Stephen Charnock

Stephen Charnock was born in 1628, in London, England, the son of a solicitor. He grew up in a family of comfortable means and was raised in a Puritan household. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the leading Puritan college, where he took his degree in 1649. He was a young man of intellectual gifts, who was noted for his learning and his capacity for work. As a student, he was converted under the preaching of a Puritan tutor at Cambridge. He became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1652, and was a tutor. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and served in the Parliamentary church.

In 1655, he went to Dublin, in Ireland, as the chaplain to Henry Cromwell, the son of Oliver Cromwell and the lord deputy of Ireland. He was a popular preacher in Dublin and was a fellow of Trinity College. He remained in Ireland for about five years. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, he lost his position and returned to England. He lived in London, and for some years, he was without a settled pulpit. He worked at his studies. He was a man of retiring habits, who gave himself to reading and writing. He was said to have been a man of great depth, who spent whole days in his study.

In 1675, he became the co-pastor with Thomas Watson of a Presbyterian congregation that met at Crosby Hall, in London. He preached there for the last five years of his life. He did not publish any of his works during his lifetime. After his death, his papers were edited by his friends and published. The most important was a series of discourses on the existence and the attributes of God, which was printed in 1682 as The Existence and Attributes of God. It is a massive work, which is regarded as one of the greatest Puritan treatments of the doctrine of God. It includes studies on the knowledge, wisdom, power, holiness, goodness and patience of God. It combines philosophical argument with devotion.

His other works include A Discourse on the Necessity of Regeneration, which was published in 1683, and The Doctrine of Reconciliation. He was a systematic and careful thinker. His writing is dense but rewarding. He was admired by Charles Spurgeon, who said that Charnock's work is a masterpiece. He was a man who believed that the knowledge of God is the highest of studies and that the contemplation of His attributes brings joy and humility. He wrote that there is no way to know God except in Christ.

He was a man of great modesty. He kept a diary, which has been lost. He left behind a number of notes. He was a man who found it hard to speak in public. He suffered from a nervous trouble, and he was a man of no more than average health. He was a quiet pastor who was not known to many outside his circle. He died on July 27, 1680, in London, at the age of fifty-two. His life shows the effect of a quiet scholar who gave his years to the study of the nature of God. His work has been a treasure for the church.