"It is not the healthy who need a physician,
but the sick." Matthew 9:12
If you would be truly godly, then you must see how
bad you are, how vile, how sinful, how wretched
you are. No man begins to be good until he sees
himself to be bad. Ah! You must see yourselves . . .
to be children of wrath,
to be enemies of God,
to be strangers from God,
to be afar off from God,
to be afar from heaven,
to be sin's servants,
to be Satan's bond-slaves.
The first step to mercy,
is to see your misery.
The first step towards heaven,
is to see yourselves near to hell.
You won't look after the physician of souls,
you won't prize the physician of souls,
you won't desire the physician of souls,
you won't fall in love with the physician of souls,
you won't resign yourselves to the physician of souls
—until you come to see your wounds, until you come
to feel your diseases, until you see the symptoms,
the plague-sores of divine wrath and displeasure
upon you. As the whole do not need the physician,
so they do not desire, they do not care for the
physician. Acquaint yourselves with your natural
and undone condition.
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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.