PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks — Volume 1
Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680 · 335,539 words · 276 reading sections
Section 241
[5.] Fifthly, If you would be silent under your afflictions, then you must hold fast this principle, viz. That the best way in this world to have thine own will, is to lie down in the will of God, and quietly to resign up thyself to the good will and pleasure of God, Mat. xv. 21, 29. Luther was a man that could have an…
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And as I desire that one of your eyes may be fixed upon her happi- ness, bo I desire that the other of your eyes may be fixed upon Christ's fulness. Though your brook be dried up, yet Christ the fountain of light, life, love, grace, glory, comfort, joy, goodness, sweetness, and satisfaction is still at hand, and always…
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Before I name my text, give me leave to speak a few words upon another text, viz., the glorified saint deceased, at whose funeral we are here met. She was one of those dear spiritual children that the Lord had given me, Isa. viii. 18 ; she was a precious seal of my ministry, she was my living epistle, 2 Cor. iii. 1, 2…
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She was, for patience and cheerfulness under her long lingering weak- ness, as exemplary as any that ever I was acquainted with, James i. 2-4 ; v. 10, J 1. If at any time she groaned, yet she blessed God, as she used to say, that she did not grumble. Oh how quiet, how like a lamb was she under all her trials ! Oh how w…
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(2.) By the final cause, to wit, sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. (3.) By the subservient cause, to wit, reconciliation, conferred in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In the third verse you have, (1.) A very stately proem, and such as can hardly be matched again, ' Blessed be the God…
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(3.) Thirdly, It is a permanent, a lasting, inheritance :2 ' To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.' The Greek word apagavTog is the proper name of a flower, which is still fresh and green after it hath a long time hung up in the house. It is an in- heritance that shall continue as long a…
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(b\) Sixthly, arid lastly, It is a soul-satisfying inheritance. He that hath it shall sit down and say, I have enough, I have all.1 As one master satisfies the servant, and as one father satisfies the child, and as one husband satisfies the wife, so one God, one Christ, one inheritance, satisfies the believing soul : P…
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keep a Christian from rest, till he comes to rest in the bosom of Christ. The life of a Christian is a race ; and what rest have they that are still a-running their race ? The life of a Christian is a warfare ; and what rest have they that are still engaged in a constant warfare ? The life of a Christian is the life of…
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1 Greg. Mor. 1. xi. c. 26. * Ps. xxxviii. 20, cix. 4, Mat. vi. 25-34. 3 Ps. xl. 12 ; 2 Cor. xii. 7-9 ; Ps. xxx. 6, 7 ; Cunt. iii. 5 ; Job iii. 25, 26, &c. ] Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 417 sometimes the loss of friends, and sometimes the death of friends interrupts our rest ; one thing or another is still inter…
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(1.) First, They shall have the clearest knowledge and revelation of God in, heaven.2 Here our visions of God are not clear; and this makes many a child of light to sit and sigh in darkness. Lam. iii. 44. God veils himself, he covers himself with a cloud. Man, when he is silent concerning God, seemeth to be something, …
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(±) Secondly, As in heaven they shall have the clearest knowledge of God, so in heaven they shall have the fullest knowledge of God. Here our knowledge of God is weak, as well as dark, but in heaven it shall be full and complete. ' Here we know but in part; but there we shall know as we are known,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. As …
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transient and vanishing. The visions, the glimpses of majesty and glory which Moses and Peter saw in the mount, were not permanent but transient ; their sun was quickly clouded, and both of them soon after wire found walking in the dark;1 and therefore well s;iith Augustine, Beatitude hie pa/ra/ri potest, possideri non…
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*24 A STRING OF PEARLS. [1 PETER I. 4. saints. It was a great mercy for Christ to be with Paul on earth, but it was a greater mercy, and a more satisfying mercy, for Paul to be with Christ in heaven, Philip, i. 23. They enjoy much who enjoy the presence of God on earth, but they enjoy more who enjoy the presence of Go…
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soon interrupted: 'In my prosperity I said, I should never be removed ; liut thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled,' Ps. xxx. G, 7- Now David had the oil of joy and gladness, and by and by the spirit of heaviness and sadness: 'Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,' Ps. li. 1 2. Jacob had much joy at the return…
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* Strigelius desired to die, to be freed from the implacable strife of divines. [Victo- rinus Strigelius, one of The Reformers. Died, 1569. His Ttv^v^ara, in omnes libros Nov. Text., 15G5, 2 vols., and other exegetical writings, were favourites with the Puritans. His ' Psalms' of Pavid were early translated by Rich. Ro…
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(3.) Thirdly, The saints shall rise with the same bodies thai now they lay clown in the grave; and if so, then doubtless they shall knovj one another in heaven : the husband the wife, the wife the husband ; the father the child, and the child the father ; the pastor his people, and the people their pastor ; the master …
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(5.) Fifthly, The saints, in the great day of account, shall know the persons of wicked men, who shall be indicted, arraigned, condemned, and judged by Jesus Christ, and all his saints about him.1 This great day will be a declaration of the just judgment of God. In this great day, every wicked work, and every wicked wo…
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(substance, but state and condition.1 Spiritual in the text is not op- posed to visible, but to natural ; for their bodies, though in a sense they are spiritual, yet they shall be as visible as the glorious body of Christ. When I say their bodies shall be spiritual, you must not think that I mean that their bodies shal…
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1 Aug. de Civ. D i. 1. xxii. c. 30. Wisdom, iii. 7, In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stuhble. [Above is Brooks's fourth quotation from Apocrypha thus far. — G.] 2 Aug. de civ. Dei. 1. xiii. c. xx. ■' Another Shakesperian reminiscence: 'This fell sergeant Death …
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Reason 4. Fourthly, God reserves the best things for his people till last, for the greater terror and horror, conviction and confusion of wicked and ungodhj ■/ktsovs, who now revile them, and judge them to be the unhappiest men in all the world. Oh ! but when the Lord shall in the sight of all the world gloriously own …
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Reason 6. Sixthly, That he may make his children temptation-proof, he hath reserved for them the best things till they come to heaven. The great things that God hath reserved for believers in heaven, was that which made those worthies, of whom this world was not worthy, temptation-proof; as you may see in that 10th of …
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Ah ! your portion is below, and you are already adjudged to those tor- ments that are endless, easeless, and remediless, where the worm never dies, and the fire never goes out, Rev. xiv. 11. The day is coming upon you, sinners, when all your sweet shall be turned into bitter; all your glory into shame ; all your plenty…
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(4.) Fourthly, If the best things are reserved for believers till they come to heaven, oh then let all believers be contented, though they have but short commons in this world! He that is an heir to a great estate, though in his non-age he be kept short, yet this comforts and contents him, that though things are now sh…
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(5.) Fifthly, If the best and greatest things are reserved for believers till they come to heaven, then make not a judgment of the saints' con- dition by their present date.1 If you do, you will 'condemn the g< ae- ration of the just.' What though they are now in rags, it will not be lone- before they are clothed in th…
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Ah, Christians ! you are kings elected, you are heirs-apparent of a crown, of a glorious crown, of a weighty crown, of an incorrupt iUr crown, of an everlasting crown of glory ! ' Oh why then should you be crowning yourselves with rosebuds ? why then should you take up in the low enjoyments and poor contentments of thi…
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Chiysologus noteth of the rich glutton, who would have Lazarus to be Bent to him, that being still cruel and envious towards Lazarus, he would have him to be sent Ad infer mini de f/remio, de solio subU/lM ad profundi «« 1 mum, chaos, ad formcidorirm .shidorem, de sancta quieU beatorum, to hell from the bosom of Abraha…
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gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things : and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he hath destroyed thee.' Sad souls ! it will be your wisdom t…
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[3.] Thirdly, Can death, 0 Christian, dissolve that glorious cove- nant that God hatJi taken thee into ? No ; Death can never dissolve 1 Cyprian, de immortalitate. t52 A BTRING OF PEARLS. [1 PeTBB I. i, that covenanl : Jer. \x.\ii. 40, 'And I will make an everlasting cove- nant with them, that I will not turn away f…
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[6.] Sixthly, Tell me, Chridians, did not Christ come to deliver yon, from the fear of death ? Yes ; he did come into the world, and did take our nature upon him, that he might deliver us from the fear of death, Heb. ii. 14, 15. Why, then, should you be unwilling to die ? Tell me, hath not Christ disarmed death of all …
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Masius* out of Jacob Ediscenas Syrus, saith that when Noah went into the ark, he took the bones of Adam with him, and that when he came out of the ark, he divided them among his sons, giving the head, as the chiefest part, unto his first-born, and therein as it were saying unto them, Let not this delivery from the floo…
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did this as a public person, representing all his children who triumphed in his triumph over all the powers of darkness ; and therefore, in this sense, believers have already triumphed ; yea, and I readily grant, that believers, even in this life, by virtue of their union and communion with Christ, and by virtue of his…
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1 Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 459 becomes him, as when it is put on by a hand of death. Here most princes' crowns are the fruits of unrighteousness, but death will at last put upon the believer a crown of righteousness, or a righteous crown, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8; and so it is called, not only because it is purchased …
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1 Peter I. 4. J A string of pearls. 461 them from earth till they are fit, till they are prepared for heaven. It is with Christians as it is with the fruits of the earth ; some are ripe sooner, some later ; but as we, so God will gather none till they are ripe for glory. Some souls, like some fruits, are ripe betimes …
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1 One of the fathers longer! to die, that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns. 2 Cant. iv. 7; Eph. v. 1!7 ; Col. ii. 10; Rev. xiv. 4, 5. 1 Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 463 blameless, and faultless before God. This golden clothing', this glorious righteousness of Christ, is as truly and really the …
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\'shl>v, near Faosley, in Northamptonshire, to enjoy the counsel and advii f the vener- able Mr John Dod. " A little before he died, he asked Mr Dod, Baying ' What will you say of him who is going out of the world, and can find no comfort? ' Whet will you say of oni Saviour Cbrisl V replied Mr Dod, ' who, when fa was g…
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Christ, who was the heir of all, yet he lived poor and died poor, Mat. viii. 20. As he was born in another man's house, so he was buried in another man's tomb. When Christ died he made no will ; he had no crown lands; only his coat was left, and that the soldiers parted among them. If thy outward condition be conformab…
1,016 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition from Internet Archive OCR; OCR may contain recognition errors. Included as historical Christian writing, not Scripture.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.