PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks — Volume 4
Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680 · 287,548 words · 250 reading sections
Section 121
(5.) Fifthly, If ever you would be holy, then dioell mitch upon those solemn vows and covenants tliat you have formerly made in the days of your distress. Ah, how often have you, in the days of your calamity and misery, and in the days when sicknesses and weaknesses did hang upon you, and when the terrors of death were…
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die, have hell enough. You count it a very shameful thing to break promise or covenant with men ; but is it not far more shameful to break with God ? The Egyptians, though heathens, so hated perjury, that if any man did but swear by the life of the king, and did not perform his oath, that man was to die, and no gold wa…
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to it, — sin lays claim to it, and the world lays claim to it, and Satan lays claim to it, and Christ and holiness lays claim to it, and oh that Christ and holiness might have it before all others ! 0 sirs, there is no wisdom nor policy to that of securing our precious souls, for they are jewels of more worth than all …
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(7.) Seventhly, If ever you would be holy, then set in good earnest upon reading of the Holy Scripture. Many a man has been made holy by reading of the holy word. The Bible is the book of books, it is the only book ; all other books in the world are but waste paper to it.^ Augustine cries out, Away with our writings, t…
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[4.] They are holy in respect of their effects and operations ; they are a means to effect and work holiness, and they are a means to complete and perfect holiness. Job xvii. 17. The word is not only a pure word, but also a purifying word ; it is not only a clean word, but also a cleansing word, Ps. xix. 8, 9. [5.] Th…
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It is said of Mary, that she spent the third part of her time in read- ing of the word ; and Cfecilia, a Roman maiden of noble parentage, carried always about her the New Testament, and spent much time in reading it. Alfred, once king of England, compiled psalms and prayers into one book, and called it a Manual, which …
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racking of a town. And venerable in all ages and among all nations have been the books wherein the laws either of their belief or polity have been contained ; as the Talmud among the Jews, and the laws of the twelve tables among the Eomans, and the Alcoran among the Turks, yea, all pagans have highly valued the laws of…
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their faces, Isa. i. 11-16, and Iviii. 1-7 ; their very prayers are sinful, and therefore they were better neglect prayer till God shall work graciously and savingly upon them, than to pray, and so to sin as often as they pray, &g. To this I answer, (1.) First, The prayers of the wicked may be materially good, when th…
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hearts, and that have brought worldly hearts, but returned with heavenly hearts. God sometimes hears prayers for his own sake, and for his Son's sake, and for his glory's sake, and for his promise sake, when he will not hear prayers for the sinner's sake. But, (7.) Seventhly, Sinful omissions lead to sinful commission…
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[5.] Fifthly, If absolute py^omises, or precious promises of special grace and mercy ^ he made to sinners, as sinners, then sinners may in prayer plead out those promises, and urge God upon making good his promises; but absolute promises, or promises of special grace and favour, are made over to simiers, as sinners, er…
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have Been his ways,' that is, I have seen his obstinacy and incorrigi- bility in sin. Ah, poor creature ! says God, he sees not his present misery and slavery, he takes no notice of his own folly and vanity, of his own frowardness and peevishness ; he scorns to bend or bow under my mighty hand, he is resolved to stand …
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HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 239 oil out of the flinty rock ; ' that is, he made him to suck water that was as sweet as honey out of the rock, out of the flinty rock. Oh, re- member that a patient waiting for mercy is the only way to greaten your mercy. The longer, said the emperor's son, the cooks are a-pre…
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(10.) Tenthly and lastly, Divell much upon the memorable judg- ments of God, that even in this life has fallen upon unholy persons. ' Remember Lot's wife,' Luke xvii. 32. Oh, remember her sin and punishment, that so fearing the one, you may learn to take heed of the other : Isa. xxvi. 9, ' When thy judgments are in the…
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[2.] Bespectu Iwnoris, He is dead in respect of honour ; he is dead to all privileges, he is not fit to inherit mercy. Who will set the crown of life upon a dead man's head ? The crown of life is for the holy Christian, and the holy Christian is for the crown of hfe, Kev. ii. 10 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8. When he in Plutarch had …
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Jericho not only to tremble, but to tumble down before them. Christ commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave, and there went a divine power and virtue with that call of Christ, which made him to rise. The means are the Spirit's triumphing chariot, in which he pleases to ride conquering and to conquer the souls of men…
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is with God to deal severely witli such, I will leave you to judge. And let this suffice for answer to the first objection. Object. 2. But hereafter may he time enough to look after holiness ; I may yet pursue after the pleasures and profits of the world, I may yet spend some years in gratifying mine own lusts, and in…
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248 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14. again, call time again ; a world of wealth for an inch of time/ Ah, what a precious and gainful commodity would time be in hell, where for one day to repent, yea, for one hour to seek after holiness, a man would give ten thousand worlds, were they in his hands to d…
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the breeders of spiritual joy. A holy man's heart is usually fullest of joy when his eyes are fullest of tears. When Hannah had wept, she went away and was no more sad. The bee gathers the best honey of the bitterest herbs. Christ made the best wine of water : the best, the purest, the strongest, and the sweetest joys …
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4. Fourthly, I answer, Tlud the joy of the saints is chiefly and mainly an inward joy, a spiritual joy, a joy that lies remote from a carnal eye. The joy of a Christian lies deep, it cannot be expressed, it cannot be painted. Look, as no man can paint the sweetness of the honey- comb, nor the sweetness of a cluster of …
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5. Fifthly, I answer, That it is horrid injustice and disingenuity in thee, and in such as thou art, to make the hearts of the righteous sad, ivJiom God would not Imve sadded, hy your pride, profaneness, looseness, wickedness, worldliness, lukeivarmness, pithiness, camalness, dec, and then to cry out against them, that…
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kingdom of heaven, and the pleasures that be at God's right hand, Ps. xvi. 11, for those short-lived pleasures that are but like a blaze, or like the lightning, or like a morning cloud, or the early dew which soon passeth away ! i Ah, who would endure an ocean of torture for a drop of sensual pleasure, or for a few bit…
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HlB. XII. 14] AND^BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 257 and sense of his wound takes off the sweet of all : and so does a wound in the conscience take off the sweet of all a man's enjoyments and con- tentments. A guilty conscience, like Prometheus's vulture, lies ever gnawing. 1 What the probationer-disciple said to our Saviour — v…
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^ Our whole life, says Austin, is nothing but a continued tentation. HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 259 James iv. 7; 1 Pet. v. 9. Now joy and rejoicing attends not the com- bat, but the conquest. The Romans never used to ride in triumph, but after conquests obtained. A Christian's triumphing time is his con- …
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^ The cure of melancholy belongs rather to the physician than to the divine, to Galea than to Paul. ^ It is an old saying that melancholia eat vehiculum dcemonum. HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 261 beams of the sun seems to be green — so tliis black melancholy humour represents all things to the eye of the s…
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^ Within the first three hundred years after Christ, all that made a profession of the apostles' doctrine were cruelly murdered. " Non potest qui pati timet, ejus esse qui passiis est — He that is afraid to suffer, can- not be his disciple who suffered so much. — TerluUian. HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 263 …
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Bradford was told that his chain was a-buying, and that he must be burnt, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, I thank God for it ; I have looked for this a long time ; it comes not to me suddenly, but as a thing waited for every day, yea, every hour in the day ; the Lord make me worthy thereof. If upon God's warn…
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^ As David laid a charge upon his soldiers, (2 Sam. xviii. 5,) that by no means they should hurt his son Absalom ; so God laid a prohibition upon the enemies and perse- cutors of his people, that they should not touch them, that they should not in the least hurt or harm them. 266 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [He…
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[2.] Secondly, Persecutions do but raise, ivhet, and stir up a more earnest and vehement spirit of prayer among the persecuted saints : 2 Rev. vi. 9, 10, ' And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held : and they…
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[3.] Thirdly, It will appear that the condition of persecutors is the most sad and deplorable condition of all conditions under heaven, if you loill but seriously consider and lay to heart the sore Judgments that are threatened, and that have been executed upon them : Deut. xxx. 7, ' And the Lord thy God will put all t…
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Herod Agrippa was a great persecutor of the saints, and he was eaten up of worms. Acts xii. In the third year of his reign, as Josephus observes, he went to Caesarea to keep certain plays in the honour of Caesar.s The gown he was in, as the same author relates, was a gown of silver wonderfully wrought, and the beams of…
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busy in prosecuting an indictment against his minister at a quarter sessions, for omitting the cross in baptism ; and being a man in high favour with the justices, he made no question of prevailing. At night, according to his usual manner, he falls to drinking, till he was so extreme drunk that he was fain to be carrie…
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pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition, and some they imprisoned and scourged, and others they put to death, as Stephen and James, &c. ; and oh, what spitefulness and ingratitude was this, to return evil for good, to requite them with reproaches, prisons, scourges, and death, for their endeavouring to save their sou…
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HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 277 ever they go ; his presence is infinite, and filleth all places. The Eabbins put Makom, which signifies place, among the names of God ; Bythner brings them in expounding that text, Esth. iv. 14, thus, ' Deliverance shall arise from another place,' that is, from God. Now they …
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6. Sixthly, I answer. That he shall he sure to suffer from Christ that re/uses to suffer, or that is afraid to suffer, for Christ's sake, or holiness' sake, or the gospel's sake. No man can suffer so much for Christ as he shall be sure to suffer from Christ, if he disdain and refuse to suf- fer for Christ : Mark viii. …
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them ; and it was observed that, being full of guilt, they went to their deaths with dejected and ill-favoured countenances, so that the very Gentiles took notice of it, and reproached them as degenerous persons, and worthy to suffer as evil doers. West, that was chaplain to Bishop Ridley, refusing to die in Christ's c…
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No heart but a sound heart will hold out bravely when hardships attends holiness on both hands ; no heart but a holy heart will bear the brunt of persecution for holiness' sake. The three children, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego, would rather burn than bow, they would rather suffer than sin, Dan. iii. 17, 18, which w…
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" Witness Faber, Farellus, Ruff [injus, and many others in France ; and witness our brethren who were forced to fly to New England. 284 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14. through all places of the empire ; because the oftener they were mown down, the more they grew, as TertuUian witnesseth ; and the mo…
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tions and persecutions of the saints in the primitive times issued in the conversion and salvation of many souls. We read that Cecilia, a poor virgin, by her gracious behaviour in her martyrdom, was the means of converting four hundred to Christ. Adrianus, by seeing the martyrs suffer so patiently and cheerfully, was c…
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' In persecuting times the saints have been but as one man ; which made their very persecutors to say, Ecce ut invicem fie diligunt ! Sec how these Christians love one an- other, see how they knit and, close together ! — Eusebius in Hist. 288 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14. Though the sheep in sunsh…
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[7.] Seventhly and lastly, As persecuting times are truth-advancing times : so persecuting times are a Christians rejoicing times. A Christian's heart is never so full of joy, as it is when he is under sufferings : Acts v. 41, ' And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy…
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suffered martyrdom in this nation, rejoiced that she might have her foot in the same hole of the stocks in which Mr Philpot's had been before. And Luther reports of that famous martyr St Agatha, that as she went to prisons and tortures, she said she went to banquets and nuptials. Vincentius, laughing at his tormentors,…
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^ In the primitive times, when some good people came to comfort some of the martyrg that were in prison, and ready to suffer, they called them blessed martyrs ; Oh no, said they, we are not worthy of the name of martyrs. These boly, humble hearts thought martyrdom too high an honour for them. HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY…
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^ From the Greek d^eXlcrKos, = a small spit. — G. ' In making up his roll, Brooks seems to have had his eye on the quaint engrayings of his favourite folio, Clarke, as before. — G. ^ And another cruelty that they practised in the primitive times was this, they would make fathers to kindle Ihe faggots to burn their ow…
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[3.] Thirdly, God does sometimes save his people from persecutions by passing a sentence of death upon their persecutors : and thus by his sudden and fearful judgment upon Herod he gave rest, liberty, and quiet to his people, Acts xii. 23, 24. And so by his vengeance on persecuting emperors he gave rest to his people. …
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12. Twelfthly and lastly, I answer, That all the persecutions that you meet with on earth shall advance your glory in heaven.^ The more saints are persecuted on earth, the greater shall be their reward in heaven ; as persecutions do increase a Christian's grace, so they do advance a Christian's glory : Mat. v. 10-12, '…
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[1.] First, - Consider that it is not absolutely necessary that you should be rich, or high, or great in this world ; but it is absolutely necessary that you should be holy. The want of riches can only trouble you, but the want of holiness will certainly damn you. You may be happy in another world, though you are not h…
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the loss of their charter. There was a street in Kome called viciis sobrius, the sober street, because there was never an ale-house in it ; but this, I think, is hard to ,say of any street in London, yea, of any street in England. It is an observation amongst the mariners, that as the sea grows daily shallower and shal…
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^ Sheep can live upon bare commons, where fat oxen would be quickly starved, &c. * Bread and water with the gospel is good cheer, said holy Greenham. He is rich enough that lacketh not bread, and high enough that is not forced to serve. — Jerome. 304 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XIL 14, and clothes to wea…
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^ Learned Ainsworth had but ninepence a week to live on whilst he wrote his excellent Commentary on the Pentateuch. ' If there were any happiness in riches, the gods would not want them, said Seneca. VOL. IV. U 306 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14. died, the angels carried him into Abraham's bosom. In…
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[1.] First, That holiness is man's greatest honour and excellency — and this I have made evident at large in the third motive to holiness ; yea, holiness is the crown, excellency, and glory of all a man's excel- 308 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [Heb. XII. 14. lencies and glories, as has been fully proved in the…
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[3.] Thirdly, I answer, Thxit it is not holiness, hut ivickedness, it is not sancity, hut impiety, that is tJie reproach, the dishonour, the dis- grace, and disparagement of man : Prov. xiv. 34, ' Kighteousness exalts a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people,' or as the Hebrew has it, ' to nations.' ^ The world u…
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fallen from the highest pinnacle of honour,. to sit with Job upon the dunghill. The true honour of a soldier lies not in boasting of the nobleness of his lineage, nor in the blaz[on]ing of his arms, nor in tell- ing of large stories of his pedigrees and genealogies, nor in his brave clothes, nor in his rich plunder, &c…
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[5.] Fifthly and lastly, I answer. That there are no persons under heaven that stand so much obliged to look after holiness, and to press with all their might to obtain holiness, as the rich, the great, the mighty, and the honourable of the earth. For, first, why has God made them greater than others, but that they sho…
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you be able to stand in the day of account without holiness in your hearts ? King Philip the Third of Spain, whose life was free from gross evils, professing that he would rather lose all his kingdoms than offend God willingly ; yet, being in the agony of death, and consider- ing more thoroughly of his account that he …
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^ Tophet is the name of a place in the valley lying on the south side of Jerusalem, Joshua xviii. 16. Now in this vale stood Tophet, wherein the idolatrous Jews used to burn their children in sacrifice to the idol Moloch, and it had that name from the drums or tabrets that their idolatrous priests used to beat upon at …
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[1.] First, That those that revile and reproach holiness, are such that have never knoiun the necessity nor the excellency of holiness; they have never experienced the power nor the sweetness of holiness ; they speak evil of things they know not, of things they understand not, Jude 10 ; 1 Tim. i. 7. Not to know is man'…
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Bernard observes, kills three at once : first, it kills his name and fame by ill report who is slandered ; secondly, it kills his belief with a lie to whom the report is made ; thirdly, it kills the slanderer himself with the sin of detraction. David, who fell oftener under the sad lashes of evil tongues, compares revi…
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[4.] Fourthly, Such persons who are revilers, deriders, and haters of holiness, should rather he divinely contemned, scorned, and slighted, than anyivays gratified, encouraged, pleased, and strengthened in their evil ways hy thy neglect of holiness, and hy thy non-pursuance after holi- ness. Oh, how may thy neglect of …
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with all reverence, but slighted his son, whereupon the emperor was very much displeased, and demanding the reason why he so slighted his son ? the bishop answered, because he had slighted and neglected the eternal Son of God, he being at that time a professed Arian ; where- upon the emperor received the bishop again i…
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ous sin will obscure and cloud all your graces and spiritual excellencies.! Look, as one spot in the face spoils all the beauty, and one blot upon the copy obliterates the whole copy, and as one drop of ink coloureth a whole glass of clear water ; so one scandalous sin wiU blot and blur all former acts of piety and hol…
1,344 wordsSource & rights
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.