Stephen Charnock
THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
（Excerpts摘录，中译）
(from: Mariano Di Gangi, ed., A Golden Treasury of Puritan Devotion: Selections from the Writings of Thirteen Puritan Divines. P&R, 1999.)
The fool, one that has lost his wisdom and right notion of God and divine things, which were communicated to many by creation, has said in his heart, “There is no God.” He is dead in sin, yet not so much void of rational faculties as of grace in these faculties; not one who lacks reason, but abuses his reason… It is a great folly to deny or doubt of the existence or being of God.
愚昧人丧失了自己的智慧，对上帝和关乎上帝的事缺乏正确的认识，虽然上帝的事情，借着受造的宇宙已向众人显明。因此他心里说﹕「没有上帝。」他在罪中死了，不是不能使用理性，乃是理性没有恩典；不是失去理智，而是误用理智。否认上帝的存在，和否认上帝自己，乃是极大的愚妄。
A secret atheism, or a partial atheism, is the spring of all the wicked practices in the world; the disorders of life spring from the ill dispositions of the heart.
心中隐藏的无神主义，或部份的无神主义，是导致各样邪恶的泉源；生命杂乱无章，都因为心里的情操败坏。
The world once ran from one God to many, and our age is running from one God to none at all.
世界曾从一神奔向多神；我们的世代，乃从一神奔向无神。
He who seeks after God according to the mind of God must believe that he is such a God that will pardon sin and justify a seeker of him… No man can seek God, or love God, unless he believe him to be thus.
按照上帝旨意寻求祂的人，必须相信上帝是赦免罪恶，称那寻求祂的人为义的上帝。…没有人能寻求上帝，没有人能爱祂，除非他相信上帝是这样一位的主。
It is folly to deny or doubt of a sovereign king, incomprehensible in his nature, infinite in his essence and perfections, independent in his operations, who has given being to the whole frame of sensible and intelligible creatures, and governs them according to their several natures by an unconceivable wisdom, who fills the heavens with the glory of his majesty, and the earth with the influences of his goodness.
上帝是掌管万有的君王。祂的本性我们不能理解，祂的本质和一切的荣美无穷无尽。祂随己意行事，并不依靠我们；祂造我们的理智，情感和身体，又造了天使。上帝按着各样受造之物不同的本性管理他们，都借着祂无可测度的智慧。诸天，充满了上帝威严的荣耀；大地，充满着祂赏赐的美物。否认或怀疑这样的神，乃是极大的愚蠢。
If it be folly to deny the being of God, it will be our wisdom, since we acknowledge his being, to think of him often.
否认上帝的存在若是愚蠢，我们认信上帝的人要常常想念祂，这才是智慧。
We have had no settled abode in the earth since the time of Abraham’s being called out from Ur of the Chaldees. We have had Canaan in a promise, we have it not yet in possession; we have been exposed to the cruelties of an oppressing enemy, and the inconveniences of a desert wilderness. … You have been our shield against dangers, our security in times of trouble. … You have been our dwelling place; you have kept open-house for us, sheltered us against storms, and preserved us from mischief… in all generations. … Our refuge and defense have not been from created things; not from the ark, but from the God of the ark. … He is a dwelling place to secure his people here, or entertain them above.
自从上帝呼召亚伯拉罕离开吾珥以来，我们没有固定的居所。迦南是应许中的美地，我们还未得着。我们面对的是残酷仇敌的迫害，和旷野沙漠的不便。…上帝啊，你是我们遇见危险时的盾牌，经过患难时的安稳。…你是我们世世代代的居所；你殿的门为我们大开，在暴风雨中遮盖我们，保存我们免受危害。…我们的保护和避难所，并非来自受造之物；不是来自方舟，乃是来自方舟之上帝。…祂是祂子民的居所，赐他们在地有安稳，在天与祂享乐。
Though we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is an eternity … a perpetual duration, which has neither beginning or end. Time has both.
我们虽不能穷究永恒，却可理解宇宙中有永恒；无始，无终，永远不断的存在。时间则有始有终。
God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change. … His duration is as endless as his essence is boundless. … this is an excellency belonging to the Supreme Being.
上帝是永恒的，我们不可以为祂有任何开始或终结；上帝也无变动或不定。…上帝是无始无终的，正如祂的本质是无穷尽的荣美。…如此尊贵惟属那位至高至尊者。
If God be of an eternal duration, then Christ is God. Eternity is the property of God, yet is ascribed to Christ (Col. 1:17)… He is the same, yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).
上帝若是永恒的，那么基督乃是上帝。永恒是上帝的属性，而圣经称基督为永恒者（西1﹕17）。… 耶稣基督昨天，今天，直到永远都不改变（来13﹕8）。
The gospel is not preached by the command of a new and temporary God, but of that God who was before all ages.
吩咐我们传福音的不是一位新的，暂有的神，乃是世世代代之先永存的上帝。
Since God can only rejoice in goodness, the creatures must have that goodness restored to them which they had at the first creation. … The goodness of the creatures is the glory and joy of God. We may infer from this what a base and vile thing sin is, which lays the foundation of the world’s change. Sin brings it to decrepit age. Sin overturned the whole work of God. … Let us look upon sin with no other notion than as the object of God’s hatred, the cause of his grief in the creatures, and the spring of the pain and ruin of the world.
上帝既只以美善为乐，受造之物本来的美善，必需被恢复。受造之物的美善是上帝的荣耀，上帝所喜悦的。因此我们可以推论，罪是多么卑鄙，败坏；罪是造成世界变坏的根源。罪使世界残旧不堪。罪颠覆了上帝的创造。我们必须视罪为上帝所恨恶的，因着罪的缘故，上帝为祂所造的担忧；罪是人间和宇宙痛苦和灭亡的泉源。
God, as immutable, is contrasted with all creatures as perishing and changeable. He is unchangeable in his essence, nature, and perfections.
上帝是毫无没有变动的；相反的，受造之物是能变的，能朽坏的。上帝本身，上帝的性情，和所有的属性，都是绝不改变的。
God is unchangeable with regard to his will and purpose. … Whatsoever God has decreed, is immutable; whatsoever God has promised, shall be accomplished. … He is the Lord Jehovah, therefore he is true to his word (Mal. 3:6; Isa. 43:13)… Where we find prediction sin Scripture declared and yet not executed, we must consider them not as absolute, but conditional… So Nineveh shall be destroyed … unless the inhabitants repent, which they did.
上帝的旨意，祂所定意的绝不改变。… 上帝预旨的一定不变更；祂所应许的必然成就。… 上帝是主耶和华，因此祂必成就自己的话（玛拉基3﹕6；赛43﹕13）。… 《圣经》所预言而还未应验的事，都是带着条件的。因此尼尼微将被毁灭，除非那里的居民悔改；而他们事实上悔改了。
What comfort would it be to pray to a God that, like the chameleon, changed colours every day, every moment?
上帝若像变色虫一样，每天变换颜色，向这样的上帝祷告，能得到什么安慰？
The immutability of God is a strong ground of consolation … and encourages hope and confidence.
上帝的不变性乃是我们安慰的坚固根基，鼓励我们充满着盼望，信心。
While we have him for our God, we have his immutability, as well as any other perfection of his nature, for our advantage. The nearer we come to him the more stability we shall have in ourselves; the further from him, the more liable to change. … Let us also desire those things which are nearest to him in this perfection: the righteousness of Christ, that shall never wear out; and the grace of the Spirit, that shall never burn out. By this means, what God is infinitely by nature, we shall come to be finitely, immutable by grace, as much as the capacity of a creature can obtain.
上帝若是我们的上帝，祂的不变，和其他一切的本性都是我们的，这些荣美都带给我们益处。我们越亲近祂，我们里面就越充满稳固；我们越远离祂，我们就越易变
。…让我们渴慕那些靠近祂的事情﹕就是基督的正义，永不朽坏；圣灵的恩典，永烧不尽。这些属性，就是神本性中无穷拥有的，我们也可尽受造之无的能力获得，虽然我们的属性乃是有限的，可是靠着祂的恩典可以是不变的。
As eternity is the perfection whereby he has neither beginning nor end, immutability is the perfection whereby he has neither increase nor diminution, so immensity or omnipresence is that whereby he has neither bounds nor limitation… As he is not measured by time, so he is not limited by place… His nature has no bounds; he is not tied to any place as the creature is, who, when he is present in one place, is absent from another. As no place can be without God, so no place can compass and contain him… He has a presence of glory in heaven, whereby he comforts the saints; a presence of wrath in hell, whereby he torments the damned (Ps. 139:7-9).
永恒是上帝的属性，祂无始无终。不变性是上帝的属性，祂不增长，也不缩小。无所不在，或广大性是上帝的属性，祂没有疆界，不受任何限制。上帝不由时间衡量，祂也不被空间限制。祂的本性没有止境；祂不像受造之物，受某地方的束缚；在一个地方时，就不在另一个地方。没有一处地方没有上帝的同在；同样地，没有任何地方可以包围祂，容纳祂。祂在天上，祂荣耀的同在安慰圣徒们；祂在阴间，祂忿怒的同在折磨被定罪的人（诗篇139﹕7-9）。
How terrible should the thought of this attribute [God’s omnipresence] be to sinners! How foolish is it to imagine any hiding-place from the incomprehensible God who is present in every point of the world.
上帝无所不在的属性，对罪人来说应是多么可怕的意念！上帝是不可穷究的，祂在世界每一个角落；人若想象有什么避难所可以逃离祂，是多么的愚蠢！
That God is present everywhere, is as much a comfort to a good man as it is a terror to a wicked one. He is everywhere for his people… by an immense diffusion of his goodness… The omnipresence of God is comfort in all violent temptations [and] sharp afflictions – a spur to holy actions… Communion with God consists chiefly in an ordering of our ways as in the presence of him who is invisible… Let it therefore be our desire that as he fills heaven and earth by his essence, he may fill our understandings and wills by his grace.
上帝无所不在，这对义人是安慰，对恶人是恐怖。上帝无处不与祂的子民同在， 流露，倾倒祂的美善。上帝的无所不在，在凶恶的试探和极大的痛苦中是我们的安慰，激励我们行事为人圣洁。与上帝交通，主要是重整我们的生活，好像我们活在那位看不见的上帝面前一样。因此让我们祈望，正如上帝以祂的本性充满天，充满地，祂也以祂的恩典充满我们的理智，我们的意志。
“Great is the Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Ps. 148:5). As God is almighty, so he is omniscient… If men thought they had to deal with an ignorant Deity, there could be no bar to the worst of crimes [and] no practice of religion.
「耶和华本为大，大有能力。祂的知识无穷尽。」（诗篇148﹕5）上帝是伟大的，同时祂是无所不知的。人若以为他面对着一位无知的神明，他们必无法无天，终日犯罪，不过敬虔的生活。
The knowledge of God has respect to things present, past, future… He knows all creatures, from the highest to the least as well as the greatest… God knows all the actions of creatures [and] all their thoughts… God descends into the depths and abyss of the soul, discerns the most inward contrivances; nothing is impenetrable to him (Heb. 4:12f.)… God discerns all good motions of the mind and will [as well as] all the evils and sins of creatures.
上帝知道过去，现在，未来的事。他认识每一个被造之物，从最高到最小，最大的。上帝知道每一个受造之物的作为，和他们的思念。上帝进入到灵魂的深处，察验人心中的计谋；没有事情祂 不参透（来4﹕12-13）。上帝察验人思想和意志的所有活动，和一切被造物的邪恶和罪行。
The whole prophetic part of Scripture declares this perfection of God. Every prophetic candle was lighted at this torch; they could not have had this foreknowledge of themselves … The subjects of prophecy are things future, and no man is properly a prophet but in prediction.
圣经中先知的话语都彰显上帝无所不知这个属性。先知的话好像洋烛，从上帝无所不知的火炬被燃亮；他们不可能从自己得到预知。先知所预言的是将来的事，这是先知的职分。
God foreknows all things, as present with him from eternity… All things are present to God’s knowledge, though in their own nature they may be past or future.
上帝预知一切的事，因为上帝是永恒的，一切的事对祂都如现今一样。所有事物都在上帝面前，祂都知道；虽然这些事物，按照他们的本性，有过去与将来之区别。
God foreknows the voluntary sinful motions of men’s wills. Were not all the minute sinful circumstances about the death of our blessed Redeemer, as the piecing of him, giving him gall to drink, foretold? What were those but the free actions of men, which they did willingly, without any constraint?
上帝预知人意志的决定，甘愿犯罪的意愿。我们救主舍命时的情景，邪恶的环境，祂被人所刺，所喝的苦杯，不都在经上预言吗？这些岂不都是人自愿的作为，没有被逼，甘愿所作的吗？
But what if the foreknowledge of God, and the liberty of the will, cannot be fully reconciled by man? Shall we therefore deny a perfection in God to support a liberty in ourselves? Shall we rather fasten ignorance upon God, and accuse him of blindness, to maintain our liberty? That God foreknows everything, yet there is liberty in the rational creature, are both certain, but how fully to reconcile them may surmount the understanding of man.
上帝的预知与人的自由意志，人若不能完全结合，怎么办？我们因此否认上帝的一项属性，为支持我们自己的自由吗？我们宁愿称上帝为无知的，控告祂是瞎眼的，好叫我们维持我们的自由吗？上帝预知一切的事，然而我们人，有灵魂理智的人，还有自由，这是确定的事实；可是如何将两者结合，可能超过人的理解能力。
God knows all things infallibly. His understanding is infinite in regard of certainty… Since he is essentially omniscient, he is no more capable of error in his understanding, than of imperfection in his essence; his counsels are as unerring as his essence is perfect.
上帝对一切事物的认识，都是无谬无误的。祂的理解是无限确定的。因为无所不知是祂的本性，祂的本质不可能有瑕疵，祂的理解也不可能有差错。祂的计划都没有任何错误，就好像祂的本性是完全一样。
If God were not omniscient, how could he reward the good, and punish the evil? The works of men are either rewardable or punishable, not according to their outward circumstances, but inward principles and ends, and the degrees of venom lurking in the heart. The exact discerning of these … is necessary to pass a right and infallible judgment upon them… Without such a knowledge and discerning, men would not have their due… It is necessary therefore that the supreme Judge of the world should not be thought to be blindfolded when he distributes his rewards and punishments, and muffle his face when he passes his sentence… This is the glory of God, to discover the secret of all hearts at last (I Cor. 4:5).
上帝若不是无所不知，怎能赏赐为善的，惩罚作恶的人？人的行为是否应受奖赏或惩罚，不在乎外在的情况，而在乎心里的动力和动机，和心中隐藏的毒素。对人要有正确无误的判断，必需分辨人心中所隐藏的。缺少这种洞察力，不能按正义对待人。因此，宇宙至高的审判官不可盲目地颁发判断，赏赐或惩罚。洞悉人心的隐秘，是上帝的荣耀（林前4﹕5）。
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