NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.
BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,
LINCOLN college; honoraby canon of Worcester; vicar of Greenwich.
WORKS OF THOMAS BROOKS
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
■\V. LIXDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Trofcssor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinljiiii;Ii.
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAAVFOED, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, E(.linl)urgh.
D. T. K. DRUAIMOXD, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- terian Church, Edinburgh.
liSencrnt ^JDitor. REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., Edinburgh.
(!;i3itci>, toitfj Hlcmoir,
BY THE EEV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART, LIVERPOOL.
London's lamentations on the late fiery dispensation — the glokious
DAY OF the saints' APPEARANCE — GOD'S DELIGHT IN THE PROGRESS OP THE UPRIGHT — HYPOCRITES DETECTED — A BELIEVER's LAST DAY IS HIS
BEST DAY — A HEAVENLY CORDIAL THE LEGACY OF A DYING MOTHER
AND MRS bell's EXPERIENCES INDICES, ETC.
EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON : JMIES NISBET AND CO, DUBLIN : G. HERBERT.
EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT.
FOLLOWING the last of his larger treatises—' London's Lamenta- tions' — there will be found in the present concluding volume certain minor writings of Brooks, of some of which the Editor had despaired securing copies — having searched in vain for most of them in all our great Libraries, and applied with similar result to innumer- able book-lovers and booksellers. He has not anywhere chanced upon another copy besides his own of either the ' Heavenly Cordial ' or of ' The Legacy of a Dying Mother ;' while years since the learned editor of the ' Depositions from the Castle of York, relating to Offences com- mitted in the Northern Counties in the Seventeenth Century,' for the Surtees Society — James Eaine, Esq., — with reference to the Funeral Sermon of Colonel Eainsborough, designated it * a very rare tract,' and congratulated himself that by the kindness of a local Bibliopole he was ' able to give a copy of the title.' i Apart from the intrinsic Avorth of these excessively scarce, if not unique tractates, it is exceed- ingly satisfactory to the Editor that he has been enabled by lucky chances to present the entire writings of Brooks in this — like Sibbes' — first collective edition. As simple matter of fact, the Works given n these six volumes could not be purchased in the market in the original and early editions for as many pounds as the shillings they cost in this form : and it is ventured to indulge a hope that the accuracy of our reprint from a genuine and unmutilated text, the careful verifi- cation of the numerous Bible quotations and references, the annotation of names, &c., and the Glossary and marking of Shakesperean words — these sometimes explaining obscurities — will be accepted as addi- tions to their value. The Editor may be permitted to notice the copious Indices. Ordinarily it is to be feared that labour spent on such work is ill appreciated, too many, as rare Thomas Fuller com- plained, regarding an index as ' the bag and baggage of a book, of
^ Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. xl. p. 17.
Tl EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT.
more use tlian honour, even to suchyho, seeminojly slighting, secretly use it, if not for need, for speed of what they desire to find.'i But he has so constructed these — incorporating the full 'Tables' of Brooks himself wherever prepared by him— as to render any preliminary essay here unnecessary, inasmuch as, well used, they will guide readily the reader of our Worthy to his wealth of fine thought, of priceless insight into the * mind of the Spirit ' and human nature, as well unrenewed as gracious, of definite doctrinal statement, of rich si)iritual- mindcduess, of tender and yet pungent appeal, of happy allusion, of brilliant, rapid wit, of racily-put, telling anecdote and asides, of recon- dite reading and multifarious lore unexpectedly turned to account, with many a pat, almost sly foot-note, ' You know how to make the application ' — in a way hitherto impossible.
With such a ' Cabinet of Jewels'— to appropriate one of his own titles2 — as these AVorks present, one can read with a smile the depre- ciatory estimate of Brooks as of Bunyan, formed by High Church contemporaries, and later. One of these is so characteristic, and serves as so excellent an illustration of the a[)othcgm, that the eye sees what it brings with it, that it must find a place here, especially as it has not before been published : it was come upon by us in an examination of the MSS. of Walker, of the ' Sufferings,' folio, preserved in the Bodleian. This ' character' of Brooks occurs iu a letter from Luke Milbourno. It is literally as follows — the name, to start with, being misspelled — * Mr Tho. Brook was another of those ' i)leasant preachers' whose sermons would require a man of a very staunch temper to preach them over again Avithout smiling. Abundance of ' fine meta- phors' and ' charming similitudes' a man may meet with in his Works, fit only to debase Divinity, or to dress it up in a ffool's Coat ; and I'm afraid such jingling Preachers turn'd men from Truth to ffables [rather] than from sin to righteousness. Souls are no more to be taken with chaff than old Birds are. His stile is neither prophetical nor Apostolical, nor were any of ye antient fathers guilty of such Trifliu"" ; and indeed it icould he loell if all such Preachas tvere silenced. A sound Christian, though he be no Critic, loves plain Truth delivered in good words, but always hates jesting in a serious matter.' 3 The italicised sentence reveals the animus of these small sarcasms and smaller comparisons with 'antient fathers,' — of whom the writer was evidently as ignorant as he was of the preacher and author
' l'i.sgah-si?ht of Palestine in ' Necessary Directions for use of the Index ' at end.
» From Miscellaneous Papers in Quarto. From these Walker MSS.— which lie unresid and uncared, for apparently — we hope to use eflectively elscwlicrc not a few letters, anecdotes, &c., Sec. of the Puritan 'Worthies.'
EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT. VH