Thomas Brooks quotes:

Afflictions are but as a dark entry into our Father's house.

Till men have faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins.

Preach the gospel to yourself, because as you consider who you are in light of God's perfect goodness, holiness and peace, you must soften toward others.

God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.

There is the seed of all sins--of the vilest and worst of sins--in the best of men.

God's hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification, but upon Christ's intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what' we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved [Eph 1.6].

A man's most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions.

Though our private desires are ever so confused, though our private requests are ever so broken, and though our private groanings are ever so hidden from men, yet God eyes them, records them, and puts them upon the file of heaven, and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns.

A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory.

There are three things that earthly riches can never do; they can never satisfy divine justice, they can never pacify divine wrath, nor can they every quiet a guilty conscience. And till these things are done man is undone.

Truth is mighty and will prevail.

The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven.

Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. God will suit His returns to our requests. Lifeless, services shall have lifeless answers. When men are dull, God will be dumb.

There is oftentimes a great deal of knowledge where there is but little wisdom to improve that knowledge. It is not the most knowing Christian but the most wise Christian that sees, avoids, and escapes Satan's snares. Knowledge without wisdom is like mettle in a blind horse, which is often an occasion of the rider's fall.

Remember this-all the sighing, mourning, sobbing, and complaining in the world, does not so undeniably evidence a man to be humble, as his overlooking his own righteousness, and living really and purely upon the righteousness of Christ.

Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.

Repentance is the vomit of the soul."

It is not he who knows most, nor he who hears most, nor yet he who talks most, but he who exercises grace most, who has most communion with God.

Carnal reason is an enemy to faith: it is ever crossing and contradicting it. It will never be well with thee, Christian, so long as thou art swayed by carnal reason, and you rely more upon thy five senses, than upon the four Evangelists. As the body lives by breathing, so the soul lives by believing.

True repentance includes sorrow for sin and contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs and sobs and groans...

What is honor, and riches, and the favor of creatures - so long as I lack the favor of God, the pardon of my sins, a saving interest in Christ, and the hope of glory! O Lord, give me these, or I die! Give me these, or else I shall eternally die!

A well-grounded assurance is always attended with three fair handmaids: love, humility and holy joy.

Grace and glory differ very little; the one is the seed, the other is the flower; grace is glory militant, glory is grace triumphant.

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss, he promises life, and pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure gold.

Self is the only oil that makes the chariot-wheels of the hypocrite move in all religious concerns.

Greater sins do sooner startle the soul, and awaken and rouse up the soul to repentance, than lesser sins do. Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and undiscernably in the soul, till they come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the throat of the soul."

An implicit confession is almost as bad as an implicit faith wicked men commonly confess their sins by wholesale, We are all sinners; but the true penitent confesses his sins by retail

Sin is hell, grace is heaven; what madness it is to look more at hell than heaven.

There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.

Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.

The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter.

Secret sins commonly lie nearest the heart.

The sovereignty of God is that golden sceptre in his hand by which he will make all bow, either by his word or by his works, by his mercies or by his judgements.

Though there is nothing more dangerous, yet there is nothing more ordinary, than for weak saints to make their sense and feeling the judge of their condition. We must strive to walk by faith.

He that hath deserved hanging may be glad to escape with a whipping.

An implicit confession is almost as bad as an implicit faith; wicked men commonly confess their sins by wholesale, We are all sinners; but the true penitent confesses his sins by retail.

Much faith will yield unto us here our heaven, but any faith, if true, will yield us heaven hereafter.

A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.

A good conscience and a good confidence go together.

A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud and see God smiling on him.

A man full of hope will be full of action.

A man had need to fear this most of all that he fears not at all.

A preacher's life should be a commentary upon his doctrine... Heavenly doctrines should always be adorned with a heavenly life.

Ah! sinner, remember this, there is no way on earth effectually to be rid of the guilt, filth, and power of sin, but by believing in a Saviour. It is not resolving, it is not complaining, it is not mourning, but believing, that will make thee divinely victorious over that body of sin that to this day is too strong for thee, and that will certainly be thy ruin, if it be not ruined by a hand of faith.

Ah, believer, it is only Heaven that is above all winds, storms, and tempests; God did not cast man out of Paradise that he might find another paradise in this world.

Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies, and remedies into diseases.

An humble soul looks upon Christ's righteousness as his only crown.

An idle life and a holy heart is a contradiction.

As heat is opposed to cold, and light to darkness, so grace is opposed to sin. Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel, as grace and sin in the same heart.

As the body lives by breathing, so the soul lives by believing.

Better to bear than to swear, and to die than to lie.

Christ choosing solitude for private prayer, doth not only hint to us the danger of distraction and deviation of thoughts in prayer, but how necessary it is for us to choose the most convenient places we can for private prayer. Our own fickleness and Satan's restlessness call upon us to get into such places where we may freely pour out our soul into the bosom of God [Mark 1.35].

Christ dwells in that heart most eminently that hath emptied itself of itself.

Christ is a most precious commodity, he is better than rubies or the most costly pearls; and we must part with our old gold, with our shining gold, our old sins, our most shining sins, or we must perish forever. Christ is to be sought and bought with any pains, at any price; we can not buy this gold too dear. He is a jewel more worth than a thousand worlds, as all know who have him. Get him, and get all; miss him and miss all.

Christ is lovely, Christ is very lovely, Christ is most lovely, Christ is always lovely, Christ is altogether lovely.

Christ is the sun, and all the watches of our lives should be set by the dial of his motion.

Christ is to be answerable for all those that are given to Him, at the last day, and therefore we need not doubt but that He will certainly employ all the power of His Godhead to secure and save all those that He must be accountable for. Christ's charge and care of these that are given to Him, extends even to the very day of their resurrection, that He may not so much as lose their dust, but gather it together again, and raise it up in glory to be a proof of His fidelity; for, saith He, "I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day."

Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven .

Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers.

Consider that spiritual safety comes through spiritual unity. Christians united together are difficult to separate, difficult to break, difficult to pick off and destroy. It is when you isolate yourself by disrupting or denying unity that you are most at risk.

Consider that the trials and troubles, the calamities and miseries, the crosses and losses that you meet with in this world, are all the hell that ever you shall have.

Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, myself.

Every man obeys Christ as he prizes Christ, not otherwise.

Every thing that a man leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. He who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life.

Faith is the champion of Grace, and Love the nurse; but Humility is the beauty of Grace.

Get Christ and get all; miss Christ and miss all.

God hath in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you.

God is as just as he is merciful.

God looks not at the oratory of your prayers, how elegant they may be; nor at the geometry of your prayers, how long they may be; nor at the arithmetic of your prayers, how many they may be; not at logic of your prayers, how methodical they may be; but the sincerity of them he looks at.

God sees us in secret, therefore, let, us seek his face in secret. Though heaven be God's palace, yet it is not his prison.

Grace is given to trade with; it is given to lay out, not lay up.

He is the best preacher, not that tickles the ear, but that breaks the heart.

He that puts on a religious habit abroad to gain himself a great name among men, and at the same time lives like an atheist at home, shall at the last be uncovered by God and presented before all the world for a most outrageous hypocrite.

He that will play with Satan's bait, will quickly be taken with Satan's hook.

He who lives up to a little light shall have more light; he who lives up to a little knowledge shall have more knowledge; he who lives up to a little faith shall have more faith, and he who lives up to a little love shall have more love. Verily the main reason why men are such babes and shrubs in grace is because they do not live up their attainments.

He who stands upon his own strength will never stand.

Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.

How many threadbare souls are to be found under silken cloaks and gowns!

Humility can weep over other men's weaknesses, and joy and rejoice over their graces.

Humility makes a man richer than other men, and it makes a man judge himself the poorest among men.

If any man should ask me what is the first, second, and third part of being a Christian, I must answer 'Action!'

If God were not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy.

If it is not strong upon your heart to practice what you read, to what end do you read? To increase your own condemnation? If your light and knowledge be not turned into practice, the more knowing a man you are, the more miserable a man you will be in the day of recompense; your light and knowledge will more torment you than all the devils in hell. Your knowledge will be that rod that will eternally lash you, and that scorpion that will forever bite you, and that worm that will everlastingly gnaw you; therefore read, and labor to know that you may do--or else you are undone forever.

If you would have a clear evidence that little love, that little faith, that little zeal, you have is true? Then live up to that love, live up to that faith, live up to that zeal that you have; and this will be evidence beyond all contradiction.

In a storm there is no shelter like the wings of God.

It is better to have a sore than a seared conscience.

It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.

It is our wisest and our safest course to stand at the farthest distance from sin; not to go near the house of the harlot, but to fly from all appearance of evil (Prov. 5:8, I Thess. 5:22). The best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance; he that will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit, may find by woeful experience that it is a righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit.

It is the very nature of grace to make a man strive to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most opposed to his bosom sin.

Let those be thy choicest companions who have made Christ their chief companion.

Little sins carry with them but little temptations to sin, and then a man shews most viciousness and unkindness, when he sins on a little temptation. It is devilish to sin without a temptation; it is little less than devilish to sin on a little occasion. The less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin.

Look, as a painted man is no man, and as painted fire is no fire, so a cold prayer is no prayer.

Man's holiness is now his greatest happiness, and in heaven man's greatest happiness will be his perfect holiness.

Nothing humbles and breaks the heart of a sinner like mercy and love. Souls that converse much with sin and wrath, may be much terrified; but souls that converse much with grace and mercy, will be much humbled.

Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but His blood; it is not our sighs, but His sufferings, that can testify for our sins. Christ must pay all, or we are prisoners forever.

Pleasures seem solid in their pursuit; but are mere clouds in the enjoyment.

Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls.

Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord, that was first breathed into us by the Spirit of the Lord.

Repentance is the vomit of the soul.

Saints spring and thrive most internally, when they are most externally afflicted. Afflictions are the mother of virtue.

Satan paints sin with virtues colors.

Several devices he has to draw souls to sin, and several plots he has to keep souls from all holy and heavenly services, and several stratagems he has to keep souls in a mourning, staggering, doubting and questioning condition. He has several devices to destroy the great and honorable, the wise and learned, the blind and ignorant, the rich and the poor, the real and the nominal Christians.

Sin in a wicked man is like poison in a serpent; it is in its natural place.

Sin is bad in the eye, worse in the tongue, worse still in the heart, but worst of all in the life.

Sin may rebel, but it shall never reign in any saint.

Sin will usher in the greatest and the saddest losses that can be upon our souls.

Solomon got more hurt by his wealth, than he got good by his wisdom.

That sorrow for sin that keeps the soul from looking towards the mercy seat is a sinful sorrow.

The first step toward heaven, is to see ourselves near hell.

The giving way to a less sin makes way for the committing of a greater

The greatest and the hottest fires that ever were on earth are but ice in comparison to the fire of hell.

The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.

The least sin should humble the soul, but certainly the greatest sin should never discourage the soul, much less should it work the soul to despair. Despairing Judas perished, whereas the murderers of Christ, believing on Him, were saved.

The only ground of God's love is his love.

The only way to avoid cannon-shot is to fall down. No such way to be freed from temptation as to keep low.

The purpose of God is the sovereign cause of all that good that is in man, and of all that external, internal and eternal good that comes to man. Not works past, for men are chosen from everlasting; not works present, for Jacob was loved and chosen before he was born; nor works foreseen, for men were all corrupt in Adam. All a believer's present happiness, and all his future happiness springs from the eternal purpose of God.

The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realized presence and power. Samuel Chadwick Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord, that was first breathed into us by the Spirit of the Lord.

The two poles could sooner meet, than the love of Christ and the love of the world.

The world and you must part, or Christ and you will never meet.

There are no souls in the world that are so fearful to judge others as those that do most judge themselves, nor so careful to make a righteous judgment of men or things as those that are most careful to judge themselves.