"Why is my pain unending and my wound
grievous and incurable?" Jeremiah 15:18
Though God has always reason for what He does—yet
He is not bound to show us the reasons of His doings.
It is an evil and a dangerous thing to cavil at, or to
question God's proceedings—who may do with His own
what He pleases. He is unaccountable and uncontrollable;
and therefore none has a right to question Him.
As no man may question God's right to afflict him, nor
His righteousness in afflicting him; so no man may
question the reasons why He afflicts him. As no man
can compel God to give a reason for His doings; so no
man may dare to ask Him the particular reasons of His
doings.
Kings are not bound to give their subjects a reason of
their doings; and shall we bind God to give us a reason
of His doings, who is the King of kings and Lord of Lords,
and whose will is the true and only rule of justice?
The general grounds and reasons which God has laid
down in His word why He afflicts His people, as—that
is for their profit; for the purging away of their sins; for
the purifying of their lives; and for the saving of their
souls—should work them to be silent and satisfied under
all their afflictions; though God should never satisfy their
curiosity in giving them an account of some more hidden
causes which may lie secret in the abysses of His eternal
knowledge and infallible will.
Ah, Christian! it is your wisdom and duty to sit silent
and mute under the afflicting hand of God upon the
account of revealed reasons, without making any
curious inquiry into those more secret reasons which
are locked up in the golden cabinet of God's own
bosom! "The secret things belong to the Lord our
God." Deuteronomy 29:29
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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.