his honour than the death the Jews inflicted on him.*' His
death did not discontent him, he was highly willing to bow down his head
under it, it was the way to the glory of all his offices ; he was to pass through
the cross to the throne, and be first a sacrifice before he could be an advo-
cate, and yield up the Ghost before he could send the Spirit. Unbelief, then,
which would deprive him of the glory of all this, is more injurious than those
Jews were which nailed him to the cross, and more grievous than the igno-
minious death he suffered.
(4.) Our unbehef is against Christ after he hath finished his work, their
act was against him when he was moving towards the performance of it. He
had not then manifested the grandeur of his affection ; he had, indeed, taken
human nature, and humbled himself to the infirm condition of our flesh ;
but his death, which was the commendation of his love, and the discovery
of his affection in redemption, was not then suffered ; their sin could not be
against this, because it was not yet manifested ; they made way by their sin
for a discovery of that love we sin against. They sinned against Christ as
* Jackson, vol. iii. fol. p. 343, changed.
262 charnock's works. [John XVI. 9.
he was preparing himself to be a sacrifice for them, and sanctifying himself
to be an atoning oflfering ; we sin against him as already consecrated by his
own blood, and consecrating for us ' by his own flesh a hving way,' Heb.
X. 20. In the crucifying of him they sinned against Christ as the Son of
God, but not against Christ as a sacrifice ; they rather contributed, though
not intentionally, to this oblation of himself. But we sin against the only
sacrifice for sin, which hath been ofi'ered for us, so that there is a greater
ingratitude and contempt in our sin than theirs ; neither the priests nor
people, Pilate nor Judas, had seen Christ dead for them, before their own
act in crucifying him. Judas betrayed him, the people voted him, and Pilate
condemned him to death ; but an unbeUever betrays, votes, condemns the
death of Christ to death ; he betrays the ends of it, condemns that to a nul-
lity which God accepted as a price, and votes against those offices which
were founded upon his death, and which he could not have exercised if he
had not died, and thereby virtually pulls him from his throne, unto which
he was to pass by the cross : for ' ought not Christ first to suffer, and so to
enter into his glory ?' Luke xxiv. 26.
(5.) Our unbelief is against a more signal manifestation of God's attributes
in their highest perfection. God hath not opened the treasures of his wisdom
to man till the sufferings of Christ were over, nor was his love manifested in
the highest manner till our Saviour bled, nor his justice discovered till the
stroke was given, nor did his power triumph but in the resurrection of our
Saviour. The glory of those attributes lay hid and wrapped up in him, till
Christ came down from the cross, and rose from the grave. We sin against
that goodness which pitied us more than it seemed to pity his own Son. We
sin against that justice that sheathed a sword in his bowels to spare our
souls. We sin against that blood that sealed our pardon, against that truth
which had brought the promises upon record for so many ages to an happy
accomphshment, and made them yea and amen, fully irreversible, by our
Saviour's blood ; against a wisdom that astonished angels more than that in
the whole creation, and against an almighty strength that never bared its
arm so much as in raising our surety loaden with our guilt. Since nothing of
those appeared so eminent but in and after the crucifixion of Christ, their sin
could not so sully the honour of those which did not then appear. They
were ignorant instruments in the hands of God to promote rather than
violate the honour of those attributes. But doth not our unbelief endeavour
to take off" the wheels of their triumphant chariot, and lay the honour of them
in the dust ? The Jews, indeed, alter the death of Christ, sinned against
all these in their brightness as well as any of us ; but not in the very act of
crucifixion, because by the death of the Son of God these excellencies were
brought in all their glories to our view, which had else lain invisible in the
secret place of the Most High, and never should have shewn their faces to
the sons of men. Without it, neither men nor angels could have had any
prospect of them. And though we imitate not the Jews in the act of cruci-
fixion, it is not for want of natural disposition, but for want of opportunity.
Christ is not here in person to be crucified by us, but we tread in the steps
of the Jewish unbelief, which was more gross after the passion of Christ
than before ; and we crucify the glory of those attributes of God, which re-
ceived their hfe from the blood of the Redeemer.
(6.) Our unbelief is aggravated from the accomplishment of the promises
and threatenings for unbeUef, which their sin was not against. We have
greater assurances since Christ's ascension of the performance of promises
than they had before. The gospel hath, according to the prediction of Christ,
from a grain of mustard-seed, risen up to a mighty tree. It hath been by
John XVI. 9.J unbelief the greatest sin. 263
various providences carried into remote corners, spread further than the
Koman eagles. It hath been made known in the then unknown parts of
America. It hath visited all nations, Mat. xxiv. 14, and a great harvest hath
sprung up in all ages since, from the seed of our Saviour's body cast into the
ground, according to his prophecy, John xii. 24. We have known