PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks — Volume 1
Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680 · 335,539 words · 276 reading sections
Section 121
Watchfulness is nothing else but the soul running up and down, to and fro, busy everywhere ; it is the heart busied and employed with diligent observation of quid inde, what comes from within us, and of quid inde, what comes from without us and into us. Ah, souls ! you are no longer safe and secure than when you are up…
1,120 wordsSECTION 122Section 122
The tenth help. If you would not be taken in any of Satan's snares, then be much in prayer. Prayer is a shelter to the soul ; a sacrifice to God and a scourge to the devil. David's heart was oft more out of tune than his harp. He prays, and then, in spite of the devil, cries, ' Return unto thy rest, O my soul.' Prayer …
1,248 wordsSECTION 123Section 123
land of Canaan ! for this world, this wilderness, is full of snares, and all employments are full of snares, and all enjoyments are full of snares. In civil things, Satan hath his snares to entrap us ; and in all spiritual things, Satan hath his snares to catch us. All places are full of snares, city and country, shop …
1,298 wordsSECTION 124Section 124
Avith convictions, wooing and entreating me by his messengers for many years, which made me think that my day of grace was past. But since, ' praised be the Lord, who hath comforted me,' and now I see that there is yet a door of hope open for me, which hath brought me to such a great change in the very thoughts of my h…
1,234 wordsSECTION 125Section 125
I have read of one who boasted and gloried in this, that he had spent thirty years in corrupting and poisoning of youth. Doubtless, many wretches, many monsters there be among us, who make it their business, their glory, their all, to delude and draw young persons to those dan- gerous errors and blasphemies that lead t…
1,251 wordsSECTION 126Section 126
Satan is a lion, not a lamb ; a roaring lion, not a sleepy lion ; not a lion standing still, but a lion going up and down. As not being con- tented with the prey, the many millions of souls he hath got, ' he seeks whom he may sip up at a draught,' as that word, xarwri/i, in the 1 Peter v. 8 imports ; his greatest desig…
1,387 wordsSECTION 127Section 127
And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him ; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toivard the Lord Ood of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.' — 1 Kings XIV. 13. I shall only stand upon the latter part of this verse, because that affords me matter most suit…
1,254 wordsSECTION 128Section 128
Secondly, He ivas good among the bad. He was good ' in the house of Jeroboam.' It is in fashion to seem at least to be good among the good ; but to be really good among those that are bad, that are eminently bad, argues not only a truth of goodness, but a great degree of good- ness. This young man was good ' in the hou…
1,345 wordsSECTION 129Section 129
Ah, sirs ! what God commands must be put in speedy execution, without denying or delaying, or disputing the difficulties that attend it.2 Most young men in these days do as the heathens : when their gods called for a man, they offered a candle ; or, as Hercules, offered up a painted man instead of a living. When God ca…
1,231 wordsSECTION 130Section 130
I have read of a devout man who, when he heard a clock strike, he would say, Here is one hour more past that I have to answer for. Ah ! young men, as time is very precious, so it is very short. Time is very swift ; it is suddenly gone. In the 9th of Job, and the 25th verse, * My days are swifter than a post, they flee …
1,341 wordsSECTION 131Section 131
I am now young, and in the flower of my days ; but who knows what a day may bring forth ? The greatest weight hangs upon the smallest wires,2 an eternity depends upon those few hours I am to breathe in this world. Oh ! what cause have I therefore to be good betimes, to know God betimes, to believe betimes, to repent be…
1,308 wordsSECTION 132Section 132
Most men will bleed, sweat, vomit, purge, part with an estate, yea, with a limb, ay, limbs, yea, and many a better thing, viz., the honour of God and a good conscience, to preserve their natural lives ; as he I cries out, Give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you spare my life ; and yet how few, how very f…
1,145 wordsSECTION 133Section 133
Again, to seek early is to seek chiefly, 'primarily, after this or that thing. What we first seek, we seek as chief.1 Now, to seek the Lord early is to seek him primarily, chiefly ; in the 63d psalm, and the 1st verse, ' Thou art my God, early will I seek thee/ that is, I will seek thee as my choicest and my chiefest g…
1,355 wordsSECTION 134Section 134
I have read of an Italian poet, who brings in a proper youno- man, rich and potent, discoursing with death in the habit of a mower, with his scythe in his hand, cutting down the life of man, ' For all flesh is grass/ Isa. xl. 6. And wilt thou not spare any man's person, saith the young man? I spare none, saith death ; …
1,351 wordsSECTION 135Section 135
I have read of a certain great man that was admonished in his sick- ness to repent, who answered, that he would not repent yet, for if he should recover, his companions would laugh at him ; but growing sicker and sicker, his friends pressed him again to repent, but then he told them that it was too late, Quia jam judic…
1,323 wordsSECTION 136Section 136
Particular 3. An old disciple, an old Christian, he hath got the art of serving God, the art of religion ; got the art of hearing, the art of praying, the art of meditating, the art of repenting, the art of believ- ing, the art of denying his natural self, his sinful self, his religious self1 All trades have their mys…
1,305 wordsSECTION 137Section 137
his life secured for long by one foot of retreat. Shall such a man as I am flee? said undaunted Nehemiah, chap. vi. 11. He will courageously venture life and limb rather than by one foot of retreat discredit pro- fession with the reproach of fearfulness. It was a brave, magnanimous speech of Luther, when dangers from o…
1,323 wordsSECTION 138Section 138
It is said of Araunah, that noble Jebusite, renowned for his bounty, that he had but a subject's purse, but a king's heart ; but Jesus Christ hath a king's purse as well as a king's heart, and accordingly he gives. ' And as Christ's rewards are the greatest rewards, so his rewards are the surest rewards : ' He is faith…
1,314 wordsSECTION 139Section 139
Oh ! the delusions and the Christ-dethroning, conscience-wasting, and soul-undoing opinions and principles that many young ones, who once were hopeful ones, are given up to ! That dreadful scripture seems to be made good in power upon them : ' All you that forsake the Lord shall come to be ashamed, and they that depart…
1,276 wordsSECTION 140Section 140
Pleasures pass away as soon as they have wearied out the body, and leave it as a bunch of grapes whose juice has been pressed out ; which made one to say, Nulla major volwptas, quam volwptatis fastidium, 1 see no greater pleasure in this world than the contempt of pleasure. Julian, though an apostate, yet professed th…
1,248 wordsSECTION 141Section 141
They were young ones that scoffingly and scornfully said to the prophet, ' Go up, thou bald-head ; go up, thou bald-head,' 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. And the young men derided and mocked Job : ' But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock…
1,299 wordsSECTION 142Section 142
And so it was the honour of the house of Stephanas, that they were the first-fruits of Achaia, I Cor. xvi. 15. It was their glory that they were the first that received and welcomed the gospel in Achaia. It is a greater honour for a young man to outwrestle sin, Satan, temptation, the world, and lust, than ever Alexande…
1,264 wordsSECTION 143Section 143
Ah ! young men, remember this, when Christ was young, he was tempted and tried ; when he was in the morning of his days, his wounds were deep, his burden weighty, his cup bitter, his sweat painful, his agony and torment above conception, beyond expression ; when he was young, that blessed head of his was crowned with t…
1,248 wordsSECTION 144Section 144
Time past cannot be recalled, and time to come cannot be ascertained : 'To-day, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,' Heb. iii. 15 ; 'Behold, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation,' 2 Cor. vi. 2. Some there be that trifle away their time, and fool away their souls and their salvation.1 To pr…
1,284 wordsSECTION 145Section 145
* Plutarch reporteth the like of Cato. [Sub nomine, i. e. Cato the younger. — G.] s As out of the houghs of a tree aro taken wedges to cleave it in pieces, so out of our >\\n lusts Satan works engines to destroy us. 1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 211 his death, but neglecting the reading of it, was slain ; he slip…
1,235 wordsSECTION 146Section 146
And, again, whatsoever the saints do, though never so small and mean, it is great and glorious ; because they do all in faith and by the word, saith the same author. To prevent mistakes, you must remem- ber, that the works that Jesus Christ will reward at last arc super- natural works : they are, 1, works of God ; 2, w…
1,267 wordsSECTION 147Section 147
Ah ! how kindly, how sweetly did the Lord take this at their hands, that they followed him in their youth, while their ' bones were full of marrow,' while they were strong and fit for service, while nature was fresh, lively, and vigorous. In the law, God called for the first of all things ; he required not only the fir…
1,316 wordsSECTION 148Section 148
Ah ! young men, young men, if they be worse than infidels, that make no provision for their families, 1 Tim. v. 8 ; what monsters are they that make not provision for their own souls ! This will be bitter- ness in the end. Csesar Borgias being sick to death, lamentably said, ' When I lived, I provided for everything b…
1,279 wordsSECTION 149Section 149
Now if, for all that hath been said, you are resolved to spend the flower of your days, and the prime of your strength, in the service of sin and the world, then know that no tongue can express, no heart can conceive that trouble of mind, that terror of soul, that horror of con- science, that fear and amazement, that w…
1,211 wordsSECTION 150Section 150
2. Second reason is taken from Christ's vehement protestations that they shall not come into judgment : John v. 24, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.' Those words,…
1,041 wordsSECTION 151Section 151
those faults that the child remembers and hath always in his eyes ; so doth the Fatherof spirits. (4.) Fourthly, His not bringing their sins into judgment doth best agree with that sweet and choice expression of God's pardoning the sins of, his people : ' And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they ha…
1,220 wordsSECTION 152Section 152
Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins, Prov. x. 12, 1 Pet. iv. 8. Love's mantle is very large ; love will find a hand, a plaster to clap upon every sore. Flavius Vespasianus, the emperor, was very ready to conceal his friends' vices, and as ready to reveal their virtues. So is divine love in the hearts…
1,385 wordsSECTION 153Section 153
It is storied of Charles the Fourth, king of France, that being one time affected with the sense of his many and great sins, he fetched a deep sigh, and said to his wife, By the help of God I will now so carry 1 Senibus mors injanuis ; adolescentilus in insidiis. — Bernard. De convers. ad Cler., c. 14. 226 APPLES OF …
1,283 wordsSECTION 154Section 154
fruit ; it put Absalom upon dethroning of his father ; it put Haman upon plotting the ruin of the Jews ; it put Korah, Dathan, and Abiram upon rebelling against Moses; it makes men call evil good and good evil, darkness light and light darkness, &c. ; it puts persons upon neglecting the means of grace, upon undervaluin…
1,283 wordsSECTION 155Section 155
It is reported of one Oramazes, that he had an enchanted egg, in which, as he boasted himself, he had enclosed all the happiness of the world ; bul being broken, nothing was found in it but wind. Flatterers are the greatest cheaters, the greatest deceivers in the world. The) say of the crocodile, that when he bath kil…
1,346 wordsSECTION 156Section 156
Many a hopeful young man hath been undone temporally and undone eternally, by hearkening to those evil counsellors. Carnal reason is an enemy, yea, an utter enemy, nay, it is not only an utter enemy, but it is enmity, yea, enmities, Rom. viii. 7.1 An enemy may be reconciled, but enmity can never be reconciled. Carnal …
1,233 wordsSECTION 157Section 157
To think often of hell, is the way to be preserved from falling into hell.1 Ah ! young men, young men, that you would often consider of the bitterness of the damned's torments, and of the pitilessness of their torments, and of the diversity of their torments, and of the easelessness of their torments, and of the remedi…
1,232 wordsSECTION 158Section 158
Oh ! the mysteries, the excellencies, the glories that are in the word ! Ah ! no book to this book ; none so useful, none so needful, none so de- lightful, none so necessary to make you happy and to keep you happy as this. It is .said of Caesar, major fuit cura Gcesari libellorum, quam pn rpu rOB, that lie had a greate…
1,281 wordsSECTION 159Section 159
airy notions, and with strange monstrous speculations to their own dam- nation: 2 Thess. ii. 10-12. llolv Melancthon, being newly converted, thought it impossible fox his hearers to withstand the evidence of the gospel, but soon after he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon.2 Ah ! young men, yo…
1,181 wordsSECTION 160Section 160
The Ethiopians paint angels black, and devils white, in favour of their own complexion ; and they say that if the brute creatures could draw a picture of the divine nature, they would make their shape the copy, and thus they flatter and delude themselves. Take heed, young men, take heed that you do not put the like che…
1,312 wordsSECTION 161Section 161
The Spanish ambassador, coming to see the treasury of St Mark in Venice, which is cried up throughout the world, fell a-groping to find whether it had any bottom, and being asked why, answered, In this amongst other things, my great Master's treasure differs from yours, in that his hath no bottom, as I find yours to ha…
1,217 wordsSECTION 162Section 162
'Thou art anointed with the oil of gladness above thy fellows/ Ps. xlv. 8, Acts iv. 27. Thou hast a larger effusion of the Spirit upon thee than others; thou art anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power after an extraordinary measure and manner; thou art endued with all beroical gifts and excellencies, plentifully, …
1,220 wordsSECTION 163Section 163
of their peace, the things of eternity ; witness his continual knocking, his continual callings upon poor sinners by his word, rod, Spirit, to open, to repent, to lay hold on mercy, and to be at peace with him ; witness his continual wooing of poor sinners in the face of all neglects and put-offs, in the face of all de…
1,309 wordsSECTION 164Section 164
Tell me with whom thou £oest, and I will tell thee what thou art, saith the Spanish proverb.1 Cicero, though a heathen, had rather to have no companion, than a bad one. The Lord grant that this heathen, and others among them, that were of the same mind with him, may never rise up in judgment against any of you, into wh…
1,317 wordsSECTION 165Section 165
Ah ! young men, young men, shall the very heathens thus shun and fly from the occasion of sin, and will not you ? will not you who sit under the sunshine of the gospel ? These will in the great day of ac- count be sad and sore witnesses against those that dally and play with the occasions of sin. To prevent carnal car…
1,200 wordsSECTION 166Section 166
Well ! young men, if you will not betimes hearken to conscience, you shall at last hear conscience saying to you, as the probationer disciple said to Christ, ' Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,' Mat. viii. 19 ; so saith conscience, Sinner, I have called upon thee many a thousand times, and told thee,…
1,304 wordsSECTION 167Section 167
The 'old man' is like a treacherous friend, and a friendly traitor. Though it be a harder thing to fight with a man's lusts, than it is to fight with the cross, yet you must fight or die ; if you are not the death of your sins, they will prove the death of your souls. The oracle told the Cyrrheans, noctesque diesque b…
1,285 wordsSECTION 168Section 168
As there is no fighting with a mighty fire, so there is no bearing up when God sets home sin upon the conscience ; a man will then choose strangling or hanging, rather than living under such wounds and lashes of conscience. Histories abound with instances of this nature ; but I must hasten to a close. [2.] Secondly, F…
1,256 wordsSECTION 169Section 169
I have read of a grave and chaste matron, who being moved to com- mit folly with a lewd Russian, after some discourse, she called for a pan of burning coals, requesting him for her sake to hold his finger in them but one hour ; he answered, it is an unkind request ; to whom she replied, that seeing he would not do so m…
1,350 wordsSECTION 170Section 170
Notion (6). Sixthly and lastly, If you would break covenant with sin, and arm and fence yourselves against it betimes, then you must look upon it betimes under the notion of a tyrant. And indeed, sin is the worst and greatest tyrant in the world, Titus iii. 3. Other tyrants can but tyrannize over our bodies, but sin i…
1,338 wordsSECTION 171Section 171
I have read of two who cut off their right hand one for another, and then made it an excuse, a put off, they were lame, and so could not serve in the galleys of Francis the First, King of France ; but this practice of theirs did so provoke the king that he sent them both to the gallows. I suppose the reader is not so y…
1,339 wordsSECTION 172Section 172
4. Fourthly and lastly, Who but a bad man woidd adventure the loss of the king's favour to gain the favour of his page ? Who but a stark Bedlam would run the hazard of losing the judge's favour upon the bench, to purchase the good will of the prisoner at the bar? Socrates preferred the king's countenance before his co…
1,328 wordsSECTION 173Section 173
I am in ecstasy, saith Picus Mirandula, to think how profane men rail upon those now, whom one day they will wish they had imitated. It was excellent counsel that the heathen orator gave his hearers, ita vi- vamus, ut rationem nobis reddendam arbitremur, let us live as those that must give an account of all at last.4 …
1,251 wordsSECTION 174Section 174
When one wondered at the patience of Socrates towards one who reviled and reproached him, If we should meet one, saith he, whose body were more unsound than ours, should we be angry with him, and not rather pity him ? Why, then, should we not do the like to him whose soul is more diseased than ours ? Augustus Caesar, …
1,223 wordsSECTION 175Section 175
So Jezebel felt a greater and sorer judgment than Ahab. To sin, saith one, hath not so much perdition in it as to cause others to sin. Friends, you have sins enough of your own to make you for ever miser- able ; why should you, by giving bad examples to others, make your- selves far more miserable ? The lowest, the dar…
1,242 wordsSECTION 176Section 176
Dionysius, the Sicilian king, to excuse himself from the present delivery of the golden garment he took from his god Apollo, answered, that such a robe as that was could not be at any season of the year useful to his god, for it would not keep him warm in the winter, and it was too heavy for the summer, and so put off …
1,312 wordsSECTION 177Section 177
3. Thirdly, In answer to that part of the objection concerning the thief on the cross, I offer these things briefly to your thoughts. (1.) First, That as one was saved to teach sinners not to despair, so another was damned to teach them not to presume.3 A pardon is sometimes given to one upon the gallows, but whoso t…
1,310 wordsSECTION 178Section 178
I have read of one Cains Marius Victorius, who was an old man, three hundred years after the apostles' time, and had been a pagan all his days, and in his old age he inquired and hearkened after Christ, and said he would be a Christian. Simplicianus hearing him say so, would not believe him, but when the church saw a w…
1,265 wordsSECTION 179Section 179
(8.) Eighthly, and lastly, Though aged sinners have given Christ many thousand denials, yet he hath not taken them, but after all, and in the face of all denials, he still re-enforces his suit, and continues to beseech them by his Spirit, by his word, by his wounds, by his blood, by his messengers, and by his rebukes, …
1,136 wordsSECTION 180Section 180
(6.) Sixthly, and lastly, The loss of eternity is a greater loss than any, than all worldly losses. No worldly loss is to be mentioned in the day wherein the loss of eternity is named. The loss of eternity com- priseth all varieties of privative miseries, the loss of whatever we have enjoyed, and the loss of whatever w…
1,300 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition from Internet Archive OCR; OCR may contain recognition errors. Included as historical Christian writing, not Scripture.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.