"God makes my heart soft." Job 23:16
Sorrow for sin is one part of true repentance.
A sincere mourning is a deep mourning; it springs from
serious and deep apprehensions of the great anger and
deep displeasure of God, and of the woeful nature, demerit,
burden, bitterness, vileness, and filthiness of sin. Oh the
sighs, the groans, the sobs, the tears, which are to be
found among repenting sinners.
No man is born with godly sorrow in his heart, as he is
born with a tongue in his mouth. Godly sorrow is a plant
of God's own planting; it is from God, and God alone. The
spirit of mourning is from above; it is from a supernatural
power and principle. There is nothing that can turn a heart
of stone into flesh, but the Spirit of God, Ezek. 36:25-26.
Godly sorrow is a gift from God. No hand but a divine
hand can make the heart soft and tender under the sight
and sense of sin. Nature may easily work a man to mourn,
and melt, and weep, under worldly losses, crosses, and
miseries; but it must be grace, it must be a supernatural
principle, which must work the heart to mourn for sin.
"God makes my heart soft." Job 23:16
Godly sorrow is a sorrow for sin as sin. Godly sorrow is a
mourning rather for sin—than for the trouble which sin
brings; it is not so much for loss of goods, lands, wife,
child, credit, name, etc., but for that a holy God is offended,
a righteous law violated, Christ dishonored, the Spirit grieved,
and the gospel blemished, etc. Peter's sorrow was godly, but
Judas' sorrow was worldly; Peter mourns over the evil of sin,
but Judas mourns over the evil of punishment.
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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.