January 12, 2010

Stephen Charnock (1628–1680) on God’s Hate for the Unbelieving Elect

God doth hate his elect in some sense before their actual reconciliation. God was placable before Christ, appeased by Christ. But till there be such conditions which God hath appointed in the creature, he hath no interest in this reconciliation of God; and whatsoever person he be in whom the condition is not found, he remains under the wrath of God, and therefore is in some sense under Gods hatred.
Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse of God’s Being the Author of Reconciliation,” in The Works of Stephen Charnock (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1986), 3:345. Similarly, Thomas Manton said: “In themselves God’s elect differ nothing from the rest of the World, till grace prevent them; they were as bad as any in the World, of the same race of cursed mankind, not only living in the World, but after the fashions of the World; ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ and obnoxious to the curse and wrath of God” (Thomas Manton, “Sermons Upon 2 Corinthians V: Sermon XXXIV,” in The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, D.D., 22 vols. [London: James Nisbet, 1873], 13:253).

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