"Does He not see my ways and number all my steps?"
Job 31:4
The eye of God had so strong an influence upon Job's
heart and life, that it wrought him up to a very high
pitch of holiness. The scholar writes most exactly while
his teacher's eye is upon him; and the child walks most
exactly while his father's eye is upon him; and the servant
works most exactly while his master's eye is upon him;
and so certainly all the sons and servants of the most
high God do hear most exactly, and pray most exactly,
and walk most exactly—when they see themselves as
in the presence of the great God—who is all sight, who
is all eye!
Ah friends! as ever you would be high in holiness, have
a serious apprehension of God's presence; set yourselves
daily as in His sight, as under His eye. Remember, though
a man may easily baffle his conscience, and deceive the
world—yet he shall never be able to baffle or deceive
God's omniscient eye! God has His window in all our
hearts, and exactly and narrowly observes all that is
done within us, and all that is done by us!
If the serious consideration of His sharp, piercing,
all-seeing eye will not influence us to labor after the
highest degrees of holiness, I know not what will.
"I have kept Your precepts and decrees, for all
my ways are before You." Psalm 119:168
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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.