("The Glorious Day of the Saints Appearance")
"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;
I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all
your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in
you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful
to keep My laws." Ezekiel 36:25-27
The principal reason why Christians persevere in the ways
of God against all discouragements, is because they are
preserved in the ways of God—from spiritual principles,
from a principle of inward life and spiritual power. It is
true, if Christians only persevered from fleshly, carnal,
and external causes—they would soon wheel about, and
turn apostates, and be base, and what not. But they
persevere in the ways of God, from inward principles,
as in Jeremiah 32:40, "I will put My fear in their hearts
—and they shall never depart from Me." Christians
persevere by an inward principle of fear, faith, and love.
Isaiah 40:31, "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew
their strength like the eagle; they shall run and not be
weary," because they run on another's legs—namely,
the Lord Christ's; "and they shall walk and not faint,"
because they walk in the strength of Christ.
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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.