To see God thrust the sword of His pure, infinite, and
incensed wrath through the very heart of His dearest Son,
notwithstanding all His supplications, prayers, tears, and
strong cries—is the highest manifestation of the Lord's hatred
and indignation of sin—which ever was, or ever will be!
It is true God revealed his great hatred against sin . . .
by turning Adam out of paradise, and
by casting the angels down to hell, and
by drowning the old world, and
by raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
and by the various and dreadful judgments which He has
been a-pouring forth upon the world in all ages. But all this
hatred is but an emblem of hatred, compared to that hatred
which God manifested against sin in causing the whole curse
to meet upon our crucified Lord. It is true God reveals His
hatred of sin by those endless, easeless, and remediless
torments, which He inflicts upon devils and damned spirits.
But this is no hatred—compared to that hatred against sin,
which God revealed when He opened all the floodgates of
His envenomed wrath upon His Son—His own Son, His only
Son, His Son who always pleased Him, His Son who never
offended Him.
Suppose you saw a father who had but one son—such a son
in whom he always delighted, and by whom he had never
been provoked. Now suppose you should you see this father
inflicting the most intensified pains and punishments, tortures
and torments, calamities and miseries upon this, his dearest son.
Would you not wonder at the cause of the father's exercising
such amazing, such matchless severity, fury and cruelty upon
his only beloved son?
Now cast your eye upon the actings of God the Father towards
Jesus Christ, and you will find that He has inflicted more and
greater torments upon the Son of His dearest love, than all
mortals ever have or could inflict upon others. God made all
the penalties and sufferings that were due to us—to fall upon
Jesus Christ. God Himself inflicted upon dear Jesus whatever
was requisite to the satisfying of His justice, to the obtaining
of pardon, and to the saving of all His elect!
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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.