The sayings of that reverend and great preacher Mr. S. Charnock, who departed this…

THE SAYINGS Of that Reverend and Great Preacher Mr. S. CHARNOCK, Who departed this Life on Wednesday the 28 of July, 1680, and was solemnly Interred the 30th following.

ONE would scarce imagine such an inward nest of wickedness as is in a natural man; but God hath affirmed it: and if the sinner should deny it, his own heart would give him the lye. Thoughts are then sinful when they have a bad principle, want a due end, and converse with the object in a wrong manner. The holiness of God is seen in forbidding sin, his wisdom in permitting sin, his mercy in pardoning sin, and his justice in punishing sin. Such evils as skip up from our natural corruption, and sink down again as fish in a river, these are sins though we consent not to them; because though they are without our will, they are not against our nature, but spring from an inordinate frame of a different hue from what God implanted in us. The Idolatry of the mind is when we dress up a god according to our own humours, humanize him, and ascribe to him what is grateful to us, though never so base and unworthy of his holiness, Psal. 50.21. Thou thought I was such a one as thy self. 'Tis the frequent business of mens minds to flutter about things without the bounds of Gods revelation. Worldly concerns may quarter in our thoughts, but they must not possess all the room, and thrust Christ into a manger. Some mens fancies are like a Carriers bag stuffed with a world of Letters, having no dependence one upon another, some containing business, and others nothing but froth. As the more delight there is in any holy service, the more precious it is in it self, and more grateful to God; so the more pleasure there is in any sinful motion, the more malignity there is in it. 'Tis very dangerous when the mind doth brood upon a sinful motion, to hatch it up, and invent Methods for performance. Gods law is suitable to his Sovereignty, as mens Laws are to theirs; must they not then be as extensive as Gods dominion, and reach even to the privatest closets of the heart? 'Tis not for the honour of Gods holiness, righteousness, goodness, to let the Spirit which bears more flourishing characters of his Image than the body, range wildly about without a legal curb. Man was created both with a disposition and ability for holy contemplation of God; the first glances of his soul were pure, he came every way complete out of the mint of his infinitely wise and good Creator.