A Soul Framed in Christ

Stephen Charnock on the Renewal of God's Image

Frank L. Bartoe

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781532663055
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Rituale & Praktiken

There is a particular pressing question that seems to permeate the whole of Charnock's works: "If the greatest or highest degree of excellence is found in this imitable perfection of God, this conformity to holiness, then what does this conformity look like in the soul that has been regenerated?" This book undertakes a detailed analysis of the various components of Charnock's doctrine of regeneration, more specifically, the continuity in his thought working out the reality that is contained within the highest degree of excellence that is found in the imitable perfection of God. Charnock brings the whole of that image of God renewed in the soul under the microscope of Scripture to reveal the details found in the conformity to that vital principle, holiness.

I

Introduction

“Grace hath a soul-raising excellency,” wrote Thomas Watson, “it is a divine sparkle that ascends; when the heart is divinely touched with the load-stone of the Spirit, it is drawn up to God . . . grace gives us conformity to Christ.”1 It is from this Watson concludes that a “gracious soul is the image of God curiously drawn with the pencil of the Holy Ghost; an heart beautified with grace [and] grace is the purest complexion of the soul, for it makes it like God.”2 The truth of this beauty of grace that manifests itself in the grace of a soul’s complexion was no more accurate of anyone than in Stephen Charnock (1628–1680).3

In his funeral sermon for Charnock, Mr. John Johnson, an early friend, and fellow-collegiate at Cambridge, echoes the truth of grace found in a soul when describing Charnock. He paints an image of a man whose heart was divinely touched and drawn up to God. Mr. Johnson, with striking imagery, wanted it to be known that conforming grace was the defining characteristic of the man he knew personally. “He was,” says Mr. Johnson, “the rational house of God, Christ’s spiritual building, the temple of the Holy Ghost, framed and made up of orthodox doctrines and good works.”4 Although it would seem that such a characterization of a person would be enough to capture the essence of a man and his life, Johnson discloses something more fundamental than the “pencil of the Holy Ghost” and its drafting on Charnock’s soul. According to Johnson, Charnock was

[a] person transformed into the very image of God himself. Always serving the only true and living God, as becomes of such a God. All the work wherein he employed and exercised himself with diligence, skill, and constancy, was love to God and souls. His life, he examined and squared, until it was exactly according to the rule of God’s word.5

It would seem, to some extent, that Mr. Johnson was either extracting concepts from Charnock’s writings or was making a perceptive observation about his life. Either way, it speaks to the continuity associated with Charnock’s life and writings.

The reality of this observation becomes readily apparent if one was to read Charnock’s writings with Mr. Johnson’s assessment that he was a “person really transformed into the very image of God himself.”6 This “very image of God” is a more conscious thought than all other things noted about Charnock; as a matter of fact, it could be suggested that the other attributes pale in the shadow of this image of God in Charnock. Indeed, his life was nothing more than an outflowing from the reality contained in “a person really transformed into the very image of God himself.”7 The significance of this assessment by Mr. Johnson will be borne out in various areas of this paper, and its truth will be manifested. What is most striking about this assessment of Mr. Johnson is that what he saw in this man—Charnock—is what appears to be the critical focus of Charnock’s studies. Johnson identified the reality that in Charnock, “the very image of God” was a regulating principle for his life and the beauty of grace functioning as a bonding agent for the totality of his theological thought.

There is a similar assessment of Charnock set forth by James M’Cosh, professor of logic and metaphysics at Queen’s College in Belfast, where he seems to note the internal substance of that image of God which Charnock sought to understand. According to M’Cosh, Charnock’s longing desire that he would, at some point, obtain “the perfection of grace and holiness.”8 This longing desire serves as a backdrop for Charnock, and it demonstrates itself in every sermon where he seeks to explore the depths of the attributes of God and his truth, mercy, grace, and goodness. Also, it manifests itself in Charnock’s relentless pursuit to comprehend the glorious truths of the “perfection of grace and holiness” and its fashioning effect as the “purest complexion of the soul.” Consequently, both Mr. Johnson’s and M’Cosh’s valuation of Charnock as a man of God coalesces around the same regulating principle, with one encapsulating it within the image of God and the other pointing to the substance of that image in the connective reality of grace and holiness. Nonetheless, they had ascertained a fundamental component of Charnock’s theology that is found throughout his writings and pinpointed by his co-pastor,9 Thomas Watson, that “grace gives us conformity to Christ,” and the beauty of that conformity is reflected in the complexion of a soul that has been framed in Christ.

It is the sustaining reality of that beauty and conformity that we will find Charnock consistently employing, that he will ground in the reality of grace and holiness, which has effectively altered the substantive nature of the soul’s structure. In addition, this grace and holiness will function as an interpretative grid for understanding the framing of the soul in Christ. For Charnock, grace expands the entirety of creation in some respect; however, the place to see the most glorious operations of redemptive grace is to look upon the nature of the soul to get a sight of Christ weaving those fibers of grace and holiness throughout the totality of the soul. In his works, he depicts the Puritan’s perspective of God’s grace and holiness as the “central force of heaven”10 that permeates the whole realm of the soul’s environment. That is, it is the backdrop, the foundation, the lineaments, and is a living constituent of spiritual reality that has been sent forth with a primary mission, from the Creator, to lay claim to that which was lost. It is within this context that Charnock’s understanding of the purpose of redemptive grace, which, by its very design, is meant to reclaim God’s most prized creation that was created to be a reflection of his glory: his holiness—the image of God. It is to this end that this study will attempt to explore Charnock’s doctrine of redemptive grace in the renewal of God’s image in the soul and its relation to God in covenant, his divine beauty, and man’s chief end to redound the glory of God in the temporal, as well as the heavenly realm.

What will become evident as we explore Charnock’s doctrine of the renewal of God’s image in the soul is that implicit within Charnock’s understanding of the image of God in the soul is the notion of conformity. This notion of conformity11 is a fundamental theme that is laced throughout Charnock’s Discourses, especially in light of the contrasting reality that he identifies as “a principle of contrariety.” This principle of contrariety describes the reality that the deforming nature of sin has replaced the beauty of the soul. As a result, several questions surface: the nature of conformity, the object of conformity, the standard of conformity, the congruity inherent within conformity, as well as the extent of conformity. For Charnock, these various aspects of conformity address an essential relationship that ushers the creature into the presence of his Creator, and this relationship defines the content of questions, such as: Is there a greater excellency than for a creature to be found in conformity to God? What more magnificent beauty could be obtained than a soul to be framed in grace and holiness? How can the creature be conformed to God with a nature that stands in conflict with his framing? How can any soul conform to God without that which essentially constitutes that co...