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Thomas Brooks
Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680). English Puritan preacher and author born in Glastonbury, Somerset. Likely educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he entered ministry during the English Civil War, possibly serving as a chaplain in the Parliamentary navy. By 1648, he preached in London, becoming rector of St. Margaret’s, New Fish Street, in 1652, where he ministered through the Great Plague and Great Fire of 1666. A nonconformist, he was ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity but continued preaching privately. Brooks wrote over a dozen works, including Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1652) and The Mute Christian Under the Rod, blending practical theology with vivid illustrations. Known for his warm, accessible style, he influenced Puritan spirituality, emphasizing repentance and divine sovereignty. Married twice—first to Martha Burgess in 1640, with whom he had four sons, then to Patience Cartwright—he faced personal loss but remained steadfast. His sermons drew crowds, and his books, reprinted centuries later, shaped Reformed thought. Brooks’ legacy endures through digital archives and reprints for modern readers.
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Sermon Summary
Thomas Brooks emphasizes that spiritual growth in grace often occurs through divine methods that may initially seem to hinder rather than help. He compares the necessity of winter for a fruitful harvest to the role of fiery trials in enhancing grace within believers. Despite the challenges and sufferings faced, these experiences ultimately transform small sparks of grace into a powerful flame. Brooks reassures that no external forces can prevent God from fostering holiness, humility, and other virtues in His people. The message encourages believers to embrace trials as a means of deepening their faith and character.
Scriptures
Growth in Grace
Commonly the Christian's spiritual growth in grace, is carried on by such divine methods, and in such ways as might seem to deaden grace, and weaken it—rather than any ways to augment and increase it. We know that winter is as necessary to bring on harvest, as the spring; and so fiery trials are as necessary to bring on the harvest of grace, as the spring of mercy is. Though fiery trials are grievous; yet they shall make the saints more gracious. God usually, by sharp sufferings, turns His people's . . . sparks of grace into a mighty flame; their mites into millions; their drops into seas. All the devils in hell, and all the sinners on earth, cannot hinder the Lord from carrying on the growth of grace in His people's souls. When men and devils have done their worst, God will, by all sorts of providences, and all sorts of changes—make His people more and more holy, and more and more humble, and more and more meek and lowly, and more and more heavenly, wise, faithful, fruitful, sincere, courageous, etc.
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Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680). English Puritan preacher and author born in Glastonbury, Somerset. Likely educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he entered ministry during the English Civil War, possibly serving as a chaplain in the Parliamentary navy. By 1648, he preached in London, becoming rector of St. Margaret’s, New Fish Street, in 1652, where he ministered through the Great Plague and Great Fire of 1666. A nonconformist, he was ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity but continued preaching privately. Brooks wrote over a dozen works, including Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1652) and The Mute Christian Under the Rod, blending practical theology with vivid illustrations. Known for his warm, accessible style, he influenced Puritan spirituality, emphasizing repentance and divine sovereignty. Married twice—first to Martha Burgess in 1640, with whom he had four sons, then to Patience Cartwright—he faced personal loss but remained steadfast. His sermons drew crowds, and his books, reprinted centuries later, shaped Reformed thought. Brooks’ legacy endures through digital archives and reprints for modern readers.