Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons. - Stephen Charnock

Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons.

- Stephen Charnock
The Doctrine of Regeneration: Selected from the Writings of Stephen Charnock p.102

Stephen Charnock, B.D., was born in the year 1628, in the parish of St. Katharine Cree, London. His father, Mr. Richard Charnock, practiced as a solicitor in the Court of Chancery, and was descended from a family of some antiquity in Lancashire. Stephen, after a course of preparatory study, entered himself, at an early period of life, a student in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was placed under the immediate tuition of the celebrated Dr. William Sancroft, who became afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 

UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION
Charnock had an analytical gift that enabled him to take great amounts of theological information and condense it down into clear, concise sentences. J. I. Packer writes that Charnock “of all the Puritans is the most brisk and businesslike when it comes to saying things straight.” Unfortunately, this gift came with a weakness on the other side. As Packer goes on to say, “Charnock is as strong as any in clearing heads, but is less able than some to stir the imagination and touch the heart.”

MOST IMPORTANT WORKS
Here, courtesy of Meet the Puritans, are brief descriptions of his two most important works.

The Existence and Attributes of God - “This is the work on the character and attributes of God. It should be read by every serious Christian. The twelfth discourse on the goodness of God … is unsurpassed in all of English literature.”


Christ Crucified: The Once-For-All Sacrifice - “Linking the Old and New Testaments, Charnock explains how Christ’s sacrifice fulfills the Old Testament requirements.”