Such is Satan’s envy and enmity against a Christian’s joy and comfort, that he cannot but act to the utmost of his strength to keep poor souls in doubt and darkness. Satan knows that assurance is a pearl of such price that will make the soul happy forever; he knows that assurance makes a Christian’s wilderness to be a paradise; he knows that assurance begets in Christians the most noble and generous spirits; he knows that assurance is that which will make men strong to do exploits, to shake his tottering kingdom about his ears; and therefore he is very studious and industrious to keep souls off from assurance, as he was to cast Adam out of paradise.
— Thomas Brooks (1608–1680), Puritanischer Prediger
Topics: Temptation & Struggle, Grace & Redemption, Faith & Trust
Occasions: For Reflection
Thomas Brooks
Thomas Brooks war ein englischer puritanischer Prediger und nonkonformistischer Geistlicher, der im 17. Jahrhundert in London wirkte und 1662 im Zuge der Uniformitätsakte sein Pfarramt verlor. Bekannt ist er für seine bildhaften seelsorgerlichen Schriften über geistliche Anfechtung, Heilsgewissheit und Trost im Leiden, wobei er in seiner Gemeindepraxis eine strikte Sakramentsdisziplin durchsetzte. Für heutige Bibelleser bietet sein Werk ein exemplarisches Zeugnis puritanischer Seelsorge und praktischer Theologie zur Bewältigung innerer Krisen.
All quotes by Thomas Brooks (84)
The devil is a better theologian than any of us, and he is still a devil.
A.W. Tozer
Discipline is choosing what you want most over what you want now.
Craig Groeschel
Martin Luther
Fyodor Dostoevsky
And Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees.
William Cowper
Our old man is crucified, but he is long at dying.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Dante Alighieri
Gilbert Keith Chesterton