Believers should trust and lean upon God for lesser gifts.
Has God given you a crown—and will you not trust Him for
a crumb? Has He given you a house which has "foundations,
whose builder and maker is God?" Has He given you "a kingdom
which cannot be shaken?" And will you not trust Him for a cottage,
for a little room in this world? Has He given you Himself, His Son,
His Spirit, His grace—and will you not trust Him to give you bread,
and friends, and clothes, and other necessary mercies which He
knows you need? Has He given you the greater—and will deny
you for the lesser? Surely not!
Will you trust that man for much—who has given you but a little?
And will you not trust that God for a little—who has given you much?
Will you not trust Him for pence—who has given you pounds?
O sirs! has the Lord given you Himself, the best of favors—and
will not you trust Him for the least favors?
Has He given you pearls—and will not you trust Him for pins?
Does not the apostle argue sweetly in Romans 8:32, "He who did
not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not
also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" What! says the
apostle, has God given us His Son, His only Son, His bosom Son,
His beloved Son, the Son of His joy, the Son of His delights? Oh
how can He then but cast in all other things into the bargain—such
as wrapping paper and packing thread?
Oh! that Christians would learn to reason themselves out of their
fears, and out of their distrusts—as the apostle does. Oh! that
Christians would no longer rend and rack their precious souls
with fears and cares, but rest satisfied in this—that He who has
been so kind to them in spirituals, will not be lacking to them
in temporals.
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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.