What I'm going to do in this post and the next is give a small sample of Charnock with a bit of commentary just to give you a taste for him--and for Puritan writings in general. Here is the section I read this morning. It is from the second chapter "Discourse II: On Practical Atheism." This discourse starts on page 89 and goes to page 175. Our section begins at the bottom of page 135. Here goes Charnock. We catch him in the middle of something:
II. The second main thing: As man would be a law to himself, so he would be his own end and happiness in opposition to God. Here four things shall be discoursed on. 1. Man would make himself his own end and happiness. 2. He would make anything his end and happiness rather than God. 3. He would make himself the end of all creatures. 4. He would make himself the end of God.This is what Charnock does. The whole book is outlined in this way. He tells you where you are going and then he takes you there. But before we go, look up at that again. Look at his main point and then the four things he is going to discourse upon to demonstrate his point. The first thing that I notice is his thoroughness. He covers everything there is to cover and from all angles. This is what the Puritans did. They thought things through all the way to the end. The next thing I notice is his depth. There is nothing shallow to his thinking.
The Puritans had no television. They had no entertainment at all in the way that we think of it. They had hard lives and long work days. They had one day off. Sunday. The Sabbath. They spent it in rest, worship, and the contemplation of God. A man like Charnock would have put in a 72-hour work week Monday through Saturday in prayer, study, and attending to the spiritual needs of his flock--before Sunday. He would have spent more time contemplating the things of God in one day than we do in a month. This is why there is so much depth and insight in his writing. They had hard lives and wanted solid answers. We have easy lives and are content with shallow thoughts and empty cliches.
Now let's look at his main point again: As man would be a law to himself, so he would be his own end and happiness in opposition to God.
Human beings were never meant to be independent of God, yet all our thoughts are bent on it, are they not? This is where reading Charnock becomes like reading my own heart and mind. He knows human nature very well, and he learned it, not just from observation, but from Scripture. But let's let him go on, speak for himself.
First, Man would make himself his own end and happiness. As God ought to be esteemed the first cause, in point of our dependence on him, so he ought to be our last end, in point of our enjoyment of him.Interpretation: Just as we should recognize that God is the source of all we have--life, breath, and all spiritual and physical good, so we should recognize that the pursuit of God and his glory should be our ultimate goal, purpose, and enjoyment.
Are you following yet? Now:
When we therefore trust in ourselves, we refuse him as the first cause; and when we act for ourselves, and expect a blessedness from ourselves, we refuse him as the chiefest good, and last end, which is an undeniable piece of atheism; for man is a creature of a higher rank than others in the world, and was not made as animals, plants, and other works of the divine power, materially to glorify God, but a rational creature, intentionally to honor God by obedience to his rule, dependence on his goodness, and zeal for his glory. It is, therefore, as much a slighting of God, for man, a creature, to set himself up as his own end, as to regard himself as his own law. For the discovery of this, observe that there is . . .Before we let Charnock go on, let's think about what he said again. Because we are not unthinking animals or plants, but rather rational creatures, then it takes more to bring glory to God than just being. It takes obedience to him, dependence upon him, and zeal for his glory. Every moment we do not exhibit all of these we are in rebellion to him and hurting ourselves.
That last part is my add-in. Not that Charnock would disagree, he just hasn't gotten there yet. He will later in the book. Right now he is concentrating on how we slight and dishonor God with practically every waking moment of our lives.
Though we may not say we are atheists, we live as if there is no God. Instead of obeying him and his laws, we obey ourselves and make our own rule. Instead of depending on him, we imagine that we are dependent on self, that we don't need him. We can live without him. Instead of living for his glory we live for our own. We have set ourselves up in the place of God and live, practically speaking, as atheists. Every day. Nearly every moment. This is our nature. This is what we must turn from when we turn toward God. And this turning from self and turning toward God is something we must do every day.
