"Cleanse me from secret faults." Psalm 19:12
The Christian's greatest and hottest conflicts,
are against those inward pollutions, and secret sins,
which are only obvious to the eye of God and their
own souls.
The hypocrite combats with those sins which are
obvious to every eye. But it must be a supernatural
power and principle, which puts men upon conflicting
with the inward motions and secret operations of sin.
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?" Romans 7:24. A sincere heart
weeps and laments bitterly over those secret and inward
corruptions, which others will scarcely acknowledge to be
sins.
The Persian kings reign powerfully, and yet are seldom seen
in public. Secret sins reign in many men's souls powerfully
and dangerously, when least apparently.
Oh! but a true Christian mourns over the inward motions and
first risings of sin in his soul, and so prevents an eternal danger.
Upon every stirring of sin in the soul, the believer cries out, "O
Lord, help! O Lord, undertake for me! Oh dash these brats of
Babylon in pieces! Oh stifle the first motions of sin, that they
may never conceive and bring forth!"
Be the first to react on this!
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.