All our works before repentance are dead works (Hebrews 6:1). And these works have no true beauty in them, with whatsoever gloss they may appear to a natural eye. A dead body may have something of the features and beauty of a living, but it is but the beauty of a carcass, not of a man… Since man, therefore, is spiritually dead, he cannot perform a living service. As a natural death does incapacitate for natural actions, so a spiritual death must incapacitate for spiritual actions.
- Stephen Charnock
A Puritan Golden Treasury p. 126.
Stephen Charnock (1628–1680), Puritan divine, was an English Puritan Presbyterian clergyman born at the St Katherine Cree parish of London. from 1675 he ministered in Bishopgate Street Presbyterian Church, London as joint pastor with Thomas Watson. His sermons were published mostly after his death; they reflect the characteristic Puritan divine's concern for central Gospel themes. His most important work was entitled Existence and Attributes of God.
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