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Charnock, Stephen, D.D.

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an eminent English Nonconformist, was born in London in 1628. He received his earliest education from his father, and when very young he entered Emanuel College, Cambridge, under Dr. William Sancroft. He commenced his labors as a minister in Southwark, but soon obtained a fellowship in New College, Oxford, and in 1652 became senior proctor of the university. In 1663 he went to Dublin, and his ministry there was eminently successful. About 1660, ejected by the Act of Uniformity, he returned to England, and spent fifteen years in and about London in study and preaching, but without a settled congregation until about 1675. He died July 27, 1680. "His sermons constitute the chief of his works; and while on the doctrines they contain, being decidedly Calvinistic, a variety of opinions are entertained, yet it is universally admitted that they are distinguished by great originality and genius, and are well deserving of the widely-spread attention they have so long received. His reasonings are nervous and his appeals affecting. His judgment was sound, his taste correct, his imagination lively, his piety undissembled. He was grave without being dull, and perspicuous without being wearisome. His Treatise on the Attributes of God is acknowledged to be the best in the English language" (Jones). His Works were republished in 1815 (Lond. 9 vols. 8vo), with a life prefixed, by Edward Parsons. There is an American edition of the Attributes, with a life of Charnock, by Symington (N. Y. 2 vols. 8vo), and a new edition of his Works is now going on at Edinburgh (Nichols), 1866, vols. 1-5. 8vo. See Jones, Christian Biography, p. 106; Symington, Choice Works of Charnock, with his Life (N.Y. 12mo); Middleton, Ecclesiastes Biography, 3:443; Calamy, Non-conformist's Memorial (Lond. 1778), 1:159 sq.