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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 the importance of reflecting on past troubles and afflictions as a means to find peace during current adversities. He encourages believers to consider how previous hardships have revealed sin, humbled their hearts, and deepened their relationship with God. By remembering the benefits gained from past sufferings, one can cultivate a spirit of silence and trust in God's continued faithfulness and goodness. Brooks urges the faithful to recognize that God uses afflictions to prepare their hearts for greater spiritual enjoyment and to foster compassion towards others. Ultimately, he calls for a quiet trust in God's ability to work good through present trials, just as He has in the past.
All Your Former Troubles and Afflictions
"In the day of adversity, consider." Eccles. 7:14 If you would be quiet and silent under your present troubles and trials, then dwell much upon the benefit, the profit, the advantage that has redounded to your souls by all your former troubles and afflictions. Oh! consider, how by former afflictions the Lord has revealed sin, prevented sin, and mortified sin! Consider how the Lord by former afflictions has revealed to you the impotency, the mutability, the insufficiency, and the vanity of the world, and all worldly concerns! Consider how the Lord by former afflictions has melted your heart, and broken your heart, and humbled your heart, and prepared your heart for clearer, fuller, and sweeter enjoyments of Himself! Consider what pity, what compassion, what affections, what tenderness, and what sweetness former afflictions have wrought in you, towards others in misery! Consider what room former afflictions have made in your soul for God, for His word, for good counsel, and for divine comfort! Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made you more partaker of His Christ, His Spirit, His holiness, His goodness, etc. Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made you to look towards heaven more, to mind heaven more, to prize heaven more, and to long for heaven more, etc. Now, who can seriously consider all the good that he has gotten by former afflictions—and not be silent under present afflictions? Who can remember those choice, those great, and those precious profits that his soul has made of former afflictions, and not reason himself into a holy silence under present afflictions thusly, "O my soul! has not God done you much good, great good, special good—by former afflictions? Yes! O my soul! has not God done that for you by former afflictions—which you would not undo for ten thousand worlds? Yes! And is not God, O my soul! as powerful as ever, as faithful as ever, as gracious as ever, and as ready and willing as ever—to do you good by present afflictions, as he has been to do you good by former afflictions? Yes! Yes! Why, why then do you not sit silent and mute before Him, under your present troubles, O my soul?"
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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.