"Blessed is the man You chasten, O Lord, the
man You teach from Your law." Psalm 94:12
All the chastening in the world, without divine teaching,
will never make a man blessed. That man who finds
correction attended with instruction, and lashing with
lessoning—is a happy man.
If God, by the affliction which is upon you, shall teach you:
how to loathe sin more, and
how to trample upon the world more, and
how to walk with God more—
your afflictions are in love.
If God shall teach you by afflictions:
how to die to sin more, and
how to die to your relations more,
and how to die to your self-interest more—
your afflictions are in love.
If God shall teach you by afflictions:
how to live to Christ more,
how to lift up Christ more, and
how to long for Christ more—
your afflictions are in love.
If God shall teach you by afflictions:
how to mind heaven more,
how to live in heaven more, and
how to fit for heaven more—
your afflictions are in love.
If God by afflictions shall teach:
your proud heart how to lie more low,
your hard heart how to grow more tender,
your censorious heart how to grow more charitable,
your carnal heart how to grow more spiritual,
your froward heart how to grow more quiet—
your afflictions are in love.
When God teaches your thoughts as well as your
brains, your heart as well as your head, any of
these lessons—your afflictions are in love.
Where God loves, He afflicts in love; and wherever God
afflicts in love, there He will, sooner or later, teach such
souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eternity.
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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.