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5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Charnock on Providence

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.81.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a shifting political landscape forced him to go into hiding, Stephen Charnock continued to faithfully minister to God's people. Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols discusses how this Puritan's life and work bore witness to the providence of God.

Read the transcript: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/charnock-on-providence/

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Stephen Charnock was born in 1628 and he died in 1680. He was born and died in his beloved

0:15.7

city of London. He is known as a Puritan divine, a Puritan minister and theologian. His father

0:24.3

was a solicitor and when he was of age, young Stephen Charnock was sent off to study at a manual

0:31.3

college Cambridge, that epicenter of Puritanism. While he was there as an undergraduate, he was

0:37.4

converted and there he also felt the call to the ministry. When he graduated, he served as a private

0:44.0

tutor preparing to be a minister and then took a church in Southwark, London. At 1649, he went to

0:52.8

Oxford for further study and acquired a fellowship at New College, Oxford, then in 1655 his life

1:02.7

changed. He was sent to Ireland to be Chaplin to the governor, a post he would hold for five years.

1:10.4

The governor was Henry Cromwell, the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and he was appointed governor

1:18.4

there in Dublin and Stephen Charnock as his chaplain had the duties of preaching which he did

1:25.1

very much there in the city of Dublin and also of advising him. Well, then we have the restoration

1:33.5

in 1660 as Charles II comes to the throne and restores the monarchy and restores the Church of

1:42.7

England and this meant that Henry Cromwell was out as governor of Ireland and so too was Stephen

1:49.5

Charnock. For the next 15 years, under this time of the restoration, Charnock was not able to

1:56.9

preach. He was not able to publish. He was not able to work in public. So he worked quietly

2:04.2

in private, committed himself to study, committed himself to preaching privately, committed himself

2:11.6

to ministering and pastoring privately. Then in 1675, he along with the other great Puritan

2:20.3

Thomas Watson co-pastured a church at Crosby Square. This congregation met in the Crosby House

2:29.6

Great Hall. It was built by John Crosby back in 1470. It passed through many hands and much of

2:38.3

the mansion was lost in a great fire in London. Not the great fire of 1666, Crosby House actually

2:47.1

escaped that only six years later to have much of it lost to fire except the main hall. It survived

2:56.2

with its magnificent oak ceiling and it became the meeting house for the Church of Stephen

...

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