Therefore we must be taken off from ourselves, as our end, and be fixed upon another, even upon Christ, else we answer not the end of Christ’s death and resurrection: ‘He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness,’ 1 Peter 2:24. And if the ends of our Saviour’s death and resurrection be not accomplished upon us, the fruits of it shall not be enjoyed by us. The whole work of regeneration, and conversion, and sanctification, and the efficacy of the death of Christ in the soul, consists in these two things: a taking us off from self, and pitching us upon God and Christ as our end. The terminus a quo is self, the terminus ad quem is Christ. We are ‘redeemed by the precious blood of Christ from our vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers,’ 1 Peter 1:18, even from our first father Adam. This is properly to set up no other gods before him, and to abhor the grossest idolatry.

*terminus a quo = starting point

*terminus ad quem = terminating point

---

Charnock, S. (1864–1866). The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock (Vol. 3, p. 83). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson; G. Herbert.