PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks — Volume 5
Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680 · 375,900 words · 330 reading sections
Section 1
Ar.^YzL.av| ^^ i^h-z. itized by the^olgmitArchive 'rOv2096>4^ith funcfTrig from ^ IVfe^oS 0oWr§tiorD http://wwW.archive.org/details/completeworksoft05broouoft NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., / LINCOLN college; HONORAKY CAJiON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF 3T MARTIN's, BIRMINGHAM. WORKS OF …
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I must also confess that that general acceptation that my lormer labours have found, both in the nation and in foreign parts, and that singular blessing that has attended them from on High, hath been none of the least encouragements to me once more to cast m my mite into the common treasury.^ Besides, I am not unsensib…
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1 On ' there were «'-G. ' Erasmus writes that he knew some such cardinals. 1 Qu. there were. u. p ^ j, yi^. Valerian; Eckhel, vu. 307.-G. 1 ieS cTd";- Boze in EoL de I'Academie de Sciences et Belles Lettres, vol. xxiii.: Zenobia, as before.— G. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. people. , Seneca, speaking of him, saith, that …
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mended and extolled than this ; 3. There is no one duty that hath more choice and precious promises annexed to it than this ; 4. There is no one duty that hath greater rewards attending it than this.l Evagrius, a rich man, being importuned by Synesius, a bishop, to give somethmg to charitable uses, he yielded at last t…
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Sir, I do not offer you that which cost me nothing, or little, Mai. i. 13, 14 God best knows the pains, the prayers, and the study that the travailmg of this treatise into the world hath cost me, in the midst of trials, troubles, temptations, afilictions, and my frequent labours in the ministry. The truths that I oflfe…
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Christian Keader! — Some preachers in our days are like Herac- litus, who was called the dark doctor,^ hecause he affected dark speeches ; so they affect sublime notions, obscure expressions, uncouth phrases: making plain truths difficult, and easy truths hard, &c. They * darken counsel by words without knowledge,' Job…
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Twentiethly, If thou wouldst have all grace to flourish and abound in thy soul, if thou wouldst be eminently serviceable in thy genera- tion, if thou wouldst be ripe for sufierings, for death, for heaven, if thou wouldst be temptation-proof, if thou wouldst be weaned from this world and triumph in Christ Jesus when the…
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[4.] Fourthly, When men ordinarily, habitually, do yield a quiet, free, willing, and total subjection to the authority and commands of sin, then sin is indulged. That man that is wholly addicted and devoted to the service of sin, that man indulges sin. Now in none of these senses does any godly man indulge any one sin …
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[8.] Eighthly, The settled resolutions of a gracious heart is not to sin : Ps. cxix. 106, ' I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments ;' Neh. x. 28-31, dwell on it ; Job xxxi. 1, &c. ; Micah iv. 5, ' For all people will walk, every one in the name of his god, and we walk in the name …
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prayed earnestly against lying, so he as earnestly detested it : ver. 163, ' I hate and abhor lying.' Though lying was David's special sin, yet he hated and abhorred it as he did hell itself. And he tells us how he was affected, or afflicted rather, with that sin, whatsoever it was, which was his iniquity : Ps. xxxi. 1…
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than Day very self.' 10. Austin saith he would willingly go through hell to Christ. 11. Another saith, ' He had rather be in his chimney- corner with Christ than in heaven without him.' 12. Another cries out, ' I had rather have one Christ than a thousand worlds ;' by all which it is most evident that Jesus Christ is t…
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their darling sins, and therefore what iniquity is it to account and call them hypocrites, deceivers, dissemblers, that pretend they have a great deal of love to Grod, and love to Christ, and love to his word, and love to his ways ? and yet for all this they have their beloved sins, their bosom sins, their darling sins…
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Fifthly^ In the earnest and unfeigned desires, and careful endea- vours of the soul to abandon all sin, to forsake all sin, and to he rid of all sin, Rom. vii. 22, 23. You know when a prudent, tender, indul- gent father sees his child to fail and come short in that which he en- joins him to do ; yet knowing that his de…
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don't combat and conflict with. 3. That there is no known sin that I don't grieve and mourn over. 4. That there is no known sin that I would not presently, freely, willingly, and heartily be rid of. 5. That there is no known sin that I don't in some weak measure endeavour in the use of holy means to be delivered from. …
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Nebuchadnezzar's beloved sin was pride, and Herod's beloved sin was uncleanness, and Judas his beloved sin was covetousness, and the young man's beloved sin in that 19th of Matthew was worldly-minded- ness, &c. [2.] Secondly, Premise this with me, that the elect of God, before their conversion, had their beloved &ins.…
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peace, comfort, and assurance of the soul. Satan will strive to enter in at the same door ; and by the same Delilah, by which he hath be- trayed and wounded the soul, he will do all he can to do the soul a further mischief. Satan will be still a-reminding of the soul of those former sweets, pleasures, profits, delights…
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and against the light of a man's own conscience, will greatly hinder his high esteem and reputation of Jesus Christ, and so it ivill keep him from comfort, assurance, and sight of his interest in him, so that some- times his dearest children are constrained to ciy out, ' God is departed from me, and he answereth me not…
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law, being copulative ; or, 2. With the same disposition of heart, that he willingly, wilfully, habitually breaks one, with the same disposi- tion of heart he is ready pressed to break all. The apostle's meaning in that James ii. 10, is certainly this, viz., that suppose a man should keep the whole law for substance, e…
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Twenty-thirdly , The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord will highly make against all clear, sweet, and standing com- munion with God. Parents use not to smile, nor be familiar with their children, nor to keep up any intimate communion with them, in their neglects and disobedience. It is so here. Tw…
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Twenty-seventhly , As the philosopher saith, a cup or some such thing that hath a hole in it is no cup ; it will hold nothing, and therefore cannot perform the use of a cup, though it have but one hole in it. So if the heart have but one hole in it, if it retain the devil but in one thing, if it make choice but of any …
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same reason that you slight the will of God in any commandment, by the same reason you may despise his will in every commandment ; for every commandment of God is his will, and it is ' holy, spiritual, just, and good,' Rom. vii. 12, 14, and contrary to our sinful lusts. And if this be the reason why such and such comma…
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[14.] Fourteenthly, Universal obedience will give most peace, rest, quiet, and comfort to the conscience. Such a Christian will be as an eye that hath no mote to trouble it ; as a kingdom that hath no rebel to annoy it ; as a ship that hath no leak to disturb it : Ps. cxix. 165, * Great peace have they which love thy l…
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(2.) Secondly, Another is evangelical, which is such a walking in all the statutes of God, and such a keeping of all the commands of God, as is in Christ accepted of, and accounted ofas if we did keep them all. This walking in all God's statutes, and keeping of all his commandments, and doing of them all, is not only p…
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[3.] Thirdly, I am convinced that it is not in angels or men to de- liver me out of my lost, miserable, and undone condition. I know provoked justice must be satisfied, divine wrath pacified, my sins par- doned, my heart renewed, my state changed, &c., or my soul can never be saved ; and I know it is not in angels or m…
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[13.] Thirteenthly, So far as I know my oiun heart, I am sincerely willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in a matrimonial covenant ; according to these scriptures, Hos. ii. 19, 20 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2; Isa. liv. 5; Isa. Ixi. 10 ; Isa. Ixii. 5 ; Cant. iii. 11, &c. Through grace I am, First, Sincerely willing to take the L…
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[1.] First, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his judicial proceedings in the last day, which is set down clearly and largely in Mat. xxv. 34-42, doth only enumerate the good ivorJcs they have done, hut takes not the least notice of the spots and blemishes, of the infirmities or enormities, of the weaknesses or ivickednesses, …
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[2.] Further, The Lord saiih, ' Though your sins he as scarlet, they shall be lohite as snotu ; though they he red like crimson, they shall he as ivool,' Isa. i. 18. Pardon makes such a clear riddance of sin, that it is as if it had never been. The scarlet sinner is as white as snow, snow newly fallen from the sky, whi…
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Secondly, To those glorious expressions of Gods not remembering of their sins any more, Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Isa. xliii. 25. ' And I will not remember thy sins : and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know ye the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to th…
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As when a prince reads over many treasons and rebellions, and meets with such and such which he hath pardoned, he reads on, he passeth by, he taketh no notice of them, the pardoned person shall never hear more of them, he will never call him to account for those sins more ; so here, &c. When Caesar was painted, he puts…
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Secondly, Every sinner at his first believing and closing with Christ, 'isjustijied in the court of glory from all his sins, both guilt and pun- ishment. Acts xiii. 39. Justification doth not increase or decrease, but all sin is pardoned at the first act of believing. All who are jus- tified are justified alike. There …
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[9.] Ninthly, If all sins were not forgiven at once, then justification is not perfect at once, hut is more and more increased and perfected as more and more sins are pardoned, which cannot consist with the true doctrine of Justification. Certainly as to the state of justification, there is a fuU and perfect remission …
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as a sinner, but as a just man. Pardon of sin is an utter abolition of it, as it doth reflect upon the person, making him guilty, and obliging him actually to condemnation ; in this respect the pardoned man is as free as if he had never sinned. Therefore the believer, the penitent person, hath infinite cause of rejoici…
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CLEARLY AND SATISFACTORILY ANSWERED. 67 ver. 12. The way of pardon is by a translation of all our sins upon Christ, it is by charging them all upon Christ's score. That is a great expression of Nathan to David, * The Lord hath put away thy sin ;' but the original runs thus, ' The Lord hath made thy sins to pass over ;…
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You remember the scape-goat ; upon his head all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins were confessed and put : ' And the goat did bear upon him all their iniqui- ties,' Lev. xvi. 21, 22. What is the meaning of this? Surely Jesus Christ, upon whom our sins were laid, an…
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[2.] Secondly, No parties ivhatsoever ivere prejudiced, or lost by it. We lost nothing by it, for we are saved by his death, and reconciled by his death ; and Christ lost nothing by it : ' Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and enter into his glory ? ' Luke xxiv. 26. ' The Captain of our salvation is made …
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[1.] First, The universality of it : he did whatsoever his Father required, and left nothing of his Father's will undone. He kept the whole law, and offended not in one point. Whatever was required of us, by virtue of any law, that he did, and fulfilled. Hence he is said to be made under the law, Gal. iv. 4, subject or…
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might be fulfilled in us ; that is, which the law required of us, consist- ing in duties of obedience. This Christ performed for us. This expression of the apostle, ' God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,' if you will add to it that of Gal. iv. 4 — * that he w…
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^ Eccles. xi. 9, and xii. 14 ; Mat. xii. 36, and xviii. 23 ; Luke xvi. 2 ; Rom. xiv. 10, 12 ; 2 Cor. v. 10 ; Heb. ix. 27, and xiii. 17 ; 1 Pet. iv. 5. 76 OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. with, him, and our ingrafting into him.'l God hath condemned sin in the flesh of his Son, that all that which the law by right could re…
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[1.] First, in the general, I say that this earnest prayer of his doth not denote absolutely his unwillingness, but rather sets out the great- ness of his willingness ; for although Christ as a man was of the same 78 OF THE SUFFEEINGS OF CHRIST. natural affections with us, and desires, and abhorrences of what was des…
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Ans. 2. Secondly, As the sufferings of Jesus Christ were very free and voluntary, so they were very great and heinous. What agony, what torment was our Saviour racked with! how deep were Ms wounds! how weighty his burden! how full of trembling his cup, when he lay under the mountains of the guilt of all the elect 1 How…
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sure of his sufferings, that he suffered excessively beyond what ever any did. And thus we may well understand and take those words, ' He suffered.' That lamentation of the prophet, Lam. i. 12, is very appli- cable to Christ, ' Behold, and see if there be any sorrows like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewit…
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with thorns, and they smote him on the head. Osorius, writing of the sufferings of Christ, saith, ' That the crown of thorns bored his head with seventy-two wounds.' To see that head, before which angels cast down themselves and worshipped, as I may say, crowned with thorns, might well amaze us ; to see those eyes, tha…
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thus, ' He struck Jesus with the palm of his hand," that is, with open hand, or with his hand stretched out. Some of the ancients, commenting on this cufF, say, Let the heavens be afraid, and let the earth tremble, at Christ's patience and his ser- vant's impudence ! 0 ye angels ! how were ye silent ? how could you co…
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and those so many, so plenteous, as that they went through his ap- parel, and all streamed down to the ground ; and now was the time that his garments were dyed with crimson red. That of the prophet, though spoken in another sense, yet in some respect may be applied to this, ' Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel, and…
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About four in the afternoon he was pierced with a spear, and there issued out of his side both blood and water : ' and one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there-out blood and ^ Suidas in vita Dion. i Emisit, non amisit.— Ambrose. OP THE SUFFERINGS OP CHEIST IN HIS BODY. 89 water,' Jo…
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upon tliis kind of punishment ; that he that is hanged is accursed of God. To which I answer, that the reason of this was, because this was esteemed the most shameful, the most dishonourable and infamous of all kinds of death, and was usually therefore the punishment of those that had by some notorious wickedness provo…
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^ Christ's soul was beleaguered, or compassed round, round with sorrow, as that word TtptXiTos sounds. ' ' Terrified.' — G. » ' Coagulated.' — Q. OF THE SUFFERINGS CF CHRIST IN HIS SOUL. 93 the word implies, when he drank that bitter cup, that cup of bitter- ness, that cup mingled with curses, which made him sweat dr…
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(3.) Thirdly, Christ bore our sorrows, Isa. liii. 4. Now what sor- rows should we bear, but the sorrows due unto us for our sins ; and surely these were not corporal only, but spiritual also, and those did Christ bear in his soul. The same prophet saith, ver. 10, ' He shall make his soul an offering for sin;' ergo, Chr…
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ytjook, as God put a sanction on the law and covenant of works made with all of us in Adam, that he and his should be liable to death, both of body and soul, which covenant being broken by sin, all sinners be- came obnoxious to the death both of body and soul, so it was necessary that the redeemed should be delivered f…
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[1.] First, That Jesus Christ did suffer dereliction of God really; that he was indeed deserted and forsaken of God is most evident: Mat. xxvii. 46, ' My God,Jmy God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' But to prevent mistakes in this high point, seriously consider, 1. That I do not mean that there was any such desertion of C…
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Ans.l. First, By God here we are to understand God the Father, the first person of the blessed Trinity. According to the vulgar and common rule, when God is compared with the Son or Holy Ghost, then the Father is meant by this title God ; not that the Father is more God than the Son — for in dignity all the three perso…
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[3.] Thirdly, That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer tJie very torments of hell, though not after a hellish manner. I readily grant that Jesus Christ did not locally descend into hell, to suffer there amongst the damned, neither did he suffer hellish darkness, nor the flames of hell, nor the worm that never dies, nor fi…
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very sorrows of hell in his soul while he lived. Certainly the whole punishment of body and soul which was due unto us, Christ our Kedeemer was in general to suffer and satisfy for in his own person ; but the torments and terrors of hell, and the vehement sense of God's wrath, are that punishment which did belong to th…
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' Fulk. in Act ii. sec. 11. [Fulke or Fulkius or Fulcones. — G.] 106 THAT JESUS CHRIST DID SUFFER TORMENT, other things already mentioned, it was but the tantundem, not the idem; but suppose there had been nothing of sameness, nothing be- yond equivalency in what Christ suffered, yet that was enough, for it was not r…
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pains of the damned, but the consequents, and follow the sense of God's wrath in a sinful creature that is overcome by it. But Christ had no sin of his own, neither was he overcome of wrath, and there- fore he always held fast his integrity and innocency, Rev. xvi. 9, 11. Despair is an unavoidable companion, attending …
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hell ; and doubtless Cain, Judas, Julian, Spira, and others have found it so. That father hit the mark, who said, Judicis^ in mente tua sedes; ibi Deus adest, accusator conscientia, tortor timor, The judge's tribunal-seat is in thy soul, God sitteth there as judge, thy conscience is the accuser, and fear is the torment…
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^ Ambrose in 5 ad Rom. vi. 112 THAT JESUS CHRIST DID SUFFER TORMENT, eternally ; and indeed it was impossible that Christ should be holden of death, Acts ii. 24, because he was both the Lord of life and the Lord's Holy One, 1 Cor. ii. 8; Acts ii. 27. But, Am. 3. Thirdly, If the measure of a man's punishment were in-…
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114 ' THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL. there is a hell, a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly persons.^ Danseus reckons up no less than nineteen several sorts of heretics that denied it ; and are there not many erro- neous and deluded persons that stoutly and daily assert that there i…
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^ Man, saith one, in his creation is angelic; in his corruption diabolical ; in his reno- vation theological ; in his translation majcstical; an angel in Eden, a devil in the world, a saint in tiie church, a king in heaven. ' = irreversible. — G. ^ Sheol is often put for the grave, Ps. xvi. 10, but not always. 116 T…
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Their meaning is, that these sorts of persons being most given up to fleshly lusts and pleasures, they shall be sure to have the lowest place in hell. The harlot's feet go down to death, and her steps take hold on hell.^ Wantonness brings men to hell. ' Whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with …
1,317 wordsSource & rights
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.