Attributes of God - Charnock - XI - Chapter 3 (God's being a Spirit) concluded

Required reading
Attributes of God by Charnock (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Conclude Chapter 3 (A discourse upon God's being a spirit).

My summary
Today Charnock teaches us that if God is a spirit, then:
(i) man is not the image of God, according to his external bodily form and figure;
(ii) it is unreasonable to frame any image or picture of God;
(iii) this doctrine will direct us in our conceptions of God as a pure perfect spirit, than which nothing can be imagined more perfect, more pure, more spiritual;
(iv) no corporeal thing can defile him;
(v) he is active and communicative;
(vi) he is immortal;
(vii) we see how we can only converse with him by our spirits;
(viii) he can only be the true satisfaction of our spirits;
(ix) we should take most care of that wherein we are like to God;
(x) let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual.

What grabbed me
Good point about how incomprehensible God is to us if he is a spirit: 'If we could have thoughts of him as high and excellent as his nature, our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature.  All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every created species is finite; it cannot, therefore, represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being.  We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him who is greater than our words, vaster than our understandings.  Whatsoever we speak or think of God is handed first to us by the notice we have of some perfection in the creature, and explains to us some particular excellency of God, rather than the fulness of his essence.  No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God as can give us a clear view of him.  Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellency, and point us to those excellencies in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellencies which are in his nature.  But creatures, whence we draw our lessons, being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being.  "God is not like to visible creatures, nor is there any proportion between him and the most spiritual."  We cannot have a full notion of a spiritual nature, much less can we have of God, who is a Spirit above spirits.  No spirit can clearly represent him.  The angels, that are great spirits, are bounded in their extent, finite in their being, and of a mutable nature.'

If God does not reveal himself to us, he is totally inaccessible to finite beings like ourselves.  Thankfully he has revealed himself to us in his word and his son Jesus Christ.

Next week's reading
Commence Chapter 4 (A discourse upon spiritual worship) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'II.  The second thing I am to shew is, what spiritual worship is' (page 298 in the Banner edition).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.