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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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Thomas Brooks emphasizes that true blessing comes from God's chastening accompanied by divine teaching. He explains that afflictions, when used by God, can lead to a deeper loathing of sin, a greater desire to walk with God, and a longing for Christ. Brooks reassures that if God teaches us through our trials to become more humble, charitable, and spiritual, then those afflictions are acts of love. Ultimately, he concludes that God's love is evident in His willingness to teach us valuable lessons through our hardships, which benefit us for eternity.
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Such Lessons!
"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). 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.