Conscience is God's spy in the heart.
'Conscience,' says Philo, 'is the little tribunal of the soul.
Conscience is a thousand witnesses, for or against a man.
Conscience is a court of record, and whatever it sees it
writes down; and conscience is always as quick in writing
as the sinner can be in sinning.' The very heathen could
say that conscience was a god to every man.
Conscience, as a scribe, a register—sits in the closet of
your hearts, with pen in hand, and makes a journal of
all your secret ways and secret crimes, which are above
the cognizance of others. Conscience sets down the time
when, the place where, the manner how, and the people
with whom—such and such secret wickednesses have been
committed; and that so clear and evident, that, go where
you will, and do what you can, the characters of them shall
never be cancelled or erased out, until God appears in
judgment. Let a man sin in the most hidden seclusion
which human policy can contrive, let him take all the
ways he can to hide his sins, to cloak and cover his sin,
as Adam did—yet conscience will so play the judge, that
it will bring in the evidence, produce the law, urge the
penalty, and pass the sentence of condemnation upon him.
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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.