Stephen Charnock — The Existence and Attributes of God

Nothing can make itself or bring itself into being. Therefore there must be some being that has no cause, that depends upon no other, never was produced by any other, but was what he is from eternity, cannot be otherwise…

Every plant, every atom, as well as every star, at the first meeting whispers this in our ears, I have a Creator, I am witness to a deity.

To serve other things, or to serve ourselves, is to waste a service upon that which is nothing. In devoting ourselves to God, we serve him that is; that was, so as that he never began; is to come, so as that he never sha…

And truly, since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving; and we do but a just right to our love, to pitch it upon that which can always possess us and be possessed by us, upon an object that cann…

Spiritual worship is that, therefore, which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the gospel. The heart should be enlarged, according to the liberty the gospel gives of drawing near to God as a f…

Worship is an act of the understanding, applying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thoughts of his majesty, recognising him as the supreme Lord and governor of the world, which is natural knowl…