Many, when they feel the rod to smart—ah, how they
do fret and fume! Isaiah 8:21, 'Distressed and hungry,
they will roam through the land; when they are famished,
they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse
their king and their God.' Prov. 19:3, 'A man's own folly
ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord.' The
heart may be fretful and froward when the tongue does
not blaspheme. Folly brings man into misery, and misery
makes man to fret. Man in misery is more apt to fret and
chafe against the Lord, than to fret and chafe against his
sin which has brought him into sufferings.
2 Kings 6:33, Psalm 37:1, 7-8.
A fretful soul dares fly at God himself! When Pharaoh is
troubled with the frets, he dares spit in the very face
of God himself—'Who is the Lord, that I should obey
Him?' Exod. 5:2. And when Jonah is in a fretting humour,
he dares tell God to his face, 'that he does well to be angry!'
Jonah had done well if he had been angry with his sin—but
he did very ill to be angry with his God! God will vex every
vein in that man's heart, before He has done with him, who
fumes and frets, because he cannot snap in sunder the
cords with which he is bound, Ezek. 16:43. Sometimes
good men are sick of the frets—but when they are, it
costs them dear, as Job and Jonah found by experience.
No man has ever got anything by his fretting and flinging,
except it has been harder blows or heavier chains;
therefore fret not when God strikes!
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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.