It is fruitless and futile to strive, to contest or contend
with God. No man has ever got anything, by muttering
or murmuring under the hand of God—except it has
been more frowns, blows, and wounds. Those who will
not lie quiet and still, when mercy has tied them with
silken cords—justice will put them in iron chains!
If golden fetters will not hold you, iron fetters shall!
If Jonah will vex and fret and fling; justice will fling
him overboard, to cool him, and quell him, and keep
him prisoner in the whale's belly until he is vomited
up, and his spirit made quiet before the Lord.
What you get by struggling and grumbling—you may
put in your eye, and weep it out when you are done—
"But am I the one they are provoking? declares the
Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their
own shame? Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this
place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and
on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be
quenched." Jeremiah 7:19-20. "Do we provoke the Lord
to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?" 1 Cor. 10:22.
Zanchy observes these two things from these words:
1. That it is foolish to be provoking God to wrath,
because He is stronger than we.
2. That though God be stronger than we, yet there are
those who do provoke Him to wrath. And certainly there
are none who do more to provoke Him than those who
fume and fret when His hand is upon them!
Though the cup be bitter—yet it is put into your hand by
your Father! Though the cross be heavy—yet He who has
laid it on your shoulders will bear the heaviest end of it
Himself! Why, then, should you mutter? Shall bears and
lions take blows and knocks from their keepers; and will
you not take a few blows and knocks from the keeper of
Israel? Why should the clay contend with the potter, or
the creature with his Creator, or the servant with his
master, or weakness with strength, or a poor nothing
creature with an omnipotent God? Can stubble stand
before the fire? Can chaff abide before the whirlwind?
Can a worm ward off the blow of the Almighty?
A froward and impatient spirit under the hand of God will
but add chain to chain, cross to cross, yoke to yoke, and
burden to burden. The more men tumble and toss in their
feverish fits, the worse they distemper; and the longer it
will be before the cure be effected. The easiest and the
surest way of cure, is to lie still and quiet until the poison
of the distemper be sweat out. Where patience has its
perfect work, there the cure will be certain and easy.
When a man has his broken leg set, he lies still and quiet,
and so his cure is easily and speedily wrought. But when
a horse's leg is set, he frets and flings, he flounces and
flies out, unjointing it again and again, and so his cure is
the more difficult and tedious. Those Christians who, under
the hand of God, are like the horse or mule—fretting and
flinging—will but add to their own sorrows and sufferings,
and put the day of their deliverance further off.
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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.