"For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are
higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts." Isaiah 55:9
Take heed of curiosity, and of spending too much of
your precious time in searching into those dark, concealed,
mysterious, and hidden truths and things of God and religion,
which lie most remote from the understanding of the best and
wisest of men.
Those who are troubled with the itch of curiosity, will say
they can never be satisfied until they come to the bottom
of the most deep and profound things of God. They love
to pry into God's secrets, and to scan the mysteries of
religion—by their weak, shallow reason. Curious searchers
into the deep mysterious things of God will make all God's
depths to be shallows, rather than they will be thought not
able to fathom them by the short line of their own reason.
Oh that men would once learn to be contentedly ignorant,
where God would not have them knowing! Oh that men were
once so humble, as to account it no disparagement to them, to
acknowledge some depths in God, and in the blessed Scripture,
which their shallow reason cannot fathom!
They are only a company of fools, who attempt to know more
than God would have them. Did not Adam's tree of knowledge
make him and his posterity mere fools? He who goes to school
to his own reason, has a fool for his schoolmaster!
Oh that we were wise to admire those deep mysteries which we
cannot understand, and to adore those depths and counsels which
we cannot reach! "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His
paths beyond tracing out!" Romans 11:33
Oh let us restrain our curiosity in the things of God, and sit down
satisfied and contented to resolve many of God's actions into
some hidden causes which lie secret in the abyss of His eternal
knowledge and infallible will.
Curiosity is one of Satan's most dangerous weapons, by which
he keeps many souls out of their closets, yes, out of heaven!
When many a poor soul begins in good earnest to look towards
heaven, and to apply himself to closet duties, then Satan begins
to bestir himself, and to labor with all his might, so to busy the
poor soul with vain inquiries, and curious speculations, and
unprofitable curiosities. Ah! how well might it have been with
many a man, had he but spent one quarter of that time in
closet prayer, that he has spent in curious inquiries after
things that have not been fundamental to his happiness.
Many are more busy about reconciling difficult scriptures, than
about mortifying of unruly lusts! They set more value upon vain
speculations, than upon things that make most for edification.
Such men of abstracted conceits, are but a company of wise
fools! Had many men spent but half that time in secret prayer,
that they have spent in seeking after the philosopher's stone,
how happy might they have been! Oh how holy, how happy,
how heavenly, how humble, how wise, how knowing, might
many men have been—had they spent but half that time in
closet prayer, which they have spent in searching after those
things that are hard to be understood!
"There are secret things which belong to the Lord our God."
Deuteronomy 29:29
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Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680)
Much of what is known about Thomas Brooks has been ascertained from his writings. Born, likely to well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1625, where he was preceded by such men as Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, and Thomas Shepard. He was licensed as a preacher of the Gospel by 1640. Before that date, he appears to have spent a number of years at sea, probably as a chaplain with the fleet.After the conclusion of the First English Civil War, Thomas Brooks became minister at Thomas Apostle's, London, and was sufficiently renowned to be chosen as preacher before the House of Commons on December 26, 1648. His sermon was afterwards published under the title, 'God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright', the text being Psalm 44:18: 'Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way'. Three or four years afterwards, he transferred to St. Margaret's, Fish-street Hill, London. In 1662, he fell victim to the notorious Act of Uniformity, but he appears to have remained in his parish and to have preached as opportunity arose. Treatises continued to flow from his pen.[3]
Thomas Brooks was a nonconformist preacher. Born into a Puritan family, he was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He soon became an advocate of the Congregational way and served as a chaplain in the Civil War. In 1648 he accepted the rectory of St. Margaret's, New Fish Street, London, but only after making his Congregational principles clear to the vestry.
On several occasions he preached before Parliament. He was ejected in 1660 and remained in London as a Nonconformist preacher. Government spies reported that he preached at Tower Wharf and in Moorfields. During the Great Plague and Great Fire he worked in London, and in 1672 was granted a license to preach in Lime Street. He wrote over a dozen books, most of which are devotional in character. He was buried in Bunhill Fields.