Attributes of God - Charnock - XXXV - Chapter 11 (God's holiness) commenced

Required reading
Attributes of God by Charnock (Available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Commence Chapter 11 (A discourse upon the holiness of God) by reading up to the paragraph beginning, 'II. The second thing. The next inquiry is, the proof that God is holy, or the manifestation of it.'

My summary
Today we begin to examine another of God's attributes, his holiness.

Firstly Charnock gives us an exposition from the song of Moses in Exodus 15, particularly verse 11.

Secondly Charnock looks at the nature of divine holiness:
(i) God's holiness is an essential and necessary perfection;
(ii) God is the only one who is absolutely holy;
(iii) God is so holy that he cannot possibly approve of any evil done by another, but doth perfectly abhor it;
(iv) God is so holy that he cannot but love holiness in others;
(v) God is so holy that he cannot positively will or encourage sin in any;
(vi) God cannot act any evil in or by himself.

What grabbed me
As usual, I enjoyed Charnock's connection of one attribute of God with the rest of his attributes: 'God cannot act any evil in or by himself. If he cannot approve of sin in others, nor excite any to iniquity, which is less, he cannot commit evil himself, which is greater. What he cannot positively will in another can never be willed in himself; he cannot do evil through ignorance, because of his infinite knowledge ; nor through weakness, because of his infinite power ; nor through malice, because of his infinite rectitude. He cannot will any unjust thing, because, having an infinitely perfect understanding, he cannot judge that to be true which is false, or that to be good which is evil ; his will is regulated by his wisdom. If he could will any unjust and irrational thing, his will would be repugnant to his understanding ; there would be a disagreement in God, will against mind, and will against wisdom. He being the highest reason, the first truth, cannot do an unreasonable, false, defective action. It is not a defect in God that he cannot do evil, but a fulness and excellency of power. As it is not weakness in the light, but the perfection of it, that it is unable to produce darkness. God is ' the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,' James i. 17 Nothing pleases him, nothing is acted by him, but what is beseeming the infinite excellency of his own nature. The voluntary necessity whereby God cannot be unjust renders him a ' God blessed for ever.' He would hate himself as the chief good, if, in any of his actions, he should disagree with his goodness. He cannot do any unworthy thing, not because he wants an infinite power, but because he is possessed of an infinite wisdom, and adorned with an infinite purity ; and, being infinitely pure, cannot have the least mixture of impurity. As if you can suppose tire infinitely hot, you cannot suppose it to have the least mixture of coldness ; the better any- thing is, the more unable it is to do evil. God being the only goodness, can as little be changed in his goodness as in his essence. '

If God were to sin, his other attributes would fall too.  Thus it is wonderful to know that God cannot do evil.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 11 (A discourse upon the holiness of God) by reading up to the paragraph beginning, 'III. The third thing I am to do, is to lay down some propositions in the defence of God's holiness in all his acts about or concerning sin.'

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