Christ's sympathy He is the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, gracious, just, holy, and unchangeable I AM! The last day of the year This is the last evening of the year! Mary might well complain of Martha! The carrion which professors can now feed upon! The funeral of all your sorrows! Grace Gems for MAY 2007 The presence of a loving God! Orthodox in creed--but heterodox in life! My politics! Three golden balls! Spoiled children! He was infinitely happy and glorious without us! Yes, He is altogether lovely! A far-off Hell is the dread of no man! A Bag, a Book, and a Bottle! The Infinite has become an infant! Short pithy quotes from the Puritan Thomas Brooks! Grace Gems for MAY 2007 The presence of a loving God! The hen which does not sit on her eggs! The bags will come to an end, long before the treasure is exhausted! Who cares for pebbles--when jewels glitter before him? A golden master-key! Today's Puritan AUDIO Devotional:
An ever-present help in times of trouble!
Thomas Brooks, very comforting, 3 minutes
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A whore's forehead!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Privy Key of Heaven" 1665)
"You have a whore's forehead, you refuse to be ashamed!" Jeremiah 3:3
"Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all!
They do not even know how to blush!" Jeremiah 6:15
They had sinned away shame--instead of being ashamed of sin. Continuance in sin had quite banished all sense of sin and all shame for sin; so that they would not allow nature to draw her veil of blushing before their great abominations. How applicable these scriptures are to the present time, I will leave the prudent reader to judge.
But what does the prophet do, now that they were as bold in sin, and as shameless as so many harlots; now that they were grown up to that height of sin and wickedness; now that they were above all shame and blushing; now that they were grown so proud, so hardened, so obstinate, so rebellious, so bent on self-destruction--that no mercies could melt them or allure them, nor any threatenings or judgments could in any way terrify them or stop them? The prophet goes into a corner, he retires into the most secret places, and there he weeps bitterly; there he weeps as if he were resolved to drown himself in his own tears. "I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears." Jeremiah 13:17
In the times wherein we live, Hell seems to be broken loose, and men turned into incarnate devils! Soul-damning wickednesses walk up and down the streets with a whore's forehead, without the least check or restraint.
Ah, England, England! What pride, luxury, lasciviousness, licentiousness, wantonness, drunkenness, cruelties, injustice, oppressions, fornications, adulteries, falsehoods, hypocrisies, atheisms, horrid blasphemies, and hellish impieties--are now to be found rampant in the midst of you! Ah, England! England! How are the Scriptures rejected, God derided, and wickedness tolerated!
And what is the voice of all these crying abominations--but every Christian to his closet--every Christian to his closet--and there weep, with weeping Jeremiah, bitterly--for all these great abominations whereby God is dishonored openly. Oh weep in secret for their sins--who openly glory in their sins, which should be their greatest shame. Oh blush in secret for those who are past all blushing for their sins; for who knows, but that the whole land may fare the better for the sakes of a few, who are mourners in secret!
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If you desire additional reading, may we suggest James Smith's challenging two page article, "Consistent Teaching".
